The gallows on which Ryan was hanged
Herald Sun
I have written about capital punishment before. Dr Hawley Crippen was hanged in Pentonville London for killing his wife (1910); Eddie Leonski was hanged at Pentridge Melbourne by the American Army for murdering 3 Australian women (1942); William Joyce was hanged for treason in Wandsworth UK (1946); Ethel and Julius Rosenberg were electrocuted in Sing Sing N.Y for spying (1953) and Adolf Eichmann was hanged in Israel (1962) for WW2 genocide.
Dorothy and Ronald Ryan 1950
news.com
He converted to Church of England to marry Dorothy George in 1950. They had 3 daughters, so Ryan needed reliable jobs to look after them all eg timber cutter and a rail service painter. Alas he also tried armed robbery. In 1960 Ryan pleaded guilty to multiple charges of breaking & stealing, and was gaoled.
In 1964, he fled to NSW committing 9 robberies in 3 months, and again was sentenced to 13 years' for these crimes. Rehabilitation was tried at Bendigo Prison, especially worthwhile since he completed matriculation. After he was paroled he worked as a clerk, but after a few months reverted to robbing shops.
In gaol Ryan met bank robber Peter Walker. In late 1965 Ryan heard his wife Dorothy wanted a divorce, so he planned with Walker to escape together. During the prison warders' 1965 Christmas party, Ryan and Walker scaled the 5m inner prison wall and got outside. After seeing the escapees, warden George Hodson came out from the party and chased them, without sounding the alarm. Option #1: Ryan heard Walker call for help, when Hodson had caught him and then Ryan heard a random shot ring out. Option #2: Witnesses said Ryan was waving the rifle at cars, to get them to stop. In either case, Hodson was shot dead during the escape.
Ryan and Walker went into hiding in Sydney for 19 days. When Ryan arranged to go to Concord Hospital in Jan, Sydney detectives led an armed team of 50 officers to the hospital. As Ryan and Walker were pulling out, they were grabbed, the police finding fully loaded rifles and handguns, axes and ropes in their car! Ryan & Walker were extradited back to Victoria.
Ryan’s barrister Philip Opas argued that the shot killing Hodson might have come from an armed prison officer. At trial Ryan testified that a prison guard had fired at the escapees, and all parties agreed only one shot was heard. But despite ambiguous or missing evidence and the fact that Ryan's rifle was never examined to determine if it had been discharged, after 12 days the jury found Ryan guilty of murder. In Mar 1966 Justice John Starke imposed the mandatory death sentence. Unbelievable :(
Police arrested 97 protesters as anger boiled over at Victorian Premier Henry Bolte’s refusal to commute Ryan’s death sentence. Bolte was determined that Ryan be executed, despite intense opposition from the public, media, politicians and clergy. Even Ryan’s jurors loathed the Premier, writing to Bolte’s cabinet pleading for his mercy, saying we didn’t want the rope. Bolte didn’t budge!
Detectives escort the captured Ronald Ryan in the old Sydney CIB
news.com
In Feb 1967, 14 male reporters were inside the Old Gaol, next to Ryan’s gallows. The hangman was a stooped old man who boasted about his executions everywhere for 38 years. He wore welder’s goggles and wound the noose around the massive beam, leaving it dangling over the trap. The sheriff and the prison governor walked slowly to the death-cell to fetch Ryan. The hangman tugged the noose under Ryan’s chin, then he worked the lever that drew the bolts of the trapdoor. Ryan fell down, the rope jerked against the beam and death took 25 secs.
Father John Brosnan and prison psychiatrist Dr Allan Bartholomew stepped forward. Father Brosnan made the sign of the cross with holy oil on Ryan’s forehead, and Dr Bartholomew pronounced him dead. Ryan’s body was cut down and carried to the prison hospital for a post mortem, then Australia’s last-ever executed prisoner was covered and buried in unmarked Pentridge land.
The two pro-hanging premiers in obscene agreement
Jo Bjelke Petersen Qld and Henry Bolte Vic
news.com
Anti-hanging protest marchers outside Pentridge Prison,
before the hanging of Ryan in Feb 1967.
news.com
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22 comments:
Raised by abusive, alcoholic parents, it is not surprising Ronald and all the 5 siblings were made Wards of State. Living at a boys’ home barely into his teens must have been even worse. The state authorities should have apologised to young Ryan for his dismal state-ruled life, not hanged him. I was one of the protesters.
Hardly justice, was it?
