WEBVTT - The So-Called 'Dr.' Blood and His 'Oxygenized Air' Cure 0:00:02.120 --> 0:00:06.479 Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shondaland Audio in partnership 0:00:06.559 --> 0:00:16.800 with iHeartRadio. In January of eighteen eighty one, The Cincinnati 0:00:16.840 --> 0:00:21.439 Examiner described doctor Charles Lewis Blood as quote forty five 0:00:21.520 --> 0:00:24.639 years of age, but looks to be not above thirty five. 0:00:25.120 --> 0:00:27.400 He is nearly six feet tall in height and is 0:00:27.440 --> 0:00:31.000 well built, with a fresh, fair complexion, a good suit 0:00:31.080 --> 0:00:33.720 of brown hair which he wears in curls, and is 0:00:33.840 --> 0:00:38.239 very affable, it is claimed. The report continued that he 0:00:38.280 --> 0:00:41.279 had been operating as a sort of confidence man and 0:00:41.360 --> 0:00:45.000 that he had no right to the title MD. The 0:00:45.040 --> 0:00:49.080 Boston Globe described him as having a quote national reputation 0:00:49.159 --> 0:00:53.920 for crooked work, and according to Chicago's Inter Ocean newspaper 0:00:53.960 --> 0:00:57.520 in February of eighteen ninety, police described him as quote 0:00:58.480 --> 0:01:04.039 the silkiest and slipperist confidence man in the business. So 0:01:04.640 --> 0:01:08.000 let's meet this so called doctor Blood. Welcome to Criminalia. 0:01:08.080 --> 0:01:12.920 I'm Maria Tremarqui and I'm Holly Fry. Charles Lewis Blood 0:01:12.959 --> 0:01:16.399 was an American con artist who operated primarily in Boston, 0:01:16.760 --> 0:01:19.760 with time also spent in New York City, Philadelphia, and 0:01:19.800 --> 0:01:24.560 the Chicago area. Charles was born in Groton, Massachusetts, about 0:01:24.560 --> 0:01:27.560 forty or so miles west of Boston, on September eighth, 0:01:27.560 --> 0:01:31.160 eighteen thirty five. He was the son of Lewis Blood, 0:01:31.200 --> 0:01:35.880 a successful farmer, timber dealer, contractor, and prominent citizen of 0:01:35.880 --> 0:01:40.080 the town. Although Charles always maintained the story that his 0:01:40.160 --> 0:01:43.720 father was a physician, people who knew him in the 0:01:43.760 --> 0:01:47.840 family years earlier denied that his father was ever a doctor, 0:01:47.880 --> 0:01:52.760 But Charles never strayed from his story. We know nothing 0:01:52.800 --> 0:01:55.760 about his childhood. In fact, we don't find much about 0:01:55.840 --> 0:01:59.560 him in the historical record until he's about thirty years old. 0:02:00.080 --> 0:02:03.520 He fabricates a medical career. It starts up a column. 0:02:05.320 --> 0:02:08.720 Charles was a self proclaimed doctor, and he sold a 0:02:08.760 --> 0:02:13.200 patent medical treatment known as oxygenized air, which he promoted 0:02:13.240 --> 0:02:17.000 as a cure for all sorts of problems, from postnasal 0:02:17.040 --> 0:02:23.560 drip to tuberculosis. His oxygenized air was actually nitrous oxide, 0:02:23.560 --> 0:02:27.000 which you may better know is laughing gas. It's a colorless, 0:02:27.280 --> 0:02:31.360 nonflammable gas that has a mildly sweet odor and taste, 0:02:31.360 --> 0:02:35.440 and when inhaled, it can cause feelings of euphoria, relaxation, 0:02:35.520 --> 0:02:38.520 and calmness. As well as fits of giggles, because you know, 0:02:38.600 --> 0:02:43.600 there's a reason it's nicknamed laughing gas. Charles manufactured his 0:02:43.639 --> 0:02:47.160 own product, but he wasn't the first to use nitrous oxide. 0:02:47.160 --> 0:02:50.160 It was first synthesized by Joseph Priestley in seventeen seventy 0:02:50.160 --> 0:02:53.120 two and then introduced as an analgesic by Humphrey Davy 0:02:53.160 --> 0:02:56.359 in eighteen hundred. In eighteen forty four, it was first 0:02:56.480 --> 0:02:59.560 used as a surgical and esthetic, and still is today 0:03:00.280 --> 0:03:02.960 as a mild sedative. It's long been used to calm 0:03:03.000 --> 0:03:06.640 anxiety and dentistry, but it's not a cure for any 0:03:06.680 --> 0:03:12.240 respiratory ailment, as Charles promised. Charles arrived in Boston in 0:03:12.320 --> 0:03:16.240 eighteen sixty five and soon established himself as a curer 0:03:16.400 --> 0:03:21.680 of consumption which we now call tuberculosis and respiratory diseases 0:03:21.720 --> 0:03:25.160 by means of his patented oxygenized air. He kept his 0:03:25.200 --> 0:03:28.959 headquarters on Chauncey Street in the city. Charles started out 0:03:29.080 --> 0:03:33.440 his khan with a khn, meaning he swindled and experienced 0:03:33.440 --> 0:03:37.680 and respected businessmen from Wellesley, Massachusetts. A mister Humphrey Cummings 0:03:38.040 --> 0:03:41.880 whose name may have been Whitney Cummings into advancing him 0:03:42.000 --> 0:03:46.360 forty five hundred dollars in capital for his oxygenized air treatment. 