A chemistry lab is a dangerous place for an absentminded daydreamer of a student—in other words, me. But put a focused and meticulous scientist there instead and he or she can illuminate the intricate, internal machinery of anything from a crystal of sugar to the labyrinthine structure of strychnine. I still remember that dazzle of realization from my classes. It’s probably one of the reasons I occasionally, wistfully, describe myself as a lapsed chemist, although we’re talking about a lapse of decades.
Even such a brief foray into chemistry teaches that anything, in a large enough amount, can kill. Life-giving water itself is lethal if you gulp down too many gallons. As toxicologists say, the dose makes the poison. But poison by water doesn’t unnerve us. The real scare comes from those elements and compounds whose toxicity is measured in drips and drops. Luckily for us, and other life on Earth, such materials are rare. But somehow we’ve managed to find or create many of them. We use them pragmatically, and for good—our medicine relies on countless toxic compounds—and in deliberate evil.
There exists a kind of murder mystery pleasure to the subject of poisons; crime novelists, especially in the early twentieth century, have written them into countless tales of deathly intrigue. I’ve always admired the stylish writing of those vintage novels, which is a nice way of saying that I’ve read and enjoyed numerous stories involving murder by arsenic and cyanide. That hasn’t affected the fact that, in reality, I find poison killings among the most disturbing of all homicides.
I see poisoners—so calculating, so cold-blooded—as most like the villains of our horror stories. They’re closer to that lurking monster in the closet than some drug-impaired crazy with a gun. I don’t mean to dismiss the latter—both can achieve the same awful results. But the scarier killer is the one who thoughtfully plans his murder ahead, tricks a friend, wife, lover into swallowing something that will dissolve tissue, blister skin, twist the muscles with convulsions,
knows
all that will happen and does it anyway.
The fact of homicidal poisoning shows us at our amoral worst. The fact that most of us regard it with revulsion, work so hard to detect and punish it, defies that conclusion. It reminds us that human decency largely prevails. Both those sides of our nature are revealed in the history of poisons. I believe the quest for moral balance holds center in this story and that it outshines, in the end, even the creepy charm of the poisoners among us. But I’ve learned, along the way, that we never quite leave behind the monster in the closet. There are mornings, lit by the cold winter light, when I start talking about a poison in my book, revealing my own dangerous expertise, and as I do, I watch my husband quietly, not really thinking about it, slide his cup out of my reach.
Deborah Blum
Madison, Wisconsin
May 2009
GRATITUDES
IT’S BEEN A PRIVILEGE to write about Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler. Mostly forgotten by our generation, they were revolutionaries who worked in civil service, and that as we all know, is something to be celebrated. I am grateful for the opportunity to tell their story, and I am grateful for—and blessed in—all the people who helped me to do so:
My always amazing agent, Suzanne Gluck, who said to me, “Why don’t you write that poison book you’ve always wanted to do?” and then made sure that I could.
My always wonderful editor, Ann Godoff, who took a chance on my initial rather dreamy idea, patiently helped me pull all the disparate elements together, and made it a much better (and smarter) book.
The rest of the great staff at Penguin Press, with special thanks to Lindsay Whalen, Beena Kamlani, Caroline Garner, and Janet Biehl, for all their terrific help.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation and, in particular, vice president for programs Doron Weber—for believing that the chemistry woven through this book mattered and for giving me a grant that allowed me to do the necessary research.
The Graduate School of the University of Wisconsin, Madison, which provided summer money so that I could concentrate on just writing, and especially Ernesto Livorni, who argued my case but later confided that the desperate quality of my application—“I have a deadline, help, help!”—provided him with real entertainment.
My terrific graduate researcher, Kajsa Dalrymple, who spent hours studying obscure poisons and poisoners, finding scientific journals of the 1920s and 1930s, contacting archivists and toxicologists around the country, digging through archives, and reading microfiche of long-gone New York newspapers—and supported my idea of drinking our way through the catalog of Prohibition-era cocktails. We didn’t get very far, but I do highly recommend the Bee’s Knees.
The incredibly generous family of Alexander O. Gettler: daughter-in-law Virginia Gettler, grandson Paul Gettler, granddaughter Dorothy Atzl, and great-granddaughter, Vicky Atzl. They not only took time out from their busy schedules to meet with me, but they hunted up family documents and memorabilia. Dorothy and Vicky shared with me the really incredible research from an honors presentation that Vicky had done on her great-grandfather, which included letters, published papers, and even videotapes. I can’t say thank you enough.
