Fatal error

For Memorial Day I would like to respectfully remember another cousin who was almost forgotten: ARM2 Owen Douglas Huls.

ARM2 Owen D. Huls
1924-1945

He was another ancestor that I grew up hearing about. Supposedly he had been beheaded by the Japanese during World War II, which was an error. (We now believe Owen's story somehow got confused with the historic photo of Australian commando Leonard Siffleet about to be executed that ran in LIFE magazine during the war.)

Born July 9, 1924 in Logan, Ohio, Owen would have been Charley's second cousin, one time removed. (He's my third cousin, once removed.) I don't know if Charley met his infant cousin before his death, but it's possible.

Owen's parents moved with Owen and his sister Marianne to Columbus by 1930, where he lived a typical Ohio boy's life until WWII reared its ugly head. He graduated from Grandview High School in Columbus in 1942, and joined the U.S. Navy and attained the rank of Aviation Radioman Second Class.

Owen's plane was shot down on June 4, 1945 by a Japanese ship and made an emergency landing near the island of Celebes, now known as Sulawesi, Indonesia. On June 6, Owen was captured by the Japanese while he was trying to help a crew mate.

Owen was forced to dig his own grave near the shore line, where he was bound and shot to death by his Japanese captors.

Owen's body was never recovered, but his name is inscribed on the Tablets of the Missing at Manila National Cemetery at Ft. William McKinley, Manila, Philippines. He is also memorialized at Union Cemetery in Columbus, Ohio.

Owen was posthumously awarded the Silver Star, the air medal, and the Purple Heart among other combat medals.

Owen and the other members of his doomed plane are featured in the book, Fatal Error: The Final Flight of a Navy WWII Patrol Bomber, by Gary Cooper. (Owen's sister Marianne cried when she was interviewed for the book because she thought her brother had been forgotten.) I am deeply indebted to Mr. Cooper for writing about yet another cousin of family legend.

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Let Nothing Be Spared

I found this to be a well-written editorial on page 2 of the Thursday, Feb. 5, 1925 issue of the Ohio State Lantern:

    The discovery that what was at first thought to be an epidemic of cerebrospinal meningitis is really the work of a perverted or malicious mind relieves somewhat the fear of the student body, but places a greater responsibility upon the authorities of the University.

    If the belief of the investigators is true, that a diseased mind is responsible for the deaths of Charley Huls and David Pusken [sic] and the illness of three other students, the person who conceals that mind behind a normal exterior must be found and prosecuted for his crime.

    To admit that there is such a person in the University is no reflection upon the University. At least no sane person will misconstrue the confession.

    In such a case it is more important that the criminal, if it be a criminal, be found and prosecuted than that the University escape from the notoriety which must follow. In such a case it is not the student body alone which is in danger. The entire state would be threatened if this person were allowed to graduate or if he were somehow allowed to escape punishment.

    The Lantern demands that no one be spared in the search. The students at the University and the people of the state as a whole must be protected. They have, also, a right to know the criminal. If he be an official of the University, or if he be the most obscure student, he must be found.

    President Thompson has done the right thing by placing the investigation in the hands of the police. We should not stop with them, but should call in all the other agencies which might aid in discovery of the criminal. It not a confession of weakness or incompetency on the part of the University to do this.

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My boy

It has taken me forever to finally remember the movie clip that I always hear when I think of my great-grandfather's reaction when he and my great-grandmother finally arrived in Columbus, only to discover Uncle Charley was dead.

"That's my son! That's my boy! My boy."

I hear that wail every single time I read To Our Boy.

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Appearing, is Fear

I find it fascinating how we seem to forget the health issues previous generations struggled against.

The Cincinnati Enquirer 

Monday, Feb. 2, 1925

(I'm looking at you anti-vaxxers and anti-maskers.)

As an example, I was confused when I was younger why my maternal grandmother lost her operatic voice after a case of strep throat. She still sang professionally, but couldn't sing opera anymore. It wasn't until it occurred to me that she did not have access to any antibiotics at that time that I finally understood.

Nowadays, when we hear the words "Spotted Fever" we tend to think of  Rocky Mountain spotted fever, a feverish disease caused by hard-shelled ticks. 

But in uncle Charley's day, the words "spotted fever" would cast fear upon a community.

According to the April 30, 2019 online edition of The Lancet, "The high fatality of the meningococcal disease epidemics observed during the 19th century meant that this disease was considered one of those with the worst prognosis, only comparable to the plague and cholera."

Yikes, no wonder the campus was in a panic.

Serum therapy helped, but it wasn't until the 1930s and 1940s when sulfa and antibiotics were developed that the widespread fear diminished. But those only worked on the bacterial versions of meningitis, not the viral. When the meningococcal vaccines began in 1969 there was widespread relief and rejoicing.

Recently however, the abuse of antibiotics has created drug-resistent varieties causing increasing incidents of sepsis. Scientists again are looking into serum-therepy as a treatment.

