John G. Fuller (1913–1990)
Author of The Ghost of Flight 401
About the Author
Works by John G. Fuller
Associated Works
Tagged
Common Knowledge
- Legal name
- Fuller, John Grant
- Birthdate
- 1913-11-30
- Date of death
- 1990-11-07
- Gender
- male
- Education
- Lafayette College
- Occupations
- playwright
producer
author - Relationships
- Fuller, Elizabeth (wife)
- Nationality
- USA
- Birthplace
- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
- Places of residence
- Weston, Connecticut, USA
- Place of death
- Norwalk, Connecticut, USA
- Associated Place (for map)
- Connecticut, USA
Members
Reviews
Don't let the 1968 publication date deter you. It reads like "Radium Girls" as the entire village of Pont-Saint-Esprit succumbs to horrific chaos one night in August, 1951.
One morning the town baker, M. Monier, was having difficulty with the flour shipped to him by the Union Meunière. It was grayish in color, somewhat sticky with an oily texture. By contract, only the Union could investigate which could take weeks but the baker wasn't allowed to close either. Having no choice, he blends the show more gray flour with the rest, which appeared fine after baking. The result is mass ergot poisoning and honestly it reminded me of the opening scenes of "The Crazies." Abdominal pain, shivering, euphoria, dilated pupils, an "odor of mice" and increased saliva until finally tetanuslike convulsions, a compulsion for suicide, gangrene, nightmarish hallucinations and cardiac arrest. Ergotism also causes extreme insomnia. There were blood curdling screams and manic laughter. Victims wandered the streets, attacked loved ones or stared into nothing. One man, M. Puche, jumped out of a hospital window then ran 50m on broken legs.
Theories ranged from arsenic to mercury poisoning because who could believe "medieval" ergotism? It turns out a Union miller made an illegal exchange, contaminating the flour batch with ergot that contained a deadly and concentrated dose of LSD-25. The village forms an association for justice. Relapses occur for the rest of their lives, many facing serious debt after 50 days of recovery. M. Delacquis, the leader, lost sight in one eye, another M. Carle is unable to walk with stability. Five people died during the initial infection but many more from side effects. In the end it took 10 years for Union Meunière pay up for civil damages after shifting blame and delay.
I really couldn't put this one down because I felt for all these innocent people involved and the doctors trying their best to solve this medical mystery! show less
One morning the town baker, M. Monier, was having difficulty with the flour shipped to him by the Union Meunière. It was grayish in color, somewhat sticky with an oily texture. By contract, only the Union could investigate which could take weeks but the baker wasn't allowed to close either. Having no choice, he blends the show more gray flour with the rest, which appeared fine after baking. The result is mass ergot poisoning and honestly it reminded me of the opening scenes of "The Crazies." Abdominal pain, shivering, euphoria, dilated pupils, an "odor of mice" and increased saliva until finally tetanuslike convulsions, a compulsion for suicide, gangrene, nightmarish hallucinations and cardiac arrest. Ergotism also causes extreme insomnia. There were blood curdling screams and manic laughter. Victims wandered the streets, attacked loved ones or stared into nothing. One man, M. Puche, jumped out of a hospital window then ran 50m on broken legs.
Theories ranged from arsenic to mercury poisoning because who could believe "medieval" ergotism? It turns out a Union miller made an illegal exchange, contaminating the flour batch with ergot that contained a deadly and concentrated dose of LSD-25. The village forms an association for justice. Relapses occur for the rest of their lives, many facing serious debt after 50 days of recovery. M. Delacquis, the leader, lost sight in one eye, another M. Carle is unable to walk with stability. Five people died during the initial infection but many more from side effects. In the end it took 10 years for Union Meunière pay up for civil damages after shifting blame and delay.
I really couldn't put this one down because I felt for all these innocent people involved and the doctors trying their best to solve this medical mystery! show less
Heartbreaking and Truly Terrifying.
