Abstract

When the body of thirteen-year-old Linda Lampkin was found, raped and strangled, on Toronto’s industrial waterfront in 1956, locals feared a sex maniac was on the loose. Within a day, detectives announced the arrest of Robert Fitton. He was charged with murder, although Fitton claimed the sex was consensual and the strangulation accidental. Fatal Confession is a compelling analysis of that violent encounter and the ensuing legal and political entanglements, which ended in the hanging of Fitton despite the jury’s and judge’s recommendation of mercy.

Murders of children, particularly sex-related killings, invariably produce strong reactions, but those responses are tied to place and period. In the mid-1950s, popular true crime non-fiction was taking off and Canadians, most of whom supported the death penalty, were deeply anxious about sex crime. Fitton was convicted and executed, but his case exposed judicial ambivalence about the Criminal Code’s definition of constructive murder in connection with rape, disagreements over the voluntariness of confessions to police, and widespread doubt over the culpability of males “tempted” by precocious females.

Weaving politics and culture into legal history and biography, Fatal Confession unravels a case that ultimately lent momentum to the death penalty’s abolition and opposition to masculinist legal interpretations of sexual consent.

Beyond its clear relevance to scholars of socio-legal history, criminal justice, gender and sexuality, and Canadian history, this gripping account of a landmark legal case will keep all true-crime readers turning its pages.

'Carolyn Strange is unquestionably the leading historian of capital punishment in Canada, and Fatal Confession displays all the virtues of this very fine scholar. This is exemplary research, and a story very well told' – Jim Phillips, Faculty of Law and Department of History, University of Toronto

'No hanging is inevitable. Carolyn Strange’s riveting tale of a west-end Toronto teenager’s rape and murder offers a fascinating glimpse into the gendered assumptions of 1950s Canadians. Some decried ‘lust-maddened fiends’ who ravaged innocent young girls; others defended men with ‘normal sex impulses’ lured to their demise by precocious sexpot pickups. This tenacious tug-of-war between prosecution and defence will leave readers astonished at the ‘arbitrariness of capital justice' – Constance Backhouse, Professor of Law, University of Ottawa

'Fatal Confession is a gripping and insightful book by one of the masters of Canadian criminal justice history. As she unravels the tragic and disturbing Fittoncase, Strange illuminates the intricate ties between criminal law, sexuality, psychology, and the media. A compelling and thought-provoking read – I learned something on every page and couldn’t put it down' – Bradley Miller, Department of History, University of British Columbia