What made Daisy de Melker unique is the following;
1) Daisy was a female. All the other South African serial killers were men.
2) Daisy was the first recorded serial killer in South Africa
3) Daisy was found guilty on only 1 of the 3 murders allegedly committed. When you read her life story, you can not be faulted for wondering if she was not involved in more of the many strange deaths that surrounded her.
4) Daisy was a white woman - of the total of 18 serial killers, 15 were black or coloured men and 2 white men.
According to the accepted definition of a serial killer "A serial killer is typically defined as an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month..".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Serial_killer
It could be argued that Daisy does not qualify as she was only found guilty of only 1 of the 3 murders committed. It could be counter argued that although she was found only guilty in a court of law on the 1 charge, she was most definitely responsible for the other 2 murders and that this definition of a serial killer does not always rely on the fact of the guilt being proven in a court of law. Besides the various arguments surrounding this, she is still recorded as a South African serial killer, and the first on the list of many?
She lived an interesting life and i will try and share some of the "highlights" during her short life.
Daisy was 1 of 11 children. She worked initially at a nursing home in Berea, Durban. She fell in love with a man named Bert Fuller. Bert was a civil servant. He fell ill and died strangely on their so called wedding date? He apparently died of blackwater fever. Daisy was at his bedside when he died and she inherited 100 pounds. It wont be the last time that she would benefit from a loved one's early departure.
About a year and a half later, after the death of Bert, the 23 year old Daisy married the 36 year old William Alfred Cowle. He was a plumber from Johannesburg. They had 5 children, 4 of whom died? The 1st were twins who died in infancy. The 3rd child died as a result of an abscess on the liver. The 4th child died at approximately 15 months old. The records reflect bowel trouble and convulsions?
The 1 surviving child was named Rhodes Cecil Cowle.
Daisy's 1st husband William Cowle died of excruciating pain on the 11th of January 1923. Apparently he became ill the morning after taking Epson salts prepared by Daisy? The Doctor in attendance did not consider his condition to be too serious. A second doctor was summonsed after William's condition deteriorated. Soon after the doctor left he got rapidly worse, were foaming at the mouth, turned blue and was screaming with pain, especially if someone touched him. William Cowle died shortly thereafter. The second doctor suspected strychnine poisoning and refused to sign the death certificate? Strangely, a postmortem was performed by the acting District surgeon and the cause of death was determined by him as chronic nephritis and cerebral hemorrhage. Daisy, the sole beneficiary of her husbands will inherited 1795 pounds.
Exactly 3 years after his death, Daisy married Robert Sproat, her 2nd husband, another plumber and just 10 years older than her. About a year and a half later, in October 1927 Robert suddenly became ill. He was experiencing the same symptoms as Daisy's 1st husband, William Cowle? Robert was now suffering from muscle spasms and abdominal pains, but he recovered after some treatment. A few weeks later however, he became violently ill after drinking beer. The only people present was his stepson Rhodes and his wife? He died on the 6th of November 1927. This time the Doctor certified it as arteriosceloris and cerebral hemorrhage? Strangely this time no autopsy was performed. Daisy as the surviving spouse inherited 4000 pounds plus 560 pounds in pension fund benefits.
On the 21st of January 1931, Diasy Sproat tied the knot for a 3rd time with another plumber, a widower named Sydney Clarence de Melker. It was later discovered that Daisy travelled some distance on the East Rand between Germiston and Turffontein to visit a chemist to obtain arsenic. She used her previous surname Sproat and told the chemist that she needed the arsenic to put a sick cat down.
A few days later, Rhodes, her only surviving son from her 1st marriage, became ill at work after drinking coffee from a flask which Daisy had given him. Another worker whom Rhodes shared his coffee with also became ill but later recovered as he consumed only a little bit of the coffee. Rhodes died at the tender age of 20. This time a postmortem followed and the cause was given cerebral malaria? Rhodes was buried and it seemed the end of it. Daisy received 100 pounds from a life insurance policy held by Rhodes.
After William Sprout, the brother of Daisy's second husband Robert, got wind of this, he conveyed his suspicions to the police. An investigation followed and on the 15th of April 1932, the police obtained a court order to exhume the bodies of Rhodes Cowle, William Cowle and of Robert Sproat.
Rhodes Cowle's body was found to be in a good state of preservation. This sometimes is a characteristic of the presence of large quantities of arsenic. The pathologist confirmed traces of arsenic in the body.
Traces of pink strychnine were found in the bones of the bodies of William Cowle and Robert Sproat. Traces of arsenic were also found in the hair and fingernails of Rhodes Cowle's work colleague.
Traces of arsenic were also found in the hair and fingernails of James Webster, Rhodes' colleague who had survived.
Daisy de Melker was arrested a week later and charged with the murder of the 3 men. The murders carried out by De Melker was in the news and the chemist who supplied the arsenic to the "Mrs Sproat" recognized her and went to the police. Fortunately it was law for her to sign the poison register at the chemist and this was handed in as evidence.
After 30 days of trial, six witnesses for the prosecution for teh Crown, a few for the defence and a few specialist forensic evidence witnesses, the judge concluded that the Crown had failed to prove conclusively that Cowle and Sprout had died of Strychnine poisoning. On the 3rd charge, the judge came to the "inescapable conclusion" that Daisy de Melker had murdered her son Rhodes Cowle. This was evident because;
1) Rhodes Cowle had died of arsenic poison,
2) The coffee flask held traces of arsenic,
3) The accused had put the arsenic in the flask,
Daisy de Melker was condemned to death by hanging. The sentence was carried out on the morning of the 30th of December 1932 at Pretoria Central Prison.
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