The poisoning of the former Russian spy in London has all of us thinking about other famous poisonings. So I took a look, and wow, what a history.
The use of poison to kill or maim stretches back millennia, but it really took off in the 8th century, when an Arab chemist turned arsenic into an odorless, tasteless, undetectable powder, making it an attractive murder weapon. By the Renaissance, people were selling poison rings, knives, letters, and even poison lipstick.
Today, poisoning is the method of choice for many killers. The United States saw more than 147,000 poison-related deaths from 2001 to 2004, according to the CDC's National Center for Injury Prevention and Control. Of these, 434 were considered homicides. Were there more? Nobody knows, because poisoning deaths often resemble natural deaths.
See if you remember any of these:
The "CandyMan," otherwise known as Ronald Clark O'Bryan. He poisoned his 8-year-old son with cyanide-laced pixie sticks back in 1974.
How about the "Gatorade Murder?" James Keown is charged with slipping antifreeze into his wife's Gatorade, killing her. He's pleaded not guilty and is awaiting trial.
One of the more mysterious cases involves a Bulgarian defector who was struck by a ricin-laced dart investigators believe was shot from an umbrella. The case is still unsolved.
A poison expert I talked with told me that poison is considered a "white man's weapon," even though plenty of women poison too. He said most poisoners are serial killers and that they tend to be greedy and manipulative.
Do you remember any famous or mysterious poisoning cases you want to share?
