Speaker 1: Welcome to Criminalia, a production of Shonda Land Audio in
Speaker 1: partnership with I Heart Radio. Hello, and welcome to Criminalia,
Speaker 1: where we're exploring the intersection of history and true crime.
Speaker 1: I'm Maria tru Marquis and I'm Holly Fry And this
Speaker 1: season we're talking about lady poisoners. And this week's poisoner
Speaker 1: was born into royalty. She became the wife of one
Speaker 1: emperor and the mother of another. She has been described
Speaker 1: by both ancient and modern sources as ambitious, but also
Speaker 1: as ruthless, violent, and domineering. Not the kind of endorsements
Speaker 1: you're typically looking for on your LinkedIn profiles. So what
Speaker 1: I always search for when I'm looking for an employee domineering.
Speaker 1: So we are talking about Julia Agrippina, the power hungry
Speaker 1: Roman empress, and that's power hungry even by Roman standards.
Speaker 1: So it's pretty great. Who said to have poisoned her husband,
Speaker 1: who also happened to be her uncle, we'll talk about
Speaker 1: that later, to ensure her only son's succession to the throne.
Speaker 1: Julia Agrippina lived in the first century. She was born
Speaker 1: in a small town called opdam Ubiorum, which is located
Speaker 1: in what is modern day Germany. She was born sometime
Speaker 1: between November and March fifteen of the Common Era, and
Speaker 1: her parents were Germanica Caesar and Vipsania Agrippina. Julia was
Speaker 1: often referred to as Agrippina the Younger in order to
Speaker 1: distinguish her from her mother. Julia was actually born into
Speaker 1: the Julio Claudian dynasty, which was the first Roman imperial
Speaker 1: dynasty and was made up of the first five Roman emperors,
Speaker 1: who were Augustus, Tiberius, Caligula, Claudius, and Nero, names you
Speaker 1: have probably heard before. Yes, Julia was the great granddaughter
Speaker 1: of Augustus, that was the man who had turned the
Speaker 1: Roman Republic into the Roman Empire and became its first emperor.
Speaker 1: She was the great niece of Tiberius. She was the
Speaker 1: sister of Caligula, the niece and the fourth wife of Claudius,
Speaker 1: and ultimately the mother of Nero. Her story is one
Speaker 1: of the ambition and scandal, and it sounds like something
Speaker 1: that came out of a fiction writer's imagination. But the
Speaker 1: idea of the female murderer, for whom poison is the
Speaker 1: weapon of choice, is, as we mentioned, just a moment ago,
Speaker 1: really prevalent. Throughout human history, but also throughout our mythologies
Speaker 1: as well. So if you have studied any mythology, you
Speaker 1: may remember that in Greek mythology, Searsly used magic herbs
Speaker 1: to turn people into wolves, lions, and pigs, for instance,
Speaker 1: which sounds kind of cool. Uh. Today you hear that.
