May 3, 2002

'A Poisoned Chalice'

By NINA C. AYOUB

In 18th-century Zürich, Hartmann Wirz was a man in perpetual mourning. Three wives died during or shortly after childbirth. Of 21 children, only 7 survived to adulthood. A son was hanged for military desertion, and a brother was beheaded for theft and bigamy.

Death shadowed "gravedigger Wirz," writes Jeffrey Freedman, a historian at Yeshiva University. It was even his profession. So when Wirz was accused of poisoning the communion wine at Zürich's main cathedral, some in the