"You're not a qualified person." With these dismissive words, the Canadian government repeatedly denied women access to the Senate based on a narrow interpretation of constitutional language. But in 1927, five determined women gathered over tea in Edmonton to launch a legal challenge that would reverberate throughout the British Empire.

The story begins with Lizzie Cyr, a sex worker arrested for vagrancy in Calgary, whose case inadvertently exposed the precarious legal standing of women in public office. This leads us to the Famous Five: Emily Murphy (the first female magistrate in the British Empire), Louise McKinney (temperance advocate and women's suffrage champion), Henrietta Edwards (legal expert called "Otter Woman" by Indigenous communities), Irene Parlby (rural women's advocate and cabinet minister), and Nellie McClung (fiery novelist and suffragist).

Facing constant opposition from men who disrupted their political meetings, these women cleverly rebranded their gatherings as "Pink Teas" – social events men typically avoided. Their petition asked a simple question: does the word "persons" in the constitution include women? When Canada's Supreme Court ruled against them in 1928, they appealed to Britain's Privy Council, which overturned the decision in 1929. Lord Sankey's landmark ruling established the "living tree doctrine" – the principle that constitutions must evolve with changing times.

Yet the Famous Five's legacy carries a troubling contradiction. While fighting brilliantly for women's legal recognition, all five supported eugenics – advocating for policies that led to thousands being sterilized without consent in Alberta until 1972. Their story reminds us that historical figures rarely fit into neat categories of hero or villain, often reflecting both the progressive and regressive ideas of their time.

Listen and decide for yourself how we should remember these complex women who fundamentally changed the legal standing of women while simultaneously promoting ideas we now recognize as deeply harmful.

https://www.famous5.ca/

The Famous 5 and the infamous Lizzie
By Diane Woollard
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC80555/


The Canadian Encyclopedia by Catherine Cavanaugh, Susanna McLeod, Mary E. Hallett, Eliane Leslau Silverman, Susan Jackel
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/henrietta-louise-edwards#Eugenics

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Did you know a murder mystery novel once helped solve a real-life poisoning case? Agatha Christie's meticulous research and personal experience created stories so scientifically accurate they've saved actual lives.

Join us as we dive into "The Pale Horse," Christie's 1961 novel that introduced many readers to the deadly poison thallium. We explore how Christie's wartime experience as a nurse and pharmacy worker gave her intimate knowledge of toxicology that she wove into her mysteries with chilling accuracy. Her detailed descriptions of thallium poisoning symptoms – hair loss, nerve damage, and gastrointestinal distress – later helped medical professionals recognize and diagnose real cases that might otherwise have been fatal.

But Christie's detailed portrayal of this obscure poison had darker consequences too. We examine two disturbing true crime cases: Graham Young, who poisoned family members and colleagues in England, and George Trepal, who used thallium-laced Coca-Cola to murder his Florida neighbor after threatening her family. When investigators searched Trepal's home, they discovered something chilling – a copy of "The Pale Horse" among his possessions.

The story takes a remarkable turn with the case of a desperately ill toddler whose life was saved when a nurse recognized symptoms from Christie's novel. When conventional diagnosis failed, literature succeeded – proving that fiction sometimes has very real consequences.

Can words kill? Should authors censor their knowledge? Or does saving even one life justify sharing potentially dangerous information? Listen now for this fascinating exploration of how the Queen of Crime's work transcended fiction to impact real-world medicine and criminal justice.

The true story of how The Pale Horse caught a criminal and saved lives by Morgan Jeffery
https://www.radiotimes.com/tv/drama/pale-horse-true-story-saved-lives/

The Home of Agatha Christie
https://www.agathachristie.com/stories/the-pale-horse

Science Direct
Hachamovitch, Rory and heppard, M. N.
https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/medicine-and-dentistry/thallium

How Agatha Christie mystery The Pale Horse may have inspired a murderer by Betsy Reed
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/feb/09/how-agatha-christie-mystery-the-pale-horse-may-have-inspired-a-murderer

A truly poisonous plot twist by Sam Leith
https://www.pressreader.com/uk/scottish-daily-mail/20200220/281852940590602?srsltid=AfmBOoqYZwgQrPo0jrrJswWzD6-3wHQNL94NCOy6LKT9eO7GhiCk17yP

https://murderpedia.org/male.T/t/trepal-george.htm

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The fascinating case of Lizzie Cyr begins with a simple arrest for "vagrancy" in 1917 Calgary and transforms into a landmark legal battle that would permanently alter women's rights in Canada.