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Ohio is going dry

Writing these blogs in 2021, I tend to forget the changes that have occurred during the past century. I was briefly puzzled while reading Charley's letters home when he mentioned certain people being either "dry" or "wet."

Oh yes, prohibition.

The Prohibition Era began in Ohio on May 27, 1919 -- nearly six months before the 18th Amendment was passed by Congress to become a national law on Oct. 28, 1919. One of the major reasons that Ohio went dry ahead of the rest of the country was the influence of the state’s temperance movement, including such groups as the Women’s Christian Temperance Union and the Ohio Anti-Saloon League.

The Ohio whiskey war

I have long adored this Feb. 21, 1874 illustration from Frank Leslie's Illustrated Newspaper; the ladies of Logan singing hymns in front of barrooms in aid of the temperance movement. Looking at it I can't help but wonder if any of my ancestors are in it. I know my family at that time was supposedly dry.

Prohibition in the United States was a nationwide constitutional ban on the production, importation, transportation, and sale of alcoholic beverages from 1920 to 1933. Not all alcohol was banned though; for example, religious use of wine was permitted. Private ownership and consumption of alcohol were not made illegal under federal law, but local laws were stricter in many areas, with some states banning possession altogether.

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Fear lowers the vitality

It's fascinating to go back and watch a news story develop. Two stories appeared in the Monday, Feb. 2, 1925 edition of the Lancaster (Ohio) Eagle-Gazette as the story developed.

First to be laid out was this tiny brief, way back on page 10:

Son of Eugene Huls Dies At Ohio State

    Charles Huls, 22, son of Eugene Huls, for many years State Factory Inspector and editor of the Logan Republican, died Saturday night, following the extraction of an ulcerated tooth Friday. Young Huls was a senior in the college of commerce and journalism at O. S. U. and edited the Makio in 1924.

    His death occurred at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity home where he was a member. The Huls family is very well known in Lancaster. 

Then the front page was laid out. The front page is always laid out last to make sure the latest news and updates get attention. This front page is a nightmare. It didn't stack the separate headlines like most newspapers did in 1925, but it split them down the middle. I don't care if the left is sans serif and the right is serif -- it's a mess:

Sudden Death Of Two O.S.U. Students Causes Alarm

Order Friends Of Dead Men Be Isolated

(By The Associated Press)

    COLUMBUS. Feb. 2--Further precautionary measures to prevent a possible outbreak of cerebro meningitis at Ohio State University, and where to [sic] students have died suddenly and under mysterious circumstances were taken today when Dr. H. Shindle Wingert, university physician examined six personal friend [sic] of one of the deceased students and ordered them isolated.

    Charles E. [sic] Huls of Logan died Saturday in a fraternity house, of what was thought to be tetanus. Davis [sic] Puskin of Canton, a junior in the college of journalism died suddenly yesterday after circumstances similar to those surrounding the death of Huls.

    To determine whether both students died from the same cause, local health authorities asked Logan officials to perform a post mortem over Huls. Information received here today, however is to the effect that the student's family objects to the procedure.

    In the midst of his examination of other students, Dr. Wingert issued a statement urging students "not to be scared about the present flurry. 

    "There is little to cause general eoncern," he said. "Individuals, however are urged to keep their general health at a high level, observe regular hours, keep in good physical condition and keep the face and hands scrupulously clean. Fear lowers the vitality and besides, there is not much occasion for it."

    Puskin, the second student to die arose yesterday morning, apparently in good health. He went to the bathroom to shave was seized with convlsions [sic] and died within 20 minutes.

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With all the rights, privileges, and honors appertaining

I simply cannot imagine the pain grandpa Fred and his parents must have been facing as commencement week approached. Charley should have been there. Were his classmates thinking about him, or were they too excited for themselves to spare a thought for him? This article from May 25, 1925 The Lantern highlights the coming glories.

 

1925 Graduating Class Breaks All Records With 1700 Seniors

    The total number of graduates for the year constitutes a record class for the University. Approximately 1200 students will be graduated June 16, figures show.

eBay.com

    At the recent August, December 1 and March convocations or quarterly* commencements, 500 students were graduated who are considered members of the present class. This makes a total of 1700 graduates for the class of 1925. The largest previous total for a single year was 1500.

    The June class alone is larger than that of the combined graduating classes during the first 22 years of the University's life, and will swell the number of alumni to something like 18,000. The total for the year 1924-1925 is greater than that of all the years from 1878, when the first Ohio State class was graduated through 1903, or 26 years.

    The College of Arts has the largest number of candidates for degrees with 201, followed by the College of Education with 188. The College of Engineering, including the department of applied optics, has the same number.

    From the College of Agriculture 130, including 67 girls in home economics**, are scheduled to be graduates. The College of Commerce and Journalism which at present numbers 134 graduates, including 105 in business administration, 17 in journalism [18 if Charley had lived], and 12 in social administration.

    One hundred and twenty-four people are eligible for degrees in the Graduate School. Nineteen of these, including one woman, are scheduled for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, 86 for Master of Arts, and 18 for Master of Science.

