The show you're about to listen to may contain themes of violence, occult activities, strong language, and other sensitive material.

With an emphasis on cult's murder and other adult matters, listener discretion is advised.

On cult leader, I strive for telling stories in a truthful matter, though press, media, and other resources cannot always be verified.

Sources can be found in the show notes. Hello and welcome back to cold leader.

I'm your cold leader, Spencer Henry, and today,

Colbibs, we are diving into a case that actually, my BFF, Madison, brought to my attention

recently. And I'm going to say this. When Madison tells me about a case, you know it's going to be

fucking wild, because that girl spends her day walking around with her headphones in listening to body cam footage she

always finds the wildest ones and she's also a spooky gal okay she was actually researching for an

episode of obituary when she came across this vintage case and was like i believe this falls actually

into the cult leader category so i'm going to pass it off to you.

She did, and off I went, into a spiral to learn all about the life and times of a man named Dr. William Palmer,

a man who wore the facade of a respectable country doctor, but inside hid the heart of a gambler, a fraud,

and according to the press, the Prince of Poisoners.

So pour yourself some tea, Colpababes, but don't drink it.

Sip carefully.

And let's dive into his story.

First things first, so mid-1800s Britain was obsessed with poison.

You guys, they fucking loved it.

Arsenic was sold over the counter.

Strickene was used as rat poison, and toxicology was still very much an emerging science. Now, as an avid television watcher, particularly in the realm of fictionalized crime shows, well, and let's be honest, regular crime shows as well, true crime shows, toxicology reports always tell us a lot.

So reading about William Palmer actually really piqued my interest, I was like, okay, wait, when did toxicology reports actually start?

...