Chapter 8: Cyanide and the Death on the Nile

The murder in the chapter I read was the case of Cheryl Lewis. Her boyfriend at the time, Frederick Allan, killed her by using cyanide. Allan had been married and divorced twice before he met Cheryl. Allan and Cheryl decided to go on a holiday vacation in Egypt and on their last night, Allan poured her a gin and tonic, in which he added cyanide and within minutes she was in pain. In order to make it seem like Allan actually cared about Cheryl he ran to the receptionists’ desk in the hotel to get help. They got the doctor to come and once he realized that it was too late for him to help her, they called an ambulance and she was pronounced dead. Her skin had a little pigment of blue to it and Cheryl’s parents issued an autopsy to find out the exact cause of her death. The only symptom that Cheryl actually showed was an inflamed stomach by some corrosive agent. This was weird because she didn’t have the same inflammation in her mouth. This murder was very complicated because cyanide disappears from the body after death, making it hard to detect what her actual cause of death was. Because cyanide exists in cigarettes and Cheryl was a smoker, Allan could just blame the cyanide in her body from that.

Allan was so soul less that he actually changed Cheryl’s will in order to benefit himself and hopefully inherit everything she had, which is a lot considering she had a lot of money. In order to cover his butt he reported that Cheryl’s Mercedes had been stolen.  When the police found the car they found two gold rings and bracelets and also four pieces of sodium cyanide, which looked tampered with because obviously Allan used them. With the will, Allan would inherit 450 000. Cheryl’s new will (that Allan made) was dated 1993 and Allan made a huge mistake by spelling Cheryl’s middle name Leslie when it is actually spelt Lesley. When interviewed, Allan changed his story multiple times in order to make his story seem true. He said she had a heroin overdose and that she was an addict, then he said he was framed by agents employed in the arms trade, and then he said he was framed by Cheryl’s ex-husband.

Obviously Allan was found guilty and was sentenced to life in prison with a strong recommendation that he remained in prison for a long time.

Another incident in which cyanide was used for murder was a Tylenol case. There was no rhyme or reason to it and they don’t even know what the person’s name was, but he purchased several bottles of Tylenol and replaced its contents with cyanide and then replaced the bottles on the shelves of stores. Many deaths followed this action. The bottles were placed on the shelves at the Arlington Heights and there was a 12 year old, a 27 year old, and a 25 year old that died from taking the Tylenol. There were also several more deaths in the Chicago area, where a man named Michael Shaffer finally looked at the capsules and found that some of the pills contained potassium cyanide.

They had two suspects and the first one could not have been linked to the murders, but he was caught with firearms and was sent to jail, how unfortunate. The second suspect was arrested but for fraud, not the Tylenol case. Four months after this incident there was another murder, which resulted in a second recall. A woman named Stella had changed the capsules in an Excedrin bottle to kill her husband, and like the woman that she is, she did it for money. She had taken out three life insurances for a total of $71 000 and then another $100 000 if it was proven to be accidental. She was eventually found guilty and sentenced to 90 years in prison.

“Every month the chemical industry manufactures enough hydrogen cyanide to kill every person on the planet” (1). Cyanide is toxic because it binds to the iron atom present in the active site of an enzyme, which happens in the cell mitochondria. The enzyme is known as cytochrome oxidase and it catalyzes the final stage of the oxidation of glucose by oxygen, making it essential for life (1). It is also what is known as an irreversible enzyme inhibitor, meaning once it binds to an iron atom, it cannot be removed unless by a chemical attack. When this happens, depending on how much cyanide was taken in, the person can acquire a headache, nausea, and/or eye and skin irritation (2). Symptoms like these occur based on how much cyanide is taken in; 10 ppm is a normal amount, 150 ppm for 30 minutes can endanger someone’s life and then 300 ppm is almost always death. Cyanide is very dangerous because it is one of the fastest acting of all poisons.

Cyanides are natural chemicals and the most deadly of all the cyanides is Hydrogen cyanide. Hydrogen cyanide can be deadly by just breathing it in. This type of cyanide could have been involved with the creation of life because in the 50s Miller and Urey performed an experiment to see how life actually started and in doing so, their results contained hydrogen cyanide, which later reacted and turned into more complex molecules. All cyanide ions form strong bonds with metals. This is because they form pi bonds and have negative charges.

