Drinking The Cool Aid

Radium Girls // 195 // Part 4

• Megan and Hanna Hawkins • Season 1 • Episode 195

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The Radium Girls were female factory workers who contracted radiation poisoning beginning in 1917, while they were painting watches with self-luminous paint.  This occurred at three factories in the United States: Orange, New Jersey, Ottawa, Illinois, and Waterbury Connecticut.  The women were assured that the paint was harmless, but that wasn't true, and they ingested deadly amounts of radium.

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Before the trial, it was denied that the girls were ever told to use the lip, dip, paint method, and in face, they denied any of the women in the studio ever even did that, denied radium being dangerous, denied the radium sticking to clothing or them, everything you can think of that they did wrong, they denied. They were even sweet enough to hire private detectives to follow the girls around to get dirt on them. Yep. They were willing to pay for Private detectives, but not willing to pay medical bills for the problems THEY caused.  

Berry met with Wiley, Hamilton, Hoffman, Martland, Von Sochocky, and Humphries, studied their notes, interviewed all of them, he even got ahold of the Drinker's after finding about the false report that was made, though Cecil actually didn't want to be involved and had to be summoned by the court, nor did Martland want to be involved and ya know, this was due to the fact that like we've talked about, there was too much power held in these companies and a lot of people didn't want to get caught up in these huge ass legal battles. Berry did attempt to find another doctor able to perform those two required tests, but the only person he could find, was out of state, and none of the girls could travel in the state they were in. 

Berry also got news that the Waterbury Clock company had cases of radium poisoning so he contacted the Workmans comp commission in Connecticut, because if he can get evidence from these cases, he'd be able to use them as proof in court that it's happening elsewhere at the same exact type of businesses, but they had absolutely zero clue what he was talking about because no one had filed for anything like that yet with them. Why, you ask?? Well, let me fucking tell you. Good ol' Dr. Flinn, that doctor they use thru the company, had been allowed to gain access to that building too and he walked his stupid little ass in there all the time and had been telling any girls that starting to fall ill there, that they were in perfectly good health, and because they had no reason not to trust him, they believed him. 

As things got bad enough, well then, he flipped the coin real fast, and pretended to be doctor who was actually worried about what could be happening, so that he could convince these poor women to take a settlement, that releases the company from any sort of liability. Berry is eventually able to convince Martland to testify, so he does end up going to court also. 

Most did not recieve nearly enough and one recieved only fucking $43.75 which is equal to about 600 now, for a FUCKING DEATH. 

Flinn continued to deny any illneses caused by radium until 1928 when he said, oh ya know, it's possible there's a couple. Even once telling a girl 8 different times she had NO traces of radium in her, want to take a guess what she later died from?? Yep, Radium poisioning. 

Berry decided to dig into Flinn as he learned more about him and how he'd been examining girls for years but insisting that everyone was healthy. Turns out, Flinn who was believed to be an MD all this time, actually wasn't even a medical doctor, no no, he had a degree in philosophy. This "doctor" who these women trusted with their lives for YEARS, hired by USRC, was a fucking fake. Berry did report this to authorities.

As the case grew, it was picked up by newspapers, and one editor in particular, in 1929, by the name of Walter Lippmann took a huge interest in it. Lippmann was actually named one of the most influential journalists of the twentieth century. Basically whenever USRC tried to say their normal bullshit in their defense, Lippmann would call their asses out to everyone who read the paper. 

The trial date was finally set, Janurary 12, 1928, at the court of Chancery.

All of the girls cases were combined into one, so that's why there's only one date and not 5. 

Okay, so remember how there's only those 2 ways to test a living person for radium and then there's the route of breaking down the bones, which obviously can only be done on someone who is not living. Also keep in mind that Martland is the ONLY doctor able to preform said test on a living person as he's the one who made them in the first place. Berry knew that USRC would hire their own doctor, which CANNOT be trusted, but he also knew that if he brought in his own, they still wouldn't be able to do the tests on any of the living girls, they literally don't have the capability or knowledge on how to. So they make the decision to erect, Mollie Maggia, on October 15, 1927. 

