The Indiana State sentinel. [volume] (Indianapolis) 1868-1895, 1893-07-12
POISON IN HISTORY.

Sixteen Chinese emperors are reported to
have died by poison.
Nearly forty Turkish suItans and Arabian
caBphs died by poison.
Nero tried to poison himself to escape
execution, but the dose was not sufficient.
Nearly 200 Greek generals and statesmen
are named who committed suicide with
poison.
Veronese the painter. was poisoned by an
he had clouded by boasting Of his famil
iarity with her.
Messalina was an adapt in removing her
enemies by secret poison. She poisoned
over 100 persons before she was herself put
10 death.
a wholesale poisoner was Mary Ann Cot
ton OF Durham, Eng, who in 1872 poisoned
sixteen persons. mostly children. She was
tried and executed.
The most noted female prisoners, Cleo
patra, Lucrezea Borgia and Nine. Brin-
villers' were blondes, with fair complex
ions, yellow or tawny hair and eyes gray or
blue.
The names of seventeen Roman emperors
of the West and twenty-five emperors of
the East are preserved who are supposed to
have died at the hands Of the secret poi
soner.
For nearly twenty years Hannibal anti
concealed in a finger ring. He finally took
II TO avoid falling into the hands Of the
Romans.
Mithridates took antidotes as regularly as
protecting him that il was said he had, in
the course of his life swallowed enough
poison to kill hundred men.
OF the sixty-four popes who met violent
death in one form or another no less than
eighteen died by secret poisoning: two of
them by accidentally taking POISON they had
intended for others.
One of the most remarkable poisoners of
our own times was Sarah Gresham, who
murdered her husband, her children and
several relatives and other persons in
1901. She executed after three weeks
trial
Mohammed was always on his guard
against poison, but in spite of all his pre-
cautions was once poisoned by "a Jewish
mistress, Zainb She administered the poi
son in a leg of mutton, and although it did
not kill the prophet, he for many years suf-
fered from its effects
The Roman expresses and princesses,
Theodosiay Julia Donna, and Sabina and
Oners of their respective times. The last
named was the first tutor of Nero in the
art, and made him acquainted with not a
services of LocuSta.
After the death OF James l. OF England.
the populace took the notion that he had
instigstion Of Tiiiiers. a quack doctor
named Lamb was suspected of having fur
n fd1h the fatal al dose, and vas literally
broad daylight before the police could inter-
fere.
In 1913. duke of Curse, wished to get rid
Of an enemy named Apnese. He offered
soldier a rich reward il he would lie In
wait and stab Annese in the back With
assassination, and he was soldier, not an
assassin. A compromise was affected. He
was willing to take the money and have
Annese poisoned. but not to assassinate
him The money was paid and Annese was
poisoned.
Both the Faustnas ANNA Galeria
Faustina, and the wife of Antonio Plus
and ANNA Faustina, the wife of Marcus
Aurelius, added poisoning to their vices,
and many were the murders they COM
mitted in this manner. Each after death
was made q goddess by her bereaved hus-
band, and the Roman empire ordered
TO worship two Of the most skillful adopts
in the prisoners arts.
The greatest Roman poisoner was Lo-
custa Her chief patron was Nero. but she
had also as customers most of the leading
families in Rome, and so prosperous was
her business that her wealth became
proverb. Prof1gate sons were poisoned by
| their fathers wealthy fathers by their sons
old wives by their young husbands, old
| husbands by their young wives. Nero and
| Locusta often tried the effects of a new
poison on slaves provided by the emperor.
IL was Locusta who furnished the poison
| that ridded Nero Of his teacher. Burrhus.
In 1881 the discovery was made in En-
| gland that Richard Coke, the cook Of the
| bishop of Rochester, had poisoned seven
| teen persons, designing, at one stroke, TO
| rid himself of a number of personal enc
mics. Two of his victims died, the others
| recovered The crime was so novel in En-
| gland, and deemed so horrible, that all eN-
| listing punlshments were considered IN
adequate, and the punishment of boiling TO
death was imported from the continent TO
meet the emergency. The cook was boiled I.
| so, also. was Margaret Davy, who. In 1872
attempted in a similar way to dispose of
her rival in love. The law was repealed in
| 1547.
The beginning of the eighteenth century
/ witnessed epidemic of poisoning in
France as well as Italy. The business was
begun in France By two Italian posoners
| named Exili and CHASER. The poisoners
were discovered by the aid or the clergy
| Exili and CHASER were sent TO the bastile
| where they both died. The latter lived
long enough however. to communicate the
| secrets OF his business to the Infamous St
| Croix, who became the teacher of the
/ equally Infamous Nine. Brinvilliers. St
Croix was instrumental in the death of a
| large number of persons, and finally was
/ himself found dead in his laboratory,
/ where he had been overcome by the noX-
/ ious vapors of the poisons he dis
/ filling.