Speaker 1: Today you hear it described in more modern fiction in
Speaker 1: George Martin's Game of Thrones as the preferred weapon of
Speaker 1: the craven so eunuchs and also women. Julia was married
Speaker 1: young in the year twenty eight, which would have made
Speaker 1: her a thirteen year old bride. Her first husband, Nius
Speaker 1: Domedius a Hino Barbus, was an aristocrat who was her
Speaker 1: paternal first cousin once removed. He was also the biological
Speaker 1: father of her only child, a son whom they named
Speaker 1: Lucius Demedius Ahino Barbus. Lucius was the youngest descendant of
Speaker 1: Augustus's royal blood and would eventually become the infamous Emperor Nero,
Speaker 1: infamous for his debauchery and his extravagance, and in fact,
Speaker 1: upon receiving congratulations of his son's birth, the brutish Demidius
Speaker 1: is said to have remarked, or maybe prophecied that he
Speaker 1: didn't think that anything produced by him and Julia could
Speaker 1: possibly be good for the state or the people. Little
Speaker 1: did he know what was to come. Eleven years later,
Speaker 1: in thirty nine, Julia was exiled from Rome by her brother,
Speaker 1: the Emperor Caligula. And at this point, Caligula was roughly
Speaker 1: two years into his reign, and he'd reached this stage
Speaker 1: of intense self importance and had actually declared that he
Speaker 1: was a living God. But even God's apparently fear assassination. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Caligula had accused his sister of taking part in a
Speaker 1: plot to have him killed and to install Marcus Emilius
Speaker 1: Lepidus as emperor in his place. I want to make
Speaker 1: sure we're clear on this. This was not the Marcus
Speaker 1: Emilius Lepidus, who had been a Roman general in an
Speaker 1: ally of Caesar as well as a member of the
Speaker 1: Second Triumvirate. He died in thirteen BC, so well before
Speaker 1: the events that we're talking about. This Marcus was married
Speaker 1: to caligula sister, Julia Drusilla, and there was a conspiracy
Speaker 1: as well as a lot of romantic drama involving him
Speaker 1: hooking up with both Julia Agrippina and yet another of
Speaker 1: caligula sisters, Julia Levilla. But the plot to assassinate the
Speaker 1: emperor failed, and it came to me known as the
Speaker 1: plot of the Three daggers Um. He was executed for
Speaker 1: his part in it, and like Julia Agrippina, Julia Lavilla
Speaker 1: was also exiled. I always have to wonder when I'm
Speaker 1: reading all these things about how one person was having
Speaker 1: affairs with all these sisters, and like, did you have
Speaker 1: like a wider dating pool to right, it's only only relatives.
Speaker 1: Julia Agrippina was sent to the Pontine Islands, that's a
Speaker 1: rocky archipelago in the Tyrannean Sea, and Caligula died two
Speaker 1: years after that, and after he passed, Agrippina's uncle, the
Speaker 1: new Emperor Claudius, allowed her to return to Rome, and
Speaker 1: that allowed her to reunite with her young son. Julia's husband, Dimidius,
Speaker 1: died in the year forty of adema, not of suspicious causes,
Speaker 1: we promised. We're getting to the poison though, so while
Speaker 1: she was still in her twenties, Julia was not only
Speaker 1: a widow, but she was also the lone surviving member
Speaker 1: of her family. Her sister, Julia Lavilla was executed by
Speaker 1: starvation over a whole different matter, and circumstances were now
Speaker 1: that Julia's son was the only male heir left carrying
Speaker 1: the legacy of the royal family bloodline. Julia married again,
Speaker 1: this time to the affluent ex consul Gaius Crispus Passienus,
Speaker 1: and it was Emperor Claudius, her uncle, who actually asked
Speaker 1: Christmas to divorce his then wife. He was already happily married,
Speaker 1: presumably and the marriage children, yeah, and he asked her
Speaker 1: to do this so that he could marry the recently
Speaker 1: widow Julia Agrippina as a favor. Let's be very clear,
Speaker 1: it wasn't like she was pining for him. This was
Speaker 1: not a matter of Julia or Christmas being deeply in love.
Speaker 1: This was strictly a financial transaction. Over the years, christmas
Speaker 1: Is fortune was valued at two millions hysterity, which is
Speaker 1: a form of Roman currency, persuaded during his marriage to
Speaker 1: name his new wife and son, Julia and Lucius as
Speaker 1: heirs to his state. When Christmas died eight years into
Speaker 1: their marriage, his widow was suspected among the Romans to
Speaker 1: have poisoned him to gain his wealth and in general
Speaker 1: accused her of using her sexual allure to manipulate powerful man.
Speaker 1: So for the record, we don't know for certain if
Speaker 1: Julia poisoned Christmas, and we never will, because as you
Speaker 1: get farther and farther away from a point in time
Speaker 1: in history, your odds of unearthing and thing that will
Speaker 1: give you that information get tiny and tiny and tinier.
