Poisoned Lives

<br/><p>From Mary Ann Cotton the Victorian serial murderess to Dr Crippen poisoners have attracted a celebrity unmatched by violent killers. Secretly administered often during a family meal arsenic (the most commonly-used poison) led to a slow and agonising death while strychnine (with its characteristic bitter taste) killed very quickly. <i>Poisoned Lives</i> is the first history of the crime to examine poisoning and its consequences as a whole. Unwanted husbands wives or lovers illegitimate babies children killed for the insurance money relatives rivals and employers were amongst the many victims of these calculating killers. Difficult to detect before 1800 poison undoubtedly had its heyday in the nineteenth century. In response to many suspected cases forensic tests were developed that made detection increasingly likely and the sale of poisons became more tightly controlled. Because of this twentieth-century poisoning has become a crime largely associated with medical professionals including most recently Dr Harold Shipman the world's most prolific serial killer.</p>