CRIME HUNTER: Troubled woman’s life ended on the gallows
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Jean Lee had identified nothing however bother in her quick time on earth.
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It had all the time been that method because the starting and it was definitely true of her last hours on the planet.
Lee was born Dec. 10, 1919 as Marjorie Jean Maude Wright in Australia. Her father was a railway worker and she or he had a mean childhood in suburban Sydney. Pals later mentioned she was clever and common at college.
However the promise of our early years typically will get away from us and that’s what occurred to Jean Lee. She discovered herself married and pregnant in 1938, however her husband deserted the small household in 1941.
Unable to look after her daughter, she gave the lady to her mom to boost and moved to Melbourne the place she entered the felony milieu committing petty crimes.
Ultimately, Lee drifted into prostitution principally entertaining U.S. troopers, sailors and marines.
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The troubled girl moved from one low-rent felony to a lower-rent felony. They might abuse her and pimp her out.
One thug was Robert David Clayton who taught Lee the right way to play what was identified in prostitution parlance because the “badger recreation.” Lee, then 31, would decide up males and take them to resort rooms, homes or automobiles the place she would get them bare.
As she was about to have intercourse with the john, Clayton would rush in taking part in an irate hubby and demanding a payoff to not inform the shocked males’s wives. In the event that they didn’t agree, they’d get overwhelmed.
On Nov. 7, 1949, Lee, Clayton and one among his jail buddies named Norman Andrews had a rip-off within the works. The goal was William “Pops” Kent, a 76-year-old bookie. Lee and Kent knocked again a couple of drinks at a neighborhood watering gap, then ventured again to his house.
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Cops later mentioned that Lee tried to select the previous boy’s pockets however he put up a battle. Clayton and Andrews then entered Kent’s room and the trio started torturing the aged man making an attempt to get him to disclose the place he stashed his cash.
After being slashed by a knife quite a few occasions, the trio strangled Kent to demise.
Melbourne detectives shortly traced the killers to their resort the place they found blood-stained clothes.
On March 20, 1950, the trio went on trial for capital homicide in proceedings that lasted six days. It took a jury simply three hours to search out the trio responsible.
They usually have been all sentenced demise. Jean Lee grew to become hysterical as her destiny was introduced.
Quite a few feminist and left-wing teams campaigned for the courts to indicate her compassion and commute the sentence to life in jail.
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Jail wasn’t form to Lee, in response to experiences. Her seems to be shortly deteriorated and she or he started abusing her guards, attacking them violently whereas demanding booze.
She informed one guard: “I simply didn’t do it. I haven’t sufficient energy in my arms to choke anybody. Bobby was silly however the previous man was making an attempt to yell for assist. None of us meant to kill him.”
Jean Lee would quickly go down in historical past. And of the trio, she could be the primary to hold.
On Feb. 19, 1951, Lee was closely sedated and escorted to the demise room. Upon seeing the hangman, she fainted, however that didn’t matter.
She was roused and a white hood positioned over her head and she or he was carried to her demise.
Jean Lee was the final girl to be executed in Australia.
Killer Ronald Ryan was the ultimate man hanged in Oz.
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Rayan walked up the gallows to oblivion at Pentridge jail on Feb. 3, 1967.
UNSOLVED
KAROLY HORVATH — April 15, 1988
411: On Friday, April 15, 1988, Toronto cops responded to a test handle name within the space of Bathurst St. and St Clair Ave. W. Horvath, 52, was discovered inside a house affected by blunt trauma. Regardless of life-saving efforts by emergency personnel, the sufferer was pronounced useless on the scene.
CONTACT: You probably have any data relating to this case, please contact the Toronto Police Murder unit at 416-808-7400, or at murder@torontopolice.on.ca, or Crime Stoppers anonymously at 1-800-222-TIPS (8477).
MOST WANTED
FERNANDO LEMAGUERESSE
411: Lemagueresse, 71, is needed on a Canada-Extensive warrant for a number of counts of sexual assault, sexual assault inflicting bodily hurt, sexual interference and sexual exploitation. He allegedly focused his daughter and stepdaughters over the course of a number of years. He has ties in Toronto, Montreal and Chile. In 2010, Lemagueresse tried to return to Canada from Chile however canceled his flight after receiving data that the police have been on the lookout for him. He’s 5-foot-7, about 200 kilos, with gray hair and brown eyes.
CONTACT: Report any data to the closest RCMP detachment or the police in your space, or contact Crime Stoppers at 1-800-222-8477.
bhunter@postmedia.com