Product Description
"We taught our children to be delinquents." So wrote lifelong criminal Joe Gordon before he was hanged at British Columbia's Oakalla Prison Farm in 1957 for shooting a policeman during a failed robbery. In a letter he scrawled in his jail cell, Gordon described his downfall and made a plea to parents to love and care for their children so they wouldn't end up like him.
Born to Die is the story of Gordon's sensational trial, set against the backdrop of Vancouver's seedy underworld amid a time of widespread police corruption. His final words are as relevant today as they were then, for although he lived and died in 1950s Vancouver, his tragic life and path to oblivion can be walked at any time and in any community in North America.
About the Author
Ian Macdonald was born in Glasgow, Scotland. He was a reporter for the Victoria Times Colonist, the Vancouver Province, and the Vancouver Sun. He was parliamentary correspondent in Victoria and bureau chief in Ottawa for the Ottawa Sun. He worked in media relations for federal ministers and the prime minister's office, and was head of Transport Canada Information. Ian has written for magazines, radio, television and film.
Betty O'Keefe was a Vancouver Province reporter for seven years in the 1950s, working as children's columnist, features writer and church editor. She then worked in corporate communications for 15 years and was commissioned to write two corporate biographies: Brenda: The Story of a Mine and The Mines of Babine Lake. Betty was the first woman to head the public-relations committee for the Mining Association of BC and the first woman to chair the information department of the Canadian Pulp and Paper Association.