There was so much doubt in Ryan's case, he should never even have been convicted. I remember Bolte in my very young years, or That Bastard Bolte as my father called him. As my father wiped up my brother's shit from the floor with the front page of our newspaper, I told my father that he should not do that with a half page photo of Bolte. I can't remember my father's reply but since I've come to understand it was what Bolte deserved.
Hanging is Murder
I wonder if the Children's Services authorities took any responsibility for the lack of decent care given to this young ward of state. He needed caring parents/foster parents, quality education and plenty of social work support. Ha!
Otherwise the Children's Services Department may has well left the children of alcoholic parents in their homes, to be abused there :(
jabblog
it was a peak of INjustice :(
The evidence in court was uncertain and Ryan's rifle was never examined to determine if it had been discharged!!!! It still shocks us now that the judge gave the death sentence in 1966, not 1766 :(
Hi Hels - there was far too much injustice ... ghastly thought of being hung. A very informative film was made in 2005 here on Pierrepoint - the last British executioner.
Sad that injustices still happen ... Hilary
Andrew
Bolte was a total creep as a politician whose primary concern in Victoria was law and order. He had no redeeming qualities whatsoever. Your brother was spot on, pooing on the Premier's photo.
But let us narrow the debate to Ryan's case. Newspapers (eg Canberra Times) said opposition to the execution came from churches, trade unions and even members of Bolte’s own Conservative Party expressed their revulsion for the insistence on the state-sanctioned hanging. But the the government had commuted 15 previous death penalties, and Bolte wasn't going to let another working class snot get away with Life.
Hilary
Albert Pierrepoint was a British hangman who executed many hundreds of people. Whether he did it from a love of killing, a need for a steady income or a commitment to cleaning the nation of crime, the outcome for the victims was the same. A hideous death.
The judge who orders capital punishment, the hangman who carries it out and the criminal found guilty of murder are all equally guilt of ending life.
Yes I cannot fathom why the bridge was named in his Honor !!! I cant see that there is anything admirable in his premiership at all. I would definitely sign a petition to change is name .
Have you been to the redeveloped Pentridge Helen ?? I never really thought it would work , too much sadness and suffering in those walls but it actually does. There is a cinema and also some shops and some quite good restaurants as well as a history of the building and social history of Pentridge . Apparently the tiny horrible cells have now become wine cellars that collectors can lease or buy ! All quite Surreal.
I travelled in Riveria region of NSW for 11 years now. The piece really hits a home run for me. So good to actually read about a local story like this. Though sad, it is a reminder how people lived through this difficult time. Yes, it did not deserve capital punishment.
Jo-Anne
we know things change as citizens become more modern and moral, but even then the state and federal governments may take longer to catch up. But what a VERY long time it took: Queensland abolished capital punishment in 1922; Tasmania in 1968; The Commonwealth in 1973, Victoria in 1975, South Australia in 1976 and Western Australia in 1984. New South Wales finally abolished capital punishment for ALL crimes in 1985.
What would have happened had Ryan's crime happened in Queensland instead of Victoria in 1967?
mem
due to preferential voting in Victoria by the breakaway "Democratic Labour Party", Henry Bolte convincingly won at the 1955 elections and intended to stay there forever. He almost did... six victories!! This was despite Bolte being a very clear supporter of using capital punishment as a deterrent against violent crime. So we have to ask the Victorian population why they kept voting for him; presumably ordinary citizens approved of hanging criminals.
Perfect timing for your mentioning Pentridge Prison aka Coburg College :) This ugly, brutal gaol was built in 1851 but it wasn't until the last few months that I have been collecting historical texts and photos about the facility. I know I never ever wanted hangings but the alternative, i.e living in Pentridge for the rest of the criminal's life, was also hideous. And you are right about the horrible cells now being classy wine cellars. Oh the irony.
roentare
Working class families and the unemployed always had a constant struggle to be able to pay for rent and food, and children of alcoholic Depression Era parents had a particularly difficult struggle. No wonder Ryan turned to robberies.
But the worst thing was that guns hadn't be banned in Australia back in the 1960s :( Yet I will never forgive Ryan for carrying a rifle.
Oh I remember that well after reading about it again Hels. The uproar from the public and rightly so.
His gun should have been checked, however, it makes one wonder why they hanged Ryan as you say.
Margaret
the second half of the 1960s was such an exciting, progressive and action-filled era - Vietnam, the women's movement, abortion rights and aboriginal rights in particular. So I am not surprised that people initially forget the protests against capital punishment. But the changes came quickly back then, thankfully.
Miscarriage of justice.
