Chapter 2-Hyoscine and the Murder of Belle Elmore (Mrs.Crippen)

            “What’s your poison?” Of course, we’d all assume that when someone asked us, it would be our favorite drink (of course, I’d say cranberry vodka, but that’s beside the point). This time, when Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen asked his wife, Belle Elmore, he wasn’t kidding around. She had no choice in the matter, the night of January 31, 1910. Belle’s fate granted her last dying wish of being hacked up, decapitated and skinned by her adorning husband. Not really. It seems as Dr. Crippen got sloppy and butchered his own plans, having to quickly devise another option to dispose of the body and creating a safe alibi.

            Belle Elmore (real name Corinne ‘Cora’ Mackamotzki) was a locally famous singer, and Crippen was a scam of a doctor. The two were married on September 1, 1892. The two did not live happily ever after, that’s for sure. Crippen worked at the Drouet Institute for the Deaf, where he met Ethel le Neve, a typist for the institution. Crippen couldn’t keep it in his pants, and had quite the love affair with Ethel, obviously behind Belle’s back, for five years. Well, there is only one thing left to do! No, not a divorce! Are you out of you mad? Murder is the only answer! What a novel idea! Because Crippen was a doctor, he worked in hospitals and drug companies, where he discovered the magical usage of hyoscine hydrobromide. He acquired the drug, and slipped it into Belle’s drink during the dinner party with the Crippens’ friends, the Martinettis. Crippen concocted a master plan that would make the Martinettis think that Belle was feeling sick before they left, so that when she did finally kick the bucket, they would have first handedly witnessed her illness before her "unexpected" death. Belle would then have “died” of some sickness, and Crippen’s hands would be clean. Except, it blew up in his face, therefore Crippen had to dispose of the body somehow, so he buried the flesh of the cadaver into the coal cellar floor. Somewhere, he disposed of her head and bones, which probably ended up as ashes in the fire place.

            Let’s take a step back and examine what Crippen thought would have happened if he had given a stronger dosage of the hyoscine to his beloved wife. Hyoscine is a natural chemical, with a medical nomenclature of scopolamine, which comes from the plant genus Scopolia (Emsley, 2008, p.24). This chemical is considered an alkaloid.* In its purest form, this chemical is a water-soluble liquid which means it can be crystallized as hydrobromide, transposing it into a solid form, made for ingestion through swallowing by pill form (Emsley, 2008, p.24-25). In this form, the chemical is safer to ingest because of the added positive charge (cation) at the nitrogen atom (Emsley, 2008, p.29). At the quaternary nitrogen, a butyl group may be added to shield the central nervous system from harm due to its newly found inability to pass the blood-brain barrier (Emsley, 2008, p.30).

Hyoscine butylbromide

Hyoscine is a molecular compound that can exist in two forms which are mirror images of each other. This conceptualizes the term chirality. Chirality means “handedness,” therefore the molecular forms are not super-imposable. To understand this idea better, stick out your hands and look at them. They are mirror images of each other. Now place them on top of each other. You see that the digits do not line up, no matter how hard you try. This gives leeway to the chemical because it produces two different forms, and can have two completely different chemical effects because these isomers are not the same molecule, though they appear to be. In a medical case concerning hyoscine, it was reported that a substitution of hyoscine hydrobromide for hyoscine butylbromide. Hyoscine hydrobromide is a tertiary amine compound that does in fact pass the blood-brain barrier, whereas hyoscine butylbromide, a quaternary amine compound, does not (Sassenbroeck et al., 2005). Such an overdose of hyoscine hydrobromide caused damage to patient’s central nervous system and killed them (Sassenbroeck et al., 2005). No wonder why it is so easy to mix up the correct medicine with the wrong one, look at the names of these chemicals. It is strongly advised that if you are not well-versed in chemistry, just stay away from anything you cannot pronounce and for your own sake, don’t touch anything, or try to feed it to someone. Thank you. On a different note, this proves how carefully a scientist must be when working with a chemical that has isomers because one simple slip up may cost someone his or her life.

