The author of The Poisoner’s Handbook said the following in an interview that aired on Friday:

The US Government was the largest mass poisoner of the 1920’s… The Treasury Dept under Calvin Coolidge says: Okay – what we’re going to do is we’re going to make this alcohol so poisonous that no one will drink it. And they required the manufacturers of making their industrial alcohol up to 10% pure poison.

Of course, this was all for the public good. After all, what’s 10,000 dead if you can cure millions of their addiction to alcohol?

The Best of Kathryn Muratore