Toxic

News about the war hadn't helped moral Typhoid Mary Mallon had recently broken quarantine to resume work as a cook, causing outbreaks across the city, and as bad as all that sounds, things were about to get worse. Fred Rick Moores walked into the police station and calmly announced he had just murdered eight people. At first, the officers thought

that misunderstood him. Frederick Moore's wasn't his birth name. He told them he had changed it from Karl Manerick, but he chose Moore's because he liked the Latin phrase momento mori, which means remember you will die. He chose Frederick for its root words meaning peace and ruler. Moors told them he was a medical man, or at least that that

was what he wanted to be. He had found a job at the German odd Fellows home for the elderly and yonkers, where he earned eighteen dollars a month, plus room and board in exchange for helping to care for the three fifty residents as a nurse. The job offered him the chance to practice medicine in peace. Although he worked as a nurse, he insisted the residents call him

hair doctor. At this point police called in a translator, uncertain this man, who was admitting to murder and calling himself a doctor and peaceful ruler of death had a language barrier. It all sounded bizarre. The translator assured them they had heard correctly. Moores explained that he had wandered the halls wearing a white coat and stethoscope. The superintendent had asked him to hurry along with the deaths of the home sickest and most costly patients, a task Moore's

felt was beneficial. The patients were old, and he believed it was kinder to kill them than let them linger. While he had initially decided on arsenic, he found that death was messy. The victim suffered for several days, becoming violently sick. In the meantime, after spending days cleaning up after the arsenic victim, chloroform became his poison of choice. In his own words, using the drug on the elderly

was like putting a child to sleep. The police investigated the nursing home residence, and staff alike told them they didn't like or trust Mores. He had a short temper, and any resident not on his good side died shortly after any disagreement. One employee stated he had walked in on Moore's and the superintendent as they stood over a body. When he asked why the room smelled oddly sweet. The superintendent lit a cigar and Moore's opened a window. Neither

man answered the original question. While prosecutors had a confession and testimony, it wouldn't be enough to convict Moore's or the superintendent. Patrick Reardon, the city's corner, insisted that testing for chloroform was impossible. The other corners and medical professionals disagreed. Reardon refused to exhume any of the bodies, and without testing. The district attorney didn't have a case with at least a confession in hand. Moore's was admitted to Bellevue for

psychiatric evaluation. From there, he was moved to the Hudson River State Hospital for the Insane. The district attorney felt at least Moors would never be free to harm anyone again, until the day that Mores walked out the front doors, never to be seen again. I'm Lauren Vogelbond. Welcome to American Shadows. The scandal hit New York City in nineteen fift A local political organization, Tammany Hall, had long been a source of widespread corruption, from rigging elections to placing

certain people in unelected positions. New Yorkers weren't particularly surprised when the story hit the papers. Of all the job positions crooked politicians negotiated and promised corner didn't immediately come to mind. Yet there was money to be made in the recently deceased, and in certain investigations it paid to have autopsy results show certain outpumps. The city paid out over a hundred and seventy two thousand dollars a year to its corners and their assistants. Im many not only

drew a nice salary, but they also earned commissions. Hiring corrupt staff who performed certain favors came with an additional cost. Taxpayers of corners often build the city twice for the same body, and few corners were as corrupt as Patrick Reardon. He had once been a doctor, but lost his license for frequently being too drunk to practice medicine. Lucky for him,

the dead rarely complained. That didn't mean that journalists, the d A, and city commissioner weren't wise to Reardon's antics, though he had been the reason More's and the superintendent at the local nursing home had gotten away with multiple murders. Reardon had a habit of showing up to tragic accidents so drunk that he needed his assistant to hold him upright. Such was the case on December eighth of nineteen fifteen, when a train slammed into the back of another car

waiting at the station on one sixteen. When Reardon saw the bodies, he made a single comment that the names of the deceased were hardly distinguished enough to warrant anyone coming out on such a miserable night. City Commissioner Leonard Walstein was at the time the bane of Tammany Hall's existence. He released a lengthy report on the state of the city's coroner's office, particularly reared him. He pushed for reform that would require a qualified and licensed doctor to head

