Payment deferred: Strychnine poisoning in nicaragua 65 years ago

Background: In 1933 in Leon, Nicaragua, a 22-year-old woman died after an a cute convulsive illness in which she experienced trismus, opisthotonos, and hyperpyrexia. Three years later her husband, Oliverio Castaneda, was convi cted of her murder and that of 2 other people in the same city. Methods: We went to Nicaragua to investigate documents involved with that case and eva luate whether the verdict of murder by strychnine was substantiated by the data. We present the results of the investigation and provide information a bout the practice of medicine, pharmacy, and toxicology early in this centu ry. Results: The clinical picture in all 3 cases suggests strychnine poison ing. The clinical, toxicological, and circumstantial evidence is strong and implicates Castaneda as a murderer and strychnine as the weapon. Conclusio n: We conclude that Oliverio Castaneda was the probable perpetrator of thre e 1933 strychnine murders in Leon and that he may have previously used stry chnine to kill others in Nicaragua and neighboring countries.