We start good news from Australia where Aaron Patterson, who came to be known as the Mushroom Keller, has been sentenced to life in prison.

Your total effective sentence will be life imprisonment and the period during which you will be ineligible for parole will be a very substantiate Aaron Patterson stood up and effectively just took it, copped it on the chin, didn't really show a great deal of emotion, and within a minute or two she was escorted out of the room.

The notorious Mushroom Murders have captivated the world in a story that's compelling as any Agatha Christie mystery novel.

Why Can't We Look Away?

And Who's cashing in on our obsession?

Hello, this is the Bloomberg Australia Podcast and I'm Chris Burke.

Today we're talking about the so called Mushroom Murders, which this week saw Aaron Patterson jailed for life after serving that now infamous beef Wellington lunch.

Joining me is Ainsley Thompson from our Wellington Bureau.

Pure coincidence, I can assure you, who, like much of the world beyond Australia, has been following the case very closely.

Today we're going to discuss what this case reveals about the booming and sometimes troubling business of true crime.

Aisley, Welcome to the podcast.

Hi Chris, it's good to be here.

Second week in a row for you.

I think last week you were talking about everyone's favorite obsession, La Boo boos.

This week something altogether far more darker, a much more darker obsession.

Anyway, So on Monday we learned that Aaron Patterson was sentenced to life imprisonment with no chance of parole for thirty three years.

For the handful of people out there who haven't been following this case or every twist and turn of this case, can you briefly set the scene of the Patterson case, which has become known around the world simply as the Mushroom murders.

Absolutely, and I will be brief because most people do know what happened.

So it was back in July twenty three, the end of July twenty twenty three, and Aaron Patterson invited her estranged husband, Simon and his parents and her mother in law's sister and her husband over for lunch.

And the reason was she was going to talk to them about her health problem and discuss the best way to break it to her children that she had cancer or apparently had cancer.

Her husband didn't attend, but the other four did.

And at the meal, she served them beef Willington that Philip of beef wrapped in pastry with mushroom in between, and she served it in four individual five in fact individual servings.

Four of them were served on gray plates and her one was served on an orange plate.

And by that evening the four guests were extremely ill.

By the morning they were in hospital.

Three of them went on today.

Only Ian Wilkinson survived.

You know, one thing that I closely wandered throughout this whole case was how could how could she actually believe that she would get away with with such an obvious crime?

I mean, is that uncertainty part of what drew so many people?

And do you think absolutely?

I think that is really part of what caused this huge interest in this case, the fact that someone could you know, there was no one else who could have done it except her.

She cooked the meal, so you know it was it was her who put mushrooms of some description in there.

So you know the fact that she maintained her innocence the whole way through, including eight days on the stand.

That that just you know, sowed the seed of doubt in people's mind that, you know, what was her motive?

That was always the big question, what was her motive?

Why did she do this?

I love how you've described this as Agatha Christie meets Australian suburbia.

Why do you think this case did strike such a cord globally?

I mean everyone, media all over the world has been covering this absolutely.

I mean it really did draw attention from over the from you know, the world over.

And I think the setting was a big part of it.

I talked to Xanthey Mallett, who is an associate professor and criminologist at Central Queensland University, and she was saying, it's that jarring position of this, this lovely rural setting, this little town, and this very unexpected and violent death happened.

Deaths in fact happened there, and that really drew people in.

It's it's it is, it is unexpected, and I think there is that slight Agatha Christie elegment to it.

That's set up of the you know, the dining room, the limited scene, the four victims, they were all closely connected, you know.

And then this exotic murder weapon of death cap mushrooms, which was just, you know, bizarre.

No one had heard of it, of them being used in this way before, and that really drew people in.

And I think, to my mind also the big thing is Aaron Patterson herself a lot of people point to.

In fact, Gil Marsden I spoke to her is making a documentary about about these murders.

He was saying that that moment where where Aaron gave that interview to the media, everyone knows what I'm talking about.

Probably who's ever have seen any part of this case.

They always show this coverage of her standing next to her car and kind of crying, and her emotional reaction was unusual, and I think that immediately people were kind of like, ha, what's going on here?

It was once again, it was jarring.

It wasn't what we expected.

As Xanthy Mallett said to me, that doesn't make someone guilty, but it does kind of, you know, create this interest in the case and people are kind of looking at it more closely, wondering what's going on here.

And you're in New Zealand, obviously, what's the coverage been like there is everyone pretty much obsessed there as well.

I think so yes.

I mean, as I said, like people just haven't seen a case like this before.

And the fact that it's family, it's you know, her parents in law were involved.

It's absolutely you know, it's been fascinating to people to hear the the sentencing and all the comments made by the judge.

There was, you know, was quite chilling hearing a lot of those details, I think.

And you are you have a very insightful essay that's come out this week which which looks very closely at how this case has become such a global spectacle, if you like, you know, an entire as you say in this essay, an entire media ecosystem has sprung up around the case.

What's in the works.

There's a lot coming out, as I said, Gil Marsden has got a documentary coming out on the fourteenth of September.

That's a three part documentary.

There's already been quite a few, like Current Fair style programs come out, the one hour specials, et cetera.

There are books coming out.

Helen Ghana is co authoring one of the books.

There's been obviously countless articles, podcasts, it's just, you know, there's so much appetite for to, you know, to find out more about this, to try and discover what her motive was, and to hear from the people who were involved in the case.

And that this kind of coverage was even referenced in the sentencing on Monday, if you remember Justice Christopher Beale, actually he referred to this kind of flurry flurry of attention.

Quote he said, given the unprecedented media coverage of your case and the books, documentaries, and TV series which are all in the pipeline, you are likely to remain a notorious prisoner for many years to come, and as such, remain at significant risk from other prisoners.