13 officials stood around Mollie's grave as she was unearthed to hopefully be the missing piece to prove everything they'd been fighting for. Tho her casket almost falling apart, she was in a decent preserved state, and when the casket was lifted out of the ground..... it came out glowing.

They ran numerous tests on her body, including the Xray test and reducing her bones to ash. And even after all this time underground, the Xrays showed up with white blotches and her vertabrae was literally glowing all the way down her spine. The examinations concluded and the doctors said that there was NO SIGNS of sphyilis, which was the reason for death on her death certificate. And every single bone that was tested, showed signs of radioactivity. 

November 14th, 1927, Cecil Drinker, would be the first testimony in the girls's trial as part of the deposition.

By the time the trial started, Albina could not extend her leg more than 4 inches, still couldn't bend over, and had lost 3 children before they were born due to her condition. Edna almost had to be carried by her husband to the witness stand, Grace had had her jaw quote, "curetted 17 times", her bone in her foot still disintegrating, had almost all her teeth removed, and her spine was decaying. 

The women officially started their trial, kicking it off with Edna testifying first. Their second court date would be April, 25th. While waiting for the second date, Berry was able to get all 5 girls admitted into a New York hospital, in hopes they could come up with some sort of treatment or care to help the girls. They were unable to do so, but at least Berry kept trying to find ways to help. 

3 days before the trial was to resume, Flinn paid the girls a visit, along with a few close colleauges. They were there to run their own tests on the girls for radium poisioning. Basically the whole thing was bullshit, he threw the tests on purpose, by doing things like standing too far away when they blew into the one test, so the radium had time to disapate by the time it reached him. Aaaannnnnnd they concluded no radium was present. Also during this visit, they pricked Grace with a needle to take blood samples, a week later, the spot where she was pricked, started turning black. These girls were in no condition to be poked and prauded at.  

Katherine Schaub kicked off the second day of the trial and the girls continued to fight. When Mollies autoposy results were brought up and proved she died of radium poisioning, USRCs lawyers did everything to strike it from record, but were unable to do so. Humphries took the stand and went over all 5 of the girls's medical issues and history in detail, explaining when each of them started showing symptoms and stating that he thought it was due to radium poisioning. 

As the trial continued on into the next day, multiple doctors testified that it was common knowledge that radium could be dangerous and theyve known this since about 1912.

When Roeder was questioned on who the first girl's name was that had fallen ill, he couldn't even remember her name, that's how much he didn't give a single shit. 

Martland took the stand next, they pressed him HARD, and tried to get him to say that radium poisioning wasn't actually a thing, he fought back everytime and made it clear it was, even telling them that there were mutliple girls already buried that could prove otherwise. He even pointed out that there were cases in Waterbury, it wasn't just orange that it was happening in. 

On the next day of the trial, von Sochocky, was asked if he didn't stop lip pointing only because he was under Roeder's command, and Von Sochocky, lied his ass off and said, that was not the case, he actually had noooo idea that the lip, dip, paint method wasn't safe. Yes, the same guy who already flipped sides earlier in the story to be on the girls's side, and chopped off his own finger when he got radium in it, is now saying, yet again, they had no clue it was dangerous. 

And now we come to the part of the trial, where USRC gets to share their bullshit lies. So the next court date is scheduled for September 24th. That is 5 months away, 5 months those girls most likely do not have. As if they weren't dealing with enough during all of this, letters from all over started flooding in, as their story gained more and more popularity. Some letters were nice and encouraging, some were other radium companies that were mad at them for fighting, some people asking for money, promising a "cure", and one letter to Katherine, even demanded a sum in advance to help "cure" her, basically stating that she didn't have much time to pay up because she was going to die soon. Katherine later stated that she'd rather have roses on her coffin, but will have to settle for lillies, unless she wins her money in court, because they wouldn't be able to afford the roses otherwise. 

