April 9, 2025

The Origin of Weird: "Poison" By Agatha Christie

The Origin of Weird:

Did you know a murder mystery novel once helped solve a real-life poisoning case? Agatha Christie's meticulous research and personal experience created stories so scientifically accurate they've saved actual lives.

Join us as we dive into "The Pale Horse," Christie's 1961 novel that introduced many readers to the deadly poison thallium. We explore how Christie's wartime experience as a nurse and pharmacy worker gave her intimate knowledge of toxicology that she wove into her mysteries with chilling accuracy. Her detailed descriptions of thallium poisoning symptoms – hair loss, nerve damage, and gastrointestinal distress – later helped medical professionals recognize and diagnose real cases that might otherwise have been fatal.

But Christie's detailed portrayal of this obscure poison had darker consequences too. We examine two disturbing true crime cases: Graham Young, who poisoned family members and colleagues in England, and George Trepal, who used thallium-laced Coca-Cola to murder his Florida neighbor after threatening her family. When investigators searched Trepal's home, they discovered something chilling – a copy of "The Pale Horse" among his possessions.

The story takes a remarkable turn with the case of a desperately ill toddler whose life was saved when a nurse recognized symptoms from Christie's novel. When conventional diagnosis failed, literature succeeded – proving that fiction sometimes has very real consequences.

Can words kill? Should authors censor their knowledge? Or does saving even one life justify sharing potentially dangerous information? Listen now for this fascinating exploration of how the Queen of Crime's work transcended fiction to impact real-world medicine and criminal justice.


The true story of how The Pale Horse caught a criminal and saved lives by Morgan Jeffery
https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/pale-horse-true-story-saved-lives/

The Home of Agatha Christie
https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-pale-horse

Science Direct
Hachamovitch, Rory and heppard, M. N.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/thallium

How Agatha Christie mystery The Pale Horse may have inspired a murderer by Betsy Reed
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/09/how-agatha-christie-mystery-the-pale-horse-may-have-inspired-a-murderer

A truly poisonous plot twist by Sam Leith
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-daily-mail/20200220/281852940590602?srsltid=AfmBOoqYZwgQrPo0jrrJswWzD6-3wHQNL94NCOy6LKT9eO7GhiCk17yP

https://murderpedia.org/male.T/t/trepal-george.htm

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00:16 - Introduction to the History Buffoons

06:24 - Agatha Christie: Queen of Crime

14:32 - The Pale Horse and Thallium

20:31 - Graham Young: The Poisoner

27:19 - The Florida Coca-Cola Case

35:16 - Christie's Novel Saves Lives

WEBVTT

00:00:16.236 --> 00:00:18.699
oh, hey there oh, hey there how are you?

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Oh, it came from my throat sounds like I'm better than you.

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We're the History Buffoons.

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Yes, I am Bradley, I am Kate, and this is an origin of weird.

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Yeah, that's right.

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Yeah.

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Good job.

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The enthusiasm exuding from you is just mind-blowing.

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Did you ever watch Saturday Night Live at all?

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Yeah, a little bit Back in the day at least no, not really bit back in the day.

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At least no, not really not back in the day.

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So uh, I'm not talking like the 80s, I'm talking more like 90s, early 2000 anyways no, not so much I forget the two actresses name, but, uh, or comedians, whatever, but they did the talk show radio, uh, where they talk all like you know molly shannon yes and anna guest steyer.

00:01:04.534 --> 00:01:07.762
Yeah, that's, that's, right, yeah that's what you sound like today.

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Just wanted to let you know that shall I try?

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It.

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I think you should welcome back to another episode of the origin of weird.

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Yeah, this is how I'm gonna talk, while you talk like that that's pretty good though though I mean it wasn't bad.

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Yeah, I remember that yeah.

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One of the best episodes was the sweaty balls.

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Sweaty balls, yeah, with Alec Baldwin, alec Baldwin, that's right, yep, I have seen that one Sweaty balls Sweaty balls.

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Tell me more about your sweaty balls, yep, like meatballs or essentially or something.

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Yeah, it was meatballs, or something like that.

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And his last name was Shwetty.

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Tell me about your.

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Shwetty balls.

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Such a great, such a great episode of that, yeah, but anyways, what do you got for us today on the origin of weird?

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Okay, so we are going to talk about a couple of things.

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Okay, jesus Christ, so more than just.

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Shwetty ballsdy balls.

00:02:06.043 --> 00:02:07.983
Um, we're gonna talk a little bit about agatha christie.

00:02:07.983 --> 00:02:09.629
Oh yeah, I know her well.

00:02:09.629 --> 00:02:24.169
You are old enough, you probably no, we grew up together, yeah, yeah yeah, um, and we are going to talk about a book that she wrote okay and we're going to talk about a poison oh poison yeah it's a woman's weapon.

00:02:24.689 --> 00:02:30.265
I hear that's what they say at least yeah so agatha christie was born.

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Agatha mary clarissa miller so many names.

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I know those english, I tell you she was born in 1890.

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Oh, yeah, yeah yeah, we go way back yeah, in england, as you mentioned.

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Yeah, um, she was educated at home and she was pretty much a talent right at the beginning.

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Yeah, yeah, wow, something her and I don't have in common during world war one, she volunteered as a nurse with the voluntary aid detachment okay and they called it the vad.

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So everywhere I read vad I was.

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Like I was gonna call it the bad, yeah, yeah um, so she saw a lot of medical care, um, she treated a lot of wounded soldiers firsthand.

00:03:14.984 --> 00:03:28.415
You know everything like that right then she moved on to a hospital dispensary so like a hospital that sold weed more, more like a pharmacy oh, okay, yeah, I don't know.

00:03:28.436 --> 00:03:43.307
Just dispensaries are everywhere these days, so that's fair that's fair yeah, um, I guess I'm using this interchangeably now so, but she gained a lot of knowledge of drugs and most notably poisons, right.

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So it was quite clear that her experience in the war and in the pharmacy, that knowledge translated pretty well into her novels.

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Okay fair enough.

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Yeah, so her career began with the book the Mysterious Affair at Stiles, and that was in 1920.

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Okay, so she was 30 at this time.

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Mm-hmm.

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That was her first published book.

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That was her first published book Okay and the Mysterious Affairs at Stiles.

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Publication introduced Hercule Pirol.

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Hercule.

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Hercule, yeah, I know, it's such a weird name.

