Caroline Grills

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Caroline Grills, born Caroline Mickelson (1890 - October 1960) was an Australian serial killer.

Grills became a suspect in 1947 after three family members (87-year-old stepmother Mrs. Christine Mickelson; Mrs. Angelina Thomas, a relative of Mrs. Grills' husband; and Mr. Grills' brother-in-law John Lundberg) and a close family friend (Mrs. Mary Anne Mickelson) died. Authorities tested tea that she had given to two additional family members (Mrs. Christine Downey and Mr. John Downey) on 13 April 1953 and found the poison thallium.

Grills appeared in court charged with four murders and three attempted murders (the third being Eveline Lundberg, Christine Downey's mother) in October 1953. She was sentenced to life in prison, and became affectionately known as "Auntie Thally" to other inmates. In October 1960 she was rushed to hospital where she died from peritonitis from a ruptured gastric ulcer.

[edit] References

• Book, Hidden Evidence: Forty true crimes and how forensic science helped solve them by David Owen (Firefly Books, September 2000).

• Book, Murder! 25 True Australian Crimes by Vivien Encel & Alan Sharpe