A trunk shipped C.O.D. from Toronto to Argentia turns out to contain a human body. A newspaper editor is ambushed and both his ears are cut off. A ship sinks and seventy-six passengers are believed to be victims of fate - until a diver discovers the grisly truth.

The history of Newfoundland is full of chilling tales of murder and mayhem. Author Jack Fitzgerald has made a career of uncovering stories like these. The Hangman is Never Late surveys the history of Newfoundland crime from Eric and Marie Cobham's infamous career of piracy in the 1740s, to the strangling of Mona Johnson in 1976. Along the way he takes us on carefully researched tour of early Newfoundland criminal justice that ranges from the ridiculous to the tragic.