0:03:47.040 --> 0:03:50.600 The dividends coming received from their partnership were no more 0:03:50.680 --> 0:03:53.600 valuable than the air Charles was peddling to his marks, 0:03:53.920 --> 0:03:56.960 and it didn't take long before Cummings demanded his money 0:03:56.960 --> 0:04:01.240 be returned to him. Charles never paid out, and about 0:04:01.240 --> 0:04:04.960 a year later the entire matter was closed when Cummings died. 0:04:06.120 --> 0:04:10.600 Doctor Blood had a full patient load and frequently promoted 0:04:10.640 --> 0:04:14.200 his medical services in full page newspaper ads across the city. 0:04:14.640 --> 0:04:17.440 He also issued an advertising sheet of his own, which 0:04:17.440 --> 0:04:21.440 he broadcast throughout the surrounding counties. As an example, on 0:04:21.560 --> 0:04:25.200 May first, eighteen sixty seven, an advertisement in the Lewiston 0:04:25.240 --> 0:04:29.920 Evening Journal in Maine read, in part quote, qatar. In 0:04:29.960 --> 0:04:32.240 America today we call this post nasal drip, which is 0:04:32.279 --> 0:04:34.800 just a build up of phlegm in your throat. But 0:04:34.960 --> 0:04:37.840 qatar should not be ignored, as it is apt to 0:04:37.920 --> 0:04:42.120 lead to fatal pulmonary complaints. It is easily cured with 0:04:42.640 --> 0:04:47.680 oxyanogized air. Oxyanogized air is also a remedy for consumption. 0:04:48.160 --> 0:04:51.359 The remedy is given by inhalation breathed directly into the 0:04:51.440 --> 0:04:54.640 lungs and through them carried into the circulating fluids of 0:04:54.680 --> 0:04:57.479 the body, decomposing the impure matter in the blood and 0:04:57.520 --> 0:05:01.280 expelling it through the pores. As do not have to 0:05:01.320 --> 0:05:05.599 experiment long to learn results. The effects are immediate, and 0:05:05.800 --> 0:05:09.240 but a short time is required to perfect a cure 0:05:09.480 --> 0:05:14.240 in any curable cure. He often used that somewhat confusing 0:05:14.240 --> 0:05:18.480 slogan a cure in any curable cure when promoting his product. 0:05:18.560 --> 0:05:24.400 But anyway, business boomed and the fraudulent doctor upgraded his 0:05:24.440 --> 0:05:28.120 office into an opulently appointed clinic located at one ninety 0:05:28.200 --> 0:05:31.440 nine Harrison Avenue in the South End neighborhood of the city. 0:05:32.400 --> 0:05:35.279 He saw a steady stream of patients throughout the day, 0:05:35.480 --> 0:05:39.320 yet some historians question whether or not he used shills 0:05:39.720 --> 0:05:42.400 people that he paid to give the appearance that he 0:05:42.440 --> 0:05:46.200 was running a bustling business. He was described by the 0:05:46.240 --> 0:05:50.040 Interocean as quote quick in motion, with small, sparkling eyes 0:05:50.279 --> 0:05:54.400 and a plausible manner, calculated to win those inexperienced in 0:05:54.480 --> 0:05:59.320 reading human nature. Charles was already making a tidy wage 0:05:59.320 --> 0:06:02.480 when he sold the rights to administer oxygenized air to 0:06:02.640 --> 0:06:07.400 other real physicians, and that's when Charles found himself with 0:06:07.480 --> 0:06:10.159 a rival. But first we're going to take a break 0:06:10.240 --> 0:06:13.520 forward from our sponsor before we talk about the emergence 0:06:13.600 --> 0:06:32.760 of a doctor Jerome Harris. Welcome back to Criminalia. Let's 0:06:32.760 --> 0:06:35.480 talk about what happened when a patient was treated with 0:06:35.520 --> 0:06:40.880 a therapy called superoxygenized air by a real physician, not 0:06:41.160 --> 0:06:45.680 Charles Blood. Not long after Charles sold the rights to 0:06:45.800 --> 0:06:50.520 his air, a doctor Jerome Harris, a real physician who 0:06:50.560 --> 0:06:54.480 practiced in Boston, had