Robert Pickton – pig farm serial killer
By all accounts, the owner of the Pickton pig farm, Robert Pickton, was an odd duck – quiet, hard to strike up a conversation with, and nervously fearful of others. Born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck, his mother recognized at an early age that something was not right with Robert. As a result, he was marginalized by society, shunned by women, and dominated by his younger brother, David. A bartender at a venue Robert frequented said he was much less of a man than he pretended to be.
“He was a wannabe, you know, he wanted to be a biker, a Hells Angel, a mean leather guy. But everyone knew he was a weasel, a wannabe. I mean you can’t imagine hanging out with a guy like that without something bad happening.”
And indeed something bad did happen on Robert Pickton’s pig farm – at least 27 confirmed murders, likely closer to 50, possibly as many as 100 – all women, most of them destitute prostitutes from the city of Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, Canada. He is Canada’s most prolific serial killer.
The Pickton pig farm
At 953 Dominion Avenue in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, about 17 miles east of Vancouver, there is a pig farm owned by Robert William Pickton (Willie) and his younger brother David Francis Pickton. The frontage of the property is still visible today from Dominion but the farm itself, which was located about a hundred yards from the road, has long been destroyed. When it stood, the stigma surrounding the pig farm emanated beyond its fences filled with filth and muck. One witness described the homestead as a “creepy looking place” patrolled by a 600-lb boar.
“I never saw a pig like that, who would chase you and bite at you. It was running out with the dogs around the property.”
The Pickton pig farm business and how the brothers become millionaires
In 1963, William Pickton Sr. purchased 40 acres of swampy land in Port Coquitlam, a small town near the United States border, about 2 hours north of Seattle. On the land, he began raising pigs.
His three children, Linda, David, and Robert, grew up on the farm and learned the business well. When William died, the children inherited the land and continued running the business with younger brother David acting as the boss and the elder Robert providing the messy labor.
By 1994 Port Coquitlam grew larger and the farm, which was purchased by William for $18,000 in 1963, was worth millions. Recognizing the riches under their feet, the brothers sold a few sections of the property to raise cash. One section was sold to a townhouse developer for $1.7 million. Two sections were sold to Port Coquitlam for a total of $3.5 million (one section was turned into a park and the other became Blakeburn Elementary School).
It was about the time the Pickton brothers became millionaires that women in the Vancouver area began to disappear.
Interest in pig farming dwindles
With more than enough money to sustain their needs, the Pickton brothers allowed the pig business to dwindle, treating it more as a hobby than a requisite means of financial support. They continued to raise pigs for friends and neighbors and what meat was not used was trucked to the West Coast Reduction company at 105 North Commercial Drive in Vancouver.
The West Coast Reduction plant takes animal bones, guts, blood, and entrails and grinds them into a base for products such as lipstick, soap, and food for farm animals. Robert frequented the business often, even when he had no meat to sell. It was located in a commercial area near seedy hotels such as the Roosevelt Hotel on Main Street and the Astoria Hotel on Hawks. The area was awash with prostitutes, many of whom Robert became intimately familiar with.
The opening of Piggy’s Palace
Using money from the sale of land, the Pickton brothers registered the farm as a nonprofit under the name “Piggy Palace Good Times Society”. They converted one of the barns to a party venue and Piggy’s Palace opened in 1996 on 2552 Burns Road.
Piggy’s Palace became an instant legend. The raucous parties and events held at Piggy’s Palace attracted as many as 2,000 people at a time. The Hell’s Angels motorcycle club were frequent visitors as were many of the local townspeople. Even Gary Ridgway, the infamous Green River Killer, once attended a party there. So did nearby Vancouver prostitutes – in droves.
One witness, a longshoreman, recalls his visit to one of the parties:
“I arrived at the party at about 9:00 p.m. It was dark and raining and muddy, and there were lots of motorcycles, old cars, and a big pig roasting on a spit. There were kids in costumes, some dressed as witches. The little kids were running around, and playing in the dark. There wasn’t much light. There were lots of women, who looked like hookers…. The party spilled all over the grounds and there were people in the house and in the trailer doing the wild thing. I recall walking by a shack with a 40-watt light bulb hanging over the door and machinery was running inside. Here, I got a death chill. The hairs raised on the back of my neck and my feet froze to the ground. I didn’t want to be there anymore, so I left and walked home.”
The attempted murder of Wendy Lynn Eistetter
During the height of Piggy’s Palace’s notoriety, Robert Pickton was charged with the attempted murder of a prostitute, Wendy Lynn Eistetter. Police were already familiar with the Pickton brothers. David had been convicted of sexual assault in 1992 and was given 30 days’ probation and Piggy’s Palace was a frequent source of police calls. Eistetter’s story came as no surprise to them.
On March 23,1997, Eistetter had been working on the corner of Princess and Cordova when Robert pulled up in a red pickup truck and asked her how much she charged for oral sex. She quoted $40 but Robert upped the offer to $100 if she went with him to his farm in Port Coquitlam. Nearly triple the going rate, she cautiously agreed.
Arriving at Pickton’s trailer house, Eistetter noticed it was a mess (“a pigsty” as she described it). The two retired to a bedroom, Pickton paid her $100 in five $20-dollar-bills, and the act was performed. Afterward, she had her back turned when she said she “could feel Pickton behind me”. She spun around and Pickton grabbed her arm, slapping a handcuff around her left wrist.
“Then I just started fighting him. And then the first thing I remember was a knife on the kitchen table. So as I was fighting him, I was, like, going backwards so I could get to this knife, and then I reached for the knife. And then I leaped at him, I slit his throat. And then I remember him grabbing a rag and going, ‘You f*&#ing bitch, you got me good,’ and he put the rag on his neck. And then he had a big long stick and I remember just picking up plants, everything I could get a hold of and throwing it at him.”
Eistetter escaped, ran down the driveway to the road and flagged down a passing car.
Pickton was arrested, charged with attempted murder, and booked in jail. Ultimately, the charges were dismissed after police determined Eistetter was a drug addict and thus, too unstable to secure a conviction. However, still in police’s possession were a pair of Robert’s rubber boots that were seized during the arrest. The boots were kept in storage for several years before it was discovered that they contained valuable evidence – the DNA of two missing women.
Port Coquitlam sues Pickton brothers for zoning violations
Meanwhile, Piggy’s Palace had become a thorn in the community’s side. The parties held in the old pig farm barn were unruly, loud, and attracted a “nasty type” to Port Coquitlam. A few months after the attack on Eistetter, Port Coquitlam sued the brothers for violation of zoning ordinances. The city argued that they had neglected the true zoned purpose of the property (farming) and instead had “altered a large building on the land for the purpose of holding dances, concerts, and other recreations.” The city wanted the venue closed – by any means necessary.
In response, to the bane of Port Coquitlam officials, the Pickton brothers hosted an extra-large 1998 New Year’s Party in the venue.
