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These are lists of poisonings, deliberate and accidental, in chronological order by the date of death of the victim(s). They include mass poisonings, confirmed attempted poisonings, suicides, fictional poisonings and people who are known or suspected to have killed multiple people.
Non-fiction
Fatal
Socrates (d. 399 BC), Greek philosopher; according to Plato, he was sentenced to kill himself by drinking poison hemlock
Artaxerxes III (d. 338 BC), Persian king; possibly poisoned by his vizier Bagoas
Esing Bakery incident 700 people were poisoned after eating bread containing Arsenic. 0 people were killed immediately but 3 people died from long-term effects
Between six and eight killed and 400 became ill after eating spoiled ice cream in Meppel, Netherlands in July 1921.
Sinasa massacre Mangayanon Butaog, a religious leader who poisoned 69 members causing 64 to die while the other 5 spit out the poisoned gruel Butaog gave them.[2][3]
Madge Oberholtzer (d. 1925), rape victim of Ku Klux Klan leader D.C. Stephenson; died after attempting to commit suicide with mercury(II) chloride
Nine killed by apple cider contaminated by a pesticide at Elks National Home in Bedford, Virginia in November 1923.
The six Goebbels children (d. 1945); poisoned by their parents Magda and Joseph Goebbels, who then killed themselves by poison and gunshots shortly afterwards
Hermann Göring (d. 1946), leader of the Nazi Luftwaffe; suicide by cyanide capsule, long after being captured and only hours before his sentenced hanging was to take place
Alan Turing (d. 1954), British mathematician; apparently committed suicide by injecting an apple with cyanide and taking a bite, though it has also been speculated that the poisoning was accidental
Love Canal (up to 1978); buried toxic waste was covered and used as a building site for housing and a school in Niagara Falls, New York, resulting in claims of chronic poisoning that led to a massive environmental cleanup
Bhopal disaster (1984); accidental release of poisonous gas from a pesticide plant in India that killed over 10,000 people and injured many more
Paraquat murders (1985) 35 people were poisoned including 12 fatally after drinking beverages contaminated with Paraquat and Diquat from tampered vending machines in central and western Japan from April until November of 1985
Hamaichi Junior High School Daifuku Mochi Incident 浜一中大福餅事件[1] or in English Hamaichi Junior High School Daifuku Mochi Incident occurred when over 2,000 people became ill and 44 died after contracting food poisoning
Moscow theater hostage crisis (2002); to end the crisis, the Federal Security Service (FSB) pumped an undisclosed chemical agent into the building's ventilation system, killing 40 militants and 132 hostages
Ibn al-Khattab (d. 2002), Sunni jihadi fighter; died from a poisoned letter sent by Russian FSB agency
Koodathayi Cyanide Murders (d. 2002–2016); 6 people were allegedly killed by Jolly Joseph using potassium cyanide
Roman Tsepov (d. 2004), Russian businessman; poisoned by unspecified radioactive material
2017 Malawat poisoning (d. 2017) Aasia Bibi, her alleged boyfriend Muhammad Shahid and her aunt poisoned her husband's milk with rat poison. The milk was later used to make lassi which was later used in a family gathering. 17 people were fatally poisoned
Shady Habash (d. 2020), Egyptian filmmaker; his cause of death was officially ruled as alcohol poisoning, with the prosecutor-general further elaborating that Habash had mistakenly drunk alcohol-based hand sanitizer
Khaled Mashal, leader of Palestinian fundamentalist organization Hamas; survived being poisoned by Israeli assassins in 1997 after two of the assassins were captured and an antidote was supplied by Israel in exchange for their release
Boudica (d. 60 or 61), Queen of the Iceni tribe and leader of the rebellion against Roman rule in Britain; committed suicide by poison according to Tacitus, though Dio Cassius claimed natural illness
Jamestown colonists (1607–1610); standard historical accounts suggest many early colonists died of starvation, but the possibility of arsenic poisoning by rat poison (or of death by bubonic plague) has also been reported[7]
Zachary Taylor (d. 1850), 12th President of the United States; theorized by author Clara Rising that his milk was poisoned during an Independence Day celebration
Gulf War syndrome, a chronic multi-symptom disorder afflicting more than 250,000 returning veterans and civilian workers of the Gulf War of 1990–1991; while the etiology of the condition continues to be debated, various manmade poisons have been suggested as possible causes
Yuri Shchekochikhin (d. 2003), Russian investigative journalist; died presumably from poisoning by radioactive thallium
Yasser Arafat (d. 2004); reputedly died from liver cirrhosis, which may be a consequence of chronic alcohol use or poisoning. Some Arafat supporters feel it is unlikely that Arafat habitually used alcohol (forbidden by Islam), and so suspect poisoning. However, it is also important to note that cirrhosis is not necessarily caused by alcohol use, or indeed any poison at all.
Anatoly Chepiga (b. 1979), Russian GRU officer identified by journalists as one of the attackers of Sergei and Yulia Skripal[14]
Alexander Mishkin (b.1979), Russian GRU officer identified by journalists as one of the attackers of Sergei and Yulia Skripal[15]
Sinasa massacre Mangayanon Butaog, a religious leader who poisoned 69 members causing 64 to die
Graham Young (b. 1947) English serial killer who murderered his victims by poisoning them. He killed 3 people from 1961-1971
2016 Punjab sweet poisoning Khalid Mahmood, a sweet shop owner admitted to being the perpetrator behind the 2016 Punjab sweet poisoning that killed at least 33 people including 5 children
María Jesús Riffo Sandoval: Chilean cook poisoned milk and cereal intended for students at a school in Angol with arsenic to try and blame it on a different worker, as they were both in love with the same man.[16][17] Three children died, while another 40 were non-fatally injured (5 severely). She was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment, and was eventually released after 17 years.[18]
Lidia Viktorovna Shiryaeva - Lidia Viktorovna Shiryaeva, a grandma admitted to fatally poisoning her 3 grandchildren and her disabled daughter with poisoned noodles
Fiction
As poisoning is a long-established plot device in crime fiction, this is not intended to be an exhaustive list.
Kaori Yuki: Count Cain (GodChild after vol. 5) Protagonist Cain Hargreaves is known as the Count/Earl of Poisons. He has quite a collection of poisons, and frequently solves murder cases, almost all of which involve poisons.
Third and Tenth Doctors in Doctor Who regenerated due to radiation poisoning. The Fifth Doctor regenerated due to poisoning from the substance Spectrox, giving the antidote to his also poisoned companion Peri Brown.
