The Lizzie Borden Society archive

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1. "Prussic Acid"
Posted by Stefani on Apr-25th-02 at 12:05 AM

Just finished Pearson's Murder at Smutty Nose and Other Murders and there is this really interesting tale of a Miss Madeleine Smith of Glasgow, a prolific letter writer, who, in 1857, murdered the man she had been having a long-term relationship with---her parents did not like him as he was beneath her and quite obsessed as well with her. She was able to win the attention of a rich neighbor and the old boyfriend would not take no for an answer. So she decided to do him in.

"Madeleine's bedroom was in the basement, with a window near the sidewalk. Sometimes, of nights, when it was impracticable to go within, the lover stood at the window, and was cheered by the words of his sweetheart, and also by cups of coffee or chocolate which she passed out to him for his greater refreshment." She took this pattern to use against him as he was threatening to expose her to her family by showing them her letters to him over the years.

Since she had made several attempts to break it off with him and could not, she decided to kill him. Get this, she first went to the chemist's and asked for prussic acid---'for her hands.' The dealer refused to supply it."

She then "made two calls upon a chemist in Glasgow, to buy arsenic" to kill rats. They allowed her this poison and it was by this manner that she did him in.


I had never before Lizzie heard of someone trying to buy prussic acid and then being linked or accused of murder. This murder happened three years before Lizzie was born. Of significance, I think, is that this murderess ONLY wanted to poison her beau, not axe him or shoot him or hit him to death. Once the decision was made to use poison, she had to just find the right one. I think it is rare for a killer to change method once the decision is made to do the deed, unless of course, expediency rules.

I have this case in many of my Anthologies.  But instead of getting up, I went to the web.

http://www.fix.law-firm.co.uk

She was ONLY 22! 

"...By the end of the trial, in spite of the widespread belief in her guilt, sympathy had swung towards Madeleine and the crowds cheered when news of the Not Proven verdict reached the street.
Madeleine was free to leave the court but never was she free from suspicion. ..."

What crossed my mind when reading these two posts about buying poison is that both in other era's and now people (women in these cases) who want prussic acid for crime don't seem to be aware they are leaving a trail for someone to follow, either a paper trail of their purchases or a memory trail of those who later remember the person asking or buying about something. The Lizzie case wasn't like "Gosford Park" where as the investigator said, the house was a poisoner's paradise.

It would be interesting as a test to try to think of someone you could possibly murder for some reason, no doubt this would be in a moment of wild imagination, and come up with how you would go about it. Would you be smart enough to not bop right up to the chemist or druggist and ask for a poison known never to be sold to ordinary people without being in disguise in a small town where you are known, or buy it at a store which kept receipts of purchases?  Or would you figure out how you could get your "weapon" of choice so there would be no trace? Perhaps getting caught is the difference between the amateur and the professional, luck, or bad evidence collection. Unfortunately, the victim is just as dead.

Cyanide is a quick-acting poison that is NOT functional for any kind of stealth poisoning. It is the ingredient of WW II "L-pills" for intelligence agents. The faster it kills, the more painful. Strychnine is another alkaloid poison that kills painfully.

Arsenic kills more slowly, it can be mistaken for "cholera morbus" in olden times. It is also detectable since the late 18th century.

IF Lizzie did try to buy cyanide, it could only be for self-defense against the visit of a mad, violent visitor. Or for suicide. In any case, the Bordens were murdered by violent means, NOT by stealth.

Andy's keeping year-old hay is consistent with keeping days old fish, even when they were all getting sick from their meals. A sign of declining judgment, or senility.