Poisons and Poisonings

Death by Stealth

Tony Hargreaves

• Publisher: Royal Society of Chemistry
• Year: 2020
• ISBN:
  9781839162985
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Law
• Subtopic: Forensic Science
• Index: Law

It is London in the 1890s. A young woman has just taken a dose of a tonic she's been given in the belief that it will improve her complexion. About ten minutes pass and she starts to experience breathing difficulties. Another minute and she collapses. Mercifully, death arrives but the poison has not yet finished, for the process of rigor mortis has set in with unusual speed. Her body is frozen into a rigid and contorted mass. This is the horror of strychnine, the nastiest of poisons. Despite knowing all the dreadfulness of this poison, Dr Thomas Neill Cream, the Lambeth Poisoner, used it to kill several prostitutes. And who knows how many other victims experienced the horror of strychnine, for it was by no means an uncommon poison.

Today, there may well be more poisons available to the individual than ever before, but there are also advances in medical examination and forensic analysis that increase the likelihood of the poisoner being caught. This book will examine poisons, both natural and man-made menaces, and cases based on a particular poison as well as information about how forensic analysis is conducted. Appealing to scientists and non-scientists alike, this enthralling book will entertain and educate and bring the reader up to date with how important chemical analysis is in crime detection.

CHAPTER 1

Primitive Potions and Poisons

It is London in the 1890s. A young woman has just taken some pills given to her by a doctor who said she was looking pale. About 10 minutes pass and she starts to experience breathing difficulties. Another minute and she collapses.

Her head and neck muscles go into a spasm. Following this, her facial muscles force the mouth into a hideous and exaggerated grin known as risus sardonicus. The whole of her face becomes liverish red. Another minute on sees her entire body taken over by convulsions as the spasms take over every muscle.

She lies there shaking violently. Suddenly her abdomen is forced upwards as her backbone arches, leaving only her head and heels touching the ground. Now she starts to slowly suffocate as her diaphragm becomes paralysed and stops her lungs working.

Mercifully, death arrives but the poison has not yet finished, for the process of rigor mortis has set in with unusual rapidity. Her body is frozen into a rigid and contorted mass. A most agonising death and a frightening sight to witness. This is the horror of strychnine, the nastiest of poisons. It tortures its victim before allowing death to rescue them from their hell.

Despite knowing all the horrors of this poison, Dr Thomas Neill Cream, later to be known as the ‘Lambeth Poisoner’, used it to kill four prostitutes. And who knows how many other victims experienced the horror of strychnine, for it was by no means an uncommon poison.

Poisoning rises above all other means of murder in terms of our curiosity. We are fascinated by it. Perhaps this is because poison, in its role as the invisible weapon, is administered by stealth. There is something sinister about poisoning that invades our comfort zone.

1.1 ANCIENT EXPERIMENTS

When did humans discover that exposure of the body to certain substances results in death? In order to search for the answer, we must turn to archaeology. Some of the oldest archaeological finds are estimated to have been made half a million years ago in the Old Stone Age (the Palaeolithic). The earliest finds were made from nearby sources of random stone. Later, flint became widely used. Studies of flint weapons and tools such as arrow heads, spears, axes and scrapers show the versatility of this material, especially its property of breaking to form a razor-sharp edge.

Fabricating these items needed a good deal of skill in the art of flint knapping. We see from the evidence that there was much creativity. Furthermore, it was combined with systematic working. Clearly, ancient man was learning through a sequence of ‘what if’ experiments. What we refer to today as the ‘scientific method’ was at work in Stone-Age times, bringing about the technology to make certain tasks more efficient.

Fixing a flint arrowhead to a shaft was no easy task, for the flint must remain firmly attached when it hits the tough skin of the animal being hunted. The flint piece must penetrate the flesh and not fall off on impact. Chemical analysis of archaeological finds provides the evidence. The results show that a flexible resin was used to attach the arrowhead to the shaft. Furthermore, the resin was birch bark made flexible with beeswax. It had just the right composition to act as a strong adhesive capable of withstanding the mechanical forces imposed on the arrow.

It seems that experiments with resins and plasticizing substances were being performed, as such a material is not available as a natural substance. This is probably mankind's first experimental work in making a material with just the right properties. Ancient man, it seems, was trying his hand at chemical formulation.

It is at this stage that he may have discovered that certain substances extracted from plants were poisonous, and placing those substances on the arrowhead brought down an animal quickly. This would have reduced the time spent in chasing the animal while it slowly bled and collapsed. Poisoning had been discovered. The discovery had been made by means of experiments. The scientific method was at work: experiment; result; interpretation; new experiment and new result. And so on until the process was at its optimum.

Large numbers of flint weapons and tools have been found Worldwide and studied in detail with modern analytical instruments. In some countries people still use arrows and darts with a dab of sticky poison on the tip. For example, most of us know about the South American communities of hunters that use darts tipped with curare.