Farm worker notices visitors have a peculiar habit of going missing
In 1998, one of Pickton’s hired hands, Bill Hiscox grew concerned after reading a newspaper account of Vancouver’s many missing prostitutes. He noticed that women who visited Pickton’s farm often went missing afterward. Hiscox knew Pickton often frequented the downtown area looking for girls and he knew about Robert’s 1997 arrest for attempted murder of a prostitute. He told police that he heard from an acquaintance, Lisa Yelds, that Pickton had women’s bloody clothing, identification and personal items that Pickton kept as “trophies”.
“All the girls that are going missing, and all the purses and Ids that are out there in his trailer and stuff.”
Hiscox went to the police with his concerns.
Freezer full of human flesh
It was 1999 when others began noticing unusual happenings at Piggy’s Palace. In February of that year, Canadian police received a tip that Pickton had a freezer filled with human flesh. The police interviewed Robert Pickton and received his consent to search the farm but never bothered to conduct the search.
Geoprofiler warns authorities – someone is killing prostitutes in Vancouver
In May 1999, geographic profiler Kim Rossmo noticed an unusual concentration of disappearance in Downtown Eastside (DES), Vancouver. He took his finding to his superiors but they dismissed him, rationalizing the women were prostitutes and had simply moved on. Today we know that Vancouver police recognized hookers were disappearing at an alarming rate but knew that in many cases, missing prostitutes often turned up decades later – alive. And without bodies, there was simply no case to pursue.
A break in the case – Pickton farm worker assists police with illegal firearms case
It was not until three years later that police finally got a break in the case. Scott Chubb worked for the Pickton brothers since 1994, a useful relationship for the police who paid him to gather intel on the Pickton brothers. Acting on information Chubb provided, on February 6, 2002, police executed a search warrant at the farm looking for illegal firearms (specifically a Mac-10 automatic weapon). It is thought that at this time, police suspected Robert Pickton was responsible for the disappearances of nearly a hundred Vancouver women. Whether the illegal firearms warrant was used as a means to gain access to the property is unknown. What is known, is that the informant’s claims of illegal weapons on the property was fabricated.
Despite the false information submitted by the informant, Robert was arrested and charged with storing a firearm contrary to regulations (he was released a few days later). During the search, police noticed several women’s items scattered throughout the home. Suspecting the items could belong to the missing Vancouver women, police placed Pickton under surveillance while seeking a second, more extensive warrant.
The second search of Robert Pickton’s home yields critical evidence
Police obtained a second search warrant as part of the BC Missing Women investigation. The BC Missing Women investigation was an investigation into the disappearance of more than 60 women from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside, also known as Low Track, from the early 1980’s through 2002. Centered around the intersection of Main and Hastings (nicknamed “Pain and Wastings”), Low Track was replete with rundown hotels and pawn shops lined with stained and fractured sidewalks. The area was littered with garbage, used condoms, and discarded hypodermic needles. One fourth of its residents were infected with AIDS. Home to drug dealers, prostitutes, and pimps, it was Vancouver’s neglected Skid Row.
Working as part of the BC Missing Women project, police searched Pickton’s home and property. During the search, police found a handbag containing miscellaneous female items including a prescription inhaler belonging to Sereena Abotsway – one of the Vancouver’s missing prostitutes.
Robert Pickton is charged with murder
The discovery of Abotsway’s inhaler certainly helped the police’s case but was likely not enough for a conviction. Police recalled that in their possession were the rubber boots worn by Robert when he was arrested for attempting to murder a prostitute in 1997. The boots were sent to the lab and tested. DNA from two of the missing women were found.
On February 22, 2002, Pickton was arrested and charged with two counts of first-degree murder. In the months following, as a massive investigation of the pig farm unfolded, the charges against Pickton would grow to a terrifying number.
Civilian sees Pickton with a prostitute right before she goes missing
After Pickton’s arrest, a witness came forward that provided a bevy of information about Robert Pickton’s activities. Bev “Puff” Hyacinthe worked in the radio room of the Port Coquitlam detachment of the Canadian Royal Mounted Police (the Mounties). She was also a close friend of Robert and David Pickton, having known them for many years. Bev told police that she recalled seeing Robert cavorting with a female prostitute at a 1999 New Year’s Eve party. When the woman disappeared soon after, she grew concerned.
Bev also told of staged cockfights and pit bull fights on the farm. She recalled how years earlier her husband had helped the Picktons bury stolen cars on the property and how her son had once told her he saw bloody clothing in Pickton’s truck. She revealed that Pickton had been perfectly aware that he was being surveilled by the police in the months prior to his arrest.
The charges against Robert Pickton
On February 22, 2002, Pickton was formally charged with the murders of:
Sereena Abotsway: 29-years-old, she disappeared in August 2001, Described as loud and opionated, she was a known drug addict who was frequently beaten-up by her tricks.
Mona Lee Wilson: 26-years-old, Mona left for a doctor’s appointment on November 30, 2001 and was never seen again. It was known that she was controlled by a controlling boyfriend who often sent her out to make money hooking.
On April 2, 2004, three more charges were added for the murders of:
Jacqueline Michelle McDonell: 23-years-old, she was last seen in January 1999.
Diane Rosemary Rock: 34-years-old, she was last seen on October 19, 2001.
Heather Kathleen Bottomley: 25-years-old, she was last seen on April 17, 2001.
On April 9, 2004, two more charges were added for the murders of:
Andrea Joesbury: 22-years-old, she was last seen in June 2001.
Brenda Ann Wolfe: 32-years-old, she was last seen in February 1999. At the time, Brenda was a homeless drug addict who had deteriorated to the point of not bathing nor washing her clothes.
On September 20, 2004, four more charges were added for the deaths of:
Georgina Faith Papin: age unknown, she was last seen in January 1999.
Patricia Rose Johnson: age unknown, she was last seen in March 2001.
Helen Mae Hallmark: age unknown, she was lst seen in August 1997 (Vancouver Police Missing Persons Case #98-226384)
Jennifer Lynn Furminger: age unknown, she was last seen in 1999.
On October 3, 2004, four more charges were added bringing the total to fifteen. The investigation had become the largest of any serial killer in Canadian history.
Heather Chinnock: 30-years-old, she was last seen in October 1999.
Tanya Holyk: 23-years-old, she was last seen in 1996.
Sherry Irving: 24-years-old, she was last seen in 1997.
Inga Monique Hall: 46-years-old, she was last seen in February 1998 (Vancouver Police Missing Persons Case # 98-047919)
On May 26, 2005, twelve more charges were laid against Robert Pickton bringing the total number of first degree murder charges to 27.
Cara Louise Ellis (aka Nicky Trimble): she was last seen in 1996.
Andrea Fay Borhaven: last seen in March 1997.
Debra Lynne Jones: last seen in December 2000.
Marnie Lee Frey: las seen in August 1997 (Vancouver Police Missing Persons Case #98-209922)
Tiffany Drew: last seen in December 1999.
Kerry Koski: last seen in January 1998.
