70th Anniversary Stories: Celebrity life in Pentridge 1956.

John Bryan Kerr was a radio host and high society personality of Melbourne who had been convicted for the murder of Elizabeth Williams and sentenced to 20 years imprisonment in September 1950. He always maintained his innocence, though he was convicted at his third trial on the back of an unsigned, alleged confession during a police interview, and circumstantial evidence. The case drew a lot of attention as Kerr was a handsome, well-presented, Scotch College-educated radio personality, the next-door neighbour of former prime minister Harold Holt.

The public galleries of his court hearings were apparently filled with young women. Six years after the beginning of his incarceration at Pentridge, however, he again drew attention as the Argus Newspaper launched a campaign to seek a retrial for Kerr in February 1956. This campaign would ultimately fail but this series did give the public a look into Kerr’s life within Pentridge through the release of his letters, written to his parents over the course of his stay.

Kerr’s time within the bluestone walls coincided with some big changes for Pentridge and the penal system. In the 1950s Pentridge introduced several education and leisure programs, designed to help reform willing and cooperative prisoners. Kerr was an eager participant in many of these, taking up journalism courses, attending lectures, participating in the production of plays, and becoming a key driving force of the new Pentridge debate team, seeing them to victory two out of three years. He also made use of his radio talents, taking part as a host for the in-prison radio station, conducting interviews, and commentating on football matches, when he wasn’t participating as a player. For more on life inside Pentridge, listen to “Keeping Lively” on your audio device.

The 1956 Penal Reform Act even saw the prison change its name, officially becoming Her Majesty’s Prison, Pentridge, as reformatory prisons and indeterminate sentences were abolished and the parole board was established in Victoria. This was also the year female prisoners left Pentridge for the newly opened Fairlea prison. To hear more about the history of Women at Pentridge, listen to “Women Inside” & “Safe Custody” on your audio device.

Kerr’s letters paint quite the rosy, care-free picture to his parents, though of course this wasn’t the case for many within Pentridge’s walls. The 1950s saw the last Australian female execution at Pentridge with the death of Jean Lee in 1951, a fate that could have easily befallen Kerr. The decade saw another milestone for Pentridge, the last usage of the cat-o-nine tails in Australia in 1958 for serial-escapist William O’Meally. As The Argus campaigned for the retrial of the radio star, plans were also underway for the creation of what would become Pentridge’s notorious and brutal punishment division, H Division, which would also open in 1958.