With early man's discovery of poisoning there must have been many who were keen to learn more of the new technology. They may have had some ideas of poisonous substances. If they ate certain berries, they would become ill and die; if they chewed a particular type of leaf, they would go crazy; if they tasted some types of plant juices, they would experience convulsions and painful paralysis. As their nomadic lifestyle took them into new environments, people would encounter different plants and learn that some must be avoided.

However, when looking at possibilities from pre-historic evidence, there is always an amount of conjecture – albeit intelligent conjecture. It was not until humans abandoned their hunter-gatherer lifestyles and took to living in settled groups in agricultural communities that the first written accounts of poisons appeared.

1.2 CLEOPATRA'S COBRA

One of the oldest known works to report poisons is the Ebers’ Papyrus of 1550 BC. It gives recipes for medicines aimed at everyday illnesses, and formulations for a huge range of poisons to kill household pests. The formulations are based upon plant-derived poisons such as hemlock, mandrake, aconite, opium and the heavy metals arsenic, antimony and lead.

The Egyptians used the ‘penalty of the peach’ as part of their system of justice. The guilty were made to swallow the distillate from crushed peach kernels, an aqueous solution of a treacherously poisonous form of cyanide known as ‘prussic acid’. There were other widely used means of poisoning. For example, on learning of the death of her lover Mark Antony, Cleopatra poisoned herself with the venom of an asp, after having had her servants (or criminals) try out different poisons upon themselves. There is some uncertainty as to the exact species of snake, but opinion comes out in favour of the Egyptian cobra.

Poisoning by the venom of an asp was used as a death penalty, but it was not applicable to everyone. It seems to have been reserved for more respected members of the community who, despite their particular crime, were regarded as deserving a dignified death. Apparently, the bite of an asp was the least torturous means of execution, the victim simply becoming drowsy and falling asleep before death claimed them – a far cry from the terror of some plant poisons like the strychnine we came across earlier.

In Act 5 of Shakespeare's tragedy Antony and Cleopatra, we find reference to her suicide.

With thy sharp teeth this knot intrinsicate
Of life at once untie: poor venomous fool
Be angry and despatch.

1.3 PYTHAGORAS’ POTIONS

The ancient Greeks knew a lot about plant poisons and heavy metal poisons such as arsenic, antimony, mercury and lead. They also had a range of antidotes. A combination of this know-how and the ready availability of poisons explained why suicides and murders were so common. However, poisoning was not confined to the killing of individuals, but was also used for mass poisoning. Solon, the Athenian statesman, during the siege of Cirrha in about 590 BC, put poisonous hellebore root into an aqueduct from which the enemy drew water.

Criminals were executed with hemlock, as in the famous example of Socrates. According to one of his disciples, Plato, he was condemned in 399 BC at the age of 70. The penalty was that he must drink hemlock, a poison known as the ‘Athenian state poison’. The charge against Socrates was heresy and corruption. Apparently he showed contempt for conventional ideas, and had been corrupting the youth with his theories. The mathematician Pythagoras (570–480 BC), when not pondering the square of the hypotenuse, spent time studying the poisonous effects of metals like tin, mercury, lead and copper upon the human body.

Another great name from the Greek archives was Hippocrates (460–377 BC), who studied the workings of the human body. He also was involved in poisons, especially from the point of view of how to deal with and treat poisonings by purging them from the body with enemas and emetics. In his writings he noted over 400 drugs, among which plant poisons such as those from henbane and mandrake were listed.

Nicander of Colophon (185–135 BC) had extensive knowledge of poisons, as is evident from his poems that refer to venomous animals, how they deliver their poisons, and the plant poisons henbane, hemlock, colchicum and aconite. In his study of therapeutic drugs, Dioscorides (40–90 AD) mentions mercury, arsenic and compounds of lead and copper that we now believe to be sugar of lead and copper oxide. He classified poisons as animal, vegetable or mineral, and it appears he was the first to describe the toxic effects of mercury.

The highly regarded physician Galen (129–216 AD) made a major contribution to the knowledge of poisons by pulling together all that was known on medicine. His work was so thorough that it remained an authoritative reference in medicine for 1400 years after its completion.

1.4 MITHRIDATES’ MAD HONEY

The King of Pontus, Mithridates VI (132–63 BC), was concerned that his mother was intent upon killing him. His suspicion was not entirely without foundation, for she had assassinated her husband. Mithridates began taking small doses of poisons to build up his resistance to them. He eventually became a formidable enemy of Rome, but was always obsessed with the fear of being poisoned. Taking poisons became part of his daily routine as he continued his efforts to build up immunity. For example, he drank blood from the ducks that fed on poisonous plants. His theory was that, if the ducks could happily live on poisonous food, then they must have, within their blood, a means of resisting or destroying the poison.