    Other colleges and their classes are: Medicine, 78; Law, 73; Pharmacy, 70; Dentistry, 22; Veterinary Medicine, 29; and Public Health Nursing, four.

    The class exercises proper begin Sunday, June 14, with the baccalaureate services in the Gymnasium. "Class Day" will Be celebrated Monday, June 15, with the graduation exercises will be held at 10 a. m., Tuesday, June 16. Dr. William Lowe Bryan, president of Indiana University, will deliver the commencement address.

 

Charley should have been there.  

 

* O.S.U. switched to the quarter system in 1922, which consisted of four 10-week sessions: fall, winter, spring, and summer. It went back to the semester system in Autumn 2012. A semester system consists of two 15-week terms: one in the fall (followed by a winter break) and one in the spring (followed by a summer break).

**It cracks me up that home economics is under the College of Agriculture.

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Oh fudge

While searching for information about the Ohio State poisonings I came across this article in the Nov. 14, 1925 edition of the Defiance (Ohio) Crescent News:

9 GIRL STUDENTS AT OHIO STATE ARE POISONED

Mystery Veils Cause of Sudden Illness at University Fudge Party -- Unsolved Drug Deaths at Same Place Are Recalled

(By The Associated Press)

    COLUMBUS, O., Nov. 12 -- Officers of the Ohio State Board of Health today were asked to investigate the poisoning of nine young women, all of the Ohio State University students, four of them upper classwomen of the College of Law, at a party staged by Miss Helen McDermott, Stockport, O., Wednesday night, at the home of her sister here.

    Complete mystery surrounds the cause of the poisoning as one theory gave way before another, which for a time seemed certain to result fatally for four.

    The mystery is made more complete by the fact that no food or liquid of any kind had been served when the illness seized the girls one by one. The girls taken ill all ate dinner at different places, precluding the theory that food might have been the cause.

    The only clew remaining is in the fudge made in the McDermott home before the party began and partaken of by all the girls who became ill. Sample of this were submitted to the Board of Health and examination of them to determine the presence of foreign matter is to be made.

    The theory of poisoning by carbon monoxide fumes from a gas stove was scouted tonight by Fred Berry, Chief of the Division of Laboratories, to whom all the evidence thus far attainable has been submitted. He expressed the opinion that some sort of metallic poisoning might have been responsible.

    Those made ill included Miss Helen McDermott, Stockport, her sister Alice, also of Stockport; Blanche I. Harris, Ravenna; Rhea Pettit, Logan; Mrs. Baldwin Dickinson, Columbus and Esther Pinkey, Bellaire. Names of the other three were not available tonight.

    The condition of all the young women was reported as good tonight. All the students poisoned are among leaders in university life here. Miss Harris is President of the Pan-Hellenic Council and a leader in campus activities.

    This is the second poison mystery that has stirred university circles within a year. Early in the spring two Ohio State students, Charles H. Huls of Logan and David Puskin, Canton, died of the effects of tablets [sic] received from the university dispensary. Four other students also received the tablets, but recovered after serious illness. How the students obtained the tablets never has been explained and responsibility for their issuance never established. State pharmacy authorities still are investigating the case. Officials never were certain whether the tablets were issued maliciously or by mistake.

I can only imagine the terror of the girls, their parents, and the campus as they all thought, "Not again!"

And Logan! My poor hometown! (I was delighted to see Rhea later passed the bar and became a judge.)

Thankfully it wasn't strychnine or any other poison concealed in their fudge. A faulty gas fireplace was finally revealed to be the culprit. Natural gas is colorless and odorless unless an odorant is added to make it smell like rotten eggs. The addition of odorants was mostly optional until the New London, Texas school explosion which killed more than 295 children in 1937.

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Raisins and Almonds

poisonedpen.com

I was rereading a book in one of my favorite series last night and nearly died laughing at the description of death by strychnine.

In Raisins and Almonds by Kerry Greenwood, Phryne Fisher (a wealthy aristocrat and private detective who lives in St Kilda, Melbourne, in the late 1920s) investigates the mysterious death of a young man in an Australian bookshop. I don't want to reveal any spoilers about how the poison was delivered but death happened within seconds.

    The tall man in the long black coat, who had been examining Volume 9 of Hansard for 1911—for which Miss Lee had long abandoned hope that someone would acquire for their library—exclaimed in a foreign tongue and dropped the book. She dashed from behind her counter quickly enough to support him as he sank to the floor. He held out one hand, palm upwards, as though inviting her to notice its emptiness—or was it the small wound on the forefinger?

    His eyes opened wide for a moment, and he spoke again. Then he convulsed, limbs flung out like a starfish, so abrupt and horribly strong that Miss Lee was forced to release him. His head hit the floor and she heard his teeth gnash, a dreadful grating noise echoed by a rattling in his throat. As she grabbed her ruler to lay between his teeth, he convulsed again and lay still. She stood with the ruler in her hand, gripped so tightly that the edge cut into her flesh. The young man was dead, that was plain. What to do next?

