The Poisoner’s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York

“Once researchers understood individual elements they went on to study them in combination, examining how elements bonded to create exotic compounds and familiar substances, such as the sodium-chlorine combination that creates basic table salt (NaCl).”

Though poisons were a common means for committing murder throughout history, scientists lacked any ability to discover whether poisons were present in a cadaver, which meant that poisoners often were able to escape punishment. In the 19th century, however, chemists discovered the existence of elements, allowing them to better understand chemicals and chemical structures. The discovery paved the way for chemical analysis, allowing scientists to devise methods of treating a corpse to reveal whether a certain poison had been used. 

“Morphine went into teething medicines for infants; opium into routinely prescribed sedatives; arsenic was an ingredient in everything from pesticides to cosmetics.”

Blum describes how advancements in industrial techniques led to the creation of numerous new products that contained potentially hazardous substances. Along with the increase of such commercially available chemical solutions came a number of deaths. This was due to both accidental deaths caused by mishandling of these products and killers exploiting the easily purchased chemicals to formulate poisons.

“Meanwhile the autopsy result turned out to be a catalog of contradictions […]. The doctors couldn’t agree on how decomposition affected chloroform chemistry in the body. They couldn’t agree on how embalming had changed the chemistry either.”

Prosecutors suspected that millionaire William Rice had been poisoned with chloroform by family members seeking to procure his sizable fortune. However, the science of how chloroform affected a human body was poorly understood, and the defense team hired experts who exploited this uncertainty to argue that it was impossible to know whether Rice had been poisoned. The publicity surrounding the case led to misinformation about chloroform, affecting murder investigations for years to come.