So that that implies that, you know, this, this unprecedented coverage weighed on part of his decision to allow that parole after three years.

I think so, I mean, because she is at danger from there's other prisoners, because she is so notorious.

She has to essentially been in solitary confinement and she's been in there and by herself for fifteen months, and it sounds like awful conditions.

I mean, she's hardly allowed outside, she can't have access to the library, etcetera very limited access to the library.

So yes, that did weigh He was clearly a heavily weighed on him and his decision to grant the thirty three years, the non parole period of thirty three years.

Yeah, he went into some quite quite a lot of detail about her small the small courtyard for example, that she had access to, and the limited amount of time she was able to leave the cell.

And it became apparent, I think as you were watching that the justice deliver those comments that there was you know, almost a bit of sympathy kind of coming out from him, and it became apparent as he as he proceeded that she was going to probably get a non parole, a non parole period.

Yes, I think so.

I think from memory he said something like there's some convention, human rights convention where you can only spend fifteen days in solitary confinement, and she spent fifteen months.

So you know what that does to a person is, you know, it's hard to comprehend.

But it's extraordinary that there's media coverage weighed on that decision, and I guess that's, you know, something for all of us to think about there, I guess, But is there anyone who's actually going to be making money from this in terms of this skin you know, we've got this whole secondary economy as well, merchandise even TikTok slouths building building followings off this case.

Absolutely.

I mean one person who definitely won't be making money from obviously is Aaron Patterson herself.

The process of crime at to prevent that happening.

But yes, I mean there will be people who make reasonable money out of what is going on out of these documentaries, podcast books etc.

And when we come back, what does all this attention on the Aaron Patterson case say about us?

Welcome back to the Bloomberg Australia podcast.

You're here with me Chris Burke, and I'm talking to Wellington based Wealth editor Ainsley Thompson about the Mushroom murders case that's gripped the world and what it says about our appetite for the grizzliest of news.

Okay, Ainsley, time for an awkward question.

Three people are dead, including a couple that had been together for about half a century, and many lives have been ruined because of that.

And it's not just Patterson.

If you look at the press, it seems that Australians are frothing over the coverage of Desi Freeman, a man still on the run after killing two policemen in your neck of the woods.

We learn Monday that the notorious fugitive father Tom Phillips was shot dead.

You know, should people feel guilty for lapping all this up?

That's a really interesting question, and it was, you know, the central question behind the essay I wrote because I wanted to find out I'm interested in these things, and I wanted to know if I should feel guilty about it, and do you I'm conflicted, definitely.

I mean, suddenly my husband always points out my grizzly interest in these things, so you know that is not a particularly attractive quality.

But one thing I did learn after talking to Zanthey Mallett and you know, just reading about the true crime genre is that there are sort of sound reasons that we are drawn to it as humans.

It's about this kind of wanting to restore I guess, a sense of order where there's chaos, of trying to find out what people's motives are about, you know, looking at the worst part of society in I guess, a safe way, almost a form of protection if we can understand what happened and why it happened, maybe we can prevent something like that happening to us.

So I think that's part of the sort of psychology of looking at it.

Another thing that is really interesting is that women are far more drawn to this genre than men, and Xanthey Mallet said she thinks it's because women in general are very interested in relationships, relationships and what you know, what makes people tick, et cetera, and that is why they are drawn to it.

So yeah, I did find that interesting to kind of, you know, I guess rationalize my I wouldn't say it's an obsession, Chris, but my interest in some of these some of these subjects.

That's that's really interesting, especially about women being the biggest consumers.

But is true crime?

Is the true crime industry, you know, is it on the rise?

This this follow this popularity, is it something that is it like a growth industry if you like it?

Definitely is on the rise.

I think our modern media environment really feeds it.

Podcasts, you know the fact that we've got citizen journalists even you know, things like Reddit and chat rooms, which are really promoting this kind of amateur sleuth type activity that is all definitely on the rise, and there's you know, as we were saying before, there's a huge market here in America.

There was one study which said eighty four percent of people over the age of thirteen consume true true crime in some form, podcast or TV or you know, wow in some way.

But it is a genre that's been with us for an awfully long time.

Daniel Dafoe back in I think it was the seventeen twenties he started writing accounts of true crime, and then we had obviously Jack the Ripper in the Victorian period, which people were absolutely obsessed with.

In the nineteen sixties, it really took off with Truman Capote in Cold Blood and he wrote that amazing book, which is reporting but sort of done in the way of a thriller, so it's a really compelling read.

And since then there's been various documentaries and books, etc.

That have really gained a lot of public attention.

But I think the modern period where it really began was the Serial podcast in twenty fourteen, and that was just a huge hit.

I think it's been downloaded at least three hundred million times, and that last count of three hundred million was back in twenty eighteen, so it's probably far greater than that now, So that really took it to that next level and podcasts exploring this whole area incredible.

Aaron Patterson this week learned that she would be in prison for a very long time, at least until she's in her eighties.

I guess does this story end there?

Well, I mean, we know that she can appeal, and she may well do so, so we will have to wait and see if that happens.

As far as all the media coverage, etc.

Which is still to come out, No, the story most certainly does not end there, and I'm sure will be explored for an awfully long time.

As we were discussing earlier, that lack of motive, of really clear motif, I think is what is going to keep it alive.

People are going to keep trying to work out what happened there and why on earth she did this.

So I guess the real answer to that question is no.

The coverage of this story seems like it's only just beginning.

Ainsley Thompson, thank you for appearing on the Bloomberg Australia podcast.

Thanks Chris.

This episode was recorded on the traditional lands of the wurundry People.

It was produced by Paul Allen and edited by Ainsley Chandler and Rebecca Jones.

I'm Chris Burke.

See you next week.