Chapter XVIII: Poison Plots

During the Middle Ages a strange dread of wholesale poisoning spread throughout Europe and caused numerous panics. Some of these rumours may probably have been circulated by unscrupulous traders who had articles to sell, or some business interests to forward, but of this disturbing fear authentic record still exists that it affected whole communities.

England was probably freer from crimes of this kind than almost any other country, but in 1530 a case occurred which aroused great public indignation. Fisher, Bishop of Rochester, was accustomed to feed a number of poor people daily from his table, and one day a large number of his guests, together with some of the officers of the household, were taken ill and died. After examination of the food had been made it was declared that the yeast used in the bread had been poisoned. Parliament took up the case and the bishop’s cook, one Roose, was found guilty. He was tried and sentenced to be boiled alive as a terrible example to others. This seems to have been a penalty for poisoners during the Middle Ages, a fact which doubtless shows the great abhorrence in which crimes of this kind were held.

During the case of Sir Thomas Overbury, at which Lord Bacon performed the duties of Attorney-General, he emphasized the enormity of the offence of poisoning, although he maintained that poisoning was not a crime to which English people were predisposed. “It is a crime,” he stated, “the more to be dreaded because it is so easily committed and so hard to be prevented and discovered.”

As a result of the Rochester case a law was passed about 1531 making murder by poison high treason, the punishment being death by boiling. The wording of the act which recorded the story of the crime is worth recapitulating at length.

“22 Henry VIII, c. 9. The Kynges royall majistie callyng to hys moste blessed remembraunce that the makyng of good and holsome laws and due execution of the same agaynste the offendours thereof is the only cause that good obedyence and order hath ben preserved in this Realme, and his Highnes havyng moste tender zeale to the same emonge other thynges consyderyng that mannes lyfe above all thynges is chyefly to be favoured, and voluntary murders moste highly to be detested and abhorred, and specyally of all kyndes of murders, poysonynge, which in this Realme hytherto our Lord be thanked hath ben moste rare and seldome comytted or practysed; and now in the tyme of this presente parliamente, that is to saye, in the xviij daye of Februarye in the xxijd yere of his moste victorious reygn, one Richard Roose late of Rouchester in the Countie of Kente, Coke, otherwyse called Richard Coke of his moste wyked and damnable dysposicyon dyd caste a certeyne venym or poyson into a vessel replenysshed with yeste or barme standyng in the Kechyn of the Reverende Father in God John Bysshopp of Rochester at his place in Lamehyth Marsshe wythe which yeste or Barme and other thynges convenyent, porrage or gruell was forthwyth made for his famylye there beyng wherby not only the nombre of xvij persons of his said famylie which dyd eate of that porrage were mortally enfeebled and poysoned and one of them, that is to say, Bennett Curwen gentylman thereof ys decessed, but also certeyne pore people which resorted to the sayde Bysshops place and were there charytably fedde wyth the remayne of the sayde porrage and other vytayles, were in lyke wise infected, and one pore Woman of them that is to saye Alyce Tryppytt wydowe is also thereof nowe deceassed: our sayde sovereign Lorde the Kynge of hys blessed disposicion inwardly abhorrying all such abhomynable offences, because that in manner no person can lyve in suertye out of daunger of death by that meane, yf practyse thereof shulde hot be exchued, hath ordeyned and enacted by auctorytie of thys presente parlyament that the sayd poysonyng be ajuged and demed as high treason. And that the sayde Richarde for the sayde murder and poysonynge of the sayde two persones as is aforesayde by auctoritye of thys presente parlyament, shall stande and be attaynted of high treason: and by cause that detestable offence nowe newly practysed and comytted requyreth condigne punysshmente for the same; It is ordayned and enacted by auctoritie of this presente parliamente that the said Richard Roose shal be therfore boyled to deathe withoute havynge any advauntage of his clargie.”

Under this statute, according to Lord Coke, in his third institute, Margaret Davy, a young woman, was attainted of high treason, for poisoning her mistress, and some others were boiled to death in Smithfield, the 17th of March, the same year, 1524. But this act, continues his lordship, was too severe to live long, and was therefore repealed by I Ed. VI, c. 12, and I Mar., c. 1. It is thought probable that the proverbial expressions, to “keep out of hot water” and to “get into hot water,” may have had their origin in the punishment attached to this crime by the law of 22 Henry VIII.