            Inside the human body, there lies a vital molecule. This molecule is acetylcholine (ACh). It is considered a messenger molecule which stimulates voluntary and involuntary muscles, secretion glands and a variety of brain functions (Emsley, 2008, p.27). Where hyoscine fits into all this is its role as an anticholinergic drug because it counteracts the effects of ACh when the level is too high for the body to properly function. Hyoscine as multiple medicinal uses due to its number of physiological effects on the human body. It greatly effects the central nervous system and the brain which induces an ecstatic feeling all throughout the body, and a lack of inhibition with a side of mental confusion, depending on the severity of the dosage (Emsley, 2008, p.24). It can also promote relaxation of the stomach and intestines, making it a helpful drug for those who suffer from irritable bowel syndrome. It also may onset memory loss, delusions, hallucinations and other psychological-altering effects (Emsley, 2008, p.28-29). People with IBS probably just take it to forget that they have such a pain-in-the-butt issue, or to psychedelically trip to make the experience more fun. Who knows.

            Crippen used hyoscine in hopes that the known symptoms it caused would be enough to kill her. He bought five grains of the drug, though only a quarter of one grain is strong enough to kill (Paine, 2006). Though for some reason unknown, his murderous intention of posing a natural death deviated far from his expectations. Crippen’s story was out, and suspicion rose quickly. His scheme crumbled right in front of his eyes. His attempted escape with Ethel was a dead giveaway, and a search of the house further verified suspicions. He went on trial and was found guilty in 27 minutes (Paine, 2006). He was hanged on November 23, 1910 (Paine, 2006). I think this story not only proves how complex chemistry really is, but how important it is to make sure you use the right dosage of a drug if you want to murder your wife…the first time.

*Alkaloid: Any of a class of nitrogenous organic compounds of plant origin that have pronounced physiological actions on humans

Resources

Emsley, J. (2008). Molecules of Murder. United Kingdom: The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Paine, D.F. (2006). Hyoscine and old lace: The trial of hawley harvey crippen. Tenesee Bar Journal. Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=ee0b0bab-75f7-48c4-bf49-cfc99585150e%40sessionmgr12&vid=2&hid=106

Van Sassenbroeck, D. K., Hemelsoet, D. R., Vanwalleghem, P., Verstraete, A. G., Santens, P., Monsieurs, K. G., & Buylaert, W. A. (2005). Three cases of substitution errors leading to hyoscine hydrobromide overdose. Clinical Toxicology (15563650), 43(7), 861-865. doi:10.1080/15563650500357560.  Retrieved from http://web.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=a5078dcf-88fa-40d8-a0ff-4ec4375ad326%40sessionmgr104&vid=2&hid=24.

Image courtesy of: http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&client=firefox-a&sa=N&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&biw=1440&bih=796&tbm=isch&tbnid=IoSY989BfjQKBM:&imgrefurl=http://www.ganfyd.org/index.php%3Ftitle%3DBuscopan&docid=5oXOvyuSFO8WRM&imgurl=http://www.ganfyd.org/images/f/f5/Hyoscine.png&w=199&h=149&ei=BERQT42lLM3RrQf984TpDQ&zoom=1&iact=hc&vpx=615&vpy=195&dur=3068&hovh=119&hovw=159&tx=97&ty=44&sig=113716950504026456861&page=1&tbnh=119&tbnw=159&start=0&ndsp=28&ved=1t:429,r:2,s:0

Chapter 1: Ricin and the Rolled Umbrella

Think of the most unlikely object a man could murder another person with. Now combine that with the world of science. Can’t think of anything? I wouldn’t worry too much about it, because if you did, you might consider yourself a murderer and hand yourself in before you get too far into it. Or, you might just luck out, just as the assassin who murdered Georgi Markov did, back in September 7, 1978. The weapon of choice? An umbrella. As perplexing as it seems, the umbrella was a mere disguise hiding the tiny air rifle inside that could easily pierce through clothing and skin to release a deadly biotoxin, with just the right amount of velocity. It held a pellet that had a diameter of 1.7mm with two minuscule cavities that held, at most, 0.4 mg of the biotoxin. The Bulgarian Secret Service had to make sure such sneak attacks were completely undetectable, therefore holding inanimate objects disguising weapons would do just the trick. Markov’s friend who worked for Radio Free Europe, was also attacked.

