Villain or Victim?: The case of Typhoid Mary

"Mary Mallon was the first perfectly healthy person ever known to have caused an epidemic."


Okay, I have to start off by asking you a rather personal question...prepare yourself. "Do you wash you hands after going potty?" If so, good on ya. If not, you're following in the footsteps of one of the most notorious, yet debatedly unpremeditated (and unhygienic), murderers of all time!

Now, I'm not your mother...so I'm not going to lecture you on the importance of good hygiene (you should know better). But let me say this...studies have shown that, without vigorous hand washing, microscopic fecal matter can travel on your hands and then spread to whatever you touch. This includes food and water! Hence, the unfortunate deaths following in the wake of "Typhoid Mary."

About "Typhoid Mary":

Born: 23 September 1869
Died: 11 November 1938
Number of people she infected: 53
Number of resulting deaths: 3

Historians are not certain exactly how Mary became a "healthy" carrier of typhoid fever. There are two possible explanations: the first is for her to have caught the illness, survived it, and then instead of the bacteria dying... it found a way to survive inside her body without causing further symptoms. Mary reportedly denies ever falling ill with typhoid, but it is possible that she could have misidentified a mild case of it as the flu. The second scenario could be that her mother passed the bacteria on to her while still in the womb. It has been verified that Mary's mother was infected with the disease at the time of her birth.

Villain or victim?:

As an immigrant of Irish decent, Mary had few career choices. Prejudice made a life of domestic servitude a near certainty, and a decent days wages equalled no more than a few copper coins (pennies) in those days. On the higher paying end of available employment was that of cook. Mary discovered she had a talent for cooking, so naturally cooking became her occupation of choice.

Her first job as cook was at a home in Mamaroneck, New York in 1900. Mary left after only two weeks of service, but not before the house's residents caught the fever. Mary continued to move from household to household leaving a muriad of sick people behind her...the entire time believing she had nothing to do with the illnesses. It wasn't until epidemic researcher George Soper's involvement did Mary's condition become known.

Desperate for answers one of Mary's former employer's hired Soper to discover the source of his family's illnesses.  It didn't take long for Soper to name Mary as the prime suspect. After further investigation, he also found that a trail of illnesses followed Mary wherever she went, thus strengthening his theory. But the only way to be absolutely sure she was a carrier of typhoid was to obtain a fecal sample (because the illness is transmitted by ingesting bacteria contaminated by fecal matter). He did not look forward to what he knew he had to do next.

When confronted,  a rather upset and probably offended Mary refused to oblige his request; infact Soper narrowly escaped a vicious stabbing by kitchen fork. Soon after, Soper returned with backup, but again Mary proved to be more than their match. After one too many rather nasty visitations and feeling he had no other choice, Soper relinquished the case to city health officials who then continued the persuit.

The next meeting with Mary was no less dramatic. This time a group headed by health official Dr. Josephine Baker braved the lioness's den. Yet again, Mary was defiant. She led them on a wild goose chase and when finally re-discovered in a broom closet, she came out fighting like a tazmanian devil. Knowing that the evidence was too great to take a chance in leaving Mary continued access to the public, Dr. Baker felt she had no alternative but to take Mary to a local hospital by force (actually sitting on Mary in the car).

Samples were then obtained and the long awaited results came back just as Soper had predicted...positive for typhoid bacilli. Without a trial and against her wishes, Mary was immediately transferred to a quarantine facility on North Brother Island off the coast of New York.

Like most uneducated people at the time, Mary could not comprehend how she, a perfectly healthy individual, could spread disease. (Although the microscope had theoretically existed for some time, the science of microbiology was new and it's concept reserved for the wealthy.) It is not clear just how much information was offerred to her...but on the same note there was no precedent for her condition.

Since Mary was the first healthy carrier of typhoid ever to be discovered, offering her an explanation would have been difficult. Either way the division between upper and lower class (health officials vs. Irish immigrant) may have prevented her the courtesy...and it was surely a factor in the way she was treated. (Generally the upper class felt no obligation in using tact when dealing with lower class individuals such as Mary.)

Mary beleived she was being unjustly punished for a crime she did not commit. She vehemently denied every accusation aimed at her and, in an effort to gain evidence in her favor, she sent her own samples to a private lab. Although the hospital on Brother Island's results came back mostly positive for typhoid over the course of a year, Mary's private lab results were routinely negative. Feeling healthy and armed with this new ammunition, Mary now appealed to a court of law. Mary sued the NY health department, but the judge ruled against her.

In 1910, however, a new health commissioner came to office and made a deal with Mary. He set her free on the condition that she never cook for others again and that she take adequate precautions to avoid speading the illness further. Mary jumped at this new chance for freedom.

Finding a job that paid as well as "cook" proved difficult. She found work as a launderess, among other things, and had manage to keep her promise...for a time.  But after a new epidemic broken out, the source was traced back to Mary yet again. She returned to cooking, but used the alias Mary Brown. News of her latest offense spread like wildfire and public sympathy all but dissappeared.

Mary had previously been made aware of her carrier status, and although she still didn't beleive it, she risked the lives of to many people. Inevitably, she was forced to return to isolation back back on North Brother Island...this time for good.

As time went on Mary volunteered around the island's hospital and eventually also helped out in the lab. She sufferred a stroke in 1932 which sadly left her paralized until her eventual death in 1938; she died of pneumonia.

Controversy:

Many people feel it was wrong for state and/or government officials to lock away a perfectly healthy person in isolation for a crime in which they have no control. But public opinion changed when Mary was caught the second time using the alias Molly Brown. Now speculation was that she caused the illnesses deliberately (perhaps her way of getting back at the upper class for her mistreatment).

There is no question that Mary's case was extreme. It's moral dilemma's lead to the revamping of our nation's public health policies, and caused state and government officials to rethink laws concerning personal vs. societal rights.

She was never charged with a crime.

Note: There were several other people found to have been "healthy" carriers of the fever soon after Mary...some causing even more deaths. Yet they were not handled with such severity. Mary's case stands out because it was the first of its kind, because of the way she fought authorities.