A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them by Neil Bradbury

Book Review 

Title: A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers Who Used Them by Neil Bradbury 

Genre: Non-Fiction, Crime, Science 

Rating: 5 Stars 

The introduction introduces us to the idea that poisons and toxins are similar and different at the same time and that even substances were might not consider poisons can be in the right dosage. The book is going to look at eleven substances and eleven murders that took place using them starting with the murder of Elizabeth Barlow by her husband.  

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As the story goes to Elizabeth felt ill on a Friday night with her feeling tired, commuting and sweating heavily leading her to take a cool bath where she was found dead an hour or so later by her husband, Kenneth. From the beginning the police felt something was odd with the death since Elizabeth was normally healthy and had no known history of ill health. The state of her body after death also supported this leading to the coroner linking the things he found to an insulin overdose. The police found used needles that supported this theory, but they had to find a way to show that the insulin in Elizabeth’s body was lethal. The test we know for this wouldn’t be invented for another three years but with the help of insulin manufacturers they were able to prove the dose was lethal sentencing Kenneth to life in prison. Insulin works by helping to regulate how much glucose is in the body in diabetic patients but in non-diabetic people it can cause diabetic shock much quicker since we aren’t tuned into the symptoms like diabetics are.  

The second chapter looks at atropine, a substance created from the deadly nightshade plant and the attempted murder of a woman along with the poisoning of several others. Paul Agutter attempted to kill his wife Alexandra using this poison to mark his mistress. He did this by poisoning several bottles of tonic water to mark the positive bitter taste but the one he gave his wife contained a significantly higher dose of the poison leading to suspicion falling on her husband who was ultimately convicted. Atropine kills by blocking the receptors in the sympathetic nervous system from activating which can ultimately lead to heart failure because the heart doesn’t receive a slowdown signal. It is commonly also mistaken for people taking LSD as the symptoms are extremely similar. Atropine is unique in the fact that unlike most prisons can be used to heal as well as hurt. Atropine has been used to treat people affect by nerve agents specifically the Salisbury attack in 2018.  

The next chapter focuses on the opposite, a substance that started as a tonic but ended up becoming one of the nastiest poisons, Strychnine. The murder of Ellen Donworth sparks an investigation and reveals that she was the first of several women murdered by a doctor, Thomas Neill Cream. Cream used strychnine to kill women he believes where women of the night and for a while he got away with it despite having a previous murder conviction and having done jail time. This case was one where the killer should have been caught a lot sooner but because of his charisma and charm, he managed to evade police for a long time. When he was finally caught, he had the poison used in his possession and thinking himself smarter than the police ended up in prison once more. 

Chapter four focuses on aconite, also known as monkshood or wolfsbane which Harry Potter fans will be familiar with. During the nineteenth century many poisoned in the same family as aconite couldn’t be detected in the body after death leading to a rise in murders using these methods.  However, law enforcement soon found ways to detect these poisons arresting several people. The two cases we look at use the same poison 130 years apart and both were tried and found guilty in the Old Bailey. The more recent of the two cases looks at Lakhvir Kaur Singh who killed her lover and his fiancé after he broke off their arrangement. She used aconite and successfully killed her lover, but the fiancé survived, this was due to more advanced medicine and more advanced forensic techniques showing her crime to be discovered.  

The next chapter looks at another well-known poison, ricin. Ricin comes from the same plant as castor oil and is a poison that was used to kill a defector from Bulgaria, Georgi Ivanov Markov. Bulgaria was at the time a communist country and Markov was very outspoken in his dislike of the corruption in his country. Within day he was targeted and killed after being stabbed with an umbrella containing a laced ricin pellet. Ricin kills by destroying ribosomes meaning cells can’t product proteins needed for almost every bodily function. This leads to massive organ failure and death but can quickly be linked back to the killers.  

The next chapter looks at digoxin, another natural poison coming from the foxglove plant. Digoxin was used by Charles Cullen also known as the Angel of Death; he is thought to have killed close to 400 patients over 16 years in several different medical facilities using this poison. Digoxin affects the sodium/calcium exchange in the body causing the heart to beat too fast before eventually giving out. Surprisingly atropine can be used to treat digoxin poisoning despite being a poison itself as it counteracts the deadly effect of digoxin, and it is quite easy to counteract in the modern age.  

Next chapter looks at a favourite of murder mystery poisons, cyanide. Interestingly cyanide is both lethal and harmless depending on if it is bound or unbound within the body. Bound cyanide can be found in many dyes and foods but does nothing to the body. On the other hand, unbound cyanide is lethal in even tiny amount, in any state of matter. Luckily for us, our bodies can safely process around one gram of cyanide a day without causing any harm to us but any more than that is dangerous. Cyanide as a poison has some telltale signs that professionals will see but it does kill in an interesting way. Cyanide stops mitochondria from producing energy leading to cell death, it does this by binding the iron atoms in the mitochondria. This first affects the heart and central nervous system meaning death is swift and relatively painless compared to other poisons. Cyanide in any form reaches the same way within the body, however, vitamin B12 is an antidote because it contains a molecule of cobalt and cyanide bonds strongly to cobalt more so than iron. It can be counteracted but it needs to be given immediately after the cyanide enters the body.  

The next part of the book switched from poisons made from complex molecules to simple ones, starting with potassium. Potassium is used by the body in heart contractions and is vital in the reset phase between heartbeats. Without it the heart can’t relax, and the person will die. The cases mention in this chapter both involve children, one is a killer nurse who murdered four children and attempted to kill nine more. Another was a mother who murdered her two children and attempted to take her own life. Potassium in the nurse case was overlooked because it is a substance that is meant to be in the body and doesn’t stand out in a normal test batch. The excessive levels were only found and investigation when the hospital was concerned about the number of deaths on the ward. Learning how poisons affect the internal makeup of our bodies is fascinating and I understand how some people can become obsessed with them. 

The next chapter looks at polonium a radioactive substance, specifically polonium-210. Polonium-210 was used in the murder of Edwin Carter. That wasn’t his real name, but he was poisoned for being a Russian defector. Polonium-210 is unique because it emits alpha-particle radiation rather than the more common and detectable gamma radiation. It destroys the body from the inside especially the digestive systems where the cells are more sensitive to change. This was a highly political murder and the only known murder where the poison used was polonium-210.  

The last but one chapter looks at arsenic, another poison many will have heard of. Arsenic has been used as a poison for a long time, but it has been used as both poison and remedy throughout history. The history of arsenic being used as a poison and remedy resulted in arsenic eaters. These were people that consumed arsenic from a young age gradually increasing the dose. As a result, they built a tolerance and seeming immunity to the poison. This led to the Styrian defence, claiming the person dead was an arsenic eater or used it for cosmetic purposes and it became a common defence in arsenic murders. Some famous cases show murderers getting away with the crime because it was unable to be proven without doubt that the killer intentionally poisoned the victim. Arsenic has come full circle since it is being used as a remedy once more to treat certain types of cancer.  

The final chapter looks at chlorine, which is something everyone has heard of, in some form. This is common substance found under most people’s sinks in the form of household bleach. Bleach was used in several murders where a nurse injected it into the IV lines of dialysis patients resulting in deaths and serious injury to others. Overall, the book was extremely interesting blending scientific facts about the poisons with true crime stories about how the poisons were used. If you are interested in true crime or the science behind poisons and how they affect the body, then definitely pick this book up.  

Buy it here:  

Paperback/Hardcover: amazon.co.uk amazon.com  

Kindle Edition: amazon.co.uk amazon.com