Murder and Mayhem (21 page)

I would suspect that David knocked Goliath unconscious, or nearly so, with a blunt force injury from the stone, which embedded in the flesh of Goliath's forehead but did not penetrate his skull, and then David finished him with the beheading. But I could be wrong.

POISONS AND DRUGS

Is There a Drug or Poison That Mimics Death but Allows the Victim to Survive?

Q: Is there a drug that truly mimics death to the point that a not-so-careful physician might pronounce death and then leave, after which the victim recovers? If so, how would the drug be administered, how long would the effects last, and is there an antidote?

A: You're going to love this. Zombie Powder. Yes, Zombie Powder.

It is the toxin of the puffer fish, also called the blowfish. The toxin is called tetraodontoxin or tetradotoxin (I've seen it written as either and also abbreviated as TTX), and it is found in the ovaries of the blowfish. The toxin is not destroyed by cooking, but if the entrails are removed before preparation, the fish itself is harmless.

In Japan the dish is prepared in a manner that leaves a little of the toxin behind. It is called fugu and is a delicacy. The residual toxin, in small doses, gives the diner a flushed and tingly feeling. The fish must be prepared to perfection, or it can be deadly—kind of like gastronomic Russian roulette. The chefs who do this are specially trained and licensed, and even these guys screw up from time to time. Recently, maybe a year or two ago, I read about several deaths in Japan from this.

In Haiti the toxin is used in certain voodoo religious rituals, and it is used in the "zombification" of field-workers and others. It can be sprinkled on the skin of the victim or added to his food, and it takes effect in a few minutes or up to four hours or so. It absorbs through the skin or the gastrointestinal tract.

It is basically a neurotoxin (affects the neurologic system) and causes paralysis, speech difficulty, slow, shallow respirations, and a decreased heart rate, with a weak and thready pulse. The victim may appear dead and is indeed fairly close. The skin of the victim is cool and pale, his breathing slow and shallow, and with an almost unpalpable pulse, one could easily assume the victim was dead.

If he survived the first twenty-four hours, without treatment he would gradually come around over the next two or three days. Proper treatment is directed toward preventing brain damage (see below) and would consist of hospitalization and giving oxygen and drugs to support the blood pressure while the toxin's effects wore off.

How to make a zombie? you ask. Simple. Sprinkle some of the powder in the victim's food or in his shoes. He will become dizzy, short of breath, and weak, and collapse. Then lay him in a shallow ditch, cover him with leaves, and come back in about twelve hours. He will be calm, controllable, and a good field-worker.

What causes this is an anoxic encephalopathy, which means the brain is damaged due to the lack of an adequate oxygen supply. This is the same type of brain injury that occurs in victims of drowning, cardiac arrest, carbon monoxide poisoning, and asphyxiation from any cause. In the case of tetraodontoxin poisoning, the low heart rate and blood pressure and slowed breathing causes the concentration of oxygen in the blood to fall to very low levels, which damages the brain—sort of a metabolic "frontal lobotomy." The surgical version of this happened to Jack Nicholson in
One Flew over the Cookoo's Nest.

In the 1980s this happened to one of my patients. According to Joe (not his real name, of course), he owned a factory in Haiti, and Jean Claude Duvalier, a.k.a. "Baby Doc," wanted it, but Joe refused to sell. So Baby Doc had some of his Tonton Macoutes goons "zombie-ize" Joe and took his factory. They slipped into his house at night and powdered his shoes. The next thing Joe remembered was waking up three days later, in a three-hundred-year-old prison with rats gnawing on his toes. It took the U.S. State Department a month to get him out of Haiti.

Where would you get this stuff? Haiti, for sure, or perhaps in the Algiers area of New Orleans, where voodoo is still heavily practiced.

What Poison That Can Be Secreted in a Glass Will Kill Instantly When Swallowed?

Q: In my story a poison is placed in a glass. The victim then pours water into the glass and drinks it, dying immediately. At first glance it looks as though he has had a heart attack. However, my sleuth suspects he was

poisoned. What poison would fit this scenario, and what clues would tip off my sleuth that the victim was indeed poisoned?

A: There are several possibilities for your scenario, but one excellent choice: cyanide. It is quick, nasty, and effective. Even if someone attempted to save the victim, it is nearly impossible because treatment must begin immediately if any chance of survival is to be realized. Why? Cyanide is a "metabolic poison" in that it basically shuts down the ability of the body's cells to use oxygen. The red blood cells cannot carry oxygen to the tissues, and the tissues of the body can't use the oxygen anyway. It is as if all the oxygen is removed from the body instantly. This process is immediate and profound, and leads to death in one to ten minutes depending on the dosage. So even if CPR is begun immediately, the body cells still can't use the oxygen supplied by this process.

Symptoms are rapid breathing, shortness of breath, dizziness, flushing, nausea, vomiting, loss of consciousness, maybe seizure activity, and then death. These are also common symptoms of a heart attack. This sequence of symptoms happens very quickly, in a matter of seconds or minutes. The victim develops sudden, severe shortness of breath and a flushed face; he may clutch at his chest, collapse to the floor, and die, with or without having a seizure in the process. Also, his skin appears very pink, and if the victim hits his head or scrapes an elbow and bleeds, the blood is a noticeably bright cherry red. This is also true in carbon monoxide poisoning.

Your sleuth could suspect cyanide poisoning from the sudden onset of breathing difficulty followed by a sudden collapse. The pinkish skin color and the bright red color of the victim's blood would be additional clues.

