Erin Patterson has spent most of the last two-and-a-half years locked up in the isolation unit of a Victorian prison for callously killing her loved ones, but recently the mushroom murderer was moved into general population – and prison sources say she’s wasted no time becoming the ruling inmate.
“She’s shrewd and conniving and has teamed up with a second inmate,” a prison source told the Daily Mail.
“They both now run the prison.”
TICKET TO THE TOP
Patterson, 51, was sentenced to life in prison with a 33-year non-parole period last September for killing her in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, as well as Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson with a death cap mushroom-laced beef Wellington.
She was also found guilty of attempting to murder Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson, who survived the deadly lunch at Patterson’s home in Leongatha, Victoria, in July 2023.
During her sentence hearing, Justice Christopher Beale noted Patterson would likely spend a long time in the prison’s isolation wing due to the notoriety and media attention her case garnered around the world.
But the prison source says this notoriety could have been Patterson’s ticket to the top position amongst her fellow inmates.
“Unlike others in the unit, she’s not loud, not brash, and certainly not remorseful. Some inmates will keep their distance, unnerved by her silence and the sheer notoriety of her crime,” the source shared.
“But others will be curious and even drawn to her, fascinated by her worldwide media attention. Erin’s ability to play the long game could make her a force to be reckoned with, especially if she goes ‘gay for the stay’ like so many others. She could team up with anyone really.”
NOTORIOUS INMATES
While it’s not known who Patterson could be ruling the prison with, there’s no shortage of killers, paedophiles and drug smugglers to help her exert her influence over her fellow inmates.
One could be gangland matriarch Judy Moran, who’s spent the last 15 years locked up at Dame Phyllis Frost Centre after she was convicted of killing her brother-in-law Desmond Moran in June 2009.
In 2024, Moran and her supporters revealed they were going ahead with a petition of mercy bid – with prison sources claiming Moran’s quality of life had become wheelchair-bound and hospitalised with a serious condition since she arrived at the facility in 2011.
But as of May last year, that application was never submitted, and Moran is continuing to serve her 26-year sentence.
Also confined inside the walls of Dame Phyllis Frost is school principal-turned-convicted child sex offender Malka Leifer, who’s currently serving a 15-year prison sentence for sexually abusing three students in her care from 2003 to 2007.
Prior to moving into general population, Patterson’s cell in the isolation unit has been described by a former inmate as a “box smaller than our toilets”, while also enduring conditions that have been compared to “torture”.
“We were going days without water,” former inmate Ashleigh Chapman told The Saturday Paper.
“We were getting quite sick and a lot of us had lost weight.”
SIMON’S TELL-ALL
While Patterson is busy ruling the roost behind bars, her estranged husband Simon is writing a tell-all memoir that could see him earn $1 million.
“He will allow his story to be told through the book and that’s how he wants his words to be heard,” Simon’s spokesperson Jessica O’Donnell told The Guardian.
“I would imagine there will be a lot of poeple who would like to understand Simon’s point of view.”
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