Reason for Reading: This book presents all the facts from both sides about Canada's most infamous crime. Reach your own conclusion by being objective and thinking critically. Synopsis: On a cold September day in 1959 a 14 year old Canadian schoolboy, in just his first encounter with the police and in a crime of passion, was sentenced by a jury to hang for the murder of his 12-year-old friend. Why I wrote this book: My greatest passion is to search for the truth in real crimes. Why you should read this book: This is probably the only book you will find in all of America's media about Steven Truscott and the Murder of 12-year-old Lynne Harper that is completely objective. Why you may avoid this book: There is an unconscious desire on the part of many to find greater meaning in the life and trials of Steven Truscott than is possible based upon the historical case. And so for them, there will always be an innocent Truscott. It simply has to be, no matter what.

At fourteen, Steve Truscott was a typical teenager in rural Ontario in the fifties, mainly concerned about going fishing, playing football, and racing bikes with his friends. One summer evening, his twelve-year-old classmate, Lynne Harper, asked for a lift to the nearby highway on his bicycle and Steve agreed. Unfortunately, that made Steve the last person known to see Lynne alive. His world collapsed around him when he was arrested and then convicted of killing Lynne Harper. The penalty at the time was death by hanging. Although the sentence was changed to life in prison, Steve suffered for years behind bars for a murder he didn't commit. When his case gained national attention, the Supreme Court of Canada reviewed the evidence -- and confirmed his conviction. It took over forty years and a determination to prove his innocence for him to finally clear his name. He has since received an apology and compensation for his ordeal. In this book, young readers will discover how an innocent boy was presumed guilty by the justice system, and how in the end, that same justice system, prodded by Truscott and his lawyers, was able to acknowledge the terrible wrong done to him. [Fry reading level - 4.8

For more than 30 years, retired Ontario Provincial Police Sergeant Barry Ruhl has believed that a criminal with whom he had a violent encounter early in his career might be responsible for a string of unsolved murders of young women in Ontario, including the 1959 death of 12-year-old Lynne Harper. The only suspect ever investigated in that sensational case was 14-year-old Steven Truscott, who was convicted and sentenced to hang before being cleared almost 50 years later. But in the 1980s, Ruhl had approached his superiors with a theory about an alternative suspect in the Harper murder and other similar cases. A Viable Suspect tells the story of how Ruhl arrived at his conclusions, his frustrated attempts to prompt the OPP to thoroughly investigate Talbot and the tragic irony of how, just when it seemed police were finally taking Ruhl’s theory seriously, the suspect slipped out of reach, permanently.

In 1960 at the age of 14, Steven Truscott was sentenced to death for the murder of Lynne Harper, aged 12yrs. Truscott was in a death cell for most of 4 months; then his sentence was commuted to life imprisonment. He spent the next 3 years in the Guelph Training School, and in January 1963 was transferred to the federal penitentiary at Kingston, Ontario. But was he guilty? The author reviews the case and presents evidence of his innocence.

The Public Broadcasting Service (PBS) and the WGBH Educational Foundation provide an online supplement to the "Frontline" television program entitled "Innocence Lost the Plea." The program originally aired on May 27, 1997. The supplement and program focused on the case of the Little Rascals Day Care in Edenton, North Carolina. The owners and staff members were charged with 400 counts child sexual abuse against 29 children. Profiles of the defendants, a timeline of the case, and other materials are available online.

True crime, Canada, Steven Truscott.