“The main players are all assembled….And standing by on the sidelines, waiting for his turn, is the most contentious participant of them all: the hangman.
The game is on.”
Excerpted from Drop Dead by Lorna Poplak Copyright © Lorna Poplak, 2017
All rights reserved
“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