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It's very from um hercule puerol I just call him kenneth brenna the movie yes, because he's the one who's most recently played him.

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I'm sure there's been other movie adaptations for it.

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Yeah, he was great.

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I thought he was awesome as that character.

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I'm a big fan of Kenneth Branagh as a director and an actor, though.

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Oh, I didn't know he was a director too.

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He directed the Thor movie.

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No, the first one, sweet.

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What a talented man.

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More than that.

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And then I think he was technically if I the director on those Agatha Christie movies.

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I believe Okay.

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If I'm not mistaken.

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So we're talking about the movie Murder on the Orient Express.

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And Death on the Nile.

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And I have not yet seen that one.

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Yeah, no, that's on a list of mine to show you.

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And then there was a more recent one that I am drawing a blank on the name of it Same?

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Yeah, I don't recall I think that was a straight streaming service.

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One, oh, okay.

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The other two came out in the theater, okay, but yeah, anyways.

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Okay, so she had about 66 detective novels, wow, and 14 short story collections as well.

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Holy crap, that's quite a lot.

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And she is titled as the queen of crime.

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Oh, who's the king?

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Probably.

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Sherlock Holmes.

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Yeah, or at least Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, yeah, yeah, yeah, all right, let's go with that.

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Let's just go with that.

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Yeah, I mean, that's fact now.

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They're both from England, so, king, let's go with that.

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Let's just go with that.

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Yeah, I mean, that's fact now.

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They're both from England, so King Queen makes more sense over there than here.

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100%, so 100%.

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Okay, so I actually did mention Murder on the Orient Express right here, but so that's one of our more popular books, as well as Death on the Nile.

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And there was another really popular one, and I didn't write it down because I'm an idiot, okay, and there was another really popular one and I didn't write it down because I'm an idiot.

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Okay, I'm drawing a blank on some of her other books.

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I know of her books.

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I don't know how many I've actually read.

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I've only read a couple.

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I think I've read one or two, but Because of the story, I actually borrowed the audio book.

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Murder on the Orient Express oh did you, I've been listening to it all week.

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Oh, nice Very, I've been listening to it all week.

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Oh nice, Very cool.

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I'm almost done with it.

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It's short, it's 10 hours yeah.

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So she was honored as a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire in 1971.

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So she is Dame Agatha Christie.

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Yeah, yeah, just like Judi Dench.

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So sadly she passed away in 1976.

00:07:01.711 --> 00:07:03.201
Oh, okay, that's the year my brother was born.

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Oh, okay, that's the year my brother was born.

00:07:04.524 --> 00:07:11.791
Oh, okay, yeah, so now in 1961, yes, she wrote the Pale Horse.

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Oh.

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Okay.

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Do you know who rides the pale horse?

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No, but I do have a synopsis straight from her website.

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Death.

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You know this.

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It's from the Bible.

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The pale horse.

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Yeah, behold a pale, pale horse, and upon him is death, or I don't know the exact words oh, I don't know yeah oh, anyway do you mean to throw you off so?

00:07:36.211 --> 00:07:43.668
the synopsis on her website is yeah weird it's different okay like just how it's written it's different.

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Do you find it weird that she has a website?

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I?

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did write down what the website was, let's.

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I think it's called the home of the, the home of Agatha Christie.

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It's agathachristiecom.

00:07:56.899 --> 00:08:11.165
So so the pale horse and here's the synopsis from her, from her website, to understand the strange goings on at the pale horse in mark easterbrook, knew he had to begin at the beginning.

00:08:11.165 --> 00:08:15.420
Well, that's usually where you start, but where exactly was the beginning?

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Was it the savage blow to the back of father gorman's head?

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jesus christ or was it when the priest's assailant searched him so roughly he tore the clergy?

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Meant the clergyman's cassock?

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Or could it have been the priest's visit just minutes before to a woman on her deathbed?

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Or was there a deeper significance to the violent squabble which mark isabrook had himself witnessed earlier?

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That is wild that is a weird synopsis I'd say that's extremely weird yeah, anyway, um, oh shit, there was more oh, there's another page what, the what?

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here's the end.

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Okay, wherever the beginning lies, mark and his sidekick ginger corrigan may soon have cause to wish they'd never found it oh dear, sounds ominous, poor ginger so, um, spoiler alert is coming.

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Oh, so for all of those, I guess I'm not gonna get this audiobook yes, all of you who don't want to know what the pale horse is about, plug your ears, okay.

00:09:31.787 --> 00:09:35.279
So I don't know, okay a thing with spoil alerts in me.

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This thing has been out for 64 years I know if you haven't gotten around to it.

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I understand people are born every year, but that's on you, not us so I don't know who done it but.

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I do know what the murder weapon is poison what?

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how did you guess?

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That this girl is point how?

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how did you guess that?

00:09:59.812 --> 00:10:04.832
well, you mentioned it, I know so we are talking about jesus.

00:10:04.832 --> 00:10:06.035
So we are talking about Jesus Christ.

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We are talking about thallium specifically.

00:10:09.928 --> 00:10:11.633
Thallium Mm-hmm With a T.

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Yes, okay.

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So thallium was discovered in 1861 by Sir William Crookes.

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It's a silvery white metal that tarnishes easily when exposed to air.

00:10:23.018 --> 00:10:24.946
Okay, it is highly toxic.

00:10:24.946 --> 00:10:34.259
Sounds like it's historically used in rat and ant poisons oh but it's now restricted and or banned in many countries.

00:10:34.259 --> 00:10:49.173
Sure, um, it was banned in the us in 1972, um in rodent poisons, um, and it was banned in the point in the rat poisons, and then they actually stopped manufacturing thallium in the US in 1984.

00:10:49.480 --> 00:10:51.799
So you said it was discovered in 1861.

00:10:51.799 --> 00:10:55.250
Is this like a metal, like an element, kind of thing?

00:10:57.562 --> 00:10:58.245
It is a metal.

00:10:58.500 --> 00:10:59.124
Or is it like a?

00:10:59.124 --> 00:11:03.166
I don't know the proper terminology, so I'm going to butcher this Like is it on the periodic table?

00:11:03.166 --> 00:11:04.832
Right, is it there, or is it on the periodic table?

00:11:04.832 --> 00:11:05.116
Right, I don't.

00:11:05.116 --> 00:11:07.671
Is it there, or is it like a compound or something or other?