begun applying nitrous oxide to patients 0:06:54.560 --> 0:06:59.240 under the therapy name super oxygenized Air. We don't know 0:06:59.400 --> 0:07:04.159 what made Harris's therapy super, but we'll go on. Not 0:07:04.320 --> 0:07:08.159 only was Harris trading on Charles's stick, he was doing 0:07:08.200 --> 0:07:12.280 it out of Charles's former office on Chauncey Street. One 0:07:12.320 --> 0:07:15.000 day in the winter of eighteen sixty six, doctor Harris 0:07:15.080 --> 0:07:17.960 was called upon by a mister Carville of Lewiston, Maine, 0:07:17.960 --> 0:07:24.280 who complained of bronchial symptoms and specifically requested Harris's super 0:07:24.360 --> 0:07:29.640 oxygenized air therapy. Within moments of receiving treatment, though Carville 0:07:29.680 --> 0:07:32.960 fell into a seizure upon returning home, he called for 0:07:33.000 --> 0:07:36.160 his own physician for follow up treatment, and that physician 0:07:36.320 --> 0:07:43.520 turned out to be yes doctor Charles Blood. The next day, 0:07:43.560 --> 0:07:47.400 the press wrote, well, they wrote a lot, both fact 0:07:47.480 --> 0:07:51.520 and fiction. Most described the scene as one where doctor 0:07:51.560 --> 0:07:57.160 Harris had poisoned Carville by administering super oxygenized air. They 0:07:57.240 --> 0:08:00.400 also noted the subsequent relief that Carville received through the 0:08:00.440 --> 0:08:05.240 treatment of physician doctor Blood. For Charles, this media attention 0:08:05.320 --> 0:08:10.200 was amazing for developing a much larger pool of marks. Usually, 0:08:10.320 --> 0:08:13.200 as a con artist, you don't want media attention because 0:08:13.200 --> 0:08:16.120 it might spoil the game, but in this instance, he 0:08:16.200 --> 0:08:18.680 made sure the press and the public were all aware 0:08:18.720 --> 0:08:23.200 of Carville's continued improvement under his care. Not one to 0:08:23.240 --> 0:08:25.680 pass up a marketing moment, he was quick to point 0:08:25.720 --> 0:08:30.680 out that improvement was due to his own harmless oxygenized air, 0:08:31.160 --> 0:08:34.240 and often he would include his office address for those 0:08:34.280 --> 0:08:38.840 who wished to try it themselves. Carvill sued Harris, which 0:08:38.920 --> 0:08:41.600 kept the story in the media even longer, and it 0:08:41.720 --> 0:08:45.920 turned doctor Blood into a local medical hero in the press. 0:08:46.840 --> 0:08:51.040 Harris's legal counsel advised that Harris was being blackmailed by 0:08:51.120 --> 0:08:54.360 Blood and Carvill, and that Carvill was being paid off 0:08:54.400 --> 0:08:56.720 to make Harris look like a poor physician and Blood 0:08:56.760 --> 0:08:59.640 a superior one. You know. Ruse. That was basically an 0:08:59.760 --> 0:09:04.640 entire staged event, but in the end no illegal activity 0:09:04.720 --> 0:09:09.040 was proven. The case fell through, Harris left Boston and 0:09:09.200 --> 0:09:14.920 Charles's practice quote continued in high Feather. Charles didn't do 0:09:15.080 --> 0:09:19.480 all his work in Boston. He ran a brief oxygenized 0:09:19.520 --> 0:09:23.280 Air Cohn in Chicago in eighteen seventy five and eighteen 0:09:23.320 --> 0:09:25.240 seventy six, where he set up an office on the 0:09:25.280 --> 0:09:28.439 corner of State in Madison. There are some back number 0:09:28.480 --> 0:09:32.440 directories still available that placed the doctor at two different 0:09:32.440 --> 0:09:35.280 addresses on Madison Street. First he was at seventy seven 0:09:35.320 --> 0:09:39.200 and then six eighty three. A mister Charles S. Cruspy 0:09:39.679 --> 0:09:42.400 was the agent for the property at seventy seven Madison, 0:09:42.480 --> 0:09:46.640 and later told the Interocean quote, why yes, I remember 0:09:46.800 --> 0:09:49.280 doctor Blood. He came here in the spring of eighteen 0:09:49.320 --> 0:09:51.720 seventy five and rented a suite of rooms on the 0:09:51.720 --> 0:09:55.319 fourth floor. He was a fine looking man and dressed nicely. 