My BOOKS
The Secret Art of Poisoning
How did a serial killer from the 19th century almost get away with murder? And what were the circumstances that led to two infamous poisoners in one family?
At the end of the 19th century, Martha Needle became known as ‘The Black Widow’ of the Richmond poisoning case after secretly poisoning her husband and children.
The Black Widow was a media sensation in her day, as infamous as Ned Kelly (even sharing the same lawyer). After poisoning her husband and two of her children, Needle became obsessed with the kind-hearted son of a Danish immigrant and began picking off his brothers one by one. Reported as far afield as the New York Times, Martha’s story was front page news in Australia, edging out many stories of the day that remain in the public consciousness today. And yet very few remember Martha Needle’s name.
Stranger still a generation later Martha Needle’s nephew Alexander Lee seemed to follow in his aunt’s footsteps when he poisoned his wife and three of his children.
What strange quirk of fate led these two relatives connected through family to commit virtually the same crime? And was their fate at the end of a rope the true end of the story?
This story explores these crimes and the social and historical context surrounding them.
RR Price: Paperback $29.99 ebook $4.99
Available in Adelaide at bookstores: Dymocks Adelaide, Mostly Books Mitcham, the Maritime Museum and the Old Adelaide Gaol.
Book can be ordered direct from me (with Paypal payment) at: samanthabattams@gmail.com
Or Paperback available online here: Booktopia, Amazon, Book Depository, Google Books, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, Foyles, Angus & Robertson, Wordery, etc
Available as an ebook: books2read.com/secretartofpoisoning
Bookstores: the book can be ordered directly from Ingram Sparks or if in Adelaide, direct from me at: samanthabattams@gmail.com
The Red Devil: The story of South Australian Aviation Pioneer Captain Harry Butler
(Parsons & Battams)
In the 1920s, Captain Harry Butler AFC returned to South Australia a war hero, bringing with him two aircraft and dreams of starting an industry which 100 years later is so commonplace it is hard to imagine the struggles of its infancy.
With his little crimson Bristol monoplane, dubbed the Red Devil, Captain Butler inspired many thousands as he put on aerial stunt shows in support of peace loan efforts, that helped to heal the deep scars of WW1. Butler was hailed as a top aviator, leaving a legacy that continues to this day, yet has been largely forgotten. Among Butler’s many accomplishments, he made the first airmail crossing over a significant body of water in the southern hemisphere. Butler set up with the famous engineer Harry Kauper the first passenger flight business in South Australia and established what became the first commonwealth government airport in Adelaide. He was also a founding member of the SA Aero Club in 1919. This detailed biography explores Butler’s childhood in the tiny farming community of Minlaton where he was inspired by stories of early flight experimentation, his forceful ambition to get into pilot training in England, his role as a senior flight instructor in the Royal Flying Corps training 2700 pilots and the defence of England. The book also explores early postal history and the fate of The Red Devil monoplane, the last remaining aeroplane of its kind in the world.
The book was launched at the 100th anniversary celebrations of Harry Butler's flight from Adelaide to Minlaton, in Minlaton on the evening of the 3rd August 2019 and at the SA Aviation Museum 17th August 2019.
Published by Wakefield Press (2019) now available here
![The Red Devil CVR V3[1].jpg](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/9f9347_ee98cca44c7e476dbc5ec9d063f4f7be~mv2_d_1843_2764_s_2.jpg/v1/crop/x_0,y_15,w_1843,h_2735/fill/w_281,h_417,al_c,q_80,usm_0.66_1.00_0.01,enc_avif,quality_auto/The%20Red%20Devil%20CVR%20V3%5B1%5D.jpg)
The Rhynie Poisoning Case: The True Crimes of Alexander Newland Lee
Was Lee a callous murderer, or innocent as he maintained?
At the end of the First World War, Alexander Newland Lee was accused of poisoning his wife and three children.
Born at World’s End, Lee was a destitute labourer who severely injured his hand in a farm accident. Recovering at The Willows Hospital in the Barossa Valley, he fell in love with nurse Dolly Scholz, an attractive young woman of Prussian-German descent. The setting was post World War I, a time when her community was ostracised.
