John Radclive never planned to be a hangman.
Born and raised in England, he would later state that he had originally intended to become a clergyman, "but I was no hypocrite and I gave it up". After years of military service, he was stationed in various parts of the world before coming to Canada with his wife and four children in 1887. Sometime between leaving the military and coming to Canada, John Radclive had been apprenticed to William Marwood, the U.K.'s official executioner. Through his work with Marwood, Radclive became a proficient hangman although he abandoned the trade when he settled in Toronto. Working as a steward at Toronto's fashionable Sunnyside Boating Club, Radclive quickly realized that the salary was inadequate to support his large family so he decided to engage in a bit of moonlighting. Advertising his services as a hangman to local sheriffs, he quickly found work (but only on a part-time basis).
While he still worked as a steward, his strange double life cost him that job quickly enough. One day at the boating club, a powerful member (who also happened to be an inspector with the Northwest Mounted Police) recognized Radclive and told the club's owners that he didn't appreciate having his drinks served by a "common hangman". Radclive had never kept his sideline secret (and he never wore the traditional hangman's mask when working). The club owners eventually fired him for his "lack of discretion" and Radclive was forced to carry out the hangman's trade on a more regular basis. By 1892, he became Canada's first professional hangman.
By all accounts, Radclive existed in a kind of purgatory. He was never a civil servant and carried out his hangman duties on a fee-for-service basis along with a basic retainer from the Federal Government. He traveled across much of Canada by train, conducting executions in small jails around the country (executions were always under the jurisdiction of local authorities). The procedure was usually the same for execution: Radclive receiving a telegram informing him where and when he was needed followed by his prompt arrival by second-class coach (he paid his own way). There was no official licensing or government authority associated with his carrying out the hangings, it was simply an unpleasant duty that only someone of Radclive's reputation could be trusted to do. Of course, Radclive probably added to his notoriety by often selling pieces of rope as souvenirs after the hangings (they were popular with the crowds that gathered to watch the public executions of the time - especially the high-profile ones).
It's hard to say for sure when Radclive's drinking began. Alcoholism tended to be an occupational hazard for executioners given the stress associated with the job. One double hanging that Radclive carried out in Montreal in 1899 (a man and a woman) was followed by a near-riot among the spectators. Police had to control the crowds until the bodies were cut down and Radclive was so unnerved by the spectacle that he spent the night in the prison with a bottle of brandy for comfort. He would need that brandy more and more in the following years and often got into drunken brawls at local pubs before and after the planned hangings. Although the drinking didn't usually interfere with his duties, his absences became more frequent in his later years.
One of the most astonishing executions that Radclive ever had to carry out was on an elderly man at the jail in St. Scholastique, Quebec. While the condemned man was being taken to the gallows, he suddenly died of a heart attack. To Radclive's astonishment, the sheriff pointed out that the actual hanging still needed to be carried out according to the execution order. Despite his protests, Radclive was forced to hang a dead man (the corpse was tied to a chair to keep him in position on the gallows). Suffice it to say that Radclive likely did a lot of drinking that night.
Many who knew him described Radclive as a robust man who seemed to revel in his sinister reputation and the gawking crowds that often gathered to see the notorious "Ratliff" arrive by train to carry out local executions. He always made it a point to stay informed about the details of each case to reassure himself that the person to be hanged was actually guilty. Although he never refused to carry out an execution, the prospect of bungling a hanging or otherwise prolonging the suffering of the condemned was always with him. He even experimented with better ways of hanging people although his innovations never really caught on (the traditional gallows was too popular). As Radclive complained to one journalist, political concerns ensured that he kept on dealing with, "all them long steps which he'd had to drag some poor snivellin' bastard cryin' for his ma".
By 1911, John Radclive had hit rock bottom. Suffering from cirrhosis of the liver from his long years of drinking, he was left penniless and alone in his final days. His wife had long since left him and took their two youngest children back to England (whether due to the drinking or the hanging is still unclear). While his two oldest children still lived in Toronto, he was largely estranged from them. Shortly before his death on February 26 of that year, he told an interviewer, "My family deserted me and changed their names, but I kept right on with the job, because I argued with myself that if I was doing wrong then the government of the country was wrong. I held that I was the minister of justice at a hanging and that if I was was a murderer, then he was also a murderer".
The last two executions in Canada were carried out on December 11, 1962 at the Don Jail in Toronto. The actual identity of Canada's last executioner (known only by the pseudonym of "Camille Blanchard") has never been made public. Capital punishment was formally ended in Canada with the passage of Bill C-84 in 1976.
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