Lillie Bentley

(1902-1927)

Lillie Josephine Bentley was born in the remote mining town of Peak Hill, Western Australia in 1902. She became famous as Mrs Lilian Martin, for the dramatic nature of her death in 1927, murdered at the age of 24, along with her four-year-old son, in an upstairs bedroom of the Federal Hotel in Fremantle.

Her father was Daniel Cotton Bentley (1870–1911) born in Middlesex, England, who immigrated to WA in July 1897 on the Orotavia. By August 1898 Daniel was building a beer and wine saloon called the Black Swan in Peak Hill, near Coolgardie. He then applied for a license in September 1898, describing the Black Swan as “a building containing one bar, parlour, one sitting room, and one bedroom”. (reference) Bentley held the Publicans licence for 9 years at the Palace Hotel and the Black Swan Hotel in Peak Hill. In 1901 he married Lillian’s mother Elizabeth ‘Lizzie’ Emma Ladhams (1884–1958) at St Brigid’s church in Perth.

Lillie was the eldest of their six children; the others being Ellen ‘Helen’ (1903–1971), Elizabeth ‘Bessie’ Eileen (1905–1979), Daniel Patrick (1908–1957), Frederick Joshua (1910–1972) and Laura Thelma (1911–1981).

The first three children were born in Peak Hill, a remote area, surrounded by mines and miners and 39 kms from Kalgoorlie. The last three children were born in North Perth, where from 1906-1910, Daniel worked as the Publican of the North Perth Hotel, on the corner of Charles St and Wanneroo Road. This building had 2 sitting rooms and 10 bedrooms, as well as others used by his family.

The North Perth Hotel was established in the 1880s and was demolished and replaced with a new hotel in 1962. The hotel’s name changed to the ‘Vegas Hotel’ in the 1980s, and it traded at the busy intersection until 1994, when that too was demolished. A McDonalds Restaurant and petrol station now sit on the site. (The North Perth Hotel by Mick Roberts, 3 May 2017) (reference)

Daniel Bentley died in July 1911 after a tragic accident, aged only 40. Lillian was only 9 when her father died and her newborn baby sister Laura was just 6 months old.

FATAL ACCIDENT. Daniel Bentley, an elderly married man, who lived on the Waneroo-road, was killed in a rather tragic manner last night. He was driving home on top of a loaded cart, and when near the Waneroo-road Hotel he fell from the vehicle and the wheel passed over his chest, causing frightful injuries. He died within a few minutes. (reference)

Daniel was a popular man and his funeral was well attended at Karrakatta, where he was buried on Wednesday 12 July 1911. Daniel left his wife Lizzie ₤ 869, a considerable sum, however it can be imagined how hard it was for her to manage alone with six children under 9 years old.

On the 10 October 1915 her mother remarried- to Walter Valentine Spain (1890–1972) and had two more children; Walter Daniel Spain (1916–1942) and Joyce Valentine Spain (1919–1997). Walter V. Spain, named after his father, was born in Victoria. The family moved to WA and lived in Mason St, North Fremantle. His mother Annie had a reputation for being drunk and disorderly and was often in trouble with the police before her death in 1921. There was a reference in an an account of an assault he witnessed in 1904 (aged 14) on his father Walter (a gardener), that his mother may have kept a ‘house of ill-fame’. (reference)

West Australian, 29 January 1916, page 10- Charge of Attempted suicide- Emma Spain a woman-of middle age, was charged with having, attempted to take her own life. Valentine Walter Spain, her husband, a harness maker, residing it Charles street, West Perth, said he had been married about three months. His wife was a widow. More than once she had complained of a weak heart and she suffered from chest trouble. On January 14 she said her chest was troublesome, and that she intended to take a dose of eucalyptus. He went into the yard, and in a few minutes she came out and said she had taken an overdose of eucalyptus. He gave her an emetic and summoned the doctor and an ambulance by telephone. She had never threatened to commit suicide. She had been somewhat annoyed and seemed a little despondent at being unable to complete the sale of some land which belonged to her. Dr. Mack, junior resident medical officer at the Perth Public Hospital, said that the accused was admitted to the hospital at 9.55 p.m. on the, evening of January 14. The result of an examination of the contents of the patient's stomach pointed to the possibility of the accused's having swallowed eucalyptus. He was not prepared to say what quantity of eucalyptus would be a fatal dose. Mr. Davies in dismissing the charge, pointed out that there was no evidence to show that "the quantity of eucalyptus taken by" the accused might cause death, or that it was taken with suicidal intent. (reference)

In 1917 Emma and Walter moved to at Gibney St, Cottesloe. Walter continued his occupation as a harness maker and in 1925 they moved to Mornington Mills. Finally they moved in 1949 to Pickering Brook, where Lizzie outlived her daughter Lillie, dying in 1958, and where Walter Spain died in 1972 aged 83.

In 1922 Lillie married in Boulder, when she was just 20 years old. She married Felix McArthur Martin also known as ‘Bronco’, who had been born in Southern Cross, WA, in 1899, the son of a ganger on the railways.

