Saints, Sinners, and Cyanide

Alec Banks’ masterful Saints, Sinners, and Cyanide weaves together two nearly simultaneous poison cases in Chicago: one, a private tragedy that unfolded on the outskirts of the Gilded Age estates built north of the city; the other, a public scandal, a mass poisoning of the city’s elite at the University Club where death very nearly came for the archbishop. Banks illuminates the lives of power and privilege and those of the uneasy strivers who live in the shadow of great wealth. Banks tells his story with the clarity of a historian, the compassion of the novelist, and the verve of a sportswriter. Along the way, he unmasks a serial killer.
Saints, Sinners, and Cyanide is a gripping historical thriller, a meticulous examination of the frays in the social fabric as the Gilded Age runs headlong into the Progressive Era. It is true crime at its best.

-- Cara Robertson, award-winning author, "The Trial of Lizzie Borden"
A dead girl in the snow…a broken romance…and mysterious poisonings. Was there a twisted serial killer on the loose? You must read Saints, Sinners, and Cyanide to find out. Alec Banks’ meticulous research into 1916 Chicago makes this historical crime a unique, compelling read. -- Rena Pederson, author, "The King of Diamonds: The Search for the Elusive Texas Jewel Thief"
For those who devoured Devil in the White City, this electrifying true story plunges readers back into early 20th century Chicago, with a death in wealthy Lake Forest and a brazen attack on one of the city's most prominent religious leaders. Alec Banks crafts a richly atmospheric and meticulously researched foray into the dark side of the Gilded Age, filled with scandal, deception, and cutting-edge forensic science. I couldn’t put it down. -- Neil Bradbury, author, "A Taste for Poison: Eleven Deadly Molecules and the Killers who Used Them"
Saints, Sinners, and Cyanide is a propulsive, richly detailed, and meticulously researched true crime tale. By weaving the stories of a wave of poisoning in the early 1900s, Banks deftly interrogates class conflict, anarchy, and anti-religious sentiment alongside the deadly danger young women could find themselves in when faced with an inconvenient pregnancy. -- Olivia Campbell, New York Times bestselling author, "Women in White Coats" and "Sisters in Science"
The meticulous research and vivid storytelling of Alec Banks taught me something I had never known: America had a cyanide problem in 1916. But for the watering down of an anarchist chef’s poisoned soup, it might have become one of the worst mass murders in our nation’s history. Instead, a banquet hall filled with dignitaries, luminaries, and hangers-on erupted into a legendary scene of mass vomiting. Banks tells this astonishing story in riveting fashion while weaving in other poisonings that haunted Chicago during the era. I could not help but think of the Extra-Strength Tylenol murders decades later in the same region, another chilling poisoning case in which the culprit eluded justice. A great read. -- McCracken Poston Jr., author, "Zenith Man: Death, Love, and Redemption in a Georgia Courtroom"
Two deadly poison dramas that gripped Chicago in 1916 are brought chillingly to life in this engrossing book. An eighteen year old girl is found dead from cyanide, and on the same day, an anarchist chef adds arsenic to the soup at a formal banquet. This detailed examination of these long-neglected cases plunges us into a world of scandal, activism, and the lure of poison. -- Linda Stratmann, author, "The Secret Poisoner: A Century of Murder"
Murder, poison, forensics, anarchism, class resentment, religious spectacle, courtroom drama—Alec Banks tells this extraordinary story with narrative flair, historical sympathy, and a sharp eye for the telling detail. Saints, Sinners, and Cyanide is at once a true-crime page-turner and a vivid portrait of the fears and obsessions of an age. -- Ross King, author, "The Bookseller of Florence"
Alec Banks' riveting and vivid story of two distinct poisonings take readers deep into Jazz Age Chicago and a time when poison was easily placed into the wrong hands. Banks delves into two stories that are now mostly unknown but shocked the city in 1916 and will enthrall modern readers. -- Emilie Le Beau Lucchesi, author, "Ugly Prey: An Innocent Woman and the Death Sentence that Scandalized Jazz Age Chicago"
Alec Banks has produced a first-rate true crime thriller. The collision of politics, passion and poison on every page of this book kept me riveted from start to finish. This is a must-read chapter of America’s turbulent history of class struggle and violence. -- David N. Pellow, professor of environmental studies, UC Santa Barbara; author, "Garbage Wars: The Struggle for Environmental Justice in Chic