Erin Patterson’s conviction for poisoning her estranged husband’s relatives with deadly mushrooms over lunch has sent shockwaves around the world – but it’s not the first time a family has been forever changed by a toxic meal.
When author Nicholas Evans accidentally poisoned his family by unknowingly feeding them deadly mushrooms for lunch, it read like a plot from one of his novels.
The acclaimed writer of The Horse Whisperer, who died from a heart attack in 2022, was staying at his brother-in-law’s 13,000-acre estate Altyre House in Scotland in the summer of 2008, when he decided to pick a crop of mushrooms to rustle up a meal.
Having eaten wild mushrooms for many years, Evans believed they were chanterelles and ceps, or porcini – prized for their flavour, and, importantly, not poisonous.
Unknowingly, he had in fact fed his family an almost-identical species called Cortinarius speciosissimus, commonly known as deadly webcap – with repercussions that would last for the rest of their lives.
As Patterson is finally found guilty for poisoning her family members with deadly mushrooms hidden in a beef Wellington in Victoria, Australia, Evans’s unwitting error which had disastrous consequences for his family is thrust back into the spotlight, 17 years later.
Patterson was found guilty on Monday of murdering her parents-in-law Don and Gail Patterson and her husband’s aunt Heather Wilkinson, and attempting to murder Heather’s husband Ian Wilkinson.
The three died after they ate beef Wellingtons made with lethal amanita phalloides ‘death cap’ mushrooms, while Mr Wilkinson survived after weeks of agony in hospital as doctors fought to save his life.
Unlike Erin, however, Evans’s own encounter with the deadly powers of mushrooms was completely accidental.
Horse Whisperer author Nicholas Evans (pictured in 2010) almost killed his entire family after accidentally feeding them poisonous mushrooms
The day after unknowingly eating the toxic meal, he, his wife Charlotte Gordon-Cumming, brother-in-law Sir Alastair Gordon-Cumming and sister-in-law Lady Louisa were all left in hospital and on dialysis.
In the years that followed, all but Lady Louisa required a kidney transplant.
Speaking to the Daily Mail in 2010, he recalled the harrowing events of August 23, 2008 on which he nearly killed his family.
‘I took the mushrooms back to the house, showed them around and the general comment was, ‘Fantastic!’,’ he said
‘So I cut them up and cooked them in butter and parsley. The four adults ate them sitting outside. They tasted slightly bitter but Alastair and I had lots, the two women not so many.
Luckily none of the four children present wanted to try the mushrooms – and doctors told them if they had, the mushrooms would have killed them.
Charlotte, meanwhile, had the previous day broken her ankle while playing football with her young son and was in so much pain that she could barely eat.
Richard said: ‘I am naturally a very cautious person and always on the look-out for danger. I have picked mushrooms for years and, if I am the slightest bit unsure, always carefully check in at least one book.
‘There was a book in the kitchen but – tragically – we never consulted it. It was a momentary suspension of doubt.’
Nick, who passed away in 2022, is pictured in 2006 with his wife Charlotte, who needed dialysis after eating the mushrooms
An edible porcini mushroom (pictured left, stock photo) and the deadly webcap mushroom (right, stock photo) that Nicholas picked
Nicholas and Charlotte were staying with Sir Alastair Gordon Cumming (pictured) at Altyre House
‘After lunch I went for an hour’s run, losing myself in the beautiful countryside, followed by a swim in the river.’
With Cortinarius speciosissimus poisonings, kidney damage begins quickly and urgent treatment is vital to prevent renal failure.
But symptoms often do not appear for several days at a time and sometimes, for up to two weeks.
The next morning, Nick felt fine, but Alastair and Charlotte began vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea.
By the afternoon, Nick was also feeling unwell and, realising it was likely something they’d eaten, picked out some of the mushrooms from the bin.
He said: ‘I looked them up in the book. There it was, a perfect match to the one in my hand and labelled ‘deadly poisonous’.
Nick rang the botanical gardens in Edinburgh, who told him to seek urgent medical help.
When the GP arrived, they were sent to Dr Gray’s Hospital in Elgin, and the next morning were transferred to Aberdeen’s Royal Infirmary.
Erin Patterson faces life in prison for murdering her three in-laws (pictured outside court in Melbourne on April 15)
Altyre House and Loch on Boxing Day 2007 belonging to Sir Alastair Gordon-Cumming
There, they were put on dialysis and given doses of antioxidants. Nick himself was ‘horrifically sick’ and ‘thought he was going to die’, even asking his lawyer to bring him his will.
Afterwards, all four adults suffered varying degrees of kidney damage, with Nick needing to endure five hours of kidney dialysis every other day just to stay alive while Charlotte needed dialysis for three hours, three times a week.
He said: ”I do not pee at all. But I dream about it – wonderful peeing dreams when I think I am cured. When I wake up and find it isn’t true it takes me a while to disbelieve it.’
