Ronald Ryan

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Born	21 February 1925(1925-02-21) Carlton, Victoria
Died	3 February 1967 (aged 41) HM Prison Pentridge, Coburg, Victoria
Status	Executed by hanging
Children	Jan Fenton,Now living in laggan,Nsw, Pip Donovan who lives in Portland (ViC) and Wendy Still living in Victoria

Ronald Joseph Ryan (c. 21 February 1925 - 3 February 1967) was the last person to be legally executed in Australia.

Contents 1 Life 2 Escape and recapture 3 Trial and sentencing 4 Execution 5 Innocent of murder? 6 Alleged Confession 7 Last legal execution in Australia 8 The Last of The Ryans 9 Cited References 10 Further reading 10.1 Film and television 10.2 Publications 11 External links

[edit] Life

Ronald Ryan was born in Melbourne's inner suburb of Carlton, to John and Cecilia Ryan . At the time of Ryan's birth in 1925, his mother was separated but still legally married to George Harry Thompson. The couple had separated in 1915 when Thompson left to fight the Great War. The relationship never resumed. Ryan's parents formed a relationship in 1924 and married after Thompson's death in 1927 from a car accident. In 1936 Ryan was confirmed in the Catholic Church. He took as his confirmation name Joseph, and then became known as Ronald Joseph Ryan.

Born into dire poverty, Ryan was a primary school student when state authorities declared him a "neglected child" and subsequently he was sent to Rupertswood Boys Home in Sunbury. At age 14, Ronald absconded from Rupertswood, and went to live in Balranald, New South Wales, where he lived and worked to support his mother and three sisters. At the age of 23 he returned to Melbourne.

Ryan was a forestry worker, sleeper-cutter, champion cyclist and small-time criminal. His social standing improved when he married the daughter of the Mayor of the middle class Melbourne suburb of Hawthorn, with whom he had three daughters. He was sent to Bendigo Prison for the first time in 1960 for factory-breaking and stealing offences. His time in prison was productive and he exhibited a disciplined approach to study, completing his Matriculation Certificate (year 12).

Ryan was described by the people who knew him as a likable character with dignity and self-respect. He was regarded by the authorities as a model prisoner. However, upon his release from prison and on parole in 1963, he turned to gambling and quickly returned to crime after convictions for multiple counts of shop-breaking and a weapons offence. In 1964 he was sentenced to 14 years for armed robbery and other offences.

[edit] Escape and recapture

After Ryan was informed that his wife was filing for divorce, Ryan decided to escape from prison and take his family to Brazil, where there was no extradition treaty with Australia. On 19 December 1965, in a highly organised and audacious plan, Ryan and fellow prisoner Peter John Walker (a convicted car stealer) escaped from Pentridge Prison after Ryan overpowered a prison guard, Helmut Lange, and took his rifle.

The prison alarm was raised, indicating an escape. Armed prison guards came out onto the street, on prison walls and on top of prison guard towers. In scenes of noise and confusion, a loud whip-like crack of a single shot was heard, and a prison officer, George Hodson (closely running after Walker, not far from Ryan) fell to the ground. He had been struck by a single bullet, travelling from front to back in a downward trajectory. The bullet had exited through Hodson's back, about an inch lower than the point of entry in his shoulder.

Based on Hodson's injuries, Ryan's defence counsel argued at his subsequent trial for murder that the ballistics evidence indicated that the fatal bullet entered Hodson's (shoulder) body at such a downward trajectory angle that Ryan (5 feet 8 inches (1.73 m) tall) would have had to have been 8 feet 6 inches (2.55 m) tall to have fired the shot. But the prosecution argued that Hodson (6 feel 1 inch (1.85 m) tall) could have been running in a stooped position, thus accounting for the bullet's fatal downward trajectory angle of entry.

A third prison warder, Robert Paterson, standing on a wall outside the prison (allegedly aiming at Ryan) admitted, and testified in court, to firing a shot. Fourteen eyewitnesses testified in court that they heard only one shot - no person heard two shots fired. If Ryan had also fired a shot, it is likely that at least one person would have heard two shots. All fourteen persons testified to hearing only one shot.^[1]

Ryan and Walker successfully eluded their pursuers outside Pentridge and escaped using a car they commandeered outside the prison. After a massive police manhunt, daily front-page news articles claiming that Ryan had shot and killed Hodson, and widespread community fear, Ryan and Walker were re-captured in the Sydney suburb of Concord, after 19 days on the run.

In 2005, author Tony Reeves published a biography of the notorious Sydney criminal Lennie McPherson, who was known as Sydney's "Mr Big" of organised crime. According to Reeves's account, Lennie McPherson betrayed Ryan and Walker to Sydney police after they came to him for help. ^[2].

After hiding out in country Victoria, Ryan and Walker fled to Sydney, arriving on 2 January 1966. During the journey they narrowly escaped capture -- a police car pulled up while they were filling their car at a petrol station and the two officers approached and chatted with them, but although they were the most wanted men in Australia, the officers failed to recognise them.

After arriving in Sydney, Ryan and Walker met McPherson at his Gladesville home, where he told them he could arrange passports and tickets to Brazil at a cost of £5,000 each. The following day McPherson arranged a meeting with an unnamed NSW politician, and they informed him that they did not have enough money, and that they planned to commit robberies to raise the required amount.

What Ryan and Walker did not know was that McPherson was a longstanding police informant. As soon as they arrived in Sydney, McPherson tipped off his police contact, Detective Inspector Ray "Gunner" Kelly about their presence. Unhappy with the idea of two desperate criminals on the loose in "his" territory, he quickly decided to give them up and told Kelly of their planned movements over the next few days. McPherson then arranged for Ryan to meet a woman (presumably for sex) at Concord Repatriation Hospital on the evening of 6 January. Acting on McPherson's information, DI Kelly set a trap for them with a heavily-armed contingent of around 50 police officers and detectives.

When their car pulled up near the hospital, Ryan walked over to a nearby telephone box, but it had been deliberately put out of order, so he walked over to a neighbouring shop and asked to use the phone there. The owner had been instructed to tell Ryan that his phone was also out of order, and as Ryan walked out of the shop he was tackled by six detectives, dropping a loaded .32 revolver that he had been carrying. At the same moment Det. Sgt Fred Krahe thrust a shotgun through the car window and held it at Walker's head, and he was captured without a struggle.

[edit] Trial and sentencing

The two were extradited back to Melbourne where they were jointly tried for the murder of George Hodson. Walker was later also tried for the shooting murder of an associate during the period when he and Ryan were at large. After a trial in the Victorian Supreme Court lasting twelve sitting days and despite inconsistencies of evidence and the mysterious disappearance of several key pieces of evidence, including the bullet that actually killed Hodson, the jury found Ryan guilty of murder.

Ryan was convicted of the murder of Hodson, and sentenced to death by Justice John Starke, the mandatory sentence at that time. Walker was found not guilty of murder, but guilty of manslaughter and sentenced to 12 years imprisonment.^[3][4]

According to the 12 male jurors, they evidently thought that the death sentence would be commuted as had happened in the previous 35 death penalties cases since 1951. According to one jury member's later account of the discussions in the jury room, not one member of the jury thought that Ryan would be executed. The jury had originally decided on a not-guilty verdict, but two jury members who thought Ryan was guilty convinced the others to bring in a guilty verdict. They were so sure that the death sentence would be commuted to life imprisonment, that they did not even discuss the issue of making a recommendation for mercy along with their guilty verdict.

When it became apparent that the Liberal premier Mr (later Sir Henry) Bolte intended to proceed with the execution, a secret eleventh-hour plea for mercy was made by four jury members who had found Ryan guilty of murder. They sent petitioning letters to the Victorian governor, stating that in reaching their verdict, they had believed that capital punishment had been abolished in Victoria and requesting that the governor exercise the Royal Prerogative of Mercy and commute Ryan's sentence of death.

Bolte denied all requests for mercy and was determined Ryan would hang. The approaching execution of Ryan prompted widespread protests in Victoria and elsewhere around the country.^[5]

A nationwide three-minute silence was observed at the exact time that Ryan was hanged.

