Unseen footage of Ronald Ryan, Australia's last man hanged | RetroFocus

Ronald Ryan escaped from Pentridge Prison in December, 1965, cementing his place in history as the last man to be hanged in Australia, and the catalyst for the abolition of capital punishment.
Using never-before-seen material from film stored in a box at the ABC until 2006, RetroFocus presents the story of Australia’s last execution.
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[@cocosworld1868]

This is one of the best documentaries I've ever seen.

[@scoopermanu]

Once again the humble man gets shafted while the rich and powerful commit far worse crimes and get away with it ..

[@wagherbert]

Fascinating to hear Australian accents from the 60's and to hear the word 'forenoon' which I guess we have now dropped. Thank you for uploading this.

[@stevewiles7132]

I remember it all too clearly, it was believed the guard was shot from the tower.

[@chitskirits]

The problem with the death penalty is sometimes innocent or mentally sick people get killed by the state.

[@simonclord7697]

Are all these Retro Focus short films available as a collection on DVD per chance? Be amazing if they were. Love this kind of stuff. Great content. Thanks for sharing. Watched most of the others too.

[@migueltor6434]

Watching a grieving mother is always grieving, heart wrenching and tumultuous. 😔

[@nikiTricoteuse]

Very interesting and a great look at the journalism and citizenry of another era. Thanks.

[@jeffchapel79]

That reporter looks not a day past 14 but sounds 65..

[@howdyradio934]

"Thank you for the upload 💘 Watching from NSW Australia."

[@aretardridesmotard6128]

Back in the days when the ABC was in touch with the opinions of average people lol.

[@karlkachami6800]

Ignoring all the controversy, this is a lovely snapshot of Melby back then. Streets of Preston, the clothes and hair, cars and footpaths.

[@tartgreenapple]

Great sound design!!! really brings the footage alive.

[@265hemi7]

A lot of pentridge guards were no better or even more crooked than the prisoners !

[@apsleaks]

Most of the warders knew who fired the fatal bullet and it wasn't Ryan. The warder that spent the last night with Ryan before his execution ended up an alcoholic, laying drunk in the street outside his house in Newmarket. The guilt of knowing Ryan was innocent must have weighed heavily on a lot of warders minds.

[@cckc849]

It's nice that you included actual news bulletins, protest footage and street interviews from the era. It gives you insight to what the actual environment was like at the time. Public opinion seemed pretty polarised on the issue, much like it is today.

[@peterlatty4187]

Well done! Like this story very much, i was 16 at the time and remember the case well....

[@iancaldwell3850]

my now deceased dad wept once, telling us about this murder by a battling government. an absolute Australian disgrace. the hanging was on the radio. and the hate-mongers and frantic politicians get gradually worse.

[@ytpmichaelrosen9190]

The black cat in the intro surprised me.

[@fab3laundry]

One shot heard by all witnesses. Guard admits to firing one shot, yet Ronald Ryan is framed and executed with no evidence of guilt. The gun was not examined at all to see if it had even been fired. Ryan would have needed to be over 8 foot tall in order for the trajectory of the bullet to match him being the shooter. The guard who admitted to firing a shot knew it had to have been his gun that killed his colleague Hodson who had run after the escapees. Ryan and Hodson we're good friends and they played cards together often. Ryan had no reason to shoot him as this was not any prison guard chasing them. The guard who fired the shot committed suicide 3 weeks later. But our Premier Bolte didn't care if Ryan was guilty. He was going to execute him either way. Since then a bridge has been named after him. We should demand that and any other honours bestowed on Bolte be withdrawn. He was making an example of Ryan because of politics. He wanted to be re-elected and saw this as an opportunity to appear to be tough on crime. Then to top all this injustice off Ronald Ryan's family were never permitted to visit his grave inside Pentridge Prison. Yet, somehow the daughter of Hodson, Carole Price (nee Hodson) took it upon herself to dance on the grave of Ronald Ryan. What a horrible person she turned out to be. She also campaigned to have Ryan's remains keep where they were after the prison was closed. Probably so she could dance on his grave at will. She is a good example of why blind trust in the justice system is a very bad thing. And an even bigger reason that politicians should have zero control of the punishment of criminals. Their decisions are solely based on political outcome, not justice.