Graham Young
Graham Frederick Young, also known as the Teacup Poisoner, was an English serial killer who murdered his victims with poison.
Obsessed with poisons from an early age, Young poisoned the food and drink of relatives and school friends. He was caught when his teacher became suspicious and contacted police. Young pleaded guilty to three non-fatal poisonings and, at age 14, was detained at Broadmoor Hospital. He later took responsibility for the death of his stepmother, though this has not been proven.
After being released in 1971, Young found a job in a factory in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, where he poisoned some of his colleagues, resulting in two deaths and several critical illnesses. He was convicted on two counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder in 1972. Young served most of his life sentence at Parkhurst Prison, where he died of a heart attack in 1990.
Young's case made headlines in the United Kingdom and led to a public debate over the release of mentally ill offenders. Within hours of his conviction, the British government announced two inquiries into the issues his trial had raised. The Butler Committee led to widespread reforms in mental health services, while the passage of the Poisons Act 1972 put severe restrictions on the purchase of deadly poisons. Young's life story inspired the film The Young Poisoner's Handbook.
Early life and crimes
Graham Young was born on 7 September 1947 to Frederick and Bessie Young in Neasden, Middlesex; he had an older sister, Winifred. After his mother died of tuberculosis when he was fourteen weeks old, Young was sent to live with an uncle and aunt while his sister went to live with their grandparents. Several years later, Young's father married his stepmother, Molly Young, and the family were reunited.Young was fascinated from an early age by poisons and their effects, and considered Victorian poisoner William Palmer to be a personal hero. He also read extensively about black magic and Nazism. In 1959 he attended John Kelly Boys' School, where he read books on advanced toxicology.
In early 1961, Young acquired antimony from a local chemist, signing the poisons register in the name "M.E. Evans"; his knowledge of poisons and chemistry convinced the chemist that he was older than he appeared. From February he poisoned members of his family. First his stepmother Molly suffered vomiting, diarrhea and excruciating stomach pain, which she initially dismissed as bilious attacks. Before long his father suffered similar stomach cramps, debilitating him for days at a time. Soon after, Young's sister became sick on two occasions over the summer. Shortly afterwards, Young himself fell violently ill. It even seemed as if the mystery bug had spread beyond their household: a couple of Young's school friends had similarly been repeatedly absent from school, both suffering from similar symptoms.
In November 1961, Young's sister was served a cup of tea by her brother one morning but found its taste so sour she took only one mouthful before she threw it away. While on the train to work an hour later, she hallucinated, had to be helped out of the station and was eventually taken to hospital, where doctors came to the conclusion that she had somehow been exposed to the poisonous Atropa belladonna. Young was confronted by his father, but he claimed that she had been using the family's teacups to mix shampoo. Unconvinced, Young's father searched his room but found nothing incriminating. Nevertheless, he warned his son to be more careful in future when "messing about with those bloody chemicals."
On Easter Saturday, 21 April 1962, Young's stepmother died. Her death was attributed to a prolapsed cervical disc, which was believed to have resulted from a road accident. Much later, Young told police that he poisoned her with a lethal dose of thallium. At her wake, Young poisoned a male relative after lacing a jar of mustard pickle with antimony. Shortly afterwards his father became seriously ill and was taken to hospital, where he was told that he was suffering from antimony poisoning and one more dose would have killed him. Young's aunt, who knew of his fascination with poisons, became suspicious, as did a science teacher who discovered several bottles of poison in his school desk. The teacher and the headmaster arranged for Young to be interviewed by a psychiatrist posing as a careers adviser, who contacted police after Young revealed his extensive knowledge of poisons and toxicology.
Young was arrested on 23 May 1962 after returning home from school. Vials of thallium and antimony were found in his possession. When questioned by police, he confessed to poisoning his father, stepmother, sister and a school friend. Psychiatrist Dr Christopher Fysh testified that Young had a psychopathic disorder rather than a mental illness and had failed "to develop a normal moral sense." He felt it was "extremely likely" that Young would re-offend and recounted a conversation in which Young said: "I am missing my antimony. I miss the power it gives me." Fysh recommended that Young be detained at Broadmoor Hospital in Berkshire, an institution for patients with mental disorders who have committed criminal offences. Dr Donald Blair, another psychiatrist, concurred with Fysh's viewpoint.
Young pleaded guilty to three charges of poisoning his father, sister and school friend and was convicted of "malicious administration of a noxious thing to inflict grievous bodily harm." He was not charged for murdering his stepmother, as her autopsy report did not list poison as the cause of death. The judge, Justice Melford Stevenson, ruled that Young was to be detained under Section 60 of the Mental Health Act at Broadmoor. Furthermore, he was not to be released for fifteen years without the approval of the Home Secretary.