Cyanide is formed by carbons and nitrogens being combined by a triple bond. This creates organic compounds known as nitriles. Its acidity is weak when dissolved in water. Cyanides are used in different products, such as cosmetics fire retardants, dyes, paints, different foods, plants, cigarettes, plastics and textiles (3). Adiponitrile is used to make nylon (polymer). About 15% of hydrogen cyanide is manufactured into sodium cyanide. Cyanide loses its toxicity when it forms a bond with a carbon atom in a larger molecule.

Cyanide is made by bacteria, fungi, algae, insects and plants (3). There are a couple different ways to treat cyanide exposure. Hydroxycobalamine is able to bind rapidly to the cyanide group, which is used in France a lot (1). 4-dimethylaminophenol acts more rapidly and has a lower residual toxicity. Kelocyanor uses cobalt to pick up the cyanide.

There are ways to protect yourself from cyanide even though it seems like ones it hits you its almost inevitable that you’re going to die. You can take off all your clothes and wash your entire body if you think you have been exposed and you can also leave a building immediately if you think there is cyanide in the air (3). It has also been said that sugar can protect a person from cyanide poisoning in order to form less toxic compounds.

 

1. Molecules of Murder book

2. http://emergency.cdc.gov/agent/cyanide/basics/facts.asp

3. http://www.epa.gov/ttn/atw/hlthef/cyanide.html

Chapter 7: Life & Death & CO: Carbon Monoxide and the Home-Made Gas Chamber

                Everyone knows what Carbon Monoxide is. They know it is the silent killer; there are no signs of it, mostly until it is too late. Everyone knows it comes out of cars or ovens or charcoal, but do people really know the effects and especially the long term effects of carbon monoxide exposure? In our “Molecules of Murder,” book, I read chapter seven, which had to do with Carbon Monoxide. There are many symptoms, detections and a whole lot of chemistry that comes with it. This murder mystery is about a man killing his five children.

               

Adair Garcia is the murderer behind this story. He and his six children had moved into a new house and one night he had just put his five children to bed. Garcia was very bitter because his wife had just left him and their family and would eventually divorce him. Garcia would have his children write his wife messages, so she would know they all still care about her. On that one night, Garcia had his children write their mom a message and then put them to sleep. Earlier in the day he had bought a bag of charcoal and matches. When they were in bed, Garcia closed all the windows and put blankets over the doors. He then lit the charcoal on a barbeque grill and put it in the passageway outside their bedroom. Then he went to bed and in the morning his five children had died from the carbon monoxide poisoning. The next morning, Garcia’s mother-in-law, Adriana, found the house full of smoke and could not find the children so she called the police. When the police arrived three of the children still breathing, but two of them died shortly after. Garcia and only one of his children survived and they were brought to the hospital immediately. Adriana called her daughter and she was astonished at the news. After being discharged from the hospital, Garcia was arrested and brought to trial in 2005. He had admitted that he did try to kill his children and himself as a way of getting back at his wife for leaving them. Garcia was found guilty on murder accounts and was spared the death penalty, but was sentenced to life in prison.

           Another Carbon Monoxide incident comes from the Jones family. Mr. Cranog Jones was having an affair and wanted to prove that his wife was having an affair as well. He wanted to kill his wife obviously, so on December 7, 1991 through the outside of his wife’s bedroom and fitted a plastic pipe through the hole, which led to his garage. The pipe was then attached to his wife’s exhaust from her car. That night, he went into his wife’s room and installed the box, and then he went to the garage to start the car in order to ensure a high amount of carbon monoxide would go through. Mr. Cranog made a huge mistake that night because he didn’t muff the hole, meaning it was very loud. The noise ended up waking up his wife, so she called the police. Realizing that his plan had failed, he dismantled everything so it wouldn’t look like he was trying to kill her before the police came. When he was questioned, he simply said that his wife was crazy. Later, he eventually admitted that he dumped the tubing and piping, but he didn’t do it because he was trying to kill his wife. The Jones’s eventually got a divorce and he was brought to court. He was found guilty and was sentenced to nine years in jail.