up the coroner's office. Unfortunately, nothing changed, reared In remained in charge. Walstein worked with local journalists to raise the alarm again, this time printing a story that drew national attention. They alleged that reared In had performed illegal autopsies since he wasn't really licensed. To stop the embarrassment, the governor insisted that rear didn't be fired and that a qualified

corner be placed in the job instead. In a childish fit of anger, Mayor John Highland made sure the most qualified candidate did not get the job. Instead, he hired the second most qualified in the hopes that the new corner would fail. The mayor soon regretted his decision. Doctor Charles Norris had been educated at Columbia and Yale. His father was a merchant banker, and his maternal grandfather had

been the president of the Bank of Commerce. The family had a history of being hard working and patriotic traits Norris inherited. He was a large and cheerful man with an oversized mustache and a lively sense of humor. He did need that sense of humor. While the mayor remained determined to keep corruption front and center, Norris cleaned house. As the new chief corner. He hired an exceptionally talented chemist from Columbia University named Alexander Getler, and a brilliant

doctor from Harlem, Thomas Gonzalez. Together they whipped the Medical Examiner's office into proper shape. Unhappy that the men had made such progress, high him slashed the budget. Undeterred, Norris fought for better pay and working conditions for his staff. He also insisted on proper procedures and the use of standard scientific investigations. Norris tasked the chemist Getler with inventing new tests for elusive poisons, a challenge that the new

chief toxicologists settled into with ease. Outwardly professional, to the point that one journalist labeled him as interesting as table salt, Getler was anything but highly competitive and outbowing. He had an unquenchable love of chemistry. Like his boss, Norris, Getler had a strong work ethic. Unlike his boss, Getler, the son of poor Jewish Hungarian immigrants, didn't have family money.

He had worked hard to put himself through college. Outside of his job, he spent his time at ballgames, bowling, and cards. Both men were well aware of the Medical examiner offices corrupt history, and that the mayor had it out for them. The public also had a distrust of the office and the science behind it. Even though the men had come from opposite social and economic circumstances, they were in step with each other and had great plans

for the future of criminal science and pathology. Norris and Getler not only began building an efficient and effective office, they carved out their reputations in a new field, forensic medicine. Though Getler was dedicated to his job, the mayor's budget cuts meant he had to work outside the department to pay the bills. He alternated between teaching as an associate professor at New York University and as a chemical pathologist

at both Bellevue and Allied Hospitals. Though it would have been easier to accept bribes, Getler's moral compass was as strong as his work ethic. A confident in his skill set and his labs equipment. Getler refused to alter his testimony or his chemical analysis. However, by in nine three, one woman would cause him to doubt himself. Mary Frances had dark hair, expressive eyes, and a rosy complexion. She married John Crichton in nineteen nineteen when she was twenty one.

The newlyweds quickly moved into his family home, a large two story house in Newark, New Jersey. Mary had grown up poor, while John, the son of a prominent Pennsylvania Railroad Company executive, was accustomed to the finer things in life. Neighbors had always liked the elder Creton's, but they didn't think much of their son's new bride. Mary didn't get along with a lot of people, including her siblings, with whom she had fought over their parents maker will. She

wasn't social. The couple had no friends to speak of, and Mary had never gotten along with her in laws. Neighbors often heard Mary fighting bitterly with her mother in law, in particular. In nineteen twenty, John and Mary had their first child, Ruth. That same year, the elder Missus Crichton died of food poisoning. A year later, Mary's father in law died of a sudden heart ailment. John didn't have any siblings, and the couple inherited everything. Three years later,

they welcomed an infant's son, John Junior. Neighbors had noticed a shift over the past couple of years. Mary, who had never been friendly, was now downright rude and combative, and she complained about everything, well, everything except when her eighteen year old brother, Raymond, came for a weekend to visit. Mary convinced him to stay longer, and even found him a job in a local store, sweeping floors and stalking shelves.

