The Poisoner's Handbook Chapter 1 Summary

The investigative details of the Pamela Foddrill case remained very similar to criminal theory in most ways, but not all. In Lyman’s Criminal Investigations, there are eight steps detailed

    During the 1893 Columbian Exposition, H.H. Holmes was one of the first serial killers of America. Holmes would lure his victims into his building which he transformed into his “murder castle.” First he would manipulate his victims by coming off as a

While investigations were going on to determine how victims died, there was a discovery of fibers on the victims’ bodies. The goal of the investigator was to determine if any fibers in Wayne Williams home or person matched those fibers found on the victims. Williams denied killing

During the construction of the “Castle” Holmes hired a carpenter named Benjamin Pitezal as his assistant because Holmes deemed him to be unintelligent and easily manipulated due to alcoholism. The victims Holmes prayed on were generally young single woman with no social ties. Holmes used a variety of methods to kill the victims. After killing the individuals; Holmes stripped the corpses of flesh and paid an individual to assemble the bones into skeleton models to sell to medical colleges for money (Wilson & Seaman, 2011). When Holmes failed to pay his debtors he and his assistant went on the run. Holmes was arrested for fraud and bonded out, however while in his jail cell he bragged to another inmate about the insurance fraud who would later reveal the crime and link to the serial killers crimes. The pair moved state to state committing frauds and petty crimes. Holmes convinced Pitezal to fake his own death so the two could collect on a $10,000.00 in another fraudulent life insurance scheme (Schmid, 2006). Holmes turned on his assistant killing not only him, but three of his young children as well. Pitezals wife alerted authorities to her missing children and husband, she was informed the remains of her husband were discovered and the realization of what had occurred with her family was uncovered. Later the

Crime and glimpses into the heads of criminal masterminds has always been something that fascinates people. Although crime is a terrible thing, the complexity and intricacy of it is something that people love to hear about. One can turn on the news at any given time and almost certainly hear an account of some form of a crime within ten minutes. In the novel In Cold Blood by Truman Capote, an account to a perplexing crime is taken to a whole new level. The Clutter family was a charming family of four that lived in the little town of Holcomb, Kansas. They were brutally murdered with no apparent motive by Dick Hickock and Perry Smith, two men that had

An emergency call came in at 9:45 am made by Doug Greene who is a neighbor of the victim Anna Garcia claiming that he had not seen Anna Garcia since her normal morning walk at 6:30 am the previous morning and that the dog had been barking for 2 hours, he had also mentioned that Anna Garcia was wearing a sweater when he had seen her the previous morning while experiencing a 92 degree heat wave. Mr.Greene had called Anna’s telephone with no answer, and had also rang the doorbell with no answer. The EMT and local police had arrived to the scene at 9:56 am, needing to break the door down. EMS discovered Anna Garcia laying face down, dead.

It was the midst of day, June 30, 20--; an ill-pleasuring mess had been proposed to the police of Detroit. The corpse of an old, clumsy, joke of a gentlemen, found covered in newspaper dumped into a dumpster. The corpse was dismantled, mangled, and at the same time of many other killings. The detective, Ms. Liu, immediately concluded the cause of death and the murder weapon.

Victims number 6 and 10 were both found with matching substances, in their bloodstream and pocket, respectively, composed of 75.42% carbon, 6.63% hydrogen, 8.38% nitrogen, and 9.57% oxygen (Table 2). The steps described above to find the molecular formula were taken, and the molecular formula was found to be C21H22N2O2, or strychnine, commonly known as rat poisoning, a substance highly toxic to humans. From this data, it can be concluded that victim number 10 had murdered victim number 6 with the strychnine, as it was found in victim 10’s pocket and victim 6’s bloodstream, and anyone with any common knowledge or with the ability to read knows not to ingest rat poisoning, making it obvious that victim 6 was murdered. To identify the two victims, any other substances found on their person and in their personal luggage had to be identified and then matched with any prior knowledge of the victims. Victim 6, the murder victim, was found two other substances: C14H18N2O5 , aspartame, and C8H10N4O2 , caffeine, (page 7). Both of these two substances are found in Diet Coke, something the mother of Miley Cyrus said she never travelled without, (page 8). Furthermore, in the luggage of victim 10, a substance with the molecular formula of C12H17NO (page 7), also known as DEET or insect repellent was found. Based off of this evidence, coupled with family interviews, victim

