![]() ![]() One such investigation involved a group that came to be known as the Radium Girls.ĭuring World War I, it was discovered that you could make watch faces glow in the dark by mixing radium into the paint used on the dials. "Sometimes they would literally start a prosecution without knowing how to find the poison," Blum says, "and they would be running these tests during the trial so that they would have the results at the end of the trial." So Norris and Gettler worked tirelessly to develop the forensic tools they needed for individual criminal investigations. But that all changed, Blum says, when two scientists took it upon themselves to "elevate forensic chemistry into a formidable science."īlum's new book, The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York, follows two trailblazers of science - Charles Norris, New York City's first chief medical examiner, and Alexander Gettler, the father of American forensic toxicology - through the criminal investigations that helped develop the practice of forensic medicine.īlum says Norris - a pathologist by training - believed that there could be no good criminal justice unless it marched hand in hand with good science. There were, of course, other options - morphine, mercury, carbon monoxide - all virtually undetectable because science didn't know how to find it in the body. you can actually make it mimic a gastrointestinal illness," Blum tells NPR's Guy Raz. "Arsenic, as it turns out, is fairly tasteless, and if you give it at just the right dose. What would be your poison of choice?Īuthor Deborah Blum recommends arsenic - otherwise known as "inheritance powder" - which was pretty much untraceable until the 1920s. Say you live in jazz-age New York and want to get rid of someone - but you don't want to get caught. ![]()
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |