Martha Rendell - The Last Woman to be Hanged in Western Australia

in the late 19th and early 20th century Australia was struck by diptheria and typhoid epidemics that killed thousands of people diptheria casualties among children were common enough to put the disease among the top 10 causes of death and so it wasn't strange at all that in 1907 four children of the same Western Australian family were ill at the same time but three of them dying months apart from each other did raise questions had the moris children's stepmother Martha randelle really been trying to nurse the young boys and girls back to health or had she slowly been killing them one by one Martha renell was born on August 10th 1871 and hoped Valley South Australia most of the information about Martha's early life is lost to history but we know that she grew up to be a woman who was described as having loose morals that is she didn't exactly conform to the societal expectations of women of the time she left home at the age of 16 gave birth to three children out of wedlock and began an affair with a married man and her 20 the man in question Mr Thomas Nichols Morris had nine children with his wife Sarah who was well aware of her husband's infidelity it seems that some serious conversations at home eventually drove Thomas to move his family, 14400 miles to Perth in Western Australia in 1900 partly because of work partly to avoid a scandal in the small town where the rumors about his affair was spreading but the Fresh Start wasn't enough to save the Morris's marriage which was doomed the moment Sarah learned her husband's mistress had abandoned her children to follow Thomas to Perth Martha clearly wasn't going to give up as the pair's relationship resumed Sarah decided enough was enough however in a society where traditional gender roles and marriage were the found found ation of the state and of the welfare of its citizens and their happiness and prosperity divorce wasn't acceptable so even after their separation Mr and Mrs Morris remained husband and wife though only on paper curiously Thomas was granted custody of the couple's five youngest children a decision that would soon prove fateful almost immediately after Sarah left the family home Martha moved in finally almost a decade after her affair with Thomas modus had first begun she had achieved her goal even though she could not be legally married to Thomas Martha was now considered Mrs Morris and reluctantly called Mother by the children to avoid embarrassing questions about the youngster's real mother the pair moved into a cottage at 23 Robertson Street in East Perth where the neighbors didn't know the scandalous truth to them the morrises appeared a happy respectable family but behind the closed doors all wasn't so Rosy whatever dreams Martha may have had of her life with Thomas Morris they soon soured because her lover was working long hours and the fact she didn't have any friends or family in the area she spent her days alone taking care of the house and the five rather resentful children Thomas wasn't a wealthy man so no maid or Nanny could be hired to help her with her daily tasks not that she would have wanted a stranger in the house anyway Martha lived in constant fear that the truth about her immoral sham marriage would be revealed this left her unwilling to make friends with the new neighbor virtually confining her to the home then as if life wasn't a big enough struggle as it was an outbreak of diptheria struck Perth diptheria is a bacterial infection that usually affects a person's nose and throat and spreads through respiratory droplets or infected open SS and ulcers the disease can cause weakness sore throat swollen glands and fever in addition to painful swallowing and difficulty breathing because the toxins produced by the bacteria kill healthy tissues in the respiratory system a thick gray membrane made up of dead cells builds up in the area of infection today dip theia is fatal in about 5% to 10% of cases but in the early 1900s the situation was quite different even if you had access to the best doctors and medic supplies the second daughter of Queen Victoria Princess Alice and her young daughter Marie were known to have died of diptheria in 1878 so when the four youngest moris children Olive Annie George and Arthur got sick with the disease in April of 1907 a doctor was quickly summoned The Family Doctor James Cuthbert gave the children di theia antitoxin and prescribed tinctures to Rel the children's sore throats during his many visits Dr cuthber witnessed Martha devoutly nursing her stepchildren back to health she would swab medication on the back of the children's throats to ease their pain the treatment however seemed to have little effect as the children continued to suffer from painful swallowing and difficulty talking 9-year-old Annie was especially poorly despite the doctor and Martha's efforts to help the girl Annie was bedridden with convulsions vomiting and diarrhea before she succumbed to the illness on July the 28th 1907 the death certificate issued by Dr cpet listed the cause of death of the seven-year-old as a combination of epilepsy and cardiac weakness fortunately Annie's three siblings recovered from diptheria and despite the tragic loss life started to return back to normal in the moris household but only a month later Olive George and Arthur were sick again this time with typhoid like dip theia typhoid was a killer of many in Western Australia at the time nearly 2,000 people were officially recorded as dying of the disease during the 1890s epidemic with most deaths occurring