Shortly after the Molynoux family left England to settle in Australia, Mrs. Edith Molynoux embarked on a passionate affair with Australian Charles Odgers. She left her husband and three children to move in with him, then changed her mind and went back to her family. Odgers, in despair, confronted her several times, pleading with her to come back to him. Each time she refused until, on the last occasion, in October, 1913, he shot her dead on her doorstep.
Odgers then fled into the bush and put a hand grenade in his mouth. It exploded and blew half his face away but he survived.
He was brought to trial in Perth and sentenced to death. At his execution at Freemantle Prison on Wednesday, January 14th, 1914, officials feared that his head would come off because of the injuries caused during his suicide bid. They decided to give him a short drop with disastrous consequences. As he fell through the trap-door he was decapitated and the officials and the hangmen were drenched in his blood.