Sarah de Vries: last seen in April 1998, she left behind a diary which included this chilling line: “I think my hate is going to be my destination, my executioner.”
Cynthia Feliks: last seen in December 1997.
Angela Jardine: last seen on November 20, 1998 around 3:30 PM at Oppenheimer Park in Vancouver (Vancouver Police Missing Persons Case # 98.286097). She was said to have had the mental capacity of a 10-year-old child.
Wendy Crawford: Last seen in December 1999.
Diana Melnick: last seen in December 1995.
Jane Doe: Unidentified woman.
Excavations begin at Robert Pickton’s pig farm
On June 6, 2002, police began the tedious process of excavating land around the farm searching for bodies of the missing women. Large equipment, including earthmovers, dump trucks, and several 50-foot conveyor belt soil sifters were used to search for traces of the women’s remains. Tens of millions of dollars were spent disassembling the farm and sifting through acres of soil. As a result, police found various small body parts, a finger bone here, a toe bone there. The excavation continued until November 4, 2003 – but only small pieces of human remains were found.
Robert Pickton murder trial
Robert Pickton’s trial began on January 30, 2006 in New Westminster. He plead not guilty to 27 charges of first-degree murder. On March 2, 2006, during the preliminary phase of the trial, Justice James Williams dismissed one of the 27 charges for lack of evidence. On August 9, 2006, Justice Williams split the charges into two groups – one group of six counts and another for the remaining twenty counts. The trial proceeded based on the first six counts.
On January 22, 2007, using women’s items found at the farm, body parts unearthed during the excavation, and testimony from dozens of witnesses, Pickton faced first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Marnie Lee Frey, Sereena Abotsway, Georgina Faith Papin, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Ann Wolfe, and Mona Lee Wilson.
Murderous details emerge
Once the trail began, the media ban that had been in place during the investigation was lifted and the press began to learn of the evidence found on the farm. Police revealed that on the farm was found night-vision goggles, two pairs of fur-lined handcuffs, a syringe filled with blue windshield wiper fluid (Pickton had once told a man how easy it is to kill a hooker by injecting windshield wiper fluid into their track marks), and an assortment of purses, women’s clothing, and ID cards. Blood stained clothing was found in Pickton’s trailer and a reciprocating saw was found near the pig pens.
The revelations from the trial were disturbing. A .22-caliber revolver with a dildo attached around the barrel was found to contain both Pickton’s and a victim’s DNA. Police found skulls cut in half with hands and feet stuffed inside them and small body parts scattered about the pig pens. The remains of one victim, Mona Wilson, was found in a pink soup of decomposing human matter in the bottom of a garbage can. In the soup was Wilson’s skull, hands, and feet.
The feet, heads, and hands of Abotsway and Joesbury were found in Pickton’s freezer, the same freezer he used to store unsold pig meat. It was determined that their bodies had been exposed to the elements for several weeks before being stashed inside the freezer.
Another witness comes forward
During the trial yet another witness, Lynn Ellingsen, came forward with new evidence. She told of walking in on Pickton skinning a woman hanging from a meat hook. She said she delayed coming forward out of fear that Pickton would kill her. Oddly, it was found that afterward, she had been blackmailing him about the incident.
Ellingsen’s story was collaborated by Scott Chubb, the paid police informant who triggered the search of Pickton’s property for illegal firearms. Chubb testified that Pickton had once mentioned a woman who was “costing him a lot of money”. Pickton even asked Chubb to get rid of her and offered him $1,000 for the favor.
The Pickton pig slaughterhouse – remains ground up and sold to the public as “pork”
Police determined that Pickton used the slaughterhouse to grind up the bodies of his victims. A wood chipper found on the property was believed to have devoured much of the evidence. Upon completion of the searches, investigators made the morbid announcement, “There are no whole bodies on the pig farm.”
Still, given the evidence that was found and the testimony from witnesses, police were certain they knew Pickton’s modus operandi. Pickton lured the women to the farm with the promise of free drugs. At the farm, he had sex with them, then murdered them. The remains were hacked apart.
Some of the remains were dispersed in the pig pens for the pigs to consume. Hand bones from Georgina Papin were found in one of the pigpens and after disassembling the pen, police found the jaw bone and teeth belong to Frey.
Other times the remains were mixed with pig entrails and sent to the West Coast Reduction disposal plant where they were mixed with pork and sold to the public. The province’s health department quickly issued a warning to the public.
“Given the state of the farm, and what we know about the investigation, we cannot rule out the possibility that cross-contamination may have occurred.”
Robert Pickton trial concludes
Pickton’s trial was one of the largest Canada had ever seen – more than 400,000 photos of the crime scene, 235,000 items removed from the property, 600,000 exhibits from the lab, 98 witnesses for the prosecution and 30 for the defense, and a half-million pages of documents.
On December 9, 2007, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty on six counts of first-degree murder. However, they found Pickton guilty of six counts of second-degree murder. The reason for this verdict has never been disclosed but it is believed the jury felt Pickton had not acted alone (see notes on David Pickton and Pat Casanova below) in which case the finding of second-degree murder would leave open the possibility of additional arrests in the future.
Judge Justice James Williams sentenced Robert Pickton to life with no possibility of parole for 25 years. The trial for the remaining 20 victims was never held. It was stayed on August 4, 2010. On that same day, Pickton was transferred to a federal penitentiary to spend the remainder of his days.
Additional information
How many more murders could be attributed to Robert Pickton?
Although Pickton was charged with only 26 murders, Pickton has been implicated via DNA evidence in the murders of additional victims. The other known victims include:
Mary Ann Clark (aka Nancy Greek): 25-years-old, last seen in 1991 in downtown Victoria.
Yvonne Marie Boen: 34-years-old, last seen on March 16, 2001.
Dawn Teresa Gray: reported missing in December 200, she was the main subject of a 2006 documentary film (Finding Dawn) about murdered and missing Aboriginal women.
During Pickton’s trial, lab staff revealed that more than 80 unidentified DNA profiles had been found in the soil and pig pens around the farm. Pickton himself thought the number he murdered was 49. In all, at least 144 prostitutes disappeared from Canada’s Lower Mainland during the decades Pickton was active.
Was David Pickton involved in the murders?
David Pickton, brother of Robert William “Willie” Pickton, says he had no knowledge of sex workers visiting the family’s property and murdered – and he denies ever helping Robert Pickton cover up his crimes. With no criminal case file against him, the victims’ families have attempted to file civil suits against David claiming he had knowledge of or assisted with the crimes.
Was Pat Casanova involved in the murders?
Pat Casanova, a friend of the Picktons’ and a witness in the trial, was arrested during the investigation of the first fifteen victims. He regularly butchered pigs on the Pickton farm and admitted to having received oral sex from one of the victims, Andrea Joesbury, while in Pickton’s trailer. He was likely the last person to see her alive.
Casanova admitted to having noticed items of women’s clothing and purses in the trailer but despite their close friendship, says he never asked Pickton about them. During the trail, Casanova was caught several times issuing conflicting testimony concerning the prostitutes at the farm. He later claimed he did not lie, but rather, simply forgot.
