Summary of Deborah Blum's The Poisoner's Handbook

Everest Media

Description

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book.
Sample Book Insights:
#1 The city’s coroner, Patrick Riordan, was trying to fast-talk himself out of charges that he showed up for work drunk. He had been accused of sneering at bodies during an accident eight hours after the crash.
#2 Mors was a nurse at a German Odd Fellows home in Yonkers. He was asked to help with the removal of some of the sickest residents, and he decided to poison them. He first tried arsenic, but the elderly man he selected did not die in an orderly fashion.
#3 Chloroform was a popular sedative and sleep aid. It was used to treat hiccupping, seasickness, colic, vomiting, and diarrhea. It was also used to rob occupied homes, chloroform being a potent poison.
#4 The more doctors used chloroform, the more they realized that it was a capricious kind of anesthesia. It was riskier for children, the elderly, and alcoholics, but it also killed healthy adults.

Sujets

• Forensic Medicine
• Medical
• Médecine
• Forensic science

Informations

• Publié par: Everest Media LLC
• Date de parution: 14 juin 2022
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9798822531543
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Insights on Deborah Blum's The Poisoners Handbook
Contents Insights from Chapter 1 Insights from Chapter 2 Insights from Chapter 3 Insights from Chapter 4 Insights from Chapter 5 Insights from Chapter 6 Insights from Chapter 7 Insights from Chapter 8 Insights from Chapter 9 Insights from Chapter 10 Insights from Chapter 11
Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The city’s coroner, Patrick Riordan, was trying to fast-talk himself out of charges that he showed up for work drunk. He had been accused of sneering at bodies during an accident eight hours after the crash.

#2

Mors was a nurse at a German Odd Fellows home in Yonkers. He was asked to help with the removal of some of the sickest residents, and he decided to poison them. He first tried arsenic, but the elderly man he selected did not die in an orderly fashion.

#3

Chloroform was a popular sedative and sleep aid. It was used to treat hiccupping, seasickness, colic, vomiting, and diarrhea. It was also used to rob occupied homes, chloroform being a potent poison.

#4

The more doctors used chloroform, the more they realized that it was a capricious kind of anesthesia. It was riskier for children, the elderly, and alcoholics, but it also killed healthy adults.

#5

The police were able to charge Mors with the murder of fourteen elderly patients, but he claimed that he had done it to end their suffering. He hadn’t liked the patients, and had been ordered to help them die by the superintendent.

#6

The case of Texas multimillionaire William Rice, who died in 1900, is a good example of how an autopsy could have helped the police solve a murder. His wife’s family, who were eager to get their hands on his money, hired a New York lawyer to forge a will that would divide his assets among them.

#7

The Rice case was a mess of contradictions and confusion, and it was all because of the valet’s confession and the forged documents. The case went to trial, and the jury voted for conviction based on the valet’s testimony and the forged documents.

#8

In 1912, the Bronx district attorney sent Frederic Mors to Bellevue Hospital, which was known for its best psychopathic ward in the city. They hoped a doctor there would diagnose him as crazy and put him away.

#9

The hospital’s famed psychopathic ward, home to the lunatics, the crazies, the suicidal, and the homicidal, only added to the rumors. Mors seemed happy enough to be there, but the investigators weren’t sure if he was delusional or not.

#10

The New York City coroner system was a prime example of the political machine’s influence on the city. The city spent $172,000 a year on coroners, who were mostly politicians and funeral directors who lined their pockets.

#11

The Mors case demonstrated how the existing science could be contradictory to the police’s confession. The police claimed that it took at least ten minutes for chloroform to kill a person, but the scientific journals supported Mors’s confession that he could kill his victims in just a few minutes.

#12

The police believed that Mors was the murderer he claimed to be, and no evidence of poison was found in any of the bodies. The district attorney said that Mors’ fellow employees and others had given circumstantial evidence, but nothing they had said would be accepted by a judge or jury as proof of the fact that a crime had been committed.

#13

The city and state governments had come to an agreement that the elective coroner’s system must be abolished. The new system required that the position be filled by a qualified doctor with pathology experience, who would appoint a well-trained staff.
Insights from Chapter 2

#1

John F. Red Mike Hylan was a self-made man. He had worked as a locomotive engineer for the Brooklyn Elevated while studying for his law degree, until he was fired for reading textbooks while he drove the train. He did not think affectionately of his old employer.

#2

In 1918, Hylan appointed Bellevue’s Charles Norris as the new medical examiner. He had warm feelings for Norris, but he knew he was in.

#3

Charles Norris, the chief medical examiner, loved his job. He lived and breathed it. He spent his own money on it, and he gave it power and prominence. He wore himself into exhaustion and illness over it.

#4