In April of that year, Raymond went to a doctor complaining about a dull egg in his abdomen, having a constant thirst and a dried out tongue. Thinking the young man had an infection, the doctor prescribed a tonic. A week later, Raymond returned with additional symptoms, a sore throat and nausea. On the twentieth, he suffered a seizure. When the doctor arrived, Raymond was shaking violently and vomiting uncontrollably.

Within minutes, he was dead. The doctor didn't understand what had happened, but thought perhaps had died of a severe case of gastro enteritis. Not long after Raymond's death, a letter showed up at the local police station calling out the unusual deaths of the Crichton house, starting with Raymond. The anonymous sender stated that Mary was a killer and

that the detectives should investigate. While it certainly didn't constitute proof, the letter convinced detectives to talk with Raymond's doctor, who by now had also had second thoughts about the cause of death and about Mary's involvement. He remembered Raymond complaining about his sister's insistence that he eat chocolate pudding every day. The owner of the store Raymond worked at had seen Mary show up at the store if Raymond forgot to eat his pudding and made him eat it before she left.

Believing Mary might have poisoned the chocolate pudding, detectives searched the house. They found a bottle of Fowler's tonic, which promised translucent skin with its rich arsenic formula, and they arrested Mary on the spot. The coroner's office ordered Raymond's body exhumed for a more thorough autopsy. Meanwhile, John and Mary hired James McCarthy, the best defense attorney in the state. The lawyer told the press that the critons had been

in shock at Raymond's passing. McCarthy suggested that Raymond must have taken Fowler's tonnic himself. He presented a strong pace of how readily available arsenic was to the public. It was impractically any store. When the jury returned a not guilty verdict, a journalist noted Mary's quick smile before collapsing into her husband's arms. Though acquitted of murdering her brother, detectives arrested Mary once more, this time for the death of her in laws. The pace drew so many onlookers

that pathologists had to perform the autopsy's grave side. While the older Mr Crichton showed no signs of arsenic poisoning, his wife Annie did. A nurse testified that Mary adamantly served her mother in law hot chocolate every day, and McCarthy called in Alexander Getler as well as other prominent pathologists. Getler determined the levels of arsenic were too small to

have caused Annie Cretton's death. Instead, he found traces of bismuth and a prescription of Annie's He told the court that she had probably died from mixing medications, not from arsenic poisoning itself. Mary Francis grinned at the prosecution as she walked out of the courtroom, a free woman once again. Charles Norris was tired. Ten years of running the department and fighting corrupt politicians had taken its toll on the

usually cheerful chief corner. He had fought against ignorance and corruption for so long that the murders, poisonings, and other deaths practically ran together. Had also poured a considerable amount of his own money into the department for equipment, and what he got for his efforts was an accusation of embezzlement. The new mayor, LaGuardia, believed that all mayors who had

come before him and their employees must be corrupt. Though a thorough investigation showed the coroner had put money into the department instead of taking it out, the accusations took poll on Norris. Even after returning from a long overdue vacation, he had little of his old energy. On September eleven five, he died in his bed rule heart failure. Friends and family said he had worked himself to death, Thomas Gonzalez took over the office. Getler stayed on as the chief toxicologist,

and life went on. Two weeks later, a case came into the office. Thirty six year old housewife Ada Applegate had died after a bout of vomiting and stomach pain. Her doctor had initially thought she had a gallbladder attack and had hospitalized her. She got better until she returned home. A few days later. Her husband, Everett, called the doctor again.

By the time he arrived, Ada was already dead. The doctor's notes about the manner of death were one thing, but there was a name connected to the case that grabbed Getler's attention, Mary Francis Crichton. As it turned out, the Applegates had moved in with the Creton's after both sides had fallen on hard times during the depression. Twelve years had passed. Ruth was now fifteen and John Jr. Was twelve. Unease and guilt washed over him. A certain

