For months, Erin Patterson’s mushroom murder trial has made headlines and captivated the Australian and global public.
Many have wondered how and why a 50-year-old woman would kill her relatives by lacing their lunch with poisonous mushrooms.
Patterson’s parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson both died after she had served them the food, along with Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson. Wilkinson’s husband, Ian, survived after spending weeks in hospital.
On Monday, a jury found Patterson guilty of doing just that, after she had pleaded not guilty to murder and attempted murder.
Over nine weeks, jurors heard from more than 50 witnesses and were introduced to more than 120 exhibits by the prosecution and defence.
Notably, prosecutors did not allege a specific motive for Patterson to murder her relatives, which is something that defence barrister Colin Mandy SC had told the jury was a significant omission.
“Erin Patterson had a motive to keep these people in her world so that they could keep supporting her and her children,” he said.
Prosecutors did, however, show the jury mobile phone tower data, digital forensic analysis of devices seized from Patterson and evidence from the surviving guest, Ian Wilkinson. Their case argued that Patterson deliberately picked the death cap mushrooms before concealing them in beef Wellingtons served to her guests.
Prosecutors also alleged Patterson lied to her lunch guests about a cancer diagnosis, allegedly faking the illness to lure her guests to attend the lunch.
There was no dispute that Patterson had poisoned her guests with death cap mushrooms, but the difficulty for prosecutors was in proving whether or not Patterson had meant to do it. The law says that no motive is required, but the jury still had to decide if they could be satisfied beyond reasonable doubt that a mother of two with no criminal history is guilty of triple murder.
Amid the public fascination behind Patterson’s guilty verdict, here’s a look back at some of Australia’s most notorious women killers.
Caroline Grills
In a similar manner to Patterson, Caroline Grills, also known as ‘Aunty Carrie’, used poison as a means to murder her victims in the 1950’s.
Grills was a hospitable woman who visited family and friends frequently, often bringing cakes and tea. She used thallium (rat poison) on unsuspecting relatives and friends, mostly in-laws who she disliked.
She killed four members of her family and attempted to murder another three. A 4ft 5” tall grandmother, her nickname changed to ‘Aunty Thally’ when this became known.
Originally sentenced to death, the Australian serial killer was later commuted to life imprisonment, and she died in 1960.
Katherine Knight
Dubbed by the media as Australia’s female Hannibal Lecter, Katherine Knight’s story of murder and cannibalism is one of the most gruesome in the country’s history.
A 44-year-old worker at a slaughterhouse, Knight stabbed her partner John Price 37 times at his home in the New South Wales town of Aberdeen. She then skinned his body, cooked his head and served him as a meal for his children.
She’d had a violent past before this crime, including stabbing Price once during a dispute, attempting to strangle her first husband on their wedding knight and reportedly cracking his skull with a frying pan. She also killed a previous partner’s dog and attacked him with scissors.
Knight has claimed she suffering horrible sexual abuse during her childhood at the hands of various men.
A mother-of-four, Knight became the first woman in the country to be sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole.
Catherine Birnie
Catherine Margaret Birnie was one of three of Western Australia’s most “heinous” killers, along with Peter John Maloney and William Patrick.
Birnie was jailed with her husband David Birnie in 1987 for murdering, abducting, raping and torturing four women over five weeks in 1986. The pair were caught when a fifth woman escaped and alerted authorities.
At one stage, the Birnies were dubbed the most evil couple in Australia, and it’s been said that they would hunt women on the streets around Perth and take them back to their home on Moorhouse Street. At the time this came to light, the press dubbed the pair’s crimes “The Moorhouse Murders”.
While Catherine Birnie continues to serve out her life sentence, David hung himself and died in prison in 2005.
Jessica Stasinowsky and Valerie Parashumti
Also from Perth, Jessica Stasinowsky and Valerie Parashumti made headlines for the perverse nature of their murder. The two lovers, Stasinowsky, 21, and Parashumti, 19, bludgeoned and strangled 16-year-old Stacey Mitchell in December 2006, before they dumped the young girl’s body in a wheelie bin.
The pair have been sentenced to strict security life imprisonment, with a 24-year minimum for their crime, with the justice who sentenced them saying they lacked remorse and didn’t place value on the sanctity of life.
In particular, Parashumti was described in court as a sexually-motivated sadist who drank blood as part of a vampire subculture. The court was told that a psychologist who assessed Parashumti found she had a severe personality disorder and was sexually aroused by torture and violence.
There was no apparent motive in the murder of Mitchell, whose parents described her as “full of life, caring and loving”.