Questions about people who feed poison to loved ones

...like in my home. An invitation to dinner is a dangerous
endeaver - a true Pepto Bismol night to remember.

Anybody like Earth Wind and Fire? Come over to my house for a meal sometime.

Possible connection.

I wish I could cite chapter and verse, but my memory is accurate on the main idea.

Many of the Murder-Suicides among the elderly are not committed by a loving spouse worried about leaving his (usually) helpless, dying mate for the kindness of strangers.

They are committed by a loving spouse (usually the husband) who has defined himself as Tender Caregiver and can't accept either sharing the responsibility for care or the possibility that the ailing wife may improve or even recover.

I'm reminded of the number of much younger men who kill their pregnant wives or girlfriends rather than accept that these pregnancies will change the man's self-image.

Either way Noddy, it's always us women who are in danger.

Or the women who are too clever to be caught.

Back when I used to read mysteries at a frightening pace, there were whole oevres of a few writers devoted to death by food. Now, I know Edgar isn't using the poisoning as a death blow, but there may be some use in googleing Mysteries + food, say at Amazon - if only to Not use someone else's exact idea, but also for background info.

It's a slow day. Thought I'd give this one a bump.

That is what first came to mind when I read your first post.

I want to give this thread closure. A person who worked with me told repeatedly how he believed his wife was poisoning his food. He stated that he would open food that he alone ate of. Always, the first time, the food would be fine. Later, when he ate of it again, he became deathly ill. The only logical conclusion: His wife was putting something in his food. It was puzzling, because she appeared to be devoted to him and he was the one with mental problems. I started this thread as a way to learn about the wife's probable disorder, assuming the man was correct. Turns out, one holiday season, we had a great deal of food at work. Leftovers were crammed into the model's fridge. I ate some for a day or two. But, he continued to eat it long after I considered it unsafe. After at least a week, I dumped it all into a dumpster. Shortly after that, he announced that he was going to make himself a sandwich out of some of it. I told him it was gone and why. So, I don't need to elaborate further. He was poisoning himself, inadvertently. I did not want to write about the couple directly at the time. Hence, the clever ruse.

You should read "THE POISONERS HANDBOOK". Its actually not waht it sounds like except for the examples of which were used to help in the rise of forensic criminalistics.

Arsenic (paris Green), wood alcohol, and other more arcane poisons were always hard to detect so poisoning via slow accumulation of many of these poisons by "heirs in waiting" was quite an industry during The Gilded Age.

Its a good read and a quick one too. If youre doing research on the topic, I think you need to know how the sciences kept pace with methodologies to detect the crimes and apprehend the perps.

That sounds interesting. I can't do much right now - trash scratched my eye, earlier. But I can mark the info for later use. But, I really think the woman had no motive for doing this man in. Prior to him, she was unable to make her way in life. Now, he was steadily making her life comfortable. The real story of these two would actually make a good short story, come to think of it.

Yeah but for a fiction book it would make an interesting read - especially as it is rarely done that way. I'd imagine it would make the husband unbelievable if he were to accuse her -