Hangman's Graveyard

Hangman's Graveyard is a Canadian documentary film which was originally broadcast in Canada on History Television on December 6, 2009. A work-in-progress screening of the film was presented at the Ontario Archaeological Society’s 36th annual symposium and as the opening film of DocFest Stratford in October 2009. The film follows an archaeological investigation at Toronto's old Don Jail beginning in September 2007. The archaeologists uncovered a cemetery behind the jail and began a process of identifying the remains. In total, 15 bodies were found, and all are thought to be remains of executed inmates. The archaeological team is led by Dr. Ronald Williamson of Archaeological Services Inc. Produced by Canada's Ballinran Productions, the company behind the Gemini and IFTA nominated documentary Death or Canada, the film follows the lives of three men found in the forgotten cemetery - George Bennett, Jan Ziolko and Frederick Davis - and examines the history of the Don Jail, capital punishment in Canada and the nation's most feared hangman, Arthur Ellis.