0:09:55.600 --> 0:09:59.400 He paid his rent promptly in advance and always seems 0:09:59.440 --> 0:10:02.800 to have of money. He did a good business too, 0:10:02.840 --> 0:10:05.120 and he had lots of papers and circulars that he 0:10:05.160 --> 0:10:09.280 would have distributed. He seemed to be introducing a new treatment, 0:10:09.400 --> 0:10:12.240 the oxygen treatment I believe it was called, and was 0:10:12.280 --> 0:10:15.760 advertising it pretty freely. He always did a good business, 0:10:15.840 --> 0:10:18.439 and after being here about a year, he sold out 0:10:18.480 --> 0:10:21.440 to a man I don't remember his name and went away. 0:10:22.200 --> 0:10:24.400 The man did not stay here but a month or 0:10:24.440 --> 0:10:27.079 so and then moved away. I believe that doctor Blood 0:10:27.160 --> 0:10:29.920 left the city. I don't know where he went or 0:10:29.960 --> 0:10:33.040 where he came from. Doctor Blood never had any trouble 0:10:33.080 --> 0:10:35.280 here so far as I know, and when he left here, 0:10:35.360 --> 0:10:37.840 I never heard from him again until you mentioned his 0:10:37.920 --> 0:10:42.920 name to me. In eighteen eighty, doctor C. L. Blood 0:10:43.040 --> 0:10:46.800 authored a book on medicine entitled A Century of Life, 0:10:46.920 --> 0:10:50.839 Health and Happiness or a gold Mine of Information, A 0:10:51.000 --> 0:10:55.839 Cyclopedia of Medical Information for Home, Life, Health, and Domestic Economy. 0:10:56.720 --> 0:11:00.240 It was essentially a collection of medical information for the home, 0:11:00.280 --> 0:11:03.199 and it was written in a period when Charles's focus 0:11:03.320 --> 0:11:07.800 changed from nitrous oxide inhalation to homeopathy, and in it 0:11:07.920 --> 0:11:11.439 he spends a good amount of time discussing okay, truth 0:11:11.480 --> 0:11:14.120 be told, there's a lot of hemorrhoid talk. He also 0:11:14.200 --> 0:11:18.160 focuses on the quote sickening habit of eating undercooked meat. 0:11:18.880 --> 0:11:22.000 Other highlights include chapters on how to properly wash your 0:11:22.040 --> 0:11:26.960 feet to tips for silencing embarrassing stomach growling. He writes 0:11:27.000 --> 0:11:31.320 about physicians over medicating their patients and includes marketing copy 0:11:31.400 --> 0:11:35.120 for his own clinic, presumably where treatments were better and 0:11:35.800 --> 0:11:38.920 no lie. The book ends with a section called Cooking Formulas, 0:11:39.200 --> 0:11:42.920 which includes a lot of recipes for everything from baking 0:11:42.960 --> 0:11:47.040 powder to sauces to puddings, too pies. There's some good 0:11:47.080 --> 0:11:50.640 recipes in this book. When it came to baking powder, 0:11:50.920 --> 0:11:57.120 doctor Blood advised that his homemade version was healthier. As 0:11:57.200 --> 0:12:00.800 part of his book Sales Techniques, Charles advertised in the 0:12:00.840 --> 0:12:04.040 book itself that random book buyers would be given prizes 0:12:04.080 --> 0:12:06.640 of up to five hundred dollars, and all they had 0:12:06.640 --> 0:12:10.160 to do was buy the book. He also suggested buyers 0:12:10.280 --> 0:12:15.080 by several books and sell their surplus. No one collected 0:12:15.160 --> 0:12:18.400 on these, but that swindle got him arrested in eighteen 0:12:18.440 --> 0:12:21.600 eighty three. The arrest went nowhere, but his name was 0:12:21.640 --> 0:12:25.560 splashed over Boston newspapers, and one newspaper referred to him 0:12:25.720 --> 0:12:30.880 as a quote philanthropic swindler. Three years later, an investor 0:12:30.920 --> 0:12:34.240 by the name of Charles Baker alleged that doctor Blood 0:12:34.320 --> 0:12:36.840 defrauded him of two hundred and ten dollars when he 0:12:36.880 --> 0:12:39.880 failed to provide copies of his book to backers's promised, 0:12:40.559 --> 0:12:43.880 and took the matter to the authorities. A warrant was 0:12:43.920 --> 0:12:47.280 issued for Charles's arrest in Massachusetts, but at that time 0:12:47.320 --> 0:12:50.599 he was already wanted in the state for various misdemeanors. 0:12:50.960 --> 0:12:54.320 He was taken into custody in Philadelphia actually and returned 0:12:54.320 --> 0:12:58.880 to Massachusetts on a charge of defrauding by false pretenses. 