00:11:07.671 --> 00:11:12.769
Again, I don't know the terminologies, because I'm a, well, I'm a buffoon, yeah, so it is.

00:11:12.970 --> 00:11:22.384
It is on the periodic table okay um, for whatever reason, during my thallium search it didn't come up with that that's odd yeah, um, so the symbol is T-I.

00:11:22.384 --> 00:11:24.868
It's atomic number 81.

00:11:24.868 --> 00:11:26.469
Ooh, yeah.

00:11:26.750 --> 00:11:29.091
I was in a band called Atomic Number Nine.

00:11:29.091 --> 00:11:33.216
Yeah, yeah, based off the periodic table, which is what?

00:11:33.216 --> 00:11:34.736
I don't remember, I forget.

00:11:34.736 --> 00:11:39.841
It's on my head C-O Carbon.

00:11:39.841 --> 00:11:40.683
I don't think that's right.

00:11:40.844 --> 00:11:41.785
You don't think that's carbon?

00:11:42.206 --> 00:11:43.668
No, that doesn't sound right.

00:11:44.029 --> 00:11:44.571
Cobalt.

00:11:44.571 --> 00:11:45.812
Think that's right.

00:11:45.812 --> 00:11:47.777
You don't think that's carbon.

00:11:47.777 --> 00:11:47.996
No, I don't.

00:11:47.996 --> 00:11:49.019
That doesn't sound right.

00:11:49.038 --> 00:11:53.019
Cobalt, cobalt it is.

00:11:53.019 --> 00:11:53.461
Is that what it is?

00:11:53.461 --> 00:11:55.164
I think I've been lied to in my old band.

00:11:55.164 --> 00:11:56.246
This also was like 25 years ago.

00:11:56.246 --> 00:11:57.149
So is that what atomic number?

00:11:57.610 --> 00:12:07.572
nine is oh, that's a cool name for a band atomic number nine, we had some pretty good, pretty good tunes yeah, okay, anyway, we're off topic here well, we always are so are we ever on topic?

00:12:07.572 --> 00:12:24.143
Thallium thallium so, as I said, they the us bandit being used in rat poisons in 1972, and then they officially stopped manufacturing it in the us in in 84 so the reason why I asked if it was on the periodic table because you just said they stopped manufacturing it.

00:12:24.403 --> 00:12:27.211
So like did they just say no one can look for this anymore?

00:12:27.211 --> 00:12:29.466
Because if it's on the periodic table, it's an?

00:12:29.667 --> 00:12:29.947
element.

00:12:29.947 --> 00:12:31.129
It is an element in the world.

00:12:31.230 --> 00:12:34.428
Yes, yeah, so it's like just don't go looking for it, kind of thing now.

00:12:34.428 --> 00:12:47.509
I mean, that's the only reason why I asked that yeah, yeah, so no, you know, even if it's a man-made, or you take this and this and make a compound or whatever again, I don't know the terminology.

00:12:47.509 --> 00:12:49.230
It's like well, yeah, just stop doing that.

00:12:49.230 --> 00:12:53.413
What do they do with the stuff that's just out there, naturally, I mean, could that?

00:12:53.413 --> 00:12:55.115
If someone stumbled upon it?

00:12:55.115 --> 00:12:57.717
Would they fucking die if they somehow got into it, or something.

00:12:58.259 --> 00:12:59.883
No, no, so it is.

00:12:59.883 --> 00:13:15.131
It's found in trace amounts in copper, lead, zinc and other sulfide ores, ores, ores, yeah, so they actually still get it shipped in like imported in today.

00:13:15.513 --> 00:13:15.754
Why.

00:13:16.541 --> 00:13:18.226
Because it is used in electronics.

00:13:18.989 --> 00:13:19.269
Oh, mm-hmm.

00:13:20.100 --> 00:13:24.010
So it's used in semiconductor materials.

00:13:24.311 --> 00:13:24.591
Okay.

00:13:25.980 --> 00:13:28.827
Photoelectric cells and infrared detectors.

00:13:29.309 --> 00:13:29.831
Interesting.

00:13:30.960 --> 00:13:42.836
Thallium-201 is used as a radium pharmaceutical agent in nuclear medicine scans, particularly for cardiac stress tests.

00:13:42.836 --> 00:13:43.009
That's above my pay grade.

00:13:43.009 --> 00:13:43.254
Uh-huh, particularly for cardiac stress tests.

00:13:43.254 --> 00:13:45.982
That's above my pay grade.

00:13:45.982 --> 00:13:51.374
It's used to increase the refractive index and density of glass.

00:13:51.374 --> 00:13:53.201
That's odd.

00:13:53.201 --> 00:13:57.902
It's used in low temperature thermometers?

00:13:57.922 --> 00:13:59.442
Yeah, because you can't use mercury anymore.

00:13:59.442 --> 00:14:04.788
When you were a kid, did your parents ever have one of those ones with actual mercury?

00:14:04.827 --> 00:14:05.969
Probably so.

00:14:05.969 --> 00:14:09.472
Thallium is also tasteless and odorless.

00:14:10.133 --> 00:14:11.414
So you wouldn't even know if you ingest it.

00:14:11.514 --> 00:14:13.817
And it does not dissolve in water, which is kind of weird.

00:14:17.740 --> 00:14:19.524
Well, I mean, if it's technically a metal.

00:14:19.583 --> 00:14:23.192
It wouldn't so if you were to be poisoned with thallium.

00:14:23.192 --> 00:14:25.035
It can cause hair loss.

00:14:25.456 --> 00:14:28.164
Oh dear Nerve damage, I must be poisoned.

00:14:31.299 --> 00:14:33.508
Gastrointestinal problems, heart problems.

00:14:33.508 --> 00:14:41.629
The health effects of thallium are obviously dose dependent, right, and there are three stages.

00:14:41.649 --> 00:14:43.078
Okay, do tell and there are three stages.

00:14:43.099 --> 00:14:44.881
Okay, Do tell.

00:14:44.881 --> 00:14:53.955
So the gastrointestinal phase can occur with large ingestions or may be delayed 24 to 48 hours with smaller ingestions.

00:14:54.115 --> 00:14:54.375
Okay.

00:14:55.302 --> 00:15:08.062
And then phase two is the neurological phase, and it's two to five days or more after ingestion, although it can occur as early as 12 hours after massive ingestion, oh geez, yep.

00:15:08.062 --> 00:15:14.754
And in acute toxicity, alopecia can occur two to three weeks after exposure.

