Editing Chloroform (section)

=== Criminal use ===
[[File:Damsels in distress chloroformed.jpg|thumb|[[Damsel in distress|Damsels in distress]] being knocked out with chloroform in various media]]
Chloroform has been used by criminals to knock out, daze, or murder victims. Joseph Harris was charged in 1894 with using chloroform to rob people.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Ec1VAAAAIBAJ&pg=2904,2720400&dq=chloroform+knockout&hl=en|title=Knock-out and Chloroform|newspaper=[[The Philadelphia Record]]|date=9 February 1894|access-date=31 March 2011|archive-date=20 January 2022|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20220120054325/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=Ec1VAAAAIBAJ&pg=2904,2720400&dq=chloroform+knockout&hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref> [[Serial killer]] [[H. H. Holmes]] used chloroform overdoses to kill his female victims. In September 1900, chloroform was implicated in the murder of the U.S. businessman [[William Marsh Rice]]. Chloroform was deemed a factor in the alleged murder of a woman in 1991, when she was asphyxiated while asleep.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=I91HAAAAIBAJ&pg=2367,1007950&dq=chloroform+knockout&hl=en|title=Chloroform case retrial underway|date=7 July 1993|access-date=31 March 2011|newspaper=[[Record-Journal]]|archive-date=6 November 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211106203133/https://news.google.com/newspapers?id=I91HAAAAIBAJ&pg=2367%2C1007950&dq=chloroform+knockout&hl=en|url-status=live}}</ref> In 2002, 13-year-old [[Murder of Kacie Woody|Kacie Woody]] was sedated with chloroform when she was abducted by David Fuller and during the time that he had her, before he shot and killed her.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2003/dec/17/not-forgotten/|title=But not forgotten|last=Cathy Frye - [[Arkansas Democrat-Gazette]]|date=2003-12-17|website=www.arkansasonline.com|access-date=2021-12-07|archive-date=7 December 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211207200713/https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2003/dec/17/not-forgotten/|url-status=live}}</ref> In a 2007 plea bargain, a man confessed to using [[Electroshock weapon|stun guns]] and chloroform to sexually assault minors.<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-11-06-chloroform-rapes_N.htm|title=Man admits to raping friends' daughters|date=6 November 2007|access-date=31 March 2011|newspaper=[[USA Today]]|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110429075437/http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2007-11-06-chloroform-rapes_N.htm|archive-date=29 April 2011}}</ref>

The use of chloroform as an [[incapacitating agent]] has become widely recognized, bordering on [[cliché]], through the adoption by [[crime fiction]] authors of plots involving criminals' use of chloroform-soaked rags to render victims unconscious. However, it is nearly impossible to incapacitate someone using chloroform in this way.<ref name="Anaesthesia">{{cite journal|last=Payne|first=J. P.|s2cid=1718276|date=July 1998|title=The criminal use of chloroform|journal=[[Anaesthesia (journal)|Anaesthesia]]|volume=53|issue=7|pages=685–690|doi=10.1046/j.1365-2044.1998.528-az0572.x|pmid=9771177|doi-access=free}}</ref> It takes at least five minutes of inhalation of chloroform to render a person unconscious. Most criminal cases involving chloroform involve co-administration of another drug, such as [[ethanol|alcohol]] or [[diazepam]], or the victim being complicit in its administration. After a person has lost consciousness owing to chloroform inhalation, a continuous volume must be administered, and the chin must be supported to keep the tongue from obstructing the airway, a difficult procedure, typically requiring the skills of an [[anesthesiologist]]. In 1865, as a direct result of the criminal reputation chloroform had gained, the medical journal ''[[The Lancet]]'' offered a "permanent scientific reputation" to anyone who could demonstrate "instantaneous insensibility", i.e. loss of consciousness, using chloroform.<ref>{{cite journal|title=Medical Annotation: Chloroform amongst Thieves |journal=[[The Lancet]] |date=1865 |volume=2 |issue=2200 |pages=490–491|doi=10.1016/s0140-6736(02)58434-8}}</ref>