Recently I have been reading Tobin T. Buhk's book, Michigan's Strychnine Saint: The Curious Case of Mrs. Mary McKnight. According to the summary found on amazon.com:
The spring of 1903 proved disastrous for the Murphy family. On April 22, the infant Ruth Murphy died in her crib. Within an hour, her mother, Gertrude, experienced a violent spasm before she, too, died. Ten days later, John Murphy followed his wife and child to the grave after suffering from a crippling convulsion. While neighbors whispered about a curse and physicians feared a contagious disease, Kalkaska County sheriff John W. Creighton and prosecuting attorney Ernest C. Smith searched for answers. As they probed deeper into the suspicious deaths, they uncovered a wicked web of intrigue. And at the center stood a widow in a black taffeta dress.
I have not finished it yet, but I was struck by the mention of "little pink and white pills" that supposedly contained strychnine, quinine and/ or aspirin.
"I had this strychnine and some quinine mixed together in some capsules," according to the accused murderer, Mary Murphy McKnight, who apparently used it to "calm her nerves."
Now these events took place 22 years before Charley and David were murdered in 1925, but it certainly illustrates how easy it was to get strychnine in the late 18th or early 19th centuries. So easy that Mary McKnight possibly poisoned another eight or so of her family members previously!
I have read that she was found guilty and sentenced to about 18 years in prison -- so she was out by the time the OSU strychnine poisonings occurred. Thankfully she appears to have never left Michigan. She supposedly died in 1941 and is buried in Detroit.
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