The Radio Stunt That Ended in a Death Sentence

In the fall of 1964, Esther Castellani got some bad news: her husband of nearly two decades, Rene, was cheating on her. He denied it, but the proof was right there in Rene’s wallet, which Esther had discovered. The smoking gun was a love note from someone named Lolli, which happened to be the name of the much-younger receptionist who worked at CKNW, the radio station in Vancouver, British Columbia, at which Rene also coincidentally worked. Rene played off the note as “simply a thank you from a casual friend” and accused Esther of overreacting, according to the New York Daily News.

The entire ordeal made Esther sick to her stomach — literally. She started suffering from severe abdominal pains, and later, other symptoms emerged. Her doctor was baffled and prescribed pain killers and told her to pay attention to her diet, as maybe something she was eating was disagreeing with her. But nothing seemed to help. In June 1965, she was admitted to the hospital, with the cause of her symptoms still a mystery. But one thing did change for the better — her husband paid more attention to her. Esther, it seemed, could only stomach one food item: a vanilla milkshake from a local place called White Spot. As the Vancouver Police Museum noted, Rene, dutifully, brought her one every day that he could.

The doctors weren’t fans of the milkshakes — they were trying to figure out what was causing Esther’s stomach pains, and outside food was introducing a new set of variables they couldn’t control for. But both Castellanis insisted, so they didn’t put up much of an argument. But for about a week that summer, the milkshakes stopped coming. Rene was a radio host at CKNW and a sponsor — a local car dealership called BowMac — wanted him for a stunt. BowMac had a neon sign above the dealship, above which they placed a station wagon. They paid CKNW and Rene Castellani to live in that station wagon until every single car on their lot sold, and Castellani agreed (despite his wife’s health). The stunt worked — eight days in, all the cars sold. Castellani returned to his daily routine of bringing his ailing wife a milkshake.

That routine ended on July 11. That day, Esther Castellani passed away, the still unknown illness to blame. She was laid to rest shortly thereafter.

Rene — quickly — moved on. The day after Esther’s funeral, Rene Castellani went on a vacation to Disneyland with his and Esther’s 11-year old daughter — and his new girlfriend, Lolli, the same woman who wrote him the note the year prior. Rene and Lolli’s relationship blossomed seemingly overnight, with the pair househunting together and listing they were married while applying for a home mortgage.

As news of this spread, it caught the attention of Dr. Barney Moscovich, the internist who had treated Esther. He began to wonder if Rene had a hand in his wife’s death, and began investigating. He convinced Glen McDonald, the city’s chief coronor, to order the exhumation of Esther’s corpse and began running tests. According to Monte Cristo Magazine, “[an] autopsy found that Esther’s liver contained arsenic concentrations 1,500 times higher than normal, and that there were concentrations 800 times above average in her heart.” He notified the police who discovered a container of weed killer under the Castellani’s kitchen sink — and, as you’ve probably already guessed, the weed killer contained arsenic. And just enough was missing to account for the arsenic in Esther’s body.

A coincidence? Hardly — and there was more proof, which Moscovich discovered when he tested Esther’s hair. As McDonald later told the Vancouver Sun, “it was possible, through examining hair samples, to virtually chart the amound of arsenic she received day by day. And the interesting thing was that there was no sign of arsenic during the [eight] days [that] Rene was up on that pole, selling cars.” Rene, it turned out, had been poisoning the milkshakes — but he took a week or so off because of the BowMac promotion.

Rene Castellani was ultimately tried and convicted for murder. He was sentenced to death by hanging, but in 1976 — before the sentence could be carried out — Canada eliminated the death penalty for crimes for most crimes. His sentence was commuted to life in prison and he was later paroled. He died in 1982 from cancer.

Bonus fact: On March 20, 1995, the state of Oklahoma executed a murderer named Thomas J. Grasso. Grasso’s last meal resulted in a posthumous fifteen seconds of fame. As the Telegraph reported, “His bizarre last meal request was for two dozen steamed mussels, two dozen steamed clams, a Burger King double cheeseburger, six barbecued spare ribs, two large milkshakes, a tin of SpaghettiOs with meatballs, half a pumpkin pie and strawberries and cream.” The milkshakes, as far as we know, weren’t tainted by arsenic, but there was another problem with the meal: the kitchen gave him spaghetti, not SpaghettiOs. When Grasso was asked if he had any last words, he made a point of complaining about this error, stating “I did not get my SpaghettiOs, I got spaghetti. I want the press to know this.”

From the Archives: The Prohibition Prescription: When you couldn’t by booze in the United States, Walgreens — the drug store — made a name for itself by selling milkshakes. But they were special milkshakes.