FULLY REVISED AND UPDATED

National Bestseller
Winner of the Canadian Authors Association Birks Family Foundation Award for Biography
Finalist for the Writers’ Trust Shaughnessy Cohen Prize for Political Writing

The investigation that helped Truscott get a new appeal.

In 1959, a popular schoolboy, just 14 years old, was convicted and sentenced to hang for the rape and murder of his 12-year-old classmate. That summer, Canada lost its innocence and the shocking story of Steven Truscott became imprinted on the nation’s memory. First published in 2001, “Until You Are Dead” revealed new witnesses, leads and evidence never presented to the courts. Now this national bestseller is fully revised and updated, and takes readers from that fateful night in 1959 up to the new appeal granted to Truscott in 2006. Julian Sher’s award-winning and insightful chronicle details Steven Truscott’s dramatic final battle – with the help of his family, investigative journalists and lawyers – to clear his name once and for all.

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WINNER 2002 - CAA Birks Family Foundation Award for Biography
NOMINEE 2002 - Shaughnessy Cohen Award for Political Writing

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“Before there was Donald Marshall, David Milgaard, Guy Paul Morin, Gregory Parsons or Thomas Sophonow, there was Stephen Truscott. Julian Sher . . . has uncovered new evidence and written a compelling story detailing how Truscott’s 1959 murder trial was horribly flawed.”
—The Vancouver Sun

“A chilling search for truth.”
—The Hamilton Spectator

“Passionate, thorough and highly readable . . . a weighty indictment of our criminal system, and the terrible results when it goes wrong.”
—The Record (Kitchener-Waterloo)

“Read this book. You will be jarred by the reality of our justice system. This excellent, in-depth compilation of Steven Truscott’s very disturbing case keeps you absorbed and in disbelief: Where is the justice?”
— Guy Paul Morin

"Sher writes with a finely measured sense of disbelief. How could this happen? he asks through every page. And we share his amazement, notwithstanding David Milgaard, Donald Marshall, Guy Paul Morin and Thomas Sophonow, all convicted until proven innocent ... Sher has written an important book. One that ought to serve as a warning to those who administer justice against arrogance. Nor should anyone be complacent on the issue, for every time a case is closed with the wrongly accused, a killer is left free to roam among us. "
— The Montreal Gazette, October 20, 2001

"The CBC television producer who earned Truscott's trust and helped make a national case of his continued claim of innocence, Montreal's Julian Sher, presents another compelling indictment of our justice system."
— The Toronto Star, October 21, 2001

"There have been previous books on the trial of Steven Truscott, but 'Until You Are Dead' ... is the most comprehensive analysis to date."
— The Globe and Mail

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Visit the Official Steven Truscott Web site

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Author’s Note
Prologue

Part One: The Battle in the Courtroom: 1959

June: Murder and Arrest
1 Crime Scene
2 Weekend Fun
3 A Bike Ride into History
4 A Girl Goes Missing
5 The Questions Begin
6 The Inspector Arrives
7 Wanted -- “Dead or Alive”
8 Trapped
9 “Lightning Speed”
10 “The Rose beyond the Wall”

Summer: The Scramble to Make a Case
11 Trouble with Witnesses
12 “Look What I Found, Mommy”
13 For the Good of the Child
14 The Preliminary Hearing
15 The Fantasies of Children
16 The Hanging Tree

September: The Trial
17 The Queen versus Steven Truscott
18 The Pathologist and the Inspector
19 The Children Take the Stand
20 Duel with the Doctors
21 The Police Story
22 Witnesses for the Defence
23 The Boys at the River
24 The Defence Sums Up
25 The Prosecution Makes Its Case
26 The Judge’s Charge
27 The Verdict

Aftermath
28 The Trouble with Time
29 The Missing Witness
30 Doctoring the Medical Evidence
31 “Burn the Pictures”

Part Two: The Battle behind Bars: 1960—1966
32 Ghosts of the Gallows
33 Lessons of Reform School
34 Number 6730

Part Three: The Public Battle: 1966—1967
35 A National Debate
36 An “Agonizing Reappraisal”
37 His Day in Court
38 A Battle of Science and Egos
39 The Lawyers Square Off
40 The Decision

Part Four: The Private Battle: 1967—1997
41 Release
42 Starting Over
43 What to Tell the Children

Part Five: The Final Battle: 1997—2001
44 Out of the Shadows
45 A New Hope
46 Lessons Learned

Epilogue: Return to Clinton
Afterword
Acknowledgments
Index of Proper Names

Prologue

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Julian Sher is the author of several books, including the upcoming One Child at a Time: The Global Fight to Rescue the Victims of Web Porn. Sher also co-wrote with William Marsden two national bestsellers, Angels of Death: Inside the Bikers’ Empire of Crime and The Road to Hell: How the Biker Gangs are Conquering Canada. He has worked on investigative projects for the CBC, The Globe and Mail, the Toronto Star and The New York Times.

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