By News Ltd
03 February, 1967
By News Ltd
03 February, 1967
By News Ltd
02 February, 1967
By News Ltd
01 January, 1967
By News Ltd
07 June, 1966
By News Ltd
03 February, 1966
By News Ltd
03 February, 1966
By News Ltd
03 February, 1966
By News Ltd
07 January, 1966
By News Ltd
07 January, 1966
By News Ltd
07 January, 1966
By News Ltd
07 January, 1966
By News Ltd
01 January, 1966
By News Ltd
01 January, 1966
By News Ltd
01 January, 1966
By News Ltd
01 January, 1966
By News Ltd
01 January, 1966
By News Ltd
01 December, 1965
By News Ltd
01 December, 1965
By News Ltd
01 January, 1965
On December 19, 1965, prison officer George Hodson was shot and killed when inmates Ronald Ryan and Peter Walker conducted a dramatic escape from Pentridge Prison in Melbourne, Australia. Ryan and Walker evaded police for nearly two weeks, before they were captured in Sydney and extradited back to Melbourne for trial. On March 30 the jury convicted Walker of manslaughter, and Ryan was found guilty of murder and sentenced to death. Despite his guilty sentence, uncertainty emerged over whether Ryan fired the fatal shot from an M1 carbine the pair seized from a guard tower on the way over the prison wall, or whether the bullet came from the gun of a warder firing at the escapees. 18,000 people took to the streets in protest against the death sentence and 15,000 people signed a petition against the hanging. Appeals even came from seven of the jurors regarding the severity of the sentence. Despite this and an appeal to the Privy Council, Premier Henry Bolte refused to commute Ryan’s death sentence. Ryan became last person to be legally executed in Australia when he was hanged on February 3, 1967. 


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