Drinking The Cool Aid

Radium Girls // 196 // Part 5

• Megan and Hanna Hawkins • Season 1 • Episode 196

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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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Ella Cruze, 24, it started with sore knuckles, a strange ridge under her chin, and a pimple on her left cheek. The day after the pimple formed, it swelled up pretty bad, so her mom took her to the doctor. Now her mom had heard some rumors about working with radium, but she was reassured by the doctor that working there was one of the cleanest places to work! Ella was told she was healthy. The next day, it got worse again, she developed a fever, and that pimple was becoming too painful and swelling more and more, so the doctor had her admitted into the hospital. Only a few weeks later, her head would swell, her body would become septic, she'd be unrecognizable, in so much pain, it had become unbearable, and she passed away. 

When Ella's body was examined, they found a decently large, calcareous formation attached to her shoulder. Well, this was new to them, because they'd actually not seen any cancer formations yet from radium, they'd dealt with body issues, jaw problems, teeth falling apart, bodies basically falling apart, but cancer being involved was new. Ella had sarcoma and she became the first of many of the radium girls to die from cancer. Ella is also important because she too, had contacted Berry for help and he'd planned on doing that later, once the other girl's cases were over, but Ella would unfortunately never live to see her own trial, but instead be fuel for the girls to keep pushing forward.

It had made headlines, more deaths in the radium painting field. The girls in Ottawa were starting to panic. The papers were saying it usually started in the jaw or with teeth. Some of the women, like, Peg Looney had already had teeth pulled and gums that weren't healing, why the hell wouldn't they panic? There was talk of protests, riots, Radium Dial had gone from girls talking thru their shifts, having fun, and trying to get as much possible done, to the girls sitting in silence, in fear, no longer wanting to put the brushes in their mouths, taking a major toll on production. 

This led to them bringing in doctors to run some tests on the girls, which included the 2 tests that had been developed, along with multiple other tests like taking blood. The girls would not see their results yet though, even when they asked for them, they were told the information could not be given out. When Catherine questioned this, she was basically told they didn't want riots or anything to happen, but the girls did not know at that time what that really meant, they didn't realize it was probably because they didn't want their actual results to be known by the public. 

The Girls later saw their, "results" and I say it like that because they were posted in the freaking paper in an ad by Radium Dial Company, which stated, quote," Nothing even approaching such symptoms or conditions has ever been found by these men." and quote, "If their reports had been unfavorable, or if we at any time had reason to believe that any conditions of the work endangered the health of our employees, we would at once have suspended operations. The health of our employees is always foremost in the minds of Radium Dial's officials." Let's take a second to let that sink in. They did continue on talking about how other companies used a mixture for the paint, adding, mesothelium, but they use only pure radium. But honestly, who gives a fuck? Clearly if they really had that theory, it should have been thoroughly investigated, while the company was shut down, to make dang sure their employees were actually safe, you know what I'm saying?

Unnnnnfortanetly this actually reassured the girls, and again, pure frustration, because why wouldn't it?? It sounded like a solid explantion and you want to believe a company that your family and friends also work with. The newspaper editor even wrote an ad themselves supporting Radium Dial, from the outside, it truely looked like they cared about their employees and would actually shut down operations if they thought they were sick. Everyone believed them, the town, the girls, who thought they had a clean bill of health, went back to work, and everything continued as normal. Allll except Ella Cruse's family, who filed a lawsuit against, Radium Dial, a single day after seeing the bullshit ad they put out. 

Court for her family was much different that in was in Orange, it was quiet, no journalists or people gathering outside. It started, and their lawyer, George Weeks, asked for a continuance. Which turns out was because he actaully knew nothing about radium poisioning when he started this case and no one would give him any information, none of the doctors, nothing. They talked about exhuming Ella's body so they could prove she died from radium poisioning, but the cost was just too much for her family, and her case went cold, there was nothing they could do. 

Radium Dial started running health exams on the girls regurlarly, but they were mostly examing they healthy girls, and not ones already showing signs of it. 

