An interesting Sydney politician from the 1920s:



The ABC's Rewind presenter Michael Cathcart traced the unusual life of an Australian Minister for Justice who became known as the Hanging Minister because of his enthusiasm for the death penalty – and went on to be convicted for murder and yet to escape the hangman himself.

Minister for Murder

The Hon. Thomas John Ley was known as “Lemonade” Ley for his prohibitionist stand. Ley resigned from the NSW Parliament in 1925 after one of his opponents, who had been making bribery allegations, disappeared. Ley then ran for Federal Parliament, becoming Member for Barton from 1925-1928. In 1928 another critic of Ley was found dead at the bottom of a Sydney cliff. Ley then suddenly left for Britain in the company of his mistress. In 1946, Ley was arrested for arranging the murder of a man he believed was involved with his (now former) mistress. Sentenced to death, he was committed instead to Broadmoor Asylum for the Criminally Insane where he died in 1947.

The Hon. Thomas John LEY (1880 - 1947)

Politics in New South Wales in the Twenties

Interesting story. Thanks for sharing.