Jean Lee

Case details

Jean Lee (10 December 1919 – 19 February 1951) was an Australian woman executed by hanging at Pentridge prison, Coburg on February 19, 1951. She was convicted of murder and was notable as the last woman to be executed in Australia.

Background

Jean Lee was born Jean Lee on 10 December 1919 at Dubbo, New South Wales. Her names were registered as Marjorie Jean Maude. She was the daughter of a railway worker and his wife Florence, née Peacock. Her childhood took place in rural New South Wales and later in suburban Sydney. She was remembered as an intelligent, popular student at her Roman Catholic school, though she was inclined to be rebellious on occasion.

She married in 1938. In the following year she gave birth to a daughter. After several years, her husband abandoned her and their child, and Lee gave her daughter to her mother to raise. After Lee's mother sought legal custody of Lee's daughter, Lee moved to Melbourne where she became involved in petty crime.

Lee became involved in prostitution. She met Robert David Clayton, and their relationship became abusive, with Lee subjected to violence.

Lee and her partner used a method to extort money from unsuspecting men, which they called "The Badger Game". Lee would lure a man into a sexually compromising position, and Clayton would burst into the room and surprise them. Clayton played the part of the outraged husband and blackmailed the other man into giving him money in return for his silence. Because many of the men were supposedly respectable married men, the men often gave Clayton money rather than risk him telling their wives. On occasions when the man refused, Clayton would beat and rob him.

The couple were later joined by Norman Andrews, another criminal that Clayton had first met while in prison.

The offence

In 1949, the trio targeted an elderly man, William "Pop" Kent. Kent was 73 years old and was an SP Bookie. Kent invited the trio to have a drink at his flat. Kent was found to keep money in his home, and the trio considered him a soft target.

Kent invited them to his flat, and the evening proceeded at the time of 6 pm closing time being law in Victoria. Lee kept Kent busy by performing oral sex while the two men searched the flat for money.

The trio gave conflicting statements to police, but it was known that Kent was tied to a chair by Lee. Over a period of hours all three kicked and beat Kent while demanding to know where his money was kept. They took Kent's money roll from his pocket but wanted more. Kent was initially defiant and eventually insisted that he had no extra money.

Kent was tortured and stabbed several times before Andrews strangled him. Neighbours heard Kent's screams and called police, but by the time police arrived Lee, Clayton and Andrews were gone and Kent was dead.

Kent was found under a pile of sheets and clothing. His furniture had been broken and his home had been ransacked. A later report claimed that Kent's penis had been cut off and stuffed down his throat.

In the Melbourne hotel context described in the other account, Lee and her companions saw Kent in a Melbourne hotel lounge, and Lee had several drinks with Kent. Kent took Lee back to his apartment where she tried to pick his pockets. Kent put up a fight, ended when Clayton and Andrews entered the room. Kent was systematically kicked, beaten and tortured over the next hour to reveal where he had hidden his money. Kent's hands were tied behind his back and his thumbs tied together with bootlaces. Kent was repeatedly stabbed with a small knife and was finally manually strangled.

The account also described the trio arrested in a hotel room, still wearing blood-stained clothing. Blood-stained clothing was found in Lee's and Andrew's rooms after police questioning in separate rooms.

Investigation

The trio were questioned in separate rooms at police headquarters. Each initially denied their involvement and then started to blame the others.

Lee confessed to the crime. In an effort to save her lover, Lee claimed that she had acted alone and that he had no knowledge of the events.

Arrest

The three were soon apprehended in a hotel room still wearing blood-stained clothing.

Trial

Lee and her two male companions were charged with murder.

The trial began on 20 March 1950. By the time the trial began, the three had turned on each other, with each person attempting to shift blame onto the other two.

Lee was charged under the principle of "common purpose", meaning that although it was accepted that she had neither stabbed nor strangled Kent, she had played an active role in his death and was therefore equally culpable.

The jury took less than three hours to find them guilty. The three were found guilty and sentenced to death. Lee became hysterical as she heard the sentence. Clayton shouted abuse at the jury.

Sentencing

The three were sentenced to death after being found guilty of murder.

