Arsenic, radium, and a locked room cyanide mystery: Poisons and the rise of forensic toxicology in early 1900s United States
Apr 17, 2024
Discover the chaos in the early 1900s NYC coroner's office, allowing murderers to escape justice. Learn how forensic toxicology pioneers cracked mysterious poisoning cases involving cyanide, radium, and arsenic. Explore the intriguing cyanide poisoning mystery at Hotel Margaret and the emotional toll of forensic investigations.
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question_answer ANECDOTE
Locked Room Mystery
Fremont and Annie Jackson were found dead in their locked hotel room, seemingly from cyanide poisoning.
However, no cyanide was found in their apartment or stomachs, puzzling investigators.
insights INSIGHT
Hidden Cyanide
Cyanide poisoning can occur through unexpected routes, like fumigation.
Gettler's discovery of cyanide in the lungs revolutionized forensic toxicology.
question_answer ANECDOTE
Radium's Dark Side
Radium, initially seen as harmless, was used in various products, including watch dials.
Watch dial painters, ingesting radium through lip-pointing, suffered severe health consequences.
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At the beginning of the 1900s, New York City was in turmoil. Prohibition loomed, outbreaks of typhoid and an influenza pandemic had people on edge, and the city was steeped in corruption. One of the many consequences of that corruption was a completely inept coroners office.
Instead of having trained medical examiners work out the causes of sudden and suspicious deaths, New York City coroners were politically appointed. And they didn’t have the slightest idea of how to do a thorough autopsy. They were sign painters and milkmen and funeral home operators and people who had done favors for the party. They bungled the cause of death so consistently and so dramatically that the police and the district attorney's office told coroners to stay away from their crime scenes.
This was a horrific situation, unless you were a poisoner. In January, 1915, New York City’s government released a report saying that murderers were easily escaping justice and that “skillful poisoning can be carried on almost with impunity.”
In this episode of Tiny Matters, Sam and Deboki chat with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Deborah Blum, the author of The Poisoner’s Handbook, about the rise of forensic toxicology in the United States. Listeners will be taken on a journey through some of the disturbing poisoning cases of the time that helped lay the groundwork for the field — with a focus on arsenic, radium and cyanide — and the pivot role medical examiner Charles Norris and chemist Alexander Gettler played in restoring public safety and finally stopping poisoners in their tracks.
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