Georgi Markov and Vladimir Kostov were both associated with the communist leadership in Bulgaria, and both thought it was a bunch of-, well, to put it nicely, they both disagreed with that specific state of government. The two of them worked for the CIA-funded Radio Free Europe in Munich, Germany, which meant that the slandering was heard across the nation, and we all know how the communists dealt with that. On August 27, 1978, Kostov was attacked...by a suitcase. Well, not really a suitcase, just the by the man holding the air gun inside the suit case. The pellet struck Kostov in the small of his back (Think: Forest Gump saying “Yes sir, [the bullet] jumped up and bit me directly in the but-tocks.”) Maybe the situation itself would have been funnier if he actually said it, but I’m sure that was not even close to what he was thinking. On a more serious note, the pellet perforated his skin, releasing the biotoxin, ricin, into his body, which caused fever and swelling at the injection site. Luckily, he survived the attempted assassination. Less than a month later, Markov was walking to his car (too bad they did not have blue lights surrounding the parking lot like they do on campus.) A man “accidentally” dropped his umbrella close to Markov’s leg, and it just so happened to have stabbed his right leg. Later, he discovers that it was a similar situation to Kostov’s attack. Unfortunately, Markov began to run a high fever of 104 degrees Fahrenheit and proceeded to vomit, leading him to a stay at the hospital. There, his blood pressure fell extremely low, and his white blood count rose to 33,000 (normally 5000-10,000). He continued to vomit blood, stopped peeing because of the damage done to his kidneys and suffered from delirium. His heart finally had enough and gave out, as well as the rest of his organs.

Those communists were surely something else, weren’t they? If anything, they were pretty genius when it came to chemistry, or at least knew the right guys. Their selection of poison was not just a lucky guess. Ricin is a rather deadly poison produced by the castor bean plant, Ricinus communis (Emsley, 2008). The toxic part of this plant is the protein molecules located in its seeds (Emsley, 2008). Toxicity levels for ricin are 0.1 micrograms per kilogram of body weight, so it takes about ten castor seeds to kill an average-sized adult human being, which would equal 200 to 500 micrograms (Emsley, 2008). All of this can easily fit on the tip of a pin! The Bulgarian Secret Service really knew what they were doing.

The chemical structure of ricin consists of two peptide chains,chain A- RTA and chain B-RTB, connected covalently by a disulfide bond (Noblis, 2010). How exactly does this cause harm to the body?  The B Chain binds to a specific carbohydrate part to the outside of a cellular membrane, and the toxin attached to the cell receptors quietly wait until Chain A passes through (Emsley, 2008). Then inside, the area in which vital cellular enzymes are processed, is blocked off, cutting of the supply, and thus, killing the cell (Emsley, 2008). However, it is only when the bond between Chains A and B break will the chemical is no longer lethal (Emsley, 2008). It is the chemical properties of ricin which make it soluble in water. The polar electromagnetic quality of ricin dissolves into water’s very polar chemical structure. This is due to the idea that “like dissolves like,” which means that water and ricin have similar polarities that, when combined, water easily dissolves ricin.

More recent research discovers that ricin has another warfare tactic on its own. Originally noted, ricin damages protein synthesis as a cell’s function, however, researchers discovered that ricin also prevents a cellular defense process noted as an unfolded protein response, UPR (“Taming,” 2008). Understanding molecular biology, protein synthesis requires precise patterns of folding these long molecular chains, so the UPR does its job by removing the unfolded or incorrectly folded proteins and sends them to the endoplasmic reticulum, or, the ER (“Taming,” 2008). Just as before, that sneaky A Chain enters the molecule, and is sent to the ER, at which the UPR should signal a distress response, but before it can, a little piece of the ricin A protein tells the ER to turn off the UPR and cellular stress response which is vital for the cell’s survival, thus killing the cell (“Taming,” 2008).

Such a toxin has been known for its usages in chemical warfare because of its potency, physical attributes, and means of dispersal, since ricin can be injected, digested or inhaled into the body, even which can cause different effects. On the complete opposite end of the spectrum, good CAN come from ricin. Ricin has been known to have chemotherapeutic qualities, which has been used in the treatment of cancer. But it seems for the most part, ricin is only good if you want harm to come to others, which unfortunately, there are some out there who feel this is a wonderful thing to use just for that. Unfortunately for Georgi Markov, his understanding of chemistry came with a price, and he learned the hard way just how deadly an umbrella, I mean chemistry, can be!

Sources

Emsley, J. (2008). Molecules of Murder: Criminal molecules and classic cases. United Kingdom: The Royal Society of Chemistry.

Noblis. (2010). [Information chart]. Toxins: Ricin. Retrieved from http://www.noblis.org/MissionAreas/nsi/BackgroundonBiologicalWarfare/Pages/Toxins.aspx.

Taming the ricin toxin. (2008). International news on fats, oils and related materials: Inform, 19(4), 243-244. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/223593996?accountid=28902.

Image courtesy of: http://www.users.csbsju.edu/~hjakubow/classes/rasmolchime/00ch331finproj/Ricin/page1.html