The man in question is Thomas Midgley Jr., the inventor of leaded gasoline, for those who don't want to watch a 24min video that buries the lead (pardon the pun).
Causing death fueled by good motives seems to have been a constant in his life.
> The spelling lede is an alteration of lead, a word which, on its own, makes sense; after all, isn't the main information in a story found in the lead (first) paragraph? And sure enough, for many years lead was the preferred spelling for the introductory section of a news story.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/words-at-play/bury-the-lede-...