I was sitting around the supper table with my family discussing theories about the Salem Witch Trials. The ergot theory was put forward, and I dismissed it, largely because of the scale: hundreds of people accused, tortured, and tried over more than a year, but also because the initial accusers would roll around on the floor in seeming fits but immediately recover, and none of them suffered anything like an actual injury during those supposed fits. Then show more the Spouse mentions that "French town, you know, in that book..."
I did not know. I had never previously heard of the book nor the incident it describes in well-researched, well-documented, and well-communicated detail. In August of 1951 some three hundred people in and around Pont-Saint-Esprit in Provence, France were poisoned. It was a horrible accident that killed five people, hospitalized more than a hundred, and caused many to suffer lasting debilitation.
As a medical mystery, it is enthralling. All the local GPs as well as a large number of treating physicians from the nearest largest cities agreed they were seeing an event out of history: a mass poisoning due to ergot. They had to look in history books to get treatment ideas.
Then there's the legal mystery: who or what will be blamed and have to pay? The investigators had quickly found the suspect flour, but then there were years of examining the evidence. The police couldn't accept the ergot theory because the volatile alkaloids disappeared too quickly and too completely. There was literally no evidence. The legal wrangling that followed lasted a decade.
It's a fascinating book for those interested in medical or historical mysteries. Fuller is thorough in his recounting, but never boring. Since I didn't have Truly Terrifying, I took advantage of that black dust jacket for Paint it Black.
Library copy show less
I was sitting around the supper table with my family discussing theories about the Salem Witch Trials. The ergot theory was put forward, and I dismissed it, largely because of the scale: hundreds of people accused, tortured, and tried over more than a year, but also because the initial accusers would roll around on the floor in seeming fits but immediately recover, and none of them suffered anything like an actual injury during those supposed fits. Then show more the Spouse mentions that "French town, you know, in that book..."
I did not know. I had never previously heard of the book nor the incident it describes in well-researched, well-documented, and well-communicated detail. In August of 1951 some three hundred people in and around Pont-Saint-Esprit in Provence, France were poisoned. It was a horrible accident that killed five people, hospitalized more than a hundred, and caused many to suffer lasting debilitation.
As a medical mystery, it is enthralling. All the local GPs as well as a large number of treating physicians from the nearest largest cities agreed they were seeing an event out of history: a mass poisoning due to ergot. They had to look in history books to get treatment ideas.
Then there's the legal mystery: who or what will be blamed and have to pay? The investigators had quickly found the suspect flour, but then there were years of examining the evidence. The police couldn't accept the ergot theory because the volatile alkaloids disappeared too quickly and too completely. There was literally no evidence. The legal wrangling that followed lasted a decade.
It's a fascinating book for those interested in medical or historical mysteries. Fuller is thorough in his recounting, but never boring. Since I didn't have Truly Terrifying, I took advantage of that black dust jacket for Paint it Black.
Library copy show less
Betty and Barney Hill confront something quite otherworldly on their way home to New Hampshire from a short trip to Canada and Niagara Falls. An unusual light seems to track their travel, sometimes getting close enough to evidence to them that it's not just a plane or helicopter. Eventually, Barney gets out of the car and approaches the light to see what appears to be a UFO, piloted by non-human beings. Then, they lose a couple of hours in their trip to find themselves pulling into their show more hometown. They don't tell anyone, at first, but suffer through their own existential challenges over what they experienced. Eventually, they see a psychotherapist who uses hypnosis to get at the events they can't recall.
Whether you're a believer or not, this is a riveting read, complete with transcriptions of their hypnotic sessions. Their stories are remarkably similar, though appropriately different based on their individual experiences and perspectives during the events.
5 bones!!!!!
Recommended!!!!! show less
Whether you're a believer or not, this is a riveting read, complete with transcriptions of their hypnotic sessions. Their stories are remarkably similar, though appropriately different based on their individual experiences and perspectives during the events.
5 bones!!!!!
Recommended!!!!! show less
The Gentlemen Conspirators: The Story of the Price-Fixers in the Electrical Industry by John G. Fuller
This is it seems an obscure work on the same period of decades of price-fixing covered in The great price conspiracy;: The story of the antitrust violations in the electrical industry by John Herling...
