At 2am on March 23, 1857, Emile L'Angelier came back to his boarding house in a terrible state, complaining of stomach pain. His landlady helped him inside and to bed. She was worried about him because he had had these symptoms off and on for the past few months. Later that morning he died, and letters from a wealthy young socialite were found in his room. Was this murder?

Sources and resources:

Wikipedia

The Elements of Murder by John Emsley

The Madeleine Smith Story, by Douglas MacGowan, The Crime Library, http://www.crimelibrary.com/notorious_murders/women/madeleine/1.html

Arsenic poisoning symptoms: https://my.clevelandclinic.org/health/diseases/24727-arsenic-poisoning

Trial of Miss Madeleine H. Smith, before the High Court of Justiciary, Edinburgh, June 30th to July 9th, 1857, for the alleged poisoning of M. Pierre Emile L’Angelier, at Glasgow: special verbatim report, with portraits and plans, by Anonymous, Edinburgh: D. Mathers, 1857.

Hunt, Peter. The Madeleine Smith Affair. London: Carroll & Nicholson, 1950.

Costume Cocktail website: https://www.costumecocktail.com/2016/10/27/madeleine-hamilton-smith-1850s/

Jesse, F. Tennyson. Trial of Madeleine Smith. Edinburgh and London: W. Hodge & Company Ltd., 1927.

Morland, Nigel. That Nice Miss Smith. London: F. Muller, 1957.

MacGowan, Douglas. Murder in Victorian Scotland. Westport, Connecticut: Greenwood Publishing Group, 1999.

This podcast uses sound from Freesound.org:

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

Cover art photos: photo, public domain.

From September 1914 to January 1915, seventeen residents of a nursing home for the elderly in New York died. During the investigation Frederick Mors confessed to murdering at least eight of them, claiming he had put them out of their misery. Was it all his idea, or was he bullied into it by management?

Sources and resources:

Wikipedia

The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, by Deborah Blum. Penguin Books, 2011.

Serial Killer Calendar: https://www.serialkillercalendar.com/Frederick%20MORS.php

Who are the Odd Fellows? The Cincinnati Enquirer, 25 March 2022. https://www.cincinnati.com/story/news/2022/03/25/who-are-the-odd-fellows/7167585001/

The ABC’s of Odd Fellowship, https://www.davislodge.org/abcs-of-odd-fellowship/#:~:text=Odd%20Fellows%20%E2%80%93%20No%20one%20knows,called%20%E2%80%9Cthose%20odd%20fellows%E2%80%9D.

British Journal of Anaesthesia, Vol. 87, Issue 6, 1 Dec 2001, pages 813-15. https://doi.org/10.1093/bja/87.6.813

“May Confirm Identity of Mors by Teeth,” The Herald Statesman, Yonkers, New York, 11 May 1923, page 1, 24. https://www.newspapers.com/newspage/676818006/

This podcast uses sound from Freesound.org:

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

Cover art photo: photo, public domain.

Episode 8 – Iron Mike Malloy

Iron Mike Malloy was given unlimited access to drinks

Sources and

Michael Malloy - the

The Man Who Wouldn’t

Ethylene glycol

Ethylene glycol

Deborah Blum, The

Dan MacGuill, The Journal,

Daily News, October

This podcast uses

minor-key-music-box by

Cover art photos:  mug shot of Tony Marino, public domain.

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 Dispatch, December 27,1888, https://eshore.iath.virginia.edu/node/4866

Richmond Dispatch, March 28, 1889, https://eshore.iath.virginia.edu/node/4665

Brown’s Household Panacea: https://www.digitalcommonwealth.org/search/commonwealth:tm70n416s

"United States Census, 1880," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33SQ-GYBP-6MW?cc=1417683&wc=XZ36-N38%3A1589415431%2C1589415430%2C1589415428%2C1589394938 : 24 December 2015), Virginia > Accomack > Metompkin Magisterial District > ED 6 > image 56 of 64; citing NARA microfilm publication T9, (National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C., n.d.)

"United States Census, 1910," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:33S7-9YB8-935T?cc=1727033&wc=QZZC-ZRK%3A133639801%2C140113301%2C140118001%2C1589089926 : 24 June 2017), Virginia > Northampton > Capeville > ED 91 > image 44 of 50; citing NARA microfilm publication T624 (Washington, D.C.: National Archives and Records Administration, n.d.).

"United States Census, 1920", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MJFH-Y9B : Fri Dec 08 00:55:26 UTC 2023), Entry for Thomas Taylor and Flora D Taylor, 1920.

"Virginia, Vital Records, 1715-1901", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:6JBN-LCF2 : Tue Nov 07 16:39:54 UTC 2023), Entry for Asa T Taylor and Wm J Taylor, 2 Jun 1878.

"Virginia Marriages, 1785-1940", database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:XRS3-F3X : 29 January 2020), Virginia A. Gardner in entry for Wm. J. Taylor, 1877.

"United States Census, 1940", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:VRB2-YZP : Tue Nov 28 15:24:45 UTC 2023), Entry for Virginia Townsend and Lee H Hart, 1940.

African American History of Accomac County, Virginia, http://accomacroots.com/

Cover art photo: photo, public domain.

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 Killer by David Wilson

“The baby born to Mary Ann Cotton in Durham Jail,” The Northern Echo, April 2018, https://www.thenorthernecho.co.uk/history/10068490.baby-born-mary-ann-cotton-durham-jail/

https://thecrimewire.com/true-crime/Mary-Ann-Cotton-Notorious-Victorian-Serial-Killer

“Heavy metals: antimony, arsenic, bismuth, mercury by Reinsch test,” Forensic Toxicology Lab, Office of the Chief Medical Examiner, City of New York. https://www.nyc.gov/assets/ocme/downloads/pdf/MiscProcedures%20-%20H%20-%20Reinsch.pdf

The Guardian, Letters, Mary Reid, Chessington, London, https://www.theguardian.com/society/2019/aug/18/misunderstanding-life-expectancy#:~:text=For%20example%2C%20in%201850%20in,life%20expectancy%20rose%20to%2057.

Performance of “Mary Ann Cotton”, https://youtu.be/wiG3UdxSHS8?feature=shared

Cover art photo: Mary Ann Cotton. Public domain.

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

The CrimeWire: https://thecrimewire.com/multifarious/christiana-edmunds-the-chocolate-cream-killer

Genealogy Reviews – Family Tree Magazine, https://www.genealogyreviews.co.uk/reviews/article/the-chocolate-cream-killer/

The Gale Review: A blog from Gale International: https://review.gale.com/2017/01/18/a-genteel-murderess-christiana-edmunds-and-the-chocolate-box-poisoning/

Legal and Police News: 20 January 1872.

Cover art photo: Christiana Edmunds photo, public

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?