trait of Ryan ‘the man’ to counter the Guts and Pity: The that Ended negative image of Ryan which was cre­ in Australia ated at the time of his crime. Dickins’ play Remember Ronald Ryan opened at by Barry Dickins; Currency Press, 1996; 99 pp; $ 14.95 softcover. the Playbox Theatre in in 1995, and from the material Dickins At 8 a.m. on 3 February 1967, Ronald The possibility that he would not see his had amassed comes this book, Guts and Joseph Ryan was hanged at Melbourne’s family for this period of time was said Pity. Pentridge Gaol for the of a to have distressed him so much he made Unfortunately, Guts and Pity sits un­ warder, George Hodson. Hodson had plans to escape.2 It was the death sen­ comfortably between true crime and been killed on 19 December 1965 as tence for his escape and his implication academic analysis. Dickins’ account is Ryan and Peter Walker escaped from in Hodson’s murder that brought his a verbal pastiche which combines opin­ Pentridge Gaol. It has been the fact of case national and even international at­ ion, direct speech and an assemblage of his execution, the last Australian execu­ tention.3 lengthy quotations. The author would tion, above all else, which has attracted Ryan and his companion Peter have been well advised to explain some continuing interest in Ryan’s case. The Walker were on the run for 19 days. of the detail surrounding the case, given character of the man hanged by the During this time Walker killed a man the time which has elapsed since its state, as explicated by the press, ‘true they had met at a party, fearful he had prominence. crime’ writers and several television discovered their identities. Finally the Some of the material in the book is documentaries, helped create Ryan as a men were recaptured in and more appropriate to the play, especially figure worthy of esteem. The continu­ flown back to Melbourne to stand trial. the lengthy monologue, supposedly the ing emphasis of popular culture on By the time of their capture they were thoughts of Ryan on the evening before Ryan’s redeeming features and on the the ‘best known men in Australia’, but his execution. The book is well re­ possible miscarriage of justice involved there was a definite gap between noto­ searched and encompasses many of the in his hanging have served to demonise riety and esteem.4 The publicity sur­ thoughts attributed to Ryan by his fam­ the state which hanged him and, in the rounding the ensuing trial revealed ily, warders and other associates, but process, exonerate Ryan. Barry Dick­ much of Ryan’s character, and his death still, it jars. It is reminiscent of the way ins’ new book, Guts and Pity joins the garnered public support for the aboli­ in which true crime accounts attempt to collection of books which seek to depict tion of capital punishment. Subsequent recreate conversations to which the Ryan as a misguided but honourable media resurrections, with their focus on authors could never have been privy. bloke. the man himself and the doubts sur­ Dickins has had difficulties moving Ryan differs from other criminals rounding his conviction, have rendered from the more forgiving medium of whose stories have been regarded as the notorious man and his death both theatre, which allows for poetic licence legendary because his criminal career courageous and heroic. Dickins’ picture to facilitate drama, to the realm of non­ was brief, and his public prominence of Ryan continues this tradition, a tradi­ fiction where it is not possible to claim, still more brief. The majority of accounts tion established by Melbourne Truth, as Dickins does, that Ryan was hanged make note of the fact that Ryan was not true crime writers and various docu­ for the theft of three Pope motor mow­ convicted of any crime until compara­ mentaries. But, Dickins work could ers. By writing the play Barry Dickins tively late in life. This has not prevented have been more critical. The Ryan story (re)created Ryan, and it is this incarna­ several journalists from searching for requires an examination of the com­ tion of Ryan who appears in Guts and evidence of criminality in Ryan’s earlier plexities of the individual and the issues Pity. This can be seen in Dickins’ de­ years.1 Some details about Ryan’s crimi­ raised by his execution, not merely an­ fence of Ryan. It was alleged that Ryan nal career are necessary, perhaps pre­ other literary but insubstantial explora­ clubbed a Salvation Army Officer on cisely because Dickins is unusually tion of the Ryan myth. the head as he escaped from Pentridge. vague about Ryan’s criminal career. The In 1996, 29 years after the hanging Dickins seeks to exonerate him with the portrait painted by Dickins is impres­ of Ronald Ryan, his death and the cir­ rhetorical question ‘who but a loath­ sionistic — stole some suit coats here, a cumstances surrounding his conviction some hideous criminal would bash up a couple of mowers there and pounds and still require explanation, perhaps to a poor old Salvo?’ His creation of Ryan pounds of bacon. The real story is, ar­ new generation, whose government has has answered the question; the Ryan of guably, less entertaining. In the 1950s, never ordered the death of its lawbreakers. Dickins’ construction would never have after a series of court appearances for Amid recurring calls for the re-intro­ performed such a crime. forged cheques, possession of firearms duction of capital punishment, the issue Ultimately, Dickins wants Ryan to and explosives and break, enter and remains relevant and worthy of consid­ be thought of as a ‘bungler’, a ‘pub steal offences, Ryan was eventually in­ eration, especially from an historico- dudder’ and a family man. Dickins is carcerated. legal perspective. To some extent Barry not the first to take such a view. The In 1964, Ryan was arrested on four Dickins’ new book stands outside these sympathetic media of the time por­ counts of shop breaking and stealing motivations. Dickins has taken his im­ trayed Ryan as the object of Irish Catho­ (motor mowers) and one charge of pos­ petus not so much from the issues — lic bad luck, a man who was basically session of explosives. He was sentenced legal and social — but from the man non-violent and loved his family, espe­ to eight years with no minimum period. himself. Barry Dickins developed a por­ cially his daughters. Ryan’s apparent

