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When some children have idle time on their hands, they might head outside in search of a friend to hang out with, but in Graham Young’s case, when he was only fourteen years old, he used his spare time to test out poisons on his family, eventually killing his stepmother. Sadly, after spending only nine years in a mental hospital, he was released back into the world to tinker with his ongoing fascination with poison that led to the death of at least two more innocent victims.
Graham Fredrick Young was born in Neasden, North London on September 7, 1947 to Fred & Bessie Young. Three months after his birth, Bessie developed tuberculosis after suffering from pleurisy, an inflammation of the tissue that surrounds the lungs & lines the chest cavity, during her pregnancy. Sadly, Bessie succumbed to her illness which left Fred devastated to the point that he was unable to care for their infant son or his older daughter.
Graham was placed under the care of his paternal Aunt Winnie while his older sister, 8-year-old Winifred, was sent to live with their grandparents. Graham ended up living with his Aunt Winnie & Uncle Jack as well as their daughter, Sandra, his cousin, for the first two years of his life in which he grew very close with the family. In 1950, after his father remarried, Graham & Winifred were sent back to live with Fred & their new stepmother, Molly.
Being only somewhere around three years old, Graham was highly distressed at being removed from Winnie & Jack’s home, the only parents that he’d ever known. The Young family came back together in St. Albans & Fred & Molly noticed that Graham was a very solitary child who made no effort to socialize with other kids his age.
As Graham learned to read, he was fascinated with nonfiction stories of murder & delved into the story of Dr. Hawley Harvey Crippen, an American homeopath ear & eye specialist who was executed in 1910 for poisoning & dismembering his second wife, Cora, in London. As Graham moved onto his teenage years, he also had an unhealthy interest with Adolf Hitler & began wearing swastikas & glorifying the virtues of what he considered was a misunderstood.
Graham also delved into the occult & claimed to know of Wiccans & their local covens & tried to involve local children into strange occult ceremonies that in one instance, went as far as sacrificing a cat. Around this time, numerous local cats seemingly vanished which suggested that Graham was regularly holding these ceremonies.
During his time in school, Graham showed a strong interest in chemistry, forensic science & toxicology, having little interest in his other studies. Because his courses were limited in their coverage of these subjects, he was forced to read about these topics outside of school. His father was supportive of his son’s interest in science & purchased him a chemistry set which occupied Graham for hours at a time.
Because he spent much of his free time studying toxicology, Graham managed to convince local chemists that he was 17-years-old when he was actually only thirteen. With this, he was able to get his hands on a dangerous amount of poisons as well as quantities of the heavy metal, thallium, for what he convinced them were for his study purposes. He also obtained antimony, a silvery white metal with atomic number 51 on the periodic table of elements with the symbol Sb.
Exposure to antimony typically occurs in workers involved in metal mining, smelting & refining or those working in coal-power plants without proper protection which can lead to disease of the lung, heart as well as gastrointestinal tract, leading to abdominal pain, diarrhea, vomiting & ulcers.
Graham’s first victim was a classmate from his science class, Christopher Williams, who went on to suffer from ongoing periods of abdominal cramping, vomiting & headaches after he was unknowingly given a mixture of poisons. Christopher, his family & doctors were baffled as to what was causing his sudden, debilitating symptoms, but the boy thankfully managed to survive. This is likely because the boy was back at home, under the care of his family, in the safety of his home, away from Graham.
On the other hand, Graham did have unlimited access to those he lived with & decided to set his focus on his own family. In 1961, when Graham was somewhere between 13 & 14-years-old, his family began falling ill, his father initially believed that they were being inadvertently poisoned as a result of his son’s careless use of his chemistry set. When Fred confronted Graham, he denied being responsible & at the time, Fred never suspected the idea of deliberate poisoning as Graham himself had even been ill on a number of occasions. It’s unclear if he’d purposely poisoned himself to avoid suspicion or from simple carelessness, forgetting which teacups he’d poisoned. Either way, Fred warned his son to be more careful when messing about with those bloody chemicals.
