© AP Photo/File FILE - This Jan. 1976 photo shows the Rev. Jim Jones, pastor of peoples Temple in San Francisco. On Nov. 18, 1978, Jones orchestrated a ritual of mass murder and suicide in Jonestown, Guyana. Bodies of 911 massacre victims were brought to Dover Air… When it comes to homicidal poisons, cyanide usually isn’t a good choice.
Cyanide is difficult for the average person to acquire; the would-be poisoner must mask cyanide’s super bitter taste; and the physical effects are dramatic and distinctive, said Deborah Blum, a University of Wisconsin journalism professor who wrote “The Poisoner’s Handbook.” She followed the case of Robert Ferrante, convicted of killing his wife Autumn Klein with cyanide last year.
That case attracted national media attention partly because cyanide murders are rare. Only eight people died from deliberate cyanide poisoning in 2013, including several suicides, according to the American Association of Poison Centers. A second fatal cyanide poisoning in Pittsburgh last year, the November death of molecular biologist Nicole Kotchey, 35, at her Magee-Womens Hospital office, was recently ruled a suicide. There are about 2.4 million poison exposures each year, and in 2013 only 294 were from cyanide, most of those occupational exposures, according to the association.
There is nevertheless a long history of famous cyanide poisonings, from KGB assassinations, to Nazi leaders’ suicide, to deaths of Jonestown cult followers in 1978 to the never-solved 1983 Tylenol murders in Chicago. Ms. Blum said “death by peach” has been translated from Egyptian hieroglyphics, in a likely reference to cyanide found in peach pits.
Cyanide is a natural poison that also exists inside apricot pits and apple seeds, with traces in lima beans, cassava and almonds. It is used to make paper, textiles, and plastics. That’s why people can die from inhaling smoke containing cyanide during building fires.
It also is used in chemicals to develop photographs, for electroplating and metal cleaning, removing gold from its ore and exterminating vermin.
Cyanide, arsenic, and strychnine are considered to be the big three poisons. Government restrictions on the sale of cyanide, however, make it difficult for the average person to obtain. That limited access narrows the field of suspects when a cyanide poisoning does occur.
Ms. Blum, whose book describes the then-new forensic science used in the early 1900s to solve poison murders in New York City, said that cyanide affects certain enzyme and biological processes, blocking cells from using oxygen, resulting in chemical strangulation. Symptoms can include dizziness, turning red, convulsions and an odor of almonds detectable to some. It can kill in 10 to 20 minutes, with unconsciousness preceding death. In cases that don’t cause quick death, pathologists may find a buildup of lactic acid in the victim’s muscles, which is the same acid present in athletes’ muscles after extreme exertion.
“This is not a garden-variety poison,” Ms. Blum said.
According to Occupational Safety and Health Administration standards, safe exposure can’t exceed 10 parts per million, with health dangers beginning at 50 ppm. Levels of 150 ppm and higher are potentially fatal, said Barbara Insley Crouch, executive director of the Utah Poison Control Center and a professor at University of Utah’s College of Pharmacy.
Even non-lethal exposures are “scary,” she said, “because cyanide is such a potent poison.”
Cyanide can be a gas (as in hydrogen cyanide), bound with sugar molecules in plants or exist as corrosive salts or acid. Sodium cyanide and potassium cyanide (the type used to kill Dr. Klein) are white powders.
Hydrogen cyanide was used in Nazi extermination camps and vials of cyanide were used in Nazi leaders’ suicides as Russian troops approached in 1945.
In the 1950s, the KGB used cyanide gas shot from a spraygun to kill Ukrainian opposition leaders, according to the Wall Street Journal.
In Jonestown, Guyana, in 1978, 912 members of the Peoples Temple led by Jim Jones died of a Kool-Aid-like drink laced with potassium cyanide after U.S. Rep. Leo Ryan was killed while rescuing cult members.
Eight people died in 1983 in Chicago from random containers of Tylenol spiked with cyanide. It led to tamper-resistant packaging for over-the-counter medications. The poisoner was never found.
In 2013, poachers in Zimbabwe dumped cyanide from local gold-mining operations into a watering hole, killing about 300 elephants, along with countless other safari animals, according to news reports. Others died from eating the poisoned animals.
While there are no undetectable poisons, homicide poisonings are argued in great detail in court cases because such tiny amounts are needed for a fatal dose, making it difficult to recover definitive information from tests of tissue or blood samples, Ms. Blum said.
Although the cyanide in Autumn Klein’s system could have gone undetected had doctors not decided to test for it, the fact that Robert Ferrante had access to it in his lab and placed an order for it right before the death strengthened the case against him.
“He picked the wrong poison,” Ms. Blum said.
