On Thursday, July 27, we went down to the CBC studios in downtown Toronto, to record some interviews to be aired on various CBC morning shows on July 29. The shows are:
“When someone was convicted of a capital crime, the presiding judge was required to submit a detailed report to the minister of justice in Ottawa.
The federal Cabinet and officials of the Department of Justice would review the case. At the end of this sometimes lengthy process, cabinet would make the ultimate decision on what sentence to impose. If they resolved that the law “be allowed to take its course,” an Order-in-Council was issued instructing the local Authorities to proceed with the execution”
Excerpted from Drop Dead by Lorna Poplak Copyright © Lorna Poplak, 2017
All rights reserved
“With the accused in custody, the official tasked with organizing the trial was the local sheriff. But if you think of a sheriff as a dude in the Wild West walking down a dusty road with a shiny star on his chest, spurs clanking on his heels, and a pair of six-shooters on his hips, think again.”
Excerpted from Drop Dead by Lorna Poplak Copyright © Lorna Poplak, 2017
All rights reserved
“For every victim, there has to be an aggressor — a man, woman, or child who pulls the trigger or plunges the knife or slips arsenic into a cup of tea.”
Teolis hired 2 hit men to kill her husband. In March 1935, hangman Arthur Ellis miscalculated the length of rope required for her execution, and she was decapitated. This shocking event led to a huge public outcry and signaled the end of Ellis’s career.
Excerpted from Drop Dead by Lorna Poplak
Copyright © Lorna Poplak, 2017 All rights reserved
Photo courtesy of Library and Archives Canada
www.dundurn.com
“In court, the judge, invariably a man, became the most powerful player in the game. Inspiring fear and respect, he swept into the courtroom in his black robes at the beginning of a trial. Everyone rose, and he took his seat on a special raised platform, dominating the room.”
Excerpted from Drop Dead by Lorna Poplak Copyright © Lorna Poplak, 2017
All rights reserved.
“First, there had to be a body: spread-eagled on a city street, slumped over a desk, buried in a shallow grave in field or forest. Even in the one and only case where the convicted man, Louis Riel, was hanged for high treason and not for murder, there was a body.”
Statesman, journalist, public speaker, and poet. Thomas D’Arcy McGee was felled by an assassin’s bullet in 1868, becoming the only Canadian federal politician ever to be assassinated
— Excerpted from “Drop Dead” by Lorna Poplak
Copyright © Lorna Poplak, 2017 All rights reserved.
Photo courtesy of Library and Archives Canada
www.dundurn.com
On Wednesday evening, May 17, at an event co-sponsored by the Toronto Public Library and the North York Historical Society, I invited the gathering to “Meet the Hangman.” To be more specific, I introduced them to John Radclive, Arthur Ellis and John Ellis, the three most famous executioners in Canada from Confederation in 1867 to the abolition of capital punishment in 1976.
What was the effect on these individuals of their grim job?
Radclive plied his trade from the early 1890s to his retirement in 1911. He was initially quite successful financially. But he enjoyed hissinister reputation as a hangman and alienated many with his offensive behaviour and his excessive drinking. In 1911, he died of cirrhosis of the liver, penniless and alone, and tormented by his inner demons.
Arthur Ellis, without doubt the most famous and prolific hangman in Canada, succeeded Radclive in 1911. For the next twenty-five years he crisscrossed the country, claiming to have carried out more than 600 hangings world-wide before a bungled execution put paid to his career in 1935. He liked to emphasize his human side, but his self-destructiveness and violence lurked just beneath the surface. He, too, died in poverty, probably of an alcohol-related disease, in 1938.
John Ellis hanged at least fifteen men. He carried out the last two hangings at the Don Jail in Toronto in 1962, fourteen years before the official abolition of the death penalty. According to one account, the retiree, then in his fifties, enjoyed spending the winter months in Florida like thousands of other Canadian snowbirds; another report in 1984 stated that he was living in the Bahamas.
And what were their final thoughts about capital punishment?
John Radclive became increasingly opposed to capital punishment in his last years. Arthur Ellis remained an advocate, but, as for hanging, it “belongs to a past age,” he wrote in 1935. “I am strongly in favour of the electric chair.” John Ellis never deviated from his opinion that hanging was the best form of execution. People “don’t realize just how humane it is. Unlike electrocution,” was his view in 1976.
Join me at the Fairview Branch of the Toronto Public Library on Wednesday, May 17th (7:30-9pm) for a FREE talk!
Drop Dead is the story of alcoholic executioners, nervous sheriffs, hanging judges, wrongful convictions, unruly mobs, and perhaps even a botched execution (or two)… I invite you to “Meet the Hangman” or, to be more precise, to meet the three most famous hangmen in Canada in the 109-year period from Confederation in 1867 to the abolition of capital punishment in 1976.
Thanks to the North York Historical Society and the North York Central Library, Society and Recreation Department for hosting this event!
Details can be found here:
http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMEVT282657&R=EVT282657
Directions to the library can be found here:
http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/detail.jsp?Entt=RDMLIB010&R=LIB010
Arthur Ellis isn’t just Canada’s most famous hangman. He’s also the namesake behind the Arthur Ellis Awards, which has honoured the best Canadian crime writing since 1984!
This year’s nominations cover non-fiction, mysteries, thrillers, short stories, novellas, and stories for younger readers. Each winner receives the “Arthur” award–a condemned wooden man who flails around when a string is pulled. It’s definitely the grisliest of the literary awards…
A full list of the nominees has been published by the Crime Writers of Canada:
http://www.crimewriterscanada.com/awards/arthur-ellis-awards/current-contest/shortlists
Winners will be announced on May 25.