In November 1961, Graham’s older sister, Winifred, was found to have been poisoned by belladonna. Despite the fact that Fred again suspected his son, he took no action. However, it was Graham’s stepmother, Molly, who became his number one target & began growing sicker & sicker until April 21, 1962 when Fred discovered her in the back garden of their home, writhing in agony. Meanwhile, he noticed that his son stood by, watching in fascination. Molly was immediately rushed to the hospital, but sadly, she died later that night.
After her death, doctors determined that she died as a result of a prolapsed cervical disc from a car accident & she was quickly cremated at Graham’s suggestion & no further action or investigation was taken. It was later discovered that because Graham had been slowly & steadily poisoning his stepmother’s tea with antimony, she’d actually developed a tolerance. Growing impatient, on the night before her death, he decided to give her thallium to speed up the process.
Thallium, like antimony, is a chemical element with the symbol TI & the atomic number 81 on the periodic table. It’s a silvery white metal that tarnishes quickly & was once commonly used as a household rodent or ant killer, but went on to be banned in many countries due to cases of unintentional as well as criminal poisonings of humans.
Oftentimes, an initial side effect of thallium poisoning is gastrointestinal distress followed by neurological symptoms & hair loss or alopecia. Thallium is a colorless, water soluble, tasteless heavy metal & in many cases, a victim is unaware that they have consumed the substance. Because thallium poisoning is rare, it’s often misdiagnosed until it’s confirmed by increased concentrations found in the urine & blood that results in a delay of treatment. Ongoing exposure leads to a pins & needles sensation of the skin, muscle pain, lethargy, heart abnormalities, coma & death. Treatments include Prussian blue & hemodialysis. Prussian blue is a blue pigment made from iron, cyanide & water & in pill-form, binds with thallium in the intestines.
After Molly’s death, Fred became increasingly ill with painful bouts of abdominal cramping & vomiting that eventually led him to be admitted to the hospital for treatment where he was diagnosed with antimony poisoning. Doctors told Fred that he had been only one dose away from death. It was actually Graham’s chemistry teacher who contacted the police after he discovered poisons & literature about poisons in his desk at school.
Graham was first sent to see a psychiatrist & after it was determined that he had an extensive knowledge of poisons, he went on to be arrested on May 23, 1962, a little over a month after Molly’s death. At this time, he admitted to poisoning his father, his sister & his classmate, Christopher Williams, but no murder charges were brought against him for Molly’s death after the evidence was destroyed with her cremation.
Graham pleaded guilty at the Old Bailey & indicated that he’d doctored cream biscuits with antimony in an attempt to poison Christopher Williams. Despite his young age of only fourteen, Graham was sent to Broadmoor maximum security hospital where he was the youngest inmate since 1885 after he was given a maximum sentence of fifteen years.
Within weeks of his arrival to the facility, John Berridge, another inmate, died from cyanide poisoning. Authorities were baffled by his death & Graham claimed to have extracted the cyanide from the leaves of the laurel bush. However, his confession was not taken seriously & Berridge’s death was declared a suicide.
During his time in Broadmoor, there were occasions that staff & inmate’s drinks were found to have been tampered with & contained what was commonly known as sugar soap, an abrasive sodium compound that is used to prepare painted walls. The compound was found inside a tea urn before it was served which could have led to mass poisoning had it not been discovered. Graham once told a doctor within the facility, I am missing my antimony, I miss the power it gives me.
Being locked away did not stop Graham from continuing to read about poisoning, something he concealed as on his release, authorities believed he was no longer interested in such things. By the late 1960s, his doctors had no idea that he remained obsessed with his studies & on his release, it was believed that he had been cured. His initial application for release was rejected in 1965 while his father demanded that he never be released.
This declaration happened after Graham told a nurse within the facility that he intended to kill one person for each year he’d been locked away & despite the fact that this statement was recorded in his file, he still went on to be released.
Graham was released on February 4, 1971 under supervision at age 23 & moved into a hostel. He continued to have contact with his sister, Winifred who’d moved to Hemel Hempstead after she was married. Despite the fact that she herself had fallen ill after her brother poisoned her, she was quick to forgive him, unlike Fred, who wanted nothing to do with his son.