00:15:14.754 --> 00:15:16.961
So do you know what alopecia is?

00:15:17.241 --> 00:15:19.344
Remind me, I always get it, it's hair loss.

00:15:19.364 --> 00:15:32.063
Oh Death can also occur in severe cases due to respiratory paralysis and failure.

00:15:33.149 --> 00:15:38.080
I feel like we're in one of those commercials you always see and like don't take thallium if you're allergic to thallium.

00:15:38.160 --> 00:15:39.523
Right, yeah, no shit.

00:15:39.523 --> 00:15:43.014
And then the lethal dose.

00:15:43.014 --> 00:15:49.184
Like the minimum lethal dose is 12 milligrams per kilogram of body weight.

00:15:49.184 --> 00:15:52.340
Okay, the treatment.

00:15:52.961 --> 00:15:59.879
Oh, there is treatment for thallium there is yeah there's an antidote, yeah, for this poison um.

00:16:00.039 --> 00:16:15.255
So for gastric decontamination, we're talking about ingesting active charcoal, to like absorb the remaining thallium okay, isn't that what they do with?

00:16:15.537 --> 00:16:17.841
uh, not overdose, is it?

00:16:17.841 --> 00:16:28.956
People drink too much too oh, maybe maybe I don't remember, I remember like alcohol poisoning something like that yeah and then there's something called prussian blue prussian blue.

00:16:28.956 --> 00:16:30.259
Is it from prussia?

00:16:32.341 --> 00:16:55.014
it works by binding to the thallium in the intestines and preventing its reabsorption, and then promoting its elimination into excrement, crap, the bowels, um there's forced diuresis I thought you're gonna go a different way with that word forced diarrhea.

00:16:55.014 --> 00:17:06.003
Yeah, it's kind of similar, okay, so the forced diuresis is increasing the urine output oh okay, we're going the other way yep, yep, yep, and then there are.

00:17:06.003 --> 00:17:16.765
There is also hemodialysis or hemoperfusion okay which, in severe cases, it's blood purification techniques to remove thallium from the bloodstream.

00:17:16.849 --> 00:17:21.318
I did not look into that, that's okay because I feel like that's a way deeper dive than we need to go.

00:17:21.318 --> 00:17:21.901
Yeah, exactly.

00:17:21.901 --> 00:17:23.517
So let's just say, that's how you do it.

00:17:23.730 --> 00:17:28.930
So back to Agatha Christie's book, which was published in 1961.

00:17:29.309 --> 00:17:29.991
What was the name of the book?

00:17:29.991 --> 00:17:31.376
Again, I'm sorry, the Pale Horse.

00:17:31.376 --> 00:17:32.038
Pale Horse, yes.

00:17:32.922 --> 00:17:41.435
Okay, the heavy metal, thallium, was pretty obscure but, she was a nurse and she was in the pharmacy and she learned all about this shit.

00:17:41.536 --> 00:17:42.499
Sure, it makes sense.

00:17:42.640 --> 00:17:53.029
Yeah, and it's everywhere on earth, but it's in just such tiny amounts that you really can't stumble into like a dangerous dose Right, that makes sense yeah.

00:17:53.029 --> 00:17:56.941
So pretty cool for a murder weapon, though, right, well, yeah, poison, yeah.

00:17:56.941 --> 00:17:59.518
So again spoilers ahead.

00:17:59.518 --> 00:18:09.229
The killer uses thallium to administer slow progressive poisoning to his victims.

00:18:09.509 --> 00:18:09.670
Yeah.

00:18:10.351 --> 00:18:10.510
Um.

00:18:10.510 --> 00:18:13.298
This method is fairly crucial to the plot.

00:18:13.599 --> 00:18:13.881
Okay.

00:18:14.691 --> 00:18:20.163
Because it makes the cause of death appear a little bit more ambiguous and more difficult to trace.

00:18:20.442 --> 00:18:20.644
Right.

00:18:21.712 --> 00:18:25.288
So a little suspense, perhaps Suspense, mm-hmm.

00:18:25.307 --> 00:18:25.789
Dun, dun dun.

00:18:26.549 --> 00:18:35.345
In the book, the symptoms of thallium poisoning was hair loss, nausea, nerve damage, and they were often mistaken for other illnesses, of course.

00:18:35.345 --> 00:18:40.641
So it allowed the killer to go undetected for an extended period of time.

00:18:40.641 --> 00:18:41.702
Makes sense, yeah, okay.

00:18:41.702 --> 00:18:48.182
So the novel doesn't quite specify a single, precise method of delivery.

00:18:48.182 --> 00:19:01.188
Like this is how the killer got it to the victim Um but the implication is that the thallium was administered in small, regular doses through food, essentially.

00:19:01.608 --> 00:19:03.557
So, um the.

00:19:03.557 --> 00:19:08.733
So Christie's detailed description of thallium was pretty key to the book's suspense.

00:19:08.733 --> 00:19:09.034
Um, it followed.

00:19:09.034 --> 00:19:11.836
Detailed description of Thallium was pretty key to the book's suspense.

00:19:11.836 --> 00:19:18.401
It allowed the readers to follow the victim's deteriorating health and understanding the awfulness of this crime.

00:19:18.401 --> 00:19:26.926
Sure what Chrissy did not expect was that by putting Thallium in her story, she'd end up saving some lives.

00:19:27.307 --> 00:19:28.431
Oh, really yes.

00:19:28.431 --> 00:19:32.099
So people read the book and and like I'm losing my hair.

00:19:32.099 --> 00:19:39.621
You know Well um, Maybe I've been slowly being poisoned for the last 15 years.

00:19:39.621 --> 00:19:42.557
I should really look into my people around me.

00:19:42.557 --> 00:19:45.439
How did these people get saved by reading her book?

00:19:45.578 --> 00:19:45.880
Okay.

00:19:45.880 --> 00:19:52.844
So she did get some serious heat from the newspapers for having written about Thallium.

00:19:53.049 --> 00:19:54.031
Yeah, people like the.

00:19:54.031 --> 00:19:57.160
I mean you can go on anything today and people give you heat.

00:19:57.160 --> 00:19:58.083
It's like I saved a baby.

00:19:58.083 --> 00:19:59.295
How could you save a baby?

00:19:59.295 --> 00:19:59.394
What?

00:20:01.111 --> 00:20:07.703
So I will get to her saving lives, but first we're going to talk about someone who took a life or several Because of this.