When Lee was arrested for murder at Rhynie and put on trial, the case attracted strong interest from members of the community. They crawled over the gates of the Supreme Court to try to get a seat in the public gallery and a glimpse of the accused. It was deemed one of the most sensational criminal cases in South Australian history, and people waited outside the court in their hundreds to learn of Lee’s fate.
Strangely, a generation earlier, his Auntie Martha Needle, known as ‘The Richmond Poisoner,’ was hanged in the Old Melbourne Gaol for a similar crime. Did Lee know about his infamous Auntie? Alexander always maintained his innocence, claiming that his wife had committed the crimes.
Lee's death sentence led to the first protest against capital punishment in South Australia, in what the press dubbed a ‘Proposed Execution Holiday.’ The date of the hanging was set for 15 July 1920, the day H.R.H. Prince of Wales was visiting the state. This story explores Lee’s crimes and trial set amidst the post WWI social context.
RRP $29.99
Paperback available at: Old Adelaide Gaol bookshop, Ingram Sparks, Amazon.
Online at many books stores: https://books2read.com/u/me9EaY
Paving the Way: Pioneer Ancestors from England, Ireland, Prussia and Bavaria to South Australia and New Zealand
Paving the Way traces the author’s family history, from England, Ireland, Prussia and Bavaria to the Colony of South Australia. The story commences with an adoption story, as the author searches the genetic origins of her deceased father, which spurs further research on the European pioneer ancestors of South Australia, who all arrived from 1837 to 1853.
This story includes Kavel’s people, a group of Prussians who with the support of George Fife Angas, founder of the South Australia Company, fled religious persecution – although one ancestor (Schulz) was accused by Pastor Kauffman of leaving Europe for earthly fortune. They were heavily involved in establishing Lutheran Aboriginal Missions. It also follows pioneer Barossa Valley winemaker Johann Gramp, originally from Bavaria, who came to the Colony as an 18-year-old orphan, he first arrived in Kangaroo Island with the South Australia Company and later founded an empire. Upon further exploring the Gramp/Schulz family, a scandalous family rumour is discovered.
The story also traces the arrival of the Fahy family, which starts when Edmund Fahy and his two younger sisters (one only 10 years old) leave Clare, Ireland. He is sponsored by Edward Stirling to work in the mining town of Kapunda, whilst his sisters are sent to a relative in Mount Gambier, where Edmund’s son becomes a pioneer of Moorak.
It also explores the adoptive ‘White’ family, who spent time in the far north of the state (Mt Serle) where there were strong tensions with local Aboriginal tribes, before returning to the city. Grandfather White was the first person to return to Europe via the 6th Field Artillery Brigade in the First World War, and upon his return to Australia had soldier settler land at Minnipa on the Eyre Peninsula.
The book also traces the famous Rumbelow family of Encounter Bay; known as fishermen, they also commenced the first tourist operations in the area. The book also includes the lesser known Lomman family, pioneers of Paradise and Athelstone, and the Battams family, pioneers of Payneham, Norwood and Moorook, Riverland. Daniel Battams struck gold on the Victorian goldfields and was a key person in the establishment of Adelaide but suffered mixed fortunes.
This family history also examines a family line who were pioneers in New Zealand – including Elizabeth Heslop who married Master Mariner Captain Charles Miller but left him and became a bigamist when she married her second husband who she emigrated with to Victoria. He soon becomes well-known in Melbourne through his scandals which are reported on in the daily newspapers. But whilst this story was being written and DNA technology improved, another secret is revealed and ancestors who for many generations were thought to be biological ancestors were clearly not.
The story is set in the social and historical context of the six generations which is spans, with vignettes on interesting characters. It reflects on the nature of families and social change, particularly for women, and the impacts of colonisation for Aboriginal people in South Australia.
$RRP 34.99
Paperback available at: Booktopia, Ingram Sparks, Amazon.
Online at: Amazon
Bookstores: the book can be ordered directly from Ingram Sparks or if in Adelaide, direct from me at: samanthabattams@gmail.com