Speaker 1: But as far as the court of public opinion went
Speaker 1: in her contemporary time, she was absolutely considered guilty, which
Speaker 1: she might as well just be guilty. Welcome back to Criminalia.
Speaker 1: So after the death of Christmas, Julia continued to manipulate
Speaker 1: and money for herself into a position of unprecedented power
Speaker 1: for a woman in the Empire at that time. So
Speaker 1: enter Claudius, whose full name was Tiberius Claudius Nero, a
Speaker 1: dice playing history buff who was Julia's uncle, which kind
Speaker 1: of makes me love him. I loved coming across that
Speaker 1: tidbit about him throw the Bones and History book. He
Speaker 1: suffered from partial paralysis and a movement disorder, and he
Speaker 1: spoke with a stammer, according to uh descriptions of him,
Speaker 1: and also had a little bit of a propensity to
Speaker 1: have like a drooling problem, and he allegedly walked with
Speaker 1: a limp. He was also known to have uncontrolled emotional responses,
Speaker 1: and he had no political experience until he ascended as
Speaker 1: emperor in the year forty one, after Emperor Caligulo was
Speaker 1: assassinated in the Praetorian Guard. These were the elite unit
Speaker 1: of the imperial Roman army who served as the personal
Speaker 1: bodyguards to the Roman emperors. They named him emperor after
Speaker 1: discovering him in the palace after the death. It would
Speaker 1: be another two days, though, before the Roman Senate would
Speaker 1: accept him into the position, but they did. In forty nine,
Speaker 1: Claudius and Julia were married. This was an incestuous partnership
Speaker 1: and that was contrary to Roman law, but that's no problem.
Speaker 1: Claudius was the emperor, so he just had the law changed. Uh.
Speaker 1: This union may not have been the first time that
Speaker 1: Julia was involved in an incestuous relationship either. Rumors had
Speaker 1: swirled that she had had a sexual relationship with her
Speaker 1: brother Caligulo when he served as emperor, and it was
Speaker 1: swirl again around just exactly how she managed to control
Speaker 1: her emperor's son in the future. I have so many
Speaker 1: questions about that. Like, we know, the name Caligula automatically
Speaker 1: comes with like an association of sexual debauchery. But I
Speaker 1: also wonder how much of that is just like the
Speaker 1: rumor mill trying to take people down, right, I know, tee,
Speaker 1: because I mean he's always assistated with his sisters, But
Speaker 1: I always got the impression sisters inside, like those parties
Speaker 1: were way bigger than family. Yeah. Otherwise it's just like
Speaker 1: a quiet game of pinuckle. In any case, women in
Speaker 1: ancient Rome at this time worst citizens, but they did
Speaker 1: not have the power to vote or to hold political office,
Speaker 1: and Julia never content with her position pretty much. Ever,
Speaker 1: just assumed the title of Augusta after marrying Claudius, and
Speaker 1: that is the Roman imperial yet honorific title given to
Speaker 1: empresses and honored women. Her behavior actually led one of
Speaker 1: the Roman statesman and historian Cassius Dio to comment, no
Speaker 1: one attempted in any way to check Agrippina. Indeed, she
Speaker 1: had more power than Claudius himself. Yeah uh, sisters doing
Speaker 1: it for themselves. Yeah uh. Some historians suggest that the
Speaker 1: Roman Senate may have been behind the push for the
Speaker 1: marriage between Julia and Emperor Claudius. As a political way
Speaker 1: to end the feud between the Julian and Claudian branches
Speaker 1: of the dynasty. But regardless of the Senate's intentions, Roman
Speaker 1: society still considered this marriage incestuous and immoral and kind
Speaker 1: of gross. So we have to rewind for just a
Speaker 1: minute to talk about Claudius's background. Julia here was not
Speaker 1: Claudius's first wife. She's actually his fourth wife. Um and
Speaker 1: Claudius and his previous wife, Valeria Misslina, had had a daughter,
Speaker 1: Octavia and a son too, named Britannicus. But upon his
Speaker 1: marriage to Julia, and at her prompting in the year fifty,
Speaker 1: which was a year after they got married, Claudius formally
Speaker 1: adopted her son, Lucius Damidius Ahenobarbus, whose name was then
Speaker 1: changed to Nero Claudius Caesar Drusus Germanicus. This is an
Speaker 1: interesting and significant power move, as Julia's son was three
Speaker 1: years older than Claudius's biological son, Britannicus, and that made
Speaker 1: him the now expected heir to the empire. Okay, the
Speaker 1: next step to ascending her son to the position of
Speaker 1: emperor would be to get rid of Claudius. Right, So
Speaker 1: it's been jokingly concluded that Claudius ultimately died because of
Speaker 1: dave una x or a nimia, which means one too
Speaker 1: many wives. But he died on October thirte in the
Speaker 1: year fifty four, and it was room in public opinion
Speaker 1: that Julia was the one who poisoned him for the
Speaker 1: Imperial Purple. To be clear, Claudius did die of poisoning.