00:20:07.703 --> 00:20:20.954
So they learned the, the technique so we're going to talk about graham young graham young okay, he had a fascination with toxicology in his young years young.

00:20:21.036 --> 00:20:21.997
Like what are we speaking?

00:20:21.997 --> 00:20:33.859
Like five, six or like, yeah, like middle school oh boy I mean so a little older than five or six but yeah, okay, sorry, I don't have kids um he, you were not in middle school once.

00:20:33.859 --> 00:20:37.271
You don't remember how old you were I don't have a memory, remember what?

00:20:37.271 --> 00:20:44.330
Okay, so, despite his intelligence, you probably don't even remember poisoning me, so fuck off.

00:20:44.330 --> 00:20:45.751
What'd you say exactly?

00:20:47.933 --> 00:20:49.096
Exactly Jesus.

00:20:49.096 --> 00:21:00.106
So he used his knowledge to somehow trick his local pharmacist into getting thallium, because he posed as an older person somehow.

00:21:02.333 --> 00:21:06.740
I think we need to find out if that pharmacist ever lost his fucking license for being an idiot.

00:21:06.740 --> 00:21:08.423
I know Jesus Christ.

00:21:08.931 --> 00:21:12.930
So Graham Young started initiating experiments at home.

00:21:12.930 --> 00:21:26.538
Oh boy, he started introducing um atropine, which is belladonna both those don't help me, but okay it's used to increase someone's heart rate.

00:21:26.538 --> 00:21:30.624
So they actually do use atropine in the medicine world.

00:21:30.624 --> 00:21:35.799
So I hear through Gray's anatomy, um, but Jesus Christ actually that wasn't really.

00:21:35.799 --> 00:21:37.482
Yes, it is.

00:21:37.770 --> 00:21:38.393
Am I kidding?

00:21:38.573 --> 00:21:39.395
I've I've seen it.

00:21:39.395 --> 00:21:41.082
I've seen this show.

00:21:41.924 --> 00:21:44.311
I keep going off on side things, so maybe I should stop.

00:21:44.311 --> 00:21:45.794
Okay, let's move on.

00:21:45.794 --> 00:21:46.756
Yes, please do.

00:21:46.776 --> 00:21:46.916
Okay.

00:21:46.916 --> 00:21:50.242
So atropine is meant to like increase heart rate.

00:21:50.242 --> 00:21:51.832
So someone has a really low heart rate.

00:21:51.832 --> 00:21:53.757
They will use atropine to increase it.

00:21:53.757 --> 00:21:54.720
Right, right, okay.

00:21:54.720 --> 00:21:57.752
So he would put atropine in his sister's tea.

00:21:57.752 --> 00:21:58.314
What?

00:21:58.314 --> 00:22:04.951
A dick and in the the, the jelly, the jam did he get it from the preservation room?

00:22:06.314 --> 00:22:11.285
it's full of delicious jams and jellies jams and jellies.

00:22:11.546 --> 00:22:17.298
The atropine causes sister severe dizziness and visual impairment and she was hospitalized.

00:22:17.298 --> 00:22:17.979
What a dick.

00:22:17.979 --> 00:22:29.220
And then he had antimony, which was an alloy um which hardens lead and it's also a flame retardant, I don't know.

00:22:29.220 --> 00:22:33.705
Okay, but it resulted in vomiting and abdominal cramps.

00:22:34.365 --> 00:22:34.626
Right.

00:22:34.789 --> 00:22:38.520
But Mr Young wasn't thrilled with the slow progression.

00:22:38.872 --> 00:22:39.869
So he administered.

00:22:39.869 --> 00:22:41.195
Let's amp this shit up, yep.

00:22:41.790 --> 00:22:44.959
He administered a lethal dose of thallium to his stepmother.

00:22:45.721 --> 00:22:46.041
Wow.

00:22:46.041 --> 00:22:54.236
Her death was initially attributed to natural causes well, of course, because, again, we don't know his exact age.

00:22:54.236 --> 00:22:55.439
You think he was around.

00:22:55.439 --> 00:22:57.042
How old was he when he did that?

00:22:57.290 --> 00:22:59.557
by this time, I think he's.

00:22:59.557 --> 00:23:04.009
I can't even tell you wasn't part of your research.

00:23:04.009 --> 00:23:09.833
Okay, these are meant to be little snippets for a short episode.

00:23:10.034 --> 00:23:12.994
We're elongating it by side stories.

00:23:14.056 --> 00:23:25.042
Okay, so he continued to poison his father with antimony, eventually leading to his hospitalization and also increased suspicion on the kid.

00:23:25.042 --> 00:23:26.042
I would hope so.

00:23:26.063 --> 00:23:30.786
His sister gets sick, his stepmother dies and now his father's in the hospital.

00:23:31.405 --> 00:23:33.887
And he started poisoning kids at school.

00:23:33.887 --> 00:23:38.012
Good Lord, what is wrong with this?

00:23:38.012 --> 00:23:38.353
Fuck yeah.

00:23:38.353 --> 00:23:44.984
So it prompted a psychiatric evaluation and hospital stay at the Rodmore Psychiatric Hospital.

00:23:44.984 --> 00:23:48.749
And even within the hospital, somehow he could poison the staff.

00:23:48.749 --> 00:23:51.553
Nice, and even within the hospital, somehow he could poison the staff.

00:23:51.553 --> 00:23:57.844
I think he even oh, he was implicated in a fellow patient suicide involving cyanide.

00:23:58.330 --> 00:24:02.799
Jesus Christ, yeah, why are patients getting a hold of fucking cyanide?

00:24:02.930 --> 00:24:04.055
Yeah, but get this.

00:24:04.055 --> 00:24:07.798
He was released only a couple of years later for good behavior.

00:24:07.798 --> 00:24:09.041
What the fuck?

00:24:10.392 --> 00:24:11.938
Don't worry, man, you've been good.

00:24:13.053 --> 00:24:17.419
So he got a job at Hadlands, which is a photographic equipment company.

00:24:17.750 --> 00:24:19.036
This is after he got released.

00:24:19.789 --> 00:24:33.712
And he jumped right back in it by poisoning his colleagues with various doses of antimony and thallium, and he started recording their symptoms in a diary, because why not document it?

00:24:33.874 --> 00:24:36.920
well, because that's what dumb fucking criminals do?

