The Radium Girls: The Dark Story of America’s Shining Women

Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2017

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Part 2, Chapters 26-30Chapter Summaries & Analyses

Part 2: “Power”

Chapter 26 Summary

In Ottawa in 1927, 24-year-old Ella Cruse, who has worked at the Radium Dial factory since she was 20, has recently developed a slight ache in her jaw and body. One day, the pain becomes too intense, and she leaves early from the factory. In a matter of days, a painful pimple that had developed on her cheek has grown into a boil, then an enormous growth as she becomes confined to her bed. She dies shortly afterwards, with a cause of death of “Streptococcic poisoning.”

Chapter 27 Summary

The news of Flinn’s fraud is shocking to all, but he remains calm, maintaining that he is an expert in industrial hygiene. Berry reports him to the authorities for practicing medicine without a license. Meanwhile, Hamilton connects Berry with Walter Lippman, an extremely influential reporter at the powerful newspaper The World.

The dial-painters’ cases are combined to avoid duplicate testimonials, and are assigned to the Court of Chancery, which will determine whether Berry’s interpretation of the statute of limitations is acceptable. The trial date is set for January 12, 1928. If Berry and the girls are successful, the case will move to a second trial which will rule on whether the company is to blame.

Physicist Elizabeth Hughes is brought on the case to retest the girls’ radium levels. They suspected that the results would be questioned in court. They would have to prove that radium was killing the girls was by cremating and analyzing the bones. Since this was not an option for anyone living, Berry got permission from Mollie Maggia’s family to exhume her body. Inside the coffin, her body glows with radium. Further examination reveals radium in her bones. Not long after, Ella Eckhart, another USRC dial-painter, files a suit with Berry, too.

The initial court appearance on November 14, 1927 proves difficult for Berry. USRC’s lawyer, Edward Markley, is a skilled and shrewd lawyer and Berry struggles to keep up.

Ella Eckhart quickly declines, and dies December 13, 1927. She has a large sarcoma (cancerous tumor of the bone) in her shoulder, a first in the radium poisoning cases.

Chapter 28 Summary

The day of the Chancery Court appointment, the gallery is packed with reporters who observe the girls’ poor physical condition. The crowd was moved by the girls’ descriptions of their suffering, and they won their favor. The judge, too, expressed his sympathy.

Markley is sharp and stern as he cross-examined the women. The USRC lawyers’ argument relied on the statute of limitations, and “what the girls knew when” (254). To make the women seem as if they had waited too long to file the suit, Markley tried to get them to admit that they had known that radium was the culprit earlier. When Markley cross-examines Hoffman and Drinker, he tries to discredit their expertise on the subject of radiation. The next portion of the trial is set for April 25.

On April 22, they are summoned by USRC to have medical examinations administered by Flinn and other company doctors. When conducting the breath test, Flinn holds the device far from their faces, so the radium dissipates before reaching the instrument.

Chapter 29 Summary

At the April 25 trial, the USRC lawyers question Katherine Schaub extensively on the dental treatment she had and whether a connection had been made between her work at USRC and her illnesses. Katherine slips up when she reveals that Dr. Barry was suspicious that she was suffering an industrial disease but clarifies that phosphorous was the suspect.

Several key witnesses take the stand after the girls. Dr. Humphries describes the girls’ medical treatments, stating authoritatively that he believes they have radium poisoning. Other experts testify that the dangers of radium have been known since 1912, to which USRC replies by extolling the healing powers of radium. Dr. Martland gives a helpful testimony, detailing the autopsies of the Carlough sisters which had revealed radium poisoning.

When von Sochocky testifies the following morning, Berry asks him whether he had told Grace Fryer not to lip-point. He denies this, claiming that he did not remember the conversation and that the danger of the paint was unknown to the company at that point. Berry and the girls are extremely angry at his betrayal. To further diminish their spirits, the hearing is delayed five months, supposedly to allow sufficient time in the court calendar for USRC to present their case.

Chapter 30 Summary

Berry has the court date moved to May, which displeases USRC. Berry has doctors attest that the women may not live until September, and gets both media attention and the court date moved up. Berry helps arrange photoshoots and interviews for the girls, who have become famous. They become media darlings, and are able to share their experiences in their own words.

Part 2, Chapters 26-30 Analysis

These chapters detail the legal back-and-forth between the dial-painters and the radium companies, further explaining the intricacies of the cases and revealing more of the lies of USRC. Chapter 26 presents a sharp “cut” to Ella Cruse in Ottawa, who goes from perfectly healthy to dying in just over a week. Her death is a shock to all, and her cause of death is noted as “streptococcic poisoning.” This example of the “cause of death” motif, in contrast to the legal drama unfolding in Newark, reveals how little information was reaching Ottawa about the dial-painters’ cases.

Mollie’s autopsy is written in a manner that leans heavily on imagery and figurative language. Moore describes the business-like yet “ritualistic” way the doctors conduct her autopsy, sparing no details about the state of her body nor what the doctors do to it. The autopsy is a key moment in the book, where there is definitive evidence of radium throughout the body of a dial-painter. Mollie is indeed presented as a “ghost”; Moore describes her “speaking” from beyond the grave and “staring accusingly.”

Chapter 29 provides a thorough account of the trial, including the many testimonies of the doctors who treated the women. The USRC lawyer, Markley, is painted as cruel and manipulative while the women show incredible strength in giving their testimonies.