Swen Kjaer, was doing a federal study on the situation, and firmly believed radium poisioning was a problem. He'd notified all doctors and dentists in the area to get ahold of him if they'd seen any signs of poisioning, but of course, no one was telling him anything either. But as Radium Dial sales starting taking off again, he couldn't help but be bothered by the fact that he knew the girls needed to be in safer enviorments and needed to be protected more in their line of work. He met with the firms president, Joseph Kelly, who reassured Swen that they were doing everything they could to assist and cooperate with him. In return, he requested more information on 2 employees, one being, Ella Cruz. Alls he got back was employment dates. He decided to not keep pressing further on the issue as he figured he had what he needed anyway, and he was pressed for time. In his report, he did state that one dial painter had been tested in 1925 and again in 1928 and both times she was found radioactive. The girls would never get to see this report tho. 


Peg Looney, who now had to be pulled around in a little red wagon, by her fiancé, Chuck, as she could barely walk, was really starting to go downhill. It was summer of 1929, she was anemic, had intense pain in her hips and all over her body, she could no longer assist her mom with housework, and she could pull parts of her jaw and teeth from her mouth. The only time she really walked anymore was when Chuck couldn't go with her to work, because she had no other choice. Her sisters would wait on the porch for her on those days so they could run to her as soon as they saw her and help her the rest of the way home. 

On August 6th, 1929, while at work at Radium Dial, she collapsed. Reed swept her off to the company's hospital without any say of her family and wouldn't allow them to visit her. Leaving her all alone in the hospital, sick and withering away, with no family or friends to talk to. Peg was now displaying diphtheria, had to be quarantined, then contracted pneumonia, and on August 14, 1929, Peg passed away, alone, though her family was still at the hospital, they just weren't allowed to see her or be with her as she was still in isolation. Peg's brother-in-law, Jack White, who is amazing, by the way, and stands up for what he believes in, as soon as they made their attempt to take her body and bury it, he put his foot down, and told them she was catholic and getting the burial she deserved. 

They fought this pretty hard, they were pretty determined to bury her, but Jack fought back and there wasn't much more they could do. They agreed to let the family hire their doctor to do the autopsy, agreed on a time, the family doctor showed up, and low and behold, the autopsy was done by a company doctor an hour earlier. Pegs family would never be sent the report but want to know who did get one?? Radium Dial. Oh yeah, and their company doctor took everything from Peg's body that would have been the most obvious or useful evidence against them. That report included the holes and thinning areas of her skull, the radium necrosis that was found in numerous bones and parts of her body, her skeletal changes, and the fracture lines on her ribs. 

Which again, not seen by the family, instead they saw her death certificate, which claimed she had died from diphtheria and there was no evidence of issues in her jaw or teeth, which apparently were in excellent condition. In her obituary that her family had published in the local paper, they straight up said there was rumors of her having radium poisoning from working at Radium Dial. But it ended with saying that the company doctor had done an autopsy and had no doubt her death was caused by diphtheria. Peg's mom was never the same after she passed, and she pushed a lawn mower a few miles up the road in the early hours of the morning and would mow the cemetery Peg was at. Chuck went on to publish multiple books and became a teacher at a university, fulfilling both of their dreams. Peg's family did feel the death certificate was incorrect, but when they tried to do something about it, they couldn't get anywhere, no one would help them.  

Catherine Wolfe had been moved from being a full time dial painter to scraping out the residue left over in the girl's dishes. She did still paint dials, just not as much. She wasn't in good health and they had decided this was a better job for her. Tho even she noted that she felt like she was actually getting more radium on her now than before. She was scraping the dishes out bare handed and with her fingernails. And doing that actually led to her accidentally constantly spreading it on her face and head, because as anyone with long hair knows, we tend to touch our hair a lot without realizing, and she was doing exactly that. 

She had asked Mr. Reed more than once to see the company doctors, only to be denied over and over. Once, she watched as all the girls lined up for their tests, and got up to do the same, only to be told to sit back down because she wouldn't be included. In August of 1931, Katherine was called into Mr. Reed's office, so that he could fire her, not because her work was dissatisfying, because he said it wasn't, but because her limping was becoming an issue, and they didn't want too many rumors going around about it. Yep, after everything they'd put her thru, plus them being the reason she's limping, plus her still working for them, they fired her.   

Catherine had been to multiple doctors who had told her nothing was wrong, but one particular blood specialist doctor, named, Charles Loffler, would eventually see things differently. He didn't know when he took her blood what they were dealing with yet, but he would soon, and the results came back with quote,"a toxic quality in her blood". He worked in Chicago and also ended up being saught out by Charlotte Purcell's husband, Al. (isnt a name I've mentioned yet, friends with Catherine, worked at factory). Charlotte had stiffening legs and a very sharp pain in her elbow. She actually gathered multiple coworkers to also see this doctor whenever he was in Orange, but he wasn't quite ready to present a diagnosis. Her condition was declining tho and she had to be taken into the hospital. She ended up having to get her arm amputated, but even after, could still feel the pain in her arm, even tho it was no longer there, tho the doctor's did actually believe it was caused by radium.  