Nick and Charlotte’s son Finlay, then six had to be looked after by Charlotte’s stepmother, Sheila, as they weren’t allowed to leave hospital for two weeks.
Nick said: ‘We told him we had food poisoning, but didn’t say anything that would alarm him. It would have been too shocking for him to come and see us.’
When they eventually returned home, Nick ‘threw up every night until Christmas’.
He also had to avoid foods containing a high amount of potassium – including bananas, coconuts, apricots and raisins – as this could kill him.
He told the Mail he had to cut his liquid intake down, drinking no more than a litre a day, including soups and yoghurts, meaning he always felt ‘very thirsty’.
Evans pictured at his home in Totnes, Devon, in September 2010
By the Spring he had lost two stone and weighed 11 stone.
A year later, he was able to go skiing and could even start running again – an achievement that left him feeling ‘euphoric’, running four miles, three times a week.
He was saved after nearly three years of been on a waiting list when his only daughter gave him one of her kidneys in a live donation.
Evans, then 61, said his daughter’s donation – which took place at Hammersmith Hospital – had given him his life back.
Evans received a kidney from his then 29-year-old daughter, Lauren, because his heart was under strain from thrice-weekly dialysis.
‘I was told that the average lifespan on dialysis is five to eight years,’ he later recalled. ‘I had done three and my heart was starting to cause trouble.’
Until then he had been reluctant to be helped by his daughter, a zoologist, even though her blood group was a match to his.
‘Your natural instinct is never to do anything to harm your kids, although statistics show there is only a tiny risk to the donor,’ he explained.
Evans is famed for writing bestselling novel The Horse Whisperer
Lauren finally persuaded him to change his mind, and father and daughter woke up following surgery in adjoining beds at London’s Hammersmith Hospital.
‘It was marvellous,’ Evans said. ‘Gratitude is a completely inadequate word. It’s like being blessed by an angel.’
While Nick and Sir Alastair went on the NHS donor list, Charlotte explored alternative methods of medicine, including the Chinese qigong system, which focuses on posture, breathing and intention, and the Japanese healing practice reiki.
But Charlotte, now 67, also received a kidney in 2012, thanks to the generosity of the mother of her son’s best friend.
She told the Mail, three months later: ‘I think I look healthier now than I did before my poisoning. I’ve now got this 34-year-old kidney in me, so that’s 20 years younger than me.
‘The transplant went very smoothly. I was with my lovely donor, Serena. I was in hospital a week, which was pretty good going, and Serena was out in three days. It’s uncomfortable and you’re dealing with a large scar, but you wake up from it with a very positive feeling. Mainly, you just think, ‘Wow, no more dialysis.”
She said: ‘The dialysis was taking its toll. I nearly died twice. Serena recognised that. I said to her, ‘I don’t know if I’m going to see my son alive when he’s 20.’ Then she said that, completely unbeknown to me, she had gone off and had the tests.’
Charlotte, who was Evans’s second wife, had compared the dialysis – of which she needed for three hours at a time, three times a week – to being ‘like a prison’.
She said the poison had remained in her system for a ‘year’, meaning she was physically sick for eight months.
These days, she is the founder of her own clothing label, House of Comyn, specialising in cuts and styles from the 1940s and 1950s, and made in England.
While still listed as active on Companies House, the brand has not posted on any of its social media profiles since 2021.
Chris Cooper in Robert Redford’s 1998 film The Horse Whisperer which inspired Nick’s novel of the same name
Scarlett Johansson (pictured) played the role of young rider Grace MacLean in what was her breakout role
Previously, she was the director at Satya Productions for 16 years, a female-led production company based between London and Cornwall.
The singer-songwriter has released a number of albums, including The Brave Songs in 2011, and Mindwalking in 2005.
Sir Alastair’s wife, Louisa, was also taken ill, although not as severely, having consumed fewer mushrooms and did not require a transplant.
Sir Alastair had a transplant in June 2011, with a kidney from the NHS list, but it did not take. It’s not known whether he had a successful transplant since, he is still playing an active role in Altyre Estate, even receiving an award from Princess Anne in 2021.
Nicholas himself died in 2022 aged 72 following a heart attack.
A statement released at the time, said: ‘United Agents are very sad to announce the sudden death of the celebrated best-selling author Nicholas Evans who died suddenly on Tuesday this week following a heart attack, aged 72.’
The Horse Whisperer, published in 1995, sold around 15 million copies worldwide and was the number one bestseller in 20 countries.
He went on to write a further four novels – The Loop (1998), The Smoke Jumper (2001), The Divide (2005) and The Brave (2010).
Prior to his death, when Nick asked if he thought there was an explanation for what had happened, he said: ‘Charlotte sees it as a message to change us in some way, but I don’t believe life is like that.
‘I think it was a stupid accident, like reaching for a CD at the back of the car while you are driving and having a head-on crash. Absolutely stupid. But it has changed us profoundly and for the better. We don’t take anything for granted.’