June 6 is still kept as a public holiday in Malta. Upon that day, over two hundred years ago, while the island was still possessed by the Knights of St. John, a Jew waited on the Grand Master and revealed to him a plot that had been planned for exterminating the whole population at one stroke. The man kept a coffee-house frequented by Turkish slaves, and, understanding their language, the conversation of his customers had aroused his suspicions. The Grand Master, believing the truth of the man’s statement, took immediate action. The slaves were at once seized, and, put to torture, they confessed a design of poisoning all the wells and fountains on the island, and, to make the result surer, each of the conspirators was to assassinate a Christian. One hundred and twenty-five were found guilty; some were burned, some broken on the wheel, others were ordered to have their arms and legs attached to two galleys, which, being rowed apart, thus dismembered them. Whether these fearful punishments were carried out it is impossible to say, but the fact remains that the people of Malta still commemorate their escape from poisoning on the sixth of June.

Wholesale poisoning appears to have been frequent in Eastern countries, especially in India and Persia. The wells or other water sources were usually chosen as the media for disseminating the poison, and in this way whole villages have often been destroyed by some miscreant.

An extraordinary poison plot was discovered in Lima towards the close of the eighteenth century. During the insurrection of 1781 a rich cacique, who professed loyalty, went into a chemist’s shop and asked for two hundred pounds of corrosive sublimate. He was willing to pay any price for it. The chemist had nothing like that amount in stock, but, not wishing to send away so good a customer, substituted two hundred pounds of alum. On the following day all the water in the town was found to be impregnated with alum, and on examination being made, the fence round the reservoir was found to have been broken down, the banks strewn with alum and the water rendered undrinkable.

Although the use of poison for taking life was, according to Bacon, abhorrent to the English character, in some of the Latin countries the feeling was just the opposite, as evidenced by the following story:—

The Duc de Guise in his memoirs relates, in a most matter-of-fact way, how he requested the captain of his guard to poniard a troublesome demagogue at Naples. The captain was shocked. He would poison anyone at his grace’s command with pleasure, but the dagger was a vulgar instrument. So the Duke bought some strong poison, the composition of which he describes at length, and it was duly administered. But Gennaro, the intended victim, had just eaten cabbage dressed in oil, which is said to have acted as an antidote, and so he escaped the effects of the dose.

In the early part of 1917 an extraordinary plot to murder two of his Majesty’s Ministers of State was brought to light, which suggests some of the subtle methods employed in the Middle Ages. Three women named Alice Wheeldon, Hetty Wheeldon and Winnie Mason—mother and daughters—and a man named Alfred George Mason, husband of the latter, were charged with conspiring to kill the then Prime Minister, Mr. Lloyd George, and Mr. Arthur Henderson, his colleague on the War Council, by means of strychnine or curare.

The plot was discovered by two secret agents of the Government who were employed for the purpose of obtaining information of the schemes of persons desirous of evading military service or otherwise conspiring against the country, and who had been directed to keep a watch upon this particular family. They obtained an introduction to the Wheeldons, who lived in Derby, by representing themselves as sympathizers and so won their confidence. They succeeded so well in ingratiating themselves with the family that not only was the plot revealed to them but they were entrusted by Mrs. Wheeldon with the task of actually carrying out the deed.

The suspicions of the two men became aroused when they found that a letter had been sent to Mason with the object of procuring some poisons. The woman had previously shown one of the agents a stuffed skin of a snake shaped in the form of a bracelet, stating that it was poisonous, and remarked that she wished she had a hundred of them. The Wheeldons always showed the greatest animosity to the Prime Minister and Mr. Henderson, expressing the wish that they hoped they would soon be dead. Mrs. Wheeldon also told him that the Suffragettes had spent £300 in trying to poison Lloyd George, the plot being to get into an hotel where he was staying and drive a nail which had been dipped in poison through his boot; this, however, was frustrated by his going to France. She also declared her intention of killing another Minister by inserting a poisoned needle into his skull, and other schemes of an extraordinary character were discussed.

