Extremely sensitive content – 18+ only
This article recounts the last executions in Canadian history – the deaths of Arthur Lucas and Ronald Turpin in the early morning hours of December 11, 1962, at Toronto’s Don Jail – along with the context of the capital punishment debate, the last-minute appeal efforts, and the lasting legacy of this case. The content is based on Cecil Rosner’s article in Canada’s History (December 2022) and archival sources. We condemn all acts of murder. This article is for historical education only, not to glorify violence or advocate for crime.
Canada’s Last Hangings: Arthur Lucas, Ronald Turpin, and the Night of December 11, 1962
Sixty years have passed since Canada last carried out a death sentence. In the early morning hours of December 11, 1962, two men were led to the gallows within the stone walls of Toronto’s Don Jail. They were tried separately but shared the same fate: Arthur Lucas, 54, convicted of murdering an American crime figure; Ronald Turpin, 29, convicted of murdering a Toronto police constable. Hundreds of protesters stood outside the jail in the freezing wind to demonstrate against what was about to happen. But the eleventh hour came and went without a reprieve. When the trapdoor sprang open at midnight, Canada entered a new era – one without capital punishment. This article tells the story of Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas, the last two men executed on Canadian soil.
1. Two Men, Two Crimes, One Fate
Ronald Turpin, 29, was sentenced to death for shooting and killing Toronto Police Constable Frederick John Nash on February 14, 1962. Turpin had just committed a robbery at a Toronto restaurant and was fleeing when he encountered Constable Nash. During a struggle, Turpin drew a gun and shot Nash. Turpin claimed he intended only to fire a warning shot, but the bullet struck Nash, killing him. He was arrested shortly after.
Arthur Lucas, 54, was sentenced to death for murdering Therland Crater, an American crime figure, and Crater’s girlfriend in Toronto in 1961. Lucas’s case was deeply controversial. His lawyers argued that the evidence against him was largely based on unreliable witness testimony, and that Lucas may have been the victim of a wrongful conviction. Nevertheless, the jury convicted him, and the judge imposed the death sentence.
2. Last-Minute Hope: Government Intervention
In the 1950s and 1960s, the debate over capital punishment in Canada was particularly intense. Prime Minister John Diefenbaker, a one-time opponent of capital punishment, had commuted most court-imposed death sentences to life imprisonment. And in the cases of Lucas and Turpin, there was still hope. A last-minute appeal was pending cabinet decision. Lawyers, academics, and clergy across Toronto were lobbying intensely for the government to step in and reverse the courts’ judgments.
They argued that capital punishment was barbaric, irreversible, and risked executing innocent people. One of the most powerful arguments for abolishing the death penalty lay in the question: What if the convicted person was innocent? A wrongful conviction might be discovered years later, but if the accused had already been executed, there would be no correcting the injustice.
However, shortly after noon on December 10, 1962, the news arrived: There would be no eleventh-hour reprieve. The government decided that the hangings would go ahead.
3. The Night of Execution: Final Hours of Lucas and Turpin
Inside the Don Jail – a century-old brick-and-stone building on the east shore of the Don River – the two condemned inmates were reportedly calm in their final hours. They had hoped, but then accepted their fate.
Shortly before midnight, they were led to a small converted washroom that housed the gallows. Decades earlier, executions had been moved indoors to prevent them from turning into public spectacles – a change that occurred after public hangings were criticized for inciting crowds and dehumanizing the condemned. Dozens of men had been hanged in that same room over the years.
Lucas and Turpin had their hands bound behind their backs and manacles on their feet. They wore jail-issued blue pants and grey shirts. They stood back-to-back. The hangman slipped a white hood over each of their heads, then the noose. At two minutes after midnight, the hangman sprang the wooden trap door. Sixteen minutes later, both were officially declared dead.
4. Outside the Prison Gates: Protest and Condemnation
Outside the jail, in the cutting wind and freezing temperature, hundreds of protesters had been picketing for hours. They carried signs condemning capital punishment. When jail officials posted a notice of the hangings at 12:30 a.m., the crowd surged forward shouting “murderers” and “killers.” Police had to call for motorcycle backup. A few arrests were made before the crowd eventually dispersed.
Meanwhile, members of the Don Heights Unitarian Congregation held a death-watch service in their church. “This ugly thing must be fought,” said Rev. Franklin Chidsey. “I refuse to accept the principle that there is any such thing as legal killing.”
The demonstrators could not have known it, but the 54-year-old Lucas and 29-year-old Turpin would be the last people executed in Canada.
5. Legacy and the Abolitionist Movement
The double execution of Lucas and Turpin spurred a new wave of outrage. The debate over capital punishment in Canada reached its boiling point. Between 1956 and 1966, four Canadian journalists – Betty Lee, Jacques Hébert, J.E. Belliveau, and Isabel LeBourdais – played a central role in driving public opinion against the death penalty. Their investigative work cast doubt on the criminal convictions of three people who had all been sentenced to hang. They showed that the justice system could be wrong, and that once a mistake was made, execution was irreversible.
The Lucas and Turpin execution is often cited as the turning point. The public outcry following the double hanging at the Don Jail galvanized legislators into action. The question of irreversibility was raised more powerfully than ever before.
Canada abolished the death penalty for ordinary crimes in 1976 and completely in 1998. Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas are often cited as the last to suffer the ultimate punishment. They were buried side by side in unmarked graves at Toronto’s Prospect Cemetery.
Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas were not the most notorious criminals, nor were they the most brutal murderers. But their deaths hold a special historical significance: they were the last. The double execution at the Don Jail closed an era of capital punishment in Canada. Their unmarked graves at Prospect Cemetery are a reminder of a time when the state had the power to take the lives of its citizens. And the public protest on that freezing December night in 1962 helped pave the way for a Canada without the death penalty.
Primary sources
Cecil Rosner, “Canada’s Last Hangings” – Canada’s History, December 6, 2022.
Toronto Star Photograph Archive – archival images of the Don Jail, Lucas, Turpin, and the protest.
Contemporary newspaper and court records of the Ronald Turpin and Arthur Lucas cases.
Works by Betty Lee, Jacques Hébert, J.E. Belliveau, and Isabel LeBourdais on capital punishment in Canada.