Aquachloral - Notable Uses

Notable Uses

• The Jonestown Massacre, which involved the communal drinking of Flavor Aid poisoned with Valium, chloral hydrate, cyanide, and Phenergan.
• Richard Realf (1832–1878) killed himself with a combination of chloral hydrate and laudanum.
• Jennie Bosschieter (1882–1900) who was murdered with chloral hydrate in Paterson, New Jersey on 12 October 1900.
• John Tyndall (1820–1893) who died of an accidental overdose.
• Anna Nicole Smith (1967–2007) who died of an accidental combination of chloral hydrate with three benzodiazepines, as announced by forensic pathologist Dr. Joshua Perper on 26 March 2007. Chloral hydrate was the major factor, but none of these drugs would have been sufficient by itself to cause her death.
• Marilyn Monroe had chloral hydrate in her system at her death.
• Hank Williams came under the spell of a man calling himself "Doctor" Toby Marshall (actually a paroled forger), who often supplied him with prescriptions and injections of chloral hydrate, which Marshall claimed was a pain reliever, to deal with the pain from Williams' lifelong severe back problems.
• William S. Burroughs was expelled from school for experimenting with chloral hydrate along with another pupil. The incident is detailed in the writer's foreword to Junkie.
• Mary Todd Lincoln was given chloral hydrate for sleep problems. See Mary Todd Lincoln by Jean Baker and Mary: Mrs. A. Lincoln, by Janis Cooke Newman.
• André Gide (1869–1951) was given chloral hydrate as a boy for sleep problems by a Doctor named Lizart. Gide states in his autobiography, If It Die... that "all my later weaknesses of will or memory I attribute to him."
• Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828–1882), the English painter, was a regular user of chloral hydrate, originally against insomnia. He is quoted as saying to his friend Hall Caine: "Everyone has skeletons in their cupboards, and this is mine."
• Friedrich Nietzsche regularly used chloral hydrate in the years leading up to his nervous breakdown, according to Lou Salome and other associates. Whether the drug contributed to his insanity is a point of controversy.