During a trip to London, Graham stocked up on antimony, thallium as well as other poisons from unsuspecting pharmacists & it didn’t take long until another resident of the hostel, 34-year-old Trevor Sparkes, began to fall ill with abdominal cramps, but he survived after months of recovery. Another man he’d befriended grew so weary from his ongoing illness & pain that he went as far as to take his own life, but no connection was made to Graham at the time.
Graham went on to work as assistant storekeeper at a lab that manufactured infrared lenses for military equipment in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, John Hadland Laboratories. Ironically, the equipment he would be working with just so happened to be made from thallium but none of it was stored on site.
Graham’s employer was aware of his stay at Broadmoor, but had no idea of his history of poisoning. With his new position, he had his supply of antimony & thallium from London. Those that worked alongside Graham likely viewed him as a charming man as he was quick to offer to make a cup of tea or coffee for a coworker.
Sadly, it wasn’t long before his boss, 59-year-old Bob Egle, grew ill. He began experiencing severe abdominal cramps & dizziness that was attributed to a virus that was going around known locally as the Bovingdon Bug.
Other employees within the lab were also falling ill with similar cramps, but none nearly as bad as Bob. When home sick, Bob seemed to recover, but as soon as he was back to work, he was afflicted with his illness yet again. Bob grew so ill that he was admitted to the hospital & sadly died an agonizing death on July 7, 1971 where it was determined he died from pneumonia related to a rare form of Guillain-Barre syndrome.
Two months later, in September 1971, many of the employees at the laboratory were falling ill, particularly 60-year-old Fred Biggs, who was suffering from similar symptoms to what Bob dealt with prior to his death. The amount of employees calling in ill was unprecedented, each suffering from various ailments that included cramps, hair loss & sexual dysfunction. With so many people sick who shared a work connection, it was questioned if the water source was a source of contamination & questioned if maybe there was a leakage of chemicals that were used by the firm itself.
Fred Biggs was eventually admitted to the London Hospital for Nervous Diseases where he suffered a long, drawn out illness. The fact that the man was taking so long to die was a frustration to Graham who recorded his displeasure within the pages of his diary. Like Bob Egle, Fred went on to die an agonizing death on November 19, 1971 four months after Bob succumbed to his illness.
Because there were two deaths in previously healthy individuals within the same company in under a six month span of time, employees within the company were understandably concerned. By this point, about seventy employees had complained about similar symptoms & workers were worried for their personal safety & wellbeing.
When an onsite doctor was firm on the fact that health & safety standards were being followed within the company’s procedures, he was taken aback when Graham challenged him in the presence of his colleagues & asked him why thallium poisoning hadn’t been considered. When Graham argued that thallium was used in the photographic process, the doctor was shocked by his extensive knowledge of the substance. With this, the doctor brought his concerns to the attention of management who then involved authorities. Thus, Graham, who would have continued to skirt under the radar of suspicion, had turned the focus on himself.
It wasn’t long before authorities learned of Graham’s previous conviction for poisoning & the fact that they not only discovered his collection of poisons, but also his diary. In his entries, they found that he recorded explicit dosages that had been administered to individuals as he documented their reactions to the doses over time. When police apprehended Graham, he had thallium in his pocket & antimony, thallium, aconitine, a toxin from a plant, in his home.
Because the Home Office concealed the reason for his previous conviction, Graham was able to go on another killing spree. Totally unaware of his past deeds, when his coworker’s symptoms began, they blamed them on a simple stomach virus, never suspecting they were being poisoned.
On November 21, 1971, two days after Fred Biggs died, Graham was arrested in Sheerness, Kent while he was visiting his father. At the time of his arrest, authorities found thallium on him & despite the fact that he admitted to the poisonings, he refused to sign a written admission of guilt.
His trial began on June 19, 1972 at St. Albans Crown Court where he was charged with two counts of murder, two counts of attempted murder & two counts of administering poison after he poisoned factory workers Ron Hewitt, Diana Smart, David Tilson & Jethro Batt.
He pleaded not guilty & strongly believed he would be acquitted as his previous conviction could not be entered into evidence. He felt that there was no way that the court could prove that he was the person to poison Bob & Fred.