Appeals

On 23 June 1950, the Court of Criminal Appeal ruled that their confessions had been improperly obtained and ordered a retrial, but this was overturned by the High Court and the verdicts and sentences were confirmed.

Lee’s mental state declined after this. She alternated between violently attacking her prison guards and begging for mercy. She stated repeatedly that she was innocent and that they had never meant to kill anyone. Lee also commented that she did not believe a woman would be hanged.

Execution

On 19 February 1951, the morning of her execution, Lee became hysterical and had to be sedated. She fainted when the executioner came to her cell and she was strapped semi-conscious to a chair. She was executed at 8:00 a.m.

At 10:00 a.m. her accomplices Robert Clayton 32, and Norman Andrews 38, were also hanged.

Clayton's last words were "Goodbye Charlie". Andrews's last words were "Goodbye Robert".

Lee was one of two women executed in Australia during the 20th century, the other being Martha Rendell, who was hanged for murdering her de facto husband's children in 1909. Lee was the last woman to be hanged before the death penalty was abolished.

Other details

In one account, Lee was described as an attractive 31-year-old redhead. She made history as the last woman to hang in Australia when she went to the gallows in Pentridge prison in the Coburg suburb of Melbourne in Victoria state on the morning of Monday February 19th 1951.

The proceedings in one account described the trial in Melbourne's Criminal Court as lasting 6 days, with the jury deliberating less than three hours.

In a description of protests, the media and a majority of people were in favour of the sentence being carried out, but spearheaded by the Labor Women's Organising Committee and groups opposed to capital punishment, some public sympathy emerged for Lee. No woman had been hanged in Victoria for fifty-six years, and telegrams of protest were sent to the McDonald government, but a subsequent legal appeal failed to reverse the decision.

In another description of Lee's prison behaviour, she abused her warderesses next begging them for an alcoholic drink. Lee told one of her warderesses:

"I just didn’t do it. I haven’t enough strength in my hands to choke anyone. Bobby was stupid but the old man was trying to yell for help. None of us meant to kill him."

Sheriff William Daly was required to read the death warrant to Lee. A doctor examined Lee and found she was unconscious. Lee was heavily sedated as she shuffled under escort to a double cell near the gallows.

In that description, Lee collapsed on seeing the hangman and his assistant, both goggled and wearing felt hats. Because of her state of collapse, the executioner pinioned her arms in front of rather than behind her back as normal. The executioner’s assistant then pinioned her legs with a strap, put the white hood on her head, and carried her from the cell to the gallows where she had to be placed on a chair on the trap. Lee's head drooped to her chest and the executioner pulled it back to adjust the noose correctly. The flap of the hood which was to cover her face had been left open. At a signal from the sheriff the executioner dropped the flap to obscure her face, stood back from the trap and pulled the lever. The trap fell and both she and the chair plummeted through. The chair had been secured to the gallows by a cord and although it fell with her the two parted company at the end of the drop leaving her suspended normally.

Capital punishment ended in Australia with Victoria's next execution, that of Ronald Ryan on the 3rd of February 1967 on the same gallows at Pentridge prison.

A recent book titled "Jean Lee - The last woman hanged in Australia" by Paul Wilson, Don Trebl and Robyn Lincoln cast doubt on the justice of her conviction and execution based upon the police interrogation methods and her part in the murders.

Lee was survived by her daughter, and she was buried within the prison walls.

The account described her as having had dead end jobs and leaving or being fired from them, and it described her as having had a relationship with a criminal who managed her earnings from prostitution.

In that account, the criminal charge timeline described:

• Between May 1945 and July 1948 Lee appeared twenty-three times at Sydney's Central Police Court, mostly on charges of offensive behaviour.
• In October 1949 Lee travelled to Melbourne with Clayton, who had just been released from gaol.
• There they teamed up with another criminal, Norman Andrews.
• On 8 November a 73-year-old, part-time bookmaker William ('Pop') Kent was found murdered in the front room of his house in Dorrit Street, Carlton.
• On 25 March 1950, after a long and dramatic trial in the Supreme Court, the three were found guilty of murder and sentenced to death.