This same book was the basis for the Series 1, Episode 5 television show, Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries: Raisins and Almonds, which can currently be found on Acorn TV.

Of course Miss Fisher solves the case. I only wish she had been in Columbus, Ohio that week.

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The class of '21

As my daughter helped me last week transcribe some of the old photocopies, it occurred to me that Uncle Charley graduated from Logan High School in the Class of 1921.

Monday night my daughter graduated from high school here in Phoenix in the Class of 2021.

Charley survived the 1918 influenza pandemic.

My daughter lived through the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.

What do you know? History really does repeat itself.

Congratulations to all graduates!

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Chocolate-coated strychnine

worthpoint.com

Of all the insane things I have discovered since starting my research, the top contender is chocolate-coated strychnine.

Yes, you read that correctly.

Chocolate-coated strychnine.

Don't believe me? Read the label.

Who thought that would be a good idea? "Hey, let's coat the deadly, bitter poison with chocolate so it goes down more easily!"

An early precursor to Mary Poppins and a spoonful of sugar?

According to a TIME magazine (first published on March 3, 1923) article on Monday, March 13, 1933 entitled Medicine: Strychnine Antidotes:

Strychnine kills about three people each week in the U. S. Some take strychnine for suicide. Some use it for murder.* But the most frequent cause of strychnine poisoning is the chocolate or sugar coated pill kept in the bathroom cabinet as a laxative or "tonic." Children eat the pills for candy, die in convulsions.

*As in the New Jersey dachshund murders (TIME, Feb. 13, 1933).

Wow. The New Jersey dachshund murders. I don't think the Ohio State poisonings made it into TIME, but the New Jersey dachshund murders did?

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I shall carry this to my grave

Poor Prexy. What a way to end his college career.

Ohio State was a rather small and struggling university when President William Oxley Thompson first arrived; by the time he retired 26 years later at the age of 70, the university student enrollment had grown nearly ten times.

William Oxley Thompson

Affectionately known as Prexy, he came to Ohio State in 1899, serving as university president O.S.U. until 1925. Thompson’s name is still known around the O.S.U. campus at today. 

The main library at Ohio State is named in his honor, with a large statue of him in front of the main entrance, and students still rub his bust in the library for good luck during finals week. What is not often known is that President William Oxley Thompson was also an ordained Christian minister, serving as a Presbyterian pastor.

The poisonings devastated him.

"We are very much distressed about it," President W. O. Thompson declared. "We bow our heads with regret and sorrow. I shall carry this to my grave as one of the greatest disasters of my lifetime." 

I suspect that the poisonings were one of the reasons why Prexy announced his decision to retire on Wednesday, May 20, 1925.

William Oxley Thompson, President of Ohio State University, desires to resign, it was announced Wednesday. Mr. Thompson's wish was voiced at a meeting of the Board of Trustees last Saturday, but announcement on it was withheld until Wednesday. Dr. Thompson himself made the announcement. Dr. Thompson's resignation will be presented formally to the board shortly after the June commencement.

Because of their admiration for President Thompson, the classes of 1923, 1925, 1926, and 1928 resolved to create a “life-sized” figure of the president to stand on the west end of the Oval in front of the library bearing his name.

The sculptor, Erwin Frey, an Ohio native and faculty member in the Department of Fine Arts, was a well-known sculptor at the time. It took 16 months to complete and was first done in clay and then cast in bronze. Frey was given $13,000 for the statue, including the supplies.

President Thompson sat for the sculpture, and was very pleased with Frey’s work, calling it worthy of high praise. Thompson wrote in his July 1930 column of The Ohio State University Monthly:

“Nothing in my long experience has moved me more profoundly than this evidence of esteem and good will which the cooperative effort of four classes has expressed.”

Thompson was elected Moderator of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1926. He died on Dec. 9, 1933 and is buried in Columbus.

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Quaker buttons

I can find absolutely no reason why the seeds of the Strychnos nux-vomica, the strychnine tree, are also known as quaker buttons. I can only surmise the symptoms of strychnine poisoning reminded someone of the shaking and dancing of the early Quakers.

The Religious Society of Friends, also known as Quakers, began in mid 17th-century England.  They traditionally wore plain dress; "Ruffles and lace and other forms of ornamentation, as well as unnecessary cuffs and collars and lapels and buttons, were forbidden."*

A group broke off from the Quakers in 1747 when the Quakers began weaning themselves away from frenetic spiritual expression. The Wardley Society became known as the "Shaking Quakers" because of their ecstatic behavior during worship services. Eventually they became known as Shakers, and there are only two known Shakers left in the United States.

Oh, and the strychnine tree is in the family Loganiaceae.

*Thomas D. Hamm, The Quakers in America.

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My spirit rejoices

Stephanie Tingler

I have been so moved by the actions of an online friend that I had to write about it.

I first "met" Stephanie about 10 years ago when I was doing random research on Uncle Charley and Margaret Speaks. I found a mention that Stephanie Tingler's dissertation had been about Margaret, so I reached out hoping she might know something about the family stories about their relationship at Ohio State.

