This article discusses disturbing real-life cases of murder.

Summary

• Netflix's Curry & Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case presents the story of Jolly Joseph, a woman who had allegedly killed six of her family over 14 years.
• The documentary includes interviews with some of the names involved.
• The documentary explores how Jolly Joseph, who's now in jail, allegedly murdered her mother-in-law, her father-in-law, and her husband, among others, to gain control over the family and financial stability.

Netflix's true-crime documentary, Curry & Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case revealed some shocking details about Jolly Joseph, a woman who had allegedly killed six of her family over 14 years. The documentary currently streaming on Netflix tells the story of a small village in Koodathayi, India, who woke up to shocking news when one of the most trusted of their community was arrested for murdering her family. Jolly Joseph, who some of the people who knew her described as a kind and gentle woman who loved her family (via CNN), made headlines when she was arrested for allegedly poisoning her family using cyanide.

Jolly Joseph grew up in a family of farmers, and she wanted a different life for herself that did not involve having to work so hard to make ends meet. To achieve her goal of financial independence, she married into the Thomas family, one of the most respected and prestigious families in Koodathayi. Jolly Joseph allegedly began murdering family who stood in her way of achieving her goals. Fourteen years until her sister-in-law reported the mysterious deaths that had afflicted her family to the police. According to Jolly Joseph's defense lawyer for the documentary, the police do not have enough evidence to convict her.

The Koodathayi serial killings case trials began in March 2023 and are still ongoing as of the writing of this article. This article lists the events and reveals as presented by the Netflix documentary Curry & Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case​​​​.

10 Jolly Joseph Lied About Her Educational Qualifications

Jolly Joseph Forged Her Degree

When the police were investigating the murders that had occurred in the Thomas family, they discovered that Jolly Joseph had lied about her educational qualifications. Tom Thomas, Jolly Joseph's father-in-law, was a university consultant, so he usually had several student certificates with him. Jolly stole one of the certificates, photocopied it, and put her name on the certificate. Since Jolly lied about her educational background, the police wondered how she got the job as a lecturer at the National Institute of Technology. Upon further investigation, the police discovered that she had not been employed by the university in any capacity.

9 Jolly Joseph Was Having An Affair

M.S. Matthew Gave Jolly Joseph The Cyanide She Allegedly Used To Kill Her Family

Jolly Joseph had an affinity for shopping, and she loved buying jewelry more than anything else. Her husband's cousin, M.S. Matthew, worked in a jewelry store, so he and Jolly struck up a friendship that would later turn into a romantic relationship. Jolly and Matthew's relationship became integral in the case against her. Since Jolly was killing people using cyanide, she had to have a source from where she was getting the heavily regulated poison. Cyanide is easily accessible for goldsmiths, so when Jolly got arrested, her lover who worked in a jewelry store was arrested for helping her acquire the poison.

8 Jolly Joseph's First Alleged Victim Was Her Mother-In-Law

Annama Thomas And Jolly Joseph Had A Disagreement

When Jolly Joseph married into the Thomas family, she aimed to be financially secure. However, her mother-in-law, Annama Matthew, had a different idea about what Jolly Joseph's role in Ponnamattam House should be. Since Jolly had told her husband's family she was a qualified professional with a 50% in MComm, her mother-in-law felt that she should get a job to help her husband financially. Jolly, however, had no intention of getting a job and this turned into a point of contention between the two women.

Her mother-in-law's insistence that Jolly should get a job later turned into a reason for why Jolly poisoned her. During a family celebration, Annama Matthew was poisoned with cyanide and later died at the hospital. No one suspected foul play since she was old and no post-mortem was conducted. Annama Matthew's cause of death was said to be a heart attack. After her mother-in-law's death, Jolly cemented herself as the new matriarch of the family and took over her mother-in-law's duties in the house.

7 Tom Thomas Was Allegedly Jolly Joseph's Second Victim

Tom Thomas Wanted Jolly Joseph To End Her Affair

After Annama Thomas's death, Jolly Joseph took over taking care of her father-in-law, Tom Thomas. At the time, Jolly started becoming close with her mother-in-law's nephew, M.S Matthew. Her father-in-law was not comfortable with Jolly and Matthew's relationship and insisted that she should end it, seeing that she was married to his son. Tom Thomas used to take mushroom capsules for his health and Jolly switched one of them and filled it with cyanide. Tom Thomas died six years after his wife. He exhibited the same signs as his wife, but his death was also ruled as a heart attack and no postmortem was conducted. Their deaths despite being eerily similar caused no reason for suspicion.

6 Jolly And Roy Thomas Forged Tom Thomas's Will

Jolly And Her Husband Wanted To Steal Ponnamattham House

Roy Thomas had started a business that was not doing well, which led to a lack of money in the Thomas household. Since Roy was broke, he and Jolly allegedly came up with a plan to forge his father's will. The forged will declared that Roy and Jolly should inherit Tom's house and land. However, when Roy presented the will, his sister, Renji, noticed that it did not have a witness signature or a stamp, which made the will null. Rojo, Roy's younger brother, kept the forged will, which would later serve as crucial evidence.

