Bio

Yvonne Gladys Fletcher was born in 1922. Little else about her childhood appears in the material provided.

As an adult she lived in Newtown, an inner suburb of Sydney in New South Wales. She worked as a housewife and was described in reports as a domestic.

She had two small children from her first marriage. Her first husband was Desmond George Butler. She later married Bertram Henry "Bluey" Fletcher.

In reports of the time her home address was given as Ferndale Street, Newtown, and her second husband was described as a rat bait layer.

Murder Story

Yvonne Gladys Fletcher was born in 1922 and was charged with the deaths of two men she had been married to. The police classified her as a murderer and a poisoner. She was accused of killing Desmond George Butler, 30, and Bertrand "Bluey" Fletcher, 30.

The deaths were dated July 29, 1948, and March 23, 1952. The method reported was poisoning with thallium. The location was Newtown, New South Wales, Australia.

In the early 1950s several cases of thallium poisoning were noted in Australia. Thallium sulphate was then sold over the counter as a rat poison under the brand name "Thall-rat." The poison was readily available because of rat problems in inner-city suburbs.

Suspicion arose when neighbours and friends saw that Bluey Fletcher was suffering from the same illness that had killed Butler. Doctors at Royal Prince Alfred Hospital refused to sign a death certificate for the second husband. A post-mortem was carried out and samples were sent to the Government Analyst.

Detectives Fergusson and Fred Krahe led the police inquiry. They applied for and obtained permission to exhume Butler’s body on April 17. Tests on Butler’s remains showed clear evidence of thallium. The evidence from the exhumation led to charges against Yvonne Fletcher.

Mrs. Fletcher was arrested on May 19, 1952, and charged with the two murders. At her trial the jury found her guilty of killing Desmond Butler. The jury also recommended that the sale of thallium to the public be prohibited.

On September 23, 1952, Justice Kinsella sentenced Yvonne Fletcher to death for the murder of her first husband. Reports said she collapsed in the dock when the sentence was passed. The judge noted the evidence showed she had suffered at the hands of her second husband but that there was no evidence of that in the first husband’s case.

The death sentence was later commuted to life imprisonment after the New South Wales Government abolished the death penalty. She was eventually released in 1964. At the time, this case was reported as the first known Australian conviction for murder by administering thallium.

One of the arresting officers, Detective Fred Krahe, later became noted in reports for alleged connections to organised crime and for suspected involvement in the disappearance of Juanita Nielsen.