'Dis Still Killed 'Em

Way to Die #452
"'Dis Still Killed 'Em"
Name of the death is a pun on phrase "This Still Killed Them" and "distill"
"This here's the story of Jeb and Mabel: a husband and wife with no food on the table, so they whipped up some moonshine in the back of their shed, but they didn't get rich-- just drunk, and then dead."
Date	April 22, 1931
Location	Morgantown, West Virginia
Episode this death was featured in	"Dying to Tell the Story"
Deaths
Previous "Ass Phyxiated"	Next "Cat Got Your Life"

'Dis Still Killed 'Em, Way to Die #452, is the seventh and last death featured in "Dying to Tell the Story", which aired on December 29, 2010.

Plot

At the height of both the Prohibition Era and the Great Depression, a poor, Appalachian couple named Jeb and Mabel decide to make money by selling moonshine. They begin sampling the first liquid produced by their still, not realizing that it was the Foreshot. This substance is pure methanol (CH₃OH), which metabolizes into Formaldehyde (CH₂O), and eventually into Formic Acid (CH₂O₂). By the time they got to the "Heart", the most desired part of the batch, the formic acid in Jeb and Mabel's bodies began to destroy their retinas, causing blindness. Soon after, they began to suffer from Metabolic Acidosis, which caused their bodily fluid's pH level to drop to a dangerously low point, and they died of multiple organ failure.

"I've gone blind. Mabel! I'm blind!" -Jeb, before his demise

Segment Nickname

• Full Proof
• Blinded Out
• Drunk Fail

Interviewees and Cast

• Bryan Carter - Liquor Consultant
• Dr. Khyber Zaffarkhan - Physical Medicine and Rehab
• Hollie L. Hummel - Mabel (lead: intended victim)
• Kyle Schroeder - Jeb (lead: intended victim)

Trivia

• During the Prohibition Era, criminals would often cut their Moonshine by reinserting the deadly, Methanol-based Foreshots back into the beverage. This would explain why it often caused blindness back in the day.

Goof

• Dr. Khyber Zaffarkhan mentioned only about the man (Jeb) dying when both of them died