Aunt Thally
The Death of an eighty-seven year old woman named Christina Mickelson in Sydney Australia, in 1947 seemed liked a natural death. A family friend Angeline Thomas fell sick and died not long after as well, but she was in her eighties so it did not seem suspicious. Another relative of Christina Mickelson died a year after but this one seemed more suspicious as the man John Lunderbergs was sixty-three and while he was sick his hair began to fall out. Then another relative Marry Anne Mickelson fell ill with similar symptoms and died. The one common factor of all four deaths was the presence of Caroline Grills the sixty-three year old step-daughter-in-law who has married Christina Mickelson’s stepson forty years earlier. When the victims fell ill Grills helped care for them making endless cups of tea. In 1948, the mysterious “sickness” began to threaten the lives of John Lundbergs wife and daughter, both conditions were getting worse despite Caroline Grills care. Both women were losing hair and had difficulty moving limbs.
Eventually a suspicious relative called the local police who removed a cup of tea prepared for the ill women and took it for testing. The fact that the women’s hair had fallen out suggested that they had been poisoned by Thallium. The lab used the Reinsh test to identify that the tea had a big amount of Thallium. The discovery was made in time to save Mrs. Lundberg and her daughter, although Mrs. Lundberg lost her sight because of the poison. Caroline Grills was tried and found guilty of the attempted of Mrs. Lundberg. She was sentenced of a life time in prison. Bizarrely she became popular with the other inmates who came to know her as Aunt Thally.