Thomas Ley, Hanging Minister

July 15, 2009 7:32 PM

In 1947, Thomas Ley, a virulently sectarian, pro-hanging Australian politician, died in Broadmoor Criminal Lunatic Asylum, where he had been sent after being sentenced to death for murder. It was probably not his first.
posted by Fiasco da Gama (13 comments total)

Ah, for the good old days where politicians killed people one at a time and not by the hundreds and thousands...
posted by lupus_yonderboy at 7:52 PM on July 15 [2 favorites]

Could we get a pdf warning on that last link, please?
posted by ocherdraco at 8:12 PM on July 15

Interesting. I wonder if S.O.S. Prickly Pear Poisons Ltd (boiling arsenic!) was about to go under because of the success of Cactoblastis?
posted by tellurian at 8:18 PM on July 15

Wow. And to think Latham just shook Howard's hand really, really hard. Softie.
posted by smoke at 8:23 PM on July 15

It was not the first time he died?
Curse your ambiguity, English!
posted by mrnutty at 9:04 PM on July 15 [1 favorite]

This is awesome and I knew nothing about it, so thank you.
posted by Bageena at 9:04 PM on July 15

Interesting to see that he was a strong advocate of proportional representation. It is a very good thing, in that it allows minor parties to survive and prosper according to their popularity among the electorate, mitigating the (possibly inevitable) iteration of first-past-the-post systems into two-party states.
posted by aeschenkarnos at 10:11 PM on July 15

oh, he's surely not the only murdering sociopath to seek higher office, he just appears to have had extraordinarily poor impulse control. Again, not a deal-breaker in elected officials.
posted by mwhybark at 10:29 PM on July 15

Could we get a pdf warning on that last link, please?

Does nobody here ever hover over a link before clicking?
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 10:54 PM on July 15 [4 favorites]

Forget all that - was he the kind of man with whom one could see oneself sharing a beer?
posted by vanar sena at 11:14 PM on July 15

That was very interesting, thanks Fiasco.
posted by uncanny hengeman at 1:12 AM on July 16

Minister, I served with Jack Abramoff: I knew Jack Abramoff; Jack Abramoff was a friend of mine.

Now that I come to think about it, I think you'll fit right in.
posted by Kid Charlemagne at 6:53 AM on July 16

Does nobody here ever hover over a link before clicking?

That presumes that you're using a client on which that's an option. I browse MeFi on both my phone and my tablet from time to time, and have no way of telling what's at the other end of a link until I follow it, unless the poster or a commenter has given me a heads-up.

That aside, this is a cool story that I knew nothing about, so thanks.
posted by notashroom at 8:53 AM on July 16