He himself had always been vigilant about what he ate and drank. His grandfather, owner of a pharmacy and soda fountain, had once caught Schlichtmann’s father eating a handful of maraschino cherries. “Don’t ever eat those,” the grandfather had warned. “They’re full of chemicals that’ll make you sick.” Warnings of this sort had in turn been impressed on Schlichtmann at an early age.

Jonathan Harr, A Civil Action, loc. 287