Nicholas Melady Jr. (1845 – December 7, 1869) was the last person to be publicly executed in Canada. He was

hanged Hanging is the suspension of a person by a noose or ligature around the neck.Oxford English Dictionary, 2nd ed. Hanging as method of execution is unknown, as method of suicide from 1325. The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' states that hanging in ...

on December 7, 1869, on the outside wall of a

jail A prison, also known as a jail, gaol (dated, standard English, Australian, and historically in Canada), penitentiary (American English and Canadian English), detention center (or detention centre outside the US), correction center, correc ...

located in

Goderich, Ontario Goderich ( or ) is a town in the Canadian province of Ontario and is the county seat of Huron County, Ontario, Huron County. The town was founded by John Galt (novelist), John Galt and William "Tiger" Dunlop of the Canada Company in 1827. First ...

, for the murder of his father, Nicholas Melady Senior and his stepmother Ellen. The murders are believed to have been committed on the evening of June 6, 1868, on a farm in the present day municipality of

Huron East Huron East was a federal electoral district represented in the House of Commons of Canada from 1882 to 1917. It was located in the province of Ontario. This riding was created from parts of Huron Centre, Huron North and Huron South ridings. The ...

, south of the current community of

Seaforth, Ontario Seaforth (2021 population: 2,673) is a Southern Ontario community in the municipality of Huron East, in Huron County, Ontario, Canada. History Originally known as ''Four Corners'' and ''Steene's Corners'' after an early settler, much of the a ...

. Melady's trial was surrounded by controversy at the time, with allegations of perjury, lost and

planted evidence False evidence, fabricated evidence, forged evidence, fake evidence or tainted evidence is information created or obtained illegally in order to sway the verdict in a court case. Falsified evidence could be created by either side in a case (inc ...

, as well as the unusual use of a female police

informant An informant (also called an informer or, as a slang term, a “snitch”) is a person who provides privileged information about a person or organization to an agency. The term is usually used within the law-enforcement world, where informan ...

, who posed as a criminal and feigned affection for Melady while he was imprisoned, in an attempt to gain a confession from him. The informant, named in records as "Jenny Smith", was the wife of a local police officer. During the course of the investigation into the crime, seven other members of the Melady family, as well as two other male individuals, were initially jailed as suspects and later released. Melady's execution occurred several hours in advance of the officially announced time it was to occur in an attempt to avoid the civil disorder that sometimes accompanied public hangings. It is reported that a crowd of several thousand people were present at the jail at the originally announced time of the execution, many of whom are reported to have shouted their disapproval of the altered schedule of events. On January 1, 1870, three weeks after Melady was hanged, a Canadian federal government Order in Council came into effect that banned all future public executions in Canada.

General references

Melady, John (2005). Double Trap: The Last Public Hanging In Canada. Dundern Press. 1845 births 1869 deaths People executed for murder Executed Canadian people People executed by Canada by hanging Canadian people convicted of murder People convicted of murder by Canada 19th-century executions by Canada Patricides {{Canada-crime-bio-stub