Newspapers in Melbourne, traditionally supporters of the Bolte government, deserted him on the issue and ran a campaign of spirited opposition on the grounds that the death penalty was barbaric. There is some evidence that, for premier Bolte, Ryan's execution was an opportunity for him to re-assert his political authority after he had been thwarted by legal manouevres to ensure the execution of Robert Peter Tait in 1962.

On the last night before his execution, Ryan wrote letters to his family and to those who had fought tirelessly on his behalf. Ryan maintained his innocence to the end.

[edit] Execution

All calls for clemency, petitions and protests were to no avail. Ryan was hanged in 'D' Division at Pentridge Prison at 8.00 AM on Friday 3 February 1967. Around three thousand protesters had gathered outside the prison. Several media journalists were invited to witness the execution. Later that day, Ryan's body was buried in an unmarked grave within the "D" Division prison facility. The exact location of Ryan's grave has never been released by the authorities.^[6][7]

Recently, Ryan's family members made a request to have his body exhumed and placed with his late wife at Portland Cemetery. Victorian Premier John Brumby, has given permission for archaeological work and exhumation. However, the daughter of murdered prison guard Hodson objects, claiming Ryan does not deserve to be buried in consecrated ground. When visiting Ryan's unmarked grave recently, she danced and jumped on it. [1]

While it was not successful in averting Ryan’s execution, the protest campaign to save Ryan from the gallows ensured that governments around Australia regarded it as too difficult politically to ever resort to the death penalty again. Within twenty years, capital punishment would be abolished federally and in all state and territory jurisdictions. In 1985, Australia officially abolished capital punishment.

Today, almost all federal and state politicians from all political parties are opposed to the reintroduction of capital punishment in Australia, for all crimes. Whether these politicians are representative of their voters is less clear. In recent years, Australian politicians (both government and opposition) have made various comments that have changed Australia's opposition to the death penalty. The implications of this shift in Australian policy have not yet been fully explored or debated. [2]

[edit] Innocent of murder?

Evidence pointing to the innocence of Ronald Ryan may have gone to the grave with a prison warden who committed suicide by shooting himself in the head whilst on duty at Pentridge Prison, two years after Ryan was hanged. It is alleged that a close friend of Lange (who wanted to remain anonymous) claimed Lange had been troubled since the escape. Lange confessed to finding the missing bullet casing in the prison guard tower, and told his friend he had made an official report to prison authorities at the time, attaching the missing bullet casing. But Lange had been ordered by "someone" to make a new statement, excluding any reference to the missing bullet casing. Fearing for his job, Lange made a new statement. Later, Lange testified in court that he did not see a bullet casing.

Newly revealed information suggests that Helmut Lange may have known that Ryan was innocent, and that Lange was told by prison authorities to change his statement of what happened during the prison escape, which led to the shooting death of George Hodson.^[8]

Nineteen years after Ryan's execution, a prison officer, Doug Pascoe, confessed that he fired a shot during Ryan's escape bid. Pascoe believes his shot may have accidentally killed his fellow prison officer, Hodson. Pascoe had not told anyone that he fired a shot during the escape because at that time, "I was a 23-year-old coward". In 1986, he tried to tell his story but his claims were discredited by the authorities.

According to Ryan's defence lawyer Dr Philip Opas QC, Ryan's rifle was never scientifically tested. There was no proof that Ryan's rifle had been fired. The fatal bullet was never found. The spent cartridge, also, was never found. It was never proven that the fatal bullet came from the weapon in Ryan's possession.^{[9][10][11][12]}

In a letter "Opas on Ryan" to The Victorian Bar Association and published in The Bar News in Spring 2002, Dr Opas responds to a recently made assertion by person/s that Ryan was guilty, having verbally confessed to firing the shot that killed Hodson. This alleged assertion has emerged 35 years after Ryan was hanged. Dr Opas vehemently disagrees with this assertion and refuses to believe that at any time did Ryan confess to anyone that he fired a shot. Ryan gave evidence and swore that he did not fire at Hodson. He denied firing a shot at all. He denied the so-called verbal confessions said to have been made by him.

