Caroline Grills

Caroline Grills
Background information
Birth name	Caroline Mickelson
Born	1890 or 1888 New South Wales, Australia
Died	6 October 1960(1960-10-06)
Cause of death	Peritonitis from ruptured gastric ulcer
Killings
Number of victims	4
Span of killings	1947–1953
Country	Australia
State(s)	New South Wales
Date apprehended	April 1953

Caroline Grills, born Caroline Mickelson (1890 – October 1960), was an Australian serial killer.

Grills became a suspect in 1947 after the deaths of four family members: her 87-year-old stepmother Christine Mickelson; relatives by marriage Angelina Thomas and John Lundberg; and sister in law Mary Anne Mickelson. Authorities tested tea she had given to two additional family members (Christine Downey and John Downey) on 13 April 1953, and detected the poison thallium.

Grills appeared in court charged with four murders and three attempted murders (the third being Eveline Lundberg, Christine Downey's mother) in October 1953. She was convicted on 15 October 1953 and sentenced death, but her sentence was later changed to life in prison. She became affectionately known as "Auntie Thally" to other inmates of Sydney's Long Bay prison. In October 1960, she was rushed to the hospital where she died from peritonitis from a ruptured gastric ulcer.

References

• Hidden Evidence: Forty true crimes and how forensic science helped solve them by David Owen (Firefly Books, September 2000).
• Murder! 25 True Australian Crimes by Vivien Encel & Alan Sharpe