List of poisonings 1341796 222533829 2008-06-29T21:22:20Z Anil1956 1167384 {{toxicology}} This is a '''list of [[poison]]ings''' in chronological order of victim. It also includes confirmed attempted and fictional poisonings. Many of the people listed here committed or attempted to commit [[suicide]] by poison; others were poisoned by others. ==Non-fiction== ===Confirmed poisonings=== *[[Socrates]] (d. [[399 BC]]) , Greek philosopher &mdash; According to [[Plato]], sentenced to kill himself by drinking [[poison hemlock]] *[[Demosthenes]] (d. [[322 BC]]) Athenian [[politician]] *[[Aratus of Sicyon]] (d. [[213 BC]]), [[tyrant]] of [[Sicyon]] *[[Antipater the Idumaean]] (d. [[43 BC]]), father of [[Herod the Great]] *[[Cleopatra VII of Egypt]] (d. [[30 BC]]), poisoned herself with an [[asp (reptile)|asp]]’s [[snakebite (bite)|bite]] *[[Julius Caesar Drusus]] (d. [[23]]), son of [[Tiberius]] *[[Emperor Hui of Jin China]] (d. [[304]]) *[[Ali ibn Abi Talib]] (d. [[661]]), caliph *[[Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz]] (d. [[720]]), [[umayyad]] caliph *[[Musa al-Kazim]] (d. [[799]]), [[Shia Imams|Shia Imam]] *[[Romanus II]] (d. [[963]]), [[Byzantine Emperor]] *[[Alan III, Duke of Brittany]] (d. [[1040]]) *Constance of Normandy (d. [[1090]]), daughter of King [[William I of England]] *[[Constantine II of Armenia]] (d. [[1129]]) *[[Alphonse I of Toulouse|Alphonse I]], [[Count of Toulouse]] (d. [[1148]]) *[[Baldwin III of Jerusalem]] (d. [[1162]]) *[[Blanche of Bourbon]] (d. [[1361]]), first wife of King [[Pedro of Castile]] *[[Louis of Durazzo|Louis, Count of Gravina]] (d. [[1362]]) *[[Robert IV of Artois, Count of Eu|Robert, Count of Eu]] (d. [[1387]]) *[[Ladislaus of Naples|Ladislaus, King of Naples]] (d. [[1414]]) *[[Margaret Drummond (mistress)|Margaret Drummond]] (d. [[1502]]), mistress of King [[James IV of Scotland]] *[[Timoji]] (d.1512), Hindu privateer and Portuguese ally *[[Juan Ponce de León]] (d. [[1521]]), Spanish [[conquistador]]; after being wounded by a poisoned arrow *[[Pope Clement VII]] (d. [[1534]]), ate the [[death cap]] mushroom *[[Yamada Nagamasa]] (d. [[1630]]), [[Japanese people|Japanese]] [[adventurer]] *[[Bradford sweets poisoning]] (1858) *[[Olive Thomas]] (d. [[1920]]), Silent film actress, accidentally ingested a large dose of [[mercury bichloride]] *[[Nestor Lakoba]] (d. [[1936]]), [[Abkhaz]] Communist leader, was poisoned by [[NKVD]] chef [[Lavrenti Beria]] *[[Abram Slutsky]] (d.[[1938]]), head of Soviet spy service, poisoned with [[hydrogen cyanide]] by [[NKVD]] *[[Nikolai Koltsov]] (d. [[1940]]), famous Russian biologist, was poisoned by [[secret police]] [[NKVD]] *[[Erwin Rommel]] (d. [[1944]]) [[Germany|German]] [[general]] *[[Adolf Hitler]] (d. [[1945]]) [[cyanide]] and gunshot simultaneously before capture *[[Eva Braun]] (d. [[1945]]) [[suicide]] by cyanide capsule at Hitler's side as his wife *The [[Goebbels children]] (d. [[1945]]), poisoned by their parents [[Magda Goebbels|Magda]] and [[Joseph Goebbels]] (who then killed themselves shortly afterwards by poison and gun shots before capture) *[[Heinrich Himmler]] (d. [[1945]]), leader of the Nazi [[Schutzstaffel]] (SS); suicide by cyanide capsule after being captured *[[Odilo Globocnik]] (d. [[1945]]) *[[Hermann Göring]] (d.[[1946]]), leader of the Nazi [[Luftwaffe]]; suicide by cyanide capsule, long after being captured and only hours before his [[hanging]] was to take place *[[Alan Turing]] (d. [[1954]]), [[United Kingdom|British]] [[mathematician]] &mdash; Apparently committed suicide by painting an apple with [[cyanide]] and taking a bite. *[[Clare Boothe Luce]] (1956) &mdash; Fell ill but did not die; [[arsenic]] poisoning *[[Stepan Bandera]] (d. 1959) poisoned by a cyanide capsule shot from a gun by [[KGB]] agents *[[Georgi Markov]] (d. [[1978]]), [[Bulgaria]]n dissident, &mdash; Assassinated in London with [[ricin]] *[[Peoples