TYPHOID MARY: AN INNOCENT KILLER? | Mary Mallon | Sick Without Symptoms | The Killer Cook

Was TYPHOID MARY, also known as Mary Mallon, an INNOCENT KILLER or a victim of circumstance who was wrongly imprisoned for decades? In today’s History Calling video we’re heading back to the east coast of the United States at the beginning of the 20th century to look at a woman who was sick without symptoms and who, as a result, spread typhoid fever almost everywhere she went. Mary Mallon was reportedly an Irish immigrant and an asymptomatic carrier of salmonella typhi, the illness for which she has become famous. Working as a cook in New York City and the neighbouring states, she spread typhoid germs to those who ate her food and caused outbreak after outbreak over the course of at least 10 years as she moved jobs, even causing the death of the daughter in one of the families she worked for. She was finally hunted down by the epidemiologist and sanitations engineer, George A. Soper in 1907, but the killer cook refused to submit to testing, cease working with food or improve her personal hygiene, instead denying (despite overwhelming evidence), that she was causing any illnesses. Eventually she was forcibly detained after making a mad dash for freedom and her condition was confirmed at Willard Parker Hospital. Her case caused a media sensation and after nearly three years in custody in a cottage on North Brother Island next to the Riverside Hospital, she was released in 1910 on the promise that she would not work as a cook and would report to the health authorities every three months. Instead, she disappeared, changed her name to Maria Breshof (sometimes going under the alias Mrs Brown) and again took work as a cook. Five years later, after causing a major typhoid outbreak of 25 cases at Sloane Hospital for Women in New York, George Soper was called to confirm her identity and she was again detained and imprisoned without trial, this time for life. She was returned to her cottage on North Brother Island where she lived out the rest of her days, even being allowed to make unchaperoned visits to the mainland. The story of typhoid Mary came to an end in November 1938, when she died, aged approximately 69 after 23 years of confinement and having become infamous as a new and unexpected chapter in the history of typhoid fever. She is buried in St Raymond’s Cemetery in the Bronx, New York.

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LEARN MORE

Judith Walzer Leavitt, Typhoid MaryCaptive to the Public's Health (Beacon Press) (UK LINK) OR (US LINK)

Letter written by Mary Mallon, with transcript

Mary Mallon’s death certificate

Mary Mallon’s headstone

THUMBNAIL IMAGE: New York American, 20.06.1909, New York Public Library, digital collections