Law and order 1822-1967

The public hanging of a horse thief and two burglars was seen as a warning to others in this item from the Upper Canada Gazette, York (Toronto) November 6, 1823.

Montreal, Oct. 18.—Yesterday morning at 20 minutes past ten o’clock, the awful sentence of the Law was executed on Abraham Paradis convicted of Horse Stealing, Jean Baptise Albert and Warren Glossen, found guilty of Burglary.

The two former were first brought out to the fatal platform, to which they were attended by their spiritual director… they evinced every mark of contrition, and acknowledged the justice of their sentence…

Glossen was… supported by some friends, as his feelings were either so much affected, or his bodily infirmity rendered him incapable of sustaining the last efforts of expiring nature—his contrition was no less conspicuous than the other two, and his audible expressions of “The Lord have mercy on my soul,” frequently repeated, were evidence of the sense which the dying man entertained of the dreadful precipice on which he stood…

Let the crimes of these men be what they may, they have paid the fine—justice is satisfied—and every person who has a regard for the doctrine of Christianity must rejoice that in their deaths they were penitent, and rested their hopes of salvation on the merits of their Redeemer. The fate of these culprits, will, we trust, prove a salutary lesson to those whom they have left behind, whose moral and religious conduct require a warning for the amendment of their lives.

Unfamiliar Canadian history stories 012