In Truman Capote’s book, In Cold Blood, the killer of the Clutter family known as Perry was believed to have no motive behind the killing. Perry then goes on to say that he has killed someone before in Las Vegas with his only reason being for “the hell of it” (54), which confirms he does not know why he does what he does. However, the book explores Perry’s past of trauma and family issues, which ensues his motive behind the murder of the Clutters (132). It makes this a story of how a person who has experienced trauma encounters himself as a psychopath and what he does to compensate for his dissatisfaction, just as Zimbardo’s test subjects have. Both claims made by Perry and Dr. Zimbardo further encourage the belief that the surroundings of people are causes of psychopathy.

Merits: The respondent, Daniel Murphy, was convicted by a jury in an Oregon court of the second-degree murder of his wife. The victim died by strangulation in her home in the city of Portland, and abrasions and lacerations were found on her throat. There was no sign of a break-in or robbery. Word of the murder was sent to the estranged husband, Daniel Murphy. Upon receiving the message, Murphy promptly telephoned the Portland police and voluntarily came into Portland for questioning. Shortly after the respondent’s arrival at the station house, where he was met by retained counsel, the

This case is of interest to both myself and society because Truscott was wrongly convicted based on the limited scientific knowledge available in 1959, and the police’s tunnel vision. They were so adamant on finding the killer that they became fixated on Truscott as the only suspect, and did’t bother widening their search. Because of this, evidence was tampered to frame Truscott. What happened to Truscott was a miscarriage of justice, which affects society’s confidence in the legal system, and it undermines the criminal justice system’s legitimacy.

This is an attempt to unravel the tangle by an objective and empirical examination of information from crime scene and post mortem examination of the victims. Pre-digested information such as speculative newspaper reports, and statements from witnesses other than those called in a professional capacity have been avoided since theirs is largely subjective testimony that confounds more than it informs.

“They tend to share certain key characteristics. They're manipulative, cold, and lack what we might call a moral compass--they know right from wrong but are not invested in that distinction. Their only concern with their ‘wrong’ behavior is getting caught, but because they are deceitful, callous and not subject to anxiety, they easily elude capture” (Spikol, 5). These sort of criminals were ones that the Chicago Police Department had never been introduced to before, causing them to change their entire perspective on cases once Holmes’ had passed. According to John Bartlow Martin, a writer for the “Harper’s Archive”, Holmes’ murder castle was filled with trapdoors, gas chambers, secret passageways, and even pits of acid used to get rid of bodies and other pieces of evidence. These were all things that the law enforcers had never even heard of in a story, much less seen or thought of in real life. It’s safe to say that Holmes drastically affected the police’s outlook on the cases in the near, and even far, future of criminals after his mystery; or at least part of his mystery had been

Bell witnesses the progression of evil around his own county and the way things have taken a turn for the worse when he says: “This county has not had a unsolved homicide in forty-one years. Now we got nine of em in one week” (216).

On April 05, 2016 at approximately 1518 hours, I was dispatch to 2004 Pine Street in reference to a death investigation. Upon my arrival, I met with Detective Campbell who was the lead Investigator at the scene. Detective Campbell stated that the victim neighbors reported a strong smell coming from the victim’s (Cortiz Lazarz) residence. The neighbors called 911 and Officer Volk was the first responded officer on scene. Defective Campbell and officer Volk stated that the victim located on the living room floor, fazing the south from the residence. Detective Campbell requested I process the scene for evidence and documentation.