Episode 72: Mary Mallon AKA Typhoid Mary

Histories And Mysteries

The year is 1907 when the household maid of a wealthy family living on well-to-do Park Avenue in Manhattan suddenly grows ill. Soon after, the family's only daughter likewise grows sick and dies. The cause? Typhoid, a disease associated with poverty and poor sanitation. Upon investigation, signs pointed to the recently hired head cook -- Mary Mallon, a perfectly healthy woman who had never before had the disease. Her story would become the go-to case study for asymptomatic disease transmission and would earn her both decades in medical isolation and the cruel nickname "Typhoid Mary".