0:13:00.559 --> 0:13:04.080 While he was running this long con, Charles had other 0:13:04.200 --> 0:13:07.080 run ins with the law, most related in some way 0:13:07.120 --> 0:13:13.079 to his oxygenized air scam. We're looking at fraud, blackmail, murder, 0:13:13.120 --> 0:13:18.840 and tax evasion. Tax evasion, you ask. Charles got pinched 0:13:18.880 --> 0:13:21.760 by the Feds, but not for running a con. It 0:13:21.840 --> 0:13:26.520 was for failing to properly stamp his patent medicines. Never 0:13:26.600 --> 0:13:29.520 mind the quackery of the product, the labels. The labels 0:13:29.559 --> 0:13:34.360 have to be correct. Charles left Boston in the custody 0:13:34.360 --> 0:13:37.800 of two Deputy US Marshals, and he reappeared sometime later 0:13:37.800 --> 0:13:40.520 in Philadelphia. But I want to back up and talk 0:13:40.559 --> 0:13:43.120 for a minute about why they arrested him and what 0:13:43.280 --> 0:13:47.360 that stamp was all about. A patent granted the medicine 0:13:47.400 --> 0:13:51.640 maker a monopoly over their particular formula. In the United States, 0:13:51.720 --> 0:13:55.120 after the American Civil War, the patent medicine trade was 0:13:55.360 --> 0:14:00.559 very lucrative, and the medicines were aggressively marketed. During the war, 0:14:00.679 --> 0:14:04.680 patent medicines were taxed, as were matches, playing cards, perfumes, 0:14:04.679 --> 0:14:08.280 and other articles to fund the war effort. So from 0:14:08.360 --> 0:14:12.160 eighteen sixty two to eighteen eighty three, patent medicines required 0:14:12.240 --> 0:14:17.040 tax stamps placed on all packaging. Until federal drug regulations 0:14:17.040 --> 0:14:20.320 were put in place in nineteen oh six. Patent medicine 0:14:20.320 --> 0:14:24.440 manufacturers could also make any therapeutic claims for their product 0:14:24.440 --> 0:14:28.000 that they could think of, literally anything a pill that 0:14:28.080 --> 0:14:31.880 cures cancer? Sure, why not. The second half of the 0:14:32.000 --> 0:14:35.760 nineteenth century is generally considered to be the golden age 0:14:35.760 --> 0:14:40.080 of American patent medicines, in part because of rapid increases 0:14:40.120 --> 0:14:44.240 in industry and manufacturing, but really because there was an 0:14:44.280 --> 0:14:49.520 absence of drug regulation. So without drug regulation, why would 0:14:49.520 --> 0:14:55.200 people give something potentially sketchy like oxygenized air? Go Probably 0:14:55.240 --> 0:14:58.400 for a few reasons. Actually, doctors didn't have the training 0:14:58.600 --> 0:15:02.200 that positions due today. With some exceptions, most were trained 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:07.160 through two year apprenticeships without formal education requirements. Procedures and 0:15:07.240 --> 0:15:11.880 treatments often used harmful tools, and practitioners were rarely regulated. 0:15:12.560 --> 0:15:15.080 The time when Charles pulled his column is now referred 0:15:15.080 --> 0:15:19.920 to as one of heroic medicine, when some extreme techniques 0:15:20.000 --> 0:15:24.160 like bleeding, blistering, and purging were prescribed by physicians to 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:28.520 restore the natural balance of the body. Treatments often didn't 0:15:28.560 --> 0:15:31.760 work or they made you worse. You literally might be 0:15:31.880 --> 0:15:34.920 risking your life instead of saving it. This was also 0:15:35.320 --> 0:15:39.040 before the advent of germ theory that discovery wouldn't happen 0:15:39.120 --> 0:15:42.880 until the end of the nineteenth century, so physicians didn't 0:15:42.920 --> 0:15:45.320 have a lot to offer in a competition with patent 0:15:45.400 --> 0:15:50.000 medicines promises of a cure in a bottle. We're going 0:15:50.080 --> 0:15:52.040 to take a break for a word from our sponsor, 0:15:52.080 --> 0:15:54.360 and when we're back, we'll talk about how it wasn't 0:15:54.440 --> 0:15:58.000 all about maitros oxide. We'll look at the side crimes 0:15:58.120 --> 0:16:16.360 Charles engaged in while running his oxygenized air scam. Welcome 0:16:16.400 --> 0:16:21.600 back to Criminalia. Charles ran his medical con for decades, 0:16:22.040 --> 0:16:24.560 but it wasn't the only crime he was involved in. 0:16:25.240 --> 0:16:29.440 Let's talk about not just fraud, but blackmail and murder 0:16:29.560 --> 0:16:34.240 charges as well. Charles was in the paper again in 0:16:34.320 --> 0:16:37.440 May of eighteen eighty four, but not in the same 0:16:37.480 --> 0:16:41.240 positive way he had been after Carville's treatment. He was 0:16:41.320 --> 0:16:45.600 arrested by Boston authorities for blackmailing a local musician named 0:16:45.680 --> 0:16:49.840 Ernest Weber. This instance is one that didn't have anything 0:16:49.880 --> 0:16:53.040 to do with the con. This instance involved a woman. 