00:24:36.980 --> 00:24:49.680
they leave a paper trail yep, he poisoned eight people and two of them died wow, so he's killed three people at this time well more, because he um well assisted suicide's a four.

00:24:49.680 --> 00:24:50.020
Yeah.

00:24:50.942 --> 00:24:51.103
Yeah.

00:24:51.829 --> 00:24:52.111
Wow.

00:24:52.111 --> 00:25:07.223
So the victims presented with symptoms ranging from hallucinations, blindness, alopecia, and it baffled 43 different physicians who attributed their illnesses to unrelated conditions.

00:25:07.223 --> 00:25:09.929
Wow, not at all what they think it conditions.

00:25:09.929 --> 00:25:12.416
Wow, not at all what they think it was Right.

00:25:12.416 --> 00:25:16.398
So Young was eventually captured.

00:25:16.799 --> 00:25:17.161
Good.

00:25:20.930 --> 00:25:23.940
Because he had a lot of toxicological.

00:25:26.237 --> 00:25:27.500
That is a hard word to say.

00:25:27.500 --> 00:25:30.454
I'm glad I didn't have to say it Toxicological.

00:25:30.454 --> 00:25:32.779
Toxicological, toxicological.

00:25:32.940 --> 00:25:34.221
Toxicological, toxicological.

00:25:34.241 --> 00:25:34.923
Anyways, let's move on.

00:25:36.570 --> 00:25:46.961
He had a lot of this knowledge during a workplace meeting and it was concerning to the employees because they were also experiencing symptoms.

00:25:46.961 --> 00:25:54.451
Oh Okay, so they finally searched his residence and, hello, they found his diary.

00:25:54.451 --> 00:25:56.233
Wow see that's.

00:25:56.233 --> 00:26:09.816
That's why you don't keep a diary yeah, yeah, um, so he actually said no, the diary was for a novel that I'm writing okay, yeah, it just happens to coincide with all the people you fucked around with yep, so he was.

00:26:09.816 --> 00:26:11.760
He was sentenced to life imprisonment.

00:26:12.029 --> 00:26:18.756
So the newspapers jumped on Christy because he wouldn't have done this if it wasn't for you.

00:26:18.756 --> 00:26:23.240
Because of the knowledge of what she put in her books.

00:26:23.240 --> 00:26:28.442
Yeah, but he clearly had a better understanding than she even did, potentially.

00:26:28.442 --> 00:26:35.122
I mean, from just being an outsider looking on in on this, I mean he clearly he experimented other shit too.

00:26:35.122 --> 00:26:40.299
Yeah, so are they gonna go find other people who had the other things and be like you suck too?

00:26:40.461 --> 00:26:44.872
yeah, so I mean fuck off man he even said he never read the book right.

00:26:44.872 --> 00:26:49.674
So there's not a lot of proof that Christie was connected to this in any type of way.

00:26:49.954 --> 00:26:50.195
Right.

00:26:51.777 --> 00:26:55.318
But one of the Scotland Yard doctors.

00:26:55.318 --> 00:26:57.059
That was like reading this case.

00:26:57.059 --> 00:27:04.003
He recognized the thallium poisoning before it was introduced as thallium poisoning because he read the pale horse.

00:27:04.525 --> 00:27:09.688
That's pretty crazy, that's wild, that you know they could help solve a crime basically.

00:27:10.391 --> 00:27:10.612
Yeah, okay.

00:27:10.612 --> 00:27:13.375
So now we're going to talk about george triple triple.

00:27:13.375 --> 00:27:39.656
Yeah, tree paul, tree paul, triple triple it's, I think it's triple, but it's t-r-e-p-a-l oh, okay triple triple george triple triple and his wife yeah, in Florida during the early 1980s, and then a couple named Paralyn and Peggy Carr moved next door to them in 1988.

00:27:39.656 --> 00:27:48.653
Travis Carr, which is Paralyn's son, and Dwayne Dubberly, peggy's son, also lived there.

00:27:48.653 --> 00:28:02.603
That same year Paralyn renovated his garage into an apartment, so his daughters Delina Shriver and Tammy Reed and his granddaughter Casey Bell lived.

00:28:03.049 --> 00:28:04.094
Wow, that's a lot of names.

00:28:04.115 --> 00:28:04.917
A lot of people in the house.

00:28:05.069 --> 00:28:07.157
I'm not going to remember any of them and you don't need to.

00:28:07.157 --> 00:28:07.538
Good.

00:28:09.112 --> 00:28:23.035
But George and the cars were involved in a number of altercations, of course, including one incident in which triple threatened to kill one of car's children see, that's.

00:28:23.035 --> 00:28:33.493
That's usually not a good game plan, okay um the cars also received an unsigned letter threatening harm to their family if they did not leave florida good lord.

00:28:33.513 --> 00:28:37.402
I like how it's unsigned but who could that have come from?

00:28:38.064 --> 00:28:39.330
okay, so I told you they.

00:28:39.330 --> 00:28:41.855
They moved here in 1988, right?

00:28:41.855 --> 00:28:47.634
Yes, correct the same year they built the garage yes october of 1988, so not very long after.

00:28:47.634 --> 00:28:51.502
No, yeah peggy Carr began to suffer from a mysterious illness.

00:28:51.809 --> 00:28:52.152
Oh weird.

00:28:52.152 --> 00:28:53.155
Did she start losing her hair?

00:28:53.155 --> 00:28:55.397
Did she start having gut problems?

00:28:55.590 --> 00:29:00.535
She was admitted to the hospital and remained there for several days, okay, and then she was discharged.

00:29:00.535 --> 00:29:06.571
Like they have no information Right, like they've got nothing, and she was getting better in the hospital, sure.

00:29:06.612 --> 00:29:08.977
So after she wasn't getting thallium.

00:29:09.657 --> 00:29:15.016
After the discharge, peggy peggy's condition worsened and then she was readmitted.

00:29:15.016 --> 00:29:22.752
The kids, travis carr and doing doubly, also had similar symptoms and they were sent to the hospital.

00:29:22.752 --> 00:29:27.798
Okay, mr doctor, mr doctor, mr doctor, dr hostler, doctor, mr.

00:29:27.798 --> 00:29:35.326
Doctor, mr Doctor, dr Hostler, who was treating them, suspected thallium poisoning based on the symptoms.

00:29:35.326 --> 00:29:38.979
Right Within one day, thallium poisoning was confirmed.

00:29:38.979 --> 00:29:39.820
Oh wow yeah.

