Charles Francis Hall

Charles Francis Hall (c. 1821 – November 8, 1871) was an American Arctic explorer, best known for the suspicious circumstances surrounding his death while leading the American-sponsored Polaris expedition in an attempt to be the first to reach the North Pole. The expedition was marred by insubordination, incompetence, and poor leadership. Hall returned to the ship from an exploratory sledging journey, and promptly fell ill. Before he died, he accused members of the crew – Emil Bessels, the expedition's lead scientist, in particular. An exhumation of his body in 1968 revealed that he had ingested a large quantity of arsenic in the last two weeks of his life.