[HN Gopher] Aqua Tofana: The 17th Century Husband Killer
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       Aqua Tofana: The 17th Century Husband Killer
        
       Author : gappy
       Score  : 62 points
       Date   : 2025-04-14 19:15 UTC (4 days ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.amusingplanet.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.amusingplanet.com)
        
       | fmajid wrote:
       | It's mentioned 9 times in The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre
       | Dumas.
        
         | scotty79 wrote:
         | Definitely it had its mind share so it was possibly a tad bit
         | overhyped.
        
       | scotty79 wrote:
       | What a pointless article.
       | 
       | 1. That thing happened.
       | 
       | 2. Maybe not. It might have been a legend even though some women
       | were punished for this.
       | 
       | 3. Maybe misogyny was the worst poison after all that poisoned
       | society and law with suspicion.
       | 
       | It's like it's written by AI prompted with few tidbits of
       | content.
       | 
       | Why not just openly state that most poisoners are still men
       | because men lead in any class of murder (apart form infanticide).
       | No need to perpetuate doubts.
       | 
       | https://www.wired.com/2013/01/the-myth-of-the-female-poisone...
        
         | choult wrote:
         | What a killjoy you are.
        
         | anonym29 wrote:
         | Why draw demographic-shaped boxes around criminals at all? We
         | all know the kinds of thinking this leads to - why encourage
         | it?
        
         | vinceguidry wrote:
         | Is 'AI-generated' the term we're using now for content we don't
         | like?
        
       | cs702 wrote:
       | Great find! Thank you for sharing the OP on HN.
       | 
       | There's no evidence that "Agua Tofana" ever existed, and yet, for
       | centuries, Europeans widely believed it was real, and widely
       | feared it as a colorless, odorless, tasteless, undetectable,
       | gradual-acting poison that could be added to anyone's food.
       | Unscrupulous salespeople, as always, found clever ways to package
       | and sell fake Agua Tofana -- similar to the fake snake-oil sold
       | as "medicine" in the 18th and 19th centuries. The capacity of
       | human beings to believe in things for which there is no evidence
       | never ceases to amaze me.
        
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       (page generated 2025-04-18 23:02 UTC)