forensic files

the scientific tribune

anne tam
5th hour

monday
august 28, 1965
Longboat Key, Florida

Untraceable Murder

On the morning of August 18, 1965, in Longboat Key, Florida, Dr. Juliette Karow was awoken from her sleep by a phone call from one of her patients, Carl Coppolino. He frantically explained that he had just found his wife, Carmela, dead from a heart attack. Though Karow had a couple suspicions about the death, she still signed the death certificate. However, only forty-one days after his wife died, Coppolino married the wealthy Mary Gibson. This did not make Marjorie Farber happy. Mrs. Farber was known for having an affair with Coppolino. The night the affair blew out, Marjorie found her husband William Farber unconscious in bed. Scared, Marjorie called Coppolino to come over, but since Coppolino was not allowed to practice because of his supposed heart condition, he sent his wife, Carmela. Carmela found William Farber dead in his bedroom. She said he was “blue down one side,” but that there were no signs of distress to the body. But because Coppolino urged her to sign the death certificate, she did, stating “coronary thrombosis” as the reason of death. However, in Dr. Karow’s surgery, Marjorie insisted that everything was a lie. She said that Coppolino gave her a syringe full of some unknown liquid and told her to inject Farber while he was asleep. Though she lost her nerve after a minute injection, she still injected him. The autopsies were carried out by Dr. Milton Helpern. He examined the remains of William Farber and found no sign of heart disease, but there was clear evidence of strangulation. When he examined Carmela, once again he found that her heart was in fine shape. Unfortunately, he could not find the cause of death. After pondering the mystery, he concluded the likeliest agent was an artificial form of curare called succinylcholine chloride. The succinylcholine chloride causes muscle paralysis but does not induce unconsciousness, meaning that Carmela was well aware that her lungs were refusing to function. It was later ruled that Coppolino was not guilty for the death of Farber because both Drs. Joseph Spelman and Richard Ford, said that the evidence of strangulation could have been caused after death, and that Farber’s heart showed clear signs of advanced coronary disease, that was enough evidence to kill him. Though his second trial for the murder of his wife, Marjorie, Helpern and Umberger described their unique experiments that led to the discovery of poison in Carmela’s body. Coppolino was then convicted of second degree murder and would serve twelve years of his life sentence, but he gained parole in 1979.