Before handing over the poison Mrs. Wheeldon was stated to have said to one of the agents, “You know what you are doing! You will rid the world of a bloody murderer and be a saviour of the country.” Asked how the poison was used, she replied: “It is a crystal, and you drop two drops of water on it, dip your article in, and when the water evaporates it leaves the poison.” As the men were about to leave, Mrs. Wheeldon shook hands with them, and said that when she handed the poison over to them she washed her hands of it, and would deny on her word of honour that she ever gave it to them. She assured them that the phial contained enough to kill five hundred people. Walton Heath had been selected as being the most likely spot to offer a suitable opportunity, an air-gun being used as a medium.

The agents at once informed their superior officer, who had the prisoners arrested and the house searched. Among the objects found was a small stuffed snake skin which was found to contain four glass phials embedded in cottonwool. The accused were charged at Derby on February 4, 1917, and they were tried at the Old Bailey in London on March 7, a month later.

The accused were described by the Attorney-General as a very dangerous and desperate type of people, who were habitually hostile to this country. They were shelterers of refugees from the army and persons who did their best to injure Great Britain in the war then proceeding. Mrs. Wheeldon’s son William was himself a conscientious objector.

At the trial a two-ounce tin tobacco box was produced containing four phials sealed. Instructions were enclosed which had been copied by both the agents and were as follows:—

“Powder in tube ‘A’ is sufficient for two or even three doses to be given by the mouth or in solution.

“Powder ‘C’ to be injected either in solution or by a dart, which will penetrate into the body and stop for a while. Rusted in solution or fired from an air-gun, or a rusty needle if driven well in with powder will do, but don’t advise unless in urgent dilemma.

“Solution ‘B’—either by mouth or injection.

“Solution ‘D’—injection only.

“All are certain.

“All four will probably leave a trace, but if the bloke wanted dies suspect, it will be a job to prove it so long as you have a chance to get at the dog, dead in twenty seconds. Powder ‘A’ on meal or bread is O.K. If you care for microbe can supply needle thirty-six hours in strong solution and allow to dry in air, dip again for ten seconds and allow again to dry. Cover with ‘C’ powder.”

Upon analysis the phials were found to contain:—

“A,” 7½ grammes strychnine hydrochloride in crystals.

“B,” 1½ drachms strychnine hydrochloride in solution.

“C,” curare in powder.

“D,” 1 drachm of curare in solution.

The box containing the poison was sent to Mrs. Wheeldon by her son-in-law, Alfred Mason, who was a lecturer on pharmacy at Southampton University College and who was said to have made a special study of curare. Only a few weeks before the preceding Christmas he had showed a student in the college a specimen of it, and described its properties. The tobacco box containing the phials and instructions are said to have been despatched by him from Southampton to Derby at the request of Mrs. Wheeldon.

Mrs. Wheeldon volunteered to give evidence, in which she acknowledged she had been active in helping men to escape from their military duties ever since conscription had been introduced. There was no form of help that she could give them that she had withheld. Her own son was a conscientious objector. She was quite prepared in the circumstances to violate what she knew to be the law and had no regard to consequences. She expressed her bitter hatred of Mr. Lloyd George and was ready to do him a mischief.

At the examination of Alfred Mason, he said he had devoted some time to the study of criminology in relation to poison, but _he did not know that strychnine was used for poisoning_. If poison was to have been used for a human being he would have definitely stated in his instructions that it should be mixed with food. He said he had had experience in destroying two thousand dogs, and that when his mother-in-law had written she had said she wanted some poison for a dog, and that it was a dangerous dog, and the impression left on his mind was that it was difficult to get it. He treated the allusion to the microbe as a joke.

Counsel on behalf of the prisoners denied the charges as a vindictive prosecution of the worst of its kind that had ever taken place in England. He submitted the curious suggestion that the proper trial of this case would be by ordeal, on which the judge remarked, “I am afraid that it has been abolished.” Counsel said he submitted it to the jury. The judge asked him if he proposed that the prisoners should walk over hot ploughshares or something of that kind, to which counsel replied: “I do, in order to prove their innocence.” He threw ridicule on the idea that Mr. Lloyd George could have been killed by poisoned darts or arrows.

Mr. Justice Low, in summing up, said that of all forms of murder, poisoning was the most dastardly and the most dangerous, and conspiracy to murder by poisoning was the worst of all. It was almost incredible that these prisoners had by their own admission behaved as these people had done. The jury having found the prisoners guilty, the elder woman, Mrs. Wheeldon, was sentenced to ten years’ penal servitude, the man Mason to seven years and his wife to five years; the girl Harriet Wheeldon was found not guilty and discharged.

