Ray Denning death, obituary, how he died, Wikipedia page: Raymond Denning died in 1993
from a heroin overdose that was believed to be actually murder. He was 42 years old.
The armed robber, heart-breaker and killer and serial escapologist had just been finally released from prison in 1993.
During his lifetime, Raymond Denning was a brutal killer, armed robber, prison escapologist and prison reform campaigner, popularly known for breaking out of Maitland and Goulburn Prisons, Grafton Jail, one of the toughest prisons in Australia.
Denning became the only man in history to escape from the walls of Grafton Jail.
During his lifetime, Raymond spent a large portion of his life institutionalised – he spent over two decades in prison or on the run, before stunning police and criminals alike when he became a police informer.
The few moments Denning enjoyed freedom were often filled with the brutal fury of armed robbery.
Ray Denning death: Raymond Denning Wikipedia biography, how he died:
Raymond Denning was born April 8, 1951 in the steel town of Port Kembla, south of Sydney. He was the son of Jack ‘The Hat’ Denning, a thief who, for most of Denning’s childhood, was in and out of prison.
Denning witnessed his first death at the age of 10 when his mother died. She had committed suicide in their family home by setting herself on fire after years of domestic abuse.
Her death proved a catastrophic moment in Denning’s life as he went on to spend his teenage years in and out of reformatory schools and on the streets, eventually drifting in to a life of crime in the 1970s and 80s.
According to a post online by a lady Robyn Fennelly, who says she was Ray’s first and last girlfriend, after the death of his mother, he never had a fair go and was homeless living in Belmore Park Central.
He was never given a fair go and there was no one there for him, no one ever came forward to help him or take him home so he was sent to institutions which are a haven for criminals of the future.
Ray was not lost and was looking forward to his new life ahead of him. But as fate would have it that was not to be.
Ray had many friends that cared about him. A sad loss that he never got to have the good life he dreamed of. He deserved it.
By the time he was 18 however, Denning had graduated to the brutal world of armed robbery.
Caught by police and sentenced to 13 years in prison, Denning tried to escape from Parramatta Jail. During the escape attempt, Denning bashed a prison guard almost to death with a claw hammer.
Sent on to Grafton Jail, one of the toughest prisons in Australia, Denning escaped from its walls, becoming the only man in history to achieve this.
After his successful escape, Raymond Denning fled to Sydney where he became an unlikely crusader and poster boy for prison rights.
After he was caught planning a robbery in Melbourne while on the run again, he stunned the prison fraternity by turning police informer.
He dobbed on his old partner Russell “Mad Dog” Cox and later turned on every criminal he had ever had dealings with.
Denning was finally released from prison in 1993 only to die a few weeks later from a heroin overdose.
Tough Nuts profiled the brutal killer, Raymond Denning in its Season 2 that first aired in 2011.