From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This is a list of poisonings in chronological order of victim. It also includes confirmed attempted and fictional poisonings. Many of the people listed here committed or attempted to commit suicide by poison; others were poisoned by others.

Contents 1 Non-fiction 1.1 Confirmed poisonings 1.2 Attempted poisonings 1.3 Possible poisonings 1.4 Notorious poisoners 2 Fiction 2.1 Novels 2.1.1 Crime fiction 2.1.2 Other fiction 2.2 Films 2.3 Plays 3 References 4 See also

• Socrates (d. 399 BC) , Greek philosopher — According to Plato, killed by drinking poison hemlock
• Demosthenes (d. 322 BC) Athenian politician
• Aratus of Sicyon (d. 213 BC), tyrant of Sicyon
• Antipater the Idumaean (d. 43 BC), father of Herod the Great
• Cleopatra VII of Egypt (d. 30 BC), poisoned herself with an asp’s bite
• Julius Caesar Drusus (d. 23), son of Tiberius
• Emperor Hui of Jin China (d. 304)
• Ali ibn Abi Talib (d. 661), caliph
• Umar ibn Abd al-Aziz (d. 720), umayyad caliph
• Musa al-Kazim (d. 799), Shia Imam
• Romanus II (d. 963), Byzantine Emperor
• Alan III, Duke of Brittany (d. 1040)
• Constance of Normandy (d. 1090), daughter of King William I of England
• Constantine II of Armenia (d. 1129)
• Alphonse I, Count of Toulouse (d. 1148)
• Baldwin III of Jerusalem (d. 1162)
• Blanche of Bourbon (d. 1361), first wife of King Pedro of Castile
• Louis, Count of Gravina (d. 1362)
• Robert, Count of Eu (d. 1387)
• Ladislaus, King of Naples (d. 1414)
• Margaret Drummond (d. 1502), mistress of King James IV of Scotland
• Timoji (d.1512), Hindu privateer and Portuguese ally
• Juan Ponce de León (d. 1521), Spanish conquistador; after being wounded by a poisoned arrow
• Pope Clement VII (d. 1534), ate the death cap mushroom
• Eric XIV, King of Sweden (d. 1577)
• Yamada Nagamasa (d. 1630), Japanese adventurer
• Bradford sweets poisoning (1858)
• Erwin Rommel (d. 1944) German general
• Adolf Hitler (d. 1945) cyanide and gunshot simultaneously before capture
• Eva Braun (d. 1945) suicide by cyanide capsule at Hitler's side as his wife
• The Goebbels children (d. 1945), poisoned by their parents Magda and Joseph Goebbels (who then killed themselves shortly afterwards by poison and gun shots before capture)
• Heinrich Himmler (d. 1945), leader of the Nazi Schutzstaffel (SS); suicide by cyanide capsule after being captured
• Odilo Globocnik (d. 1945)
• Hermann Göring (d.1946), leader of the Nazi Luftwaffe; suicide by cyanide capsule, long after being captured and only hours before his hanging was to take place
• Alan Turing (d. 1954), British mathematician — Apparently committed suicide by painting an apple with cyanide and taking a bite.
• Clare Boothe Luce (1956) — Fell ill but did not die; arsenic poisoning
• Georgi Markov (d. 1978), Bulgarian dissident, — Assassinated in London with ricin
• Peoples Temple cult-members, perhaps over 900 of them, (1978); killed by cyanide-laced punch at Jonestown.
• Love Canal (up to 1978) — Buried toxic waste was covered and used as a building site for housing and school in Niagara Falls, New York, resulting in claims of chronic poisoning and a massive environmental cleanup.
• Bhopal Disaster (1984) — An accidental release of poisonous gas from a pesticide plant in India that killed over 2,000 people and injured many more.
• Matsumoto incident, June 27, 1994, sarin gas attack carried out by members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult. 7 killed, approximately 200 injured.
• Sarin gas attack on the Tokyo subway, March 20, 1995, carried out by members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult. 12 killed, 1034 injured.
• Marshall Applewhite (d. 1997); cult suicide
• Alexander Litvinenko 2006, Russian ex-spy and investigator, died three weeks after being poisoned by radioactive polonium-210 in London.

• Viktor Yushchenko, Ukrainian politician, was poisoned with dioxin during the 2004 electoral campaign.
• Grigori Rasputin, Russian mystic, survived being poisoned with potassium cyanide, as well as being shot, bludgeoned, and being thrown into a frozen river before finally dying of hypothermia.
• Khaled Meshal, Hamas Leader, survived being poisoned by Israeli assassins. The King of Jordan ordered the capture of the assassins, two of which were caught, and an antidote was supplied by Israel for their release.
• Zhu Ling, Chinese university student poisoned with thallium in 1995. Suspect never charged.

