Daisy de melker biography of barack

Executed South African serial killer (1886–1932)

Daisy Louisa C. de Melker (néeHancorn-Smith; 1 June 1886 – 30 December 1932), simply known as Daisy de Melker, was a South Africannurse^[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.

De Melker is the second woman to have been hanged in South African criminal history.^[2]

De Melker was accused of three murders but only convicted of one, the killing of her son. The charges of poisoning her husbands were never proven in a court of law.^{[citation needed]} It was William Sproat, the younger brother of her second husband Robert, who accused De Melker because he wanted Robert's will in favour of De Melker declared invalid.^{[citation needed]} De Melker refused to refund an alleged loan from her mother-in-law, Jane Sproa