Felix had enlisted in the army to fight in the First World War at the age of 17, and soon returned in January 1919, badly wounded from a bullet in the throat that tore through the roof of his mouth. He became a patient of the repatriation ward of Perth Hospital. (reference) Sadly Felix’s father Charles died in Sept 1919 and Felix went to work in the mines. He had to go to work with plastic tubes in his throat to assist his breathing, wrapping his throat and lower face in bandages to protect the wound. (see photo)

Felix and Lillie made their way to Perth where they would have two children together. Their first child, a boy, Daniel Charles Martin also known as ‘Tyke’, was born in 1923. A second child, Joan Elizabeth, born in 1925, died in April the same year. (reference)

Not surprisingly their short marriage was turbulent, and both reportedly were heavy drinkers. 1925 was not a great year for them. On 11 February 1925 Felix was fined for Disorderly Conduct, having behaved in a disorderly manner in Wellington St. (reference) In April they were living at 192 Perth St, Subiaco when their new born daughter died (reference), and in May 1925 Felix was arrested for having deserted Lilie. (reference)

Although she may have had some money from Felix’s war service pension Lillie sought an order against her husband in the Perth Police Court, forcing him to pay maintenance. (reference)

Lillie and Felix Martin lived at various places until January 1926, when Lillie settled at a boarding house at 150 Newcastle St, Perth owned by Annie Andrew. Lillie and Felix were heard arguing during their stay at the boarding house, before eventually separating again. Lillie could not find work and sometimes worked for her landlady in lieu of rent.

A man called Jack Thomas also resided at the boarding house. He had been born in England before coming to Adelaide, South Australia as a youth with his parents. He resided in Ballarat, Victoria, where he worked as a gold prospector, before he came to Perth, WA in August 1926. He did not have a job in Perth and was described by the proprietess of the hotel as being about 5ft. 7 inches in height, between 35-40 years of age and that “He wore an unkempt ginger moustache and badly cut clothes of dark grey”. (reference)

Lilian and Jack Thomas became acquainted at the boarding house and Jack began to give her gifts such as makeup, alcohol and money. On 22 January 1927, when Felix Martin visited the Newcastle St boarding house he found another man in his wife’s room. He assaulted the man and left the next day. On 29 January Lillie left the boarding house with her son Daniel. A few days later Jack Thomas also left the boarding house.
It seems Lillie, Daniel and Jack Thomas met up and stayed together at a Rockingham Hotel for 9 days. On 7 February, Lillie, Daniel and Jack booked into the Federal Hotel, Fremantle under the name of Mr and Mrs Martin. They had lunch and dinner at the hotel and went to a picture show in the evening. Some time after they returned from the picture show and before midnight- Lillie and Daniel were murdered.

On 8 February the bodies of Lilian and Daniel Martin were found dead on the floor in the hotel room by Constable John Cannon, of Fremantle, who forced an entrance to the room just before noon, after being called by hotel staff who were concerned no one had left the room. The Coroner later determined Lilian was strangled to death and her son Daniel’s throat was cut. His conclusions were that the woman was suffocated by something which had been forced into her mouth and that the child (was well nourished) had died through the gash to the throat.

THE SCENE OF THE FREMANTLE MURDER AS THE POLICE FOUND IT. A Picture showing the room, at the Hotel in Fremantle, where Mrs Lillian Martin and her son Daniel met their deaths. The bolster and pillow to the right of bed, represent the position in which the dead body of Mrs. Martin was discovered. Directly in front of the washstand on the hearthrug lying in a pool of blood the child's body was found. The position in the picture is indicated by the dark stain. It is believed that the murderer washed his hands in the basin shown. Sunday Times, 13 February 1927, page 1 (reference)

The chief suspect (after police talked to the landlady of the boarding house) was Jack Thomas who had disappeared- but was found five days after the crime, when his body (blackened by decomposition almost beyond recognition) was found lying in the rushes near Mends Street jetty in South Perth. He had a bullet wound to the head and a revolver was found next to him.

In March 1927, the coroner concluded that Jack Thomas had committed both murders, and then committed suicide by shooting himself with a revolver.

A CASE THAT WILL BECOME HISTORIC IN FINGER-PRINT INVESTIGATION. It was finger prints which decided conclusively for the Fremantle District Coroner the problem of who foully murdered Mrs. Lillian Josephine Martin and her little three year old boy, Daniel Charles Martin, in room No. 3 at the Federal Hotel, Fremantle, shortly after midnight on February 7th… Without them, the police evidence was nothing for Thomas had never been actually identified as the man who took the room with Mrs. Martin, on February 7th… Detective Sergeant Edmunds told the Coroner just how he went about his work and what he found. A wash hand basin, jug, and the eleven beer bottles were exhibited in connection with his investigations. The articles were powdered over lightly with fine chalk, which showed plainly every finger mark. These marks had been photographed. He produced the prints of the fingers of the murdered woman. None of the marks on the bottles, jug, or basin, corresponded with her finger-prints but they were all identical with those of the dead man taken from the dead fingers five days after the murder. Truth, 5 March 1927, page 1 (reference)

Lillian Martin and Daniel Martin were buried on 10 February at the Karrakatta Cemetery.

The media had a field day with this case. If you want to read some of the salacious details the media exploited around the case a good example is the Daily News, 9 February 1927, page 1- SORDID STORY OF LIFE BOARDING HOUSE EXPERIENCES (reference) and Truth, 27 February 1927, page 22, FREMANTLE MURDER SEQUEL, Letters to Lillian Martin A GIRL WITH MANY LOVERS (reference)

A devastated Felix Martin never married again. He was charged with using obsence language in a tramcar in 1931 (reference), worked as a labourer and was charged with gambling in 1938 (reference) and in the 1940s worked at the Emu Brewery’s bottling department. (reference) Felix died in Perth in 1951.

MARTIN: On February 6, 1951, Felix, dearly loved son of Mrs. Edith Martin, of 13 Moir-street, Perth, and the late Charles Henry Martin. Loving brother of Clem, Mena (Mrs. W. Paddick) and Dick, fond brother-in-law of Bill and Mary, loving uncle of Billie Paddick, Richard and Susan Martin; aged 51 years. West Australian, 6 February 1951 (reference)

Researched by Minh Phuong Nguyen, Workskill,  Sept 2023

and Written by Jo Darbyshire, Oct 2023