Daisy de Melker

“You look like Daisy de Melker” is a well known saying in South Africa. Often used by older people and meaning your hair is wild and unruly. So well known and ingrained is Daisy de Melker’s story in the South African culture that strange tasting food will always be joked about as having been prepared by Daisy de Melker.

With the dubious distinction of being only the second woman in South Africa to be hanged to death, Daisy de Melker is one of South Africa’s more notorious serial killers.

She was a trained nurse living in South Africa in Johannesburg. Born near Grahamstown on 1 June 1886, she was one of eleven children. Daisy moved between South Africa and the then Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) where her father and two brothers lived.

It was in Rhodesia where she met Bert Fuller and fell in love. Unfortunately Bert died of blackwater fever on the day that they were getting married. He left his grieving fiancée £100 in his will.

In my humble opinion, this is where the idea was born. Bert's death wasn't planned but the monetory effect of his death had to have made an impact on Daisy.

Back in South Africa, 18 months later, she met plumber Alfred Cowle. She was 22 and Alfred was 36. They got married in March 1909 and had five children, with only Rhodes Cecil Cowle, born in June 1911, surviving.

After preparing some Epsom salts for Alfred on 11 January 1923, he fell seriously ill, and a very concerned Daisy called the doctor to come help her husband. Convinced it wasn’t serious, the doctor only prescribed a bromide mixture. With Alfred only getting worse, Daisy called the neighbours and summoned another doctor. But it was too late, with the new doctor looking on, Alfred Cowle died an excruciating death. The doctor refused to sign a death certificate as he recognised the signs of strychnine poisoning. An autopsy was performed and the cause of death was certified as chronic nephritis and cerebral haemorrhage. The grieving widow inherited £1795.

Three years to the day after her first husband’s death, on 11 January 1926, Daisy, now aged 36, married another plumber, Robert Sproat. Robert fell ill with the same symtoms as her first husband but recovered. After drinking beer in the presence of his wife and son a few weeks later, on 6 November 1927 Robert died. The cause of death was certified as arteriosclerosis and cerebral haemorrhage. Daisy inherited £4000, with an extra £560 paid out by Robert’s pension fund.

Daisy got married a third time on 21 January 1931 to Sydney de Melker, another plumber. 13 months after her marriage, it happened again. But no, this time it was her son who became violently ill after drinking coffee at work that his mother had sent with him. A friend had a little as well but fortunately recovered after being sick but Rhodes Cecil Cowle was not so lucky. He died three days later on 5 March 1932. He was only 20. His postmortem showed that he died from cerebral malaria. Daisy received £100 from his life insurance policy.

William Sprout, Robert’s younger brother, became suspicious after Rhodes’s death. He contacted the police and an exhumation order was obtained for all three men's bodies. Rhodes Cowle’s body contained traces of arsenic and the bodies of Robert Sproat and Alfred Cowle contained traces of strychnine. Traces of arsenic were also found in the hair and nails of Rhodes’s friend who had survived.

Daisy de Melker was arrested a week later and charged for the murders of the three men. With the wide publicity this trial received, a chemist contacted the police. He had recognized Daisy from her photograph in the newspaper as the woman who came to him a few weeks before the death of Rhodes Cowle to buy arsenic to give a sick cat. The woman signed her name as Mrs DL Sproat.

The reason why Daisy decided to kill her son had never been explained. Some people speculated that it was because Rhodes expected an inheritance at 21. Another theory had his mother just being tired of his laziness and being a burden on her though witnesses had come forward who described him as a “real gentleman” and conciencious worker. The real reason will probably never be known.

The trial lasted 30 days and attracted huge public interest. Some people queued for hours to ensure a place in court.

Daisy de Melker was found guilty of murdering her son, Rhodes Cecil Cowle, and received the death penalty. Not enough evidence existed that Robert Sproat and Alfred Cowle died of strychnine poisoning though. She was hanged on 30 December 1932 in Pretoria.

At the same time that William Sproat contacted the police, he also accused Daisy of not paying back a loan his and Robert's mother had made the couple. Apparently Robert's mother had made them a loan and William wanted the money back and the will declared illegal. But Daisy argued that it was a gift. He won the civil case against Daisy but unfortunately Daisy had to sell all her assets to pay her legal fees. She was declared insolvent and when she died, she was buried in a prison pauper's grave.