atropine and pilocarpine poisoned chocolates?

[hamhurricane]

i just stumbled across the interesting case of LSD chemist/NYU professor John Buettner-Janusch who tried to kill his sentencing judge by sending him a box of godiva chocolates laced with a combination of atropine and pilocarpine. this seems like a counterintuitive combination given that pilocarpine reverses the toxic effects of atropine - yet he succeeded in poisoning several people with the chocolates. i looked up info on the interaction btw the two and all i could find is that it seems to increase yawning in sleep deprived rats. he was obviously a very intelligent guy so any idea why he would have selected these two?

 

[hamhurricane]

^^^
im not sure what you mean by saying atropine is systemic because it has pronounced CNS effects as well, but perhaps he was trying to mask the physiological symptoms of atropine poisoning to confound ER diagnosis! since pilocarpine does not cross the BBB it could, theoretically, allow a purely central atropine intoxication.

also on wiki it says (without citation) that if pilocarpine crosses into the brain it can lead to chronic epilepsy, why would this be?

 

[Thou]

Out of curiosity, what was the result? Were his efforts successful?

 

[hamhurricane]

he poisoned several people, none of which died, he got the sentencing judge's wife (not the judge) and a few others, he was largely unsuccessful and the motivation for some of the people he attempted to poison is unclear. he starved himself to death in prison. pretty fascinating story!

 

[vecktor]

Given Buettner-Janusch's anthropological background perhaps he was trying to replicate the african trial by ordeal?

It seems a strange choice of poisons if the intent was actually to kill. I am sure he could have come up with something much more effective.

 

[Hammilton]

I would imagine that he was trying to make the guy look insane. Atropine can certainly cause the appearance of psychosis, and pilocarpine would certainly cover the physiological symptoms.