1940 — Nov 11, Roach-killer tainted pancakes food poisoning, Salvation Army Ctr., Pittsburgh PA–12

–12 Life. “Salvation Army buries eight poison-pancake victims in style.” 12-2-1940, pp. 30-31
–12 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA. “Can Containing Poison Found in Pancake Case.” 11-14-1940, p. 15.
–12 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA. “Poison Test Perplexes In Death Probe.” 11-13-1940, p. 11.

Narrative Information

Nov 11: “Pittsburgh, Nov. 11. – (UP) – Nine men died today and the death toll may mount even higher as the result of food poisoning believed to have been caused by tainted pancakes served at the Salvation Army Men’s Social Service Center here. The men were stricken a few hours after they had eaten a breakfast of pancakes, bacon and coffee at the center. It was feared roach powder may have been introduced into the pancake batter accidentally. Remnants of the breakfast were confiscated for analysis.

“Two of the victims died at the center before they could be removed to hospitals. Seven additional victims succumbed at St. Francis hospital, where most of those stricken were taken.

“In addition to those who died, approximately 35 others were reported suffering symptoms of food poisoning. Several of these were described as in serious condition.

“Those affected were stricken almost simultaneously a few hours after they arose from the breakfast table. When police arrived, men were found writhing in pain throughout the two-story brick structure, situated in the Lawrenceville section of the city.

“Among the first to arrive were several Catholic priests, who hurried from one victim to the other administering the last rites of the church.

“Adjutant Roy Barber, in charge of the center, said that Arthur Wilson, 39, the cook, told him the batter for the pancakes had been mixed yesterday, and that the barrel of flour was emptied yesterday and refilled today. Barber said the refilling of the barrel today was the first since the dismissal of a former chef for ‘unsatisfactory service’ three weeks ago. The former cook, Barber said, had used roach powder to spread around the rooms. He was believed to have gone to Philadelphia. Police sought the former cook for questioning.

“The casualty list might have been greater, only for the fact that the dining room seats only about 40 persons. There were about 70 men at the center today, but the ‘second table’ never was served.

“Deputy coroner Bernard Grattan found the building in confusion when he arrived. ‘There were about 30 men lying in the dormitory on their beds. They seemed to be in great pain. Some walked around grasping their throats; others, their stomachs. Some of the men who were in bed fell out of bed, vomiting.’” (United Press. “Poison Pancakes Kill 9.” Oelwein Daily Register, IA. 11-11-1940, p. 1.)

Nov 12: “By Anna Jane Phillips, Post-Gazette Staff Writer. With 11 men already dead and three hospitals battling to save the lives of 44 others, police and city chemists last night worked to solve the mystery of how roach powder – sodium fluoride – became an ingredient of the pancakes served yesterday morning at breakfast to 70 lodgers at the Salvation Army’s Industrial Home for Men, 4637 Plummer street, Lawrenceville. Chemical analyses, completed by St. Francis Hospital’s laboratories in late afternoon, established the fact that the men in the home had been poisoned by fluoride, a white substance that might be mistaken for flour or baking powder, thus confirming the opinion of Police and Fire Surgeon Daniel Sable and coroner’s officials.

Pancakes and Batter Analyzed

“City chemists and two United States food and drug agents last night analyzed the pancake batter and flour samples and determined that both contained the quick-acting poison – fluoride.

“The dead were: Herbert Ohliter, 51, Henry McNally, 54, George Williams, 58, Frank Stack, 57, Fred Merkel, 51, Issiah Sandru 54, Jacob Jut, 63, Robert Mead, 33, Andrew Burda, 48, Joseph Frank Williams, 56, and Nathanial Campbell, 55. In addition to the 44 still in hospitals, four others were given treatment and released.

“The home’s cook, Arthur Wilson, who mixed the poison pancake batter, was himself among the victims. Ill in West Peen Hospital, he told police that he had never seen any roach powder in or near his kitchen and that he had no idea how it had been mixed into the batter.

“Adjutant Roy Barber, in charge of the home, however, frankly admitted to investigators that he knew thee had been ‘roach powder’ in the kitchen supply room. He said that when he came to take over management of the home in September, he asked the cook, who was then Lawrence Mertz, 44, if he had any. He said Mertz showed him a package of it in the supply cupboard adjoining the kitchen.

“Yesterday there was no trace of the poison-package to be found. However, the home’s records showed that 10 pounds of sodium fluoride, to be used as roach powder, was purchased on June 25. No one knew where it had gone. Asked if there were any markings on the package when he saw it that might have identified it as poison, Adjutant Barber said: ‘I think there were but I couldn’t swear to it.’
Former Cook Located

“Approximately three weeks ago Cook Mertz was discharged, and went to Philadelphia, from where he has been corresponding with acquaintances here. A quick wire to Philadelphia police resulted in his being picked up there, and last night City Detectives Thomas Corcoran and Thomas Mulvihill left hurriedly to question him in hopes of clearing up some details of the roach poison.

