History Main / PerfectPoison

" In ''YouOnlyLiveTwice'' a SPECTRE mook, trying to kill Bond, accidentally poisons Aki with a drop of liquid on her lips that kills her in seconds.

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko Alexander Litvinenko]], a prominent critic of then-president of Russia VladimirPutin, was the victim of quite possibly the most unsubtle murder by poisoning in living memory when someone -never conclusively proven but widely believed to be a Russian intelligence officer- sprinkled a highly radioactive substance into his tea cup. The isotope used is one of the most deadly substances known to man, and investigators traced the smuggling of it by following the prominent cases of radiation poisoning that it left in its wake.

--> -- ''TheTwilightZone'', "The Chaser"

* Both the above-quoted ''TwilightZone'' episode and the story it's based on have "glove cleaner", "totally undetectable to all forms of autopsy". The man who sells it also sells love potions... for five dollars. He's expecting all of his customers to come back for the "glove cleaner"...

* The rumors spread about Lucrezia Borgia by her family's enemies often included a reference to a poison she made called "la cantarella." Even if the Borgias ''did'' have people poisoned, this particular substance was alleged to be ''such'' a perfect poison that it could not in fact have been real.

* In the third case of ''[[AceAttorney Trials and Tribulations]]'', as well as the fourth case of ''Apollo Justice'', the victim dies from cyanide poisoning and from a (possibly) fictional poison, respectively, but in both cases the killer was more interested in having the person dead than hiding the method from the police (as far as ''what'' killed him, at least). As a result, the victim did not have a swift silent death, but instead gave full display of the poisons' physical reactions for all to witness, and the police have no trouble in figuring out what killed the victim.

** It is probably worth mentioning that the substance in question is, like most radioactive substances, a heavy metal and therefore is poisonous regardless of the presence or absence of radioactivity. The radioactivity would certainly have done a lot of damage but would not be necessary in order for death to be the result.

** Later on, Gus [[spoiler:kills Don Eladio and all of his capos with a bottle of poisoned tequila. He drinks some himself, and goes to the bathroom to force himself to vomit in order to avoid the worst effects. It's implied that the relatively strong flavor of the tequila masked the taste of the poison.]]

* Averted in ''Series/BoardwalkEmpire''. The Commodore's maid was poisoning him with rat poison over a long period of time and in high quantities. While he is left violently ill and has to regrow his stomach lining, he still recovers to full health a few months later.

* Iocaine powder from ''Film/ThePrincessBride'' is odourless, tasteless, and causes nearly instant death. Apparently there are no ill effects up to death. Yet it's still possible to gain an immunity to it...
** As Pirate Robert points out, that depends on the dosage. It's actually a noted method (and a ''real'' one, known as Mithridatism) that one can develop immunity to certain poisons by consuming harmlessly small doses over time, and gradually increasing the amount for greater tolerance. However, ingesting amounts greater than one's current tolerance will still kill. We also never see how big of a dose he puts in the drinks. (Beware of trying this with other poisons. While many natural poisons can be handled like this--venoms in particular, heavy metals like lead kill by accumulated exposure while others have a very sharp fatal/nonfatal treshold that prevents the body from building tolerance).

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexander_Litvinenko Alexander Litvinenko]], a prominent critic of then-president of Russia VladimirPutin, was the victim of quite possibly the most unsubtle murder by poisoning in living memory when someone -never conclusively proven but widely believed to be a Russian intelligence officer- sprinkled a highly radioactive substance over his food at a London sushi restaraunt. The isotope used is one of the most deadly substances known to man, and investigators traced the smuggling of it by following the prominent cases of radiation poisoning that it left in its wake.

* ''Literature/TheSagaOfTheVolsungs'': Sinfjotli drops dead instantly after drinking a cup of poisoned ale.

* Subverted in ''DetectiveConan''. APTX-4869 is supposed to be one, but certainly for our heroes it's merely a FountainOfYouth.

* In ''Series/BreakingBad'', Walt cooks up a little ricin to deal with Tuco. It's odorless, tasteless, requires an extremely small dose, kills within a few days after at first appearing like the flu, and is so rare it isn't tested for. Later in the series, Jesse keeps around a "lucky cigarette" filled with the stuff, just in case. [[spoiler:Interestingly, the ricin, though a plot point, is never actually used to kill anyone (yet), making this instance something of a subversion.]]

* Subverted once on ''Series/{{Dallas}}''. A murdered victim was poisoned, and they died just when a trope LightsOffSomebodyDies happened... Must have been Perfect Poison. However, when the murderer was confessing to their crime, they said [[SubvertedTrope the lights off were actually a coincidence]] and that the victim had had a poison inside them long before that.

* In ''Series/BreakingBad'', Walt cooks up a little ricin to deal with Tuco. It's odorless, tasteless, requires an extremely small dose, kills within a few days after at first appearing like the flu, and is so rare it isn't tested for. Later in the series, Jesse keeps around a "lucky cigarette" filled with the stuff, just in case. [[spoiler:Interestingly, the ricin, though a plot point, is never actually used to kill anyone, making this instance something of a subversion.]]

** As Pirate Robert points out, that depends on the dosage. It's actually a noted method that one can develop immunity to certain poisons by consuming harmlessly small doses over time, and gradually increasing the amount for greater tolerance. However, ingesting amounts greater than one's current tolerance will still kill. We also never see how big of a dose he puts in the drinks. (Beware of trying this with other poisons, such as lead -- these will simply accumulate in the body until a fatal concentration is reached.)

** Later on, Gus [[spoiler:kills Don Eladio and all of his capos with a bottle of poisoned tequila. He drinks some himself, and goes to the bathroom to force himself to vomit in order to avoid the worst effects. It's implied that the flavor of the tequila masked the taste of the poison.]]

* In ''BreakingBad'', Walt cooks up a little ricin to deal with Tucco. It's odorless, tasteless, requires an extremely small dose, kills within a few days after at first appearing like the flu, and is so rare it isn't tested for. Later in the series, Jesse keeps around a "lucky cigarette" filled with the stuff, just in case. [[spoiler:Interestingly, the ricin, though a plot point, is never actually used to kill anyone, making this instance something of a subversion.]]

* Aversion of this trope is a major plot point in the second half of Creator/AlfredHitchcock's ''Notorious.'' [[spoiler:It's even stated outright that the poisoning must be done slowly so outsiders merely think the victim is ill.]]

* V.C. Andrews' novel ''Flowers in the Attic'' has a fairly realistic version of this trope: The unwanted children's meals include powdered sugar donuts that contain traces of arsenic. Each donut contains only a minute amount of arsenic so that the children will gradually and inconspiciously die after consumption of a significant number of donuts, and the powdered sugar ensures that they won't taste the poison's bitterness. The children unwittingly hasten the death of one of them by giving him all their powdered sugar donuts because he won't eat much else from the meals.

* Averted in ''Boardwalk Empire''. The Commodore's maid was poisoning him with rat poison over a long period of time and in high quantities. While he is left violently ill and has to regrow his stomach lining, he still recovers to full health a few months later.

'''Examples:'''

* [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Karen_Wetterhahn Karen Wetterhahn]] died after exposure to a tiny drop of dimethyl mercury on her gloved hand. However, the death was long and drawn out. [[CaptainObvious And it wasn't untraceable either.]]