Friday, December 29, 2006

Medici death mystery solved. . . .again Tuscan church reveals answer to mystery of Medici deaths
Picking through centuries-old rubbish, masonry and discarded body parts beneath an abandoned Tuscan church, an Italian historian believes she has solved one of history's great crime mysteries.

For more than four centuries, researchers have puzzled over the fact that Francesco I Medici, the son of the first Grand Duke, Cosimo, died within hours of his wife in October 1587. Legend had it they were poisoned by his brother and successor, a cardinal.

. . .

Her search yielded part of a human liver "the size of a hazelnut" and two other body parts that have defied identification. Tests showed the liver was that of a man and its DNA matched that taken from remains in Francesco's tomb. The other body parts belonged to a woman and, like the fragment of liver, they revealed high concentrations of arsenic.


Actually interesting.