Episode 10: Ruth Cooperman and the Love Drug

On March 9, 1947, Inspector Vance of the Vancouver Police Department was called to an apartment in Kitsilano, Vancouver to check out the suspicious death of Ruth Cooperman. The 17-year-old was found naked and lying dead across her husband’s unconscious body.

Jack Cooperman, Ruth’s 27-year-old husband, had been rushed to Vancouver General Hospital, and police were told that his condition was critical. If he did survive, it would be several days before they would be able to interview him.

Murder or suicide?

At first it looked like a case of severe poisoning. Ruth had baked a cake to celebrate their eight months of marriage, and Vance collected the food, the vomit stained pillow and bedsheet, a bottle of Imperial single malt, a box of Luxury chocolates, and several other items to test back at the lab. When Vance saw that all six chocolates had their bases pushed in, he suspected drugs might be involved.

Poisoned:

Vance began to test for and then eliminate dozens of different drugs and poisons until he could determine cause of death. He discovered that Ruth’s stomach contents and the vomit on the pillow contained Cantharides.

She died from an overdose of the drug known on the street as “Spanish Fly.”

Logo Image: Ruth Cooperman’s wedding photo, Vancouver Sun

 Credits:

• Intro and outro music: Duke Ellington’s St. Louie Toodle
• Tom Carter
• Intro: Mark Dunn
• Words of Jack Cooperman voiced by Matthew Dunn
• Background track created by Nico Vettese
• Outro: Audionetwork.com

Sources:

• Blood, Sweat, and Fear: The Story of Inspector Vance, Vancouver’s First Forensic Investigator, by Eve Lazarus (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2017)
• Vital Statistics
• Coroner’s Inquest for Ruth Cooperman, courtesy BC Archives
• The personal files of Inspector John F.C.B. Vance
• Vancouver Police Museum and Archives
• Newspapers: Vancouver Sun, Province, Vancouver News Herald, Daily Colonist, Globe & Mail