In April of 1934, Catherine got the letter from Dr. Loffler, confirming she had radium poisoning. Catherine's husband Al, ran into, Mr. Reed, on the street, and was probably thinking, hey dude's human, he cares about other people, he needs to know something bad is happening to his employees. So, he tried to tell him, like something is up, doctors are now confirming the radium paint is causing issues, but in typical Mr. Reed nature, he denied all claims, and went about his normal day, ya know, slowly sucking the life out of hundreds of women. Dr. Loffler also contacted the company by going over Mr. Reeds to the higher ups, but they didn't give a single shit. 

So, Dr. Loffler got the girls in contact with someone he knew, a stenographer of a Chicago lawyer. (If you're like me and don't know what the heck a stenographer is, it's the person that uses that machine in court to take down everything everyone is saying) and his name is Jay Cook. We fucking love him, okay? He really has a huge impact on all of this. He agreed to take their case pro bono, so like free or with hardly any cost. Catherine wrote a letter that represented for all the girls and her husband Al, called the studio, and Catherine read the letter to the manager, which they also sent a copy of in the mail. And so, they waited for a reply but got nothing. By mid may, they said fuck it, and they headed on their way to directly confront, Dr. Reed. 

The girls arrived and Catherine stepped forward to let him know that they had confirmed radium poisoning and they had legal advise telling them they should ask the company for compensation for medical bills. You guys, this is going to massively piss me off just reading this part. Mr. Reed replied quote, "I dont think there is anything wrong with you" and quote, "there is nothing at all". Fucking Charolette has an arm missing, Catherine can barley walk, these are women that people see and wondering how they are still alive and he's gonna stand there and claim there's nothing wrong, AND only TWO days after this meeting, one of the girls that went in there, Mary Robinson, passed away. Youre gonna tell me you could see absolutley nothing wrong with her when she was that close to dying?! 

She did not die in vein of course tho because her death also helped crack open this case. Her doctors sent a sliver of her bone to a New York labratory to be examined, and it was confirmed she had radium poisoning. But of course the doctors in Ottawa went ahead and said on her death certificate that a disease related to occupation had nothing to do with her death. 

So in 1934, a bunch of dial painters including Catherine, went ahead and filed suit for 50,000 per person. Cook was confident, but the town was not, and they turned on the girls, mad that they were making their community look bad. They still kept on fighting tho. 

At this point, Catherine realizes she's pregnant, which of course is amazing for her, but also makes it so they have to stop all treatments with Dr. Loffler, including pain killers. She does make it thru the pregnancy tho and has a daughter named, Mary Jane.

Meanwhile, some of the higher up people that worked for Radium Dial got voted out, so they decided to go ahead and open up a new dial painting business in town. They told people that the early dial painters only got sick from putting the brushes in their mouths, this new place wouldn't do that, so everyone would be safe. 


In 1935, Cook had filed two seperate claims for the girls. But that good ol' statue of limitations comes back around and rears it's ugly head again. And Radium Dial in response said quote, "even if it is true, what of it?" Cocky little fucks. 

On April 17th, 1935, the court ruled, and the girls lost. This did not stop them from fighting tho and Cook even brought the case to, Supreme Court, only for the case to be declared, invalid. Cook had run out of money at this point and since he'd take the case pro bono, he wasn't gettting any income from it, so he had no choice, but to drop the case, but the girls still filed a claim with the IIC. They attempted to find another lawyer, but nobody wanted to help. There was only one case that stuck at that was that of, Irene La Porte. USRC had carefully and strategically chosen her case because they knew they had a good chance on it. So in 1935, the trial began and just as quickly, it ended with the judge dismissing her case. Obviously a huge blow to every girl fighting but also means USRC was considered, innocent. 

In Feburary on 1936, Inez lost her battle, she bled out from the sarcoma on her neck and the medics were unable to get it under control. Can you guess where this is going by now?? Ottawa doctors said on her death certificate, yet again, that it had nothing to do with a disease related to occupation. 