In December, 1909, a sensation was caused throughout Austria owing to the arrest of a young officer named Lieutenant Hofrichter of Linz, who was charged with being concerned in a plot to poison a captain of the Imperial General Staff and other highly-placed Imperial officers by sending them poisoned samples of a new patent medicine.

The alleged motive was said to be a desire to clear a path for promotion by the removal of officers of higher rank. Suspicion was first directed towards him by the statement of a brother officer at Linz where he was stationed, who mentioned that he had received from the lieutenant a box exactly similar to those in which the fatal powder had been sent.

About a week before this, a Captain Mader, together with several officers of the General Staff, had received by post a sample of a supposed patent medicine, and on taking some of it he died shortly afterwards. It was found that the medicine contained a large proportion of potassium cyanide.

On suspicion falling on Hofrichter, his quarters were searched and a copying apparatus which apparently had been used for the circulars accompanying the poisoned medicine was found, and he was also identified as the purchaser of capsules, boxes and envelopes similar to those which had been sent to the officers. Hofrichter was brought to Vienna for trial by the military tribunal, from which the public were excluded.

The first hearing of the case lasted seven hours, and in the course of the investigation it was stated that four officers had fallen victims to the effects of poison, the first being Captain Mader. In consequence of the order of the military court, the dwellings of eighty officers were searched in Vienna and the provinces and a series of extraordinary tragedies followed. One of the officers who was engaged at the War Office, felt the indignity to such an extent that he shot himself immediately afterwards. Another victim was a brother-in-law of the accused, who after devoting himself to collecting evidence and examining possible witnesses, hoping to prove the innocence of Hofrichter, died suddenly, the cause being said to have been hastened by his anxiety and excitement over the case. A Lieutenant Schmidt, who had been summoned to the military court in Vienna, also committed suicide.

The tribunal then proceeded to inquire into Hofrichter’s previous career, which brought to light the fact that, some years before, he was engaged to be married to the daughter of a pastor in Bohemia, but the engagement was broken off after he entered the Vienna Military Academy. The girl, in despair, is stated to have poisoned herself with potassium cyanide, and a letter from Hofrichter which arrived after her death was buried unopened with her.

It was rumoured that Hofrichter had sent the girl the poison. The tribunal decided to have the body exhumed. This was carried out, and the unopened letter that had been sent five years previously was discovered. The remains of her body were subjected to analysis, but no trace of poison was discovered.

Meanwhile, the case was postponed for further investigation. This finally revealed the fact that Hofrichter had been leading a double life for a considerable time, and had done so with extraordinary cunning. In the army he had been generally liked and esteemed as a hard worker and a good officer, while under the name of Dr. Haller he carried on a criminal career.

Letters to his wife which were intercepted from the prison, revealed that he intended to commit suicide, and in one of these he asked her to conceal various poisons including atropine and hyoscyamine in a bunch of flowers, which he had asked for to lay on an altar in his cell. At his house in Linz a considerable quantity of poisons and drugs were discovered.

The long delays between the meetings of the military tribunal were very trying to the accused man. For months he had faced the ordeal of a severe cross-examination. He feigned insanity with great ability, and the methods of the police inclined the public in his favour. At length, after a trial lasting for four months, his defence broke down, and he confessed. He was found guilty and sentenced to death by hanging.

During the year 1921 several attempts were made on the lives of well-known people, which appear to have had an influence on weak-minded persons or those on the border line of insanity. Such cases are not infrequent in the history of criminal poisoning, where attempts have been made to take life without any apparent motive.

Early that year it was reported that the Vice-Chancellor of Oxford had received a box of chocolate creams by post, and being suspicious at the receipt of such an anonymous gift he submitted them to one of his colleagues, a professor of science. This gave rise to the rumours that they contained something of a deleterious nature, such as powdered glass, but the result of an analysis showed that the sweets were innocuous. An undergraduate was reported to have confessed, and the presumed plot against the Vice-Chancellor was declared to be a hoax.