The staff at the New York City Municipal Archive, who unearthed stacks of boxes containing the correspondence from Charles Norris’s term as city medical examiner; archivist Nancy Miller from the University of Pennsylvania, who collected background information on early American toxicology for me, above and beyond; Jennifer Comins, of the Columbia University Archives, who tracked down the alumni information on Norris and Gettler; Stephen Bohlen, of the communications office at Bellevue Hospital, who not only gave me a tour of the hospital’s past but let me rummage through the history files; the librarians at the New York Public Library and the New York Historical Society, who helped me gather resources on jazz-age New York.
A special note of gratitude to Mary Hitchcock, medical history librarian at the University of Wisconsin’s Ebling Health Sciences Library, who can find anything and who saved my tail when I was seeking information on thallium in the 1930s.
Forensic toxicologist extraordinaire John Trestrail III, who allowed me to pester him with all kinds of questions—and answered them all with supporting documentation.
Two renowned chemists, Bassam Shakashiri, of the University of Wisconsin, and Harry Gray, of the California Institute of Technology, who helped me figure out carbon monoxide poisoning at the molecular level, so that I could understand why Alexander Gettler’s color results worked the way they did. Yes, I am that obsessive.
Three of the best friends ever, who read the manuscript for me: Robin Marantz Henig, who helped me clarify many of the early chapters; Kim Fowler, who rescued it from typos and tense problems; and Denise Allen, who cheered me on while providing me with an outstanding selection of early-twentieth-century crime fiction.
And almost last—but never least—my sons, Marcus and Lucas Haugen, whose imitations of me as a parent—“ Go away. I’m working on my book”—are unfortunately accurate at least some of the time. They make me laugh, and despite their sarcasm, they make me happy. As does my husband, Peter. He bravely read the manuscript and improved it in countless ways. I promise publicly—his coffee is safe from me forever.
A GUIDE TO THE
HANDBOOK
We are like dwarfs sitting on the shoulders of giants. We see more, and things that are more distant, than they did, not because our sight is superior or because we are taller than they, but because they raise us up, and by their great stature add to ours.
—JOHN OF SALISBURY,
Metalogicon
, 1159
If I have seen farther, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
—SIR ISAAC NEWTON,
letter to Robert Hooke, February 15, 1676
AS MY BOOK is about Charles Norris, Alexander Gettler, and the toxicology of the early twentieth century, the focus is on their work and their place in history. But, many other scientists contributed to the field, from those who first attempted to catch poisoners in earlier centuries, to those doing work today. Dedicated researchers working in numerous countries built the field of forensic toxicology, advance by advance. Today’s toxicologists stand on the work of Gettler, Norris, and their contemporaries, just as they themselves did on previous generations. On the history and scope of the work, the volumes that I found most useful include:
AUTENRIETH, WILHELM, AND W. H. Warren.
Laboratory Manual for the Detection of Poisons and Powerful Drugs
(London: J & A Churchill, 1928).
BAMFORD, FRANK.
Poisons: Their Isolation and Identification
(London: J & A Churchill, 1947).
BOOS, WILLIAM F.
The Poison Trail
(Boston: Hale, Cushman & Flint, 1939).
CHRISTISON, ROBERT.
A Treatise on Poisons
(Philadelphia: Ed. Barrington and Geo. D. Haswell, Philadelphia, 1845).
EMSLEY, JOHN.
The Elements of Murder: A History of Poison
(New York: Oxford University Press, 2006).
ESSIG, MARK R.
Science and Sensation: Poison Murder and Forensic Science in Nineteenth Century America
(Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 2000).
GERBER SAMUEL, ED.
Chemistry and Crime
(Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society, 1983).
GERBER, SAMUEL, AND RICHARD SAFERSTEIN, EDS.
More Chemistry and Crime
(Washington, D.C.: American Chemical Society, 1997).
GLAISTER, JOHN.
The Power of Poison
(New York: William Morrow & Co., 1954).
GONZALES, THOMAS, ET AL.
Legal Medicine: Pathology and Toxicology
(New York: Appleton-Century-Crofts, 1954).
GONZALES, THOMAS, MORTON VANCE, AND MILTON HELPERN.
Legal Medicine and Toxicology
. (New York Appleton-Century Co., 1937).
GRANT, JULIUS.
Science for the Prosecution
(London: Chapman & Hall, 1941).
LUCAS, A.
Forensic Chemistry and Scientific Criminal Investigation
(London: Edward Arnold & Co., 1921).
