I need to kill someone...

[Gary Compton]

by poisoning.

In my mind I want the poison slowly administered over weeks hidden in an aspirin and a final catalyst given (also hidden in an aspirin) that causes the build-up poison to activate and kill the target.

Is this possible or what options do I have?

Any ideas would be gratefully received.

 

[Abernovo]

Arsenic was used for years because of its slow-acting properties in small doses. The victim gets weaker and suffers fatigue before succumbing. Not exactly what you're looking for, though, and often looked for, as the properties of arsenic poisoning are well-known.

Have you considered medical drug interactions? Some (quite a few, in fact) prescribed drugs give bad reactions in combination. It would likely show up in toxicity screens, but if it one of the drugs was already on their prescription and the other an over-the-counter cure, an inquest might attribute it to an accidental mistake -- or overdose, if your character wanted to build up the drug in the victim's system.

Just an idea.

 

[Ursa major]

You seem to be using two types of poison here - slow acting and binary - and I'm not sure why you need** to. In particular, why do you want the first part of the poison to require weeks of administration. I'm worried that, if this was needed because of other aspects of the plot, it might look like a (particularly slow-burning) example of deus ex machine.



** - I can see one reason why you might have to - the first part of a binary poison requiring a bigger dose than one can administer easily (or secretly) in one go, but it seems unlikely that one would develop*** such an inconvenient binary poison.

*** - Obviously, if you're dealing with a "natural" binary - of the sort where two medications, when combined, produce fatal results - this might be an issue.

 

[Venusian Broon]

I was first going to suggest foxglove - or digitalis. But apparently it's not always fatal.

How about nicotine? 30-60mg (from wikipedia) kills a human, so that should be hideable in a 200mg aspirin tablet. And if your target smokes or is on those replacement patches, then the build up of nicotine from other sources may not be apparent. I've heard stories of people dying from smoking alone - there was a chinese man who died in a smoking contest. From memory, apparently puffed his way through 200 in one sitting before keeling over.

EDIT: Thinking about it - it might be 30-60mg per Kg or something, and I'm not sure injesting it would be effective, because it could well get mostly digested before entering the blood stream, where I think it has to be to be effective.

So not so sure on that one anymore - would need more research!

 

[jastius]

ricin from the castor bean. poisonous to humans.


Ricin Toxin from Castor Bean Plant, Ricinus communis

Ricin is one of the most poisonous naturally occuring substances known.
The seeds from the castor bean plant, Ricinus communis, are poisonous to people, animals and insects. One of the main toxic proteins is "ricin", named by Stillmark in 1888 when he tested the beans' extract on red blood cells and saw them agglutinate. Now we know that the agglutination was due to another toxin that was also present, called RCA (Ricinus communis agglutinin). Ricin is a potent cytotoxin but a weak hemagglutinin, whereas RCA is a weak cytotoxin and a powerful hemagglutinin.
Poisoning by ingestion of the castor bean is due to ricin, not RCA, because RCA does not penetrate the intestinal wall, and does not affect red blood cells unless given intravenously. If RCA is injected into the blood, it will cause the red blood cells to agglutinate and burst by hemolysis.
Perhaps just one milligram of ricin can kill an adult. The symptoms of human poisoning begin within a few hours of ingestion.
The symptoms are:

• abdominal pain
• vomiting
• diarrhea, sometimes bloody.

Within several days there is:

• severe dehydration,
• a decrease in urine,
• and a decrease in blood pressure.

 

[ctg]

Uncle Compton, I'd like to recommend you to do research on the poisoner's handbook. You can get it from the Amazon or second hand places, but it might also get you flagged - if you've been behaving badly. So as always be careful with this sort of enquiries.

What I don't know if this is going to be applied in your current story or if it's going to enter in a new one. So if this is a new one you need to be beware about the time-frame to fit your poison, but if it's demon/natsi story then think about this: there are millions of chemical products around us every single day, and some of them contain highly poisonous materials like lead, PPC etc. etc. And if you're going to use a poison than you have to fit that poison specifically to the character or it won't make any sense. However, if the story is set in the future you got more options, as you can invent something totally new.

PS. Asperin kills around forty thousand persons per year in the States.

 

[Tywin]

How about something that weakens the immune system, or the body in general, and then the catalyst is a fairly normal event that the person's body isn't able to handle.

Thinking about giving someone a stimulant that makes their heart race and then having someone jump out and say "Boo!" and the victim's heart explodes.

 

[ctg]

That's right, but anything weird and wonderful will result a tox-screen. Hence, I said that a poisoner in these modern days has to know his chemicals and plants to get the best or should I say the sneakiest result. But it is also about delivery and in this case Uncle Compton chose a method that could have killed the person anyways. Deviating from that and people would be raising eyebrows.

 

[MPorter]

Why have a catalyst? Why not just the poison itself? Unless you are looking for a multi-layered poison where the compounds on their own are harmless and only if mixed will result in a toxic reaction. (Kind of like the Joker poison in the original Batman movie).

~Mike

 

[hopewrites]

Well aspirin itself could be your slow build up. Then just add something super caustic to the mix and BOOM! stomach ulcers.
Not a pretty way to die, vomiting blood and all, but you could get some last words in. "Curse you and your killer chilly. I told you your cooking wasn't fit for man nor beast."

If you want to be super mean to your character give them ipecac after the super caustic chilly. Double burn the esophagus and the spasming might be what sets the ulcers to rupturing. Giving you internal bleeding as the cause of death.
Rough him up a bit and it might slow down pegging that the internal bleeding wasnt caused by his injuries.

Then you can have a nice long monolog about how your evil plans are going to blossom while he lies helplessly vengeful.
Life flight and some careful surgery, some anti-ulcer meds and loads of bed rest (perfect for brooding revenge) and the left for dead can make a surprise come back.