The Four Color Media Monitor

Australian Broadcasting reports on a controversy that's come up involving the late convicted rapist/murderer Leonard Lawson, a former comics artist in the 1950s previously spoken about here, who'd drawn artwork on the walls of a former prison being converted into a health center, and whose current staff are now removing, and here's why:

The artwork of a killer and rapist is set to be covered over after being deemed too "triggering" for health staff to see.

Dubbed the "comic book killer", Leonard Lawson spent almost 50 years behind bars, including his final years of life at the Grafton Gaol, where he painted large murals on the old jail walls.

The jail was closed in 2020 and the site is being repurposed by the local Aboriginal land council and New South Wales Health, with plans for old jail buildings to become an administrative hub while the Grafton Hospital is being redeveloped nearby.

NSW Health Infrastructure said in a statement it would cover up the artwork as part of the site repurposing.

The murals are painted on brickwork and cannot be dismantled or relocated due to the structural integrity of the wall.

The wall featuring the artwork will be retained, and approval was granted under Section 60 of the Heritage Act to cover the artwork with internal wall lining.

But the Clarence River Historical Society said it was against the move and the artworks should be preserved as a valuable part of history. [...]

In 1954 Lawson took five models to an isolated location, raped two and sexually assaulted three others at gunpoint, and was condemned to death.

However, Lawson's good behaviour saw him released after serving seven years.

In 1962 he raped and murdered 16-year-old Jane Bower, before taking a hall of students hostage at the Sydney Church of England Girls' Grammar School, where he shot and killed 15-year-old Wendy Sue Luscombe.

Lawson was then sentenced to life in prison.

Being in jail didn't stop Lawson and in 1972 at Parramatta Gaol he attacked visiting dancer Sharon Hamilton with a knife. Six years later, Hamilton died by suicide. [...]

Prior to his criminal activity, Lawson, who was originally from Wagga Wagga, was renowned for creating some of Australia's most famous comics, including the Action Comic's characters The Lone Avenger and The Hooded Rider.

See, when a criminal's behavior is that obscenely repulsive, it can't really be argued that the art should be retained as part of the building itself if it sickens anybody with common sense who knows what he did to those poor women. The monster destroyed his reputation and career through the obscene acts he committed against women decades before, and it's head-shaking how the judicial system at the time could spare Lawson the death penalty and even release him. Not to mention how they allowed any convicts near the dancer who came to the prison. Such absolute incompetence, and it cost some innocent and defenseless women very heavily.

The article says the staff will record the artworks, and if it's really that important, then that's decidedly all that's needed. There's no need to make a big deal out of removing paintings by somebody that heinous from the location it was first at. The monster is a stain upon the medium, and it's to be hoped there won't be any more demonic vermin like him coming down the pike who could humiliate comicdom more than need be with the horrifying behavior Lawson was guilty of decades before.

Update: one of the survivors of the monster's violent crimes has spoken out, and is outraged that the artworks would even be considered for preservation.

Labels: Europe and Asia, misogyny and racism, moonbat artists, violence