CURRY & CYNIDE: THE JOLLY JOSEPH CASE

The Kerala cyanide killings were a series of unnatural

deaths, suspected to be murders, that occurred in a
district of Kerala. The crimes were investigated in late
2019, involving the mystery of 6 deaths over a span of 14
years. The prime suspect of these killing was likely to be
Jolly Joseph. She used cyanide to kill her family members
largely with the intention of gaining control over their
properties.
All these killing begin when Jolly met Roy Thomas (her
husband), jolly used to mention that she was highly
educated and her dream is far beyond being a housewife.
When she married Roy Thomas, she told her family
members that she got a job as a temporary lecturer in
NIT Calicut. In reality, she did not really have a job.
Jolly’s victims included (a) her husband: whom she killed
because of financial crises, (b) mother in law: cuz she was
suspecting Jolly of her fake education qualification,
(c)father in law: whom she killed to get hold of the
properties, (d) Roy’s maternal uncle: whom she killed cuz
he asked for post mortem of his nephew, (e)her second
husband’s wife: whom she killed to marry her husband as
he was rich enough to give the life she wanted. (f)her
step daughter: whom she killed because she was too
small (2 yrs) to be taken care of.
Jolly’s killing spree started in 2002 and after every killing
she convinced everyone around her that the deaths were
totally natural and made-up stories so there would be no
room for suspicion.
About the poison, cyanide, it shows no reaction on the
skin and if someone consumes it, the person is likely to
be dead in 10 minutes and is the post mortem is not
done, it would look like a natural heart attack.
cyanide is so harmful that it cannot be sold without
license and only person to keep CN are goldsmiths.
Jolly was having an affair with Mathew who used to sell
her cyanide.
When the investigation took place in 2019, post mortem
was done to all the six bodies contained traces of CN,
later Jolly was arrested and confessed to her crimes.
Some murders don’t actually have a “moral”, this story is
one of them. Jolly belonged to a normal family without
any criminal records but her desire to have a wealthy and
easy life made her do so much. She came to a part of life
where she didn’t even hesitate to kill a 2 year old girl.
THANK YOU