Speaker 1: He had actually ingested a poisonous mushroom, but the facts
Speaker 1: of the story beyond that differ depends ding on who
Speaker 1: told it. So, though he may have accidentally eaten a
Speaker 1: highly toxic deathcap mushroom at a banquet, most historians agree
Speaker 1: that in the year fifty four, Julia had sought the
Speaker 1: help of a notorious poisons expert. It was a local
Speaker 1: woman named Locusta, to supply her poison with which to
Speaker 1: murder her husband, the Emperor Claudius. It was likely that
Speaker 1: Locusta advised Julia to try a trope a bella donna
Speaker 1: as a poison. And you might already know that as
Speaker 1: deadly nightshade um, and this perennial plant has been used
Speaker 1: for poisoning since antiquity. It's highly poisonous, and the plant
Speaker 1: itself and its fruits contained something called tropain alkaloids, which
Speaker 1: are plant toxins. And according to this version of the story,
Speaker 1: it is said that Belladonna was sprinkled on a mushroom
Speaker 1: and given to the emperor with his meal. Um. I
Speaker 1: have read in some accounts that mushrooms were like his
Speaker 1: favorite thing. Yeah. So Alternatively, other historical accounts suggest that
Speaker 1: the mushroom may have just simply contained muscarine. That's a
Speaker 1: toxin that's commonly found in mushrooms, and that toxin causes
Speaker 1: some really nasty effects like vomiting, low blood pressure, difficulty breathing,
Speaker 1: and neurological problems. There's even a third theory that the
Speaker 1: poison mushroom didn't actually appear to work. So um. One
Speaker 1: of the royal doctors, doctor Gaius Stratonius Xenophon, then murdered
Speaker 1: the emperor with a poison tinted instrument, maybe a feather
Speaker 1: inserted into his throat, as one story goes, to induce vomiting.
Speaker 1: But the important takeaway here, no matter how any of
Speaker 1: this actually played out, was that Claudius died from ingesting poison,
Speaker 1: and because she had a great deal to gain from
Speaker 1: his passing, everyone believed that Julia had somehow orchestrated it.
Speaker 1: Being dead, in all, Claudius could not reinstate his biological
Speaker 1: son Britannicus as his legitimate heir to the throne. So
Speaker 1: naturally Julia declares her teenage son as emperor in his place,
Speaker 1: and here we get Emperor Nero with are listening to
Speaker 1: the throne as a teenager. His mother was effectively his region,
Speaker 1: and that meant she had political power as a senior
Speaker 1: partner in ruling over the Romans. Julia, we should point out,
Speaker 1: is not the only member of the family who had
Speaker 1: an association with poison. There was some cultural sort of
Speaker 1: poison acceptance at this time. Just a year into his reign,
Speaker 1: like mother, like son, Nero poisoned his stepbrother Claudius's son Britannicus,
Speaker 1: and doing this knocked out any potential competition over the throne.
