Notorious female killers

DEADLY AUSTRALIAN WOMEN Author: Kay Saunders Publisher: ABC Books, HarperCollins Publishers Aust RRP: $32.99 Reviewer: Joanne Marsh

KAY Saunders showcases some of this country’s most notorious and infamous female killers in her latest book Deadly Australian Women.

Her observation that women kill for sometimes different reasons to men is borne out in the various cases she profiles. While lovers’ pacts and financial gain are common reasons for both sexes to commit murder, the lack of lifestyle choices for women in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and the desire to escape a violent relationship, are reasons which are usually the domain of the female sex.

Backyard abortionists plied a cruel trade and many killed without knowing (though they must have suspected) – their patients dying agonizing deaths days after being treated for supposed “women’s problems”.

Once life insurance became more common, and more affordable for working class families, the lure of easy money provided a strong motive for murder. A famous Sydney case in 1887 concerned mother-of-seven Louisa Andrews, who poisoned her husband and was at the insurance company making a claim on the day of his death, before the funeral had been held. She used the money to hold an all night party before remembering to tell her son of his father’s death.

Her live-in boarder and lover soon followed the way of her husband. It was early days of forensic science and while the arsenic from the poison Rough on Rats put paid to both men’s lives, conflicting stories and verbal testimonies weighed heavily in Louisa’s favour. It took persistence and four trials to convict her. In 1889, Louisa became the last women executed in NSW.

The stories are harrowing and Saunders presents the facts well but for me the book became a litany of sad lives resulting in so many unnecessary deaths.