“A federal grand jury indicted a Stockbridge, Ga. man Thursday on charges he poisoned his own children with tainted soup in an attempt to extort money from soup maker Campbell’s.” Prosecutors say William Allen Cunningham, 40, on three occasions in January fed his children, aged 3 years and 18 months, soup spiked with dangerous substances which resulted each time in their hospitalization. Cunningham allegedly told police he planned to sue the Campbell Soup Company for money based on the injuries. (“Man Indicted For Poisoning Soup and Feeding It to His Children”, WXIA/FirstCoastNews, Jul. 7; Priscilla Rodriguez, “Dad accused of tampering with kids’ soup”, KNX NewsRadio, Jul. 7). And in Newport News, Va., Carla Patterson was sentenced to 12 months in jail as punishment for a scam in which she and her son Ricky claimed to have found a dead mouse in the soup at a Cracker Barrel restaurant, for which they sought $500,000 (Jun. 3, 2004); evidence indicated that the mouse had neither drowned nor been cooked, but had died of a fractured skull. (“Woman gets year in jail for mouse-in-soup scam”, WAVY-TV, Jul. 6; Beverly N. Williams, “Mother gets year in mouse soup case”, Newport News Daily Press, Jul. 6).

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