Mary had gotten away with murder before. He wasn't about to let her get away with it again. Getler notified the police. The detectives ran into a snag, though Ada's husband refused to allow the medical examiner's office to exhume her body. When they told him that in cases where they suspected homicide, they'd get permission with or without him, he finally relented. Getler found that AIDA's organs were full

of arsenip three times the lethal dose. Given Mary's past and Everett's reluctance to exume his wife's body, the two were arrested for murder. Detectives suspected an affair between the pair and questioned them separately. Everett laughed them off. He told them Mary hadn't aged well. He described her as having a frog like appearance in a mean streak a mile wide. He told them to ask anyone in the

neighborhood about her. Still positive that something was going on, the detectives dug deeper and discovered that there was an affair and they had just had the wrong partner. Thirty six year old Everett had been sleeping with fifteen year old Ruth, and when the trial began in mid January of ninety six, he testified that his wife knew everything

and stood in the way of him marrying Ruth. They had been fighting over his relationship with Ruth one day when he slapped his wife, Ada threatened to expose his secret, angry had knocked her to the ground. The only one in the house who hadn't known about the relationship was John.

He worked so much that he was rarely home. Mary admitted that the house had become too crowded, Thinking her daughter would move out if married, she strongly encouraged her daughter to sleep with Everett and tracked her menstrual cycle to prevent pregnancy. Everett told the court that as bad as it looked, it had been Mary Francis who suggested murdering. Ada had even driven her to the store to buy

rat poison. Mary said that while she had bought arsenic, she had done so at Everett's request and hadn't given another thought until detectives questioned her. She also insisted that while she had fed Ada milk and eggs, Everett had handed her some powder to mix in with them. She told the court she had no idea it was rat poison. The jury didn't buy the blame game and deflections and found them both guilty. The court scheduled Everett and Mary

to both die in the electric chair. Underly. Everett insisted he was innocent to the very end. Mary didn't handle it quite as calmly, and she claimed she could no longer walk and had to be wheeled in. She clutched a rosary tightly in her hand, saying she had recently found religion and had prayed to God to help her. As the current course threw her, the rosary beads flew from her hands and scattered on the floor. Arsenic had been what pathologists called a first time poisoner's choice for

a reason availability. In fact, death by arsenic had been incredibly common for a very long time. The French even had a nickname for it. The in Barton's Powder Arsmith was everywhere. It's green tint went into dies for wallpaper and cloth, and every store sold rat bait and pest control laced with arsenic. It could be found in creams, ointments, and medications. However, it had a drawback being metallic in nature,

it was easy to trace in the human body. The first tests for arstic poisoning were developed in eighteen thirty and only grew more reliable over time. So why did first time murderers use a poison that could be traced so easily. Arsenic manics symptoms of several long term illnesses fatigue, nausea, cramps, dizziness, and disorientation, to name a few. This left many poisonings undetected,

at least at first. The problem was that murderers often returned to using whatever worked for them in the past. Getler suffered extreme guilt. After seeing Mary's name and AIDA's death report, detectives launched a second investigation into the murder of Annie Crichton. Getler was relieved when further tests showed no signs of chemical poisoning, but the investigation did uncover that Mary had poisoned and killed someone else before her brother.

When confronted with the evidence before her execution, Mary admitted to the crime, stating she was surprised she had gotten away with it. She hadn't used the Fowler's tonic the police had found, She had left that as a decoy. Instead, she had purchased the pesticide rough on rats, the very same poison she had bought to kill Ada Applegate. When she had finished, she smuggled the wrappings out of the

house and disposed of them elsewhere. When asked why she had killed her brother, Mary smiled and said it was for the insurance money. Roughly a thousand dollars frustratingly, though at least for her, her legal fees had taken most of it. It's clear that Mary had fooled people before

and believed she could do it again. But she hadn't planned on Getler looking into the poisoning after the last trial ended, and she certainly didn't know the effort Norris and the team had put into furthering forensic science, and all of that ended up foiling her plans. They had presented enough evidence and conducted their testing so professionally that Mary didn't stand a chance of slipping through their net. The case against her was air tight. There's more to

this story. Stick around after this brief sponsor break to hear all about it. Their courtship spanned eight years. Charles Webb tried to get Gertrude Gorman to commit, but forty year old Gertie had never been able to make decisions regarding her life. The only daughter of a very wealthy widow from an even wealthier family, Gertie's relatives weren't keen on Charles. While she found the fifty year old quiet and soft spoken, they remained suspicious about his motives. It