A journalist by the name of Mary Doty, who wrote for Chicago Daily Times, approached the girls and wanted to get their stories out there, let the town know that they were suffering, and they should be focusing on that, not being mad at them. She ran the article for 3 days and this truly brought some light back into the girl's lives for that short time. The girls had their pictures taken, some included with their families or kids, inlcuding Catherine and Mary Jane, who now at a year old, only weighed 10 pounds. Doty straight up said in the article that girl's had been dying for years and no one gave a rat's ass.

Only a few months later, Marie, Catherine, and Charolette, were able to get a new attorney, Jerome Rosenthal and France Perkins, who was the first woman to serve on a presidential cabient, and was a secratary of labor. Tom actually was the one to get ahold of her and even informed them about those company tests, the originals, that had never been released. He contacted Mr. Reed himself. They met up and Mr. Reed absolutley did not bring those test results with. He made some shit up and tried walking away. Tom is fucking livid at this point, so he shouts to him that he's only trying to help the girls, to which Mr. Reed replies, by swinging at Tom. 

So, tom swung back. But like picture this, Tom has MASS amounts of rage flowing thru him and here stands the one person who could help or at least acknowledge what's happening and shut things down, but chooses to lie instead, is now swinging on him. THE literal source of his rage, but Mr. Reed got excited when he realized he wanted to fight back, so it began, the two of them in a full-blown brawl. Mr. Reed started to crumble, and police got involved. Tom was wrongfully arrested, and Mr. Reed charged him with assault and battery of disorderly conduct. Luckily, there were only a few trials and charges were dropped. 

In December of 1936, Radium dial.... dissapeared. They closed their doors with no warning and just left without a word, along with the Reeds who moved away. 

The new company in town, Luminous Processes, was now thriving, as they picked up aton of the workers that were laid off. 

On March 28th, 1937, on Easter, Catherine took her communion while at home, as the priest now had to come to her, and as she did so, part of her jaw bone, broke thru her skin, and fell into her mouth, she literally reached in, and pulled out part of her jaw. Tom couldn't bare to watch this anymore without doing more. So he got ahold of Marie, asked her to get ahold of the other girls, and find out if they wanted to try looking for a lawyer again. Unfortanetly, a lot of girls were still in denial, some wanted to know if things were actually catching on with the case, but then would back down, some were just plain scared, and most were saying they didn't want to be part of this, with only a couple joining the fight. 

They wrote to Clarence Darrow,who was a very famous american lawyer, at the time. He was turning 80 soon tho and just wasn't able to help anymore, tho he did promise to refer their case for them. So 5 of the girls, Charolette, Catherine, Marie, Pearl Payne, and the Glacinski sisters, traveled to Chicago. There they met the lawyer they had been referred to, Leonard Grossman. Grossman was a good dude, who didnt revolve his work around money, sometimes he'd take someones random item they handed him as payment for his services. 

July 23rd, the day of the trial was here. Publicity had picked up with this case and media reporters were already waiting when the girls got there. Not much happens on the first day, aside from Grossman basically getting to see first hand how they fight back and fight dirty. 

Grossman had a team going on this case and one of the members actually spent hours upon hours translating historical radium literature, because most of it was in German. There were some days he and his team would work 18 hours, they were really diving into this case. The girls were told to get their medical records, which turned out to be pretty difficult. Some doctors didn't reply or ignored requests, some just straight up denied requests, even with the girls begging for them, so Grossman served Radium Dial with having to produce the records they had. Catherine's case would be the first focus in all of this, not because her case had more evidence, but because, she was going to be the next to die.. 

She had a hard lump on her hip that was continuously growing, her movements were becoming more limited, Tom had to move her bed downstairs into the living room, because she couldn't even make it up and down the stairs anymore. And at this point in time, she still had a faint glow to her body if all lights were off. She no longer could do much of anything and people were actually becoming afraid of talking to her, she even had to hand over the care of her children and explain what the family member was supposed to do, helplessly from her bed. She came to a point where she couldn't even be around her kids anymore because she was fearful that she might pass some of her radium poisoning onto them, because she did still have that glow. 

At 35 years old and weighing only 71 pounds, Catherine made her way to get an examination by a trio of doctors inlcuding Dr. Loffler. All 3 of which agreed to testify in court. They noted that there was discharge, pus with fowl odors, the detioration in her mouth cut right thru her lower jaw bone, and the lump on her hip was now the size of a grapefruit. 


