THE BLACK WIDOW

I want to talk about man who still hasn’t received justice in this state. His name is Patrick Plumbe. He was murdered. His death, and what happened to the woman who killed him, has been, perhaps understandably, overlooked in all the horror and heartbreak of last week. But his brutal end –at the hands of somebody he loved –should not be brushed aside because it is yet another example of the folly and the injustice of plea-bargaining in our courts.

He was killed by his wife of two days, Margaret Vandergulik. A day after he changed his will leaving his million-dollar estate to her. Originally she was charged with murder along with her son, Michael, after they staged a car crash and fire to make it look like Plumbe had died in an accident.

She said: ‘Would I be that effing stupid to kill my husband two days after marrying him and the day after signing the wills’. Not that stupid. Just that brazen.

Her original story –and it changed a lot – was that they’d argued. Plumbe had hit her with a chair. She pushed him away and he hit his head on the floor. Later she admitted she hit him with her walking stick.

 Did the new bride, a registered nurse, call for an ambulance? No. Call Police. No? She instead got her son to help stage the accident to cover her tracks.

Patrick Plumbe’s body was found in his burned out car after hitting a tree back in 2005 and he would have remained a road toll statistic if the Black Widow hadn’t pillow talked to a lover. She told Tony Calandro that she killed her husband in an argument. Calandro went to Police.

The body was exhumed. Plumbe had a fractured skull that couldn’t have happened in the accident.

But it gets worse. The husband wasn’t dead when placed in the car. And Vandergulik, a nurse, would have known that. She and her son burnt him alive. For money. A pathologist found soot in Patrick Plumbe’s lungs. The poor bastard was breathing his last.

But this heartless, cunning bitch, wasn’t finished. When she thought her lover was going to give her up she told police Calandro had threatened her. Predicted she’d be shot or killed ‘in the next few weeks’. And then calmly
shot herself in the arm to back up her story.

Four months ago, scheming to the end, Vandergulik –or Vanderguilt -- ended her murder trial by pleading guilty to manslaughter. And the murder charge against her son was dropped. Even though they burnt a man alive.

Last week, Supreme Court Justice Murray Kellam, jailed the Black Widow for nine years with a minimum of six. Even though he said Patrick Plumbe might still be alive if his new wife had used her training as a nurse to help him rather than dispose of him as she did.

If she’d done that she wouldn’t have got her hands on the money. And she nearly got away with it. Including $90,000 from the Transport Accident Commission.

Surely son Michael should at least be charged with fraud and being an accessory.

Monday, February 16, 2009

© Copyright Derryn Hinch 2009