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She was a type: the story of the first super-distributor

Her name was Mary Malone but everyone knows her as 'Mary Mary'. She did not always know that her cooking was killing, but even as a neighbor - it did not bother her. She had a short stool and horrible hygiene habits and she was an asymptomatic and super-spreading carrier, long before they knew what it was at all.

• typhus
• typhoid
• medical history

Strider Schleider Putschnik

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Short thread and long gluing record. Poster calling on the public to beware of 'climbing Mary' from Oak (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

She became known as "Typhoid Mary" but was called Mary Malone. She was born in Ireland on 22 September 1869 and died in New York on 11 November 1938. Somewhere in the middle she killed at least 3 people and infected at least 51 people with typhus (these are just the certain cases, probably many more). She did not do it on purpose, but neither did she do too much to prevent it, when she already could.

She was the first famous super spreader (long before this term was coined at all), and also an asymptomatic carrier (another common concept in corona haunted modernity that did not even exist in New York in the early 20th century). She had a short fuse and a long sticking record - that's her story.

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To the full article

In 1883, the girl Mary Mallon from Tiron County, Ireland, boarded a ship on her way to a new life in New York. She lived in her uncle’s house and cracked a blatantly un glamorous career as a cook in the homes of wealthy Manhattan. For several years she skipped between jobs. Acquaintances described her as having a "violent temper" and the reports about her paint a cluster of a rigid, warm-hearted and stubborn woman, with a nomadic character and a strong aversion to personal hygiene habits.

A rigid, warm-hearted and stubborn woman, with a strong aversion to hygiene habits. Mary Malone at New York Hospital (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

"Mary seemed to move from place to place. She did not stay long in any situation," George Sofer wrote (about him, below) in his book The Curious Career of Typhoid Mary. And it was one of those "situations" that made Mary Malone the cook a well-known figure throughout the United States.

In the summer of 1906 Mary worked as a cook at the home of New York banker Charles Henry Warren. The Warren family's rented cottage hosted another 11 guests An evening cooked by Malone.At the end of August 6 of these guests were sick with typhus and no one knew how they got infected.

Some background

Typhoid is a disease caused by the Typhi serotype of the salmonella bacterium. At that time (and in some places - to this day) typhus was fatal for quite a few people. Symptoms of the disease include weakness, abdominal pain, headaches, intestinal problems (diarrhea or constipation), cough, loss of appetite, and in some cases even the appearance of a reddish, flat rash on the skin. Without antibiotic treatment, typhus killed 1 in 4 people who contracted it.

Without antibiotic treatment, one in 4 typhoid patients will die from the disease. Salmonella Typhi (Illustration: ShutterStock)

In New York of those days, an advanced metropolis had already recognized bacterial theory as a ground-based factor driving disease spread, and had begun implementing urban sanitation measures to prevent disease from spreading in the city. Typhoid was considered a "disease of the poor," common in slums where sanitation was poor and morbidity high. Or in other words: not something to be feared in the home of a wealthy and privileged man like Charles Henry Warren.

Back to Mary's story

In the winter of 1906 Warren hires the services of a sanitation engineer named George Super (remember him, from earlier?) To understand once and for all what happened to the house in Oyster Bay and provide conclusive proof that the house is now clean of type. Sofer's original suspicion focused on spoiled oysters that may have been served to guests, but he found no evidence of this at home. At this point he began to investigate in the direction of a human carrier that might have infected those present. He scanned the pool of possible suspects until he had one option left - cook Mary Malone, who left her job shortly after the incident.

Sofer went on to investigate and concluded that the infection occurred at one specific dinner - or rather, at dessert. It was a popular dessert in those days, consisting of ice cream and pieces of fresh peaches. Unlike other dishes served at the same meal, this dish did not undergo cooking or heating (heat destroys the salmonella bacterium) - making it a perfect candidate for spreading the bacterium to all guests, especially if the cook who prepared it has loose hygiene habits, to say the least.

Traced Mary Malone. Sanitation engineer George Sofer (second from left) and his family, at his home in New York (Photo: reddit)

Now that he had the name of the person in charge of the infection, Sofer started trying to locate it - a task that turned out to be more challenging than he initially thought. He spoke with many of her former employers in an attempt to trace her, and discovered a trail of cases of typhoid infection she had left behind in almost every home where she worked (and she worked a lot). He found her in March 1907. She worked as a cook for another wealthy family, this time on Park Avenue, on the Upper East Side. The laundress of the exact same family was hospitalized at the Presbyterian Hospital in the city after she contracted typhus, and the homeowner's little daughter died of the exact same disease.