5 Roy Thomas Died Two Years After His Father's Death

Roy Thomas's Death Was Ruled As A Suicide

Two years after his father's death, Roy Thomas became Jolly Joseph's latest alleged victim. Roy, who was probably aware of Jolly's lies had started to become uncomfortable with his wife's illicit affair. Jolly allegedly gave Roy rice and chickpea curry that was laced with cyanide. Roy died before he reached the hospital. Seeing as Roy's death was the third one in the Thomas family, Matthew Manchadiyl, Annama Thomas's cousin, thought there was something suspicious about his death.

Manchadiyl insisted that a post-mortem should be conducted. Initially, Jolly was against the post-mortem, but in this case, she had no choice but to relent. The postmortem results indicated that Roy had consumed cyanide, but strangely, no investigation was conducted, and his death was ruled as a suicide. Jolly told Roy's family that he had amassed huge amounts of debt and that's why he had committed suicide. The family took Jolly's word and waited for debt collectors to come knocking, but that did not happen.

4 Jolly Joseph Claimed Ponnamattam House

Jolly Joseph Allegedly Used A Forged Will To Claim Ponnamattam House

When Rojo, Jolly's brother-in-law, went to pay the land tax for Ponnamattam House, he was shocked to find that the name on the title deed had changed from Roy Thomas to Jolly Joseph. Jolly had used a fake will to transfer ownership from Tom Thomas to Roy Thomas and after her husband's death, to her. Unlike the old will that Roy and Jolly had shown their family, the new will had a witness's signature and a stamp. Luckily, the family had kept the old fake will, so they had evidence that Jolly had lied and the property was transferred back to Tom Thomas.

After the debacle with the forged will and Roy's suspicious death, Matthew Manchadiyl kept a close eye on Jolly Joseph and her children. He was a frequent visitor at Ponnamattham House, and he, too like, Tom Thomas was not okay with Jolly's relationship with Matthew. He insisted that she should end her affair with him, but Jolly was not having it. One day when Manchadiyl went to visit Jolly, allegedly poisoned him with cyanide, and he died at the hospital. Despite his symptoms being similar to those of previous cases, no post-mortem was conducted.

3 Jolly Joseph Allegedly Murdered A Two-Year-Old Girl

Alphine's Unnatural Death Did Not Raise Any Suspicion

On May 1st, 2014, during a family gathering where all of Shaju and Jolly Joseph's family were present, Alphine, Shaju's two-year-old daughter died from cyanide consumption. In a shocking turn of events during the family celebration, Alphine began to jerk, and her eyes rolled upwards. She was quickly rushed to the hospital, but unfortunately, she died. After Alphine died, her family believed that she had choked on the food her aunt was feeding her.

2 Jolly Joseph Remarried

Jolly Joseph Murdered Sili So She Could Marry Her Husband

Jolly Joseph had always wanted to live a financially comfortable life. After Roy's death, Jolly was financially unstable, and so she set her eyes on Shaju Zacharias as her next husband. Shaju, however, was married, and the only way Jolly could get him was if his wife died. At this point, Jolly had allegedly killed five people without raising any suspicion, so she believed murder was the solution to this problem too. After her daughter's death, Sili, Shaju's, wife was understandably distraught. Jolly took advantage of this and became her closest friend.

Jolly advised Sili to take the mushroom capsules that her father-in-law used for his health because they relieved depression. Sili trusted Jolly, and so she started taking the mushroom capsules without any suspicion. While Sili, Shaju, and Jolly were at a dentist's clinic, Jolly allegedly insisted that Sili would take one of the mushroom capsules that Jolly had previously filled with cyanide. After taking the cyanide-filled capsule, Sili got into respiratory failure and was itted to the hospital where she died a few hours later. Even though the doctors insisted that they conduct a post-mortem, Shaju stopped them from doing so. Jolly and Shaju eventually got married.

1 Jolly Joseph's Sister-In-Law Reported Her To The Police

Jolly Joseph Got Arrested For Murder

Renji, Jolly Joseph's sister-in-law had always been suspicious about the sudden and similar deaths that had affected her family. After Sili's death, Renji reported her suspicions about Jolly's involvement in the murder of her family murders to the police. Since the only post-mortem that had been conducted was for her brother, Roy, Renji went through the results and discovered that Jolly had lied to her about the time her brother had his last meal. Renji's decision to have Jolly investigated caused division in the family, but her resolve paid off and Jolly finally had to face justice.

Source: Curry & Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case, CNN.

Curry & Cyanide: The Jolly Joseph Case is streaming on Netflix.