Pat Casanova has never been charged with any of the murders.
Pickton slips through police hands several times
One of the most disturbing aspects of the case was the many times Robert Pickton narrowly avoided capture by the police. Many on the police force have felt great grief knowing they had arrested Pikcton in 1997 and received tips in 1999 before turning him loose, allowing him to kill unabated for five more years. One officer, Lori Shenher, wrote of the investigation in a book that was never published. Families of Pickton’s victims forced its disclosure and the National Post obtained a copy of the manuscript which they published details about. In the book, Shenher, who acted as the unit’s lead investigator, admitted:
“There was no real plan to find these women. I see now that I was merely a figurehead, a sacrificial lamb thrown into an investigation the VPD management was convinced would never amount to anything and would never grow into the tragedy it has become. An investigation they could care less about.”
She further claimed:
“At the time, beleaguered former chief constable Bruce Chambers was running the VPD,” she wrote. “Between trying to manage a highly dysfunctional organization and sniffing out snakes in his own senior management team, he was busy and not particularly interested in a bunch of missing hookers and drug addicts.”
Shenher admits to having felt terrible grief over the department’s failings.
“It is only now that I recognize all of the signs and signals of burnout and post-traumatic stress disorder brought on by doing a horrible job for an unsupportive and incompetent organization. I was no longer able to bear the weight of our ineptitude and rationalization…. It had always been Pickton.”
Vancouver Police Department graciously admits their failures
To their credit, the Vancouver Police Department admitted their mistakes and issued a formal statement apologizing to the victims’ families. At a press conference, Deputy Chief Constable Doug LePard of the VPD apologized to the victims’ families, saying:
“I wish from the bottom of my heart that we would have caught him sooner. I wish that, the several agencies involved, that we could have done better in so many ways. I wish that all the mistakes that were made, we could undo. And I wish that more lives would have been saved. So on my behalf and behalf of the Vancouver Police Department and all the men and women that worked on this investigation, I would say to the families how sorry we all are for your losses and because we did not catch this monster sooner.”
Robert Pickton serial killer timeline
September 1978: Lillian Jean O’Dare, earliest known missing date on list, disappears from Downtown Eastside.
1991: Relatives of a growing list of missing women, along with advocates for sex-trade workers, establish annual Valentine’s Day remembrance, press for tougher police investigation.
June 1997: Helen Hallmark reported missing.
September 1998: Vancouver police set up team to review files of as many as 40 women missing as far back as 1971.
January 1999: Jacqueline McDonell reported missing.
Sometime in 1999: Georgina Papin, Brenda Wolfe and Jennifer Furminger last seen.
April 1999: Vancouver police board posts $100,000 reward for information in missing women case.
March 2001: Patricia Johnson last seen in Downtown Eastside.
April 2001: Heather Bottomley reported missing.
August 2001: Sereena Abotsway reported missing.
September 2001: Vancouver police and RCMP form joint task force — Project Evenhanded — to replace city police stalled investigation.
October 2001: Diane Rock reported missing.
November 2001: Mona Wilson reported missing.
December 2001: Task force investigators travel to Seattle to interview Gary Ridgway, charged in four of 49 Green River homicides in Washington state.
January 2002: Task force adds five names to list, bringing total number of women missing to 50.
Feb. 5, 2002: RCMP officers, accompanied by missing-women task force members, enter property in suburban Port Coquitlam on firearms warrant.
Feb. 6, 2002: Task force officers use their own warrant to begin searching property for clues in missing women case.
Feb. 7, 2002: Robert Pickton, one of two brothers who own property along with sister, charged with weapons offences as search of property continued.
Feb. 22, 2002: Robert Pickton charged with two counts of first-degree murder — Sereena Abotsway and Mona Wilson.
April 2, 2002: Crown announces three more first-degree charges against Pickton — Diane Rock, Jacqueline McDonell and Heather Bottomley.
April 9, 2002: Sixth murder charge laid against Pickton — Andrea Joesbury.
April 23, 2002: Karin Joesbury, mother of Andrea, files lawsuits against Pickton, police, the province and the federal government in relation to Andrea’s death.
May 22, 2002: Pickton charged with first-degree murder of Brenda Wolfe.
June 6, 2002: Police begin excavating Pickton properties with help of archeologists.
Sept. 19, 2002: Father of missing woman Marcie Creison files lawsuit against police, City of Vancouver, the province and the federal government over investigation.
Sept. 19, 2002: Pickton charged with four more murders — Georgina Papin, Helen Hallmark, Patricia Johnson and Jennifer Furminger. List of missing officially grows to 63.
Oct. 2, 2002: Pickton charged with murders of Heather Chinnock, Tanya Holyk, Sherry Irving and Inga Hall.
Jan. 13, 2003: Preliminary hearing begins in provincial court in Port Coquitlam.
July 21, 2003: Hearing concludes.
July 23, 2003: Judge David Stone commits Pickton for trial on 15 counts of first-degree murder.
Nov. 18, 2003: Investigators wrap up mass excavation and search of Pickton property.
Feb. 20, 2004: B.C. government reports investigation costs will likely run up to $70 million and that the money has been set aside in the provincial budget.
March 10, 2004: Health officials report they cannot rule out that human remains may have been in meat processed for human consumption at the Pickton property.
May 2005: Crown lays 12 more first-degree murder charges.
June 2005: Pre-trial hearings begin in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster, under publication ban.
October 2005: Pre-trial hearings end.
Jan. 30, 2006: Legal arguments begin on admissibility of evidence.
Dec. 12, 2006: Jury finally chosen amidst warnings they could be sitting for a year or more.
Jan 22, 2007: Trial finally starts in New Westminster, B.C.
Snippet of news article regarding a 1967 drowning attributed to Robert Pickton’s mother
The following is a snippet from an article that describes an event that occurred during Robert and David’s childhood. The story provides a heart-breaking story regarding their mother.
“When his younger brother, Dave, was learning to drive, a story that reveals much more about the mother than about the son. On the evening of Oct. 16, 1967, when Dave was 16 and had recently acquired his driver’s license, he took his father’s 1960 red truck from the farm and headed east along Dominion Ave. towards Burns Rd. It was about 7:40. Just ahead of him, on the right side, one of the neighborhood kids, a 14-year-old boy named Tim Barrett, was walking down the road. How exactly it happened no one can say now, but Dave slammed right into him.
Dave knew right away that Tim, who was lying crumpled on the road, was badly hurt, and he raced home in a panic to tell his mother what had happened. Louise Pickton stopped what she was doing and hurried over to the place where the injured boy lay. (We don’t know if Dave drove to tell his mother or ran on foot. And we don’t know if they ran or drove back together.)
After looking Tim over, she leaned down and rolled and shoved him to the edge of the deep slough that ran along the side of the road and pushed him in. Then she turned and went home.
