{"product_id":"fatal-confession-carolyn-strange-9780774872768","title":"Fatal Confession: A Girl's Murder, a Man's Execution, and the Fitton Case","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cb\u003eA gripping exploration of a 1956 Toronto murder case that challenged legal notions of consent, confession, and capital punishment in a deeply gendered justice system.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003ci\u003eFatal Confession\u003c\/i\u003e 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. The case exposed judicial ambivalence about the criminal 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. \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e Weaving together politics, culture, legal history, and biography, \u003ci\u003eFatal Confession\u003c\/i\u003e unravels a case that ultimately called into question both capital punishment and masculinist legal interpretations of sexual consent. \u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAuthor:\u003c\/b\u003e Carolyn Strange\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-10:\u003c\/b\u003e 0774872764\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN-13:\u003c\/b\u003e 9780774872768\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e University of British Columbia Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eLanguage:\u003c\/b\u003e English\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 10\/31\/2025\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 306\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eFormat:\u003c\/b\u003e Paperback","brand":"Carolyn Strange","offers":[{"title":"Paperback","offer_id":49097172975871,"sku":"9780774872768","price":35.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"url":"https:\/\/www.whiterainbookhouse.com\/products\/fatal-confession-carolyn-strange-9780774872768","provider":"WR Book House","version":"1.0","type":"link"}