MAGATH, THOMAS B., ED.
The Medicolegal Necropsy: A Symposium Held at the Twelfth Annual Convention of the American Society of Clinical Pathologists at Milwaukee, Wisconsin, June 9, 1933
(Baltimore: Williams & Wilkens Co., 1934).
MARTEN, EDWARD, AND BEVERLY LEONIDAS CLARKE.
The Doctor Looks at Murder
(New York: Blue Ribbon Books, 1940).
MCLAUGHLIN, TERENCE.
The Coward’s Weapon
(London: Robert Hale, 1980).
MITCHELL, C. AINSWORTH.
Science and the Criminal
(Boston: Little, Brown & Co., 1911).
PETERSON, FREDERICK, WALTER S. HAINES, AND RALPH WEBSTER, EDS.
Legal Medicine and Toxicology
(Philadelphia: W. B. Saunders Co., 1923).
SMITH, JOHN GORDON.
The Principles of Forensic Medicine
(London: Thomas & George Underwood, 1821).
SMITH, SYDNEY.
Forensic Medicine
(London: J & A Churchill, 1940).
SUNSHINE, IRVING, ED.
Was It a Poisoning? Forensic Toxicologists Searching for Answers
(New York: American Academy of Forensic Scientists/Society of Forensic Toxicologists, 1998).
THOMPSON, C. J. S.
Poison Mysteries in History, Romance and Crime
(Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1923).
THORWALD, JÜRGEN.
The Century of the Detective
(New York: Harcourt, Brace & World, 1965).
———.
Dead Men Tell Tales
(London: Thames & Hudson, 1966).
ULLYETT, KENNETH.
Crime Out of Hand
(London: Michael Joseph, 1963).
VON OETTINGEN, W. F.
Poisoning
(London: Wm. Heinemann, 1952).
WITTHAUS, RUDOLPH, AND TRACY BECKER.
Medical Jurisprudence, Forensic Medicine and Toxicology
, Vol. 4. (New York: William Wood & Co., 1896).
These books provided the background for the overview of forensic toxicology contained in my prologue and you will also find them referenced in the chapter notes pertaining to the history of different poisons, as well as other materials specific to individual cases. Collectively, they stand as a reminder that even such innovative scientists as Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler “stand on the shoulders of giants” and thrive in the company of friends.
NOTES
1. CHLOROFORM
5:
when ice storms had glassed over
. . . : “Blanket of Ice Covers the City,”
New York Times
, February 3, 1915, p. 5.
5:
Typhoid Mary had come sneaking back
. . . : “Caught at Last,”
New York Sun
, March 31, 1915, p. 6; “Typhoid Mary Reappears,”
New York Tribune
, March 29, 1915, p. 8.
6:
Instead, Patrick Riordan.
. . : “Wallstein Attacks Coroner Riordan,”
New York Times
, January 10, 1915, p. 20; “Shonts asks for Coroner’s Removal,”
New York Times
, January 28, 1915, p. 8; “Riordan Drunk, Murphy Declares: Assistant District Attorney Tells of His Conduct at Accident Inquest,”
New York Times
, April 7, 1915, p. 6.
7:
He’
d found a job as an orderly
. . . : The “Squad Room” blog names the German Odd Fellows home as the “the scene of the first mass murder by a serial killer to be investigated by the NYPD”:
http://brooklynnorth.blogspot.com/2002_03_01_archive.html
. The Odd Fellows home, by all accounts, was not a very nice place, even aside from providing a base for a serial killer. Newspaper accounts report that it took state money to provide vocational training for orphans and then, rather than training them, put them to work doing menial chores. An investigation by New York City’s commissioner of charities concluded that it was representative of foundling homes in which “peonage” and “child labor” were part of the basic operation.
7:
“It was really a kind-hearted thing. . . ”
: Mors is routinely written up as a serial killer, despite the failure of the investigating officials even to send him to trial. Most of my research into his story comes from newspaper accounts, including these from
New York Times
: “Killed 8 In Home He Tells Perkins,” February 3, 1915, p. 9; “Indorse Queer Tale of Killing The Aged,” February 6, 1915, p. 1; “May Indict Three For Deaths in Home,” February 7, 1915, p. 1; “Chloroform Burns Point to Murders,” February 8, 1915, p. 1; “Girl Saw Mors in Death Chamber,” February 9, 1915, p. 1; “Deaths Continued After Mors Denial,” February 10, 1915, p.1; “Mors Killed As Act of Kindness, He Says,” February 12, 1915, p. 6; “Mors May Go Free Despite 8 Deaths,” February 11, 1915, p. 18; “May Not Try Mors on Murder Charge,” February 13, 1915, p. 10; “Bangert Confronts His Poison Accuser,” February 15, 1915, p. 5; “Mors Escapes From Asylum,” May 12, 1916, p. 11.