Tom carried Catherine all the way into court and to her chair as carefully as possible. She'd be come so fragile even that was becoming difficult. It was Feburary 10th, 1938, press, media, and the people supporting Catherine filed into the court room. The only people missing were literally all the people working with Radium Dial, not even Mr. Reed showed up. Instead there was one single person sitting next to the judge, 76 year old, George B. Marvel. Catherine limbs had shrunk, her skin pinched up, Chicago Daily Times, called her quote, "a toothpick woman". She carried a handkerchief in her pocket so she could hold it in her mouth since it wouldnt stop oozing pus. Grossman waited for her nod and everything began. 

Grossman started it off and Catherine soon took over, telling them everything she could, about how much the girls would glow, that they really didn't know it was harmful and slowly poisoning them. All about the lip pointing, about how when the New Jersey girls died, they started to worry, but were reassured over and over by Mr. Reed. She told them about the examinations and not getting the results. She got as much out as she could when they were interrupted by security who came into the room to bring subpoenaed documents that Grossman quickly took and shuffled thru. Tho the girl's examination results were not included, what was, was a letter from Kelly, the president of Radium Dial, that was written in 1928, to the Illinois Industrial Commission. 

Basically, what was figured out was that the reason Radium Dial had previously settled and gave the girls 10,000 to split, was because that was all they could do, they'd been rejected by every insurance company they had applied to and denied by every single one. They had no coverage and in October of !930, the IIC had told Radium Dial that they hadn't complied with needing insurance, but they just left that at radio silence, paid the girls what they could, and hoped for the best. Catherine continued on and told them all about how her pain had started and progressed, she told them she could no longer kneel to pray. As she ended her testimony, she reached into her purse, and pulled out a small jewelry box. She slowly opened the box and pulled out to show the court, pieces of her freaking jawbone. 

During questioning of the doctor's, Grossman had to ask if they thought what Catherine had was fatal, there was a long pause, and then the answer yes was said outloud. At that very moment, Catherine slumped down in her chair, tears streaming down her face, she screamed right there, her husband Tom also in tears from hearing. Up until that point, Catherine truly had believed she'd be able to overcome this somehow. But no one had said it out loud to her that she wouldn't, and she'd been so focused on fighting, it all just hit her at once, she realized she wouldn't be here much longer and how she'd have to leave Tom and her kids behind. She collapsed. 

Thankfully a nearby physician caught her and was able to help keep her up, Pearl and Tom rushed to her side to hold her up and make sure she was okay. Photographers captured this exact moment, which we will post a picture of. An immediate recess was called, and Catherine was carried out and laid out on a desk. The only thing she could get out at this point was quote, "Don't leave me, Tom". Of course, he never would, but that shit broke my heart. While they were out tending to Catherine, one of the physicians said she couldn't and wouldn't survive much longer. Court was put on a hold and catherine was brought back home. 

Court started back up at 1:30, Tom had come back, Catherine of course had to stay home. There was a bunch of back and fourth, words twisted per usual, but Grossman suggested actually moving court to Catherine's house for the next day. This was agreed upon and so it happened, the next day, court was held at Catherine's house, while she lay there on her couch too weak to hardly move. (You'll also be able to see a pictures of this that we'll post). 

Grossman handed Catherine a child's paint brush so she could demonstrate to the court how they were taught to lip point. She could hardly open her eyes, but as she'd done so many times before, she shakily used the brush to show the motions she'd done thousands and thousands of times... Grossman continued his questions and asked if there was anything posted to state the dangers of radium and if Catherine knew that the government had condemned the use of the camel hair brushes for painting with radium, she answered no to both, she talked about getting fired for her limp, and she told them that Mr. Reed had even told them it was safe to eat at their worktables with all the radium, quote, " All they told us, was to be careful to not get any grease spots on the watches."..... 

She was noticeably exhausted, so Grossman wanted to give her a break. He called up Charolette Purcell, the opposing side attempted to object, but was overruled because Grossman pointed out that we they had no idea how much longer they had with the girls, some more concerning than others, so it was allowed, but they the girls were NOT allowed to talk directly about their own conditions. So, they could be questioned, and talk about being witnesses, but they aren't allowed to share their own stories, talk about what they've gone thru. I'm glad they were able to testify, I just wish they would have let them just go off. So, Grossman questions Charolette, asking if she'd had her left arm when she was first employed, how long she worked there, etc, when questioned about the confrontation with Mr. Reed she told them quote," Mr. Reed said he didn't think there was any such thing as radium poisoning."