Dave was frightened. He drove the truck to a mechanic in Port Coquitlam who handled the Pickton family’s vehicles and asked the man to bang out a dent in the front of the hood and replace a broken turn signal. He even wanted him to repaint the area with the same red house paint the Picktons had used for the truck before. The mechanic repaired the dent and the turn signal but refused to do the painting.
In the meantime, the boy’s parents, Phillip and Lois Barrett, were frantic. Phillip Barrett phoned neighbors again and again to see if anyone knew where he was. Just before 1 a.m., he went to the local police station to report his son missing.
The next morning, one of the neighbors, a woman whose son had seen Tim the night before, went out to help Barrett search the road area. Barrett spotted his son’s shoe at the side of the road. Looking around this spot, he and his neighbor reached the slough that runs about 10 feet from the road. Peering down into the water, they spotted Tim’s body.
The police arrived right away and pulled the body out of the murky water. An autopsy showed that the cause of death was drowning, not the injuries he had suffered when the truck hit him – although these were significant. He’d suffered a fractured skull with a sub-cranial hemorrhage and a fractured, dislocated pelvis, but the pathologist who did the autopsy stated that these injuries would not have killed him.
When he died, Timothy Frederick Barrett, who was born on Feb. 13, 1953, was in Grade 8 at the local public school. He had lived with his parents around the corner from Dominion Ave. at 2475 Burns Rd., in a house now owned by the Picktons’ crony and watchdog Bill Malone.
The Barretts buried their son on Oct. 20, 1967, in the Port Coquitlam cemetery after a funeral service in the Garden Hill Funeral Chapel. Three days later, on Oct. 23, 1967, New Westminster coroner J.A. Baird filed a report listing the cause of death as drowning but noting the serious injuries caused by the vehicle that hit him.
In March 1968, a coroner’s jury listened to the evidence of several people, including neighbors, the mechanic who fixed the truck and the police officer who investigated the case. The verdict was accidental death. But at the same time, as the coroner informed the five-man jury, a criminal investigation was under way.
And that investigation, of course, was into Dave’s actions that night. He did not get off scot-free: he was sent to juvenile court. More details are not available, however, because his record is sealed and the coroner’s inquest was not mandated to investigate all the little mysteries that arose on that fair October night.
Louise was never charged, but the true story quickly got out among the neighbors. Many years later, in the early 1990s, Willie told the story to one of his closest friends. This friend told me.”
The original 27 counts filed against Robert Pickton
Court File Number: 65319-2
New Westminster Registry
May 25, 2005
IN THE SUPREME COURT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
DANS LA COUR SUPREME DE LA COLOMBIE-BRIT ANNIQUE
CANADA,
PROVINCE OF BRITISH COLUMBIA/PROVINCE de 1a COLOMBIE-BRIT ANNIQUE,
CITY OF New Westminster / NILLE DE New Westminster.
SUPREME COURT OF BRITISH COLUMBIA
HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN / SA MAJESTE LA REINE
AGAINST / CONTRE
ROBERT PICKTON
INDICTMENT / ACTE D’ACCDSATION
Robert PICKTON stands charged that / est inculpe de ce qui suit:
Robert PICKTON, between the 18th day of July, 2001 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Sereena Abotsway contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 2
Robert PICKTON, between the 1st day of December, 2001 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Mona Wilson contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 3
Robert PICKTON, between the 21st day of January, 1999 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Jacqueline McDonell, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 4
Robert PICKTON, between the 19th day of October, 2001 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Diane Rock, contrary Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 5
Robert PICKTON, between the 21st day of March, 2001 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Heather Bottomley, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 6
Robert PICKTON, between the 5th day of June, 2001 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Andrea Joesbury, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 7
Robert PICKTON, between the 5th day of March, 1999 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Brenda Ann Wolfe, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 8
Robert PICKTON, between the 27th day of December, 1999 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Jennifer Lynn Furminger contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 9
Robert PICKTON, between the 15th day of June, 1997 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Helen Mae Hallmark contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 10
Robert PICKTON, between the 27th day of February, 2001 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Patricia Rose Johnson contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 11
Robert PICKTON, between the 1st day of March, 1999 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Georgina Faith Papin contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 12
Robert PICKTON, between the 15th day of April, 2001 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Heather Chinnock, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 13
Robert PICKTON, between the 29th day of October, 1996 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Tanya Holyk, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 14
Robert PICKTON, between the 18th day of March, 1997 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Sherry Irving, contrary to Section 235(I) of the Criminal Code.
Count 15
Robert PICKTON, between the 26th day of February, 1998 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Inga Hall, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 16
Robert PICKTON, between the 30th day of August, 1997 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Marnie Frey, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 17
Robert PICKTON, between the 20th day of August, 1999 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Tiffany Drew, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 18
Robert PICKTON, between the 13th day of April, 1998 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Sarah de Vries, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 19
Robert PICKTON, between the 26th day of November, 1997 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Cynthia Feliks, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 20
Robert PICKTON, between the 20th day of November, 1998 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Angela Jardine, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 21
Robert PICKTON, between the 22nd day of December, 1995 and the 5th day of February, 2002, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Diana Melnick, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 22
Robert PICKTON, before the 23rd day of February, 1995, at or near Port Coquit1am, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Jane Doe, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 23
Robert PICKTON, between the 21st day of December, 2000 and the 5th day of February, 2002, inclusive, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Debra Lynne Jones, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 24
Robert PICKTON, between the 24th day of November, 1999 and the 5th day of February, 2002, inclusive, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Wendy Crawford, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 25
Robert PICKTON, between the 2nd day of January, 1998 and the 5th day of February, 2002, inclusive, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Kerry Koski, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 26
Robert PICKTON, between the 10th day of March, 1997 and the 5th day of February, 2002, inclusive, at or near Port Coquitlam in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Andrea Borhaven, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
Count 27
Robert PICKTON, between the 20th day of January, 1997 and the 5th day of February, 2002, inclusive, at or near Port Coquitlam, in the Province of British Columbia, did commit the first degree murder of Cara Ellis, contrary to Section 235(1) of the Criminal Code.
AND AGAINST THE PEACE OF OUR LADY THE QUEEN, HER CROWN AND DIGNITY
DATED THIS / DATE 25th day of /jour de May, 2005, at / a Victoria
_____________________________________________
Counsel and Agent of the Attorney General of British
Columbia / Agent de procureur general pour la Province
de la Colombie-Britannique
Police interview of Robert Pickton – February 23, 2002
The following is a transcript of the police interview with Robert Pickton (as part of Project Evenhanded) on February 23, 2002.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Just have a seat. Yeah, just have a seat there. Okay, so you got some juice down there this morning?
SGT. Bill FORDY: Was it, fresh juice?
ROBERT PICKTON: Yeah, it’s orange juice.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Orange juice. (STARTS NOTES) (INDECIPHERABLE) Okay. I never got a chance to introduce myself downstairs Rob ah, my name is Bill FORDY and I’m a Sgt. and I’m with the RCMP. I’m a police officer okay um, but while we’re here today I don’t want you to get all caught up in official titles or anything like that. Ah, my friends call me Bill and I prefer that you call me Bill okay.
