Just came across a new entry in the annals of dairy crime: a murderous folie-a-deux in Sicily on the lines of the old Roald Dahl story "Lamb to the Slaughter".

In this particular case, though, the weapon was butter:

A Sicilian couple thought they had the perfect weapon to get rid of her ex-husband -- a slab of butter which would melt after they asphyxiated him, the Corriere della Sera newspaper reported Saturday.

Unlike in Dahl's story, where the murder weapon was consumed undetected, traces of butter remained in the victim's airway, alerting authorities to the plot.

This is not the first time dairy has been used as a weapon, but the first I've heard of someone trying the old "ice bullet" trick with it. Obvious, really.

photo by Robert S. Donovan