0:16:53.880 --> 0:16:56.960 In April that year, Charles began dating a woman named 0:16:57.040 --> 0:17:01.440 Jeanette Nickerson, and the two were often seen together theaters, lectures, 0:17:01.720 --> 0:17:05.879 and they dined almost daily at Young's Hotel. That's meaningful 0:17:05.960 --> 0:17:10.160 because guests at Young's usually included names like Mark Twain, Elizabeth, 0:17:10.200 --> 0:17:15.120 Katie Stanton, and Rutherford B. Hayes. And during their relationship, 0:17:15.359 --> 0:17:20.640 Charles had procured or perhaps coerced, an affidavid from Janet Nickerson, 0:17:20.720 --> 0:17:24.120 stating that we're going to paraphrase this she had been 0:17:24.200 --> 0:17:28.399 quote ruined under promise of marriage by Webber, and that 0:17:28.520 --> 0:17:33.159 Webber had furthermore employed a physician to terminate a pregnancy, 0:17:33.359 --> 0:17:37.000 a procedure that had nearly taken her life. One of 0:17:37.080 --> 0:17:41.159 Charles's cronies, a doctor Townsend, delivered the Affidavid to Webber, 0:17:41.520 --> 0:17:44.920 and Webber was threatened with criminal prosecution unless he paid 0:17:45.000 --> 0:17:50.200 four thousand dollars. Webber wisely consulted with the police, who, 0:17:50.320 --> 0:17:55.360 in response arrested doctor Blood and doctor Townsend. Both men 0:17:55.400 --> 0:17:59.000 were convicted of blackmail and sentenced to several years in prison. 0:18:00.200 --> 0:18:04.160 But it's the murder of Hiram Sawtel on February fifth, 0:18:04.280 --> 0:18:10.360 eighteen ninety that was Charles's pre eminent crime. Probably if 0:18:10.359 --> 0:18:13.040 he did it, he got away with it. The story 0:18:13.080 --> 0:18:16.880 goes like this. Hiram was a fruiterer living in Boston 0:18:16.960 --> 0:18:20.440 with his mother and family. His brother Isaac, recently home 0:18:20.560 --> 0:18:24.320 upon release from prison, argued with Hiram regarding their late 0:18:24.359 --> 0:18:28.280 father's estate. Technically, the property was in their mother's name, 0:18:28.320 --> 0:18:31.919 but Hiram managed it for her. Isaac had decided he 0:18:32.200 --> 0:18:35.200 wanted to control it. This all seems like an unfortunate 0:18:35.520 --> 0:18:41.399 but pretty common family dispute at this point, But now 0:18:41.480 --> 0:18:45.800 let's step back a minute. Isaac and Charles Blood knew 0:18:45.840 --> 0:18:49.719 each other. They had met in prison, and upon hearing 0:18:49.760 --> 0:18:53.560 Isaac's plate, Charles offered to force Hiram's hand in the matter. 0:18:54.320 --> 0:18:56.879 His fee was five hundred dollars and they were going 0:18:56.920 --> 0:18:59.040 to have to bring in a third person to pull 0:18:59.040 --> 0:19:03.160 it off. They agreed they had a deal. Isaac kicked 0:19:03.160 --> 0:19:07.320 things off with kidnapping Hiram's daughter Marian, not in any 0:19:07.359 --> 0:19:09.879 way to hurt her, but in an effort to lure 0:19:09.960 --> 0:19:13.440 her father to a remote location in Maine, and that's 0:19:13.440 --> 0:19:16.679 where Charles and the intended third party would be waiting 0:19:16.920 --> 0:19:21.040 to muscle Hiram into giving up control over their mother's property. 0:19:21.800 --> 0:19:25.119 This plan, though, did not play out as they had envisioned. 0:19:25.680 --> 0:19:29.720 Hiram was shot four times. We don't know who did 0:19:29.720 --> 0:19:32.520 the shooting. We don't know why guns were even fired. 0:19:33.240 --> 0:19:35.679 Hiram did not survive, and the men took care of 0:19:35.720 --> 0:19:39.960 the body in a particularly grizzly manner, first by decapitating 0:19:40.000 --> 0:19:43.720 it and then partially dismembering it. They buried him in 0:19:43.760 --> 0:19:49.200 a shallow grave. After her husband's disappearance, Hiram's wife immediately 0:19:49.280 --> 0:19:53.480 suspected that Isaac had murdered him, and she notified the authorities. 