A 400-Year-Old Murder Mystery, 'CSI' Style

Forensic Exam Of 16th-Century Remains Reveals Evidence Of Arsenic Poisoning Of Medici Nobility

(AP)  Scientists in Italy believe they have uncovered a murder — 400 years after it is thought to have taken place.

Historians have long suspected that Francesco de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and his second wife, Bianca Cappello, did not die of malaria but were poisoned — by Francesco's brother, Cardinal Ferdinando de' Medici, who was vying for the dukedom.

For four centuries, that theory remained just that — a theory.

But following a study into the affair, forensic and toxicology experts at the University of Florence believe they have uncovered clear evidence of murder by poisoning.

Francesco's "was a lethal dose, but progressive, and the symptoms were compatible with arsenic poisoning," Donatella Lippi, a professor of history of medicine and a co-author of the study, published in the British Medical Journal on Dec. 21, told The Associated Press.

As rulers, art connoisseurs and financiers of kings, the Medici flourished for centuries in the rough and tumble alliances of old Europe, ruling first the city of Florence and then Tuscany from 1430 to 1737.

Francesco ruled from 1574 until his death on Oct. 17, 1587, at age 46, 11 days after first taking to his bed and a few hours before his wife.

Scientists Francesco Mari, Aldo Polettini, Elisabetta Bertol and Lippi collected and tested beard hairs from Francesco's grave in the Medici chapels in Florence, as well as other remains found in clay jars in a crypt about 12 miles west of Florence. Bianca's grave was never found.

Tests on the beard hairs proved inconclusive. But samples of Francesco's liver taken from the crypt showed levels of arsenic that were "significantly higher" than those normally found in humans, the scientists said.

But if Francesco was murdered, who did it?

Experts say that although there is no proof, Ferdinando was the only person with an obvious motive. He wanted his brother's dukedom, and his behavior at the time was suspicious — for example, he took charge of his brother's illness, compiling the medical bulletins and minimizing the gravity of Francesco's illness in dispatches to the Holy See.

After their deaths, he ordered immediate autopsies — an unusual step which could have been designed to cover up evidence.

"These important findings, in addition to the historical data collected on the events before and after the almost simultaneous deaths of the grand-ducal couple, allow us to rewrite the historical reconstruction of those events," the study said.

"It sounds pretty reasonable," said Richard J. Hamilton, a medical toxicologist who is Chair of the Department of Emergency Medicine at Drexel University in Philadelphia.

"They've established what they have; they've done an efficient job of matching the DNA," said Hamilton, who read the study but was not affiliated with it. He added that the results were consistent with poisoning.

The only surprising aspect is that Francesco — who had an interest in alchemy and chemistry and was suspected of having poisoned his first wife — could have been poisoned so easily and so quickly, Hamilton said.

However, Angelo Moretto, a clinical and experimental toxicologist with the International Center for Pesticides in Milan, is not entirely convinced.

"They make accusations that are quite strong," he said. "I would have been more low key about it."

And this means what to us?

[pghlady3]

cool.

[Syndicate]

At one point this was the most powerful family in Europe. Wikipedia had a good write up on them. They sponsered the arts and Sciences. This family has contributed to our modern world in so many ways. They produced several european queens. They also produced several Popes. The largest moons of Jupiter are named after Medici children tutored by Galileo. They made their fortune from the trade routes running through Italy to the middle east. They were a big part of the Florentine Renasonce. Simply amazing that one family could do all this.

But who realy cares?

[blondmadison]

Now that forensics are here---go to the grave of Abraham Lincoln and do toxicology tests on his remains too.

We will all find out that yes while he was shot and that was the final way he died--that in fact he had been being poisoned evidenced by his skin and gaunt appearance which historians wrote off as a disease which caused premature aging.

It was not a disease of any sort--it was the result of multiple poisonings that he lived thru. So they shot him.

The groups who survived wrote the "history" they wanted recorded, not the actual real facts at all.