The two murder trials held in Toronto in the spring of 1962 only nineteen days apart made Canadian social and legal history. The accused man in each trial, one a pimp who stabbed to death a fellow pimp, the other a thief who killed a policeman in a shootout, were the last two men to be hanged in Canada. In personal terms, for a Toronto criminal lawyer named Ross Mackay, the trials represented just two more episodes in a tumultuous life story. Mackay was the counsel for the accused in both trials, a mere thirty years old when he lost two clients to the gallows. But the trials were far from the last times that Mackay defended accused murderers in the most horrendous circumstances. It's the story of Mackay's dedication to the maxim that every man is entitled to a defence that Jack Batten tells in this book, a story that emerges in all its colour, drama and tragedy, a story of Mackay's courage and the harsh penalties he paid for the often daring and controversial choices he made in life and in the courtroom.

Jack Batten graduated from the University of Toronto Law School, class of 1957, but chose to make his living as a freelance writer. As well as countless articles for such magazines as Maclean's, Rolling Stone and Toronto Life, he has written more than forty books. Seven are crime novels, and the rest cover a range of nonfiction. These include several biographies. His book The Man Who Ran Faster Than Everyone, about the long distance runner Tom Longboat won the $10,000 Norma Fleck Award. Many of the other biographies portray lawyers and judges in professional action in and out of courtrooms in every region of Canada. Jack Batten lives in Toronto with his wife, the writer and garden designer Marjorie Harris.

What They Say Other Books By Prologue, Haunted Dreams 1. Beginnings 2. The School For Smart Boys 3. Gambling and Girls 4. Ross Picks His Specialty 5. Arthur Martin's Influence 6. A Mother's Choice 7. A Change of Plans 8. Something Called Admiralty Law 9. A Fish out of Water 10. Trouble at the Brown Derby 11. Ross Finds Murder 12. The Case Against Arthur Lucas 13. The Cops Nail Their Man 14. Ross Builds His Defence 15. The Old Guys Gang Up On Ross 16. Shootout on the Danforth 17. Second Murder Trial in 19 Days 18. Once More to the Gallows 19. Ross Bottoms Out 20. On the Comeback Trail 21. Ross Builds a Practice 22. The Master of Appeals 23. Life on the Edge 24. Ross and the Subculture 25. Disbarred 26. A Fitful Existence 27. His Life's Blood 28. A Perry Mason Moment 29. The Longest Trial 30. Another Trial 31. Aladdin's Cave 32. The Fluttering Cigarette Paper 33. A Free Man 34. In Decline 35. Handling the Truth Acknowledgments About the Author, Jack Batten