The Poisoner's Almanac

Hello Poison Friends! Erin and I are taking a break from our breakdown of Johnson & Johnson's dark deeds, this week. Why? So we can celebrate America's Independence with stories of Founding Fathers and intrepid explorers of the nation and their encounters with poison. We are going a bit deeper into the medicinal chaos of Dr. Benjamin Rush, the only doctor to sign the Declaration of Independenc...

Hey Hey Poison Friends! We are bringing you part 2 of our look into Johnson & Johnson, and the drama is only escalating. We are discussing the expensive end to their use of talc in baby powders as well as the damage that it did to numerous women and likely others exposed to it. J&J apparently learned nothing from this, however. When people began dying of liver failure after taking too much...

Hello Poison Friends! We are covering some long standing pharmaceutical companies and their deep dark secrets over the years, starting here with Johnson & Johnson. This company has been around for generations now, and they have garnered a reputation for their gentleness and trustworthiness--mainly through the sales of baby products and their marketing of such. However, the company was original...

**Erin is out this week for some family time and I was also out of town, so here is a fun episode from the Patreon Bonus vault! Our usual schedule of bi weekly episodes will be back in play beginning next weekend with a new episode! We know the Kellogg name for their cereal's (They'rrrrrreeee Great!) and other such foods. However, the men behind the brand were a a pair of interesting brothers who...

Hello Poison Friends! We have a collection of wild cases to share with you all this episode involving neighbors, roomies, and coworkers that have gone from angry to toxic...literally. Many of these are actually quite recent and investigations may still be ongoing, but arrests have been made and there is plenty of evidence proving their guilt. In one case, a neighbor already guilty of harassment ov...

Hello Poison Friends! This week I am posting an older Bonus episode from our Patreon while Erin is out of town and Mother's Day weekend pulls us away from the desk and microphones. We will have a new episode for you next weekend, though, and from there we'll continue our every other week status! Sir Isaac Newton was big into alchemy and likely suffered from heavy metal poisoning because of it. I m...

Hey Poison Friends! Erin and I are bringing you all a crazy story of two besties and roomies with a very toxic twist. Honestly, numerous toxic twists. Rachel and Janie were best friends for 25 years and Janie always seemed so helpful with Rachel's care after her various back surgeries and with her young son. Others noticed, however, that she was rather controlling and possessive over Rachel. The l...

Hello Poison Friends! Erin and I are back for a little something different today. I have had a disappearance/mysterious death case on my mind for some time and it felt like the right time to talk about it. We are covering the case of the Yuba County Five. In February of 1978, five young men from Yuba County, California, disappeared one night after a trip to see a basketball game. Each of the men l...

I have Erin with me this week to discuss Greek Mythology, especially that surrounding the Oracle of Delphi. Everyone from Kings to common folk who could afford to sought out the Oracle with important questions or life advice. Let's discuss who could be Oracles/High Priestesses and the vapors they may have inhaled to get these "answers" for the masses. Also, why did Apollo need to scare those sailo...

Becca here! It is just me today and I want to talk about two women from different time periods and different parts of the world. Sally Bassett was an enslaved woman in Bermuda in the 1700's, when white slave owners were fearful of being poisoned. Many enslaved women of the day were considered suspect of poisoning and even witchcraft. She, too would be accused and executed for such crimes, but did...

We are finally covering the atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki, including the development, deployment, and aftermath. What were the differences in the two bombs used and how were the targets chosen? We need to break some stuff down and I've got some first hand experiences of survivors to read to you as well. We are detailing what took place the days of the attacks and looking at the immedia...

We are finishing up Unit 731 this week and getting into the thick of what went on among the research, medical, and military personnel involved. We also need to discuss civilians who might have been unknowingly involved as well. Human experimentation involving bio and chemical warfare as well as physical injury were the main activity of both the Pingfang site and the Unit's other branches. Trigger...

Hello Poison Friends! This week we are diving into the background and history behind Japan's Infamous Unit 731 before and during WWII. This episode will be all about what Unit 731 was, who started it up, and the environment and attitudes of Japan and other nations at the time. Ishii Shiro was a man of ambition and cruelty, and he sought to create and run military backed facilities to research and...