Speaker 1: This seems like a good spot for a word from
Speaker 1: our sponsor. It does. Indeed, let's talk about the guy
Speaker 1: who Julia was willing to kill for her son, Nero. Nero,
Speaker 1: as we mentioned at the top of the episode, was
Speaker 1: Julia's own child, and in addition to his emperor gig
Speaker 1: Nero considered himself primarily an artist, with interests including pantomime, dancing, poetry,
Speaker 1: and even playing the liar. He also competed in the
Speaker 1: Olympic Games in near sixty seven in order to improve
Speaker 1: relations with Greece UM. But while he was there, he
Speaker 1: raced and he was actually thrown from a ten horse chariot.
Speaker 1: But he was still victorious because he was Nero. That's
Speaker 1: like the ultimate participation trophy. Good JOBAI wins it. All
Speaker 1: those other horses ran too far the tools. Nero's early
Speaker 1: years on the throne were primarily seen as successful, and
Speaker 1: in the first two years of his reign, Nero's coins
Speaker 1: would depict his portraits side by side with that of
Speaker 1: his mother. Overall, though, Nero is of course associated not
Speaker 1: with chariot races or with art, but with cruelty. So
Speaker 1: Nero ruled the Roman Empire from year fifty four until
Speaker 1: his death by suicide, which was just fourteen years later. UM.
Speaker 1: He was best known for his debaucheries and pulsiveness, political murders,
Speaker 1: and his persecution of Christians, and for allegedly, although it's
Speaker 1: not proven in any story, of infamously singing or playing
Speaker 1: music during and maybe even starting the Great Fire of Rome.
Speaker 1: We should point out that fiddles did not even exist
Speaker 1: and wouldn't wouldn't exist for another fourteen hundred years. So uh,
Speaker 1: he did not do that, even though it's quoted beautifully
Speaker 1: in an Elvis Costello sock work of pure fiction. Maybe
Speaker 1: he sang so astrologers prophesies that Nero would become emperor
Speaker 1: and kill his mother. And though you may or may
Speaker 1: not believe in astrology, and it could have just been
Speaker 1: a pattern recognition based on his family's proclivities from murder
Speaker 1: and intrigue. Either way, they were totally right on what
Speaker 1: they predicted. I mean, if I were the Astrologergura'd just
Speaker 1: be like a told you guys, check so upon Julia's
Speaker 1: encouragement and so that he could secure his imperial position
Speaker 1: while Claudius was still alive. Nero had married Claudius's daughter
Speaker 1: from a previous marriage, so for clarity, he was marrying
Speaker 1: his stepsister Octavia. But Claudius had a change of heart
Speaker 1: regarding his marriage to Julia and his adoption of Nero
Speaker 1: as the years passed in his marriage and he had
Speaker 1: started to again favor his biological son Britannicus as heir
Speaker 1: to the throne, but perhaps not surprising to those following closely,
Speaker 1: shortly after Claudius's death, Britannicus suddenly died poison. Maybe no
Speaker 1: one can prove that Julia and Nero killed Britannicus to
Speaker 1: remove all of the remaining obstacles between Nero and the throne,
Speaker 1: but their murderous reputations do precede them, right and Nero
Speaker 1: is often credited with his stepbrother's swift end, And Julia
Speaker 1: certainly seemed to have made very efficient work of clearing
Speaker 1: out any obstacles to her growing power. But thing started
Speaker 1: to go downhill for her after Nero began to assert
Speaker 1: himself and play a more interested role in the throne.
Speaker 1: And it would be, at least in part Nero's extramarital
Speaker 1: affairs that would also decrease the amount of power and
Speaker 1: influence his mother had over him. In fact, it would
Speaker 1: be her insistent involvement and meddling that would eventually lead
Speaker 1: to Nero's order of his mother's assassination just five years
Speaker 1: into his reign. This family the assassination story plays out
Speaker 1: like this. Nero actually tried to assassinate his mother more
Speaker 1: than once because she opposed his political and sexual affairs, right,
Speaker 1: just like if at first you don't succeed. But because
Speaker 1: she opposed his political and sexual affairs, Nero first set
Speaker 1: his mother to sail on a boat that he had
Speaker 1: actually designed to sink. The idea was that she would
Speaker 1: cross the Gulf of Naples, and she would sink halfway there.