As the case gained publicity, reporters flocked in, the public started to have major sympathy for the girls, and Berry pushed for the trial to be sooner rather than later, and with the help of public pressure, in May, the judge wrote Berry back, letting him know he'd push the date up. And Finally, Berry had hope that he was getting places in this case. 

A conference was called, and USRC and Berry were asked if they could agree on a settelment outside of court. Berry needed to actually consider this as the girls were hardly hanging on and he still wasn't sure they'd make it thru a lengthy trial that could take years to get thru. It'd also work in USRCs favor because if they can get it settled and over with, reporters would no longer be covering the story, it'd eventually be forgotten, and out of the public eye, meaning that the future cases they recieve, they'd be able to keep more quiet about it. The settlement offered, 10,000 to each girl and they REJECTED IT. 

It would hardly be enough to even touch their medical bills, let alone be enough for their families. Negotiations continued and Berry requested, a cash lump sum of 15,000, 600 a year in pension for life, and past AND future medical bills. On June 4th, USRC AGREED, and the girls signed off on the settlement. However, the settlement did specify that the company was not at fault. BULLSHIT. And they added in that 3 doctors will examine the girls regularly, one mutual, and one from both sides, and if said doctors ever found out the girls were no longer suffering from radium poisoning, that all payments would stop. Yes, they were already trying to find a way to weasel out of the payments. Plus, Berry had learned that the judge on this case was a stockholder in USRC for quite some time before the trial. The girls were mostly happy with their settlement though and the first of the radium girls' trials, were at last, over.


Katherine gave part of her settlement to her dad towards his mortgage, she bought herself a typewriter, silk dresses, lingerie, a felt hat, a coat she had always wanted, and said she was gonna live quote, like Cinderella as the princess at the ball". Which you guys, I think is the fricken sweetest thing. Edna got herself a piano and a radio, Grace decided to invest it all, some girls bought cars, they went on vacations, they, at least in my opinion, got to live happily and carefree for a little while, which they hadn't been able to do in a really long time. 

The theory that Martland had temporarily now, was that mesothorium sped up the radium poisioning, until it moved to it's half life, which it hit at 7 years, then it would slow down and not take as much control over their bodies, because the girls were still hanging in there, so he thought they were potentially getting and or going to get better. He figured that if they could survive those first years of it and come back from it, that they could survive. They would always be permanentley crippled and have honeycomb bones, but they'd be alive. This gave girls hoped that at least they'd have more time with their families, and more time for a possible cure to be discovered.


So now remember, when they agreed to the settlement, they still needed to be seen by the companies' doctors for tests. USRC jumped right into finding corrupt doctors that were closely affiliated with them or working with radium. In fall of 1928, they headed to a hospital in New York, to begin their tests. There in the hospital, in front of two doctors claiming radium poisoning was bullshit, they faced Quinta who was in plaster casts, Grace who's fragments of jawbone left were exposed, Edna, whose legs were stuck in a crossed position, Katherine was stuck hunched over, and Albina, who had such limitation in her hips, they were hardly able to do a vaginal exam. And to the doctor's surprise, the girl's breath tests came back positive. 

Yeah, that's pretty solidifying right? Wrong, they decided it had to be the girls messing with the tests. Since they were all so healthy and knew how to do that, right?? So, he made them re-do all of the testing a second time, on a different day, at a hotel. At said hotel, they brought in good ol' Barker, who had earlier claimed the girls' tests were negative, that one that intentionally botched the tests before, and a few other corrupt assholes. The girls knew what they were doing was NOT the same as the court ordered tests, but they couldn't really do anything about it at that very second. That's not gonna look good on their part. As soon as the testing was over, they contacted their lawyer, and he was PPPPISSEED, but when he contacted USRC, he was super surprised and actually told that all 5 girls were declared radioactive.

In Novemeber, Von Sochocky, passed away from radium poisioning.

 The tests continued on the poor girls, time after time, never for them to see the results. Grace was the only one starting to feel just a little bit better but had already had 25 surgies on her jaw. 