When Lizzie Cyr, a 29-year-old woman of First Nations and European heritage, found herself homeless and accepted temporary lodging from an acquaintance named John James Ryan, she unknowingly stepped into legal history. After Ryan paid her for sex, claimed she infected him with gonorrhea, and attempted to blackmail her for medicine money, Cyr found herself arrested and standing before one of Canada's first female magistrates, Alice Jameson.

Enter John McKinley Cameron, Cyr's eccentric lawyer known for representing society's most marginalized people. With his trademark mismatched suits and sometimes rubber boots, Cameron skillfully exposed Ryan's hypocrisy during cross-examination, revealing that Ryan regularly visited sex workers and had contracted gonorrhea before. Despite this compelling defense, Magistrate Jameson abruptly sentenced Cyr to six months hard labor without allowing her to testify.

What happened next would change Canadian legal history forever. Rather than simply appealing the verdict, Cameron pursued a bold strategy – challenging Jameson's very right to serve as a magistrate on the grounds that women couldn't legally hold such positions. This challenge reached the Alberta Supreme Court, where Justice Stewart declared "in our province and in our time there is no legal reason to disqualify women from holding public office," making Alberta the first Canadian province to officially recognize women as legal persons with the right to hold public office.

While Lizzie Cyr disappeared from historical records after serving her sentence, her case became crucial in establishing women's legal personhood – a concept that would be further developed in the "Famous Five" case detailed in next week's episode. Join us for the conclusion of this unexpected legal journey that helped secure fundamental rights for Canadian women.

The Person Behind the Persons Case Written by Sarah Burton

http://canadashistory.ca/explore/women/the-person-behind-the-persons-case

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The deadly attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics stands as one of the most shocking moments in sports history - a terrorist operation that transformed what should have been a global celebration into a horrific hostage crisis broadcast live to over a billion viewers worldwide.

When eight members of the Palestinian militant group Black September scaled the Olympic Village fence in the early morning hours of September 5th, they set in motion a tragedy that would forever change how we approach security at major events. Disguised in tracksuits and armed with rifles, pistols, and grenades, they targeted the Israeli team's quarters with deadly precision. What followed was a 20-hour ordeal where the world watched helplessly as negotiations failed and a botched rescue attempt led to devastating consequences.

The Munich Massacre reveals multiple layers of tragedy beyond the immediate bloodshed. Germany had deliberately chosen minimal security to create a more welcoming atmosphere, spending less than $2 million (compared to over $1 billion for modern Olympics). A police psychologist had even predicted almost exactly what would happen in scenario #21 of his security assessment, yet his warnings went unheeded. ABC announcer Jim McKay's marathon 16-hour broadcast culminated in his haunting words: "Our worst fears have been realized."

We explore how this watershed moment fundamentally altered counterterrorism approaches worldwide, sparked Israel's covert Operation Wrath of God, and forced difficult questions about how society responds to terrorism. The cultural impact continues through films like "Munich" and the recently released "September 5th," ensuring this dark chapter remains relevant fifty years later. Through firsthand accounts and declassified information, we examine why this particular attack resonates so powerfully in our collective memory and what lessons it still offers today.

That is the story of the 1972 Israeli Olympic Massacre. https://www.fbi.gov/video-repository/newss-hostage-rescue-team-marks-30-years/view#:~:text=At%20the%201972%20Olympics%20in,HRT)%20was%20launched%20in%201983.

https://www.npr.org/2024/12/13/nx-s1-5126526/munich-1972-massacre-olympics-september-5

https://www.nps.gov/articles/000/munich-massacre.htm

Sportscaster Jim McKay on the 1972 Munich Olympic

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bj25Aqm8W-o&t=2s

1972 Olympics Special: Tragedy of Munich Games

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P2Z3FmGLVU0&t=19s

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This website contains affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and purchase a product, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support the running of this website and allows me to continue providing valuable content. Please note that I only recommend products and services that I believe in and have personally used or researched.

