Ronald Turpin

On 11 December 1962 Ronald Turpin, 29, was one of the two last people to be executed in Canada. The other prisoner was Arthur Lucas who was executed alongside Turpin at the Toronto (Don) Jail. Turpin had been convicted of the murder of Metropolitan Toronto police officer Frederick Nash. Nash had pulled Turpin over for a broken taillight while the latter was fleeing a robbery. The method of execution was hanging, the only form of civilian capital punishment ever used within Canada, although the Canadian military employed execution by firing squad. In 1976, capital punishment for murder was removed from Canada's Criminal Code, although it remained in the National Defence Act until 1998.