ROBERT PICKTON: Okay.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Now, is it okay if I call you Rob?
ROBERT PICKTON: Yeah.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Okay Rob. Um, like I said to you Rob, I am a police officer okay. Ah, I didn’t mean not to say anything to you on the way up there,it’s just …
ROBERT PICKTON: Um, hum.
[SNIP]
ROBERT PICKTON: Got knifed back in ‘97.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Um, hum. Tell me about that.
ROBERT PICKTON: Not much to tell you, it’s all black and white.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Um, hum.
ROBERT PICKTON: It’s all black and white. I’m a bad dude, it’s the name of the game I guess.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Um, hum.
[SNIP]
SGT. Bill FORDY: So you don’t know any of these girls? Have you ever had sex with any of these girls?
ROBERT PICKTON: Did I? Not that I’m aware of. No.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Have any of these girls ever been alone in your car then, some witness might just say that they were in your car. You were alone with them.
ROBERT PICKTON: No. Cause I never had a car.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Or your truck, I’m sorry, a trans, a vehicle of transportation.
ROBERT PICKTON: No.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Are you a hundred percent on that?
ROBERT PICKTON: Yeah. Hundred and one percent.
SGT. Bill FORDY: So, you’ve never met, you’ve never had any of these girls at your house, you’ve never had sex with any of these girls. Yes or no.
ROBERT PICKTON: No.
SGT. Bill FORDY: And you have never …
ROBERT PICKTON: I had sex with one, the with a red head.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Which one?
ROBERT PICKTON: But ah, not, not there.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Who’s the red head you had sex with?
ROBERT PICKTON: Um, I haven’t seen her for awhile now. Um, I’ve never seen her for awhile and , now what the hell’s her name? Roxanne, Roxanne.
SGT. Bill FORDY: She’s a prostitute?
ROBERT PICKTON: She’s a working girl.
[SNIP]
SGT. Bill FORDY: Tell me about your .22.
ROBERT PICKTON: Well I had a little .22, I shouldn’t be talkin’ because my, my lawyer’s not here.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Mmm, it’s up to you.
ROBERT PICKTON: Yeah, cause I shouldn’t be, I really shouldn’t be. But the problem is I mean, I’m open and like I says, I never kept any secrets, I told everybody about everything. Dave would come over, oh, yeah, I got one, I got a .22 and so on and so forth and the, and it’s also, I got this and I got that, yeah. Only thing is ah, sometimes I use the .22, I shouldn’t be talkin’ but I’ll tell you this ah, I use the .22, sometimes I do big, big boars. Big boars, I mean my Hilti thing, my pin driver goes in that far, the head is very, very solid, very heavy. Very, very big boned, sometimes you have to use three or four or five shots to even bring ‘em down.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Hum.
ROBERT PICKTON: That’s heavy, they’re, they’re…
SGT. Bill FORDY: That would be a lot of work, wouldn’t it.
ROBERT PICKTON: Oh yeah, couldn’t do that. Then they make a lot noise.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Um, hum.
ROBERT PICKTON: So the problem is I put plastic around it, just to quietin’ the noise down a little bit, and I really, mean big pigs.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Um, hum.
ROBERT PICKTON: And that’s why, and then I figure I, I put this here little plastic thing over the top of it, over the top but you probably know about that too right. Anyways I put that thing over the top of it to quiet it down, but I never used it.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Ah, so you just lost me. Say that again. We were talking about your
Hilti gun.
ROBERT PICKTON: No. Talking about a .22.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Okay. Alright, sorry.
ROBERT PICKTON: But they are both .22 is anyways is .22 calibre and the Hilti and the .22 on the other.
SGT. Bill FORDY: Yeah. Yeah.
ROBERT PICKTON: But I shouldn’t be talking about that. That’s, that’s for the lawyer. But anyways like I says, you could take as I am, you and take me any which way you want, you could drag me up and down the road here and that still doesn’t make me remember anything, I remember dates, I remember this, I remember that, remember faces or whatever but I don’t remember any of these people really.
[SNIP]
SGT. DON ADAM: Do you remember answering him that it was a day that you, you ah, slaughtered forty, fifty pigs. That you started at seven in the morning and you slaughtered right through ‘til one, two in the
morning, do you remember that day?
ROBERT PICKTON: Yeah, that was, that was a good day at work, but that’s not the best day.
SGT. DON ADAM: Oh, okay. So that was, you answered it that way. It was the best day at work.
ROBERT PICKTON: I mean, it was, a lot of people were there.
SGT. DON ADAM: Okay Willy, what everyone says alright, one of the things they say about you, is that you know the pig business. Is that true?
ROBERT PICKTON: Um, hum.
SGT. DON ADAM: That you are, you are good at slaughtering, you take pride in your work, you do it well…
ROBERT PICKTON: And do it clean.
[SNIP]
ROBERT PICKTON: You guys know more about me than you do, than I do.
(TAKES A DRINK)
SGT. DON ADAM: Willy we haven’t even begun to learn about you, like you, when I talk about an avalanche coming down the hill, you haven’t even, I sat with the, the head of this investigation, what we did is it’s so big, there’s a hundred and thirty people working on it right now. Hundred and thirty of the best policemen in the province, well you know obviously we have good people throughout the province but some of the best and we’ve broken it into components. There’s about forty-five people that are on your farm right now, that are gonna go, be going through this. They’ve collected thousands and thousands of exhibits and, and have only just begun …
ROBERT PICKTON: Exhibits of what?
SGT. DON ADAM: Blood, hair, identification alright. You know how you were telling that story to everybody who would listen about finding this stuff in a cars and stuff, do you remember that, at the early stages? Do you remember, cause you were scared and you thought I’ll tell some stories Willy, that’s what you did.
ROBERT PICKTON: No.
SGT. DON ADAM: Yes. How much do you want to bet?
ROBERT PICKTON: It’s true.
SGT. DON ADAM: It’s true that you did find things in cars? (ADAM LEANS FORWARD) You did Willy but you didn’t, you didn’t find blood in cars and go and put it on the walls did you? Do you see what I mean? I mean you’re a logical, intelligent guy, I may find for some reason I may find this bottle in a car, right. And I may take it into my house and put it down. And the police could find that bottle in my house cause that’s what you were thinking with the inhaler. I found the inhaler in a car, that’s what you told everybody. And now you’re locked with that story, you can’t change that story. You’ve told too many people.
ROBERT PICKTON: It is.
SGT. DON ADAM: And you’ve said gee, that’s a nice looking inhaler, I took it into my house.
ROBERT PICKTON: I took into my shop first.
SGT. DON ADAM: Okay, and then I took it into my house and now the cops found it. But what you didn’t realize is that we found all the other things that show, that you didn’t find that inhaler in a car, because why didn’t you talk about the four other inhalers that are all used, they’re of no value. The fact that they’re layered in your garbage, the fact that there’s other material that’s in your house, the fact that there’s DNA, yours and hers linked together Willy, do you see what I mean?
