Jean Lee (10 December 1919 – 19 February 1951) was an Australian murderer who, together with her lover Robert Clayton and accomplice Norman Andrews, was convicted for the 1949 killing of William 'Pop' Kent, an SP bookmaker from the Melbourne suburb of Carlton. The victim was bound to a chair, tortured with the aim of finding hidden money, and finally strangled. All three were convicted and sentenced to death in March 1950. They were hanged eleven months later at Pentridge Gaol. Lee was the last woman to be executed in Australia.
Biography Early life Jean Lee was born Marjorie Jean Maude Wright in Dubbo, New South Wales, on 10 December 1919, the youngest child of Charles Wright and Florence (née Peacock).Family records, per Ancestry.com. Marjorie's father was a railway worker and the Wright family was described as "highly respectable". In 1927, the family re-located to the Sydney suburb of Chatswood, where Marjorie attended Chatswood Public School, a convent in North Sydney and Willoughby Central Domestic High School.Lee, Jean (1919-1951), Joy Damousi, Australian Dictionary of Biography, National Centre of Biography, Australian National University (published first in hardcopy 2000; accessed online 25 April 2022).
Marjorie learned shorthand and typing in her last few years at school, though she did not sit her Intermediate certificate examinations. Her first job was as an office junior at a motor company on William Street in Chatswood.Woman Who Hangs Monday was in Perth, The Mirror (Perth), 17 February 1951, page 2.Portrait of a Murderess: Two Chapters in the Life of Jean Lee, The Herald (Melbourne), 13 February 1951, page 7. She had a number of subsequent jobs as a milliner, a stenographer and a labourer in a canned-goods factory.James Morton & Susanna Lobez (2009), 'Jean Lee', Dangerous to Know: An Australian Crime Compendium, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press, .
Marriage In March 1938 Marjorie, aged 18, married a house-painter named Raymond Brees, who was seven years her senior and had reportedly known her "since girlhood".NSW Marriage record, Raymond Thomas Brees & Marjorie Jean Maude Wright, 1938, Chatswood; reg. no.: 1302/1938. The marriage was beset by financial difficulties, as Brees was regularly unemployed and drinking heavily. In July 1939, several months after Marjorie had given birth to a daughter, Brees was convicted of auto theft and received three months' suspended sentence, subject to a two-year good behaviour bond.Thefts of cars in North Sydney, Sydney Morning Herald, 2 August 1939, page 6. Following the start of Second World War, Brees enlisted in the Second Australian Imperial Force, serving in the 1st Australian Heavy Anti-Aircraft Artillery Training Regiment. He was subject to court-martial proceedings in August 1944.Brees, Raymond Thomas, Service No.: NX202086; Record ID: 5589980, National Archives of Australia; see also Record ID No. 59600.
Between 1942 and 1943, Marjorie and Brees separated. As a single mother, Marjorie struggled to provide for herself and her daughter; she eventually entrusted the care of the child to her mother. Towards the end of 1942, Marjorie travelled by overnight train to Brisbane and found a job as a waitress at Lennon's Hotel.Paul Wilson et al (1997), pages 53-55.
Prostitution
In late 1943, towards the end of her period in Brisbane, Marjorie met a man named Morris Dias, described as "a superficially charming but vicious petty criminal". She lived "precariously" with Dias for about three years, moving with him to Sydney and then Adelaide. In February 1944, the couple flew to Perth and booked into a hotel under the surname 'Pearce'.Paul Wilson et al (1997), page 56.
On 8 March 1944, two detectives interviewed Marjorie at a house on Newcastle Street in Perth. She initially told them her name was 'H. Pearce', but when further questioned she divulged her true identity; she was subsequently charged with using a false name and fined two pounds. Dias was himself prosecuted for using a false name and an older charge of vagrancy, from when he had brought a prostitute named Wilson from Queensland to Western Australia in late 1939 and stayed in Kalgoorlie for three months. He was convicted of the old charge, but released on a £50 good behaviour bond.Guilty on a 4-Year Vagrancy Charge, Daily News (Perth), 27 March 1944, page 5.
Marjorie and Dias remained in Perth for about eleven months, a period in which she "first began to take to drink" and Dias started occasionally "bashing her about". When later asked why she didn't leave Dias, she responded: "It wasn't easy during the war to get away from Perth." When they eventually left in 1945, they travelled to Sydney. Soon after their arrival, Dias was arrested on outstanding charges. Marjorie was forced to work as a prostitute to pay for her lover's "bails and other things".Paul Wilson et al (1997), page 57.
Marjorie worked in the Kings Cross and Darlinghurst areas of Sydney, with Dias as her protector or 'bludger' (Australian underworld slang for a person who lives on the earnings of a prostitute)."bludger", Australian National Dictionary: a Dictionary of Australianisms on Historical Principles, W. S. Ransome (1988), Melbourne: Oxford University Press. She worked on the streets, or occasionally in a brothel, and was earning between £15 and £20 a night.Paul Wilson et al (1997), page 59. She used numerous aliases in multiple encounters with police for 'offensive behaviour' (prostitution), including 'Jean Lee'.Hanging Edict Puts Victorian Govt. in Jeopardy, Truth (Brisbane), 17 December 1950, page 2. Between May 1945 and July 1948, she appeared at Sydney's Central Police Court on twenty-three occasions.