Until very recently, the general position was that an appellate court wouldn't not generally re-examine the evidence presented in court. You really needed new evidence as a ground. Nowadays, an independent tribunal would investigate the conduct of proceedings (e.g. whether defence counsel committed a serious error) and refer the matter to the appellate court. The fact that the evidence of the shooting of the bullet was inconsistent should have meant that the jury should have acquitted on the charge of murder.
Very sobering story.
Liam,
thank you. I would have said that hanging with an immoral punishment, even if there was evidence that Ronald Ryan really DID kill the warden during Ryan's attempted escape from gaol.
Seeing that there was no clear evidence, capital punishment seemed even more illegal and immoral.
But when you say an appellate court would not generally re-examine the evidence presented in the first court, it made me feel even worse. Needing new evidence may not be possible; proving the old evidence was not definitive was the main issue in this case.
I am against capital punishment which I view as State murder, but also against turning criminals into martyrs. A common factor among those who are executed, however despicable they may have been, is that they have often been some kind of victim themselves.
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bazza
Good to see you :) And I half agree.
Criminals are criminals, and the state must protect the rest of the community from their drugs, guns, murders, abuse of women etc etc. I suppose capital punishment does protect the rest of the community from the criminal who is going to be hanged, but state murder reduces the state to the brutality of the criminal they are punishing.
Would it be ok for the judge to rape a rapist? Of course not. We are supposed to be more moral than the criminals who were proven in court to commit immoral crimes?
Hi Hels,
Well, I'm not sure what my views are on this subject. I think there are truly sick and evil people out there who, for example, rape and torture little kids. So, not the Ronald Ryans. I think people like that forfeit their right to life. The idea of rehabilitation is a laugh and I think people like that cannot be punished in the normal way. The bounds that tie us in a community no longer really exist for them. I don't generally buy arguments that the murderer is the real victim. Lots of people have been dealt a bad hand in life and had adversity, and they would never dream of hurting people. On the other hand, I am aware of the miscarriages of justice by the state, and I also think we should be wary of the state having too much power over the citizen. I also think too much capital punishment may be culturally unhealthy for a society.
But, there are no easy no answers and much depends on the crime and the context. I don't agree with enormously long life sentences which I think are worse than the death penalty - a form of protracted death. So, in the case of Ronald Ryans; perhaps manslaughter would have been an appropriate charge (if he did in fact fire the bullet that killed, which seemed impossible to say). Also, in England, we have stopped senior politicians from exercising a discretion on these sorts of subjects (like granting parole). So I don't think it was ever appropriate for the Australian premier to have had a say.
On the subject of appeals, as I understand it, the appellate court will not re-examine the evidence because it takes the view that the jury has examined the evidence/witnesses/weapon/forensic reports, weighed it and come to a decision. Also, a judge would (or should) have been there to make sure proceedings were evenhanded and unfair lines of questioning were not adopted. Things that should have been disclosed to the defence were. And judges are usually v. good at this. The jury process is a serious role which would be undermined if the Court of Appeal would stick its nose in - without having heard the evidence, experts and counsel itself (i.e. just reading the transcript, and judgment). The law also has the principle of finality which means that it is not in the interests of society for the courts to constantly re-open a case again-and-again. So, the grounds of appeal are narrow (i.e. we cannot re-examine the evidence because the courts assume the due process and fairness were followed which they usually are) unless something v. wrong took place. And the principle of finality means that you have limited time-frame and opportunities to raise an appeal. A bit harsh, but I am not sure what the alternative is.
In England we have an independent organ of the state that looks into the trial proceedings and makes referrals. Not many, but a few each year. I recently blogged about Andrew Malkinson as an example (https://jeeveshat.blogspot.com/2023/07/blog-post.html).
Liam
thank you for a detailed and thoughtful response. Like you, I also do not agree with the argument that the murderer is the real victim, nor do I believe that rapists and murderers should be let free into the community to continue their crimes. But being wary of the state having too much power over citizens is not helpful since who is going to control dangerous criminals other than the police, courts and prison guards?
The principle of finality might indeed "mean that you have limited time-frame and opportunities to raise an appeal". In that case, I hope most countries don't tolerate capital punishment any more! As it happens, almost all death sentences that were _actually carried out_ in 2022 were in China, Iran, Saudi Arabia, Egypt and USA.
The Federal Government decided, after consultation with Britain and in the face of some strenuous opposition, that Eddie Leonski could be tried by a United States court martial _in_ Australia. Leonski was the first and only citizen of another country to have been tried and executed in Australia .. under the law of his own country, the U.S.
https://melbourneblogger.blogspot.com/2014/01/us-soldier-eddie-leonskis-murder-spree.html
Or listen to the Eddie Leonski podcast on listennotes.com
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