Graham Frederick Young
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Graham Frederick Young (September 7, 1947 – August 1, 1990) was a British murderer who poisoned a total of three people to death (his stepmother, and then years later two work colleagues, Bob Egle and Fred Biggs) as well as administering smaller doses to scores of others.
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[edit] Early life and crimes
Born in Neasden, he was fascinated with poisons and their effects on the human body from a young age. In 1961 (at the age of 14) he started to test poisons out on his family in doses strong enough to make them violently ill. He bought a large quantity of poison by frequently buying small amounts of antimony and digitalis, lying about his age and claiming that they were for science experiments at school.
In 1962 Young's stepmother Molly died from poison. He also had been systematically poisoning his father, sister, and a school friend. Young's aunt Winnie, who knew of his fascination with chemistry and poisons, had become suspicious. He might have escaped suspicion if no one had known of his interests because he regularly suffered the same nausea and sicknesses as the rest of his family, often because he forgot which foods he had laced. He was sent to see a psychiatrist, who was concerned enough to recommend contacting the police. Young was arrested on 23 May 1962. He confessed to the attempted murders of his father, sister, and friend. The remains of his stepmother could not be analysed, because she had been cremated.
Young was sentenced to 15 years in Broadmoor Hospital, an institution for mentally unstable criminals. He was released after nine years, when he was deemed "fully recovered". During his years in the hospital, however, Young had studied medical texts, improving his knowledge of the effects of poisons on the human body, and had continued his experiments, using fellow inmates and hospital staff as guinea pigs
[edit] Later crimes
After his release from hospital in 1971, he worked at a photographic supply store not far from his sister's home in Hemel Hempstead in nearby Bovingdon, Hertfordshire. His new employers received references from Broadmoor, but were inexplicably not informed of his past as a convicted poisoner. Soon after he began work, his foreman, Bob Egle, grew violently ill and died. Young had been making tea laced with poisons such as antimony and thallium for his colleagues. A sickness had swept through his workplace and, mistaken for a strange virus, was nicknamed the "Bovingdon Bug". All these cases of nausea and illness, sometimes severe enough to require hospitalisation, were later attributed to Young and his tea.
Young poisoned about 70 people during the next few months, none fatally. Egle's successor sickened soon after starting work there, but decided to quit. That decision probably saved his life. A few months after Egle's death, another of Young's workmates, Fred Biggs, grew ill and was admitted to the London National Hospital for Nervous Diseases. It was too late to save him, however, and after suffering in agony for several weeks, he became Young's third and final victim.
At this point, it was evident that a proper investigation into the sicknesses and deaths was necessary. Young asked the company doctor if the investigators had not considered thallium poisoning as a cause of the symptoms. He had also told one of his colleagues that his hobby was the study of toxic chemicals. Young's colleague went to the police, who immediately checked Young's background and uncovered his criminal record.
Young was arrested in Sheerness, Kent, on November 21, 1971. Police found thallium in his pocket and antimony, thallium and aconitine in his flat. They also discovered a meticulously detailed diary that Young had kept, noting all the doses of poisons he had administered, their effects, and whether he was going to allow each person to live or die.
At his trial at St Albans Crown Court, which started 19 June 1972, and lasted for 10 days, Young pleaded not guilty, and explained the diary away as a mere fantasy he was planning to base a novel on in the future. In light of the evidence, however, Young was found guilty and was sentenced to life in prison. He was dubbed The Teacup Poisoner, although he apparently wanted to be remembered as the World's poisoner.
While in prison, he befriended fellow serial killer Ian Brady, whom he bonded with over their shared fascination with Nazi Germany. In his 2001 book, The Gates of Janus, Brady would write that "it was hard not to have empathy for Graham Young".
Young died in his cell at Parkhurst prison at the age of 42 in 1990. The official cause of death was listed as a myocardial infarction, but there is some conjecture that fellow prisoners were the culprits.[citation needed]
[edit] In popular culture
A film called The Young Poisoner's Handbook (1995) is loosely based on Young's life. Murder Metal band Macabre (band), wrote a song titled "Poison" about him and his crimes, which appears on their Murder Metal album.