These words were spoken by Ralph J. Cordiner, Chairman of the Board of the General Electric Company during a May, 1959, appearance before the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly. They represent the image projected by General Electric at the time of the first
public rumblings of "The Great Price Conspiracy," the revelation and prosecution of which is covered in detail in this book. This is back when Kefauver had become known to the public at large as the chief enemy of crooked businessmen in the Senate. Heck, seven of these industry execs were fined and jailed! I think that's more than happened due to Enron, and none were jailed as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis, right? Still, what is makes me think of is the Terence McKenna quote:
This is echoed here:
Actually, what whistleblowers and honest man that did appear in this story suffered as much or more than any of the "Unlucky Seven". And many apparently guilty stayed in power after a deep investigation that included a lot of lie detector tests.
GE led an industry-wide price-fixing racket for over half a century.
These authors call for, among other things:
Too big to fail? show less
show more
[N] o matter what General Electric's past [has] been in regard
to the observance of the antitrust laws, "our record for the past
decade and more indicates that the managers of the General
Electric Company are making earnest and successful efforts to
comply not only with the letter, but also with
the spirit of the
antitrust laws.
As long ago as 1946 . . . the company embarked upon
an educational program, a program which has been continued to
date with undiminished vigor, designed to sharpen the sensitivity and awareness of all our people to the role and importance
of the antitrust laws."
These words were spoken by Ralph J. Cordiner, Chairman of the Board of the General Electric Company during a May, 1959, appearance before the Senate Subcommittee on Antitrust and Monopoly. They represent the image projected by General Electric at the time of the first
public rumblings of "The Great Price Conspiracy," the revelation and prosecution of which is covered in detail in this book. This is back when Kefauver had become known to the public at large as the chief enemy of crooked businessmen in the Senate. Heck, seven of these industry execs were fined and jailed! I think that's more than happened due to Enron, and none were jailed as a result of the subprime mortgage crisis, right? Still, what is makes me think of is the Terence McKenna quote:
Now technology throws a curve. And the curve is that we live so long, that we figure out what a scam this is. We figure out what what were supposed to work for isn't worth having, we figure out that our politicians are buffoons, we figure out that professional scientist are reputation building grab tailing weasels. We discover that all organizations are corrupted by ambition.
This is echoed here:
...the boys in the training school at GE were taught that "you can always get anybody to do what you wish," and furnished them with the principle, "never say anything controversial." ... you were supposed to spend a lot of time thinking of what other people thought of you, rather than expressing your won convictions. You accepted what you were told, and you learned to worship the "one-over-one" hierarchy system, where contacting anyone beyond your immediate boss was gross heresy."
...
The intellectual comedy arises from the drive which causes the organization man to try top impress others, to conform to the pattern, top achieve status symbols, to be anything but his own spontaneous self.
Actually, what whistleblowers and honest man that did appear in this story suffered as much or more than any of the "Unlucky Seven". And many apparently guilty stayed in power after a deep investigation that included a lot of lie detector tests.
Dr. Gardner C. Means ... asks the question, "Just what is private about an enterprise that organizes a quarter of a million workers into a great productive unit using the capital of more than a quarter of a million stockholders and serving millions of ultimate customers? Is it any more private than, say, the government of New York State?"
GE led an industry-wide price-fixing racket for over half a century.
These authors call for, among other things:
The stiffening of the penalties for the violation of present antitrust laws.
The requiring of public justification for price increases on the part of the concentrated industries.
The equitable divestiture of corporations which have become so powerful that they threaten to eliminate free competition.
Too big to fail? show less
Lists
Awards
You May Also Like
Associated Authors
Statistics
- Works
- 35
- Also by
- 3
- Members
- 1,123
- Popularity
- #22,887
- Rating
- 3.6
- Reviews
- 15
- ISBNs
- 64
- Languages
- 4
- Favorited
- 1