“Between the time when the adjutant saw the poison powder and yesterday’s tragedy, Cook Wilson took Mertz’s place. The new cook who mixed the fatal batter told questioners in the hospital he had never seen the roach powder at any time. He explained that on Sunday when he mixed the batter, he used ‘all but two cups of flour in the fl9our can,’ then refilled it with a new sack.

“He said that last Monday he had also ‘almost emptied the can.’ And that day there was also sickness in the home. For lunch that day there was liver in flour. When he served the adjutant and a visitor with the meat a few minutes before the homes’ regular lunch hour, they both became violently ill. ‘We thought it was the meat then,’ the adjutant explained ‘and we sent it back and gave the men something else to eat.’

“The investigators believe that the poison might have been in the bottom of the flour can for some time, perhaps poured there by someone who mistook it for flour.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA. “Probe Pushed As Poison Kills 11.” 11-12-1940, p. 1.)

Nov 13: “City chemists added to the poison-in-the-pancakes mystery when they announced last night that they were unable to find sodium fluoride, the chemical that killed a dozen men and sent 47 others to hospitals on Monday, in either the flour or the baking powder cans of the Salvation Army’s Industrial Home for Men. Yet these chemists found large quantities of the deadly poison not only in pancakes served but not eaten at the fatal Monday morning breakfast, but in left-over pancake batter. The question still was: ‘Where did the poison come from?’

“Since Cook Arthur Wilson claims that after he mixed the fatal batter there were only two cups of flour left in the can, it is only the flour in the bottom of the container that is important in the case.

Will Make Another Analysis

“John Aldisert, chief deputy coroner, said that today he will ask County Chemist F. C. Buckmaster to scrape the four can’s bottom for another analysis. The city chemists’ report raised the question of whether the package of roach powder, known to have been in the kitchen’s supply cupboard in September, was dumped directly into the batter.

“Police hoped to gain more light on the question of what happened to the 10 pounds of roach powder the home bought last June, part of which was still there in September, by questioning Lawrence Mertz, 43, former cook at the home. Mertz was picked up for questioning by Philadelphia police at the Salvation Army home in Philadelphia where he had been working as butcher since he was dismissed as cook at the local home on October 9. He agreed willingly to come to Pittsburgh for questioning, saying that he had ‘nothing to be afraid of.’ He was brought by automobile to Pittsburgh, arriving last night. He will be questioned today.

Checkup at Restaurants

Meanwhile City Director of Public Health Alexander announced that he had ordered a checkup on all restaurants and institutions to make certain that roach powder – sodium fluoride – is not kept in kitchen supply cupboards. ‘There have been three other cases of poisoning by fluoride in Pittsburgh in the last two years,’ Dr. Alexander said. ‘We are going to make a survey of the whole city and see that roach powder is kept in safe places. It’s widely used and easily mistaken for flour or baking powder.’ He said that today he would ask T. F. Pappe, chief Federal food and drug administrator, if the Federal Government cannot require that all sodium fluoride be tinted green or blue before sale in bulk form. He said some states already have such requirements.

“The Salvation Army itself opened an investigation into the tragedy. Colonel Joseph Dowdell, head of the ‘army’s’ men’s social service division, eastern division, came to Pittsburgh yesterday from New York to direct the inquiry and to ‘help police authorities in anyway.’ Colonel Dowdell said that in a single year the Salvation Army, in its men’s division, has served 3,516,940 meals. ‘This,’ he said, ‘is the greatest tragedy in the Army’s history.’

Activities Transferred

“To facilitate official investigations, he ordered the Lawrenceville center in Plummer street closed and its activities transferred to centers at 1514 Nixon street, Northside, and 410 West Fifth avenue, McKeesport.

“Salvation Army officials visited all the sick men still in hospital beds yesterday while all day a uniformed Salvationist was on duty at the county morgue to help relatives who came to claim bodies of the 12 men who died after eating breakfast in the home Monday morning. William O. Harris, local divisional commander, after consultation with relatives of the dead lodgers, said funeral services for them will be held in the Army Temple, 425 Boulevard of the Allies, at 2 o’clock Friday afternoon. He said that clergymen of all faiths will be asked to participate in the services.