Temple]] cult-members, perhaps over 900 of them, ([[1978]]); killed by cyanide-laced punch at [[Jonestown]]. *''[[Love Canal]]'' (up to 1978) &mdash; Buried toxic waste was covered and used as a building site for housing and school in [[Niagara Falls, New York]], resulting in claims of chronic poisoning and a massive environmental cleanup. *''[[Bhopal Disaster]]'' (1984) &mdash; An accidental release of poisonous gas from a pesticide plant in [[India]] that killed over 2,000 people and injured many more. *''[[Matsumoto incident]]'', June 27, 1994, sarin gas attack carried out by members of the [[Aum Shinrikyo]] cult. 7 killed, approximately 200 injured. *[[Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway]], March 20, 1995, carried out by members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult. 12 killed, 1034 injured. *[[Marshall Applewhite]] (d. [[1997]]); [[cult suicide]] *[[Ibn al-Khattab]] (d. [[2002]]), a Sunni [[Jihadi]] fighter, died from a poisoned letter sent by Russian [[FSB (Russia)|FSB]] agency *[[Alexander Litvinenko]] (d. [[2006]]), Russian ex-spy and investigator, died three weeks after being poisoned by radioactive [[polonium-210]] *[[Roman Tsepov]] (d. [[2004]]), Russian businessman poisoned by unspecified radioactive material ===Attempted poisonings=== *[[Hafizullah Amin]], the second President of [[Afghanistan]], was poisoned by a Soviet agent in [[1979]]. *[[Alexander Dubček]], a Slovak politician, survived an attempt to poison him with [[Sr-90 Strontium]] in [[1968]] *[[Nikolay Khokhlov]] was poisoned by radioactive [[thallium]] Germany in [[1957]] for refusing to work as a [[KGB]] assassin *[[Zhu Ling (1973)|Zhu Ling]], [[China|Chinese]] university student poisoned with [[thallium]] in [[1995]]. Suspect never charged. *[[Khaled Meshal]], [[Hamas]] Leader, survived being poisoned by Israeli assassins. The [[Hussein of Jordan|King]] of [[Jordan]] ordered the capture of the assassins, two of which were caught, and an antidote was supplied by Israel for their release. *[[Anna Politkovskaya]] was poisoned during her flight to [[Beslan school hostage crisis|Beslan]] in [[2004]] *[[Grigori Rasputin]], Russian mystic, survived being poisoned with [[potassium cyanide]], as well as being shot, bludgeoned, and being thrown into a frozen river before he finally died by [[drowning]]. ===Possible poisonings=== *[[Alexander the Great]] *[[Barbara Radziwill|Barbara Radziwiłł]] (d. [[1551]]), Queen of Poland *[[Boudica]], Queen of the Iceni and leader of the rebellion against Roman rule in Britain, suicide by poison according to [[Tacitus]]; [[Dio Cassius]] claims natural illness * [[Charles Darwin]] &mdash; possibly died due to self-medication with [[Fowler's solution]], one percent potassium arsenite *[[Claudius]] (d. [[54]]), Roman Emperor, by his wife [[Agrippina the Younger]] *[[Germanicus]] (d. [[19]]), [[Roman Empire|Roman]] general * [[Huo Yuanjia]] (d. [[1910]]), wushu master and Chinese national hero, [[arsenic]] * [[Jamestown, Virginia|Jamestown colonists]] &mdash; Standard historical accounts claim deaths by starvation, but the possibility of arsenic poisoning by rat poison (or of death by [[Bubonic plague]]) has also been reported (see [http://www.pbs.org/wnet/secrets2/case3_clues.html here]) *[[John of England|King John of England]], with peaches * [[Mithridates VI of Pontus]] * [[Mozart]] with [[Antimony]] *[[Eric XIV of Sweden|King Eric XIV of Sweden]] (d. [[1577]]), according to folklore killed from poisoning by arsenic hidden in pea soup * [[Napoleon Bonaparte]] &mdash; some claim he was killed by someone on his staff with arsenic. Evidence is inconclusive. *[[Pope Benedict XI]] (d. [[1304]]) *[[Pope Pius VIII]] (d. [[1830]]) *[[Ptolemy XIV of Egypt]] (d. [[44 BC]]), if so, by his sister [[Cleopatra VII of Egypt|Cleopatra]] *[[Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury]] (d. [[1612]]) *[[Tycho