Anth 245 1st Edition Lecture 18Outline of Last Lecture- Forensic Pathology - Coroner versus Medical Examiner - ME versus Coroner US - Roles of a Forensic pathologistOutline of Current Lecture- Jackson Couple Poisoning- Charles Norris- The risk of tetraethyl gasolineCurrent LectureFilm - The poisoners handbook 3/23/15 1922 -999 New Yorkers died of poisoning - think the Jackson couple is a poisoning - can't find poison in the apartment - New York's chief medical examiner - Charles Norris - Columbia University - Traditionally handled by city coroners often hired by the mayor and could be anyone - got paid bythe body so tried to do as many as possible or as quickly as possible - could make money by selling cause of death - Medical-legal justice system in America - what Norris wanted - also mayor hated him - Toxicology lab - first of its kind in the country - Alexander Getler - chemist - Signs that it was a Cyanide poisoning - blue lips reddish rash - Cyanide interferes with body's ability to process oxygen - chemical suffocation - Look for trace amount of cyanide in the stomach - Detect cyanide by adding chemicals to turn it a deep blue - All tests negative - Gastric contents negative - so must be an inhalation? - Hydrogen cyanide often used to fumigate for rate - really deadly gas - Jackson case - murderers got off but Getler went back to the lab did a lot of work - so good, it's still cited today - The great war - the chemists war - after that increased regulation for chemical warfare- Charles - ill for a few weeks started vomiting and having seizures - found arsenic in the body - she had taken out an insurance policy on his life - She says he poisoned himself over a lost love - got acquitted - exhumed bodies of her husbands parents - arsenic in the mother-in-laws body - mother-in-law was taking medication - bismath - found not guilty because Getler made the case for no arsenic poisoning - Getler and Norris opposed to prohibition - predicted people would still look for liquor and now much of it would be poison - people distilled saw dust and furniture - produces poisons that destroy the optic nerve - methanol - seizures and then a coma - 1924 Norris came up against one of the most lucrative poison (this means it will make him more enemies) - Employees of gas building - makes people delirious and have memory problems - Victims had all been working on leaded gasoline - lead one of the oldest known poisons - gas company used tetraethyl lead but didn't want to say lead so they called it ethyl gasoline - but tetraethyl lead is easily absorbed into the body - GM had a huge stake in this - NYC then New Jersey then PA banned tetraethyl gasoline - Coolidge was president and his panel recommended gloves masks and other precautions for workers and said the publics exposure was too small to be of concern - soon ethyl was in over 90% of gas - ME says women who was cut in half and stabbed was dead already from carbon monoxide poisoning - Carbon monoxide poisoning flushes the skin a cherry pink and stains blood a brilliant
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