Investigation
The official investigation that followed ruled that Hall had died from apoplexy. However, in 1968, Hall's biographer Chauncey C. Loomis, a professor at Dartmouth College, made an expedition to Greenland to exhume Hall's body. Because of the permafrost, Hall's body, flag shroud, clothing and coffin were remarkably well preserved. Tests on tissue samples of bone, fingernails and hair showed that Hall died of poisoning from large doses of arsenic in the last two weeks of his life. This diagnosis is consistent with the symptoms party members reported. It is possible that Hall dosed himself with the poison, as arsenic was a common ingredient of quack medicines of the time. But it is considered possible that he was murdered by one of the other members of the expedition, possibly Dr. Bessels. No charges were ever filed.
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