On September 26, 1934, food being prepared in the kitchen of Danvers State Hospital was poisoned, which resulted in the death of one inmate, and a dozen others were struck violently ill.
According to a news report in the Boston Globe, a 41-year-old patient, Hugh Foye, who had been assigned to work in the kitchen, was making some hard pudding sauce for about 300 patients that afternoon.
While stirring the sauce, Foye decided to taste it numerous times and noticed a peculiar taste. He asked the hospital’s chef, Rufus Flint, to taste it and confirm. After confirming that the sauce tasted strange, Flint decided not to use it.
A news report in the Boston Herald said that just as Flint gave the order to throw the sauce away, Foye was suddenly stricken with stomach pains and collapsed. Flint soon became ill as well.
Both men were taken to the institution’s doctor. Flint quickly recovered, but Foye continued to get worse and died four hours later.
Flint returned to the kitchen and decided to make another batch of the sauce with powdered sugar obtained from a different building on the property, the staff kitchen. After the sauce was served to the employees with their pudding, a dozen of them fell ill, complaining of stomach pains, dizziness, and nausea.
State detectives Richard Griffin and William F. Murray were called in to investigate the incident. It was first believed that someone with access to the kitchen intentionally mixed poison into the powdered sugar containers in a murderous plot to kill the nearly 1,500 patients at the hospital.
This suspicion was supported by the fact that the second batch of the sauce was made with powdered sugar from another building, but it also made people ill.
Yet, after it was discovered that an ample amount of poisonous insect powder was missing, but the container that held it remained on the shelf, detectives theorized that Foye mistook the poisonous insect powder for powdered sugar and added it directly to the sauce before putting it back on the shelf.
Why the second batch of sauce also made the employees sick is unknown, but Dr. Clarence Bonner, superintendent at the hospital, initially suspected it may have been a psychosomatic reaction caused by the knowledge that the first batch had been poisoned.
All of the butter and sugar in the main kitchen and the staff kitchen was analyzed, but no trace of poison could be found in it. An autopsy was performed on Foye, but the results were inconclusive.
Foye had been a patient at the hospital for about 21 years and was employed as a kitchen helper to the chef. Dr. Clarence Bonner defended Foye from accusations of any wrongdoing, telling the Boston Herald, “There is not a bit of suspicion that Foye placed anything in the ingredients used in making the sauce. He has never shown any indication of being depressed, and the fact that it was he who called the chef’s attention to the peculiar taste of the sauce definitely eliminates him from any suspicion.”
Foye’s funeral was held the following week, on October 3, at St. Augustine’s Church in Andover, and he was buried in the church cemetery.
Sources:
“Probe Shows No Hospital Poison Plot.” The Boston Record, 29 Sept. 1934, p. 11.
“Insect Powder Killed Danvers Inmate, Made Others Ill, Detectives Believe.” The Boston Herald, 29 Sept. 1934, p. 11.
“Poisoning Laid to Inmate.” The Boston American, 29 Sept. 1934, p. 3.
“Insecticide in Sauce Kills Bay State Man.” Atlanta Constitution, 29 Sept. 1934, p. 5.
“State Detectives Probing Death at Danvers Hospital.” Keene Evening Sentinel, 28 Sept. 1934, p. 5.
“Cregg Probes Mystery Death, Danvers Hospital.” Nashua Telegraph, 28 Sept. 1934, p. 9.
“Mass Murder Plot Feared at Prison.” Berkeley Daily Gazette, 28 Sept. 1934, p. 9.
“Death From Poison in Hospital Probed.” Leominster Daily Enterprise, 28 Sept. 1934, p. 1.
“Death Blamed to Powder.” The Boston American, 28 Sept. 1943, p. 6.
“Asylum Poison Powder Missing.” The Boston Globe, 28 Sept. 1934, p. 10.
“Seeks Fatal Poison Source.” The Boston Post, 28 Sept. 1934, p. 5.
“Plan Autopsy in Death of Patient at Danvers.” The Boston Globe, 28 Sept. 1934, p. 11.
“Plot to Kill Hundreds Seen.” The Boston Herald, 28 Sept. 1934, p. 1.
“Police Seek Murder Fiend.” Clinton Daily Item, 28 Sept. 1934, p. 4.
“Wholesale Poison Plot Suspected.” The Boston Record, 28 Sept. 1934, p. 4.
“Patient’s Death Saves Hundreds.” The Boston Traveler, 27 Sept. 1934, p. 1.
“Sauce Kills Man in State Ward.” The Boston Herald, 27 Sept. 1934, p. 33.
“Mixes Poison Sauce and Dies.” The Boston Post, 27 Sept. 1934, p. 2.
“Plan Autopsy in Foye Death.” The Boston Globe, 27 Sept. 1934, p. 2.