Epitaph - Last Man Hanged

Television (Full Length Episode) – 1997

In each episode of this popular TV series, actor Paul Gittins investigated the story behind the epitaph written on a gravestone. In this third episode from season one, Gittins visits the grave of Walter James Bolton, a Whanganui farmer who was the last man to get the death penalty in New Zealand. He was hanged on 18 February 1957, found guilty of poisoning his wife of 43 years with arsenic derived from sheep dip. Gittins meets Peter Waller, a campaigner for Bolton’s innocence, who claims to be his son. Bryan Bruce revisited the case in 2007 on his series The Investigator.

In loving memory of Walter James Bolton. Hanged 1957. An innocent man who died at the hands of justice. May this abuse of justice never be tolerated again - Your loving son. Robert James Bolton.
– Walter James Bolton's epitaph