Chapter 2: “John Radclive”: “Riding High” During the First Decade, 1890-1900.

In the twenty-year period from 1890 through 1909, there were 110 hangings in Canada. Of those, 80 were performed by a man calling himself John Radclive, who would become the first “official” hangman for Canada. While he called himself Radclive, the newspapers over the years called him Thomas or John Radcliffe. While we will use the name Radclive, his real name, as we will eventually outline, was Daniel James Ratley, or as it sometimes was spelt, Rattley.