By Bartee Halie

Two year old Alberta Yvonne Howell, the only child of a couple in Haskell,  died on Oct. 15, 1937 after taking a poisonous but perfectly legal drug, prescribed by doctors and sold over-the-counter by pharmacists, that was blamed for ten deaths in Texas and another 97 in 14 more states in a six-week period.

Salesmen for the S.E. Massengill Company of Bristol, Tennessee reported customers were clamoring for a liquid version of the miracle drug sulfanilamide.  Samuel Evans Massengil...