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ANGE:

From Schwartz Media, I’m Ange McCormack. This is 7am.

“Like a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma, a Beef Wellington is a tenderloin or fillet wrapped in a layer of mushrooms, inside puff pastry.”

That’s how writer Chloe Hooper begins to describe the events that have put a 48-year-old woman at the centre of international attention.

The mystery of the suspected death cap mushroom poisoning case has left three people in regional Victoria dead, and a global audience wondering how it happened.

Today, contributor to The Saturday Paper Chloe Hooper, on what’s known about the case, and why stories like this are so hard to resist.

It’s Tuesday, August 29.

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ANGE:

Chloe, I'm a really big fan of your true crime writing. I really love your books, The Arsonist especially, and The Tall Man. As a writer, what's drawn you to the story of Erin Patterson, the woman who served this lunch last month that has led to the deaths of three people.

CHLOE:

So I… I was interested because my partner's family come from South Gippsland, and he went to school in Korumburra and grew up in the next town, Poowong. So there was a, sort of, a local interest that I had in the story.

I knew that mushroom foraging was a part of my partner's childhood, and he tells of growing up on their dairy farm and his father actually chasing forages off the paddocks with a crowbar. There's a, sort of, cultural fixation in the region with fungi, and getting the right fungi. And you know, as kids you knew not to take the mushrooms near the trees, which were more likely to be Death Caps.

ANGE:

So, can you talk to me about what we do know, about this case and the series of events?

Audio excerpt – News Anchor:

“The cook, the diners, and one giant mystery. The case has captivated the nation. The death of three people…”

CHLOE:

So we know that a lunch was planned.

Audio excerpt – Ben Fordham:

“It was meant to be a family get together, but it turned into a triple tragedy. It started on July 29. Don and Gail Patterson dined with their friends, Ian and Heather Wilkinson. They were at the home of Erin Patterson. She's the former daughter in law of Don and Gayle.”

CHLOE:

And it was to be a chance to discuss the reconciliation of Erin Patterson and her estranged husband, Simon. And coming to the launch were Simon's parents, and Simon's aunt and uncle.

Audio excerpt – Reporter 1:

“Police say Erin prepares lunch, believed to be a beef Wellington pie, at her Leongatha home. Simon is supposed to be there too, but pulls out.”

CHLOE:

And his uncle, Ian Wilkinson, was the pastor at the local Korumburra Baptist Church, and he was to act as a mediator in this conversation about a potential rapprochement. We know that Simon pulled out of the lunch at the last minute, and Erin served Beef Wellington. And within a few days her four guests were in various hospitals with what initially appeared to be horrendous gastroenteritis.

Audio excerpt – Reporter 2:

“Her former in-laws Don and Gail Patterson, and Gail’s sister Heather Wilkinson, who all died a week later. Gail’s husband, pastor Ian Wilkinson, remains critically ill.”

CHLOE:

But very soon it was suspected that they had ingested death cap mushrooms. And that causes liver and kidney failure. And within a week, three of the guests were dead and the fourth, as far as we know, is still in a Melbourne hospital, awaiting a liver transplant.

ANGE:

Right. And initially there was a lot of focus on the fact that Erin herself hadn't been sick. But not long after that, a statement from her was leaked, which kind of corrected that record, right?

CHLOE:

A few days after her in-laws were struck very ill, Erin presented to the hospital, claiming also to feel unwell. Her time in the hospital, as the hospital’s reported, was brief and she didn't have significant issues. That could be because she was younger. And her children, she has claimed that she served leftover beef Wellington to the kids the next day, scraping out the mushrooms, which must be quite a difficult task, if you look at a beef Wellington, and that they had no ill effects. And beef Wellington… I actually did not know what a beef Wellington was. I did have to Google it, and then I realised it's this extraordinarily elaborate dish. It's a showstopper. It's your go-to dish to impress, according to Gordon Ramsay. And it takes an hour and 45 minutes, and it is a fillet, wrapped in mushrooms and maybe foie gras, and then wrapped in prosciutto, and then wrapped in pastry.

ANGE:

Right. And Erin is at the centre of this story, and she has had some brief appearances in media. What has she said about this case, and what has she said about what she believes happened?

CHLOE:

Well, she came out and fronted the media and got on the front foot and talked about how devastated she was by these deaths and said that her mother in law had been like a mother to her, and she would never have done anything to hurt her, and that she was, you know, devastated for her children, who had lost their grandmother.

Audio excerpt – Erin Patterson:

“Gail was the mum that I didn’t have, because my mum passed away four years ago, and Gail’s never been anything but good and kind to me. And Ian and Heather were some of the best people I’ve ever met. They never did anything wrong to me, and I’m so devastated about what's happened.”

CHLOE:

It must be terrible to suddenly have, you know, 20 reporters camped outside your door. And I don't know who would actually do well, under those conditions. But it is true that Ms Patterson has a fairly blunt style, and when one reporter door stopped her and asked, you know, about her well-being, she replied that she was shithouse.

Audio excerpt – Reporter 3:

“Erin, how are you going?”

Audio excerpt – Erin Patterson:

“I’m going [redacted] thanks for asking, and you guys aren’t helping.”