Hello Poison Friends! We are diving into some conspiracy theories related to the testing done on Plum Island here in the US and how it got tangled up with the identification of Lime Disease back in the late 70s/early 80s. We also need to cover some shady experiments performed by the US and the UK on their own citizens during the Cold War era, using what was then believed to be harmless chemicals a...

Hello Poison Friends! This episode were are covering the conclusion of the Nazi experiments series we have taken on, including more testimonies of survivors and expert witnesses. We need to cover experiments concerning muscle, bone, and nerve removal and transplantation and the murders of mostly Jewish camp inmates for the purpose of the Nazi's creating skeletons for "educational review." We are a...

Hello Poison Friends! Let's talk poison experiments done by Nazi's during WWII. Alkaloid poisons, corrosive poisons like phenol, and flammable substances used in incendiary weapons like phosphorus. Mustard and Phosgene gas were also experimented with as were various methods of euthanasia. Many of those experimented on them died or were left with permanent injuries. We have excerpts from the testim...

Hello Poison Friends! We are carrying on with our series on Human experimentation during WWII and we are still discussing that done by Nazi doctors and the like. This episode is specifically on the diseases that were intentionally spread to prisoners and experimental subjects being kept at concentration camps, mainly Dachau, Sachsenhausen, Natzweiler, and Auschwitz (not that it did not happen else...

Hello Poison Friends! We are back with more horrible acts committed by Nazis in WWII. The focus for this episode is a series of experiments done mainly at Dachau, as far as we know from records that were recovered, and they centered around proposals put forth by the Air Force and Navy in Nazi Germany at that time. I will also go over some of the doctors and other personnel responsible for these ho...

Hello Poison Friends! We are starting a series of sorts concerning the human experimentation that took place during WWII within the prison/concentrations camps of Nazi Germany and at Unit 731 in Japan. Before we jump into the details of these experiments, however, I think we need to go over the major philosophy that drove the atrocities of the Holocaust forward and allowed mankind to do such thing...

Hello Poison Friends! It was still Spooky Season while I was researching for this episode, so we are still on this spooky stuff! This week, I want to talk about a controversial couple who claimed to be self taught demonologists and paranormal experts. Ed and Lorraine Warren are famous for investigating such hauntings as those seen in the Conjuring series, Annabelle, and the Amityville haunting. Th...

Hello Poison Friends! We are less than a week away from Halloween and I did not want to miss a chance to talk about an old urban legend dealing with trick or treaters being poisoned via the candy they collect. Stories of varying characters and settings, but the same plot, have traveled around and have caused a lot of fear among parents and children alike. In this episode, we are covering a specifi...

Hello Poison Friends! Lets talk more vampires! This episode we need to discuss the fictional Count Dracula's namesake, Vlad III or Vlad Dracula, who is also known as Vlad the Impaler. I am going to go ahead and include a trigger warning here for some violence and gory details, but I am including timestamps here for those who want the history while skipping over these more gruesome parts: 36:00-37:...

Hello Poison Friends! We are still on our spooky kick for the season here and I want to discuss the history behind vampires. We have mentioned some vampire scares here before when discussing tuberculosis, because the disease did carry some superstition behind it in some parts of the world. However, the idea of undead or spiritual entities eating human flesh or drinking blood has been around for ce...

Hello Poison Friends! We are bringing you all more spooky season episodes! This one features good ole Appalachia and its spooky history and folklore. This is a huge area involving the Blue Ridge Mountains, Smoky Mountains, Allegheny Mountains, etc. The North, Central, and South Appalachians for ease, here, as it runs through thirteen states technically. This mountain range is older than trees them...

Hey, Poison Friends! It is Spooky Season! So let's celebrate with some spookier content, shall we? No trigger warnings this episode for gore or violence or anything too scary. Should any of our episodes this season involve such content, I will say so here in the notes! Today, I want to walk you through a history of curses and provide some examples of such. What is a curse and who came up with the...