A mysterious blue-green glow emanated from the wounds of soldiers on the Shiloh battlefield in April 1862. Those with glowing injuries seemed to survive at higher rates than their comrades, earning the phenomenon the name "Angel's Glow." For 140 years, this Civil War medical mystery remained unsolved.

The Battle of Shiloh stands as one of the Civil War's bloodiest engagements, with nearly 24,000 casualties over just two days of fighting. Union forces under Ulysses S. Grant were caught by surprise when Confederate troops launched a dawn attack on April 6th. The fierce combat around Shiloh Church and the area known as "Hornet's Nest" exemplified the brutal nature of this conflict, where mini balls, artillery fire, and bayonets caused devastating injuries.

With primitive medical knowledge and no understanding of infection control, wounded soldiers typically faced dire odds. Yet something extraordinary happened as the injured lay waiting for treatment in the cold, muddy battlefield. Their wounds began to glow—an unsettling sight that nonetheless seemed to correlate with improved survival.

The scientific breakthrough came in 2001 when 17-year-old Bill Martin, whose mother studied bioluminescent bacteria, connected the dots. The glowing came from Photorhabdus luminescens, bacteria that live symbiotically with nematode worms. These organisms typically can't survive human body temperature, but the unseasonably cold weather and soldiers' hypothermic conditions created the perfect environment. As nematodes consumed infected tissue, they released bacteria that produced natural antibiotics—effectively delivering life-saving treatment decades before modern medicine understood the concept.

Join us as we explore this fascinating intersection of military history, medical mystery, and microbiology that reminds us how nature sometimes provides unexpected paths to survival in humanity's darkest moments. Subscribe to History Buffoons for more of history's strangest and most compelling stories.

https://www.superbugs.online/reading-corner/angels-glowhttps://www.warhistoryonline.com/american-civil-war/glowing-angels-saved-civil-war-soldiers-m.html

Shiloh: Animated Battle Map by American Battlefield Trust

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tlhlk3bp-f4

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When history remembers Elizabeth Bathory, it recalls a monster - the "Blood Countess" who allegedly murdered 650 young women and bathed in their blood to preserve her youth. But what if the most notorious female serial killer in history was largely a victim of political conspiracy?

Our journey into the dark legend of Elizabeth Bathory reveals a tale far more complex than vampire lore suggests. Born into Hungarian nobility and married to a war hero, Elizabeth wielded immense wealth and power - making her a target in the politically volatile landscape of 16th century Transylvania. Following her husband's death, she found herself vulnerable against formidable enemies: King Matthias II, who owed her family substantial debts, and Gregory Thurzo, who stood to gain control of her vast estates.

The evidence against Elizabeth crumbles under scrutiny. Of 300 witness testimonies, only three provided firsthand accounts. Her servants "confessed" only after enduring brutal torture - having their fingers ripped out with hot pincers before being burned alive. Most damning is that Elizabeth herself was never even put on trial, instead being placed under house arrest while only her servants faced prosecution.

What emerges is a portrait not of a bloodthirsty monster, but of a powerful woman whose downfall served multiple political agendas. The vampiric elements of her story - the blood bathing, the supernatural connections - appeared more than a century after her death, coinciding with Eastern Europe's vampire hysteria and the rise of Gothic literature. These embellishments transformed a potentially cruel noblewoman into a convenient cultural bogeyman.

Was Elizabeth Bathory completely innocent? Probably not. Historical records suggest she may have been harsh and even abusive by today's standards. But the leap from difficult noblewoman to history's most prolific female murderer reveals more about societal attitudes toward powerful women than it does about Elizabeth herself.

Listen now to untangle fact from fiction and decide for yourself: was the Blood Countess a monster, a victim, or something in between?

