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  • Essay / Arthur Lucas – The Last to Die

    Arthur Lucas is a man best known for being one of the last two men to be hanged in Canada before the abolition of the death penalty. Lucas was an African American convicted of the murder of Therland Charter in Toronto, Ontario. At the time, Lucas was a known pimp in Detriot, transporting girls to Chicago for prostitution. Therland Charter, was not an innocent man himself after getting into trouble, he became a police informant. This is how the investigation into Arthur Lucas began, for his assassination due to the occupation and Lucas' violent history. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on “Why Violent Video Games Should Not Be Banned”? Get the original essay Arthur Lucas' childhood sheds light on how and why he became the man he became. At a very young age, both of his parents died, forcing him to move around a lot, living with different aunts and uncles. At age 8, he lived with an aunt, but unfortunately she also passed away. Arthur then moves in with his cousin, in the city of Detroit. At the age of 14, he lived alone in boarding houses all over the city. Thus began the downward spiral of Arthur Lucas' life. He stopped going to school and only received an 8th grade due to the lack of stability and authority in his life. This is demonstrated by his IQ level, which classifies him as borderline feeble-minded. Once he stopped going to school, he began associating with criminals, such as con artists, pimps, and prostitutes. From then on, he learned to survive with small criminal jobs like theft and petty theft. It was while he was a teenager that Lucas began to build up more and more of his criminal record, spending years in prison. Due to his years of incarceration, it was very difficult for Lucas to maintain legitimate employment. With his incarceration and his attitude, he didn't keep his job for very long. It was at this time that Lucas began to make a living from pimping girls and dealing drugs. Arthur Lucas' criminal activity then became so serious that the FBI opened an investigation into him, even though they had a long file on him and his crimes for a very long time. One of their investigations concerned the Mann Act which "prohibited the interstate transportation of women and girls for 'immoral purposes,' such as prostitution." That's exactly what Arthur Lucas did, flying girls from Detroit to Chicago. This led him to do a favor for a friend to travel to Toronto to do business for him, which would be his last. During his trial, Lucas was not afraid to talk about his prostitution activity. Throughout his life as a pimp, he was known to be very violent and protective of his daughters. When interviewed by police, a former girlfriend of Lucas said he often beat her with baseball bats, chains or with his fists, which, due to his size and stature, were very large and usually covered in many rings. All of this would be used against him during his trial, to try to prove his guilt, by showing others what kind of man he was. It was Lucas' tragic childhood that pushed him into a life of crime. Growing up, he spent his time with the only people he knew, criminals. In the eyes of social learning theory, it is no coincidence that he became a pimp. Spending so much time with criminals at such a young age, all he knew was a life of crime. It is said in this theory that behavior can be learned by observing and imitating others. For Arthur Lucas, he spent so much time with pimps and prostitutes that he became.