Sadly she did not, but we have remained in touch over the years just in case either one of us discovered something new.

Stephanie very kindly reached out to me after I started this blog to say she would soon be home visiting her family and could she put some flowers on my family's graves. She even refused payment!

How many years has it been since they had flowers? Decades?

Thank you Stephanie. They have not been forgotten and that brings me both joy and peace.

We pray for the dead because we still hold them in our love.

Episcopal Catechism

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The top 10 signs you've been poisoned with strychnine

Sir Charles Bell, 1809, Public domain

While poking around the internet for strychnine I came across this excellent (?) list of the 10 main symptoms of strychnine poisoning from the University of Bristol's School of Chemistry:

1. Initial symptoms are tightness and twitching of the muscles, agitation, and hyperreflexia. 
2. Stiffness of the body. 
3. Lockjaw. 
4. Frothing of the mouth. 
5. Cessation of respiration. 
6. Tetanus-like attacks appear every 10-15 minutes. During these attacks the eyeballs protrude and the pupils enlarge. 
7. Severe cyanosis, which disappears after the attack subsides. 
8. The attacks (each lasting about 3-4 minutes) appear to be spontaneous while other times they are the result of external stimuli, i.e. noises, slight movements, or flashes of light. The patient never loses consciousness. 
9. When the poisoning is left untreated each attack lasts longer than the previous and the interval between them grows shorter. 
10. Up to 10 attacks occur before death or recovery. This could happen from 10 minutes to 3 hours and is a result of asphyxiation or inner tissue paralysis.

Sounds pleasant. Not.

My reading has informed me that someone with a full stomach, such as Uncle Charley after eating dinner at his fraternity, takes longer to die. Charley took more than two or three hours to die, while David Puskin only took 20-30 minutes since he had just woken up.

Since noise or flashes of light can also trigger the spasms, I can only imagine what a panicked fraternity house on a Saturday night sounded like and what that did to Charley's state.

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The seemingly surreptitious appearance of the bottle

Much as I adore old-fashioned photo illustrations, old newspaper layouts like this drive me slightly mad.

Multiple screaming (and competing) headlines: one eight columns, then seven columns, down to our six column headline: 

OFFICIALS OF CITY COUNTY AND UNIVERSITY PROBE DEATHS 

That leads to: MYSTERY STRYCHNINE BOTTLE IS TRACED

The story that follows is one we've seen before:

    COLUMBUS, Feb. 6 -- Mystery surrounding the seemingly surreptitious appearance of the bottle, containing about 300 grains of strychnine on a shelf in the college of pharmacy laboratory, Ohio State university was cleared up here today by police officials probing the mysterious distribution of capsuled strychnine which resulted in the recent death of two Ohio State university students and serious illness of at least three other students.

At least it's a nice photo of Harold E. Gillig.

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No explanation other than chance

As a child I wondered why no women were poisoned, other than sheer dumb luck. When I recently started more intense research, I discovered conflicting accounts.

The Friday, Feb. 6, 1925 issue of the Canton Daily News stated:

    The fact that Dr. Gertrude F. Jones, medical advisor for girls, does not prescribe quinine and aspirin to her patients who suffer with colds, was said to account for the fact no girls were among the poison victims.

However, the Ohio State Lantern had this on the very same day:

    No explanation other than chance can be advanced for no co-eds being among those poisoned. 

    Student health service, under direction of Dr. H. Shindle Wingert, treats as many women as men in proportion to their enrollment in the University. Last month 300 women and 1900 men visited the health bureau. Dr. Gertrude F. Jones of the department of physical education for women does not maintain a separate health service for co-eds. Miss Jones does not treat cases, but merely advises.

G.F. Jones*

Hmm. I'll probably never know the answer, but I then became curious about Dr. Jones. It wasn't easy being a female doctor in those days. Unfortunately, Dr. Jones seems particularly elusive. I found a tiny mention in The Ohio State University Monthly for July 1926:

That Dr. Gertrude F. Jones, Medical Advisor, Department of Physical Education for Women, be granted leave of absence for the Autumn, Winter and Spring Quarters, 1926-27, without salary. 

Eleven months later she was noted in the Wednesday, June 8, 1927 issue of The Lantern:

Resignation of Dr. Jones Handed in to Trustees

    Dr. Gertrude F. Jones of the department of women's physical education has given her resignation to the Board of Trustees and it will be acted upon at their meeting June 13. Dr. Jones has been the medical adviser of the department since 1923. She is a graduate of Leland Stanford University. She has been practicing in New York City since her year's leave of absence granted last fall.

(I was grimly amused to see she graduated from Stanford. You might recall that Leland Stanford and his wife Jane Stanford co-founded Stanford University in 1885, but she was murdered by strychnine in 1905 in Oahu.)

After that I lose the trail. She possibly returned to Stanford where a Dr. Gertrude F. Jones taught obstetrics, but I cannot be sure at this time it's the same woman.

*I am not positive this is the same G.F. Jones (or Gertrude F. Jones) or not in the 1919 Stanford Dart.

