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Topic History of: Australian mushroom poisoning case Max. showing the last 5 posts - (Last post first)
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Jo
The judge still hasn't finished his instructions in this case. They were first estimated to run from this past Tuesday until Wednesday, then until Thursday, then until Friday, now until Monday, which will take the trial into its 10th week. The judge has already told the jury to ignore some of the prosecution arguments. So I think a conviction is looking uncertain.
The main thing that made me think she was guilty - still does - is the fact that she seemingly was able to go about her life as normal while her guests were dying. So I was inclined to believe the prosecution argument that she lied about her symptoms (making herself vomit after feeling full from gorging on cake, feeling sick, having diarrhoea) to avert suspicion, which also seemed to fit with her other deceptiveness and lies.
But there were testimonies which seem to cast doubt on that. A toxicologist testified that a lethal dose of deathcaps for a 70kg adult is three tablespoons/50 grams, depending on toxicity, species of deathcap, person's weight and toxic response. This is a more generous estimate than sources online (e.g. Encyclopaedia Britannica, Australian National Botanic Gardens and Australian Capital Territory Government websites), which say that just a small piece of one mushroom is enough to kill an adult. He also said that there were grades of poisoning, with grade 1 corresponding to symptoms like gastro-enteritis, and that there had been a recent case in Australia of a mother and son sharing a meal inadvertently containing death caps, with the mother dying and the son surviving. A nurse also testified that, after Erin Patterson returned to hospital, having left for 1.5 hours after initially being there for 5 minutes and being told she and her children might have ingested deathcaps and needed to be admitted urgently, she received 5 bowel motions from Erin Patterson over a 2-hour period, with Patterson saying that one of the samples looked like urine but was a bowel motion. An intensive care doctor who reviewed her case notes also said she appeared to have had a diarrhoeal illness.
I did wonder if she had taken laxatives, especially if it was true that she had suffered from bulimia since she as young, as bulimics are apparently known to abuse laxatives, but judging from the news reports there has been no mention of that.
So I won't be surprised if she walks - free to dish up more mystery mushroom medleys.
Green Man
There does or did to be some sort of cult in Adelaide in 50s to 70s, slaying homosexuals.
Adelaide is known for the media and metal scene. Is there a kind of Star Whacker chapter there?
I do remember the death Matthew Shepard in America. The media down played it, they made it was another Charlie Howard. They changed the narrative when Stephen Jimenez published Book of Matt. Which is a great read.
The MSM couldn't throw any insult at Stephen Jimenez, he is gay himself and is centre of politics. The ultra left wing outlet Media Matters tried to rubbish his claims.
Jo
That's very interesting. I didn't know that Adelaide hadn't been a penal colony and hadn't heard of those murders or those people.
hedda
Australia seems to have some very odd serial murder cases.
I've visited Adelaide once. Lovely looking city and the only city not established as a penal colony.
Beautiful churches, tree lined streets, lovely brush wood fences..and numerous serial killers like the Bodies in The Barrel murders.
Some awful gay murders and rumours of a secret high profile secret gay sect of murderers that included judges and politicians. Supposedly led by the very creepy Bevan Spencer von Einem.
I met in London and became very friendly with a lovely Adelaide born gay singer, Tony Monopoly who was headlining and filling the then Talk of The Town.
Tony had won Opportunity Knocks 9 weeks in a row.
He told me that he had been "doing the beat" by the river in Adelaide where numerous gay men congregated when 2 of them were thrown into the river and one drowned. The rumour was that police were responsible and there was a squad of police gay bashers.
He fled Adelaide after being threatened by police. Sadly he died of cancer in Brighton.
Jo
This case is still grinding on. Prosecution and defence summed up this past week, judge to give instructions to jury from next Tuesday, possibly lasting two or three days, jury should be deliberating by week 10, in a trial initially estimated to last 6 weeks.
I'm inclined to believe she did at least intend serious harm (e.g. her vastly different health outcome - diarrhoea, supposedly - from the victims, able to go about her business as normal - including driving around and consuming coffee and snacks - while the lunch guests were dying or almost dying, supposedly panicking and engaging in lies/deception because she was scared of being found responsible, yet apparently not panicking or being scared when told she and her children could have ingested a deadly poison, lying to police, lying to in-laws). But the defence seems to have sown quite a lot of doubt.
I've been following the news reports, including the audio podcast reports from The Australian and the ABC on YouTube, and am finding it fascinating. There's apparently a huge amount of interest in the case, and not just in Australia. I wonder what it is about it that's capturing people's attention. I think it's partly the everyday circumstances of a lunch, the cause of death, the number of deaths, the fact that the victims were family, the question of motive and the big question of whether it was murder/manslaughter or an accident.
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