Caroline Grills

Case record: Caroline Grills

Background

Caroline Grills (born Caroline Mickelson; 1890 – October 1960), was an Australian serial killer. Grills was also described as Caroline Grills (1888–1960) and as born probably in 1888 at Balmain, Sydney. She was the daughter of George Mickelson, a labourer, and his wife Mary, née Preiers.

On 22 April 1908, Grills married Richard William Grills at the district registrar’s office, Balmain South, with her father’s consent. They had five sons and a daughter. Two of the boys died tragically, one as a result of typhoid contracted while working as a lifesaver at Maroubra beach.

The Grills later moved into a succession of rented houses in the city and the Randwick area, during which years Richard was employed as a real-estate agent. After the death of her father in 1948, Caroline inherited and moved into his home at Gladesville.

She was known as “Aunty Carrie” by her extensive family and also as “Auntie Carrie” / “Auntie Thally” to others. She was described as a short, “dumpy” woman who wore thick-rimmed glasses. She frequently visited her in-laws and friends, making tea, cakes and biscuits for them.

Her affectionately known nickname among other inmates of Sydney’s Long Bay prison was “Aunt Thally”.

The offence

Authorities suspected Grills in connection with deaths in her family involving poison. In 1947 she was suspected after the deaths of four family members: her 87-year-old stepmother Christine Mickelson; relatives by marriage Angelina Thomas and John Lundberg; and her sister-in-law Mary Anne Mickelson.

Authorities also tested tea she had given to two additional family members—Christine Downey and John Downey—on 13 April 1953, and detected thallium.

Grills was suspected of poisoning with thallium, described as a poison commonly found in rat bait. The symptoms of thallium poisoning included loss of hair, nervous disorders, progressive blindness, loss of speech and eventual death. Reports described victims suffering symptoms such as hair loss, increasing blindness and loss of speech, recovering only when she did not visit.

Police speculated that her poisoning spree had begun in 1947 with the murder of her stepmother.

Exhumation of the bodies of two victims revealed traces of thallium. Two others thought to have been poisoned had been cremated. Police found traces of thallium in the pocket of the dress Grills had worn on the day she tried to give the cup of tea to the last victim.

A suspicious son-in-law noticed Grills carrying a cup of tea. The son-in-law placed his hand into her dress pocket and then put it over the cup as if dropping something into the tea. The son-in-law switched the cup, surreptitiously poured the tea into a bottle and gave it to police. The bottle contained a lethal dose of thallium.

Investigation

In 1953 Sydney was described as being in the grip of thallium panic. From March 1952 until Grills’s arrest, there had been forty-six cases of reported thallium poisoning, involving ten deaths. In the few months after her arrest there were further reported cases of thallium poisoning, including one of a prominent footballer.

Investigators examined deaths within Grills’s family. While police believed a strong circumstantial case existed to substantiate murder, they only proceeded with the original charge of attempting to murder Mrs Lundberg.

Further investigation led police to charge Grills with four murders and one attempted murder. The victims, with the exception of a friend of her mother, were in-laws.

A timeline of key investigative steps included:

• a coroner’s inquest in which witnesses recalled Grills bringing them drinks and how eager she was to help with preparing food and tea;
• Mrs Lundberg describing how her hair started to fall out and she slowly went blind;
• police charging Grills with murders including Mary Anne Mickelson (60), Christina Louisa Adelaide Mickelson (87), and Angelina Thomas (84); and
• two cases dropped, leaving conviction only on attempted murder.

A separate account described that investigators then examined the deaths of other members of Grills’s family, including her stepmother Christina Mickelson in November 1947. It also described that in January 1948, a relation of her husband Angelina Thomas became another suspected victim, and that her husband’s brother-in-law John Lundberg died in late 1948, with one of her stepmother’s friends dying the following year. It further stated that throughout 1941 and 1942 various family members became ill, including Mrs Lundberg, but all survived. John Downey read a story in a newspaper in October 1952 about poisonings, raising his suspicions about “Auntie Carrie”; when he saw her putting something in a tea cup, he went to police. Investigators exhumed several bodies, finding traces of thallium in two, while others had been cremated and could not be tested.

Arrest

On 11 May 1953, Grills was arrested and charged with the attempted murder of her sister-in-law Mrs Eveline Lundberg and Lundberg’s daughter Mrs Christine Downey, both of Redfern. The attempt was made with thallium.

Trial

Grills appeared in court charged with four murders and three attempted murders. The third attempted murder involved Eveline Lundberg, described as Christine Downey’s mother. She was convicted on 15 October 1953.

At her trial in the Central Criminal Court, Grills professed her innocence. She claimed that police had pressured her relations to convict her and that she “helped to live, not kill”.

On 15 October 1953, she was found guilty of attempted murder and sentenced to death.

The jury took 12 minutes to find her guilty. At her sentencing and on hearing the verdict, Grills declared: “I helped to live, not to kill.”

The Senior Crown Prosecutor Mick Rooney, QC, alleged that she was:

“a killer who poisoned for sport, for fun, for the kicks she got out of it, for the hell of it, for the thrill that she and she alone in the world knew the cause of the victims' suffering”.

On hearing the verdict, Grills declared:

“I helped to live, not to kill.”

Grills was reported to have been marked by outbursts of laughter in court, reinforcing ideas that she was a malevolent killer.

During the trial, it was described that her cases of murder were charged but that, in the end, those cases were dropped and she was convicted only of the attempted murder of Mrs Lundberg.

Sentencing

On 15 October 1953, Grills was sentenced to death.

Although her appeal was dismissed by the Court of Criminal Appeal in April 1954, her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

She was admitted to the State Reformatory for Women and spent the next six and a half years.

Appeals

Her appeal was dismissed by the Court of Criminal Appeal in April 1954.

Outcome

Her sentence was commuted to life imprisonment.

In October 1960, Grills was rushed to Prince Henry Hospital. She died of peritonitis on 6 October 1960 and was cremated with Anglican rites.

Her husband, daughter and three of her sons survived her.

Timeline

• 22 April 1908 — Caroline Mickelson married Richard William Grills at the district registrar’s office, Balmain South.
• 1948 — After the death of her father, Caroline inherited and moved into his home at Gladesville.
• November 1947 — Christina Mickelson died (investigated as part of suspected poisoning).
• January 1948 — Angelina Thomas became another suspected victim.
• Late 1948 — John Lundberg died (investigated as part of suspected poisoning).
• 11 May 1953 — Grills was arrested and charged with attempted murder of Mrs Eveline Lundberg and Mrs Christine Downey.
• 13 April 1953 — Tea given to Christine Downey and John Downey was tested and thallium was detected.
• 15 October 1953 — Grills was convicted of attempted murder and sentenced to death.
• April 1954 — Her appeal was dismissed by the Court of Criminal Appeal.
• October 1960 — Grills was rushed to Prince Henry Hospital and died on 6 October 1960.

Other details

Investigators described the method used as described poison commonly found in rat bait and noted that the method was described as virtually untraceable at the time.

A 1950s example was noted in which “the mother-in-law of prominent Balmain rugby league footballer Bobby Lulham was acquitted of poisoning him” (he became very ill but did not die).

A quote included from Tedeschi said:

“Seven people were the recipients of charity and kindness from Aunt Carrie [as she was known]”

A separate account described that soon afterwards thallium was banned from sale.