DR. MICKI PISTORIUS

Psychologist, Author & Profiler

Author: Dr. Micki Pistorius

Smelling a Rat – Rodenticides, Female Rat Poisoners
Apr 10 2025
Articles

Smelling a Rat – Rodenticides, Female Rat Poisoners

The standard answer “I bought the poison for rats” alerts experienced detectives to “smell a rat” and investigate female poisoners.  Rats are commensal, benefitting from human proximity.  They evolved millions of years ago in Asia and moved in with humans, for humans provided a readily available source of food, whether their crops, their granaries or […]

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Meddling and Peddling Poisons and Potions
Apr 3 2025
Articles

Meddling and Peddling Poisons and Potions

In Greek mythology, Medea, princess of Colchis, was regarded as a sorceress, an accomplished “pharmakeía” and is often depicted as a high-priestess of the goddess, Hecate. When Medea was abandoned by her husband Jason in favour of Glauke, princess of Corinth, she took revenge on her rival by sending her a dress and a crown […]

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Powerful Princesses and Policial Poisonings
Mar 27 2025
Articles

Powerful Princesses and Policial Poisonings

Where the motive of the 17th-century Spana Prosecution poisoners was to rid themselves of their abusive husbands, there exists another class of poisoners – those who use poison for political advancement. Long before the Renaissance trio of Thofiania d’Adamo, Giullia Tofana and Gironima Spana concocted the arsenic-based Aqua Tofana, Rome’s most famous poisoner was Locusta, […]

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Angels of Death- Tipping the Scales of Themis
Mar 6 2025
Articles

Angels of Death- Tipping the Scales of Themis

Themis is the Greek goddess of justice, divine order, law, and custom and her symbol is the Scales of Justice. Her Roman equivalent is Justitia.   She personifies divine law – “that which is put in place”.  Judges were often referred to as “themistopóloi” – the servants of Themis.  Many defence lawyers in Angel-of-Death nursing […]

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Mask of Tragedy – Munchausen by Proxy 
Feb 27 2025
Articles

Mask of Tragedy – Munchausen by Proxy 

Baron Hieronymus Karl Friedrich Freiherr von Münchhausen would entertain the 18th-century Germain aristocrats with stories about his escapades during the1735-1739 Russian-Turkish War, exaggerating to such an extent in 1785 it inspired the German author Rudolf Erich Raspe to write a book, titled Baron Munchausen’s Narrative of his Marvellous Travels and Campaigns in Russia, with a […]

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