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1899: They called her Typhoid Mary….suspected of killing the families she worked for.
Fever
What you need to know before your trail
They called her Typhoid Mary. They believed she was sick, that she was passing typhoid fever from her hands to the food that she served. They said she should have known.
But Mary wasn’t sick. She hadn’t done anything wrong.
She wasn’t arrested right away. There were warnings. Requests. And when she was finally taken, she did not go quietly. Branded a murderer and condemned by press and public alike, Mary continued to fight for her freedom, no matter the cost…
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Mary Mallon (1869 – 1938) New York
Mary Mallon was also became known as Typhoid Mary, was an Irish-American cook.
From 1900 to 1907, she worked as a cook in the New York City area for seven families. First of all she took a job in Mamaroneck, New York, where, within two weeks of her employment, residents developed typhoid fever. In 1901, she moved to Manhattan, where the same thing happened. When she moved from that job and went to work for a lawyer; she left after seven of the eight people in that household became ill.
In 1906, she took a position in Oyster Bay, Long Island, and within two weeks 10 of the 11 family members were hospitalized with typhoid. As her role as cook for the family of a wealthy New York banker, who had a summer house in Oyster Bay and six of the 11 people in the house were brought down by typhoid fever.
She was taken to an asylum in North Brother Island and quarantined so that she was not allowed to communicate to the outside world. She spent a considerable time here and was tested and examined for a whole range of illnesses and symptoms. Most of the time she was put in isolation.
She was the first person in the United States identified as an asymptomatic carrier of the pathogen associated with typhoid fever. She was presumed to have infected 51 people, three of whom died, over the course of her career as a cook.
Booktrailer Review
Susan: @thebooktrailer
This was fascinating! I’d never heard of this story or Molly ie Typhoid Mary so this was a real treat to discover this and find out what went on with Typhoid Mary and what she was subjected to and accused of.
She’s suspected of poisoning or making ill in some way the people she works for, yet she never shows any symptoms of anything herself and even when she is tested, there’s nothing wrong with her. But people in her care keep dying or getting very sick indeed. Not knowing what to do with her, the authorities lock her up in solitary confinement on an island just off Manhattan and she tells us the story of what goes on her, what access she has with the outside world, what she stands accused of and the investigations into finding out what really is going on. It was a long extended episode of Victorian CSI. Very vividly evoked and well written, I was straight onto Google to read even more about this woman and her life. Mary Beth has written a fascinating account and I was drawn into the story and Typhoid Mary’s life from the first page.
If you love novels based on real historical figures and obscure real cases from the past with a bit of science and medical breakthroughs thrown in, then this is for you. I feel I learned quite a lot from reading this and felt the scene setting was really well done and easily explained. There’s snippets of medical details,discussions on the advancement of medical findings, the treatment of women patients and lots more besides. A nice author article at the end really ends things of nicely.
Really enjoyed this one and felt totally immersed in the world the author has recreated. Always a thrill to walk the line between fiction and legend…
Booktrail Boarding Pass: Fever
Destination : New York City Author/Guide: Mary Beth Keane Departure Time: 1907 onwards
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