Quinta however, was really struggling, in the past year, she'd run into some issues with her husband, James. James spent all his money at speakeasies and was not employed, so he demanded Quinta give him some of her part of the settlement, which she had put in a trust fund for her kids. While still in her plaster casts and very fragile, she denied him and he hit her, then threatened to turn on every gas jet in the house to gas her and kill her. She'd dealt with this before and filed for divorce, however he was able to woo her, and she decided not to proceed. 

But now she's in the hospital, fighting to hang on, hardly able to move, when she makes a turn around that no one expected. She kept on fighting, James started getting the house ready for her to come home, she had Grace buy her kids Christmas gifts, she was determined to be back for the holidays. She was starting to become herself again and Jmes went to visit her on the evening of December 6th, they talked a bit about Christmas, but she was tired, she had swelling on the top of her thigh that was really painful, and she asked him to leave a bit early so she could get some rest. 

On December 7th, 1929, Quinta slipped into a coma and while James was speeding to the hospital, getting pulled over twice, then let go once they found out what was happening, Quinta passed away, only minutes before he got there. The one thing she'd asked for with her passing was that it would help her friends. So, Dr. Martland did an autopsy and he discovered she had the exact same rare sarcoma that had killed, Ella Eckert. For Quinta, it was that swollen, painful part on her thigh that I had mentioned a second ago. Martland actually goes on to say a quote, " the bones of the victims had actually died before they did."

During this there was a lawsuit happening with Mae Canfield's family, but I didn't want to get to into that one because I'm trying to focus more on these bigger trials, but Berry was on her case, and he did manage to win her a settlement, but it came with a hefty fricken claus attached. And that is that they'd ONLY pay the settelement, if Berry signed off on no longer being able to be connected to any of the cases against USRC, directly or indirectly, couldn't give out any data on them, and wasn't allowed to render assistance to anyone involved in any of the cases. So they literally tied his hands here, there is absolutley nothing he can do, if he were to not sign it, Mae's family wouldn't get what they deserved. USRC knew Barry knew too much and they wanted to smoke him out so they didn't have to worry about him anymore.


Katherine Schuab had taken a fall and landed on her knee, when she went to have it xrayed, Dr. Humphries, had to deliver some bad news, not only had she broken it, but she had sarcoma of the knee. She was quickly admitted to the hospital, was in for 10 weeks while they worked on treating it, then had to be encased in plaster for months, just to find out her bone didn't heal properly, and she'd be stuck wearing a metal brace from then on out. As they went into the year 1931, Katherine was still in the hospital, but her tumor was shrinking, and by Feburary, she seemed to beat the worst of it, tho still struggling to walk. 

Irene Corby La Porte, who had worked with Grace, sought out Dr. Humphries, after several miscarriages and pain in her vagina that was making it hard to have sex. She was diagnosed with having sarcoma the size of about a walnut. But it very, very quickly caused her to go downhill. She had paralysis on one leg, and the tumor had grown so much that they could hardly do a vaginal exam because it was actually blocking everything down there. On May 4th, 1931, she filed a claim for damages against USRC. Only a month later on June 16th, 1931, she would lose both battles, and passed away. Her husband, Vince, was enraged, and he would go on to keep fighting for her in the courts for years to come. 

Katherine was really struggling and back in the hospital, there had been talk of amputating her leg previously, but she'd denied doing that, until now. Now it was clear she needed to, but unfortanetly, it was too late, they could no longer do that as her leg had gotten much, much worse. She went downhill pretty quickly and on February 18, 1933, Katherine's frail body gave out, and she passed away. Only a week later, her father also passed away, from falling down a flight of stairs, 2 days before her funeral. They were buried together and she was no longer in pain. 

By July 1933 Edna though stuck in a steel corset, was in high spirits, doing her best to not focus on it being a death sentence, but instead that she was still here. Grace on the other hand, had become bedridden and wasn't doing so great. She knew she didn't have much longer, but tried not to worry about it as she knew there was nothing anyone could do. On October 27, 1933, she passed away early in the morning. Dr. Martland did the autopsy and on her death certificate, stated her death as, radium sarcoma, industrial poisoning. 

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