Marie Rossiter testified that quote, "Mr. Reed said radium would put rosy cheeks on us, that it was good for us." 

Pearl Payne, the Glacinski sisters, Helen Munch, Olive Witt, all stood up and testified on behalf of Catherine, all demonstrated how to lip point, as they'd all done SO many times before. Just after 1pm, the hearing was offically closed.

Before even getting results from the trial, the girls became the face of workers' rights, they were making a difference. Pearl Payne could see this and got ahold of Grossman to let her know she wanted to take this further, she wanted to improve the laws, she wanted to get together with all the people effected by radium, and make even more of a difference. Grossman was completley on board and on February 26th, 1938, Marie Rossiter, Pearl Payne, Catherine Donohue, got together with Grossman and formed what they called, The Society Of the Living Dead. (Can talk about more what they want to do for workers laws)

April 5th, the verdict was in. There was hardly any time to get to the courtroom. Then those few moments of silence right before Judge Marvel declared.....That Catherine's disabilities and sickness did in fact come from her work and there'd been gross negligence on Radium Dial Companys part. He awarded her with all her past medical expenses to be paid off, back salary for when she couldn't find employment, damages, and an annual life pension for the rest of her life. This was the maximum possible amount allowed to be given. 

2 weeks after the final verdict, Radium dial fucking filed an appeal. A few months had gone by and the stress of the appeal keeps pilling up. Catherine was more frequently losing pieces of her jaw bone, and she started hemorrhaging from her jaw. Each time it happened, she lost around a pint of blood. (Now think about this, if you've ever donated blood, you would typically give about a pint, which is what she was losing each time. You ever felt woozy after that?? They tell you to eat a full meal before hand, it's hard on your body. And shes losing that on top of her already being incredibly frail and weak) Dr. Loffler had taken blood from her arm for testing and said quote, "arms scarcely thicker than fingers." She now weighed 61 pounds and was just barely heavier than her 5 year old son. 

Catherine could not show up to her hearing, but all the girls did, along with Tom. Magid tried to request a postponment because he knew there was a chance Catherine would die before court even happened if they pushed it a little further, thankfully, that was denied. Mr.Reed had sent in a formal statement claiming that he'd never heard anyone tell Catherine Radium was safe, he'd never told her that, and he'd never told her to put the paint brush in her mouth. But, wait, it gets better, he also went on to say that he wasn't even on the payroll when Catherine was.... He's just so darn innocent in all of this. And remember back to when half the town was attacking the girls for claiming radium was bad and ads were printed in the papers literally saying that radium was safe, and Mr.Reed had singed off on it?? Yeah, whoops on their part. So much for never telling anyone it was safe, huh?? A verdict was going to be decided by July 10th.

There was a really cool thing that happened during this, Catherine had reached out to a church that had a very well known pastor. Very soon after, she started receiving prayers from all over the country, even getting up to 2000 a letters a day of prayers and people supporting her. And for a short time, she was feeling just a little bit better, at least enough to be able to sit up, for now, the prayers were working, because there was no other explanation as to how she was still alive. 

July 6th, 1938, Radium Dial Company's appeal was thrown out!!! And now I'm gonna drag you right back down and tell you that on July 26th, Radium Dial yet again filed an appeal, this time going above IIC and straight to a circuit court. (Talk about how awful dragging this out over and over must be)

Catherine couldn't take it. On July 17th, at 2:52am, Catherine's battle finally ended, with her children and husband by her side, she slipped peacefully away. 

Her daughter Mary Jane, too young to understand, stood next to her coffin, and asked Tom why her mommy wasn't talking. 

A council meeting was held to determine her actual death cause, per the laws of the state, and the jury agreed that she'd died from radium poisioning due to working at Radium Dial Company. Radium Dial was denied their appeal, but ya know they appealed that too, got denied, and kept trying to appeal so much so that the case ended up with the Supreme Court of the United States of America. Grossman had to get a special license just to be allowed in the courtroom. Fucking thankfully this case did not last long and the appeal was yet again, denied. Catherine had won won now, there's no more appealing once youve gone this far. In fact, she'd now won a total of 8 times. October 23rd, 1939, her final battle with the courts were over. She could finally rest in peace.   


Radium contined to be used in clocks until the 1970's. Marie Curies lab notes are STILL kept in a lead box due to radiation levels. The girls's coffins still glow underground to this day and will for at least the next thousand years.

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