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“Slip someone a Mickey” sounds like it should have a neat origin story. The history of the real Mickey Finn is messier.

In 1903, Chicago saloonkeeper Mickey Finn faced accusations that customers were secretly drugged at his Lone Star Saloon. Police seized bottles for testing, city officials revoked the saloon’s liquor licence, and Finn denied the allegations. We follow what contemporary reports establish—and what they leave unanswered—including a separate robbery at the saloon, the distinct 1918 “Mickey Finn powder” scandal, and a later cocktail that shares the name. We keep the documented events, allegations and later lore separate; the sources we found do not document a criminal conviction for Finn in the 1903 drugging case.

In the glass: a later Mickey Finn cocktail with gin, dry vermouth, absinthe and white crème de menthe.

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In August 1905, Jean Lanfray killed his wife, Marie-Louise, and their two young daughters in the Swiss village of Commugny. He had been drinking throughout the day—but two glasses of absinthe became a defining detail in the story that followed.

Over a Necromancer cocktail, George follows the family's story, the murder trial, and the campaign that helped turn absinthe into a national prohibition issue. How did a crime in one household become an argument for banning a drink?

Content note: This episode discusses domestic violence, the murder of children, and suicide.

Hosted by George Logue. Narration uses an AI model of the host's voice.