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| Daisy De Melker Mug Shot |
Early Life
Daisy was born Diasy Louisa Hacorn-Smith on the 1st of June 1886 at Seven Fountains which is located in the Eastern Cape province of South Africa to Mr. and Mrs. Hancorn-Smith,, she was born with a split pallet.
Daisy lived with her parents at Seven Fountains for most of her pre-teen life.
When she turned 8 her father left Seven Fountains along with 2 of her brothers to Zimbabwe to see if he can’t start a better dairy farm as the one in Seven Fountains was slowly starting to fail.
Daisy stayed with her mother till she was 10 years old then Daisy left Seven Fountains to go live with her father in Zimbabwe.
At the age of 13 she returned to Cape Town to study at the Good Hope Seminary School.
Daisy became a qualified nurse and started to work at the Berea Nursing home in Durban located in Kwazulu Natal one of South Africa’s eastern provinces.
Daisy frequently went on holiday to Zimbabwe, on one of her visits she met Bert Fuller a civic servant, they decide to marry but Bert contracted Black water fever and died on the day they would have gotten married.
First Murder
Daisy’s first murder was her first husband William Cowle with whom she had one child Rhodes Cecil Cowle.
On the morning of 11 January 1923, Daisy fixed William a glass of Epson salt water that is used to flush your bowls of impurities and saw this as the perfect opportunity to poison him, due to the bitterness of the Epson salt mixture the taste of the strychnine poison was disguised.
Daisy summoned a doctor after William started complaining of extreme pain, when the doctor arrived William’s condition became worse he was turning blue in the face and was foaming at the mouth.
William died that same day, the doctor suspicious of poison refused to sign the death certificate but the district surgeon Dr. Fergus, concluded that it was chronic nephritis and cerebral hemorrhage.
Daisy was the sole beneficiary to William’s estate and received approximately $2880.00
Second Murder
Her second murder was her second husband Robert Sproat.
On 6 November 1927 Robert begin to show the same symptoms as her previous husband, this after Robert drank a beer opened by Daisy once again laced with strychnine poison, Robert died that same night.
A doctor once again concluded the cause of death as chronic nephritis and cerebral hemorrhage.
Once again Daisy being the sole beneficiary of her husband’s estate received approximately $6400.00
Third Murder
Daisy’s third and final Murder was that of her own son, Rhodes Cecil Cowle.
On the 2nd of March 1932 Rhodes and a fellow co-worker became very ill at work after drinking coffee from a thermos that was prepared by Daisy, Rhodes’s colleague James Webster recovered from his symptoms making it obvious that he did not consume as much of the tainted coffee as Rhodes did, Rhodes was not so fortunate and died on the 5th of March in the afternoon at his home, this time Daisy used arsenic.
Trail and Execution
After the death of Rhodes, William Sproat brother of the late Robert Sproat finally became suspicious enough to go to the authorities.
After William Sproat made his case the authorities received a court order to exhume the bodies of Daisy’s alleged victims.
Traces of the poisons were found in all three bodies and also some characteristics present that goes hand in hand with the poisons used.
Arsenic Poison preserves the body and this was present when the autopsy was done on Rhodes, while William and Robert’s bones had a hint of pink discoloring, this being common in the case of strychnine poisoning due to the strychnine’s pink color.
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| Daisy De Melker Outside of the court |
With this very suspect events Daisy was arrested a week after the bodies were exhumed.
Daisy’s arrest and trail got allot of attention due to the fact that she would be only the second woman ever to be hanged in South Africa.
The evidence was starting to pile up against Daisy and was becoming more and more compelling with each witness taking the stand.
There were over 70 witnesses called to testify against her and less than 20 called in her defense.
Among the witnesses called were expert toxicologist Dr. J.M. Watt, Rhodes’s co-worker James Webster and the chemist from whom Daisy bought the arsenic she used to kill Rhodes.
After a grueling 40 days of trail, Judge Greenberg finally sentenced her.
Daisy de Melker, one of South Africa’s most infamous serial killers with a body count of 3 men consisting of 2 husbands and her own son.
Daisy de Melker was given the death sentence, which at that time in South Africa was death by hanging.
Her execution was carried out in the morning hours on 30th December 1932.
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