Ronald Ryan: The Last Man Hanged

IT STARTED WITH A PRISON ESCAPE

On 19 December 1965, Ronald Ryan and his accomplice Peter Walker escaped from Pentridge Prison in Victoria, and warder George Hodson was shot dead. This set in motion a chain of events that would lead to Ryan's execution over a year later and, eventually, to the abolition of the death penalty in Australia.

Ryan became the last man hanged in Australia on 3 February 1967.

THE ARREST, SENTENCING AND DEBATE

On the night of Christmas Day 1965, Arthur Henderson met and recognised Ryan and Walker as the wanted prisoners and was killed by Walker (who claimed it was self-defence).

Ryan and Walker escaped to Sydney and were arrested on 5 January 1966.

They faced court in March 1966, where Walker was found guilty of the manslaughter of Henderson, and Ryan was found guilty of the murder of George Hodson and sentenced to hang.

While Ryan's lawyers pursued an appeal on the grounds that the verdict was against the weight of evidence, members of the community began to question the verdict and sentence. The sentencing sparked a debate across the community, with politicians and religious authorities making statements for and against capital punishment.

Barry Jones, representing the Victorian Anti-Hanging Committee, said 13 witnesses only heard a single shot fired from one of the warders. ‘This is not to exclude the possibility that Ryan could have fired simultaneously, but nevertheless, there’s no ballistics evidence… and the evidence indicates that there’s a strong possibility of a miscarriage of justice,’ Jones said.

A POLITICAL EXECUTION

William Moss, Leader of the Victorian Country Party, was part of the supporters and called capital punishment ‘a deterrent against murder’.

Premier Sir Henry Bolte also believed that Ryan’s execution sentence was correct – at the time, capital punishment was an official policy of the governing Victorian Liberal Party. The Opposition did not support it.

An interview with Ryan’s priest, Father John Brosnan, from the documentary The Last Man Hanged compares Ryan's hanging to that of Ned Kelly, saying ‘both of those executions were highly political.’ Meanwhile, the judge, Sir Justice John Starke, also claimed politics as the reason for the hanging.

PIECING TOGETHER THE NARRATIVE

Nine Network news footage from the time reveals the events and attitudes of everyday Australians. There are eyewitness reports from the bank the pair robbed. Coburg locals were interviewed about the presence of the jail in their suburb, and Ryan’s mother, who was being cared for by nuns, spoke at a press conference about visiting her son in prison.

Footage also showed the crowd of demonstrators outside Pentridge Prison on the day of Ryan’s execution, with the day’s events narrated live by journalist Michael Schildberger.

Together, these videos from the NFSA television collection provide a valuable snapshot into the current affairs, politics, changing attitudes and debates in Australia that led to Ryan’s execution and the abolition of the death penalty.

Learn more about the events leading up to Ronald Ryan’s death in the NFSA curated collection The Last Man Hanged.

View more true crime and mystery stories

This article was first published in 2017. The text was updated in 2024.