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In 1857, America had a newly elected president, James Buchanan. Before the inauguration,

he came down to Washington, D.C., where he stayed at the city's largest hotel, which was known as

the National Hotel. But something strange happened to him and he became violently ill.

So did other people at the hotel and some of them, including high government officials, died.

Many people, including the president's own physician, thought it was poison and rumors ran wild.

Was someone trying to poison the new president and his allies? Was a sinister conspiracy behind

the event? Was it the work of a serial killer? Or could it have been a mysterious unknown disease?

That's what we'll be talking about on this episode of Jimmy Aiken's mysterious world. So Jimmy,

what's your bottom line on the deaths at the National Hotel? The deaths at the National Hotel were

a genuine mystery at the time. They seemed at first to be the result of mass arsenic poisoning aimed

at President Buchanan and his associates. However, on further investigation, the disease theory is

far more likely. The 19th century explanation of my asthma is wrong, but precisely what the disease

was remains a mystery today.

You're listening to episode 255 of Jimmy Aiken's mysterious world, where we look at mysteries from

the twin perspectives of faith and reason. In this episode, we're talking about the mysterious

secret society known as the Knights of the Golden Circle. I'm Dom Betanelli, and join me today

as Jimmy Aiken. Hey Jimmy, howdy Dom. The 19th century was a time of secret societies. Men

banded together for secret purposes and took secret oaths. One of the most famous secret societies

was the Knights of the Golden Circle. They began before the American Civil War, they continued

...