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Stimulating questions

Nelson Rosenberg was a name I kept seeing in conjunction with the poisonings so I decided I needed to research him more. Rosenberg was a 23-year-old pharmacy student who was with David Puskin on the night before his death -- and had purchased a bottle of strychnine from the Hi-King Drug Co. When questioned, Rosenberg explained that he had broken his glasses and used the drug to help focus on his studies. 

I found this in the Friday, Feb. 6, 1926 edition of the Athens Messenger:

FIND STUDENT WHO BOUGHT POISON TO USE AS STIMULANT

Cleveland Youth Freed 

After Telling Officers 

His Story 

    COLUMBUS, Feb. 6. -- First admission that one of the Pharmacy college students of Ohio State university had purchased strychnine in a Coumbus [sic] pharmacy, came today during the question of Nelson Rosenberg, who said he was a son of Dr. Emmanuel Rosenberg, 16907 Wade Park, east Cleveland.

    A rumor spread over the campus early today that a Pharmacy student had purchased fifty grains of strychnine in a downtown drug store. Hurriedly checking up on this report, Deputy Carson learned that Rosenberg had purchased 12 one fiftieth grain strychnine tablets at a store Wednesday night. Questioned by probers at the college, Rosenberg said he had bought the drug as a stimulant. Probers said he told the druggist from whom he obtained the strychnine, after first having been refused in two other stores, that he wished it for use in treating a cold.

    Police Prosecutor Chester said that Rosenberg had declared that he never before had purchased strychnine in a drugstore. Chester also said that Rosenberg had declared he had seen a supply of strychnine in a bottle on a stock shelf in the Freshman laboratory in the basement of the building, and that other students had told him they had also seen it. Rosenberg was hurried downstairs to the laboratory where he pointed out the shelf. Phil Mackoff, instructor in charge of the laboratory, however denied vigorously that strychnine, or any other like toxic poison, was ever used in the laboratory, or kept there. Chester said Rosenberg was confronted with the student who said he had admitted seeing the drug on the shelf and that this student denied the story.

    Rosenberg was released after having been detailed in the lecture room where the investigation is going on for about forty minutes.

According to Bucky Cutright, Rosenberg received his degree in July [June?] of 1925 and followed in his father’s footsteps, practicing medicine in the Cleveland area until his death in 1991. 

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The Poisoner's Handbook

I swear, I am in so much trouble if the authorities ever view my computer's browser history -- or my reading list.

I am currently reading the New York Times best-selling non-fiction book by Pulitzer Prize-winning science writer Deborah Blum: The Poisoner's Handbook: Murder and the Birth of Forensic Medicine in Jazz Age New York.

A fascinating Jazz Age tale of chemistry and detection, poison and murder, The Poisoner's Handbook is a page-turning account of a forgotten era. In early twentieth-century New York, poisons offered an easy path to the perfect crime. Science had no place in the Tammany Hall-controlled coroner's office, and corruption ran rampant. However, with the appointment of chief medical examiner Charles Norris in 1918, the poison game changed forever. Together with toxicologist Alexander Gettler, the duo set the justice system on fire with their trailblazing scientific detective work, triumphing over seemingly unbeatable odds to become the pioneers of forensic chemistry and the gatekeepers of justice.

Curiously, Ms. Blum didn't say much about strychnine. I wrote Ms. Blum inquiring about its absence and she kindly responded and gave me permission to quote her:

When I was first planning out The Poisoner's Handbook and made a list of essential poisons, strychnine was high on my list. But as I continued my research, I ran into a logistical problem. While there were, of course, scattered strychnine poisonings there were none that engaged Norris and Gettler in any challenging way, none on the scale of your story, no remarkable mysteries, until 1943 (in which a homicidal dentist emerged). The arc of my story ended in 1936. For a while, I considered using strychnine as the poison focus of the epilogue but once I tried testing that approach out, I realize that it made no sense in terms of the information that I needed to put into that closing section. So...I very reluctantly ended up not including strychnine in the book, which is something I often talked about while on book tour. And later, when I was blogging for Wired, I made a point of doing a post about strychnine to relieve some of my frustrations.

I highly recommend this book. It is well written and not bogged down with too much scientific jargon to confuse the non-chemist. It is a fascinating look into the birth of forensic science in the United States, especially in the Jazz Age with Prohibition to complicate matters.

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Big C, little c

This a difficult story to share.

I admit I was horrified when I first discovered the Ku Klux Klan had a presence in Ohio. It wasn't a huge presence, but it was there. I knew this because I had long been told the story of my future grandmother, Alice Thelma Hamilton, and her sister, my great-aunt, briefly attending a rally at the local Hocking County fairgrounds out of "curiosity."

At that time and in that area the KKK mostly focused on (or against) Jews and Roman Catholics. 

It took me awhile but I finally found at least some confirmation in the Wednesday, Aug. 29, 1923 edition of the Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum. My grandmother was 16 and her sister 13 at that time!

