Criminal

In 1902, twelve young men volunteered for a government experiment. They agreed to eat food laced with chemicals like formaldehyde, borax, and salicylic acid every day, for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They were called The Poison Squad.

Deborah Blum’s book is The Poison Squad.

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In January 1993, a lot of children started showing up at Seattle Children’s Hospital with the same unusual symptoms. Doctors didn't know what was going on – until they realized that most of the children had recently eaten at the same restaurant: Jack in the Box.

Jeff Benedict’s book is Poisoned: The True Story of the Deadly E. coli Outbreak That Changed the Way Americans Eat.

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When Fannie Davis and her family moved to Detroit in the mid-1950s, they hadn’t prepared themselves for how hard it would be. They had trouble finding steady work. So, Fannie found a way to take care of her family. She started small, but built a robust and lucrative operation… a business that a lot of people knew about but no one talked about.

Bridgett Davis’ book is The World According to Fannie Davis: My Mother’s Life in the Detroit Numbers.

This episode was originally released in 2019.

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On the morning of May 20, 1957, a bomb exploded under Don King’s front porch. Police got a tip that they should search the home of someone he knew - a woman named Dollree Mapp. But when they got there, she refused to let them in. Soon, her case would go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Carolyn Long’s book is Mapp v. Ohio: Guarding Against Unreasonable Searches and Seizures.

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Alice and Leonard Rhinelander had only been married for a few weeks when his family lawyer came to their house and took Leonard away with him. The next time Alice saw her husband was a year later, in a courtroom.

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Episode transcripts are posted on our website.
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