Ronald Joseph Ryan (21 February 1925 – 3 February 1967) was the last person to be legally executed in Australia. Ryan was found guilty of shooting and killing warder George Hodson during an escape from Pentridge Prison, Victoria, in 1965. Ryan's hanging was met with public protests by those opposed to capital punishment. Capital punishment was abolished in all states by 1985. Early life Ronald Edmond Thompson was born at the Royal Women's Hospital in Melbourne's inner suburb of Carlton, to John Ronald Ryan and Cecilia Thompson (née Young). Cecilia already had a son with her first husband, George Harry Thompson and was living with John Ryan. Cecilia and George had separated in 1915 when George left to fight in the Great War. The relationship never resumed. Cecilia met Ryan while working as a nurse in Woods Point where he was suffering from lung disease. They formed a relationship in 1924 and later married in 1929, after Thompson's death in 1927 by falling from a tram and getting hit by a car. Ronald then adopted the name Ronald Edmond Ryan. In 1936, Ryan was confirmed in the Roman Catholic Church. He took as his confirmation name Joseph, becoming Ronald Edmond Joseph Ryan. He did not like Edmond and from then on used "Ronald Joseph Ryan". His three sisters were made wards of the state a year later when authorities declared them to be "neglected". His sisters were sent to the Good Shepherd Convent in Collingwood. Ryan absconded from Rupertswood in September 1939 and, with his half-brother George Thompson, worked in and around Balranald, New South Wales; spare money earned from sleeper cutting and kangaroo shooting was sent to his mother, who was looking after their sick, alcoholic father. At the age of 20, Ryan had saved enough money to rent a house in Balranald. He collected his mother and sisters and they lived together in this house. Ryan's father stayed in Melbourne and died a year later, aged 62, after a long battle with miners' disease, phthisis tuberculosis. Move to Victoria, marriage and children Aged about 22, Ryan decided to join his brother, who was tomato farming near Tatura, Victoria. He started visiting Melbourne on weekends and during one of these weekend trips Ryan met his future wife, Dorothy Janet George. On 4 February 1950, Ryan married Dorothy at St Stephen's Anglican Church in Richmond, Victoria. He converted from Roman