Lore Episode 302: Bedside Manner

Host: Aaron Mahnke
Date: March 23, 2026

Overview

In this episode, Aaron Mahnke explores the long, shadowy history of caregiving gone wrong, focusing on the chilling phenomenon of medical and caretaker murderers. Through true crime tales, ancient history, and folklore, Mahnke unravels the uneasy overlap between healing and harming, and how trust can easily be transformed into horror when placed in the wrong hands. Using the stories of notorious poisoners like Bertha Gifford, Amy Archer Gilligan, and Lydia Sherman, he examines how those entrusted with our most vulnerable can sometimes become our greatest threats. The episode ends with the unsettling case of Frederick Morse, offering a rare example of a male caretaker killer.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Shifting Line Between Healing and Harming (00:54–04:45)

• Mahnke opens by comparing rival Victorian patent medicines (Godfrey’s Cordial and Dalby’s Carminative), both designed to calm infants but laced with dangerous quantities of opium.
  • "All throughout history, the line between helping and hurting hasn't always been as clear as you might think." (01:37)
• The risk of harm by those trusted as healers is introduced with the phrase, "the only difference between a medicine and a poison is the size of the dose." (02:14)
• This theme sets up the motif for the episode: trust in caregivers is deeply embedded in human society, but that trust can be fatally misplaced.

2. Caregiving in Human History — Compassion and Magic (04:48–09:34)

• Archaeological evidence shows that even ancient humans cared for their wounded and sick, with Neanderthal skeletons showing extensive survival post-injury (04:48).
• Discusses ancient and medieval healing methods, blending medicine and magic:
  • "In Cornwall, children with rickets were handed through the branches of a maple tree, and then the tree would take on their illness." (06:02)
  • Descriptions of magical and ritualistic cures in Assyria, England, South Sea islands, Inuit culture, and the mythic caladrias bird.
• Explains the dual roles of healing and harmful gods, from the Aztec god Pate Caatl to the Greek Apollo and the Egyptian Sekhmet, tying it thematically to human uncertainty and fear about where healing ends and harm begins.

3. Caretaker Killers — Poison, Insurance, and Casualties (09:42–26:55)

a. Bertha Gifford (09:42–11:33)

• Missouri nurse in the early 20th century who poisoned at least 17 patients with arsenic.
• Motives unclear – possibly a misguided belief in the healing power of arsenic.
  • Notable quote: "The county sheriff did have one theory. He believed that Bertha... attributed some mystical healing power to arsenic." (11:24)

b. Amy Archer Gilligan (11:34–13:45)

• Ran an elderly care home in Connecticut; after financial trouble, she offered expensive ‘lifetime care’ and hastened patient death using arsenic, leading to a high turnover.
  • "Her patients must have thought so as well, because they jumped at the opportunity to occupy one of the home's limited 20 beds. Unfortunately... the shorter their lives were, the more money Amy would make." (12:06)
• Her case inspired the play and film ‘Arsenic and Old Lace.’
• Labeled by the press as the orchestrator of a “murder factory.”

c. Lydia Sherman – “The Arch Murderess of Connecticut” (13:46–26:55)

• The most detailed story in the episode, taking up nearly half its running time.
• Lydia systematically poisoned three husbands and at least seven children (total of ten), evading suspicion due to the high child mortality rates of her era and the public’s faith in caregivers.
• Her method: discreet arsenic poisoning, often through gruel or tea.
• Folklore and superstition are interwoven, noting Lydia’s Christmas Eve birth as a “sorrow child.”
  • “So much of Lydia’s story feels like a dark fairy tale. She’s an evil stepmother, worse than Snow White’s, a spouse killer to rival Bluebeard.” (25:11)
• After her crimes came to light and a media spectacle trial, she confessed (albeit partially) and was sentenced to life imprisonment, where she eventually died after a failed escape attempt (26:06).
  • Ironic ending: “She spent her last days suffering from horrible nausea… in the end, when her final moments arrived, Lydia Sherman was forced to endure the very same symptoms that she had once inflicted upon all her victims.” (26:40)

d. The Emotional Core

• Mahnke reflects on the fundamental betrayal inherent to these stories: “Sometimes the people we trust to heal us end up doing just the opposite.” (25:55)
• Reinforces the primal human need to care for the vulnerable, with caretaker poisons representing “one of the most essential parts of our humanity” twisted to evil.

