Thomas Neill Cream was a good-looking man about town in the late 1800s, who was poisoning many of the people he treated and blackmailing anyone he thought could afford to pay. He was eventually caught when the family of one of his victims denied that she could possibly have committed suicide as was suggested by a note she wrote. But that’s not the end of the story.

Sources and Resources:

Wilson Smith, A, Strychnine and Vomit: The Untold Story of Past US Addiction Treatments, Filter Magazine 8 September 2021, https://filtermag.org/strychnine-addiction-treatments/

McLaren, A., Dr Cream’s Crimes were Just Part of the Problem, Chicago Tribune, 18 March 1993, https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/03/18/dr-creams-crimes-were-just-part-of-the-problem/

Butts, Edward. "Thomas Neill Cream". The Canadian Encyclopedia, 15 December 2013, Historica Canada. thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/thomas-neill-cream. Accessed 09 November 2025.

Murder by Gaslight, the Lambeth Poisoner, 29Aug2010.

History of Shrewsbury, Quebec, Chapter III, LaChute 1835-1876, https://morrison13750.tripod.com/lachute/part3.pdf

Foran, J., The Evil Deeds of Dr. Cream. Canada’s History, https://www.canadashistory.ca/explore/politics-law/the-evil-deeds-of-dr-cream

Medical Murders Podcast: “’Lambeth Poisoner” Thomas Neill Cream, Part 2”

Wikipedia

This podcast uses sound from Freesound.org:

minor-key-music-box by user darkwaryurmc (http://freesound.org/s/318908/) licensed under CCBYNC 4.0

All statements in this podcast represent the opinions of the host and her guests.

Cover art photos: public domain.

Time for another fake crime episode!

In this episode of Columbo, a restaurant owner is murdered by a restaurant critic who had been charging him for good reviews. Columbo suspects the writer from the start, but doesn’t have any proof yet. He hounds the restaurant writer, popping up everywhere, in an effort to wear him down. This show, if you’re not familiar with it, is a how-catch-em instead of a whodunit. The audience already knows from the opening scene who the murderer is, the fun is watching Columbo figure out who did it and find a way to prove their guilt.

Sources and resources:

Vittorio Rossi | The Columbo Wiki | Fandom https://share.google/Yr2jiOMoo1RElQIz0

Yong YS, Quek LS, Lim EK, Ngo A. A case report of puffer fish poisoning in singapore. Case Rep Med. 2013;2013:206971. doi: 10.1155/2013/206971. Epub 2013 Dec 4. PMID: 24368916; PMCID: PMC3867830. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3867830/

Internet movie database (IMDB)

Wikipedia

This podcast uses sound from Freesound.org:

minor-key-music-box by user darkwaryurmc (http://freesound.org/s/318908/) licensed under CCBYNC 4.0

All statements in this podcast represent the opinions of the host and her guests.

Image: This ⁠Wikipedia⁠ and ⁠Wikimedia Commons⁠ image is from the user ⁠Chris 73⁠ and is freely available at //commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fugu_in_Tank.jpg under the ⁠creative commons cc-by-sa 3.0⁠ license.

Time for another fake crime episode!

In this episode of Columbo, a restaurant owner is murdered by a restaurant critic who had been charging him for good reviews. Columbo suspects the writer from the start, but doesn’t have any proof yet. He hounds the restaurant writer, popping up everywhere, in an effort to wear him down. This show, if you’re not familiar with it, is a how-catch-em instead of a whodunit. The audience already knows from the opening scene who the murderer is, the fun is watching Columbo figure out who did it and find a way to prove their guilt.

Sources and resources:

Vittorio Rossi | The Columbo Wiki | Fandom https://share.google/Yr2jiOMoo1RElQIz0

Yong YS, Quek LS, Lim EK, Ngo A. A case report of puffer fish poisoning in singapore. Case Rep Med. 2013;2013:206971. doi: 10.1155/2013/206971. Epub 2013 Dec 4. PMID: 24368916; PMCID: PMC3867830. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3867830/

Internet movie database (IMDB)

Wikipedia

This podcast uses sound from Freesound.org:

minor-key-music-box by user darkwaryurmc (http://freesound.org/s/318908/) licensed under CCBYNC 4.0

All statements in this podcast represent the opinions of the host and her guests.

Image: This Wikipedia and Wikimedia Commons image is from the user Chris 73 and is freely available at //commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Fugu_in_Tank.jpg under the creative commons cc-by-sa 3.0 license.

Robert Buchanan was a doctor in New York in the late 1800s who divorced his first wife in order to marry a brothel-owning woman from Newark, New Jersey. When she turned up dead, it seemed like it had been from natural causes, but his friends and acquaintances had some pointed questions and some suspicious letters to share with the police.