• Alexander the Great
• Barbara Radziwiłł (d. 1551), Queen of Poland
• Charles Darwin — possibly died due to self-medication with Fowler's solution, one percent potassium arsenite
• Claudius (d. 54), Roman Emperor, by his wife Agrippina the Younger
• Germanicus (d. 19), Roman general
• Jamestown colonists — Standard historical accounts claim deaths by starvation, but the possibility of arsenic poisoning by rat poison (or of death by Bubonic plague) has also been reported (see here)
• King John of England, with plums
• Joseph Stalin (d. 1953) — Officially cerebral hemorrhage; but, according to Vyacheslav Molotov's memoirs, Lavrenty Beria claimed to have poisoned Stalin.
• Mithridates VI of Pontus
• Napoleon Bonaparte — some claim he was killed by someone on his staff with arsenic. Evidence is inconclusive.
• Pope Benedict XI (d. 1304)
• Pope John Paul I (d. 1978)
• Pope Pius VIII (d. 1830)
• Ptolemy XIV of Egypt (d. 44 BC), if so, by his sister Cleopatra
• Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury (d. 1612)
• Robert Johnson (d. 1938), American musician
• Tycho Brahe (d. 1601), Danish astronomer
• Stefan Dusan (d. 1355), Serbian king
• John Gallagher Montgomery (d. 1857), U.S. Congressman from Pennsylvania
• Yasser Arafat (d. 2004) — Arafat reputedly died from liver cirrhosis, which may be a consequence of chronic alcohol use or poisoning. Some Arafat supporters feel it is unlikely that Arafat habitually used alcohol (forbidden by Islam), and so suspect poisoning. However, it is also important to note that cirrhosis is not necessarily caused by alcohol use, or indeed any poison at all.
• Ardeshir Hosseinpour (d. 2007), Iranian nuclear scientist, possibly poisoned/assassinated by Mossad: death by "radioactive poisoning" or "gas poisoning" [1] [2] [3] (unconfirmed)

• Grete Beier (executed 1908), German murderess
• Dr John Bodkin Adams, British doctor acquitted in 1957 but suspected of killing 163 patients via morphia and barbiturates.^[1]
• Anna Marie Hahn (executed 1938), American serial killer
• Graham Frederick Young (d. 1990), British serial killer
• Pope Alexander VI (Rodrigo Borgia)
• Thomas Neill Cream (d. 1892), serial killer
• Charles Sobhraj, a serial killer who preyed on Western tourists throughout Southeast Asia during the 1970s.
• Members of the Aum Shinrikyo cult in Japan in the 1990s often used poisons for murder, including chemical weapons such as VX and Sarin.

Due to the plot strength of poisoning in crime fiction, this is an inexhaustive list.

• Anthony Berkeley: The Poisoned Chocolates Case
• Ann Granger: Say It With Poison
• Francis Iles: Before the Fact (filmed as Suspicion)
• Francis Iles: Malice Aforethought
• Agatha Christie: Three Act Tragedy
• Agatha Christie: A Pocket Full of Rye
• Agatha Christie: Crooked House
• Cornell Woolrich: Waltz into Darkness (filmed as Mississippi Mermaid and Original Sin)
• Agatha Christie: And Then There Were None
• John Dickson Carr: The Burning Court
• John Dickson Carr: The Black Spectacles (US title The Problem of the Green Capsule)
• Francis Iles: Before the Fact (filmed as Suspicion)
• Francis Iles: Malice Aforethought
• Raymond Postgate: Verdict of Twelve
• Freeman Wills Crofts: The 12.30 from Croydon
• Ann Granger: Say It With Poison
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: A Study in Scarlet
• Sir Arthur Conan Doyle: The Adventure of the Devil's Foot
• Dorothy Sayers: The Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club
• Dorothy Sayers: Strong Poison
• Rex Stout: Fer-de-Lance
• Rex Stout: The Red Box
• Rex Stout: Black Orchids

• Alexandre Dumas, père: The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers
• Gustave Flaubert: Madame Bovary
• Kaori Yuki: Count Cain (GodChild after vol. 5) Protagonist Cain Hargreaves is known as the Count/Earl of Poisons. He has quite a collection of poisons, and frequently solves murder cases, almost all of which involve poisons.
• Snow White ate a poisoned apple
• Vladimir Harkonnen of Dune
• unsuccessful poisoning of Ron Weasley in Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. The intended victim was Albus Dumbledore
• David Eddings' Mallorean. The Emperor Zakath of Mallorea is poisoned with thalot, and cured by Adara's Rose, called by Cyradis, the Seeress of Kell, the "universal remedy". In The Elenium, the Primate Annias poisons Queen Ehlana with Darestim, so he can have access to her treasury to fund his campaign of becoming Archprelate. Her champion, Sparhawk, and his companions find the magical jewel Bhelliom to cure her. It is later revealed that Ehlana's father King Aldreas was killed with the same poison, given to him by his sister, with whom he was romantically involved.

• D.O.A.
• Arsenic and Old Lace
• The Young Poisoner's Handbook
• Jill Tracy- The Fine Art of Poisoning

• Joseph Kesselring: Arsenic and Old Lace
• Shakespeare: Romeo and Juliet
• Hamlet, King Claudius, Gertrude and Laertes, characters in William Shakespeare’s tragedy Hamlet, Prince of Denmark
• Imogen, in William Shakespeare’s play Cymbeline

• List of people by cause of death – List of unusual deaths
• List of deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning
• Antidote
• Assassination
• Biosecurity
• Cult suicide
• Food poisoning
• Food taster
• LD50
• Lead poisoning
• Lethal injection
• Pesticide poisoning
• Poison
• Poisonous animals
• Poisonous plants
• Pollutant
• Toxicity
• Venom
• List of fictional toxins