Speaker 1: Regardless of which outcome of the story, believe, whether she
Speaker 1: was uh picked up by a small fishing boat or
Speaker 1: she swammed to the shore, she actually survived the attempts
Speaker 1: on her life, and he may have then tried to
Speaker 1: poison her, yet unsuccessfully again. She finally enter demised, though
Speaker 1: in the year fifty four, when Nero ordered her to
Speaker 1: be stabbed to death in her country home. Despite his
Speaker 1: generally poor leadership skills, as time war on, nero support
Speaker 1: throughout Rome didn't really begin to crumble, though, until a
Speaker 1: Roman governor named Gaius Julius Vindix declared his support for Galba,
Speaker 1: then in Spain for Emperor. That effectively meant that he
Speaker 1: was denouncing Nero and igniting a rebellion against the reigning
Speaker 1: emperor's tax policies, of which he wanted no taxes. Learning
Speaker 1: that he had been tried in Abstantia and condemned to
Speaker 1: death as a public enemy of the state by the
Speaker 1: Roman senate. Emperor Nero, who was just then thirty years old,
Speaker 1: fled Rome, but before he left he called upon you
Speaker 1: guessed it, local poison expert Lokista, as his mother had
Speaker 1: to to murder Claudius to acquire poison for his own suicide,
Speaker 1: although he ended up not using it in the end.
Speaker 1: It is believed that Nero died by a self inflicted
Speaker 1: knife wound to the throat to avoid capture, making him
Speaker 1: the last emperor and putting a close to the Julio
Speaker 1: Claudian dynasty. It is said that his last words were
Speaker 1: what an artist dies in me. Curiously, though there was
Speaker 1: a widespread belief surrounding nero suicide that he actually wasn't
Speaker 1: dead and somehow he would return, he did not return.
Speaker 1: Um in any way, This isn't a show about Nero,
Speaker 1: but Julia had been suspected of more than having a
Speaker 1: hand in poisoning a husband or two, and reportedly her
Speaker 1: crimes ranged from murder which we've talked about, to witchcraft,
Speaker 1: uh and even to forcing a man named Statilius Taurus
Speaker 1: into suicide. Because she wanted his beautiful gardens all to herself.
Speaker 1: I guess you really really loved flowers, right? He had
Speaker 1: that one rose that she just couldn't find anywhere Listen.
Speaker 1: After Claudius's death, Julia had risen so high in the
Speaker 1: royal family that she became the first living woman whose
Speaker 1: portrait bust appeared on the imperial coinage, along with that
Speaker 1: of a reigning Emperor Nero. We mentioned that that those
Speaker 1: first coins featured him and his mother together. Um Julie
Speaker 1: was undoubtedly a woman who followed the family tradition when
Speaker 1: it came to intrigue and power grabs. But was she,
Speaker 1: as history paints her, a poison happy, murderous, and opportunistic seductress.
Speaker 1: Funny thing that right. So, for one thing, uh, During
Speaker 1: the time that Julia Agrippina was alive, the words for
Speaker 1: adulteress and poisoner were used almost interchangeably, the idea being
Speaker 1: that if a woman had sexual agency, she was not trustworthy,
Speaker 1: and it was also assumed that she had a proclivity
Speaker 1: for poisoning. Throw in the fact that there was also
Speaker 1: some scientific confusion going on at that time when it
Speaker 1: came to, for example, the causes of sickness. Certainly long
Speaker 1: before germ theory, um, those kinds of things were often
Speaker 1: attributed to poison instead of their actual, not often natural causes.