In November, 1922, a sensation was caused in London by an attempt to poison the Chief Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police at Scotland Yard. On November 9 it was reported in the newspapers that the Chief Commissioner had been seized with an apparent heart attack in his office at Scotland Yard, which came on while he was dressing before proceeding to the Lord Mayor’s banquet. It was not till nine o’clock that night that the doctors summoned to attend him knew definitely that it was a case of poisoning by arsenic.

It appeared that on November 3, six days previously, a package addressed to the Assistant Commissioner, New Scotland Yard, Westminster, had been delivered by parcel post. On being opened it was found to contain four chocolate éclairs, wrapped in grease-proof paper. Enclosed with the éclairs was a small white card three inches long by one and a half wide, bearing upon it the following: “A good lunch and a hearty appetite.—Molly.” The box had been posted in the Balham district. The éclairs were sent to an analyst for further investigation, but before the result had been received a second parcel arrived on November 9, addressed to Brigadier-General Horwood, New Scotland Yard, Westminster, S.W., and was opened by the Chief Commissioner himself. The box is described as being of cardboard, 7½ by 1¾ inches, and was wrapped in a piece of stiff white paper addressed in block letters and contained whipped cream walnuts. The box was tied with string and was also posted in the Balham district about 4 p.m., November 8.

The morning that the box arrived Sir William had received a letter from a relative who said that she was sending him a box of chocolates for his birthday, and he accordingly opened the box unsuspectingly. He took one of the chocolates and offered them to his secretary who was in the room. She, however, only bit off a small piece of the outer covering of hers, and remarking that it tasted bitter, threw it away and told the Commissioner. He, still believing the package to have come from his friend, suspected nothing, and though he noticed it burned his throat a little, ate more later in the day. While dressing for dinner that evening the Commissioner was seized with severe pain and showed symptoms of having swallowed an irritant poison, and was removed to St. Thomas’s Hospital next day.

On the chocolates being carefully examined it was found that there was a small square mark at the bottom of each as if a portion of the chocolate coating had been removed, a poison mixed with the cream inside and the square of chocolate afterwards replaced. On investigation it was found that the poison employed was undoubtedly arsenic, which was plainly to be seen and took the form of dark greenish-tinted matter.

On November 10 another box was received at Scotland Yard. This was a small cardboard box 2¼ by 1¾ inches by ¾ of an inch, greyish tint with plain card pasted on lid, wrapped in light brown tissue paper, addressed in block letters to The Commissioner of the Police, New Scotland Yard, Westminster. The box contained two small tablets of Bournville chocolate wrapped in white paper. The box was sealed with black sealing-wax, and was posted in the Balham district about 3 p.m., on November 9.

The Chief Commissioner, though for some days in a very critical condition, ended in making a complete recovery.

Only a few weeks afterwards a small cardboard box was received at the Home Office addressed to “The Secretary for Home Affairs, Whitehall, S.W.” It was taken to the registry and opened, and was found to contain cream fondants. The parcel was obviously sent by the same person who sent the poisoned chocolates to the Commissioner of Police. The sweets had apparently been tampered with and were sent for analysis, but no arsenic was found in them. The writing on the address was the same in each case and the box had been posted in the same district of Balham.

Previously to this the police authorities had issued a warning to well-known people, putting them on their guard against similar attempts.

Early in February, 1923, a man living at Balham was arrested by the police at his residence, and was charged with attempting to murder the Chief Commissioner and the two Assistant Commissioners of Police. He made the following statement: “I sent the Commissioner chocolates. I sent them for 5 analytical purposes. I have had no real rest since then; I would not harm him for anything.”

In the house where he lived a quantity of weed-killer was found coloured in similar manner to that found in the chocolates.

The analyst to the Home Office, who examined the chocolate éclairs sent to the Commissioner, found that they each contained arsenic, the amount estimated in one being 3¼ grains. The three whipped cream walnut chocolates which were addressed to the Assistant Commissioners also contained a considerable quantity of arsenic, the amount in one of them which was tested being six grains.

He also examined two Bournville chocolates which had been drilled with holes and filled with arsenic. The quantity of arsenic in one of these was ⅕ of a grain. In two Dairy Milk chocolates he examined, similar holes had been drilled, which had been filled up with the same kind of arsenic as that used in the weed-killer and was in the form of a blue powder which was strongly alkaline.

The prisoner was committed for trial, was found to be insane, and ordered to be detained during the King’s pleasure.