Description:
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Exclusive: Author Deborah Blum's Top Ten Poisons
On a recent radio show, I heard myself telling the host "And carbon monoxide is such a good poison.â We both started laughing--thereâs just something about a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist waxing enthusiastic about something so lethal. But then he became curious--âWhy?â he asked. âWhy do you like it so much?â
These days, as I travel the country talking about The Poisonerâs Handbook, Iâm frequently asked that question or variations on it. Whatâs your favorite poison? Whatâs the perfect poison? The answer to the latte
Amazon.com Review
Amazon Exclusive: Author Deborah Blum's Top Ten Poisons
On a recent radio show, I heard myself telling the host "And carbon monoxide is such a good poison.â We both started laughing--thereâs just something about a Pulitzer-prize winning journalist waxing enthusiastic about something so lethal. But then he became curious--âWhy?â he asked. âWhy do you like it so much?â
These days, as I travel the country talking about The Poisonerâs Handbook, Iâm frequently asked that question or variations on it. Whatâs your favorite poison? Whatâs the perfect poison? The answer to the latter is that it doesnât exist--except in the plots of crime novels.
But in reality, poisons really are fascinatingly wicked chemical compounds and many of them have fascinating histories as well. Just between us, then, hereâs a list of my personal favorites.
1. Carbon Monoxide (really)--Itâs so beautifully simple (just two atoms--one of carbon, one of oxygen) and so amazingly efficient a killer. Thereâs a story I tell in the book about a murder syndicate trying to kill an amazingly resilient victim. They try everything from serving him poison alcohol to running over him with a car. But in the end, itâs carbon monoxide that does him in.
2. Arsenic--This used to be the murdererâs poison of poisons, so commonly used in the early 19th century that it was nicknamed âthe inheritance powderâ. Itâs also the first poison that forensic scientists really figured out how to detect in a corpse. And it stays in the body for centuries, which is why we keep digging up historic figures like Napoleon or U.S. President Zachary Taylor to check their remains for poison.
3. Radium--I love the fact that this rare radioactive element used to be considered good for your health. It was mixed into medicines, face creams, health drinks in the 1920s. People thought of it like a tiny glowing sun that would give them its power. Boy, were they wrong. The two scientists in my book, Charles Norris and Alexander Gettler, proved in 1928 that the bones of people exposed to radium became radioactive--and stayed that way for years.
4. Nicotine--This was the first plant poison that scientists learned to detect in a human body. Just an incredible case in which a French aristocrat and her husband decided to kill her brother for money. They actually stewed up tobacco leaves in a barn to brew a nicotine potion. And their amateur chemical experiments inspired a very determined professional chemist to hunt them down.
5. Chloroform--Developed for surgical anesthesia in the 19th century, this rapidly became a favorite tool of home invasion robbers. If you read newspapers around the turn of the 20th century, theyâre full of accounts of people who answered a knock on the door, only to be knocked out by a chloroform soaked rag. One woman woke up to find her hair shaved off--undoubtedly sold for the lucrative wig trade.
6. Mercury--In its pure state, mercury appears as a bright silver liquid, which scatters into shiny droplets when touched. No wonder itâs nicknamed quicksilver. People used to drink it as a medicine more than 100 years ago. No, they didnât drop dead. Those silvery balls just slid right through them. Mercury is much more poisonous if itâs mixed with other chemicals and can be absorbed by the body directly. Thatâs why methylmercury in fish turns out to be so risky a contaminant.
7. Cyanide--One of the most famous of the homicidal poisons and--in my opinion--not a particularly good choice. Yes, itâs amazingly lethal--a teaspoon of the pure stuff can kill in a few minutes. But itâs a violent and obvious death. In early March, in fact, an Ohio doctor was convicted of murder for putting cyanide in his wifeâs vitamin supplements.
8. Aconite--A heart-stoppingly deadly natural poison. It forms in ornamental plants that include the blue-flowering monkshood. The ancient Greeks called it âthe queen of poisonsâ and considered it so evil that they believed that it derived from the saliva of Cerberus, the three-headed dog guarding the gates of hell.
9. Silver--Swallowing silver nitrate probably wonât kill you but if you do it long enough it will turn you blue. One of my favorite stories (involving a silver bullet) concerns the Famous Blue Man of Barnum and Baileyâs Circus who was analyzed by one of the heroes of my book, Alexander Gettler.
10. Thallium--Agatha Christie put this poison at the heart of one of her creepiest mysteries, The Pale Horse, and I looked at it terms of a murdered family in real life. An element discovered in the 19th century, itâs a perfect homicidal poison--tasteless and odorless--except for one obvious giveaway--the victimâs hair falls out as a result of the poisoning!
Now that Iâve written this list, I realize I could probably name ten more. But I donât want to scare you.
--Deborah Blum
... (more)
(less)
Manufacturer: Penguin Press
Release date: 18 February 2010
ISBN-10 : 1594202435 |
ISBN-13: 9781594202438
My tags:
Add tags
Login
