RECIPE FOR MURDER - a 55 minute documentary in production

A Stray Dog Pictures Production for Jumping Dog Productions
Producer: Susan Lambert
Writer/Director: Sonia Bible

Synopsis:

Sydney, the early fifties. All the ingredients for a murder epidemic were in place... poverty, alcohol, and a generation of war-damaged men. What followed was a real-life crime wave mirroring the classic cinematic style of film noir. From mid 1952 to the end of 1953, more than a hundred people were poisoned and, scandalously, most of the poisoners were women.

The femme fatale was alive and killing.

The roots of the killing spree date back to the lean years of WWII when Sydney’s rat population exploded. Following outbreaks of bubonic plague, NSW became the only state in Australia and the only place in the developed world to allow the heavy metal rat poison Thallium. With no smell, no colour and no taste, Thallium became the lethal ingredient of choice in a Recipe For Murder. Women added the poison to cakes and cups of tea and fed it to their unsuspecting husbands and relatives, with deadly consequences.

Release date: 2011
ABC TV1
International distribution: ABC Commercial

Copyright Jumping Dog Productions Pty Ltd. 2010