Broadmoor
At age 14, Young was among the youngest-ever inmates in Broadmoor's history. Soon after his arrival, John Berridge, a fellow inmate, died of cyanide poisoning. Young was suspected by some staff and inmates, not least because he enjoyed explaining in detail how cyanide could be extracted from laurel leaves; the grounds around Broadmoor were covered with laurel bushes. However, his involvement was never proven and Berridge's death was officially ruled a suicide. Later, Harpic was found in a nurse's coffee and the contents of a missing packet of sugar soap were discovered in a tea urn.Young continued to read medical and toxicology textbooks, obtained from Broadmoor's library. He also continued his interest in Nazism, reading William Shirer's The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and Lord Russell's The Scourge of the Swastika. At one point, Young grew a toothbrush moustache, took to mimicking the speeches of Adolf Hitler and listened to musical compositions by Richard Wagner, who had been one of Hitler's idols.
In 1965, Young first applied for release from Broadmoor. His father and sister attended the hearing and stated that if he were released, none of his relatives would be willing to house him; his father also insisted that his son should "never be released." Young's application was rejected. Five years later, in June 1970, Broadmoor psychiatrist Edgar Udwin wrote to the Home Secretary to recommend Young's release, announcing that he was "no longer obsessed with poisons, violence and mischief. And he is no longer a danger to others." However, Young remarked to a Broadmoor nurse: "When I get out, I'm going to kill one person for every year I've spent in this place."
Later crimes
Young was released from Broadmoor in 1971, after eight years' detention. He initially stayed with his sister and her husband in Hemel Hempstead. Within weeks he had resumed his interest in poisons, but an attempt to acquire poison from John Bell & Croyden in Wigmore Street was unsuccessful, as the chemist refused to sell them without written authorization. Young duly returned with the required authorization on Bedford College headed notepaper and was sold 25 g of antimony potassium tartrate. He told the chemist that he needed it for a qualitative and quantitative analysis. Young later returned to the same chemist to purchase 25 g of thallium.Poisoning of Trevor Sparkes
Young attended a storekeeping training course in Slough and stayed at a hostel in nearby Cippenham. He befriended 34-year-old Trevor Sparkes, another resident of the hostel, and the two occasionally visited a pub together or shared a bottle of wine in Sparkes' room. Young would later confess to poisoning Sparkes with antimony sodium tartrate. On the night of February 10, Sparkes fell violently ill, exhibiting diarrhoea, pins and needles in his legs and pains in his testicles; earlier in the evening he had accepted a glass of water from Young. Sparkes' symptoms returned periodically over the following months. He felt so ill during a football match that he had to leave the pitch after a few minutes. Specialists were unable to pinpoint the cause, variously diagnosing it as a kidney infection, bowel infection, urinary tract infection or stomach infection. Sparkes left Slough in April 1971 and gradually recovered.Bovingdon
Young secured a job as assistant storekeeper at John Hadland Laboratories in Bovingdon, Hertfordshire, near his sister's home in Hemel Hempstead. The company manufactured thallium bromide-iodide infrared lenses, which were used in military equipment. However, no thallium was stored on site, necessitating Young obtaining his supplies of the poison from a London chemist. On his application, Young falsely claimed that his lack of employment history was because he had suffered a nervous breakdown following the death of his mother in a car accident. His employers received references as part of his rehabilitation from Broadmoor, but were not informed that he was a convicted poisoner and a former Broadmoor patient. Young left Slough and rented a room in Maynard Road, Hemel Hempstead, at £4 per week.Young's new colleagues found him unpredictable; he could be surly and keep to himself, but on other days he could be more cheerful. During breaks he usually sat alone reading, invariably a book on one of his favourite subjects: war, chemistry, the Nazis or famous murderers. Young was not talkative unless one of his favourite topics was being discussed. His duties at Hadland included collecting drinks from the tea trolley in the corridor and bringing them to the storeroom. Each employee had their own mug, which made it easier for him to target specific individuals for poisoning.
Soon after Young's arrival at Hadland, he poisoned some of his co-workers, focusing on his immediate colleagues in the storerooms. His modus operandi was to slip poison, usually antimony or thallium, into their tea or coffee. Victims would fall ill with symptoms that included vomiting, stomach pains, nausea and diarrhoea. Initially the mysterious illness was assumed to be a virus and was nicknamed the "Bovingdon Bug." Other explanations put forward were contamination of the local water supply and radioactivity from a disused airfield nearby.