Daisy Louisa C. de Melker (née Hancorn-Smith; 1 June 1886 – 30 December 1932), simply known as Daisy de Melker, was a South African nurse[1] who was accused of poisoning two husbands with strychnine for their life insurance money; all she was found guilty of, however, was poisoning her only son with arsenic for reasons which are still unclear.

[citation needed] William won the civil case regarding the will, which ran concurrently with the murder trial, and was awarded costs.

William's was a pyrrhic victory, however; to pay her exorbitant legal costs, De Melker had to sell off all her assets.

[citation needed] On one of her holidays in Rhodesia, Daisy fell in love with a young man named Bert Fuller, a civil servant in the Native Affairs Department at Broken Hill.

[citation needed] In March 1909, about eighteen months after Fuller's death, Daisy married William Alfred Cowle, a plumber in Johannesburg.

[citation needed] Early on the morning of 11 January 1923, William Cowle became ill soon after taking epsom salts prepared by his wife.

[citation needed] Faced with these symptoms, the second doctor suspected strychnine poisoning and refused to sign the death certificate.

In October 1927, Robert became violently ill, suffering excruciating pain and severe muscle spasms similar to those experienced by Cowle.

[citation needed] Late in February 1932, Daisy had travelled from Germiston on the East Rand to Turffontein, to obtain arsenic from a chemist.

Less than a week later, on 2 March 1932, Rhodes, aged 20, fell ill at work after drinking coffee from a thermos flask his mother had prepared for him.

[citation needed] By this time, Daisy's former brother-in-law, William Sproat, raised his suspicions concerning his brother Robert's death to the authorities.

Rhodes' remains were found to be in an unusually good state of preservation, which is characteristic of the presence of arsenic in large quantities.

The Turffontein chemist, Mr. Abraham Spilkin, from whom she had bought the arsenic that killed her son, contacted police after he recognized de Melker from a newspaper photograph as being "Mrs D.L.

In summing up, before giving his verdict, the judge pointed out that the Crown had been unable to prove conclusively that Cowle and Sproat had died of strychnine poisoning.

This was evident because: When the judge finally turned to pass sentence on De Melker, her face went pale but she still proclaimed her innocence.