4. Male Caretaker Poisoner: Frederick Morse (33:01–39:23)

• After ads, Mahnke tells the story of Frederick Morse (Frederick Benno), an Austrian immigrant who confessed in 1915 to killing eight patients at a nursing home in New York.
  • “My name, he said, was Frederick Morse—a name I bestowed upon myself after arriving in New York the previous year. Morse, he explained, meant death. ‘I wanted my past to be dead…’” (33:21)
• Colleagues reported eerie behavior and open threats, but Morse insisted he acted out of compassion, comparing mercy killing to “putting a child to sleep.” (35:07)
• After being declared mentally unfit, he escaped a psychiatric hospital and vanished. Years later, his identity was rediscovered, and his probable skull was found in the woods, alongside a medicine bottle.
• The episode closes with a final note of dark irony: Frederick had worked in a factory producing first aid supplies, the literal tools of healing.

Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On the strangeness of medical remedies:
  • “The only difference between a medicine and a poison is the size of the dose.” — Aaron Mahnke (02:14)
• Regarding ancient caretaking:
  • “Caring for one another is part of what makes us human… For much of human history, that fact was inextricably linked to magic.” — Aaron Mahnke (04:45)
• On Bertha Gifford’s motives:
  • “She attributed some mystical healing power to arsenic.” — County Sheriff, as quoted by Aaron Mahnke (11:24)
• On the dangers of misplaced trust:
  • “What Lydia and her kindred killers did, it wasn’t just evil. It went against one of the most essential parts of our humanity.” — Aaron Mahnke (25:42)
• On compassion and murder:
  • “When you give an old person chloroform […] it frees them from all pain. It is humane and kind-hearted.” — Frederick Morse (35:07)
• On the resonance of these stories:
  • “I personally find the breaking of trust to be the most frightening part of this legendary trope from the world of murder.” — Aaron Mahnke (26:49)

Timestamps for Important Segments

| Time | Segment | |-----------|------------------------------------------------------| | 00:54 | Victorian opium-laced “Mother’s Friends” medicine | | 04:45 | Archaeological evidence of early human caregiving | | 06:00 | Magical and ritual healing across cultures | | 09:42 | Bertha Gifford: the nurse arsenic poisoner | | 11:34 | Amy Archer Gilligan’s deadly nursing home | | 13:46 | Lydia Sherman: detailed descent into serial murder | | 25:11 | Lydia Sherman as a “dark fairy tale” archetype | | 26:40 | Lydia’s poetic justice and legacy | | 33:01 | Frederick Morse, the confessing caretaker killer | | 39:23 | Reflection and episode conclusion |

Thematic Summary

• Trust and Betrayal: The episode dwells on the fundamental horror of caretakers—those we expect to heal and protect us—becoming the greatest agents of harm, a motif pervasive across time.
• Gender and Stereotype: While the phenomenon of women as caretakers-turned-murderers dominated headlines in the past, Mahnke closes by proving men too can betray this trust.
• Folklore and Reality: Ancient beliefs in magic, healing, and the duality of medicine mirror the dark true crime realities of caretaker poisoners.

Final Notes

This episode of Lore masterfully winds through history, folklore, and true crime, painting a chilling portrait of misplaced trust. With its signature blend of macabre intrigue and thoughtful reflection, Mahnke invites listeners to reconsider the history of bedside manner, and the razor-thin line between care and harm.

“It’s true. We have been caring for the most vulnerable members of our society since ancient times. […] So what Lydia and her kindred killers did, it wasn’t just evil. It went against one of the most essential parts of our humanity.”
— Aaron Mahnke (25:37)