His efforts at building immunity gave rise to the word ‘mithridatize’ which is still in use today. (The Concise Oxford Dictionary, mithridatize: render proof against a poison by administering gradually increasing doses of it.) He systematically studied poisons, testing them on criminals awaiting execution and evaluating the effectiveness of antidotes. One of his antidotes, antidotum mithridatum, was based upon herbal remedies. Containing 15 ingredients, it became something of a universal antidote. Confidence in it is shown by its use through the ages. In fact, it was still readily available in Italy up until the 17th Century.

The Roman general Pompey launched an attack upon Mithridates. As a part of Mithridates’ response, he placed pots of ‘mad honey’ in positions where unsuspecting Roman troops would find them and eat the honey. Mad honey is from the nectar of a species of rhododendron that grows around the Black Sea, and which results in the honey being poisonous due to the presence of grayanotoxin.

Needless to say, after devouring the honey Pompey's soldiers became too ill to defend themselves and were wiped out by Mithridates’ men. Eventually Mithridates was defeated by Pompey, upon which he tried to commit suicide using poison. He failed because of the immunity he had built up. We find an interesting reference to King Mithridates’ immunity in a poem in the collection A Shropshire Lad by A. E. Housman:

There was a king reigned in the East:
There, when kings will sit to feast,
They get their full before they think
With poisoned meat and poisoned drink.
He gathered all that springs to birth
From the many-venomed earth;
First a little, thence to more,
He sampled all her killing store;
And easy, smiling, seasoned sound,
Sate the king when healths went round.
They put arsenic in his meat
And stared aghast to watch him eat;
They poured strychnine in his cup
And shook to see him drink it up:
They shook, they stared as white's their shirt:
Them it was their poison hurt.
– I tell the tale that I heard told.
Mithridates, he died old.

The practice of building up resistance to poisons still goes on today. For example, those who handle venomous animals take increasing doses of the respective venoms to build up their resistance. Tolerance of poisonous substances is experienced by many a drug addict, who needs to increase the dosage because his drugs seem to become less effective in producing the high. And when that drug fails to deliver, a new drug is experimented with. The same tolerance effect is also seen in the alcoholic.

1.5 VOLCANIC VOLATILES

Poisoning for suicide and murder was common, and is to be found in records of the Roman period going back to the 4th Century BC. Poisoning at the dinner table was frequently used as a means of assassination, and in 331 BC the extent of the practice was officially recorded. There were professional poisoners; for example, the infamous trio Canidia, Martina and Locusta. Locusta's poisoning talents were made use of by the emperor Nero to eliminate some human obstacles. The success of the arrangement led to Locusta being made adviser on poisons and the setting up of a state-approved school of poisoning. The idea was that she would teach others the art of poisoning and how to defend Nero against the poisonous ambitions of his adversaries.

The Roman author Pliny the Elder (23–79 AD) produced a major work known as Natural History, in which were preserved many of the early ideas on medicines, poisons and antidotes. His work was respected as an authority on scientific matters up until the Middle Ages. It is noteworthy that he regarded poisons as being useful to relieve someone of the burden of living when their life became unbearable. Suicide and euthanasia go back a long way.

Pliny's expertise in poisons was well known and resulted in him being sent to Mount Vesuvius to study the eruption and reassure the people. It is ironic that he died when overcome by fumes from the volcanic activity. In effect, he was poisoned by sulphur dioxide gas. Roman poisoning practices favoured the use of substances extracted from poisonous plants, with hemlock, belladonna, hellebore, colchicum and aconite playing a prominent role.

1.6 ARABIC ARSENIC

During the period 500 to 1450 AD, important developments were made by the Arab alchemists. In particular, they invented methods for extracting and purifying chemicals. For example, the techniques of distillation, sublimation and crystallisation were introduced, which enabled major progress in what later became the science of chemistry. Jabir ibn Hayyan (8th Century) produced a pure form of arsenic known as ‘white arsenic’.

The white arsenic meant that, for the first time, arsenic was available as an odourless and tasteless poison. It was these very properties that led to it becoming the most widely administered chemical for intentional poisoning. Prior to this white arsenic, the minerals that were available were highly coloured sulphides of arsenic, orpiment and realgar. It was the orange–red realgar that was used as the raw material for making white arsenic, which is arsenic trioxide.

1.7 MONKS AND MANDRAKE

In Europe during the Middle Ages there were few texts written on poisons and poisoning, and most of what was in circulation was from previous times. This was the period of the monasteries, and most new knowledge came from, and was kept within, religious orders, with the monks preparing and selling herbal concoctions as medicines and tonics. One of the tonics, Benedictine, was based upon alcohol, and retains its popularity even to this day.

Texts on herbs and poisonous plants were written by the monks, but stayed within the monastic confines as most of the outside population were illiterate. However, there was one notable text that appeared in 1424. This was the Book of Venoms by Magister Santes de Ardoynis, in which reference was made to a...