Allow me to take you on a journey through ten chilling accounts where chocolate became an agent of harm and betrayal, reminding us that even the sweetest indulgences can conceal bitter secrets.
1. The heartbroken "lady of quality" in Spain who offered her estranged lover a choice between a dagger or a cup of poison-laced chocolate, leading to his untimely demise.
2. Catherine de Medici, the queen consort of King Henry II of France in the 16th century, reportedly used small, poisoned chocolate-filled candies called "harmalades" to eliminate her enemies.
3. The Marquise de Brinvilliers in 1676, a French noblewoman who poisoned her father and brothers by adding toxic substances like arsenic to the chocolates she gave them.
4. The story recounted by clergyman Thomas Gage from Chiapa Real in the 17th century, where a bishop who excommunicated those who ate or drank during Mass fell victim to poisoned hot chocolate served to him.
5. 1870s, Brighton, a series of poisonings that left several people seriously ill and one child dead. The culprit was Christiana Edmunds, a 43-year-old woman who had a grudge against the local confectioner, John Maynard.
Edmunds was sent to Broadmoor Hospital, She was the first person in Britain to be convicted of serial poisoning.
6. The creation of "Tafel Confect" by Ludwig Roselius in 1907, a German chocolatier who developed poison-laced chocolate intended for suicide.
7. The "Chocolate Cream Poisoning" incidents in the 1920s in the United States, where chocolates injected with arsenic were placed back on store shelves, resulting in illness and death among consumers.
8. The declassified MI5 files revealed that during World War II a plan code named "Operation Clauswitz." was a German plan to assassinate Winston Churchill by booby-trapping a chocolate bar and having it delivered to him.
The idea was to coat the chocolate bar with an explosive substance, but the plan was never executed.
9. A former Cuban intelligence chief claimed that the CIA plotted to assassinate Fidel Castro with a poison-laced chocolate milkshake.
10. Graham Young, a 20th-century British serial killer used chocolate laced with thallium to poison his victims.
These examples help us to unwrap the Not so sweet instances in history where chocolate was intentionally used as a vehicle for delivering poison, illustrating the darker side of its association with harm and treachery.