Sources and resources:

Peole v. Buchanan, Court of Appeals of the State of New York, Feb 26, 1895. https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5914cf45add7b04934820597

https://nyli.omeka.net/exhibits/show/celebrated-trials/murder-trials/buchanan-poisoning-trial

Buchanan’s trial begun, New York Times, March 28, 1893, Page 9. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1893/03/28/109696522.html?pageNumber=9

https://openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.13051/7321/08_14YaleJL_Human177_2002_.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y, page 17.

Robert Buchanan Trial: 1893, Encyclopedia.com, Law magazines, https://www.encyclopedia.com/law/law-magazines/robert-buchanan-trial-1893

Food poisoning, Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/science/foodborne-illness

Cadaverine, Pubchem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Cadaverine#section=Odor

Wikipedia

This podcast uses sound from Freesound.org:

minor-key-music-box by user darkwaryurmc (http://freesound.org/s/318908/) licensed under CCBYNC 4.0

All statements in this podcast represent the opinions of the host and her guests.

Cover art photos: drawing, public domain.

Jane Toppan, aka Jolly Jane, was a nurse in the late 19th century who cared for the elderly and also murdered at least 31 of them. She admitted to taking pleasure in watching them die and her deeds were drooled over by the public. William Randolph Hearst’s sensationalist newspapers had a field day with her.

Sources andresources:

Wikipedia

The Clinton Morning Age, July 27, 1902,Page 3, https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=6ncmAAAAIBAJ&sjid=CgEGAAAAIBAJ&pg=4194%2C996821

Jane Toppan “Jolly Jane,” serial killerresearched by E. Allen, A. Averil, E. Cook; 2005, Dept of Psychology, RadfordUniversity, Radford, VA. Accessed June 11, 2025. chrome-extension://efaidnbmnnnibpcajpcglclefindmkaj/https://maamodt.asp.radford.edu/psyc%20405/serial%20killers/Toppan,%20Jane%20-%202005.pdf

“Jane Toppan is Dead,” Old Colony HistoryMuseum, accessed June 15, 2025. https://ochm.medium.com/jane-toppan-is-dead-be9888540c15

Fontes, K., “Women of Taunton: SerialKiller Jane Toppan spent her final years at Taunton State Hospital” TauntonDaily Gazette, Oct 18, 2022. Accessed June 15, 2025. https://www.tauntongazette.com/story/news/history/2022/10/18/women-taunton-jane-toppan-serial-killer-and-poison-nurse/8209014001/

In Their Footsteps: Cape Cod History -Jane Toppan's Poisoning Murders, https://christophersetterlund.blogspot.com/2019/10/in-their-footsteps-cape-cod-history_31.html,accessed June 15, 2025.

Lombardo, P., Image archiveon the American eugenics movement, Dolan DNA Learning Center, Cold SpringHarbor Laboratory, http://www.eugenicsarchive.org/html/eugenics/essay8text.html Accessed June 21, 2025

Lowell’s ties to“Jolly” Jane, Massachusetts’ female serial killer, October 29, 2022, https://www.lowellhistoricalsociety.org/lowells-ties-to-jolly-jane-massachusetts-female-serial-killer/ Accessed June 15, 2025.

This podcast uses sound from Freesound.org:

minor-key-music-box by user darkwaryurmc (http://freesound.org/s/318908/) licensedunder CCBYNC 4.0

All statements in this podcast represent the opinionsof the host and her guests.

Cover art photos:  photo, public domain.

Georgi Markov was a Bulgarian writer (and chemist!) in the 1960s and 70s whose writings against the Soviet Union and Bulgaria got the attention of that government and led to his targeting for assassination.

Sources and resources:

Umbrella Assassin. PBS, Secrets of the Dead, Season 5, Episode 5, https://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets/umbrella-assassin-background/1546/

Georgi Markov refused to be silent about communism and paid with his life. Foundation for Economic Education, https://fee.org/articles/georgi-markov-refused-to-be-silent-about-communism-and-paid-with-his-life/

35 years since murder of dissident Bulgarian writer Georgi Markov. Noinvite.com, Sofia News Agency, https://www.novinite.com/articles/153445/35+Years+since+Murder+of+Dissident+Bulgarian+Writer+Georgi+Markov

The poison-tipped umbrella: the death of Georgi Markov in 1978 – archive, compiled by Richard Nelsson, The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/from-the-archive-blog/2020/sep/09/georgi-markov-killed-poisoned-umbrella-london-1978

Ricin properties: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK441948/#:~:text=Ricin%20is%20a%20naturally%20occurring,per%20kilogram%20can%20be%20lethal.

This podcast uses sound from Freesound.org:

minor-key-music-box by user darkwaryurmc (http://freesound.org/s/318908/) licensed under CCBYNC 4.0

All statements in this podcast represent the opinions of the host and her guests.

Cover art photos: photo, public domain.

Graham Young was a psychopath chemist who killed or injured many people who he came in contact with. He was fascinated with chemistry, poisons, and the Nazis, and had a habit of poisoning co-workers who annoyed him...as well as co-workers and friends he liked.

