The daily morning journal and courier. [volume] (New Haven, Conn.) 1894-1907, 1900-12-20
YICTIMSOF KNOCKOUT DROPS
NOW CHLORAL-HYDR rs NOW
USED
Eor Purposes of Robbery and Worse
In New York City.

that in some instance pills are used by
men and women but the more common
form of the drug or drugs used Is the
liquid form, which is more convenient
and less likely to be detected by the
prospective victims. The Supplying
dose is carried in a small phial which
may easily be concealed in the hand
which holds a bottle from which a con-
vivial drink is to be poured, and some
of all of it's contents are allowed to run
into the victims drink. In New York
the result of the work of knock out
drops among men and women, accord
ing to the freely made statements of the
police, are appalling.
The fact that Knockout drops have
been extensively used in the borough of
Manhattan for the past two years is
well known to physicians about town.
Time and again they have been called
to attend patients who had returned to
their homes in dazed condition, and
in not few of the cases the patients
have died for the reason that the per-
son administering the drug was not ia
miliar enough with it to know the safe
limits of dose. Nearly all the physi
clans connected with the coroner's office
have been called upon to perform au-
topsies upon bodies of persons who
died from an overdose of the drug but
in these cases it has been difficult for
the police to get evidence on which to
base a conviction.
Many men found unconscious in the
street and taken to a hospital are sup
posed to be suffering from alcoholism.
When it is too late to render relief, the
discovery is made that the man has
been drugged and is suffering from
some sort of poison that seems to puz-
zle the physicians at the hospital.
When death finally results in a case of
this kind, the coroners physician finds
from his autopsy that death was due
to the fact that the patient had a weak
heart. Heart failure they call it in
most of the cases. but if the physician
who performed the autopsy had been
familiar with the history of the case he
would promptly have said the cause of
death was a dose of choral too strong
for the person to whom it was admin
istered.
DR.. Philip O'Hanlon, who has been
connected with the coroners office for
many years, is Of the opinion that hun
dreds of men die in this city every year.
after having been the victims of knock
out drops. DR.. O'Hanlon was one of
the persons instrumental in procuring
the law that makes it a crime to have
knock-drops in ones possession.
What is commonly known as knock
out drops is choral hydrate" said DR..
O'Hanlon. From fifteen to thirty
grains of it produces a sleep that lasts
three hours. OF course the sleep is
deeper is the drug is administered in
larger amounts. Then 1t produces
state of coma. Fatal syncope some
times may occur. Choral hydrate acts
as a hypnotic on the BRAIN but when
the heart is weak it kills. nave
known of cases where thirty grains
proved fatal, although the crooks about
town who make use of it usually adj
minister much more than thirty grains
They dissolve the crystals in water and
often compound the mixture by rough
guess that is bound to result fatally to
the person who gets a dose"
In at least fifty drug stores in this
town stranger can buy choral n.y.
drate without a physicians prescrip-
ton Some of the druggists know what
use 1t Is to be put to at the time they
sell it, but they charge two or three
dollars for an ounce bottle of the mix
ture, and so long as they get a good
price for it they ask no questions.
There are two drug stores in Manhat-
tan that are thriving on the sale of
choral hydrate. Their customers are
rIn oh ion Of Ir1Io
ging and robbng men who come to !
New York to see the town. The thieves
have their headquarters in Chinatown,
and get in much of their work in that
part of the city. They work in conjunc- |
ton with the proprietors Of cheap totels |
in the vicinity of Chatham square, and |
divide their booty with them.
In the Tenderloin district there are |
many young women who use choral |
hydrate for the purpose of carrying out |
their plans Of robbery Most of them |
have been taught to use it by the men |
with whom they associate, in many in
stances cabmen who have made a prac-
tice of drugging strangers in the motel
district. The young woman selects the
victim and drugs him while sitting in
one of the uptown saloons or smoking |
parlors The victim selected is usually |
a man who has been drinking heavily. |
The woman orders bottled beer, and
volunteers to pour it into her compan-
ions glass. 1t is while doing this that
she holds a small bottle of choral in
her hand and pours the choral into the
glass with the beer. A few minutes
later, after the victim has swallowed
the contents of the glass, he becomes
dazed He stands up to go, and imag-
ines he's intoxicated. The cabman who
is in the game is near at hand. The
woman calls waiter, says her friend is
drunk and asks the waiter to help him
into the cab at the door The robbery
occurs later in the cab, probably while
the cab is being driven through Cen
trail Park. After the woman gets pos
session of the victims money and jew
elry she informs the cabman, who
drives through a dark street, The vic
tim is lifted out and left on a stoop or
lying on the sidewalk only to be found
later by The policeman on post, who
sends for the patrol wagon In some
cases the victim is taken to a hospital.
In other cases he aWakes to find him
self arraigned in court on a charge of
intoxication.
Rut that is Only one of the WAYS the