Killers of the Forest & Karloff's B-Day

Vol. 78: Boris Karloff, Headless Horseman cocktails, and the most deadly mushrooms in the world. Care for a nibble?

Nov 21, 2023

Not So Much A Fungi As A Deadly One

It’s the time of year when we crave warm comfort foods, those meaty umami flavors that feel like Fall and Winter. One of the savory delicacies we turn to are mushrooms. Most of us will pick them up at the store, but some people are experts at finding them in the wild. And then there are people who believe they can identify edible mushrooms and find out too late that they made a mistake. A big, big mistake.

While some varieties grow along tree trunks, most mushrooms like rich, moist soil, and that includes the deadly varieties that look so similar to the edible varieties that you really must be meticulous in your examination. So I present here a little list of deadly darlings. Lick stuff you find in the woods at your own risk.

1. Destroying Angels (Amanita virosa): Often pure white, but occasionally tinged gray or pink, they are part of the deadly Amanita family. Amanitas kill by hindering protein synthesis in the body, leading to cell death. When small, the Destroying Angels look so much like the edible button mushroom that it’s easy to see how they would be snapped up by unwary foragers.

2. Webcaps (Cortinarius): There are two mushrooms under this name, the Deadly Webcap and the Fool’s Webcap. Both are extremely dangerous because they contain the toxic orellanin. Ingesting these mushrooms will lead to a long latency period of days or even weeks, and then intense pain, kidney failure and death. Part of the problem is that latency period, because how many of us would think to tell a doctor about the mushrooms we ate three weeks ago?

In 2008, Nicholas Evans, author of The Horse Whisperer, served wild mushrooms at a dinner party. Several of the guests were hospitalized, while Evans, his wife and her brother all had to undergo kidney transplants, the result of eating the webcap mushrooms.

3. The Death Cap (Amanita Phalloides): This is the most deadly mushroom in the world, as it accounts for 90% of the world’s mushroom-related deaths. It grows along coastal British Columbia and in the coastal Atlantic region. Like the Destroying Angel, a cousin-ish relation, it leads to cell death. Symptoms usually appear around six hours after ingestion, with the first signs being similar to drunkenness and including slurred speech, and then comes the diarrhea. This is followed by a false recovery stage in which the victim believes they are over whatever made them sick. The false recovery can last up to 72 hours, then the organs begin shutting down and the victim dies.

Death Caps look similar to the edible puffball and straw mushrooms, so like most mushroom identifications, you really need an expert to tell the difference. Still, there are the tragic mistakes no one could have seen coming. In 2016, a three year old boy in Victoria, B.C. ate and died from a death cap he found growing on a residential street.

A word about one other:

You may recognize the Fly Agaric mushroom, pictured at the top of this article, from its long history of being included in paintings of frolicking gnomes and fairies. Artists love the colorful fly agaric, even though the creatures climbing on them would likely be tripping balls, and might be dead by nightfall. It’s part of the Amanita family, and though nowhere near as toxic as the death cap, it will still cause hallucinations, and left untreated, death.

Cake Good!

1887-1969

Celebrate Boris Karloff’s birthday on November 23^rd. Born in 1887 as William Pratt, he’s a find example of persistence. His role in Frankenstein came along after 20 years of theater and film work. He married six times, most of them lasting no more than a couple of years. The sixth marriage stuck, lasting the final twenty-three years of his life. Believe in yourself and maybe you’ll be a scary cake too.

The Headless Horseman Cocktail

from 13 Nights of Tiki Frights

1 oz Barbados rum

1 oz traditional dark rum

½ cinnamon syrup

¼ oz Allspice dram

¾ oz fresh lime juice

Combine all ingredients in an ice-filled shaker and shake 5-8 seconds. Pour into a double old-fashioned glass and garnish with fresh mint.

SPOOKY BOOKY

Unmasked: My Life Solving America’s Cold Cases by Paul Holes with Robin Gaby Fisher, Celadon Books, 2022

If you listen to true crime podcasts or watch true crime docs, you know Paul Holes. During his decades in criminal investigation he specialized in solving cold cases and is particularly known for his work on the Golden State Killer case.

While most of this book is about Holes’ career and his involvement in catching serial killers and rapists, he also discusses his personal life and the toll his work took on his relationships.

If you have an interest in true crime, you’ll be fascinated by his methods for processing a crime scene and his ability to spot overlooked evidence.

S.S.: 2. Mostly because any in-depth discussion of Joseph DeAngelo freaks me out.