wasn't a secret that Gertie's mother was terminally ill. After all, Ever, the dutiful daughter, Gertie stayed by her mother's side until she passed away. In Then, without her mother to care for, Gertie and Charles spent more time together. Two years later, they finally wed, and Charles promptly moved into the Madison Avenue home Gertie had shared with her mother, much to the dismay of the rest of the family. The newlyweds took a series of short and elaborate vacations together and

visited friends for ten straight months. It looked like pure wetted bliss, but by September of n Gertie was dead. Her uncle, William T. Hunter immediately called a press conference. He stood in his garden surrounded by reporters. He was suspicious of his niece's death and subtly hinted that her husband might have had something to do with it. Careful not to accuse Earl's outright, he mentioned his niece had died from poison by chloride of mercury, white crystalline and

highly poisonous salt derived from mercury and chlorine. Mercury wasn't all that hard to come by. It had been used as a cure for all sorts of ailments, though mostly as a treatment for syphilis, But when it came to mercury, it was common knowledge that the cure could be deadlier than the disease months or years later. Mercury exposure often caused a variety of cancers. Mercury salt poisoning was easier

and faster than the slippery liquid counterpart. The substance was so corrosive that it could burn through mouth and stomach tissue, loosening teeth and causing bleeding ulcers. Hunter told the press that Gertie's marriage had taken everyone in the family by surprise. No one had expected her to marry and thought she'd spend the rest of her life devoted to family. Her husband had come from nothing and had been well aware of the family fortune approximately two million dollars, which would

amount to some twenty five million today. The family insisted on sending the autopsy report and further tissue sampling to New York City and Alexander Getler for further tests. Meanwhile, the press dug into the story. Gertie's family weren't the only one suspicious of Charles. The trouble had started in August of when Gurdie and Charles vacation at the Westchester Country Club. The resort boasted grand hotels, spas, a golf course, and other amenities catering to the rich. It wasn't Gertie's

favorite spot, but Charles had talked her into it. That week, Gertie fell ill, complaining of a pain in her side and shortness of breath. Charles called for a doctor, who diagnosed her with mild pneumonia. Dr Meyer had come highly recommended by his wealthy clientele. Meyer also like to say he was an amateur detective, and in this case he instantly thought something was awry. Nothing he described worked, and

Gertie only grew sicker, developing a waxy complexion. Thinking the illness was unnatural, he borrowed Charles from seeing his wife without explaining why. The next time Charles saw his wife, she was dead. While the press dug into the story behind Gertie's death, Getler was busy in the lab he found traces of mercury and her kidneys. Between the death of his wife and the discovery of poison in her autopsy, Charles Webb was having a really bad time, and it

was about to get worse. The family pointed to Gertie's recently updated will, which left everything down to her last possession and penny to her husband. Charles and his attorneys showed there was another will at Charles had insisted that he not inherit everything, but sadly she had been too ill to sign it. After a battery of tests, Getler

determined that Charles hadn't killed his wife. What he did find was plenty of pneumonia in her lungs and disease to kidneys stemming from laxative prescribed to her by Manhattan doctor, and the prescription contained a milder form of mercury salt, but still enough to kill her. On October one, the Westchester Grand Jury examined the evidence Getler provided and determined Charles was innocent. This time, Getler slept at night, knowing he had saved an innocent man. Gertie's family insisted that

Charles still owed them his wife's inheritance. Instead, Charles used some of the money to uphold his wife's wishes, establishing a park in honor of Guardie's mother, though he added his wife's name to the Park as well, and then Charles cut ties with Gertie's family and lived out his days in peace. M M American Shadows is hosted by

Lauren Vogelbaum. This episode was written by Michelle Muto, researched by Ali Steed, and produced by Miranda Hawkins and Trevor Young, with executive producers Aaron Mankey, Alex Williams, and Matt Frederick. To learn more about the show, visit GRIM and MIL dot com. From more podcasts from iHeart Radio, visit the iHeart Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.