Katie Kirk, Writer 

Sloan Grant(s) Received: 2024, Carnegie Mellon University School of Drama: Screenwriting Grant

Project Type: Feature 

Genre: Drama, Mystery

Length: 118 pages 

Field of Science: Chemistry

Stage: Development 

Synopsis: 

Times are tough in New York City: it’s 1935 and the Great Depression’s been going on a couple years. Not only that, but the whole city’s shaken by the sudden deaths of the Gross family. Four children plus their mother abruptly fell ill and died after losing nearly all their hair, leaving alive only the father (Frederick Gross), one of the children, and Frederick’s mother-in-law. Enter Dr. Alexander Gettler, NYC’s chief forensic toxicologist—a workaholic immigrant with a dedication to the scientific method and a passion for justice.
Using both a spectroscope and flame test, Gettler determines that there are traces of thallium in the cadavers. While running additional tests on the bodies’ stomach linings, Gettler has to cope with the incapacitation of his work partner (Charles Norris), a no-good scientific rival (Edward Gaul) who refuses to re-run his own spectroscope tests, and the never-ending demands of the NYC press. Law enforcement, running on Edward Gaul’s hastily collected incorrect “evidence,” arrests Frederick Gross for the murder of his whole family—supposedly using thallium-poisoned cocoa. But Gettler hasn’t finished running his own tests yet.
After using a spectrograph this time (historically, the first time a spectrograph was used to provide evidence in a criminal investigation), Gettler determines that the cocoa’s not, in fact, poisoned. The metal tin the cocoa was stored in had been leaking into the cocoa powder, throwing off Gettler and Gaul’s flame tests. Gettler also determines that though thallium’s present in the bodies of all the children, it’s not present in the body of Frederick Gross’s wife Katharine, meaning that not only did Katharine die of illness but also most likely murdered her own children. Detectives find additional evidence to back this up, plus rat poison (which contains thallium) in her belongings.
Thanks to the scientific evidence, Frederick Gross reunites with his remaining son, exonerated. A successful Dr. Gettler begins teaching classes at CCNY. Gettler will later go on to be referred to as “the father of forensic toxicology in America”.