Sources and resources:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graham_Young

Bowden, Paul, Graham Young (1947-1990); the St Albans poisoner: his life and times, Criminal Behaviour and Mental Health, 17-24 1996 Supplement. https://doi.org/10.1002/cbm.132

https://www.biography.com/crime/graham-young

Graham Young, the Bovingdon Poisoner, https://www.watfordobserver.co.uk/news/nostalgia/crimelibrary/grahamyoung/thebovingdonpoisoner/

Belladonna:

https://go.drugbank.com/drugs/DB13913

https://imss.org/2020/05/a-note-from-the-collections-from-assassinations-to-witches-brews-the-troubled-history-of-the-belladonna-plant/?srsltid=AfmBOoqSoJwNffXblU8NtxtSeGhuj-sNvK9AaMJgSbdeS45lGvf7Nq1P

Antimony:

Martin, R.; Lee, VR., Antimony Toxicity, NIH National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK608003/

Thallium:

Vearrier, D., Thallium Toxicity Clinical Presentation, Medscape https://emedicine.medscape.com/article/821465-clinical?form=fpf

Kemnic, TR; Coleman, M., Thallium Toxicity, National Library of Medicine, National Center for Biotechnology Information, https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK513240/

This podcast uses sound from Freesound.org:

minor-key-music-box by user darkwaryurmc (http://freesound.org/s/318908/) licensed under CCBYNC 4.0

All statements in this podcast represent the opinions of the host and her guests.

Cover art photos: public domain.

Marie Lafarge was a reluctant bride who was accused of murdering her husband in the late 1830s by poisoning him with arsenic. At the time the arsenic tests were often inconclusive, and murderers could get off by sowing doubt in the minds of jurors about the methods used for detection. But the Marsh test changed all that since was a much more definitive test for arsenic. The ups and downs of this case will amaze you.

Sources and resources:

Video of the Marsh test: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DKE18vfV314

https://daily.jstor.org/the-arsenic-cake-of-madame-lafarge/

http://scihi.org/marie-lafarge/

https://www.encyclopedia.com/women/encyclopedias-almanacs-transcripts-and-maps/lafarge-marie-1816-1852

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marie_Lafarge

https://www.amusingplanet.com/2022/11/marie-lafarge-arsenic-poisoner.html

https://www.historicalstatistics.org/Currencyconverter.html

This podcast uses sound from Freesound.org:

minor-key-music-box by user darkwaryurmc (http://freesound.org/s/318908/) licensed under CCBYNC 4.0

All statements in this podcast represent the opinions of the host and her guests.

Cover art photos: photo, public domain.

Part Two of two: Amy Archer’s reign of terror inside a nursing home in the early 1900s was the basis for the play and later the movie Arsenic and Old Lace. Amy took in boarders in a nursing home and systematically killed them over the course of about 6 years. It was owing to the attention and tenacious investigative reporting of a local reporter that she was eventually found out, but was she a cold-blooded killer, insane, or just a confused old lady?

Show Notes

Sources and resources:

Wikipedia

Amy Archer-Gilligan: Entrepreneurism Gone Wrong in Windsor, Windsor Historical Society, https://windsorhistoricalsociety.org/amy-archer-gilligan-entrepreneurism-gone-wrong-in-windsor/

The Devil’s Rooming House by M. William Phelps, Lyons Press, 2010.

The Hartford Courant, Newspapers.com

Arsenic and Old Lace, Warner Brothers 1944, directed by Frank Capra

This podcast uses sound from Freesound.org:

minor-key-music-box by user darkwaryurmc (http://freesound.org/s/318908/) licensed under CCBYNC 4.0

All statements in this podcast represent the opinions of the host and her guests.

Cover art photos: photo, public domain.

Amy Archer’s reign of terror inside a nursing home in the early 1900s was the basis for the play and later the movie Arsenic and Old Lace. Amy took in boarders in a nursing home and systematically killed them over the course of about 6 years. It was owing to the attention and tenacious investigative reporting of a local reporter that she was eventually found out, but was she a cold-blooded killer, insane, or just a confused old lady?

Show Notes

Sources and resources:

Wikipedia

Amy Archer-Gilligan: Entrepreneurism Gone Wrong in Windsor, Windsor Historical Society, https://windsorhistoricalsociety.org/amy-archer-gilligan-entrepreneurism-gone-wrong-in-windsor/

The Devil’s Rooming House by M. William Phelps, Lyons Press, 2010.

The Hartford Courant, Newspapers.com

Arsenic and Old Lace, Warner Brothers 1944, directed by Frank Capra

This podcast uses sound from Freesound.org:

minor-key-music-box by user darkwaryurmc (http://freesound.org/s/318908/) licensed under CCBYNC 4.0

All statements in this podcast represent the opinions of the host and her guests.

Cover art photos: photo, public domain.