Arsenic, cyanide, and strychnine are the classic poisons. The seemingly innocent little old ladies in Arsenic and Old Lace, one of my favorite movies, used these three poisons in their deadly elderberry wine. One gallon of this toxic wine contained one teaspoon of arsenic, half a teaspoon of strychnine, and just a pinch of cyanide. Unsuspecting gentlemen were never able to finish their glass of wine; they died first.
Cyanide in Fiction
Cyanide, with its easily recognizable bitter almond scent, is one of the poisons used by authors of fiction. In many spy stories, the spies carry cyanide pellets to be used as suicide pills in case they are captured. This classic poison was the instrument of death in Agatha Christie’s mystery Sparkling Cyanide. The most common forms of this classic poison are potassium cyanide, sodium cyanide, and hydrogen cyanide (prussic acid).
If cyanide is so easily recognized, why do fiction writers tend to use it so much? Death is pretty much guaranteed once the intended victim ingests it. What about the smell? It is so subtle that by the time the victim recognizes it, the poison is already at work.
How Cyanide Works
Cyanide kills by keeping oxygen from getting to the body’s red blood cells. When the cells are deprived of oxygen, they die. The heart and brain use a lot of oxygen, so cyanide is especially deadly to those two vital organs.
Liquid cyanide be absorbed through the skin. When cyanide is in the form of a gas, it is inhaled. When in the form of a powder, it can be mixed in food and eaten. No matter how you decide to have your character administer a strong enough dose to his (or her) victim, there is little hope of survival.
Symptoms of Cyanide Poisoning
What symptoms will the victim show once the cyanide has been administered? If a toxic dose of cyanide gas is inhaled, the unfortunate victim will immediately lose consciousness, go into convulsions, and quite breathing between one and fifteen minutes later. If the toxic dose is swallowed, it can take up to twenty minutes to work, perhaps even longer, especially if the one who swallowed it has a full stomach. The victim’s blood could also have a purple tinge.
If only a near-lethal dose is given in any way, the victim will show symptoms such as dizziness, flushing, gasping for breath, headache, nausea, rapid pulse, vomiting, and a drop in blood pressure which can lead to fainting.
bowl of sugar, wikimedia commons
Historical Cyanide Poisonings
Cyanide has been used in many real life murders. There have been a lot more cases than the ones I talk about here. One day when you are bored, investigate the ways cyanide has been used by murderers down through history.
The police found traces of cyanide, in the form of prussic acid, in the sugar bowl of Lizzie Borden’s father and stepmother after they were brutally murdered. Possibly she grew impatient waiting on the small doses she had been administering to her parents to work.
During World War II, hydrogen cyanide was used in the Nazi gas chambers.
In September and October of 1982, seven people died after taking Tylenol that had been laced with potassium cyanide. The person who is responsible for lacing the medication with this poison has never been caught. That kind of makes you think twice before taking this popular pain relief medicine.
In 1988, Stella Maudine Nickell apparently decided that she no longer wanted her husband around. Instead of doing things the normal way by filing for divorce, she did something a bit more drastic: she poisoned him. Her first attempt with either foxglove or hemlock didn’t work. The only effect these poisons had on him was making him sleepy.
Excedrin, wikipedia
But Stella was not one to give up. Next, she laced her husband’s Excedrin with cyanide. This resulted in his death, so Stella should have been happy. But, alas. It was not to be. His death was ruled to be a result of emphysema. This meant that she would not be able to receive the accidental death bonus part of his insurance.
&If she had kept quiet, she might have gotten away with it. She laced three more bottles of Excedrin with cyanide and put them back on the store shelves. This resulted in the death of Sue Snow, someone that Stella had never even met.
When the batch numbers of the contaminated Excedrin were released to the public, Stella came forward and announced she had two bottles. This was the beginning of her downfall.
cherry laurel plant, wikimedia commons
How Your Murderer Could Obtain Cyanide
How would your murderer obtain cyanide? He could get it through a chemical supply company, although it would be easier if he had unlimited access to it himself at the place he or a close friend worked.
Cyanide can also be found in some plants. Some of these plants are mahogany, Christmas berry, cherry laurel, chokeberry, pin cherry, wild black cherry, flax, yellow pine-flax, velvet grass, Johnsongrass, Sudangrass, arrowgrass, and small arrowgrass. For any of these plants to be poisonous, an extremely large amount would have to be chewed.
As an interesting side note, the elderberry plant that the sisters in Arsenic and Old Lace used to make their toxic elderberry wine with is poisonous. The poison found in the elderberry plant is cyanogenic glycoside, which causes cyanide poisoning. Before use in making elderberry wine, the ripe fruit is supposed to be cooked to make it safe.
girl writing, etc.usf.edu
Writing Prompts
However your murderer chooses to administer cyanide to the intended victim, be sure to do your research. The symptoms are easy to find and read about, but you want to find accounts of those who have been fatally dosed with this classic poison and read about their reactions before they died. Make your readers feel as though they are witnesses to the death of your victim.
Use the greed displayed by Stella Maudine Nickell to create a character who gets rid of not only her husband but every person she dislikes by poisoning them with cyanide.
Write a story where the reason the Tylenol was laced with cyanide comes out and the killer is caught.
Recommended Articles:
Death by Honey
Arsenic, the King of Poisons
Flying Death
Venomous Spiders – the Brown Recluse
Monkshood, the Killer Plant