“While police were waiting to question the former cook, Mertz, they began an investigation into the death of one of his friends, Frederick J. Schmittlein, a former janitor at the Lawrenceville home, who died Sunday, supposedly from alcoholism. Schmittlein left the home October 24, shortly after Mertz did and the two men corresponded after Mertz went to Philadelphia. Schmittlein died in a house at 18 Rostock street Sunday after drinking what a friend, Clem Wehner, said were ‘just a few drinks.’ Yesterday police took a small can of flour from the kitchen of the house and turned it over to chemists for analysis. They also asked that further examination of the dead man’s body be made.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA. “Poison Test Perplexes In Death Probe. Salvation Army’s Flour and Baking Powder Found OK.” 11-13-1940, p. 11.)

Nov 14: “A can of roach powder, the deadly poison which beaten into pancakes killed 12 lodgers at the Salvation Army’s Industrial Home for Men on Monday morning, was found yesterday in the locker of the first man to died from the poison pancakes. The can, the contents of which were partly gone, was found in the utility locker of Joe Williams, 56, janitor of the Lawrenceville home. It was confiscated by Inspector of Detectives Walter Monaghan who found it late yesterday afternoon when he went to the home with Lawrence Mertz, ex-cook, who was brought to Pittsburgh from Philadelphia to help police solve the poison pancake mystery. Mertz, however, like Adjutant Roy Barber, the man in charge of the home, said that there had also been a partially full 10-pound package of roach powder in the utility cupboard adjoining the home’s kitchen. He said that the powder – sodium fluoride – was wrapped in brown paper and contained no markings that would have identified it as deadly poison. He could not remember seeing it after the day he and the adjutant looked at it.

“Investigators believed that the small domestic can of powder found in the dead janitor’s locker may not have any connection with the case, although they are looking into all possibilities.

“Mertz explained to Inspector Monaghan that when the poison was purchased, part of it had been distributed about the building in smaller portions, to be used against roaches. One of the persons who may have received a portion was the janitor.

“Inspector Monaghan obtained names of all men who had worked in the home’s kitchen since mid-September, the time when the adjutant last saw the package of poison in the cupboard. Through these men, detectives will try to solve the mystery of the manner in which the poison got into the home’s flour barrel. For [four?] deputy coroners indicated yesterday that chemists had found fluoride in the very bottom of the can.

Kitchen’s Content’s Dumped

“Mertz, the ex-cook who was discharged by Adjutant Barber three weeks ago, answered all Inspector Monaghan’s questions. He came to Pittsburgh willingly from Philadelphia where he worked as a butcher in an ‘Army’ home. Accompanying the 250-pound cook and the inspector to the home in 4637 Plummer street was Assistant District Attorney Chauncey Pruger. Also there were inspectors of the city department of food inspection, with their chief, C. J. Bulger. At Mr. Bulger’s orders, everything, except sealed packages in the home’s kitchen, was dumped into a garbage truck to be burned.

“Meanwhile plans for a funeral for eight of the 12 poison pancake victims, whose bodies are unclaimed by relatives, were made by the Salvation Army. The funeral will be held at 2 o’clock tomorrow afternoon in the Army Temple, Boulevard of the Allies. Two of the men, Robert Mead, 33, and George Williams, 58, were buried yesterday by their own families.

“Meanwhile 43 other men were still in hospitals. One of them, Charles Alessie, 34, yesterday received his draft questionnaire in St. Francis Hospital.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA. “Can Containing Poison Found in Pancake Case.” 11-14-1940, p. 15.)

Sources

Life. “Salvation Army buries eight poison-pancake victims in style.” 12-2-1940, pp. 30-31 at: https://books.google.com/books?id=O0oEAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA30&lpg=PA30&dq=salvation+army+pancake+poisonings+pittsburgh+1940&source=bl&ots=5aCMGPyMr7&sig=ACfU3U2nSF5ltr9KwRPYxdHijmT3Huy0Sg&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjcrpbgjKrpAhXmknIEHY9NDigQ6AEwBXoECAoQAQ#v=onepage&q=salvation%20army%20pancake%20poisonings%20pittsburgh%201940&f=true

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA. “Can Containing Poison Found in Pancake Case.” 11-14-1940, p. 15. Accessed 5-10-2020 at: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3263120/salvation-army-men-poison/

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA. “Poison Test Perplexes In Death Probe. Salvation Army’s Flour and Baking Powder Found OK.” 11-13-1940, p. 11. Accessed 5-10-2020 at: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/3263140/salvation-army-men-poison/

Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, PA. “Probe Pushed As Poison Kills 11.” 11-12-1940, p. 1. Accessed 5-10-2020 at: https://www.newspapers.com/clip/35032894/pittsburgh-post-gazette/

United Press. “Poison Pancakes Kill 9.” Oelwein Daily Register, IA. 11-11-1940, pp. 1-2. Accessed 5-10-2020 at: https://newspaperarchive.com/oelwein-daily-register-nov-11-1940-p-1/