The Pandemonium Witches: Murders, Mystery, and Mayhem · TPW3MPodcast

S1.E97 - Murder by the Teaspoon: Adelaide Bartlett and the Chloroform Mystery

·1 hr 15 min·5 clips

Thomas's refusal to allow proper medical care during childbirth resulted in a stillborn—a dark preview of the tensions that would define their marriage.

Pandemonium Witches presents S1.E97 on the 1886 Pimlico poisoning mystery, part of their 13-episode Halloween arc. Adelaide Bartlett was tried for poisoning her controlling husband Thomas with chloroform, but was acquitted because prosecutors couldn't explain how the poison reached his stomach without damaging his throat. The episode explores Adelaide's aristocratic background, her tumultuous marriage marked by Thomas's refusal to allow proper medical care during her stillbirth, and the mysterious circumstances that led to an unprecedented acquittal. The hosts' enthusiastic, conversational style brings historical intrigue to a lesser-known Victorian crime that defies explanation.

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