ABC Documentaries

Sydney, Australia 1953, a city in the grip of a deadly crime wave. In just over a year more than one hundred people were poisoned. The shocking truth is that most of the killers were women. In 1952 two NSW detectives commenced a murder investigation. What they found was so diabolical that it created a storm of public outrage... women were adding rat poison to cakes and cups of tea and feeding it to their unsuspecting loved ones. Unlike the popular images of 1950s domestic harmony, Sydney was a melting pot of violence, poverty and tensions between the sexes. In this claustrophobic post-war society, both men and women were trapped in roles that no longer fitted. But there was a way out. With no colour, no taste and no smell, Thallium, the active ingredient in rat poison was the perfect murder weapon. Banned in the rest of the Australia and most of the developed world, incredibly Thallium was freely available in Sydney... at every corner store. Recipe For Murder tells the true story of three notorious poisoners; blonde 'good time girl' Yvonne Fletcher, sixty-three-year-old grandmother Caroline Grills, and the attractive 'older woman' Veronica Monty. « read less