on the goldfields already weakened by diptheria 5-year-old Olive died of typhoid on October 16th 1907 and the moris family sorrow didn't end there in June 1908 14-year-old Arthur began to suffer from vomiting diarrhea and an undiagnosed throat condition again Martha would swab the very back of the child's mouth with an antiseptic tincture which was a common home remedy of the day but Arthur just kept getting worse medication prescribed by doct cth but seemed to have no effect either and on October the 6th 1908 Arthur passed away understandably after the death of the third child in the same household the Morris family doctor began to grow suspicious suspecting something more nefarious was a foot he asked permission to perform an autopsy to investigate Arthur's cause of death further for one reason or another Martha wanted to be present during the procedure which ended up finding nothing strange or incriminating and listed Arthur's cause of death as ulceration of the Bow's Hemorrhage and cardiac failure it wasn't until months later that the disturbing truth of the tragic deaths of the three moris children came to to light in April 1909 15-year-old George Morris was reported missing by the family's neighbors who had noticed the teenager's absence and gotten vague answers from Martha and Thomas about the boy's whereabouts the detectives quickly located George at his mother's house when asked why he had run away the teenager made a shocking Revelation his brother and sister had not died of illnesses but were murdered by their stepmother according to him Martha had painted his siblings throats with hydrochloric acid spirits of salt to slowly kill them while mimicking the symptoms of deia George claimed he had fled the family home fearing for his life after Martha served him a cup of tea that made his throat sore during his investigations detective Sergeant Harry man learned Martha and her common law husband had indeed purchased large amounts of hydrochloric acid during the children's illnesses but curiously they had not bought any after Arthur had died a family neighbor even claimed she had seen Martha swabbing the boy's throat after which Arthur had screamed in pain and cried for help rendell's reaction to this it's claimed that she had ride in pleasure when the bodies of the three moris children were then exhumed on July 3rd 1909 the medical examiners noted hemorrhaging and inflammation in their bowels tests done on rabbits and guinea pigs suggested swabbing with hydrochloric acid caused similar effects to these found in the autopsies which secured the arrests of both Martha Randell and Thomas Morris during the trial that started in December 1909 9 the prosecution described renelle as a wicked stepmother who abused and eventually murdered her stepchildren whom she saw only as a burden it stated that while her relationship with the children was initially somewhat cordial over the years they began to lament her increasingly harsh punishments indeed she is said to have beaten Annie so brutally that at one point the pain left her unable to walk when they tried to stand up to her this only served to riy Martha further to the point that her punishments seemingly turned deadly with the children gone she would have finally been alone with the man she had pursued for a decade and followed across the country the officer who arrested her Harry man told the court that he believed she delighted in seeing her victims R in agony and from it derived sexual satis isfaction however the evidence against the modest children's stepmother wasn't exactly bulletproof it was claimed that doctors found traces of hydrochloric acid in the dead children's throats which was highly unlikely because of the decomposition of the tissue and the inaccuracy of tests available at the time furthermore there had not been any other documented cases where hydrochloric acid had been used used as a murder weapon swapping a person's throat with a diluted solution of the spirit of salts definitely wasn't the most effective way of killing someone in the end though he was the one to purchase the acid Thomas Morris was acquitted as it was believed he didn't know what renell was using it for after this verdict he proclaimed that Martha 2 was innocent stating quote I say fearlessly before God I was innocent and so is Martha Randell she may have appeared hard outwardly but no woman ever had a more tender heart than she unquote however the jury found Martha guilty of the willful murder of her stepson Arthur Morris believing she was a moral deformity and a human monster as the judge had described her Martha proclaimed her innocence throughout the trial and after being sentenced to death insisting she had done nothing to harm the children but no appeals were granted and on October the 6th 1909 exactly a year after Arthur's death Martha Rendell was executed by hanging at freem manle prison she was the first woman in Western Australia to be hanged in 38 years and the last making Martha renell one of only two women executed in Australia during the 20th century right them take care and I'll see you next time with another story that will make you say well I never

Channel: Well, I Never

Views: 91,119

Keywords: well i never, paul brodie, True crime, Documentary, martha rendell, martha rendall, last woman to be hanged in western australia, last women to be hanged in australia, Australian true crime, Aussie true crime, serial killer, serial killer documentary, martha rendell documentary

Id: NVSxMEz1XWk

Length: 14min 38sec (878 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 11 2024