John Sheridan Hogan

Hogan, John Sheridan

John Sheridan Hogan, journalist, politician (b near Dublin, Ire 1815?; d at Toronto 1 Dec 1859). A contributor to numerous newspapers and magazines, including Blackwood's, Hogan founded his own weekly, The United Empire, and in 1855 became editor of Toronto's British Colonist. That same year he wrote a prize-winning essay on Canada for the Canadian committee of the Paris Exposition. In 1857 he was elected to the Assembly as a Reformer; he was considered one of the rising stars of the Reform Party, but on the night of 1 December 1859 he disappeared. His body was found in the Don River 30 March 1861, and police investigation revealed that he had been robbed and murdered by thieves known as the Brook's Bush gang. In one of Toronto's most spectacular murder cases, several people were charged and tried but only one, James Brown, was convicted. Brown's execution on 10 March 1862 was Toronto's last public hanging.