In The Mushroom Murders, Greg Haddrick places the focus on the evidence presented at Erin Patterson’s trial and how the jury was convinced of her guilt, and uncovers details not widely known in the media. Photo: Supplied.
This title speaks volumes. In The Mushroom Murders, Logie Award-winning screenwriter and film and television producer Greg Haddrick follows the trial of Erin Patterson, who was convicted on 7 July of three counts of murder and one count of attempted murder after serving a lunch of ”homemade beef Wellingtons laced with toxic death cap mushrooms” on 29 July, 2023, in Leongatha, Victoria.
On 8 September, Supreme Court judge Justice Christopher Beale sentenced Patterson, 50, to three life sentences plus a further 25 years for attempted murder. She will be eligible for parole in 33 years.
Patterson’s trial would likely be the biggest crime of the century — if the bulk of criminal activity were quantified by the word count about her in print, podcasts or online.
As Haddrick elaborates in the preface: “Yet the sheer volume of evidence presented over the course of a nine-week trial meant there was still so much detail unreported. And so much context surrounding that detail was missing, mainly because the order in which it was reported was the order in which it emerged at trial, not the order in which it had happened in the lives of the participants.
“Erin began her trial as a woman presumed to be innocent … The jurors at Erin’s trial were firmly instructed that the presumption of innocence was the opening position in the eyes of the law. They could only find her guilty through paying careful attention to the evidence presented to them in the courtroom. No other stories, articles, anecdotes or opinions counted. It was just the evidence.
“… Based on only the admissible evidence, the jury had to be convinced that Erin had intended to kill, beyond reasonable doubt. It was far from easy.”
Haddrick admits he has no idea who the real jurors were in the Patterson trial as he has not approached or spoken to any of them. None of this is based on any knowledge of the real jury room or their actual deliberations. Nevertheless, he knows the pressure those jurors were under — with the spotlight of global attention upon them — must have been immense.
“All the evidence our narrator discusses in the book comes directly from, and only from, the evidence those jurors heard and saw during the trial,” Haddrick writes. “Like all of us, our narrator has her own strengths, flaws and opinions, and she does speculate. But where she does engage in speculation, it is clearly identified as separate from the evidence that leads to her verdict — and it reveals some surprising insights into police methodology along the way.
“For a jury to return a unanimous guilty verdict, all twelve jurors must believe the accused is guilty. But they do not have to agree on why they believe that person is guilty. The presiding judge will tell the jury this at the commencement of every jury trial. Each juror can reach their conclusion via a different path.
“This narrative uses a fictional juror to tell the story of just one of those paths.”
Haddrick tells a captivating inside story of the dramatic murder trial, and the forensic evidence that convinced the jury to convict a suburban mother of a gruesome triple murder. With many details not previously revealed in the media, it is the compelling story of a troubled family, and the world’s most poisonous mushroom, which is readily found in parks and gardens.
For weeks, new information had poured out about the events that led to the deaths of Don Patterson, Gail Patterson and Heather Wilkinson, and the near-death of Ian Wilkinson.
Haddrick maintains there were “… so many details omitted from the media’s daily summaries of the proceedings that make this a much bigger story than people realise.”
The Mushroom Murders imagines the journey one of those jurors might have taken to reach their verdict. The story here is told to us by a fictional juror because Haddrick wants us to feel they are on that journey with the jury.
This is the shocking story of a weekend lunch and a triple homicide trial that gripped the world and shattered families.
Haddrick, whose other credits include the television series Underbelly, Janet King and Pine Gap, chronicles an engaging course of events. He is also the author of In the Dead of Night, about the Wonnangatta Valley murders, which was shortlisted for the 2025 Danger Awards.
The Mushroom Murders, by Greg Haddrick, Allen & Unwin, $34.99
