While the world first learned of Erin Patterson after the deadly lunch at her home in July 2023, there’s speculation her dark nature could have been hiding under the surface for much longer.
According to criminologist Xanthe Mallett, not even her loved ones knew how dangerous she could be.
“There’s nothing remarkable about her,” Xanthe tells Woman’s Day.
“She’s a middle-aged, middle-class woman who’s very average looking… you wouldn’t really notice her as she doesn’t stand out, but obviously she had these murderous proclivities that nobody knew about.”
Xanthe also notes the use of death caps to poison Don, Gail, Heather and Ian also demonstrates a cold nature.
“Poisoning is one of the most violent ways to murder someone given the length of time if takes for somebody to succumb, and just the torturous way it actually kills people,” she says.
“For somebody to be able to sit there and know they’ve cooked something that is going to cause that level of harm and likely death takes a really cold individual.”
“A LITTLE BIT STRANGE”
During the trial, many who knew the Mushroom Killer are starting to open up about what she was really like.
A former colleague who worked with Patterson – then going by her family surname Scutter – as an air traffic controller in the early 2000s told the ABC she was “quite aggressive in the way she spoke to people” and that people were “wary” of her changeable moods.
Another called her “a little bit strange”.
One recalled how the murderer was known as “Scutter the Nutter” and “crazy Erin” by her co-workers.
They allege that on one occasion she prank called into Air Services Australia pretending to be a colleague.
She imitated them saying she was too sick to work, so in turn she could pick up more lucrative shifts.
“I think that she’s not as clever as she thinks,” said one former colleague.