ROBERT PICKTON: Layered? Where, where did you find, where is this at?
SGT. DON ADAM: We have an article alright, that I’m not prepared to tell you what is it, that has got her DNA on it like that, her DNA.
ROBERT PICKTON: Um, hum.
SGT. DON ADAM: And then it’s got your DNA together. Sereena ABOTSWAYS it’s yours and hers together and it’s not the inhaler. It’s not the inhaler. And Willy we’ve got her blood alright, in there, well Willy you didn’t get her blood from in a car and carry it and put it inside your place, do you understand? Do you understand like you know, we tell stories, I don’t blame you for making up these stories do you understand that, I don’t blame you for lying because you’re trying to get away and that’s a human thing, and I would too. When I was a young cop right, back in the days when I was in Coquitlam back in the early seventies, mid-seventies I guess, well probably later and I’d do something wrong cause when you know, we make mistakes in life don’t we Willy? And I’d do something wrong and I would get called in by my S/Sgt. and I’d be afraid right. What would I do? My first thing I want to do Willy is to lie, and make up a story not ‘cause I’m bad, because I’m scared and you’re scared. You don’t want to be caught for this Willy, I’m not naive I don’t think you had some secret wish to be stopped. Maybe you did, but only you can tell me that. You wanted to get away with it and you did a damn fine job. You completely stumped the police and basically made them look like fools, alright. And they’re gonna take a lot of heat for that Willy, for why they didn’t catch Willy PICKTON quicker. You led them on a merry chase for years. When you’re in prison, the other prisoners are gonna like you for that, cause you made the police look stupid. There you sat, right under their noses every few months killing a girl and they didn’t have a clue. Willy, it’s impressive. Like it’s impressive. You say to yourself I’m a simple pig farmer do you remember saying that? Well you’re not. What you’ve done is, is I mean it’s horrible alright, Willy you understand that, it’s horrible, but it’s impressive. You may well be the most successful serial killer in the North American Continent. You know right now whether you are or not. Cause if you’re up over fifty, you are. Now I wouldn’t bet against you being over fifty. Because I’ve got blood from eight women I can’t identify, I’ve got twelve others, that, that I can connect with you, the numbers are growing.
ROBERT PICKTON: Don’t know.
SGT. DON ADAM: Did they start by accident?
ROBERT PICKTON: I don’t know.
SGT. DON ADAM: Take your time. (PICKTON TAKES A DRINK) (PAUSE 20 SEC)
What would happen would you just start to rage inside Willy or how
do you think it happened?
ROBERT PICKTON: I don’t know.
SGT. DON ADAM: Did and I don’t want, I want you to tell me the truth. Is that fair can you, look at me for a second Willy? We’ve come a long ways can you promise to tell me just the truth here and if you don’t know something can you tell me that? Cause I’m trying to understand okay, do you understand that? The first ones was it a situation where maybe you caught them trying to steal and it got out of hand or, or anything like that or was it just anger and rage took, took you over?
ROBERT PICKTON: I don’t know. I don’t know.
SGT. DON ADAM: Let me ask you this question, was it hard to do at first, and then it just gets easier, you don’t think about it as much, it doesn’t make you feel as bad afterwards? Did you feel bad after them at first?
ROBERT PICKTON: I don’t know.
[SNIP]
ROBERT PICKTON: I’m not supposed to be talking to you right?
SGT. DON ADAM: No. You, you don’t have to, but it’s over you know that.
ROBERT PICKTON: Don’t matter what I say or anything else it’s still over.
SGT. DON ADAM: Look at me for a sec. You’re a human being Willy, it does matter.
ROBERT PICKTON: As I said, it doesn’t matter what I say, it’s over anyways.
SGT. DON ADAM: But you have to live and your family has to live. Do you understand? But I am asking for the truth, is that fair? You know, if you have been hurting these girls and killing them way back into the eighties (PICKTON SHAKES HEAD “NO”) I really would like you to tell me that. So when you tell me it started after ——- – , I can believe that? Can I tell my investigators hey, we need to look for who doing it before Willy started, is that, cause I don’t want to waste their time Willy, is that fair?
ROBERT PICKTON: I’m not the only guy.
SGT. DON ADAM: How many do you think you’ve done?
ROBERT PICKTON: I don’t know. (TAKES A DRINK)
SGT. DON ADAM: Would it be twenty?
ROBERT PICKTON: I don’t know.
SGT. DON ADAM: You’ve got an idea though Willy. You’re, you’re, you’re a guy who knows the dates of things, you’re, you know. You’ve a good idea. Fifteen, twenty, where, where do you think it is, or thirty. It doesn’t matter, just tell the truth.
ROBERT PICKTON: I don’t know.
SGT. DON ADAM: Well, I can put about twelve to you right now, okay, so there’s those twelve, right. Ah, shall we start from sort of the most recent and go backwards? You did Sereena, we know that Willy, agreed?
ROBERT PICKTON: Sereena…
SGT. DON ADAM: Sereena ABOTSWAY, I’d have to and I apologize because I, because I’m not a front line investigator, like I’m a manager, should I get in, somebody in here who knows these girls and, and we can discuss it or would you just want to talk to me. (FORDY COMES IN AND GIVES HIM A PIECE OF PAPER THEN LEAVES) So this, this is Sereena, alright. Okay, so we know that you, you know, you did take her life, alright. Just tell me about that, let’s start, let’s take little steps alright. I think you know right now, unless their pictures are so different you’re not sure, I think you could, you could make a choice and just reach out and touch the ones that ah, that you’ve done Willy you know the ones that…
ROBERT PICKTON: (LAUGHING) You’re making me more of a mass killer than I am.
SGT. DON ADAM: Well how bad is it, how big is it?
ROBERT PICKTON: I don’ t know.
SGT. DON ADAM: Well is it ten, twenty.
ROBERT PICKTON: I don’t know.
SGT. DON ADAM: Well is it five, tell me you’ve done more than five, we’re gonna be spending millions of dollars. Well it’s more than five, we both know that. Agreed?
ROBERT PICKTON: I don’t know.
SGT. DON ADAM: Willy, come on. We don’t need to play games with each other. Are you just not quite convinced yet you want to tell me the details of the killings? Is that, that’s what it is isn’t it? Come on, tell me the truth. Are you still thinking what’s in it for me.
ROBERT PICKTON: What’s in it for me?
SGT. DON ADAM: Okay.
ROBERT PICKTON: If you don’t mind me asking.
SGT. DON ADAM: No, that’s a fair question. Willy, firstly, …
ROBERT PICKTON: What’s, what’s gonna happen if I say something but I shouldn’t say or what’s gonna happen to me, cause I haven’t got, I don’t have a lawyer present. I don’t know nothing, nobody just by myself.
SGT. DON ADAM: Okay.
ROBERT PICKTON: So I don’t know what I’m do, what I’m getting up against. But I don’t want to admit to anything.
