Caroline Grills

Caroline Grills
Born 1890 or 1888[1]
New South Wales, Australia[1]
Died 6 October 1960[1]
Cause of death
 Peritonitis from ruptured gastric ulcer
Criminal penalty
 Life imprisonment
Killings
Victims 4
Span of killings
 1947–1953
Country Australia
State(s) New South Wales[1][2]
Date apprehended
 April 1953

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

Grills became a suspect in 1947 after the deaths of four family members: her 87-year-old stepmother Christine Mickelson; relatives by marriage Angelina Thomas and John Lundberg; and sister in law Mary Anne Mickelson. Authorities tested tea she had given to two additional family members (Christine Downey and John Downey) on 13 April 1953, and detected 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 convicted on 15 October 1953 and sentenced to death, but her sentence was later changed to life in prison. She became affectionately known as "Aunt Thally" to other inmates of Sydney's Long Bay prison. In October 1960, she was rushed to the hospital where she died from peritonitis[1] from a ruptured gastric ulcer.

See also

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Garton, Stephen Grills, Caroline (1888–1960 in Australian Dictionary of Biography Online, ANU 1996. Accessed 28 April 2012.
  2. ↑ "Murder, tried and true". Sydney Morning Herald. 11 February 2003. Retrieved 2008-01-16.