While doing indexing I came across an entry about a story that appeared about a lady called Martha Needle.. and there is an interesting point about her headstone. She was executed in Melbourne and buried on the grounds and her headstone is down at Brighton Beach. This bit I found on the net about the headstones. Martha Needle was executed at 8.00am on 22 October 1894. Despite insisting her own innocence when asked for last words, Martha replied, I have nothing to say. During the Great Depression the Brighton City Council built bluestone walls to protect local beaches from erosion. The stones were taken from the outer walls of the Old Melbourne Gaol and included the headstones (initials and date of execution engraved on a stone at the head of the graves) of all those executed and buried on the grounds. Although most were placed with the engravings facing inwards, Marthas stone was faced outwards and the initials MN and date is still clearly visible in the Green Point wall. Martha was the third of four women hanged at the Old Melbourne Gaol, where her death mask can be seen. The others were Elizabeth Scott (1863), Frances Knorr (1894) and Emma Williams (1895).
Posted on: Fri, 11 Jul 2014 23:57:58 +0000
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