Petrus de Beer

An outing by train in January 1926, for the de Beer family, of Fort Beaufort, Cape Province, had a sinister ending when Mrs. de Beer died in agony from strychnine poisoning.

During the journey her husband, Petrus de Beer, bought three glasses of ginger ale – one for his wife, one for the children’s governess, and one for the governess’s sister who was travelling with them. The sister said she saw de Beer put some powder in his wife’s glass, and an incriminating bottle was later found at the de Beer home.

Police discovered that de Beer had been making sexual propositions to his children’s governess, and they decided that the two were in a plot to get rid of Mrs. de Beer. Both were tried for murder. The governess was acquitted, and de Beer was hanged on Friday, July 30th, 1926, at East London Central Prison.