As they approached the spectacle they were approached by a hooded figure who said, "Girls, I think you need to go home." It was their father, my great-grandfather. They knew it by his voice and his shoes, and he was apparently there with his three brothers-in-law.

But I was startled when I found this paragraph in the Saturday, Feb. 7, 1925 edition of the Zanesville, Ohio Times Signal  in a not too widely distributed wire story about the poisonings and its investigation:

    It was revealed today that still another angle had been pursued by Prosecutor Chester in his questioning of students when it was learned that some of those examined had been asked whether they were members of the Ku Klux Klan. All but one of the young men affected by the poison capsules were Catholics and he was a Jew.

Now either this was either a mistake, because I know Charley was not a Roman Catholic, or the writer meant catholic with a little "c."

Most protestant churches use the term catholic, with a lower-case "c," to refer to the belief that all Christians are part of one Church. Because of that we have the phrase "one holy catholic and apostolic Church" in the Nicene Creed, and the phrase "holy catholic church" in the Apostles' Creed.

I sincerely doubt the KKK was behind the poisonings, but it's a horrifying thought.

Oh, five years after the rally and three years after the poisonings, grandpa Fred married my grandmother Alice Thelma Hamilton.

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Charley's way

This was originally published in the Ohio State Phoenix two weeks after Charley's death. The Phoenix was a publication by and for freshmen. It was first published on Monday, Jan. 17, 1921, and Charley became its business manager the next fall. I do not currently know when The Phoenix ceased publication, but it might have been as early as 1925.

CHARLES HULS

In the fall of 1921, among the incoming class of freshmen, was a young man from Logan, Ohio. Possessing a fine record in activities in high school, he was soon selected as business manager of the Phoenix and did much toward putting the publication, which was then in its second year, on a firm foundation. This young man was Charles Huls. From that humble beginning, he rapidly rose in campus prominence, attaining the highest honors that the university offers, among them being the editorship of the 1924 Makio. A fortnight ago he died, and in his death the university lost one of the finest men that have ever been enrolled here.

    We never had the pleasure of meeting Charley, as he was called by every one who knew him, but it seems as if he had almost been a friend of ours, so much did we hear about him. But if we had known him we are sure he would have been just as cordial to us, a mere freshman, as to the best friend he had. That was just Charley's way.

    Mere words of sympathy can not express our sentiments in any wise and the least we can do is to strive to live as full and as rich a life as did Charley Huls.

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Poison pill probe

O. S. U. Pushes Probe of Poison Pill Deaths

Lancaster Eagle-Gazette, Feb. 9, 1925

    With police officials believing that the deaths of two Ohio State University students from strychnine laden "cold pills" may have been caused by a "Leob_Leopold*" type of degenerate, and university authorities admitting that the poison may have gotten intn [sic] the dills [sic] by a terrible mistake," investigation of the deaths is being pushed. City and county authorities are seen above questioning one of the pharmacy students who worked in the college dispensary, from which the pills came. Dr. W. O. Thompson, president of the university who is directing the pribe [sic], and Dr. H. S. Wingert, who prescribed the fatal pills are also shown.

*Nathan F. Leopold, Jr., and Richard A. Loeb, were two wealthy students at the University of Chicago who in May 1924 kidnapped and murdered Loeb's cousin, 14-year-old Bobby Franks, in Chicago, Illinois in an attempt to create the "perfect crime."

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A Brown study

I was intrigued to learn more about Clarence M. Brown, the professor who incurred the wrath of my great-grandfather Gene for directing a production of "Can't Afford It" at the Ohio State Pharmaceutical Association Convention to be held July 19-23 at Cedar Point, Sandusky*  I became even more interested when I discovered he was one of the two people who had any strychnine "under lock and key."

Marysville Journal-Tribune
Thursday, Feb. 5, 1925

Check Made. 

    Careful check was made yesterday of the supplies of strychnine in the possession of the college of pharmacy. There are seven bottles. Four of these, it was learned, still have upon them the unbroken seals placed there by the manufacturers. One, partly empty, has been in the possession of Dean Clair E. Dye and he says has been under look and key in a room separate from the dispensary. The two others are kept locked in the desk of Clarence M. Brown, assistant professor in the department and, he says, have not been out of his possession.

The (Zanesville, OH) Times Recorder
Friday, Feb. 6, 1925

FORMER ZANESVILLE TEACHER NOW ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN THE COLLEGE OF PHARMACY

    Prof. Brown, assistant in the college of pharmacy and one of the custodians of the stocks of drugs, is a former teacher in the Zanesville high school and is an expert pharmacist, having been employed at a local drug store while a resident of this city and not actively engaged in his work as a teacher. His ability and carefulness will not be questioned for a moment by any who know him. The theory among the student body, and the probable solution of the mystery, is that in the hurry of filling capsules some student made an honest mistake and misread a blurred "strychnine" label as "quinine," being deceived by the similarity in the ending of the terms and like appearance of the powder at first glance.