0:19:54.080 --> 0:19:57.080 Hiram's body. It was found ten days after his murder 0:19:57.840 --> 0:20:00.679 when Isaac was arrested. He had two train tickets to 0:20:00.720 --> 0:20:02.960 Montreal with him, one of which was thought to be 0:20:03.080 --> 0:20:07.439 for Charles Blood. Charles's picture was being circulated after the murder, 0:20:07.440 --> 0:20:11.639 and he was recognized by a hotelier, a Missus Richmond, 0:20:11.920 --> 0:20:14.720 who contacted the police after seeing his photo in her 0:20:14.760 --> 0:20:19.399 local Sunday paper. She told authorities, quote, why I know 0:20:19.560 --> 0:20:22.920 that man? He called here a week ago today. It 0:20:22.960 --> 0:20:25.480 was in the afternoon. He asked for a room. I 0:20:25.560 --> 0:20:27.119 told him I had one, but when I looked at 0:20:27.119 --> 0:20:30.080 his face, I refused to give him one. He had 0:20:30.119 --> 0:20:33.320 two bundles, one done up in wrapping paper. It might 0:20:33.359 --> 0:20:36.480 have contained clothes. The other was done up in a 0:20:36.600 --> 0:20:40.399 newspaper about the size of a man's head. He looked 0:20:40.480 --> 0:20:43.080 just like the picture of doctor Blood. I sent him 0:20:43.080 --> 0:20:46.320 to mister Hall's. Later, when the picture was shown to 0:20:46.400 --> 0:20:49.480 mister Hall, he told authorities he recognized him, and the 0:20:49.520 --> 0:20:53.000 man had quote engaged rooms of him last Monday, but 0:20:53.119 --> 0:20:56.080 did not come back. Hall also stated he saw him 0:20:56.119 --> 0:21:00.399 on the street that same evening. Isaac was charged with 0:21:00.480 --> 0:21:05.080 conspiracy and with the murder of Hiram Sawtell. The indictment 0:21:05.119 --> 0:21:08.679 contained these two counts, one charge of willful murder of 0:21:08.720 --> 0:21:12.520 his brother, and the other charge that he hired, procured, 0:21:12.640 --> 0:21:17.160 or otherwise induced some party to commit the crime. While 0:21:17.160 --> 0:21:21.119 awaiting trial, Isaac confessed to the plot to intimidate his brother, 0:21:21.640 --> 0:21:25.600 but he denied prior knowledge of or taking part in murder. 0:21:26.280 --> 0:21:28.960 He claimed that Charles owed Hiram a good deal of 0:21:29.000 --> 0:21:31.600 money and that he had killed him to escape repayment. 0:21:32.440 --> 0:21:35.919 Hiram's widow, though, was not having this. She claimed, quote, 0:21:35.920 --> 0:21:39.000 he never had any money dealings with doctor Blood. You 0:21:39.080 --> 0:21:42.880 may rest assured Hiram wouldn't dream of lending that scamp 0:21:42.960 --> 0:21:46.680 money or anything. Hiram wasn't that kind of man being 0:21:46.760 --> 0:21:50.359 close in such matters, Nor would he or did he 0:21:50.560 --> 0:21:53.600 borrow money from doctor Blood, supposing that the latter had 0:21:53.600 --> 0:21:57.080 it to lend. And Isaac says doctor Blood owed my 0:21:57.160 --> 0:22:00.800 husband money. I'm sure that it is one of six bluffs. 0:22:01.760 --> 0:22:05.040 Hiram's widow also claimed that Isaac had told her Charles 0:22:05.080 --> 0:22:08.159 was quote a man who will do anything for a dollar. 0:22:09.320 --> 0:22:14.120 Despite the hotelier's statements in Isaac's last minute confession, Charles 0:22:14.200 --> 0:22:18.199 was never questioned by the authorities. Isaac was convicted of 0:22:18.240 --> 0:22:21.639 his brother's murder, and he was sentenced to death. He 0:22:21.760 --> 0:22:24.080 died from complications of a stroke on the night of 0:22:24.080 --> 0:22:29.120 December twenty sixth, eighteen ninety one, shortly before his scheduled execution, 0:22:29.240 --> 0:22:34.280 at age fifty five. Charles Blood died nearly two decades 0:22:34.400 --> 0:22:37.920 after Isaac's trial, on September twenty seventh, nineteen oh eight, 0:22:38.000 --> 0:22:42.359 in his early seventies of an unnamed illness, So Piers, 0:22:42.400 --> 0:22:46.720 it turns out that his oxygenized air couldn't cure everything. 0:22:47.840 --> 0:22:50.359 He was buried in the family plot, but his widow 0:22:50.359 --> 0:22:53.439 and surviving sisters chose not to add his name to 0:22:53.480 --> 0:23:00.560 the memorial. And that is our doctor cl Blood, your blood. 