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The Man Who Wouldn’t Die – The Bizarre Depression Era Crime That Shaped How Our Insurance Works

Khalid Elhassan June 2, 2025 17 min

A young Michael Malloy, left, and his killers. I09

18. Booze, Antifreeze, Turpentine, Horse Liniment, Wood Alcohol and Spoiled Sardines Couldn’t Kill Malloy

Tony Marino’s mugshot. NY Police Department

Day in and day out, Malloy drank all his waking hours, and showed no ill effects. To speed him along, the plotters added antifreeze to his booze, but the old Irishman simply drank until he passed out, then asked for more when he regained consciousness. The coconspirators replaced antifreeze with turpentine. Nothing.

They switched from turpentine to horse liniment – basically, liquid Bengay. Malloy poured it down the hatch and asked for more. They added rat poison to the mix. Malloy’s body did not seem to notice. Oysters soaked in wood alcohol did not do the trick. Nor did a spoiled sardine sandwich sprinkled with metal shavings. With each passing day, the conspirators grew more and more desperate.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.