Poisoned History

William Taylor was a farmer who died in excruciating pain from what was thought to be tetanus. Was it actually strychnine poisoning, and was his wife Virginia the culprit? Sources and resources: “The Strychnine Exhumation” by Raychelle Burks, Chemistry World, 22 April 2017, Royal Society of Chemistry, https://www.chemistryworld.com/opinion/the-strychnine-exhumation/3007131.article Richmond Dispatc...

Mary Ann Cotton was one of the most prolific poisoners in British history. Over the course of about 20 years she murdered between 16 and 20 people, all of them close to her, before she was found out and stopped. Show Notes: Sources and resources: The Elements of Murder by John Emsley Wikipedia https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mary-Ann-Cotton Mary Ann Cotton: Britain’s First Female Serial Kille...

Christiana Edmunds was a woman who poisoned or attempted to poison multiple people using strychnine added to chocolates. Was her behavior due to jealousy of her crush’s wife or just a love of mayhem? This story has some similarities to the Tylenol poisonings of the 1980s. Sources and resources: Wikipedia Francisco, S-V; Reina, G. The chemistry of Marchand’s test for strychnine identification, http...

James Maybrick died on May 11, 1889 after showing signs of poisoning for weeks. Did his young wife poison him or did he just take too many "medicines?" And was he actually Jack the Ripper? This month I have my first guest (future co-host?) on the show, John. Sources and Resources: Full text of the Maybrick case: a treatise on the facts of the case, and of the proceedings in connection wi...

Mary Harker Bateman, aka the Yorkshire Witch was a petty criminal and fortune teller in the late 18th and early 19th century. But eventually she moved into murder as well. Sources: Yorkshire Oddities, Incidents and Strange Events/Mary Bateman, Witch and Murderess by Sabine Baring-Gould, pp 401-424. Knotmagick101.wordpress.com The Elements of Murder by John Emsley NIH.gov: Balali-Mood M, et al, Tox...