VOL. 21, NO. 3, JUNE *1996 145 REVIEWS lack of skill as a criminal was attested forum. Unfortunately, Guts and Pity decentring of law and privileging of the to by the six-part series detailing his does not add much to this picture. outsider is, of course, a political gesture criminal exploits run by Melbourne which more than anything else distin­ Truth in 1966. A detective interviewed SUZANNE CHRISTIE guishes this book from, say, The Idea of by Sun claimed that Ryan Suzanne Christie is a Sydney student o f law Law. Where Lloyd asks ‘Is Law Neces­ ‘bungled every job he ever did and was and popular culture. sary?’, Hunter et al. ask instead: ‘What caught every time,’5 while the Austra­ is a liberal?’ (p.42). Instead of ‘Law and lian chose to remember him as a ‘Small­ . . . ‘ Hunter reverses the formula: ‘. .. time crim [who] was last to hang’ .6 References and law’. It is a political gesture which Dickins has created a likable charac­ leads into what is by far the longest 1. Truth, 19 November 1966, Age, 21 January chapter in their book, ‘Objecting to Ob­ ter in Ronald Ryan, but his focus on the 1967. jectivity’ (Gerry J. Simpson and Hilary man himself obscures the principles at 2. Hawkins, Beyond Reasonable Doubt, ABC, Charlesworth) — a clear and precise stake with respect to capital punish­ Sydney, 1977, p.20. catalogue of marxist, CLS, feminist and ment. The choice of whether to hang or 3. Sydney Morning Herald, 4 January 1967. postmodernist legal theories. The chap­ not cannot be based on whether a man 4. Tennison, Defence Counsel, Hill of Content, loves his mum. Dickins’ play Remem­ Melbourne, 1975, p.116. ter starts by explaining that the ap­ proaches to law which it describes: ber Ronald Ryan did bring the man to 5. , 27 December 1965. life again in an arguably appropriate 6. Eamshaw (ed.), Remember When ... , p.69. are reactions against the accepted, tradi­ tional mythology about the nature of law that is imbibed by law students, ex­ pounded by judges and legislators, as­ Thinking About Law sumed by practitioners and which comforts (he general public, [p.86] Perspectives on the History, Philosophy and I am not sure what a first-year law Sociology of Law student would make of this sort of tough talk, but it does not continue into the edited by Rosemary Hunter, Richard Ingleby and Richard Johnstone; body of the chapter and appears no­ Allen & Unwin, 1995; 254 p p; $29.95. where else in the book. It serves only as a reminder that this introduction to legal One of the introductions to legal theory tively detailed discussion of the princi­ thought can afford to dispense with bra­ that I was expected to read as a first-year ples in Milirrpum v Nabalco, Coe v vado, such is its intellectual force. law student was Dennis Lloyd’s The Commonwealth and Mabo (No. 2), but Thinking About Law is challenging and Idea of Law. After the first chapter en­ it is an opening which at a basic level cohesive, with detailed and helpful titled ‘Is Law Necessary?’ (answer: encourages an untrained student to notes and suggestions for further read­ yes), that book goes on to display a great think around the conventional dichoto­ ing. I hope it finds its way on to many fondness for the process of dividing the mies — to reflect, for example, on the law school reading lists. world into that which is law, and that way law is implicated in social and po­ which isn’t. Chapters have the follow­ litical histories, on differences between JONATHAN MORROW competing legal systems, and on the ing titles: ‘Law and Force’, ‘Law and Jonathan Morrow is a PhD student at shiftless nature of legal doctrine. Morals’, Law and Justice’, ‘Law and . Freedom’, ‘Law and Custom’ and ‘Law In each subsequent chapter the and Society’. Law, according to this authors maintain this emphasis on nar­ metaphysic, is the great social priority; ration as opposed to taxonomy, talking and the truth of law’s importance can be not about what law ‘is’ or ‘is not’, but Hard Target discovered by measuring it against rather about what law does, or more those amorphous concepts which seem precisely about what different groups of by James Adams; Michael to exist only so that they can be known people do with law. This is particularly Joseph Limited (Penguin Group) by the jurist: force, morals, justice, free­ true for later chapters on the enforce­ 1996; 309 pp; $19.95. dom and so on. ment of rules, judicial decision making This is a powerful framework, but it and the law reform process, where com­ Here’s an oddity — a novel which bills is one which is not always helpful for peting theoretical models (positivism, it’s hero, David Nash, as ‘Thriller fic­ people who are seeking an introduction functionalism, pluralism, realism etc.) tion’s new cyberspy’ and yet which fea­ to legal thought. Thinking About Law are explained almost entirely through tures only token cybertech which that envisages first-year law students as its illustrative case studies and summaries same hero is very much less than com­ readership, and prefers instead to come of research. (By contrast, the book cu­ fortable with. riously avoids any genealogy of English at law from the outside — which is, Having just finished Neal Stephen­ legal institutions, preferring to present after all, what the law students them­ son’s excellent The Diamond Age, a true concepts such as ‘the rule of law’ ahis- selves are doing. It starts off not with cyber novel, I was looking forward to a torically.) metaphysics but with a complex story, thriller with a high tech edge and the written by Penelope Mathew, Rose­ Thinking About Law devotes consid­ silver embossed computer chip on the mary Hunter and Hilary Charlesworth erable attention to the views of non­ cover of ‘Hard Target’ promised just — a history of law in Australia which lawyers, in particular those of the that. However it quickly became appar­ concentrates particularly on Aboriginal economist and the sociologist (see ent that neither Adams nor his hero had law and native title. It is an arresting Richard Johnstone, ‘Economic and So­ more than a vague idea about comput­ opening, involving a brisk and rela- ciological Approaches to Law’). The ers. Adams is clearly attempting to cash

146 ALTERNATIVE LAW JOURNAL