Throughout the 1940s and 50s in Australia, thallium poisoning was a popular method of murder. The cases that come immediately to mind are of Sydney housewife Yvonne Fletcher, who murdered her two husbands in 1948 and 1952 with thallium-laced roast dinners. Then there is arguably the most famous poisoner of them all, Sydney grandmother and geriatric serial killer, Carolyn Grills, who we have looked at on Crime File. Granny Grills did away with five family friends and relatives with Devonshire teas and delicious thallium laced home-made scones and cream between 1947 and 1953.

But when it came to intrigue and drama, the 1953 case of the thallium poisoning of one of Australia’s most famous and loved rugby league players of the time, Bobby Lulham, leaves them all for dead … if you’ll pardon the pun.

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