The ghostly face in the window of an Australian woman who murdered children

Martha Rendell (1871-1909) was a female Australian murderer who abused and killed three children in Perth, Western Australia who she was supposed to be mothering.

Moving in with her partner, Thomas Arthur Morris, who had separated from his previous wife but maintained custody over his four children, Martha became their “wicked step mother” who sadistically beat and tortured his children out of a motive of sexual sadism.

But only that, but Martha started to kill the children by making their throat’s sore, and then proceeded to swab them with hydrochloric acid, which of course killed them through severe inflammation.

After one of the boys, George, ran away from home following her attempts to do so, an investigation began and the bodies of the three children she killed were exhumed, with autopsy’s revealing the use of hydrochloric acid in their throats. Both her and her partner Thomas were accused of murder, but he was acquitted and she was convicted and sentenced to death.

Rendell was hanged at Freemantle Prison in Western Australia in 1909, making her the last woman to be executed in that state. However, over a hundred years later a ghostly sighting has continued to keep her legacy alive. In the old Freemantle Prison where she was held, it is said that a ghostly face of a woman is visible in the window from the outside.

People have rationalised that the ghost in the window is caused by a stain in the glass which when viewed from a certain angle, appears as a face. However, this is something genuinely substantive and viewable directly as opposed to being a hoax or a single person witness account or testimony. This makes it one of the most extraordinary ghostly sightings in the world that anyone can see for themselves.