June 24, 1929: No blame in girl’s Lysol poisoning suicide

A coroner’s jury concluded no one was to blame for the death of a 10-year-old girl who drank Lysol after being reprimanded at school.

“We, the jury, find that Frances Jones came to her death from self-administration of Lysol. We do not see clear to hold any person in particular responsible,” jury members concluded.

They did, however, recommend that in future “parents at all times in cases of a similar nature be consulted before any action is taken by the school faculty.”

Lysol is now used as a cleaning and disinfectant product, but in the late 1920s it was marketed, when diluted, as a feminine hygiene product and a form of birth control, so the girl took a bottle of it from the medicine cabinet at home.

She drained it after being called into the principal’s office at Westmount School for the alleged theft of a geography book, a composition manual and some old examination papers.

Frances denied stealing any of the material, explaining that she had found them, but “I was convinced she was not telling the truth, and I insisted that she do so,” principal Gordon G. Harman told the jury. “She protested vehemently and made several incoherent remarks. She said she would swear on the Bible that she had not stolen the books.

“She wanted to be a teacher and ended by the statement that she wished she was dead or that someone would kill her,” he continued. “I was shocked but passed the words as a gesture, as something said for effect.”

The principal left his office briefly to strap some of the students in his classroom who were misbehaving, and on returning said he pressed the girl again for the truth and may have mentioned the police.

“If I did, it was to the effect that if the books were not found, I would ask the police to make a search,” he testified.

Frances then admitted to stealing the geography book. The principal instructed her to go home and return with the book and any other stolen articles.

The girl did not return to school. Her father found her after she had drank the Lysol. She seemed to recover after being treated at hospital. She was sent home, but suffered a relapse and died.