The Last to Die by Hoshowsky Robert J. & Newman Peter C

Author:Hoshowsky, Robert J. & Newman, Peter C.
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781770704978
Publisher: Dundurn Press

McDonnell then placed Turpin under arrest for the shooting and ordered him to put his hands in the air. With his limbs hanging loosely by his sides, he complained, “I can’t, I’ve been shot in both arms.” The officer then ordered Turpin to lean against the scout car on his elbows, which he did. When McDonnell started searching Turpin, he said, “I give up. I haven’t got the gun. The gun is in the car,” then added, “Look after the officer.” Placed in the back seat of McDonnell’s police cruiser, Turpin incessantly whined, “Get me up to the hospital, I’ve been hurt bad.”

Just as McDonnell was telling the streetcar driver to call an ambulance, Ough came by with his ambulance from the Hallowell Funeral Home and offered his assistance. McDonnell then retrieved the gun from the front seat of Nash’s scout car. As fate would have it, Nash’s police car wasn’t the only thing that wasn’t working that night, as McDonnell noticed Turpin’s gun had jammed.

Within minutes, other officers arrived at the scene. Nash had already lost a lot of blood. He was drifting in and out of consciousness, and his breathing was shallow. On the ground just three inches from his right hand lay his black Webley police revolver. As a precaution, one officer brushed the gun away from his hand, since he didn’t know if it was empty or still loaded with bullets. As Nash was carried into the ambulance, Turpin kept moaning about the bullets lodged in his arms. “Take it easy, I’ve been shot too.”

Once the ambulance left for the hospital, policemen blocked the scene to traffic and began the process of gathering evidence. The spot where Nash crumpled face down to the ground was outlined with white chalk. Other officers searching the ground found .32- calibre shells nearby and a spent bullet, which were also circled with chalk and photographed.

Both Nash and Turpin were rushed to the same hospital, East General, and seen by emergency room staff and other personnel on duty the night of the shooting. They would later testify in court about what they saw and heard. As Nash lay dying in one room, Turpin was in another, constantly grumbling, “My fuckin arms hurt” to anyone who would listen. He stopped whining when nurses gave him four different injections, including penicillin and morphine. Meanwhile, in Emergency Room 2, doctors were struggling to save Nash’s life when orderly Harry Hollingsworth heard the clunk of a bullet as it fell out of the officer’s clothes; it was saved as evidence.

The first lawyer to see Turpin after the shooting was Donald Bitter, who had represented Turpin on other charges earlier in his criminal career. Bitter remembered being told by another lawyer who shared the same office space, “Your silly client Turpin got himself into a jam — he shot a cop.” When he saw Turpin at the East General Hospital, the gunman was conscious long enough to say, “He shot first” before slipping back into unconscious.

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