00:29:39.820 --> 00:29:43.377
Peggy Kars conditioned worse and she fell into a coma.

00:29:43.377 --> 00:29:47.176
Oh Okay, and she died on life support.

00:29:47.438 --> 00:29:48.220
Okay, okay.

00:29:48.220 --> 00:29:52.804
Well, did she die on life support or did they pull life support to have her die?

00:29:52.804 --> 00:29:53.645
It was disconnected.

00:29:53.645 --> 00:29:54.750
Yeah, it was disconnected.

00:29:54.750 --> 00:29:55.875
I'm just joking around.

00:29:57.570 --> 00:30:03.462
Travis Carr and Dwayne Dubberly remained in the hospital and they were treated for thallium poisoning.

00:30:03.603 --> 00:30:03.864
Okay.

00:30:04.691 --> 00:30:08.740
Further testing revealed the presence of thallium in other family members.

00:30:09.182 --> 00:30:09.522
Okay.

00:30:09.849 --> 00:30:12.594
Mm-hmm Including his little grandchildren.

00:30:12.693 --> 00:30:13.174
That's sad.

00:30:13.234 --> 00:30:18.721
I know, in November of 1989, so Peggy actually died in March of 89.

00:30:18.721 --> 00:30:28.469
Oh, okay, and then, in November of 89, officials started collecting samples from the Carr household in an attempt to figure out where this thallium was happening.

00:30:28.469 --> 00:30:38.893
Sure, and they tested the residual residual residue in several areas coca-cola bottles really did george young work there.

00:30:39.114 --> 00:30:57.369
No, I'm sorry anyways gram, gram, young god damn it see, I knew I'd mess that up um so thallium was detected in these coke bottles so somehow it was getting into these coke bottles okay the lot numbers of the coke bottles allowed police to trace when and where the bottles were produced.

00:30:57.650 --> 00:31:06.066
Sure, and officials determined that it was that it was impossible for eight bottles containing thallium to end up all being packaged together.

00:31:06.066 --> 00:31:07.009
Well, right.

00:31:07.009 --> 00:31:21.038
That seems extremely unlikely and coca-cola officials claimed that they had not received any other reports of poisoning or threats related to tampering with their product before Sure In June of 19.

00:31:21.798 --> 00:31:25.653
Oh sorry, I was like the year I have written down as 1988.

00:31:25.653 --> 00:31:29.991
And I was like I thought we were at 89, but in June of 88, that's when they received the threatening letter.

00:31:29.991 --> 00:31:37.836
Okay, and that's what made them start to talk to Mr Trip all.

00:31:38.217 --> 00:31:38.436
Right.

00:31:38.478 --> 00:31:42.550
Okay, so Tripol Right.

00:31:42.550 --> 00:31:50.817
Okay, so Tripol claimed to accompany his wife to the office every day, but what the police found out was that he either stayed home, he lied.

00:31:50.817 --> 00:31:54.915
He either stayed home or he went on his own to the office.

00:31:55.195 --> 00:31:55.416
Okay.

00:31:55.644 --> 00:32:00.644
So he was alone, whereas he was kind of telling him I'm with my wife so I couldn't be me.

00:32:00.644 --> 00:32:15.005
I'm with somebody, yeah yeah, so triple had the opportunity then to enter the car's house, because they didn't lock their doors right it was the 80s times were wild uh-huh and triple.

00:32:15.005 --> 00:32:18.946
Had worked as a chemist in an amphetamine laboratory.

00:32:19.586 --> 00:32:20.086
Oh dear.

00:32:21.407 --> 00:32:25.809
And thallium is a byproduct of amphetamine production.

00:32:26.130 --> 00:32:27.371
Oh, is it really Apparently?

00:32:27.371 --> 00:32:28.352
Huh, who knew?

00:32:28.352 --> 00:32:29.751
Not me, not me.

00:32:30.833 --> 00:32:38.355
So, in order to further investigate George Treppel, special agent Susan Gorek went undercover.

00:32:38.355 --> 00:32:43.378
Oh, she attended a Mensa murder weekend.

00:32:43.519 --> 00:32:44.680
Mensa murder weekend.

00:32:44.819 --> 00:32:47.701
He is so smart he's in the Mensa group.

00:32:47.780 --> 00:32:48.480
What is that again?

00:32:48.922 --> 00:32:49.882
Super high IQ.

00:32:49.961 --> 00:32:51.143
That's what I thought.

00:32:51.143 --> 00:32:51.762
I know of it.

00:32:51.762 --> 00:32:52.583
I just I didn't know.

00:32:52.682 --> 00:32:52.923
Yeah.

00:32:52.923 --> 00:33:24.852
So she went to the Mensa murder weekend where Trepol's wife organized this like fun little murder mystery party right so trepol wrote the pamphlet for their weekend describing writing a threatening note and then poisoning the recipient of the note way to implicate yourself, all right so during this weekend gorick had contact with trepol and learned that he was selling his house, oh, and he was moving somewhere else in Florida.

00:33:25.053 --> 00:33:25.413
Okay.

00:33:25.984 --> 00:33:32.337
And so Gorick arranged to rent his house after him and his wife moved.

00:33:32.558 --> 00:33:32.818
Yeah.

00:33:33.964 --> 00:33:40.076
And a search team came in and they actually found bottles containing thallium.

00:33:40.076 --> 00:33:55.330
Like what a dumbass you're moving and you're not cleaning up after yourself well, you deserve to get caught, you fucking moron so after the discovery treple was charged with seven counts of poisoning and murder, though right, because he what's her name?

00:33:55.330 --> 00:33:56.973
Died oh, I, I will get to that.

00:33:57.255 --> 00:33:58.557
Yes, yes, yes, yes yes.

00:33:59.218 --> 00:33:59.739
No, that's okay.

00:33:59.739 --> 00:34:14.634
So another search of his new home in April turned up chemistry books, equipment and information about poisons, and they found a bottle capping machine.

00:34:17.166 --> 00:34:19.391
So he could pop the.

00:34:19.391 --> 00:34:25.188
Coca-cola and put the stuff in and then recap it, so it looks like it's brand spanking new.

00:34:25.188 --> 00:34:26.211
Yep wow.

00:34:26.211 --> 00:34:29.306
That's why I don't drink coke and guess what else they found cocaine.

