Fictional poisons

November 21st, 2008
  • I have read several fiction books where a character is killed using an 'untraceable' poison. I was wondering if an untraceable poison exists and if so how does it work, as after a person dies the poison could not be processed by the body any further and therefore should still remain in the body. Pope John Paul I is rumoured to have been killed by the mafia using a poison of this type.


  • Hello, Here's what I've come across about untraceable poisons. I'm not sure if any poison is "untraceable" per say, but there some which may have no test for them yet, or as you say break down so quickly before the person dies as to be at undetectable levels at the time of death. In fact, an "Unsolved Mysteries" episode last week in re-runs described an arsenic murder in which such little arsenic was used, various foods were tested in the fridge and cabinet after suspect, but arsenic was never actually found in detectable levels in the dead body itself. Apparently there was a conspiracy to assassinate Fidel Castro using one such poison, botulinum toxin. From Operation Mongoose (link below): "Inject an untraceable poison, botulinum toxin, into selections of Castro's favorite brand of cigars and present the poisoned cigars to him..." The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has an article on an easily made biotoxin ricin, which is made from the castor bean plant (the same plant which we get castor oil from). This poison is purportedly being made by Iraq and other terrorist nations and is supposedly untraceable. Atlanta Journal-Constitution article (link below): "...an untraceable poison that is twice as deadly as cobra venom..." One last anecdote takes me back to high school Chemistry class where I learned that heavy water, or water with an extra neutron can be imbibed with not much of a noticeable difference, except over time, when the radiation starts to inhibit cell division, and certain body processes start to fail. This is a poison which, "which would take about 50 kg of heavy water at $300 a kg" has to be delivered in the long run, and only a truly sadistic person would do this to somebody else. Of course, the poison's untraceable, but the radiation would be, but radiation tests are not done on homicide victims usually. So this is what our class came up with as the perfect untraceable poison, because all chemical tests on the water would come up with "water". Additional Links: Operation Mongoose: http://www.jfk.org/Research/Cuba/Mongoose_Plots.htm AJC article, "Tracking the Terrorists": http://makeashorterlink.com/?O21B52811 Heavy water discussion: http://yarchive.net/med/heavy_water.html Search Strategy: "untraceable poison" on google: ://www.google.com/search?q=%22untraceable+poison%22 ricin on google: ://www.google.com/search?q=ricin "poison breaks down" on google: ://www.google.com/search?q=%22poison+breaks+down%22 "heavy water" radiation toxicity on google: ://www.google.com/search?q=%22heavy+water%22+radiation+toxicity Thank you for the opportunity to answer your question, if you require more information, please clarify the question, or if you find this answer satisfactory, please feel free to rate it. Thank you! skermit-ga


  • You also might be interested in this book (linked below) which describes the Pope's poisoning and goes into detail about the nature of the poisons used. From the book (linked below with article): "The most efficient way to kill the pope was by poison – a poison that when administered would leave no tell-tale external signs. Research indicates that there are over two hundred such drugs which would fulfil the task. The drug digitalis is but one of this number..." Additional Links: Purchase "In God's Name" (listed as out of print but here's a list of out of print bookstores which carry it): http://makeashorterlink.com/?O58B42811 Article in which quote was taken from: http://www.crc-internet.org/oct84.htm skermit-ga


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