Description
Christiana Edmunds was a woman who poisoned or attempted to poison multiple people using strychnine added to chocolates. Was her behavior due to jealousy of her crush’s wife or just a love of mayhem? This story has some similarities to the Tylenol poisonings of the 1980s.
Sources and resources:
Wikipedia
Francisco, S-V; Reina, G. The chemistry of Marchand’s test
for strychnine identification, https://www.researchgate.net/publication/348205298_The_chemistry_of_Marchand's_test_for_strychnine_identification/fulltext/5ff46a44a6fdccdcb8314194/The-chemistry-of-Marchands-test-for-strychnine-identification.pdf
The CrimeWire: https://thecrimewire.com/multifarious/christiana-edmunds-the-chocolate-cream-killer
Genealogy Reviews – Family Tree Magazine, https://www.genealogyreviews.co.uk/reviews/article/the-chocolate-cream-killer/
The Gale Review: A blog from Gale International: https://review.gale.com/2017/01/18/a-genteel-murderess-christiana-edmunds-and-the-chocolate-box-poisoning/
Legal and Police News: 20 January 1872.
Cover art photo: Christiana Edmunds photo, public
domain.
Fiction Episode!
This episode contains spoilers.
In the novel Sparkling Cyanide, a young heiress dies unexpectedly from cyanide poisoning during a birthday dinner. Although the official verdict of an inquest is suicide brought on by depression after influenza, her husband and sister have their...
Published 09/15/24
Fiction Episode!
This episode contains spoilers.
In the novel Sparkling Cyanide, a young heiress dies unexpectedly from cyanide poisoning during a birthday dinner. Although the official verdict of an inquest is suicide brought on by depression after influenza, her husband and sister have their...
Published 09/06/24