The Poisoner&#39;s Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York

±1±: Now is the time The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York Order Today!

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Aug 27, 2010 14:38:21

Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Deborah Blum follows New York City's first forensic scientists to discover a fascinating Jazz Age story of chemistry and detection, poison and murder.

Deborah Blum, writing with the high style and skill for suspense that is characteristic of the very best mystery fiction, shares the untold story of how poison rocked Jazz Age New York City. In The Poisoner's Handbook Blum draws from highly original research to track the fascinating, perilous days when a pair of forensic scientists began their trailblazing chemical detective work, fighting to end an era when untraceable poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime.

Drama unfolds case by case as the heroes of The Poisoner's Handbook-chief medical examiner Charles Norris and toxicologist Alexander Gettler-investigate a family mysteriously stricken bald, Barnum and Bailey's Famous Blue Man, factory workers with crumbling bones, a diner serving poisoned pies, and many others. Each case presents a deadly new puzzle and Norris and Gettler work with a creativity that rivals that of the most imaginative murderer, creating revolutionary experiments to tease out even the wiliest compounds from human tissue. Yet in the tricky game of toxins, even science can't always be trusted, as proven when one of Gettler's experiments erroneously sets free a suburban housewife later nicknamed "America's Lucretia Borgia" to continue her nefarious work.

From the vantage of Norris and Gettler's laboratory in the infamous Bellevue Hospital it becomes clear that killers aren't the only toxic threat to New Yorkers. Modern life has created a kind of poison playground, and danger lurks around every corner. Automobiles choke the city streets with carbon monoxide; potent compounds, such as morphine, can be found on store shelves in products ranging from pesticides to cosmetics. Prohibition incites a chemist's war between bootleggers and government chemists while in Gotham's crowded speakeasies each round of cocktails becomes a game of Russian roulette. Norris and Gettler triumph over seemingly unbeatable odds to become the pioneers of forensic chemistry and the gatekeepers of justice during a remarkably deadly time. A beguiling concoction that is equal parts true crime, twentieth-century history, and science thriller, The Poisoner's Handbook is a page-turning account of a forgotten New York.

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±1±: Best Buy With all the books I receive for review (and given that I have a library a block away from my house), I rarely *buy* a book any more. But on a recent trip, I wandered into a bookstore and had a particular title jump out at me... The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York by Deborah Blum. I found this book fascinating on multiple counts, and I had a hard time putting it down.

Contents:
The Poison Game; Chloroform; Wood Alcohol; Cyanides; Arsenic; Mercury; Carbon Monoxide (Part 1); Methyl Alcohol; Radium; Ethyl Alcohol; Carbon Monoxide (Part 2); Thallium; The Surest Poison; Author's Note; Gratitudes; A Guide to the Handbook; Notes; Index

Handbook covers a 20 year period from 1915 to 1935, back when Prohibition was starting and forensic medicine was a relatively unknown concept. The coroner's office in New York was staffed with political cronies who were quite happy to write off most deaths in ways that were more expedient than accurate. This all changed when Charles Norris (chief medical examiner) and Alexander Gettler (toxicologist) took over in 1918. These two took their jobs seriously, and started to apply rigorous discipline and science to their jobs. Because of their efforts, the public was able to get a true picture as to causes of death due to shoddy medicine, cost-cutting companies, and out-right murder. In fact, the papers and research from Norris and Gettler are still considered definitive resources today.

Blum frames much of her book around Prohibition and how it was responsible for innumerable deaths. The illegality of alcohol led to increased prices for those who wanted a drink. And most everyone *still* wanted their drinks. The profits available from bootlegging were incredible, and everyone was willing to try their hand at making their own hootch. Drinking liquor made of cheap wood and methyl alcohol became little more than a game of Russian roulette as there was no way to tell just how toxic your next drink would be. Interspersed with the rise and fall of Prohibition, she also covers other toxins that Norris and Gettler traced down as killers. For instance, radium was used to create watch dials that would glow in the dark. The women who painted the dials thought little of licking the brushes to maintain their sharp tips. In fact, it was even required by the company. But after a couple of years, mysterious ailments afflicted nearly all the workers, and it was a battle to get the US Radium Corporation to admit fault and pay the workers a settlement. And even then, it was a mere pittance for all their suffering and eventual deaths.

I'm very glad that The Poisoner's Handbook was strategically placed on the shelf where I found it. On top of it being fascinating (in a morbid way), it opened my eyes to a different view of Prohibition, and how (once again) something can turn out far differently than what was originally planned.

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Obtained From: Bookstore
Payment: Purchased on Sale!