Humans have always committed crimes. What can we learn from the criminals and crimes of the past, and have humans gotten better or worse over time?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

On Criminalia, hosts Holly Frey and Maria Trimarchi explroe the intersection of history and true crime. This season is all about lady poisoners. During the time that Chicago’s most visible criminal element was organized crime, Tillie Klimek was quietly becoming the city’s most prolific female serial killer. She allegedly killed between six and 20 people, all through arsenic poisoning.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Julia Agrippina was a power-hungry Roman empress – power-hungry even by Roman standards – who is said to have poisoned her husband (who also happened to be her uncle) to ensure her only son's succession to the throne.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Marie was convicted of murdering her husband by poisoning him with arsenic. But what's most notable about that in doing so, she became the first person ever to be convicted based on direct forensic toxicological evidence, like on Dexter or CSI.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Giulia Tofana was an Italian apothecary known for her beauty, her secrecy and her poisonous proclivities. If the numbers are all to be believed, she may be the most successful serial killer you’ve never heard of.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Sally Basset was an enslaved woman who was executed in 1730 for allegedly attempting to poison her granddaughter’s enslavers. She is known throughout Bermudian folklore, where she is, to many, a hero.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The most interesting thing about Marie Besnard might not be that she was accused of poisoning about a dozen people. It's that she got away with it -- and got wealthier with each murder.

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

French Queen Catherine de Medici may or may not have introduced the artichoke to France. And yes, she may be at least partly responsible for starting the French Wars of Religion. But were the accusations Catherine was a homicidal poisoner true?

See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.