 

Ohio State Lantern

Monday, Feb. 23, 1925

    Secretary Clarence M. Brown of the Pharmacy College feels confident that the Dispensary is, and has always been conducted to conform with the state laws, and does not believe that the ensuing investigation will result in any conviction of the supervisors, or throw any new light on the poison cases.

Prof. Brown was then mentioned in a letter written to my great-grandfather on June 15, 1926 by Theo. D. Wetterstroem, secretary of The Ohio State Pharmaceutical Association:

It so happened that Mr. McLean personally knew the ability of Dr. Clarence Brown of directing amateur plays from his experience in former years when connected with the Zanesville High School. In this manner Dr. Brown and his class at the O.S.U. was selected and not for any purpose of vindication or reference to what had occurred at the university. As to the selection of the cast this was left to Dr. Brown.

The (Zanesville, Ohio) Times Recorder

Monday, June 26, 1961 

Ex-Teacher Here Dies In Columbus 

    Clarence M. Brown, 74, who taught biology, chemistry and dramatics at Lash High School here from 1912 to 1920 and then became a teacher of pharmacy at Ohio State University, was dead on arrival at 11 p.m. Saturday at University Hospital, Columbus. 

    He had apparently suffered a heart attack at his home at 2425 Arlington road, Upper Arlington, Columbus. 

    A native of Galion, Ohio, he was a member of the Masonic lodge in Zanesville. He was a [1911] graduate of OSU and while teaching here had continued his studies to prepare for the pharmacy profession. 

    He was a member of the American Pharmaceutical Association, three honorary pharmacy fraternities, the OSU Faculty Club, and was secretary of the School of Pharmacy until his retirement in 1953. He was a member of the First Congregational Church of Columbus. 

    Surviving are his widow, Helen: a son, Dr. Gordon C. Brown of Ann Arbor, Mich., and two grandchildren. 

    The body is at the Deyo Funeral Home at 1578 West First avenue in Grandview Columbus, where services will be held at 11 a.m. Tuesday. Burial will be at Columbus Union cemetery.

Ohio State University Monthly, September 1961

Prof. Brown Dies

Professor Brown

Prof. Clarence M. Brown, associate professor and secretary of the College of Pharmacy for more than 30 years, died June 24 in University Hospital at the age of 74.

    He received his bachelor's degree in pharmacy from the University in 1911 and his master's degree in 1935. He had been a member of the faculty since 1920 and retired in 1953.

    Prof. Brown, who was born in Galion, O., became a high school teacher after receiving his degree from Ohio State. He taught at Logan High School from 1912 to 1913 and at Lash (Zanesville) High School from 1913 to 1920.

    He was an honorary member of Phi Delta Chi and a member of Rho Chi, a national honorary pharmaceutical fraternity. He was the author of numerous articles and textbooks in his field.

 

I was astonished to see he taught at Logan High School from 1912-13. I do not believe there was ever a LHS in Logan County, so he could have taught in my hometown. I wonder if great-grandpa Gene knew him?

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Together forever

It has taken me forever, but I finally found George Delbert Thompson! Amazingly, he died here in Arizona in 1981 where I have lived since 1975. (I now have a faint memory of grandpa Fred either talking to him or visiting him, but I'm not sure.)

In my hunt to find out what happened to Del after his poisoning, I found this photo illustration in the Wednesday, Feb. 11, 1925 edition of The (Hanover, PA) Evening Sun:

POISON MANIAC SOUGHT IN OHIO UNIVERSITY DEATH. A sensation was caused in the entire Middle West, over the death of two Ohio State University students and the poisoning of three others with strychnine. The poison is said to have been contained in capsules, issued by the university dispensary as "quinine." Lewis Fish, of Canton, who admitted he filled a prescription for one of the dead youths, is in the custody of the police. The large photograph is that of Delbert Thompson, who is recovering from poisoning, and the insert is that of Charles Huls, the first boy to die.

As far as I can tell Del married once at the age of 37 to a Frieda Lillian (or Louise) Clay Bruce. (I believe she was either widowed or divorced.) They married on Oct. 21, 1937 in Asheville, N.C., by The Rev. Loy. D. Thompson. I have no idea if he was a relation.

Strangely, Del is shown in the 1940 census as single, living at home with his mother, Henrietta, and unmarried sister, Thelma. Was it a mistake? Was he home alone helping out? Were he and Frieda separated?

Or was the marriage a secret?

His obituary ran in the Tucson Citizen on Saturday, May 30, 1981:

THOMPSON George D (Del), 80, died Thursday, May 28, 1981. Survived by wife, Frieda; brother, Clifford E. Thompson and sister, Thelma Thompson, both of Canton, OH. He had been affiliated with Holmes Tuttle Ford. Memorial Service 11 a.m., Monday, June 1, 1981, at ARIZONA MORTUARY UNIVERSITY CHAPEL (University at North Stone), with Dr. Dale E. Hewitt officiating. Private interment at TMP East Lawn. Remembrances may be made to the American Cancer Society.

Frieda apparently returned to Canton, Ohio where she died in 1991, but she was buried with Del. 

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