In 1891, a mysterious figure appeared on the streets of London, dispensing pills to poor young women who then died in agony. Suspicion came to center on a Scottish-Canadian doctor with a dark past in North America. In this week's episode of the Futility Closet podcast we'll describe the career of the Lambeth Poisoner, whose victims remain uncounted.

We'll also consider a Hungarian Jules Verne and puzzle over an ambiguous sentence.

Intro:

How can an investor responsibly divest herself of stock in a company that she feels has acted immorally?

Lightning can vitrify sand into rootlike tubes.

Sources for our feature on Thomas Neill Cream:

Dean Jobb, The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer, 2021.

Lee Mellor, Cold North Killers: Canadian Serial Murder, 2012.

Joshua A. Perper and Stephen J. Cina, When Doctors Kill: Who, Why, and How, 2010.

John H. Trestrail III, Criminal Poisoning: Investigational Guide for Law Enforcement, Toxicologists, Forensic Scientists, and Attorneys, 2007.

Angus McLaren, A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream, 1995.

Paula J. Reiter, "Doctors, Detectives, and the Professional Ideal: The Trial of Thomas Neill Cream and the Mastery of Sherlock Holmes," College Literature 35:3 (Summer 2008), 57-95.

Ian A. Burney, "A Poisoning of No Substance: The Trials of Medico-Legal Proof in Mid-Victorian England," Journal of British Studies 38:1 (January 1999), 59-92.

Penelope Johnston, "The Murderous Ways of Dr Thomas Neill Cream," Medical Post 33:38 (Nov. 11, 1997), 47.

Carolyn A. Conley, "A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream by Angus McLaren," American Historical Review 99:3 (June 1994), 899-900.

Philippa Levin, "Modern Britain -- A Prescription for Murder: The Victorian Serial Killings of Dr. Thomas Neill Cream by Angus McLaren," Canadian Journal of History 28:3 (December 1993), 595-597.

E.H. Bensley, "McGill University's Most Infamous Medical Graduate," Canadian Medical Association Journal 109:10 (1973), 1024.

"A Crazy Poisoner," British Medical Journal 1:3302 (April 12, 1924), 670.

Michael Dirda, "A True-Crime Columnist Turns His Attention to Victorian-Era Serial Killer Thomas Neill Cream," Washington Post, Aug. 11, 2021.

Evan F. Moore,

363-The Lambeth Poisoner

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