Contesting the fatal shot, Dr Opas explains in detail the facts, which he claims cannot lie - which cannot be mistaken - that not only did Ryan not fire a shot, but he could not have fired a shot. Witnesses for the prosecution claimed to have seen Ryan's shoulder jerk back and smoke coming from the barrel of the gun, when in fact that type of rifle had no recoil and it contained smokeless cartridges. ^[13]

Dr Opas says the last words Ryan said to him were, “We’ve all got to go sometime, but I don’t want to go this way for something I didn’t do.” [3]

On 1 March 2004, in an interview with the Australian Coalition Against Death Penalty (ACADP) Dr Opas said, "I want to put the record straight. I want the truth told about Ronald Ryan - that an innocent man went to the gallows. I want the truth to be made available to everyone, for anyone young and old, who may want to do research into Ryan's case or research on the issue of capital punishment. I will go to my grave firmly of the opinion that Ronald Ryan did not commit murder. I refuse to believe that at any time he told anyone that he did."

Mr. Justice Starke the judge at Ryan's trial, and a committed abolitionist, was convinced of Ryan's guilt but did not agree Ryan should hang. Until his death in 1992, Starke remained troubled about Ryan's hanging and would often ask his colleagues if they thought he did the right thing.

[edit] Alleged Confession

In a recently published book by Mike Richards titled, The Hanged Man, it is alleged that Ryan confessed guilt to Pentridge Prison Governor Ian Grindlay, the night before the hanging. According to the book, Ryan said to Grindlay, "I did shoot him (Hodson) but I didn't mean to kill him only to stop him." It should be noted that Grindlay died more than one decade before the book that contains this allegation was published. The author's account of the truth is unreliable. [4]

The historical "fact" (something that is absolutely indisputable) and supported by Ryan's defense lawyer Dr Philip Opas QC, is that there are no records, nor is there any evidence whatsoever, anywhere, that Grindlay (while still alive) said to anyone at anytime, that Ryan had confessed guilt.[5]

[edit] Last legal execution in Australia

The Last Man Hanged is a dramatised documentary based on research, with a mixture of re-creating interviews and archival material depicting the events leading up to the hanging of Ronald Joseph Ryan in Pentridge Prison. What evolves in the documentary is a powerful and emotional statement about capital punishment - a universal story about the social and political pressures that can lead a government to take the life of a human being and the story of a complex Ronald Ryan, who was as much a victim of politics as the victims of society he had violated - a man who believed ultimately he had to die.It was later confessed by prison officer Robert Patterson, that he shot a gun, and was too much of a coward to confess earlier.

[edit] The Last of The Ryans

The Last of The Ryans tells the true story of Ronald Ryan - the man, the prison escape, the trial, the political hanging that the Premier, Henry Bolte, had to have to win an election, and the execution. Bolte saw the case as a contest of wills and brushed aside all protests, appeals, petitions, including one signed by seven of the jurors who sat on the Ryan case.

[edit] Cited References

[edit] Further reading

[edit] Film and television

• The Last Man Hanged, historical documentary, ABC, Australia, 1993
• The Last Of The Ryans, television movie, Crawford Productions, Australia, 23 April 1997
• Beyond Reasonable Doubt - The Case of Ronald Ryan, documentary series, 1977 Australian Film Commission

[edit] Publications

• Dickens, Barry, Remember Ronald Ryan: A Dramatic Play, Currency Press, Sydney, 1994, ISBN 0868193925
• Dickens, Barry, Guts and Pity - The Hanging that ended Capital Punishment in Australia, Currency Press, Sydney, 1996 ISBN 0868194247
• Richards, Mike, The Hanged Man - The Life and Death of Ronald Ryan, Scribe Publications, Melbourne, 2002, ISBN 0-908011-94-6

[edit] External links

• "New resting place for Ronald Ryan", National Nine News, 29 October, 2007
• Ewart, Heather, "35th anniversary of Australia's last execution", 7.30 Report, Australian Broadcasting Corporation, 14 March, 2002
• Norden, Fr. Peter; "Remembering a hanging", Jesuit Communications Australia, 10 September, 2007
• Opas, Philip, "The Innocence of Ronald Ryan", The Victorian Criminal Bar, 2002
• "Ryan, Ronald Joseph (1925 - 1967)", Australian Dictionary of Biography, Volume 16, Melbourne University Press, 2002, p. 157.
• Ryan, Michael,"Ryan Still able to joke: mother", Home News, 27 January, 1967