Hydrogen cyanide is a gas and would not fit your situation. It is primarily used in fumigation and can be lethal if inhaled or absorbed through the skin. It is the gas used in gas chamber executions.

Potassium cyanide (KCN) and sodium cyanide (NaCN) are your best bets. They are white powders with a faint bitter almond smell, which most people do not notice. Either could easily be sprinkled into a glass, especially if the glass was opaque, colored, or etched. Both are very powerful and only a small amount would be needed. They readily dissolve in water, alcohol, or a mixed drink.

One caveat: Your killer must be careful when handling KCN or NaCN. They are both easily absorbed through the skin and could do in your killer. Rubber gloves and a complete avoidance of direct contact with the powder would be wise.

KCN and NaCN are used commercially in metal recovery such as extracting gold or silver from their ores and in electroplating such metals as gold, silver, copper, and platinum. They could be pilfered from a jewelry or metal plating company. They are also sold by several chemical supply firms.

In your story a small amount of the powder could be put in the glass and swirled to coat the inside. When the water is added and consumed, the victim would collapse and die very quickly.

Can Ingested Cocaine Kill?

Q: In my story the victim is killed by ingesting cocaine placed in his drink, a Manhattan. The vermouth would probably hide any possible taste. I have read a book on poisons and thought this was feasible. Is it possible? Cyanide would be easier and faster, but for my murderer cocaine was readily available.

A: The short answer is yes, cocaine would work and could work very quickly if the dose is large enough.

Cocaine revs up the brain and can cause seizures, and these can be lethal, especially if they trigger a condition known as status epilepticus. Typically, seizures are self-limited, running their course in a couple of minutes and then ceasing. But in status (for short) they continue sometimes for hours or even days. IV medications such as Dilantin, phenobarbital, or one of the other anticonvulsant (antiseizure) drugs sometimes won't break them. Occasionally, we have to paralyze these types of patients with Anectine (a curare-like drug that paralyzes all muscles—not just the seizing ones but also those needed for respiration) and place them on a ventilator until things settle down. This prevents them from dying from lack of ventilation or aspiration of stomach contents. Breaking these types of seizures can take several days in severe situations.

Even without status a seizure can be lethal since it interferes with respiration or can lead to vomiting and aspiration. More likely, however, the cocaine would cause some cardiac event such as the following:

1. Lethal cardiac arrhythmias
(irregularity in the heart's normal rhythm): Ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation may occur as a result of the direct effect of cocaine's stimulating properties. Most people who die suddenly after cocaine use do so from this type of change in the cardiac rhythm. It may occur after ingestion, snorting, intravenous (IV) injection, or freebasing, which is the smoking of cocaine. With freebasing the cocaine is absorbed through the lungs almost as fast as if given by IV.

2.
Coronary arterial spasm
(narrowing from the contraction of the muscles in the walls of the arteries): The coronary arteries are the ones that supply blood to the heart muscle. When they spasm, the flow of blood can be severely and even completely restricted, and the area of the heart supplied by that artery may die (heart attack, myocardial infarction, or MI) or a lethal arrhythmia, as described above, may result secondary to poor blood flow to the heart muscle. This is not uncommon, and I have seen several patients over the years with this occurrence.

Crack cocaine, because of its greater concentration and delivery through the lungs, is particularly dangerous.

In your scenario the ingestion of cocaine from a spiked drink could cause all the above. A seizure, a heart attack, or a sudden death from an arrhythmia or any combination could happen. The victim may clutch his chest and complain of shortness of breath, become pale, and sweat profusely—exactly like a heart attack. He may fall to the floor in a grand mal seizure. His back would arch, his eyes roll back, and powerful jerking motions of his arms and legs would occur. He might bite his tongue, causing it to bleed, or he might vomit and aspirate. In the case of the arrhythmia, the victim would simply collapse and die. Fade to black, cut, print, roll the credits.

One more thought: Cocaine is bitter and is a local anesthetic that numbs the victim's mouth. However, the taste can be masked, especially if it is the victim's third or fourth drink. And since the absorption rate of cocaine by the GI tract is fairly rapid by the time the victim senses the numbing effect or otherwise figures out that something is amiss, he might be on the floor with no pulse. Additionally, if the victim is not a user, his tolerance for an acute dose of cocaine is greatly reduced so that a smaller dose can prove lethal.

What Happens in Carbon Monoxide Poisoning?

Q: I am working on a story in which one of the characters is murdered by piping the exhaust from a gasoline engine into the room where she is sleeping. What actually happens in this circumstance? What causes death? I read that people who die in this manner have bright red skin. True? Why? How long after she lost consciousness would she still have a chance to survive if found?

A: The culprit in exposure to exhaust from a gas-powered engine is carbon monoxide (CO). It can also come from a faulty gas heater or a fireplace where the gas or the wood are incompletely burned. Complete combustion of gas or wood forms carbon dioxide (C0
₂
), the same gas we exhale with each breath. Though high levels of CO
₂
can be harmful and even deadly (this is what happens when people suffocate in car trunks, abandoned refrigerators, vaults, and so forth), CO
₂
is not nearly as toxic as CO.

Our red blood cells (RBCs) contain hemoglobin, which is an iron-containing molecule that binds oxygen and carries it to our tissues, where it is released. The tissue cells then use the oxygen for all their vital processes. Inhaled CO is rapidly absorbed through the lungs and into the bloodstream, where it binds with hemoglobin with an affinity 210 times that of oxygen. This means that if air is inhaled that contains CO, the hemoglobin prefers to take on the CO and not the oxygen. The cells can't use CO, so the net effect is that they are suffocated.