Ronald Ryan

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Ronald Joseph Ryan (born February 21, 1925 in Carlton , Melbourne , Victoria in Australia , † February 3, 1967 in Pentrigde Prison in Melbourne) was the last Australian whose death sentence was carried out by hanging . The execution of this death sentence will be seen as the starting point for the abolition of the death penalty in Australia. However, there are always doubts about Ryan's guilt.

childhood

Ronald Ryan was the only son of John Ronald Ryan, an early disabled miner, and his wife Eveline Cecilia Thompson, a housekeeper. Ronald Ryan's childhood was marked by poverty , alcoholism and parental illnesses. He was physically abused by his father and not accepted or rejected by his mother. He went to a school for neglected and malevolent children of the Salesians . At first he found his way around there. That changed. After several unsuccessful attempts, he managed to escape to Balranald in New South Wales on September 9, 1939 . There he took up a job and was not guilty of anything.

Criminal offenses

In 1948 Ronald Ryan went back to Melbourne and worked there as a warehouse worker in 1950. On February 4, he married Dorothy Janet George, a secretary.

In 1953, Ryan was charged with arson and acquitted . In 1956, he issued counterfeit checks to pay off his gambling debts. He got away with no penalty for making a code of conduct and taking up a job. From 1959 he became a felon leading a gang of thieves. He was arrested and imprisoned in April 1960 with three accomplices. He and three prisoners fled. They were caught a few days later. On June 17, 1960, he was sentenced to eight and a half years in prison, with eight burglaries and thefts being proven.

In August 1963 he was released for good conduct. After a series of thefts and breaking into the safe , he was sentenced again on November 13, 1964 to eight and a half years in prison. His wife divorced shortly afterwards. Ryan and Peter John Walker escaped from Pentridge Prison on December 19, 1965, with Ryan allegedly shooting prison guard George Hodson. On their escape they robbed a bank. Walker shot dead Arthur James Henderson, an accomplice of the refugees, on December 24th.

Penal system

Both refugees were caught in Sydney on January 5, 1966 . Ryan was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death by hanging. His accomplice Walker received a long prison sentence. Ryan's requests for pardon were denied and the death sentence carried out on February 3, 1967.

Movement Against the Death Penalty

The day before his execution , around 3,000 people gathered in front of Pentrigde Prison, where Ryan was to be executed. They protested against the death penalty, which sparked an Australia-wide movement against death sentences.

It was the last executed death sentence in Australia. The death penalty was abolished in the state of Victoria in 1975, with Western Australia as the last state to follow in 1984.

Media effect

Several books and numerous essays in books have been published about the life and fate of Ronald Ryan, and the topic has also been included in plays and TV films.

Books

  • Mike Richards: The Hanged Man - The Life and Death of Ronald Ryan , Scribe Publications, Melbourne 2002. ISBN 0-908011-94-6

theatre

  • The Blood of Helmut Lange - The Unjustified Execution of Ronald Ryan , The Factory Theater Crime Scenes
  • Remember Ronald Ryan: A Dramatic Play by Barry Dickens , Currency Press, Sydney, 1994, ISBN 0-86819-392-5

TV movies

  • The Last Man Hanged (1993), Documentation, Australian Broadcasting Corporation
  • The Last Of The Ryans (1997), TV, Crawford Productions
  • Beyond Reasonable Doubt - The Case of Ronald Ryan (1977), documentary series, Australian Film Commission
  • Odd Man Out - The Story of Ronald Ryan , three-part, miniseries
  • Who Hung Ronald Ryan? (1987), Australian Broadcasting Corporation, Documentary, 1987

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Mike Richards: The Death of Ronald Ryan , February 2, 2007. Retrieved June 2, 2016
  2. ↑ Gerry Hughes: Ronald Ryan did not kill warder , December 21, 2011, on theaustralian.com.au. Retrieved July 2, 2016
  3. ↑ Ronald Ryan Hanged Innocent in Australia , on ronaldryan.info. Retrieved July 2, 2016
  4. ↑ a b Mike Richards: Ryan, Ronald Joseph (1925–1967) , on adb.anu.edu.au. Retrieved July 2, 2016
personal data
SURNAME Ryan, Ronald
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Ryan, Ronald John
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Australian criminal
DATE OF BIRTH February 21, 1925
PLACE OF BIRTH Carlton , Melbourne , Victoria , Australia
DATE OF DEATH 3rd February 1967
Place of death Melbourne