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Daisy de Melker: Hiding Among Killers in the City of Gold (2023)
R160.00
In stock
Only 1 left
SKU
24807
Quick Overview
A true crime classic about Daisy de Melker in ragtime Joburg –a city of murder, mayhem and gold.
Ted Botha takes the reader into the underbelly of Johannesburg in the 1920s and 1930s as he traces the fascinating story of the mysterious Daisy de Melker, who was hanged for poisoning her son. Many also believed she poisoned two husbands for their life insurance money.
In the shadow of ever-growing mine dumps, she went about her business quietly and unnoticed–the most unlikely of killers. Even though people close to her kept dying, no one suspected a thing for twenty years. When someone finally spoke up, it led to one of South Africa’s most sensational trials.
De Melker’s story unfolds in tandem with those of colourful Johannesburg characters of the same period such as the Foster Gang, Herman Charles Bosman, the dashing conman Baron von Veltheim and a Bonny-and-Clyde-style couple, Dicky Mallalieu and Gwen Tolputt. Some cross paths with each other and also those of famous writers of era such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Sarah Gertrude Millin.
Mother. Nurse. Gold-digger. Cause célèbre. When Daisy de Melker stood trial in 1932, accused of poisoning her son and two husbands, the public couldn't get enough of her. Crowds gathered outside court baying for blood, and she waved to them like a celebrity. Against the backdrop of Johannesburg in its golden age, a booming metropolis of opulence and chaos nicknamed the 'City of Gold' and the 'University of Crime', she had quietly gone about her sinister business while around her sensational crimes grabbed the headlines.
There was the marauding Foster Gang, which left at least ten people dead; a dashing German hustler; a local Bonnie and Clyde; an innocent student walking in Zoo Lake park at the wrong time and a man who escaped death row to become one of South Africa's most revered authors. These interlinking stories are told in the style of a thriller and with riveting, kaleidoscopic detail.
In Daisy de Melker , Ted Botha weaves together a fantastic cast of killers and con men, detectives and lawmen, journalists and authors - even Sir Arthur Conan Doyle and Herman Charles Bosman - to depict a grand and desperate city. For almost twenty years Daisy hid in the shadows but when someone finally spoke up about the suspicious deaths around her, it led to a trial like nothing the City of Gold had ever seen and spread her name across the world.
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| Author | Ted Botha |
|---|---|
| Publisher | Jonathan Ball Publishers |
| Place | London |
| Year | 2023-05-08 |
| ISBN | 9781776192779 |
| Binding | Paperback |
| Condition | Good |
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