By Reading the Past

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngI5EWC8zXw

Elizabeth Bathory - The Blood Countess Documentary

By The People Profiles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UqXtGDLiLA&t=253s

The bloody legend of Hungary’s serial killer countess

By Ronan O’Connell

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/the-bloody-legend-of-hungarys-serial-killer-countess

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The name Elizabeth Bathory evokes images of horror and blood-soaked legends, but behind the macabre reputation lies a fascinating historical figure shaped by the tumultuous forces of Renaissance Europe. Born in 1560 to a powerful Hungarian noble family, the woman who would become known as the "Blood Countess" navigated a world caught in the violent struggle between the Habsburg Empire and Ottoman Turks.

From an early age, Elizabeth's life defied conventional expectations. Exceptionally educated and fluent in four languages, she suffered from what was likely epilepsy – a condition her family kept secret to avoid supernatural accusations. Growing up in a society where violence was normalized and brutality commonplace, she witnessed regular punishment of servants and the harsh realities of noble authority.

When just fifteen, Elizabeth married Count Ferenc Nádasdy, uniting two influential families in a political alliance. Remarkably, she maintained her prestigious Bathory name, hinting at her family's extraordinary status. Her husband soon departed for years of warfare, leaving the teenage Elizabeth to independently manage their extensive estates – a responsibility at which she apparently excelled.

Perhaps most surprisingly, historical records reveal zero complaints from peasants under her rule – unusual for any noble of the era. While her husband gained notoriety for brutally torturing Ottoman prisoners, Elizabeth provided medical care and supported war widows, suggesting a more complex character than her infamous reputation indicates.

The Blood Countess's story unfolds against the backdrop of Transylvania's unique position as a semi-independent state caught between empires but pioneering unprecedented religious tolerance through the Edict of Torda in 1568. This contradictory world of extreme violence and progressive ideas helped shape the woman whose name would become synonymous with legendary cruelty.

Join us for this two-part exploration as we separate historical fact from lurid fiction and examine the complex reality of Elizabeth Bathory's life and times. Subscribe now and follow us on social media @HistoryBuffoonsPodcast to continue this dark journey into one of history's most misunderstood figures.

By Reading the Past

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ngI5EWC8zXw

Elizabeth Bathory - The Blood Countess Documentary

By The People Profiles

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UqXtGDLiLA&t=253s

The bloody legend of Hungary’s serial killer countess

By Ronan O’Connell

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/the-bloody-legend-of-hungarys-serial-killer-countess

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This website contains affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and purchase a product, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support the running of this website and allows me to continue providing valuable content. Please note that I only recommend products and services that I believe in and have personally used or researched.

The shocking story of how simply washing hands could have saved countless women's lives—and why doctors refused to do it.

Meet Ignaz Semmelweis, a Hungarian physician working in Vienna in the 1840s who made a disturbing observation: women were dying at alarming rates after childbirth in doctor-run maternity wards, while those assisted by midwives usually survived. The difference? Doctors were performing autopsies before delivering babies—without washing their hands in between.

When Semmelweis implemented a mandatory hand-washing protocol using chlorinated lime solution in 1847, the results were immediate and dramatic. Mortality rates plummeted from over 18% to near zero within months. Yet instead of celebration, his discovery met with ridicule and hostility from the medical establishment. Many physicians were offended at the suggestion they should wash their hands between procedures, considering it an affront to their status as gentlemen.

The tragic irony of Semmelweis's story is that after years of fighting for acceptance, his mental health deteriorated. In 1865, colleagues tricked him into visiting an asylum where he was forcibly detained. During a struggle with guards, he sustained injuries that became infected, and he died—from the very type of preventable infection he had spent his life fighting—at just 47 years old. His hand-washing practices were largely abandoned, and mortality rates immediately increased sixfold.

Decades would pass before Louis Pasteur and Joseph Lister established germ theory, vindicating Semmelweis's work too late for him to witness. Join us as we explore this heartbreaking medical saga that reminds us how institutional resistance to change can cost countless lives, and how scientific progress sometimes comes at great personal sacrifice.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ignaz_Semmelweis

https://www/pbs.org/newshour/health/ignaz-semmelweis-doctor-prescribed-hand-washing

By - Dr. Howard Markel

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This website contains affiliate links. This means that if you click on a link and purchase a product, I may receive a small commission at no extra cost to you. This helps support the running of this website and allows me to continue providing valuable content. Please note that I only recommend products and services that I believe in and have personally used or researched.