00:34:29.306 --> 00:34:40.398
Oh wait, that was old days of coke they found agatha christie's novel the pale horse wow, ain't that some shit treble was found guilty on one count of first degree murder.

00:34:40.398 --> 00:34:40.838
Okay.

00:34:41.284 --> 00:34:43.713
Six counts of attempted first degree murder.

00:34:43.713 --> 00:34:46.793
Wow, seven counts of poisoning food or water.

00:34:47.094 --> 00:34:47.414
Okay.

00:34:47.565 --> 00:34:49.853
And one count of consumer product tampering.

00:34:49.853 --> 00:34:58.233
Wow, all of his appeals have been denied Good, including his last one, which was in 2012.

00:34:58.755 --> 00:34:58.996
Oh, wow.

00:35:01.545 --> 00:35:02.628
And he is currently on death row in.

00:35:02.648 --> 00:35:03.612
Floridaida at 76 years old.

00:35:03.612 --> 00:35:04.516
I'm not sad about that.

00:35:04.675 --> 00:35:06.925
What a dick okay, let's talk about something positive.

00:35:07.626 --> 00:35:09.509
We're gonna whoa, we don't do that.

00:35:09.509 --> 00:35:15.840
On the history of buffoons in 1977 there was another case.

00:35:16.525 --> 00:35:21.998
A 19 month old girl was flown from Qatar to a hospital in London.

00:35:22.217 --> 00:35:22.478
Okay.

00:35:23.186 --> 00:35:24.351
And she was super sick.

00:35:24.351 --> 00:35:26.510
No one knew why and she was getting worse.

00:35:26.510 --> 00:35:28.190
Doctors are stumped Right.

00:35:28.190 --> 00:35:36.971
A nurse at the hospital, miss Marsha Matland, was doing her rounds and she just happened to have read the pale horse.

00:35:36.971 --> 00:35:39.028
Wow, she noticed the baby.

00:35:39.028 --> 00:35:44.469
Symptoms were eerily similar to what christie described for thallium poisoning.

00:35:44.469 --> 00:35:56.228
The hospital could not test for thallium poisoning so they actually had to send test result or samples to scotland yard okay but they they were able to determine sure okay.

00:35:56.429 --> 00:36:04.213
So it turns out, the girl accidentally swallowed insecticide with thallium in it, oh boy, but she got the right treatment and made a full recovery, nice.

00:36:04.454 --> 00:36:05.175
Yeah, all right.

00:36:06.326 --> 00:36:17.277
So the guy who wrote the report in the medical journal actually thanked Christy for bringing thallium to everyone's attention and Marsha Matlin for being a well-read nurse.

00:36:17.277 --> 00:36:23.199
So basically Agatha Christie, queen of crime, was kind of a life-saving hero.

00:36:23.621 --> 00:36:27.134
I mean, yeah, she in a roundabout way and then she got attacked for it.

00:36:27.134 --> 00:36:28.947
But you know, those haters going to hate.

00:36:29.047 --> 00:36:31.893
So yeah, I mean, that's pretty cool.

00:36:31.914 --> 00:36:41.137
It's a fiction, it's a novel, you know it's weird that people um, it's weird that people okay, so like Stephen King, look at all the stuff he's written.

00:36:41.137 --> 00:36:51.431
So if I go and take somebody and chain them up to a bed and break their legs with a board and a sledgehammer, yeah, I mean, are people going to be outraged at Stephen King?

00:36:51.431 --> 00:36:53.356
Probably not, I know, which is just weird.

00:36:53.356 --> 00:36:55.969
So it's like, why be outraged at her Different times?

00:36:56.068 --> 00:36:58.273
but Did you hear that there's a Dexter killer?

00:37:01.045 --> 00:37:01.846
Like copying what the show does.

00:37:01.885 --> 00:37:09.478
Nope, no, I have not yep, I listen to murder shows I know um, I've never.

00:37:09.498 --> 00:37:10.280
Did you ever watch that show?

00:37:10.280 --> 00:37:11.867
I never watched it I watched.

00:37:12.349 --> 00:37:19.250
Um, yeah, I think it was almost to the last season that I I ended up stopping before it ended.

00:37:19.690 --> 00:37:20.974
Because there's a new one out.

00:37:20.974 --> 00:37:21.275
There is.

00:37:22.106 --> 00:37:24.072
And maybe even a prequel, I don't know Something?

00:37:24.092 --> 00:37:25.175
yeah, I guess I don't know.

00:37:25.344 --> 00:37:31.114
Nathan has seen the original all the way through and he said the last season kind of jumped the shark so I didn't even watch it.

00:37:31.114 --> 00:37:31.916
Yeah, that's too bad.

00:37:31.916 --> 00:37:46.831
But yeah, that was Agatha Christie's.

00:37:46.722 --> 00:37:48.635
The Pale Horse and thallium poisoning is weird that a book can help so much, even though it got some shit at one point.

00:37:48.635 --> 00:37:50.422
But uh, go, agatha christie, yeah and uh, and I and I love that I I found an audiobook that I could listen to, get from the library and listen to.

00:37:50.311 --> 00:37:50.871
Yeah, no, no.

00:37:50.871 --> 00:38:02.590
I I wanted obviously the pale horse because I was going to read that, but I didn't have um time to go actually get it, get the yeah, physical form of the book and read it, and this one was the audiobook.

00:38:03.806 --> 00:38:06.755
It's funny because I know how we title these episodes.

00:38:06.755 --> 00:38:09.474
We usually just say Origin of Weird, and then what it is.

00:38:09.474 --> 00:38:18.157
This one has had so many other titles to it, and it's funny because I probably still would have landed on Behold a Pale Horse.

00:38:18.157 --> 00:38:23.447
But anyways, do you not remember that from the Bible?

00:38:23.447 --> 00:38:26.795
No Well, I suppose, All right, buffoons.

00:38:26.795 --> 00:38:28.197
That's it for today's episode.

00:38:28.905 --> 00:38:32.054
Buckle up, because we've got another historical adventure waiting for you.

00:38:32.054 --> 00:38:41.708
Next time Feeling hungry for more buffoonery, or maybe you have a burning question or a wild historical theory for us to explore hit us up on social media.

00:38:42.028 --> 00:38:46.398
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00:38:46.398 --> 00:38:50.974
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00:38:50.974 --> 00:38:52.376
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00:38:52.717 --> 00:39:02.376
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00:39:02.376 --> 00:39:04.913
Remember, the buffoonery never stops.