When a writer turned to Malone and updated her on his theory - that is, that he believes she was spreading the disease without her knowledge - her short fuse ignited. She grabbed a sharp kitchen utensil (a meat fork, according to Sober's own testimony) and began to approach it menacingly. A writer did what any reasonable sanitation engineer would do in his condition - he grabbed his legs and ran away. But he came back, and tried to explain to her again. To no avail. He eventually enlisted the help of the municipal health department and police, and Malone was taken into custody.

But even when she was imprisoned and after a writer's explanation was confirmed by a sample of Malone's feces sent for testing and a positive return to climbing - she stood by her stubborn refusal to cooperate with the authorities. On March 20, she tried to escape arrest, and failed. And even when a writer promised to release her if only she would agree to cooperate, she refused to answer his questions. "She pulled her robe over her head, keeping eye contact with me all the time, opened her bathroom door and disappeared inside the cell. The door slammed shut. There was no point in waiting. It was clear 'Mary Climbing' was not going to talk to me, so I left the place, "wrote a writer in his book.

The remains of the hospital on North Brader Island in New York, where Mary Malone spent 23 years in quarantine (Photo: Wikimedia Commons)

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Mary Malone was in hospital on North Brader Island in solitary confinement for 3 years, while the medical staff there tried to treat her and cure her. They did not succeed. Although Malone herself was as healthy as an ox she continued to be a carrier of the salmonella bacterium. In 1910 she was released on two restrictive conditions: to report to the municipal health department once every three months and to interrupt her cooking career. Malone violated them.

Although she knew this was banned and could even lead to her re-arrest, Malone, who changed her name several times (she used the names Mary Bershoff, Mary Brown and more), went to work as a cook in a variety of institutions and businesses: hotels, inns, restaurants and even hospitals. The placement agencies that matched the housewives and the wealthy of New York already knew her face well and knew not to employ her - so this channel was closed in her face. Despite the fictitious names and attempts to hide her true identity, Malone was caught again.

Even when she was allowed to visit the city, she always came back here. The cabin where Mary Malone lived on North Brader Island (Photo: Lisa's history room)

In 1915 she was found working in the kitchen of Sloan Maternity Hospital in Manhattan, after an outbreak of typhus there. 23 staff members fell ill, two of whom died. She introduced herself there as Mary Brown, but after her arrest it was her former colleagues at this hospital who gave her Unlike the previous time, Malone did not try to resist her arrest. In his biography, Sofer described the woman he saw at the time as a much more submissive and moderate version of the Malone who tried to stab him with a meat fork in 1907:

"Mary was on the island for the second time. For 23 years. In all that long time she did not try to escape even once. Did she want to win her election again after her second arrest? I think not. She was as strong as ever, but she lost some of the extraordinary energy and activism that characterized her youth and made her fearlessly attack every situation the world rolled into ... For the past five years, though she has been free, she has struggled to conduct her struggles without assistance. "New York City has allocated her a comfortable place to live in the hospital complex on North Brader Island - where she could cook, read and sleep as she pleased."

End of 'Climbing Mary'

Malon withered slowly for the rest of her life, working in the hospital's lab - where she learned to perform simple and routine tests. From time to time she was given permission to leave the island for visits to the city, which she used to visit some of the places she loved in the past and to visit relatives in Queens (who reportedly were not particularly happy to see her). She always voluntarily returned to her little cabin on North Brader Island.

Malone's life came to an end on November 11, 1938. A biopsy performed on her determined that the cause of death was pneumonia. Her body was quickly taken and buried in the St. Raymond Cemetery in the Bronx, on a plot of land purchased in advance for this very purpose. Her funeral was a gloomy and modest event and was attended by only 9 people. "Of all the townspeople and their employers, who had known Mary for many years, not one accompanied her to the grave," Sober wrote.

Mary 'type' Malone (right) in a lab coat alongside bacteriologist Emma Sherman, at North Brader Island Hospital in New York, 1931 or 1932 (Photo: Official Website, Lisa's history room)

51 infections and 3 deaths - this is the official count of the infections signed by Mary Malone. There were probably more. Throughout history, there have been more deadly and prolific "super-distributors" than her, but it was she who became synonymous with a person who spreads diseases (knowingly or unknowingly). She even inspired the character of a villain in Marvel's Daredevil comic book series.

Today we already know how to explain how Malone could have stayed healthy while carrying a deadly bacterium like salmonella in her body for so many years. Researchers at Stanford University have shown how the S. typhi bacterium can live inside macrophage white blood cells and affect the metabolism of these cells to their advantage. Up to 6 percent of those infected with this bacterium may become chronic and asymptomatic carriers, just like Mary Malone.

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