0:23:07.520 --> 0:23:09.040 Please tell me we have a red drink for our 0:23:09.119 --> 0:23:14.320 scamsel We do, and it is unbelievably delicious. This is 0:23:14.320 --> 0:23:16.359 one of those cases, right, like sometimes you got a 0:23:16.400 --> 0:23:18.359 tweak stuff, but this is when we're right out of 0:23:18.400 --> 0:23:21.800 the gate. It was correct. It just came together. So 0:23:22.160 --> 0:23:23.960 I knew that I wanted to do something red. I 0:23:23.960 --> 0:23:26.560 know it's obvious, but we've been doing all of our 0:23:26.600 --> 0:23:29.480 scam artists, but we haven't had a good, grizzly and 0:23:29.600 --> 0:23:32.280 dark thing in a while. And the name doctor Blood 0:23:32.320 --> 0:23:35.040 is so good. I feel like doctor Blood deserves to 0:23:35.080 --> 0:23:38.280 have a bloody beverage in no matter, all of my 0:23:38.400 --> 0:23:42.679 Halloween feelings were awakened. So I made a little something 0:23:43.119 --> 0:23:47.840 called Doctor Blood's Tonic, and I wanted obviously to have 0:23:48.560 --> 0:23:53.480 an airiness to it, because it's oxygen, I right, right, 0:23:53.480 --> 0:23:57.200 And did you put nitrousendens drink? No, dear Lord, no, no, 0:23:57.400 --> 0:24:00.480 I made something else to make it airy. This I'm 0:24:00.520 --> 0:24:02.560 not gonna lie. There are a few steps here, none 0:24:02.560 --> 0:24:05.199 of them are hard, but just stay with me. In 0:24:05.359 --> 0:24:08.160 your mixing tin, you are going to combine a pretty 0:24:08.200 --> 0:24:11.359 basic easy recipe. Three quarters of an ounce of lemon juice, 0:24:12.080 --> 0:24:14.480 three quarters of an ounce of an aggave syrup. I 0:24:14.560 --> 0:24:17.920 like a heavier, darker syrup in this one, two ounces 0:24:17.960 --> 0:24:21.040 of pomegranate juice, and an ounce and a half of 0:24:21.080 --> 0:24:24.119 the whiskey or bourbon of your choice. Like everything in 0:24:24.119 --> 0:24:27.400 this drink. Oh, it's gonna get even better. You will 0:24:27.440 --> 0:24:30.919 want to have had during this like a martini glass 0:24:31.000 --> 0:24:33.840 chilling in your chiller or fridge, or just fill it 0:24:33.880 --> 0:24:35.680 with ice and let it sit while you mix your drink. 0:24:35.960 --> 0:24:38.000 You're gonna shake this drink up and in the meantime, 0:24:38.080 --> 0:24:41.640 you are also going to take one egg white I've 0:24:41.640 --> 0:24:45.399 come around, or if you do pasteurized egg whites like that, 0:24:45.480 --> 0:24:47.639 you can pour out of the container. I use this 0:24:47.760 --> 0:24:49.399 all the time. There's no shame in that game. It 0:24:49.480 --> 0:24:52.360 does take more effort to get it frothy. But here 0:24:52.440 --> 0:24:54.960 is what I did for this one. I didn't immediately 0:24:55.080 --> 0:24:57.320 mix it with the rest of the drink. I put 0:24:57.320 --> 0:24:59.360 it in its own little container, and I used my 0:25:00.040 --> 0:25:04.359 coffee froth to whip it and like an ounce of 0:25:04.359 --> 0:25:06.679 the poort egg white. Again, that's a measure with your 0:25:06.680 --> 0:25:08.879 heart moment, but it was a boat an ounce and 0:25:09.040 --> 0:25:12.080 get it nice and frothy, and then add it to 0:25:12.520 --> 0:25:16.000 the cocktail mix and mix it all up together. Before 0:25:16.040 --> 0:25:20.159 you strain this out, you're gonna take your martini glass 0:25:20.200 --> 0:25:23.480 out of the chiller and you are going to glaze 0:25:23.520 --> 0:25:26.760 the inside of it with ginger liqueur. This is one 0:25:26.760 --> 0:25:29.720 of those cases where the pre chilled glass really helps 0:25:29.800 --> 0:25:32.960 because the ginger liqueur sticks to the sides, it slows 0:25:33.040 --> 0:25:35.720 down its viscosity so it doesn't just drain all to 0:25:35.800 --> 0:25:38.800 the bottom. And then you're gonna strain that cocktail right 0:25:38.840 --> 0:25:41.120 into it, and then you're gonna sip it and you're 0:25:41.160 --> 0:25:45.879 gonna hear the singing of angels, and you will feel 0:25:45.920 --> 0:25:49.719 like the light of Heaven has shined upon you and 0:25:49.840 --> 0:25:51.879 everything is good in the world. I'm not kidding. This 0:25:51.960 --> 0:25:55.320 is so delicious I can't even deal with it. There 0:25:55.440 --> 0:25:58.639 was like a magic in the silkiness of the egg. 0:25:59.600 --> 0:26:01.600 That's like part of what is great about an egg 0:26:01.600 --> 0:26:03.520 and a drink is that it gives it this really 0:26:03.520 --> 0:26:06.800