Summary Of The Poisoner's Handbook By Deborah Blum

Chapter five titled “Mercury” of The Poisoner’s Handbook by Deborah Blum gives a fascinating story, about a woman named Gertie Gorman who was married to a man named Charles Webb. Many believed that her husband poisoned her because in her will “[she would leave] everything to her husband” (112) giving him a good motive for that action, but as the investigators opened up the body they found the presence of mercury bichloride, which was a “messy killer” (114) meaning it was hard to miss because of all the bloody inflammations. As the investigators looked more into the case they found out that Webb was not the person responsible for his wife’s death, however Webb was still prosecuted. Mercury can be poisonous if taken in extreme quantities causing the same things it did to Gertie’s body.

Ruth whispered to her daughter that burglars broke in and tied her up. The neighbors looked for Ruth’s husband and found him faced down bleeding on the pillow. The police then investigated the crime scene and saw that Ruth had no injuries and no bruises to be found. The detectives then found in Ruth’s husband tools having blood. Then Ruth blamed her insurance businessmen named Judd Gray and the police then tracked him down, and he said that Ruth asked him to bring poisoned whiskey, he blamed it all on her. Once the evidence somewhat added up Ruth and Grey were sent to the electric chair. This story relates to Methyl Alcohol because what this poison does is “… led[s] to headaches, dizziness, nausea, a staggering lack of coordination, confusion, and finally overpowering need to seep” (162). Meaning that if Ruth killed her husband with this poison that explains why her husband was on the bed and as methyl also does is cause internal damage, which explains the bleeding from the