The Poisoned Prince: The Germ Murders of the British Raj

Dark Histories

Ben Cutmore

History

4.8 • 2.2K Ratings

🗓️ 14 April 2025

⏱️ 80 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

In 1933, within the quiet corridors of the palace of the Pakur Raj, a death of the young Raja stirred more than grief—it raised suspicions. What seemed at first a tragic illness soon unraveled into one of India’s most chilling and unusual murder cases, when the Raja’s own, elder half-brother was accused of using a deadly germ as a weapon, turning modern science into a tool of silent assassination. Beneath the surface of royal decorum lay a dark tale of betrayal, ambition, and microscopic murder. SOURCES Morrison, Dan (2024) The Prince & The Poisoner. The History Press, London, UK. Rudrajit, Paul (2019) Bacteria as a Murder Weapon: A Tale from Colonial Calcutta. Bengal Physician Journal 2019;6(2):37-39. India. Chicago Tribune (1935) Two Must Die For Germ Murder Of Rich Indian. Chicago Tribune, Sun 17 Feb 1935, p3. Chicago, USA. Lincoln Journal Star (1935) The Mystery of the Famous Germ murder. Lincoln Journal Star, Sun 16 June 1935, p35. Lincoln, USA. The New York Times (1935) Two Germ Murderers Convicted In India. The New York TImes, Sun Feb 17 1935, p1. NY, USA ------- For almost anything, head over to the podcasts hub at darkhistories.com Support the show by using our link when you sign up to Audible: http://audibletrial.com/darkhistories or visit our Patreon for bonus episodes and Early Access: https://www.patreon.com/darkhistories The Dark Histories books are available to buy here: http://author.to/darkhistories Dark Histories merch is available here: https://bit.ly/3GChjk9 Connect with us on Facebook: http://facebook.com/darkhistoriespodcast Or find us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/darkhistories & Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dark_histories/ Or you can contact us directly via email at [email protected] or join our Discord community: https://discord.gg/cmGcBFf The Dark Histories Butterfly was drawn by Courtney, who you can find on Instagram @bewildereye Music was recorded by me © Ben Cutmore 2017 Other Outro music was Paul Whiteman & his orchestra with Mildred Bailey - All of me (1931). It's out of copyright now, but if you're interested, that was that. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

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0:50.8	In 1933, within the quiet corridors of the palace of the Pakua Raj, a death of the young Raja stirred more than grief.
1:00.0	It raised suspicions.
1:02.0	What seemed at first a tragic illness soon unravelled into one of India's most chilling and unusual murder cases,
1:09.0	when the Raja's own elder half-brother was accused of using
1:13.2	a deadly germ as a weapon, turning modern science into a tool of silent assassination.
1:19.5	Beneath the surface of royal decorum lay a dark tale of betrayal, ambition and microscopic murder.
1:27.8	This is dark histories where the facts are worse than fiction.
1:36.5	Hello and welcome to Dark History, Season 9, Episode 7.
1:40.6	I'm your host, Ben.
1:42.1	Today I'm back with a full episode, and it's an exciting one. I'm quite into, Ben. Today, I'm back with a full episode.
1:44.7	And it's an exciting one.
1:46.1	I'm quite into it because it's set in India, which is nice.
1:50.4	Because sometimes I feel like dark issues gets a little trapped in with sort of telling stories
1:55.6	that are pretty much just from like America or Britain.
1:58.3	You know, occasionally we sort of branch out.
2:00.4	But sometimes I feel like I'd like to branch out more.
	...

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