Black Widow : the true story of Australia's first female serial killer / Carol Baxter.
Publication details: Crows Nest, NSW : Allen & Unwin, 2015.Description: 366 pages : portrait ; 24 cmISBN:- 9781743315019
- 1743315015
- Collins, Louisa, 1848-1889
- Women serial murderers -- Australia -- Sydney (N.S.W.) -- Case studies
- Serial murders -- New South Wales -- Sydney -- History
- Women poisoners -- New South Wales -- Sydney
- Women serial murderers -- New South Wales -- Sydney
- Women murderers -- New South Wales
- True crime stories -- New South Wales
- Trials (Murder) -- New South Wales
- Women serial murderers
- Serial murders -- Australia -- History
- Women murderers -- New South Wales
- True crime stories -- New South Wales
- True crime stories -- New South Wales -- Sydney
- Trials (Murder) -- New South Wales -- Sydney
- Biography & True Stories
- Australian
- 364.152/3082 23
| Item type | Home library | Collection | Call number | Status | Date due | Barcode | Item reserves | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Book | Melbourne Athenaeum Library | Biography | 364.152 BAX | Available | 058940 |
Record machine-generated from publisher information.
Includes bibliographical references (pages 351-358) and index.
She was known as 'The Botany Murderess' or 'Lucrezia Borgia of Botany Bay'. Found guilty of using arsenic to murder both her first and second husbands, Louisa Collins' case immediately became the cause célèbre of Australia. The thought of a woman murdering her husband was bad enough, but doing it twice... Collins was brought to trial three times, only for each of the hung juries to be dismissed. Eventually she was found guilty and sentenced to death at her fourth trial in 1888, the result provoking community outrage and claims of an official vendetta. Louisa Collins was executed in 1889. This is a rich and detailed story told in the way only Carol Baxter can, bringing to life so many of the human aspects of our colonial history.