Brahe]] (d. [[1601]]), Danish astronomer *[[Stefan Dusan]] (d. [[1355]]), Serbian king * [[John Gallagher Montgomery]] (d. 1857), U.S. Congressman from [[Pennsylvania]] *[[Maxim Gorky]] (d. [[1936]]), Russian writer. [[NKVD]] chef [[Genrikh Yagoda]] admitted at the [[Trial of the Twenty One]] that he ordered to poison Gorky and his son. *[[Robert Johnson (musician)|Robert Johnson]] (d. [[1938]]), American musician *[[Raoul Wallenberg]] (d. presumably in [[1947]]), a Swedish humanitarian, who save tens of thousands of Jews in [[World War II]], was reportedly poisoned in [[Lubyanka prison]] by [[Grigory Mairanovsky]] * [[Joseph Stalin]] (d. [[1953]]) &mdash; Officially [[cerebral hemorrhage]]; but, according to [[Vyacheslav Molotov]]'s memoirs and historians [[Edvard Radzinsky|Radzinsky]] and [[Anton Antonov-Ovseenko|Antonov-Ovseenko]], Stalin was poisoned by [[Lavrenty Beria]] *[[Pope John Paul I]] (d. [[1978]]) (''unconfirmed'') *[[Yuri Shchekochikhin]] (d. [[2003]]), Russian investigative journalist, died presumably from poisoning by radioactive [[thallium]] * [[Yasser Arafat]] (d. [[2004]]) &mdash; Arafat reputedly died from liver [[cirrhosis]], which may be a consequence of chronic [[alcohol]] use or poisoning. Some Arafat supporters feel it is unlikely that Arafat habitually used alcohol (forbidden by [[Islam]]), and so suspect poisoning. However, it is also important to note that cirrhosis is not necessarily caused by alcohol use, or indeed any poison at all. * [[Ardeshir Hosseinpour]] (d. [[2007]]), [[Iran]]ian nuclear scientist, possibly poisoned/assassinated by [[Mossad]]: death by "radioactive poisoning" or "gas poisoning" [http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3360556,00.html] [http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/821634.html] [http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?cid=1170359775445&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull] (unconfirmed) *[[Viktor Yushchenko]], Ukrainian politician, possibly poisoned with [[dioxin]] during the [[Ukrainian presidential election, 2004|2004 electoral campaign]]. ===Notorious poisoners=== *Dr [[John Bodkin Adams]], British doctor acquitted in [[1957]] but suspected of killing 163 patients via [[morphia]] and [[barbiturates]].<ref>Cullen, Pamela V., "A Stranger in Blood: The Case Files on Dr John Bodkin Adams", London, Elliott & Thompson, 2006, ISBN 1-904027-19-9</ref> *Members of the [[Aum Shinrikyo]] cult in Japan in the 1990s often used poisons for murder, including chemical weapons such as [[VX (nerve agent)|VX]] and [[Sarin]]. *[[Mary Ann Cotton]], 19th century woman who poisoned family members for financial gain. *[[Thomas Neill Cream]] (d. [[1892]]), British serial killer. *[[Nannie Doss]], black widow. *[[Anna Marie Hahn]] (executed [[1938]]), American serial killer. *[[Genene Jones]], homicidal nurse. *[[Grigory Mairanovsky]], who received Soviet PhD degree for testing poisons on [[political prisoners]] *[[Vera Renczi]], Romanian serial killer who used arsenic to kill two husbands, a son and thirty-two suitors. *[[Charles Sobhraj]], a serial killer who preyed on Western tourists throughout Southeast Asia during the 1970s. *[[Michael Swango]], American physician and surgeon, who fatally poisoned at least thirty of his patients and colleagues. *[[Graham Frederick Young]] (d. [[1990]]), British serial killer. *[[Daisuke Mori]], Japanese nurse convicted of one murder and four attempted murders by [[muscle relaxant]]. *[[Harold Shipman]] (d. [[2004]]), English general practitioner and one of the most prolific known serial killers in modern history ==Fiction== ''Due to the plot strength of poisoning in [[crime fiction]], this is an inexhaustive list.'' ====[[Novel]]s==== =====Crime fiction===== * [[Anthony Berkeley Cox|Anthony Berkeley]]: ''[[The Poisoned Chocolates Case]]'' * [[Ann