If Murder There Was: Typhoid & Tragedy in 1909 Missouri

Six nurses threatened to storm out of the Swope mansion in Missouri at the height of a 1909 typhoid epidemic, claiming that “people are being murdered in this house.” Was the Swope family dying of typhoid, or was it something more nefarious?

Sources:

Carus, W. Seth. Bioterrorism and Bicrimes: The Illicit Use of Biological Agents since 1900 (Amsterdam: Fredonia Books, 2002).

Deel, Karla. Storied & Scandalous Kansas City: A History of Corruption, Mischief and a Whole Lot of Booze.(Lanham, MD, Globe Pequot, 2019).

Duke, Thomas Samuel. Celebrated Criminal Cases of America (The James H Barry Company, 1910). 

Fowler, Giles. Deaths on Pleasant Street (Kirksville: Truman State University Press, 2009).

Martin, Mackenzie. “The strange case of Mr. Swope and Dr. Hyde: Kansas City’s great unsolved murder mystery.” KCUR. https://www.kcur.org/history/2023-10-25/thomas-swope-park-murder-trial-bennett-hyde-kansas-city-mystery

“Medicine: Murders in Missouri.” TIME. 20 August, 1934. https://time.com/archive/6894959/medicine-murders-in-missouri/

Newspapers:

The Kansas City Star

St. Petersburg Times

St. Louis Globe Democrat

St. Louis Post-Dispatch

The Detroit Times

The Pittsburgh Press

The New York Times

Music: Credits to Holizna, Fesilyan Studios & Virginia Liston

For more information, visit www.oldbloodpodcast.com