Both of these stories are really sad, but both of the murderers would probably agree that carbon monoxide wasn’t exactly the best murder weapon to use. Not only did Garcia not kill himself, but Mr. Cranog didn’t kill his wife. Carbon monoxide kills more people than any other poison, but not because it’s a good murder weapon, but because most of the time it is an accident. I referred to it earlier as the silent killer because there is no warning that it is there and its effects are not normally recognized by its victims (1). Carbon monoxide is a colorless, odorless and poisonous gas (1). “It is produced by the incomplete burning of various fuels, including coal, wood, charcoal, oil, kerosene, propane, and natural gas” (2). It can be made from carbon or methane (CH4) and by reacting them with oxygen or steam. Blowing steam will cause carbon monoxide and hydrogen gas, creating a new gas known as syngas (synthesis gas) (1).  This syngas can be converted into carbon fuels, such as methanol or carbonyl chloride. When methanol reacts with more carbon monoxide it creates acetic acid, which is used in paints, silicone resins, polyester fibre and certain plastics.

           Carbon Monoxide boils at -192 degrees Celsius and it is a polar molecule. In certain experiments nickel reacted with carbon monoxide actually turns the nickel into a gas. Tests on animals showed that nickel carbonyl was five time more deadly than carbon monoxide. Carbon monoxide has a lot of different functions along with “unvented kerosene and gas space heaters; leaking chimneys and furnaces; back-drafting from furnaces, gas water heaters, wood stoves, and fireplaces; gas stoves; generators and other gasoline powered equipment; automobile exhaust from attached garages; and tobacco smoke” (2). It is also used to preserve the color of meat. It not only controls the overproduction of cells in the artery walls, but it can kill the rogue cells, while leaving the normal cells unaffected. This shows that there are positive features to carbon monoxide. It has the ability to lower blood pressure and dilate blood vessels (1). It has also been proven that carbon monoxide can counteract the effect of nicotine. It also gives protection against organ rejection. In 2006, Harvard medical school discovered that carbon monoxide was able to relieve pulmonary arterial hypertension (PAH), which caused heart failure. Another function of carbon monoxide is to suppress endothelin, which reduced blood pressure.

Carbon monoxide comes from volcanoes and is oxidized to CO2 and is absorbed by the leaves of growing plants or by the water of the sea. Almost everything that burns produces some sort of carbon monoxide. Car exhausts are the largest human contribution, but it doesn’t have a lot of long term effects because it changes to CO2 pretty rapidly.

This gas forms a bond with haemoglobin in order to form carboxyhaemoglobin. Symptoms of carbon monoxide change depending on how much you are exposed to. Milder forms include headaches and flu-like symptoms, but the higher levels lead to dizziness and even higher levels lead to unconsciousness. Once the heart is no longer supplied with oxygen, death soon comes. It can also lead to mental confusion, loss of muscular coordination and/or vomiting (3). Concentrations between 35 and 200 ppm can cause a headache, 800 ppm is a throbbing headache with dizziness and nausea, 1500 ppm death is likely within 2 hours, at 3000 ppm death is within half an hour and at 6000 ppm feels faint within a minute and is dead within twenty minutes. You can measure the amount absorbed by analyzing the proportion of carboxyhaemoglobin in the red blood cells. Claude Bernard in the 1840s performed an experiment on dogs where he exposed them to carbon monoxide and then dissected them after. He noticed that their blood turned a bright scarlet color. Knowing this now it is easy to see the effects of carbon monoxide, not only on humans but on animals.

Accidental deaths come from badly ventilated gas fires, furnaces, heaters, wood-burning stoves, motor vehicle exhausts or camping stoves. In order to prevent carbon monoxide there are detectors available for rooms where there may be exposure, such as kitchens or garages. “By not cover the bottom of natural gas or propane ovens with aluminum foil you can prevent being exposed to carbon monoxide. Doing so blocks the combustion air flow through the appliance and can produce CO. And never leave a car running in an attached garage, even with the garage door open” (3).

               

In the 18 and 1900s there were many suicides caused by carbon monoxide exposure. For example, people would stick their heads in ovens. There have also been other stories about carbon monoxide killings that were accidents. For example, the Mason family had traveled from their home in London to their cottage in North Devon; little did they know a family of blackbirds had nested in the flue of the gas boiler, which blocked the ventilation system. All three of the Masons ended up dying that weekend. Today, cars are not as dangerous and as apt to carbon monoxide poisoning because today they only have gases below .25%, whereas before it was around 20%. Some famous people that have died from carbon monoxide poisoning include Sylvia Plath, Emile Zola and Sir Bernard Spilsbury.

 

1. Molecules of Murder Book

2.  http://www.epa.gov/iaq/co.html
3. http://www.cpsc.gov/cpscpub/pubs/466.html