THE SECRET POISONER
A New Zealand medical professional convicted of poisoning a child in her care, and suspected of killing her husband. It sounds like the stuff of fantasy. But in The Trails of Nurse Kerr, local crime writer Scott Bainbridge discovers a true story stranger than fiction.
This is the story of Nurse Elspeth Kerr, who ran several private nursing homes around Devonport, Auckland, during the roaring 1920s. She became a cause célèbre in July 1932, when she was arrested and charged with administering a near fatal dose of the barbiturate drug Veronal to her eight-year-old foster daughter. During the subsequent police investigation, it was learned two other people – an elderly resthome resident and Nurse Kerr’s own husband – had died suddenly months earlier. Both deaths were hastily recorded as being by natural causes thus allowing them to be buried within one day of death.
Rumours and suspicion abounded, causing police to exhume their bodies, whereupon pathologists found significant traces of Veronal in the systems of the deceased. Nurse Kerr was highly-respected in the Devonport community and Auckland medical profession, and many people did not believe the accusations. She garnered much support from many in the healthcare industry and the fledgling women’s movement, which by then was growing in confidence and strength. Debate waged for many years and opinions remain divided to this day.
Elspeth Kerr’s prosecution has largely been forgotten over the passage of time, due mainly to being overshadowed by the more scandalous Mareo case two years later. In 1935, flamboyant bandleader Eric Mareo stood accused of poisoning his wife, the actress Thelma Trott, with Veronal; the case shocked a conservative Auckland. The Mareos’ bohemian existence, and the artistic circles in which they moved, fascinated the public, and the exposure of the lesbian relationship between Thelma and exotic dancer Freda Stark was as sensational as the death itself. The Mareo case effectively consigned Elspeth Kerr to a forgotten history. Her three trials made daily headlines, but neither her release from prison nor news of her solitary death years later warranted public mention.
The full story of Nurse Kerr has never been written about before in detail.