Len Lawson

Who was Len Lawson?

Leonard Keith Lawson, better known as Len Lawson or Lennie Lawson, was a bestselling Australian comic book creator, successful commercial artist and photographer. He was however a notorious criminal who was convicted on charges of both rape and murder, and was sentenced to life imprisonment and died in custody

Lawson first came to prominence as the creator of The Lone Avenger, an Australian comic book hero, whose first appearance was in the second issue of Action Comics in 1946, running for thirteen years, eventually taking over the entire comic and selling up to 70,000 copies. Lawson also created another masked Western vigilante hero The Hooded Rider, as well as Diana, Queen of the Apes and Peter Fury.

In 1954, however, Lawson kidnapped, assaulted and raped five models. He was sentenced to death but had his sentence commuted to 14 years in prison. After his release in 1961, he raped and killed another model on 7 November 1962 and on the next day, took several hostages at the Sydney Church of England Girls' Grammar School, killing a 15-year old girl in the ensuing siege. Sentenced to life imprisonment, Lawson died in prison in November 2003.