Granger]]: ''[[Say It With Poison]]'' * [[Anthony Berkeley Cox|Francis Iles]]: ''[[Before the Fact]]'' (filmed as ''[[Suspicion]]'') * [[Anthony Berkeley Cox|Francis Iles]]: ''[[Malice Aforethought]]'' * [[Agatha Christie]]: ''[[Three Act Tragedy]]'' * [[Agatha Christie]]: ''[[A Pocket Full of Rye]]'' * [[Agatha Christie]]: ''[[Crooked House]]'' * [[Agatha Christie]]: ''[[And Then There Were None]]'' * [[John Dickson Carr]]: ''[[The Burning Court]]'' * [[John Dickson Carr]]: ''The Black Spectacles'' (US title ''The Problem of the Green Capsule'') * [[Raymond Postgate]]: ''[[Verdict of Twelve]]'' * [[Freeman Wills Crofts]]: ''[[The 12.30 from Croydon]]'' * [[Ann Granger]]: ''[[Say It With Poison]]'' * [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]]: ''[[A Study in Scarlet]]'' * [[Sir Arthur Conan Doyle]]: ''The Adventure of the Devil's Foot'' * [[Dorothy Sayers]]: ''[[The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club]]'' * [[Dorothy Sayers]]: ''[[Strong Poison]]'' * [[Rex Stout]]: ''Fer-de-Lance'' * [[Rex Stout]]: ''The Red Box'' * [[Rex Stout]]: ''Black Orchids'' * [[Cornell Woolrich]]: ''[[Waltz into Darkness]]'' (filmed as ''[[Mississippi Mermaid]]'' and ''[[Original Sin (movie)|Original Sin]]'') =====Other fiction===== * [[Alexandre Dumas, père]]: ''[[The Count of Monte Cristo]]'' and ''[[The Three Musketeers]]'' * [[Gustave Flaubert]]: ''[[Madame Bovary]]'' *[[Kaori Yuki]]: ''[[Count Cain]] (GodChild after vol. 5)'' Protagonist Cain Hargreaves is known as the Count/Earl of Poisons. He has quite a collection of poisons, and frequently solves murder cases, almost all of which involve poisons. *[[Romeo]] suicide by poison in ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' *[[Snow White]] ate a poisoned [[apple]] *[[Vladimir Harkonnen]] of ''[[Dune (novel)|Dune]]'' * unsuccessful poisoning of [[Ron Weasley]] in ''[[Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince]]''. The intended victim was [[Albus Dumbledore]] *[[David Eddings]]' ''Mallorean''. The Emperor Zakath of Mallorea is poisoned with thalot, and cured by Adara's Rose, called by Cyradis, the Seeress of Kell, the "universal remedy". In ''The Elenium'', the Primate Annias poisons Queen Ehlana with Darestim, so he can have access to her treasury to fund his campaign of becoming Archprelate. Her champion, Sparhawk, and his companions find the magical jewel Bhelliom to cure her. It is later revealed that Ehlana's father King Aldreas was killed with the same poison, given to him by his sister, with whom he was romantically involved. ====[[Film]]s==== * [[D.O.A. (1950 movie)|D.O.A.]] * [[Arsenic and Old Lace (film)|Arsenic and Old Lace]] * [[The Young Poisoner's Handbook]] *[[Jill Tracy]]- [http://bdom.com/main/animation.html The Fine Art of Poisoning] *[[Crank]] ====[[Play (theatre)|Plays]]==== * [[Joseph Kesselring]]: ''[[Arsenic and Old Lace (play)|Arsenic and Old Lace]]'' * [[Shakespeare]]: ''[[Romeo and Juliet]]'' *[[Hamlet]], [[King Claudius]], [[Gertrude (Hamlet)|Gertrude]] and [[Laertes (character)|Laertes]], characters in [[William Shakespeare]]’s tragedy ''[[Hamlet|Hamlet, Prince of Denmark]]'' *Imogen, in [[William Shakespeare]]’s play ''[[Cymbeline]]'' ==References== <div class="references-small"> <references/> </div> ==See also== *[[List of people by cause of death]] – [[List of unusual deaths]] *[[List of deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning]] *[[Antidote]] *[[Assassination]] *[[Biosecurity]] *[[Cult suicide]] *[[Food poisoning]] *[[Food taster]] *[[LD50]] *[[Lead poisoning]] *[[Lethal injection]] *[[Pesticide poisoning]] *[[Poison]] *[[Poisonous animals]] *[[Poisonous plants]] *[[Pollutant]] *[[Toxicity]] *[[Venom (poison)|Venom]] *[[List of fictional toxins]] *[[Mobile Phone Poisoning]] [[Category:Lists of people by cause of death|Poison]] [[Category:Toxicology|Poisonings]] [[Category:Deaths by poisoning|*]]