MELBOURNE MURDERS

Greymouth Evening Star, 20 July 1942, Page 6

MELBOURNE MURDERS

CONDEMNED MAN’S JOKES.

(N.Z.I’.A. special Australian Correspondent)

MELBOURNE, July 18. The sentence on Leonski may not be carried out for three months. The lengthy procedure to be followed culminates in the reference of the case to Mr. Roosevelt before authority can be sent to Australia for carrying out the sentence. Leonski is stated to be not perturbed by the sentence, and even to have made grim jokes about it. When he was returned to his cell he is reported to have said to his guards: “I am going to give up smoking. It is bad for the throat.” He added that he had been ready to die since he was 16. He was anxious to see what .was on the other side. A good deal of the prisoner’s time in prison and at the trial has been spent in making pencil sketches, for wnich he has considerable talent. Elis cell is decorated with them. They are mostly of women.

The trial has aroused tremendous interest throughout Australia. A prominent Sydney psychiatrist has suggested that Leonski be kept ’ under observation for a further month co prove beyond doubt his mental condition. Law and medicine, he said, did not see eye to eye on the question of insanity. A psychopathic personality might know that what he was doing was wrong, yet consider himself justified by certain delusions he possessed.