In 1946, Lee and Dias left Sydney for Tasmania, probably in an effort to escape police attention. There, Lee ended her relationship with Dias and returned to Sydney. She resumed working as a prostitute and was drinking heavily. In August 1946, she got a job as a barmaid in the Liverpool Arms Hotel, at the corner of Pitt and King streets, and was working behind the bar during the day and in a brothel at night. It was during this period of her life that she met Robert Clayton.
With Clayton In late 1946, Lee met Robert David Clayton, with whom she formed an enduring, and occasionally violent, relationship. Clayton had served in the Royal Australian Air Force as a stores clerk during the war, but he was subject to disciplinary action for frequent absences without leave and was dismissed from the service in January 1941. He briefly joined the Second Australian Imperial Force but was subject to further disciplinary charges and was discharged in 1943. Clayton had been married, but was divorced by 1945.Paul Wilson et al (1997), page 60.
In April 1946, prior to meeting Lee, Clayton had been convicted of four charges of theft and one of false pretenses in the Sydney Central Criminal Court. The charges related to a racket he had carried out by answering advertisements from women seeking to rent a flat. He met up with them in hotels and obtained money by claiming "that rent was required in advance before the keys were handed over". The magistrate sentenced Clayton to six months' gaol, but indicated he would recommend his release at the expiration of two months providing he had made full restitution by that time.Preyed on Women; Man Gets 6 Mths, The Sun (Sydney), 15 April 1946, page 9.
As his relationship with Lee developed, Clayton took on the role as her 'bludger' and "settled down to the comforts and affluence of poncing on her". He used the money earned by Lee to sustain a developing gambling habit. For Lee, however, Clayton was "the one real love of her life", despite his shortcomings and occasional aggressive behaviour. Even as she awaited execution, in her conversations with the prison matron, Lee spoke of "her Bobby" in eulogistic terms, contrasting him favourably with Brees and Dias.Paul Wilson et al (1997), pages 61-62.
In November 1946, Lee and Clayton went to stay with Lee's mother, then living in Toukley, north of Sydney. However, Clayton had little tolerance for the domesticity of the household and the presence of Lee's young daughter. During their stay, Clayton and an acquaintance named Norman Bolger (alias Stanton) met two young women, aged 17 and 18, who were staying in a holiday cabin at Toukley, owned by one of the girl's parents.Notes From the City, Scone Advocate, 21 February 1947, page 3. On the evening of 3 December, Clayton and Bolger drove the girls to a remote location near Norah Head and attempted to rape one of them. The girls managed to escape and notify police.Judge Slates Men Gaoled for Assault, Truth (Sydney), 18 May 1947, page 44.Bail Refused on Rape Intent Charges, Newcastle Morning Herald and Miners' Advocate, 31 January 1947, page 8.
On 23 December Clayton, Lee, Bolger and a woman named Sylvia White were apprehended in a stolen motor vehicle outside Condobolin. Two detectives from Newcastle detained Clayton and Bolger for the Norah Head assault, but the two women were admitted to bail.Local and General, Lachlander and Condobolin and Western Districts Recorder, 2 January 1947, page 2.Women on Bail Do Not Appear, Lachlander and Condobolin and Western Districts Recorder, 16 January 1947, page 2. The two men were convicted at the Newcastle Quarter Sessions in May 1947 Clayton of indecent assault, and Bolger of indecent assault and common assault. Clayton was sentenced to imprisonment of twenty-one months, cumulative on the eighteen months he was already serving for false pretences and stealing. It was disclosed at trial that both Clayton and Bolger were living with de facto wives (Lee and Sylvia White).
After Clayton's arrest, Lee returned to work as a prostitute. It was during the period of Clayton's trial and imprisonment that she incurred most of her convictions for prostitution, the last charge for 'offensive behaviour' being in March 1948 in Sydney. Prostitution charges typically involved a fine of £2 (or four days incarceration in default).Paul Wilson et al (1997), page 63. Lee also worked as a waitress in a café on Pitt Street, and was reported to have cared for a paraplegic American serviceman in Darlinghurst. The serviceman was eventually flown back to the U.S. by his parents, but continued to write to Lee after his return.Paul Wilson et al (1997), page 64.Jean Lee Hangs on Monday, The Courier-Mail (Brisbane), 16 February 1951, page 2.
Raymond Brees initiated divorce proceedings against Lee in 1948, which were finalised in June that year.Supreme Court: In Divorce, Sydney Morning Herald, 9 January 1948, page 6.In Divorce, Sydney Morning Herald, 17 June 1948, page 7. Lee regularly visited Clayton at Long Bay Gaol, but during these visits he "was sullen, full of self-pity, and critical of almost anything she told him about her day-to-day life outside".
Clayton was released in September 1949. For a short period the couple operated a blackmail racket, known in America as the 'badger game' and in Australia as the 'ginger game'.James Morton & Susanna Lobez (2016), Chapter 8: 'Death and the Ginger Game', Gangland Robbers, Melbourne: Melbourne University Press (). The scam involved Clayton stealing a car which he parked in a quiet spot near a hotel. After Lee had enticed a prospective client into the car and gotten him into a sexually compromising position, Clayton would appear as the 'wronged husband' and, threatening "a sordid divorce action with the man as co-respondent", demand compensation. If the man was married, this threat alone would usually ensure compliance.Paul Wilson et al (1997), page 66.Does Crime Pay Off in Australia?, The Mail (Adelaide), 22 December 1951, page 11.
The murder