ANGE:

And I think it’s raised a lot of interest around the country. It's actually been really hard to escape this story. You know, every minor detail from how one prepares a beef Wellington to, you know, what could have been discussed at the lunch, you know, that's all been dissected. What have you noticed about the reaction to this story?

CHLOE:

Well, it's actually international. It's also hit a nerve overseas.

Audio excerpt – Reporter 4:

“There's been another development in the case of suspected mushroom poisoning.”

Audio excerpt – Reporter 5:

“The bizarre tragedy, now grabbing global headlines. Was it accidental?”

Audio excerpt – Reporter 6:

“Police say their symptoms are consistent with poisoning by death cap mushrooms. No charges have been filed.”

CHLOE:

And there has been an extraordinary amount of commentary on this also, online, in various forums.

Audio excerpt – Speaker:

“Can you imagine you eat that food just to be polite, and then it tastes gross and you die?”

Audio excerpt – Speaker:

“But then why didn't she eat them? I mean, that's a little bit suspicious, in my opinion. I don't know.”

CHLOE:

I have a theory that, you know, in this day and age, we actually trade true crime stories a bit like folktales.

They become these narratives about people's hopes and dreams and fears and desires, in a little bit the same way, you know, people told myths around a campfire.

And I think that in folktales, when somebody dies, it's almost as though the death isn't really real.

It's just a, kind of, plot device. And I feel as though there is a, sort of, element of unreality, too, in the deaths of Erin Patterson’s in-laws. We have this, kind of, salacious interest in this story while we can, kind of, put to the other side of our brain that really horrible way, it must be, to die.

ANGE:

Coming up, the moral dilemma of being obsessed with mysterious deaths.

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ANGE:

Chloe, you've been writing about true crime for 20 or so years now. What have you noticed about how the genre and our interest in it has changed over time?

CHLOE:

Well, I mean, we've always been interested in these tales, because they reveal so much about human nature and we love examining them and holding them apart and sort of almost saying, you know, we would never find ourselves in these circumstances or do these things ourselves. I'm amazed at the way this genre has proliferated. It's so mainstream. There's so much clickbait. There are so many podcasts. There are so many television programs and, sort of, limited edition series that take in these tales. So, they seem to be, you know, as I said, the folktales of our day, which we use to be titillated and also, we use them as as kind of morality plays, I think, that help us orientate ourselves in the world. They’re, sort of, warnings about how to live. I guess one thing we learn is, perhaps, how we deal with the people around us, how we settle conflicts. I think that sometimes these stories appeal to our own sort of dark side, of what we would do if there were no rules.

ANGE:

Right. So relating less to the victim, and actually more to someone who did something.

CHLOE:

I think people attach to these stories, you know, for both reasons. For.. with, kind of, horror and to, sort of… and we like the baddie to be with, sort of, broad clear outlines. And actually, as Ms Patterson has said, the media has portrayed her as an evil witch. And, you know, that is a character that we're very comfortable with.

ANGE:

Visualising, yeah.

CHLOE:

Yeah. Visualising and, and having in a story and, sort of, talking about a kind of wickedness. And especially when her, her in-laws seem to have been very upstanding people who did a lot in the community. But I also think that we attach to these characters too, because there's a sort of, you know, “would we do that?”

ANGE:

And because we're talking about real people you can wonder, at what point could a person like yourself turn bad.

CHLOE:

Yes. And maybe, you know, part of the kind of... Yes, the thrill of the story is, imagining that.

ANGE:

I have plenty of mixed feelings about this story and my consumption of it as well, because I've been obsessed with finding out the details of it, but I've also been oscillating with guilt about being so obsessed with it and feeling a bit uneasy and, kind of, sickened by my own fascination with it. Because, you know, if you put yourself in the shoes of the family and if I was in that family, I wouldn't want this, kind of, voyeurism aimed at my own life and tragedy. How do you think our relationship with guilt plays into our attraction to true crime?

CHLOE:

I guess what is the right ethical response. I mean, I think the important thing is to remain aware that this is not fiction. This isn't a, kind of, episode of Midsomer Murders, where various people die in a beautiful rural setting. It's a family’s tragedy.

You know, once we might have turned from a story like this because it was scary, whereas now we turn from it because it's prurient. So it's interesting where we hit the off button these days.

I suppose that goes back to the sort of mass market appeal of true crime. And this sells newspapers. And there is a, kind of, a commercial engine that drives the proliferation of these… of these tales.

ANGE:

Chloe, thanks so much for your time today.

CHLOE:

Thanks for having me.

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ANGE:

Also in the news today…

One of Australia’s top mining executives has quit after only six months in the job.

Fiona Hick, the CEO of Andrew Forrest’s Fortescue Metals, resigned on Monday after the company posted disappointing yearly results that wiped $3 billion dollars off the value of the company.

And,

The founder of Foxconn, which has manufactured most of the world’s iPhones, has announced he’ll run for the presidency of Taiwan.

Terry Gou announced his candidacy by saying Taiwan should have closer ties with mainland China, where Foxconn operates several factories.

I’m Ange McCormack, this is 7am. We’ll be back again tomorrow.

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