On 11 December 1962, Ronald Turpin was one of the two last people to be executed in Canada. Turpin had been convicted of the murder of

Metropolitan Toronto The Municipality of Metropolitan Toronto was an upper-tier level of municipal government in Ontario, Canada, from 1953 to 1998. It was made up of the old city of Toronto and numerous townships, towns and villages that surrounded Toronto, whic ...

police officer Frederick Nash, 31. On 12 February 1962, Nash pulled Turpin over for a broken taillight while the latter was fleeing from a robbery. The two men got into a shootout, and Nash suffered a fatal gunshot wound to the abdomen. Turpin was hit twice, once in the arm and once in the face, giving him a scar on his left cheek. The method of execution was

hanging 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 i ...

, and the sentence was carried out at the

Don Jail The Don Jail was a jail in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located to the east of the Don River, on Gerrard Street East in the Riverdale neighbourhood. The original building was completed in 1864 and was reopened in 2013 to serve as the administrative ...

. The other prisoner simultaneously executed was

Arthur Lucas Arthur Lucas (December 18, 1907 - December 11, 1962), originally from the United States, U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia, was one of the last two people to be executed in Canada, on 11 December 1962. Lucas had been convicted of the m ...

, who had been convicted of an unrelated murder. When both men were informed that they would likely be the last people ever to hang in Canada, Turpin said, "Some consolation."

References

1933 births 1962 deaths People executed for murder Executed Canadian people People executed by Canada by hanging 20th-century executions by Canada Canadian people convicted of murdering police officers People executed for murdering police officers {{Canada-crime-bio-stub