8:
There wasn’t a cop in the room
. . . : The history of chloroform is the subject of a fascinating book by Linda Stratmann,
Chloroform: The Quest for Oblivion
(Phoenix Mill, Gloustershire: Sutton, 2003). See also Witthaus and Becker,
Medical Jurisprudence
, pp. 850–54; Peterson, Haines, and Webster,
Legal Medicine
, pp. 639–49; Gonzales, Vance, and Helpern,
Legal Medicine and Toxicology
, pp. 742–45; Gonzales et al.,
Pathology and Toxicology
, pp. 795–96.
14:
It was the case of Texas multimillionaire William Rice
. . . : The website of Houston’s Rice University notes that “William Rice [was] murdered” on September 23, 1900, and that Albert Patrick was jailed the following year. It does not mention his later release. On the mysterious nature of Rice’s death, as well as the conflicting medical testimony, see the true crime Web site “The Malfactor’s Register,”
http://markgribben.com/?page_id=61
; Marguerite Johnston,
Houston: The Unknown City
(College Station: Texas A&M University Press, 1991), pp. 117–23; and the online legal encyclopedia,
Law Library: American Law and Legal Information: Great American Trials
, vol. 1,
http://law.jrank.org/pages/2737/Albert-Patrick-Trial-1902.html
. I also reviewed the
New York Times
coverage: “Cause of Death: Patrick’s Counsel Try to Prove It Was Due to Heart Disease,” February 4, 1902, p. 16; “Jones Tells How He Murdered Rice,” February 21, 1902, p. 2; “Patrick Defense Opens: Counsel Will Try to Show That Rice Was Not Murdered,” March 7, 1902, p. 7; “Dr. Lee at Patrick Trial,” March 11, 1902, p. 7; “Tests in Patrick Trial,” March 13, 1902, p. 2; “Grover Cleveland Asks Clemency for Patrick,” December 30, 1905, p. 4; “New Patrick Evidence for Last Appeal,” January 14, 1906, p. 14; “Patrick Tells Why He Expects Pardon,” December 19, 1910, p. 1; and “Dr. Flint Believes Patrick Innocent,” December 20, 1910.
16:
Like all other buildings in New York, Bellevue and Allied Hospitals
. . . : See “Bellevue Hospital’s Story,”
New York Times
, April 18, 1926, p. XX18; “How the Bellevue Capitals Were Saved,”
NYU Physician
(Fall 1990), pp. 47–48; Page Cooper,
The Bellevue Story
(New York: Thomas Y. Crowell Co., 1948), pp. 113–225; Sandra Opdyke,
No One Was Turned Away: The Role of Public Hospitals in New York City Since 1900
(New York: Oxford University Press, 1999); Bellevue Hospital Milestones, unpublished list, courtesy Bellevue Public Relations Office.
17:
The hospital’s famed psychopathic ward
. . . : “Reception Hospitals, Psychopathic Wards and Psychopathic Hospitals,” read at the meeting of the American Medico-Psychological Association, Washington, D.C., May 7, 1907, is a model of compassion and innovative thinking.
19:
That same January the city government had released a report
. . . : On Wallstein’s report on the coroner system, see “Oust Coroners, Says Wallstein,”
New York Times
, January 4, 1915, p. 1; and “Coroners’ System Sheer Waste of Public Money,”
New York Times
, January 10, 1915, p. 44. The dismal state of coroner operations in New York, before Charles Norris, and elsewhere was reviewed in “The Coroner and the Medical Examiner,”
Bulletin of the National Research Council
, July 1928, no. 64; Luke May,
Crime’s Nemesis
(New York: Macmillan: 1916), pp. 107–108; Julie Johnson, “Coroners, Corruption and the Politics of Death: Forensic Pathology in the United States,” in Michael Clark and Catherine Crawford, eds.,
Legal Medicine in History
(New York: Cambridge University Press, 1994), pp. 268–89.
22:
Yet the scientific journals supported
. . . : On chloroform knowledge at the time of the Mors case, see Witthaus and Becker,
Medical Jurisprudence
, pp. 850–54; Peterson, Haines, and Webster,
Legal Medicine
; Lucas,
Forensic Chemistry
.