Robert Buchanan, Perfecting the Method

About this episode

This episode explores the suspicious circumstances surrounding the death of Robert Buchanan's second wife and the ensuing trial.

Robert Buchanan was a doctor in New York in the late 1800s who divorced his first wife in order to marry a brothel-owning woman from Newark, New Jersey. When she turned up dead, it seemed like it had been from natural causes, but his friends and acquaintances had some pointed questions and some suspicious letters to share with the police. Sources and resources: Peole v. Buchanan, Court of Appeals of the State of New York, Feb 26, 1895. https://www.casemine.com/judgement/us/5914cf45add7b04934820597 https://nyli.omeka.net/exhibits/show/celebrated-trials/murder-trials/buchanan-poisoning-trial Buchanan’s trial begun, New York Times, March 28, 1893, Page 9. https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1893/03/28/109696522.html?pageNumber=9 https://openyls.law.yale.edu/bitstream/handle/20.500.13051/7321/08_14YaleJL_Human177_2002_.pdf?sequence=2&isAllowed=y, page 17. Robert Buchanan Trial: 1893, Encyclopedia.com, Law magazines, https://www.encyclopedia.com/law/law-magazines/robert-buchanan-trial-1893 Food poisoning, Encyclopedia Britannica, https://www.britannica.com/science/foodborne-illness Cadaverine, Pubchem, https://pubchem.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/compound/Cadaverine#section=Odor…

People in this episode

Host: Suzanne

Topics covered

• true crime
• historical trial
• murder investigation
• poisoning
• 19th century
• legal history

Keywords

• Robert Buchanan
• murder
• trial
• poisoning
• 19th century
• New York
• brothel

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Freesound.org

Books & works: New York Times, Encyclopedia.com, Encyclopedia Britannica, Pubchem

Places: New York, Newark, New Jersey

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