"One can hardly realize what it meant to Peter Derose to be paroled from Kingston penitentiary this week. He had been behind prison walls for 27 years and had never seen an electric car nor an automobile until released. Derose had been serving a life sentence for murder. It was commuted to 40 years. The governor-general only consented to liberate Derose on condition that some responsible party could give him a home and shelter. The only one that responded was the Salvation Army, which sent Major Fraser to take charge of the prisoner, who is 75 years old and must make parole reports for the unexpired term of the commuted sentence."
- from the Windsor Record. December 3, 1913. Page 4.
[Derose had been in prison since the 1880s, and was convict #X-137. There was, according to a report of the Kingston Penitentiary warden in February 1912, "a pile of correspondence" about this man's case, and he wrote a letter asking for release that month. The warden felt that, as the prisoner had "been faithful to every trust placed in him" and in good spirits despite his term, he should be paroled provided care could be found for the elderly man.]