Graham relished in the media attention he received during his trial while he didn’t appreciate being dubbed The Teacup Poisoner, as he felt it wasn’t sinister enough, believing it diminished his skill & knowledge.
Since in Graham’s stepmother Molly’s death, the evidence had been destroyed when she was cremated, he went into this trial with a confident air about him as he considered her death as the perfect murder.
Meanwhile, the jury heard each disturbing detail written by Graham himself in his journal that listed the agonizing effects that the poisons would have on their victims & whether he was going to allow each person to live or die. With this information, the jury went on to deliberate for one hour & 38 minutes & Graham Young was found guilty of all charges. On June 29, 1972 & he went on to receive four life sentences.
After learning that Graham was released from the psychiatric facility where he had been deemed cured, they recommended an immediate review of the law regarding the public sale of poisons. This case highlighted the importance of putting dangerous, deadly substances under better control. Since the 1960s domestic use of thallium has been prohibited, limiting use to industrial applications.
The Home Secretary also declared an immediate review of the control, treatment, assessment & release of mentally unstable prisoners despite the fact that during the trial, Graham was deemed legally sane. The fact that he had been released from the hospital after making highly alarming statements to a psychiatric nurse as well as the fact that he continued to read literature that fueled his obsession with poisons & murder, allowed at least two other people to lose their lives.
Upon his release from the facility Graham was given the freedom to obtain more deadly substances & he was hired at a facility that contained additional poisons within reach. He worked alongside colleagues who were unaware of his violent, sinister past as they grew more debilitated with the side effects from the poison they were unknowingly consuming.
The Aarvold Report, a British government document, was published in January 1973 & led to the reform of the way prisoners would be monitored upon release which resulted in the creation of the Advisory Board for Restricted Patients.
When Graham was asked if he felt any remorse for his actions, he replied, What I feel is the emptiness of my soul. When he was asked why he’d done what he’d done, he replied, I suppose I had ceased to see them as people – at least part of me had. They were simply guinea pigs.
He was sent to the maximum-security Parkhurst prison on the Isle of Wight which is home to Britain’s most dangerous criminals, often reserved for those with severe mental conditions. During his time behind bars, he befriended Ian Brady, who alongside Myra Hindley, was responsible for a series of child murders in & around Manchester, England between July 1963 & October 1965. Brady was said to have been infatuated with Graham, who was 24-years-old at this point & the two bonded over their fascination of Nazi Germany while they played chess together, Graham often sporting a Hitler mustache.
Graham Young was delighted when Madame Tussaud’s Chamber of Horrors added a wax statue of himself alongside his childhood hero, Dr. Crippen.
Graham Young died at age 42 on August 1, 1990 inside his cell at Parkhurst, his official cause of death listed as heart failure. However, many wonder if he grew tired of his life behind bars & speculate that he’d conducted one final scientific experiment on himself. With the exception of Ian Brady, many of his fellow inmates were said to be wary of him, fearful he would find a way to poison his next victim.
Graham Young brought worldwide attention to thallium as a deadly poison which had previously been used extensively as a coating on U.S. missiles fired during the first Gulf War with a devastating effect.
In 1995, the black comedy-drama film, The Young Poisoner’s Handbook was released based on the life of Graham Young.
Although thallium poisoning is usually accidental & extremely rare, it can be fatal in small doses which is why its domestic use has been prohibited, following Graham Young’s murders of his known three innocent victims, Molly Young, Bob Egle & Fred Biggs as well as the countless individuals who suffered the agonizing side effect of thallium poisoning.
References:
- Wikipedia: Hawley Harvey Crippen
- NIH: A successful treated case of criminal thallium poisoning
- Wikipedia: Moors murders
- Wikipedia: The Young Poisoner’s Handbook
- JYMS: Thallium poisoning: A case report
- Biography: Graham Young
- National Library of Medicine: Antimony toxicity
- Wikipedia: Thallium
- Ati: The chilling story of ‘Teacup Poisoner’ Graham Young & his lethal chemistry experiments
- The Sunday Times: Cover-up allowed teacup poisoner Graham Young to kill his colleagues
- The Herts Advertiser: The hideous murders of the St Albans poisoner Graham Young