Speaker 1: And when you put all these pieces together, you can
Speaker 1: see how, even though it's completely unproven, a reputation like
Speaker 1: Julius might have some roots in presumption instead of actual proof.
Speaker 1: Oh and that species of mushroom that killed Claudia's people
Speaker 1: today still die from it because it looks like a
Speaker 1: totally safe and harmless mushroom that you want to eat,
Speaker 1: So it may very well have just been a case
Speaker 1: of somebody picking the wrong fungus. We should also say, right,
Speaker 1: poison was very popular in Rome, not only among women. Uh.
Speaker 1: Worth noting in all of this is that husbands often
Speaker 1: poisoned their wives, just account after account of that, like
Speaker 1: for various reasons. But there's never any kind of synonymous
Speaker 1: associate Asian between the word adulterer or and poison only
Speaker 1: adulter s. So we just want to introduce all of
Speaker 1: this as food for Thought is totally poison free, we promise.
Speaker 1: But that brings us to our final segment of the show.
Speaker 1: Uh And now we are gonna do a little segment
Speaker 1: that we're calling What's Your Poison, where every week we
Speaker 1: will share some concoction related to the topic of the day. Uh.
Speaker 1: And this week we have a little cocktail that I
Speaker 1: have invented. We're gonna call it Death by Too Many Wives.
Speaker 1: And it's one of those cocktails that I fully expect
Speaker 1: to get mixed reactions to. I was not sure what
Speaker 1: I would think, but it turned out delightful. So first,
Speaker 1: what I did was I made a simple syrup, but
Speaker 1: I used brown sugar instead of white sugar. Interesting if
Speaker 1: you've never made simple syrup before, you just throw um
Speaker 1: equal amounts of sugar and water, so like half a
Speaker 1: cup of sugar, have a cup of water or whatever
Speaker 1: measure you want to use, and let that boil. And
Speaker 1: then when it finished boiling, I threw in some roasted
Speaker 1: garlic and roasted mushrooms and I just lost, like I know,
Speaker 1: I know, but I'm telling you come along with me. Um.
Speaker 1: And then I let that simmer very low for like
Speaker 1: literally just a couple of minutes, and then I steeped
Speaker 1: that in the fridge with a cup of vodka to
Speaker 1: make a liqueur, all in one container for a week,
Speaker 1: and then you strain it out and you get this
Speaker 1: very very um dark because of the brown sugar and
Speaker 1: the roasted components syrupy liqueur, and I just poured that
Speaker 1: into a glass and then I put an equal amount
Speaker 1: of club soda in it, and I ended up with
Speaker 1: this very interesting mushroomy garlic e cocktail. I don't even
Speaker 1: know what I would call it. It's not really a martini,
Speaker 1: it's not really a it's just a range little thing.
Speaker 1: It's a death by too many wives. Uh. So you
Speaker 1: just end up with this interesting like sense of savoriness.
Speaker 1: And there's a little bit of a buttery taste to
Speaker 1: it because it was those those vegetables were roasted. But
Speaker 1: it's really quite bright, and like the first sip is
Speaker 1: where you get the most sense of the flavor, and
Speaker 1: then after that it just kind of feels like this weird, sparkling,
Speaker 1: refreshing thing that has a buttery finish. Consider that liquor
Speaker 1: for a bloody mary, That's what I'm saying. Consider what
Speaker 1: kind of mushroom you're using that liqueur? Right, we don't
Speaker 1: I don't want anybody to die from this sort of drink.
Speaker 1: Don't be hunting down the toxic mushroom. Uh And I
Speaker 1: hope this has given you, truly some some some information
Speaker 1: to think about regarding how we view historical figures in
Speaker 1: terms of just branding them as as murderers when maybe
Speaker 1: they weren't. Maybe they were, We don't know. With that,
Speaker 1: we thank you for listening to this first episode of Criminalia,
Speaker 1: and we will to you next week. Criminalia is a
Speaker 1: production of Shonda land Audio in partnership with I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: For more podcasts from Shondaland Audio, please visit the I
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