[SNIP]
SGT. DON ADAM: Alright. Dave has talked about taking a polygraph test, do you think he’ll take it, that he wasn’t involved in the killing?
ROBERT PICKTON: He was not involved in anything.
SGT. DON ADAM: Alright.
ROBERT PICKTON: And I’ll swear on that, I meant…
SGT. DON ADAM: Then why is Dave saying that…
ROBERT PICKTON: He’s protecting me.
SGT. DON ADAM: Alright, so he’s, now are you protecting Dinah or did you tell Dave that Dinah had killed some of the girls.
ROBERT PICKTON: That’s true.
SGT. DON ADAM: That’s true you told Dave that, or it’s true that she did kill some of them?
ROBERT PICKTON: Yeah, it’s true I told Dave that.
[SNIP]
ROBERT PICKTON: Yeah, but there’ll be I mean, myself if, if I commit alright, I mean there will be, there will be at least one extra gun will be involved.
SGT. DON ADAM: That you’ve used to kill a girl?
ROBERT PICKTON: Mmmm, um, on other things. Yeah, that’s over your head, like I said…
SGT. DON ADAM: Oh, wait a second, are you, are you hinting to me there’s, could be some dead guys involved in this too?
ROBERT PICKTON: Um, hum.
SGT. DON ADAM: How many?
ROBERT PICKTON: Well like I said, I’m nailed to the cross right now right.
[SNIP]
SGT. DON ADAM: Did Dave pressure you to tell ‘em whether you were involved in the murders?
ROBERT PICKTON: No.
SGT. DON ADAM: How did you end up telling them that ah, Dinah had forced you to do one, or forced you to get rid of the body? How did that conversation with them come up?
ROBERT PICKTON: Well he’s my brother.
SGT. DON ADAM: Okay. Go ahead.
ROBERT PICKTON: Let’s leave it with . . . that way there. I’m losing my brother and he’s losing me. I had a good life with him for about fifty years.
SGT. DON ADAM: He’s your younger brother eh?
ROBERT PICKTON: Um, hum.
SGT. DON ADAM: Do you love him?
ROBERT PICKTON: Um, hum.
SGT. DON ADAM: Are you close with him?
ROBERT PICKTON: Very.
SGT. DON ADAM: Now people talked about him sort of bossing you around and, and ..
ROBERT PICKTON: Yeah, that’s good. I like that.
[SNIP]
SGT> DON ADAM: Would I be right in, in saying Willy, that you had reached the stage where you just no longer sort of really viewed these girls as being worth anything.
ROBERT PICKTON: Um, hum.
SGT. DON ADAM: And you killed…
ROBERT PICKTON: But ah, no, no, that’s not. I had one more planned but that was, that was the end of it. That was the last I was gonna shut it down, that’s why I was just sloppy. Just the last one.
SGT. DON ADAM: You were gonna do one more.
ROBERT PICKTON: (INDECIPHERABLE) that was the end of it. That’s why I got sloppy because the other thing never got that far.
SGT. DON ADAM: Like why didn’t you just drag that mattress that you, where killed ah, Mona, why didn’t you just drag it out and burn it. I mean that would have been…
ROBERT PICKTON: I don’t…
SGT. DON ADAM: …did you not realize there was blood underneath it? Like you don’t have to say anything? Like if you’d a burnt it Willy, just sloppy.
ROBERT PICKTON: Sloppy like I just told you.
SGT. DON ADAM: Let me ask you a question? They talk about a, people keeping trophies.
ROBERT PICKTON: No.
SGT. DON ADAM: So when you kept the women’s ID in your place that was just…
ROBERT PICKTON: No.
SGT. DON ADAM: …again sloppy.
ROBERT PICKTON: Yeah.
SGT. DON ADAM: Jesus Willy, you must be kicking yourself, like…
ROBERT PICKTON: I know.
SGT. DON ADAM: You gotta be, you gotta be saying like why. All you would have had to do…
ROBERT PICKTON: I know.
SGT. DON ADAM: …is go through that, clean up.
ROBERT PICKTON: I know.
SGT. DON ADAM: And you’d still be on the street.
ROBERT PICKTON: I know.
SGT. DON ADAM: Oh, it must piss you off.
ROBERT PICKTON: I know.
SGT. DON ADAM: It must eh?
ROBERT PICKTON: I know.
SGT. DON ADAM: Like that mattress all you had to do was burn it. Well you would have had to washed the walls right.
ROBERT PICKTON: Sloppiness.
SGT. DON ADAM: There’s, that mattress lays like this eh,..
ROBERT PICKTON: Um, hum, I know.
SGT. DON ADAM: Alright. She was obviously laying, our experts, like they’re amazing eh. Now there’s the blood cast off as, as you were hitting her.
ROBERT PICKTON: No.
SGT. DON ADAM: Well that’s, yeah, there’s, there’s what they call impact blood.
ROBERT PICKTON: Um, hum.
SGT. DON ADAM: Do you know what that means?
ROBERT PICKTON: No.
Cell plant recording of Robert Pickton (as part of Project Evenhanded)
Cell plant of Robert William PICKTON PROJECT EVENHANDED
(PEOPLE ENTERING CELL)
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Hey, where’s my fuckin’ lawyer, I pay my fuckin’ lawyer.
Guard: He’s coming, no, (OVER TALKING).
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Fuckin’ yeah, I don’t fuckin’ share cells here, what’s going on?
Guard: Yeah, can I put some stuff here?
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE What the fuck (NOISE)?
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE (INDECIPHERABLE).
ROBERT PICKTON: It’s not fuckin’ bad enough, I don’t have a clue.
ROBERT PICKTON: Holy shit. I’m gonna use the washroom here.
ROBERT PICKTON: Washroom is the (INDECIPHERABLE).
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Fucking bastards, that’s why…
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Fuckin’ waiting for my lawyer to call.
ROBERT PICKTON: (USING WASHROOM)
ROBERT PICKTON: So what are you in here for?
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Hey?
ROBERT PICKTON: What are you in here for?
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Well for my health.
ROBERT PICKTON: Yeah, that’s what I’m here for too.
[SNIP]
ROBERT PICKTON: Doesn’t the light ever get turned off? Stays on all day and all night.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE I think you can..some places they have fuckin like a dimmer like you make it lower, other places they stay like this the whole night.
ROBERT PICKTON: What’s that?
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Some places they have got a switch with a dim it a little bit, other places they don’t fucking dim at all. When the guard gets back you can ask him.
ROBERT PICKTON: That’s a kind of microphone up there?
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Eh?
ROBERT PICKTON: That’s probably a microphone up there (INDECIPHERABLE)
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE That? Fucking smoke or heat, there’s some fucking sensor in that thing, there’s a fucking camera right there in the bubble.
ROBERT PICKTON: Is that a camera?
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Oh fuck yeah! Fucking we buddy fucking gotta watch us somehow,you think those lazy guards are gonna get off their fat ass and walk around all the time?
ROBERT PICKTON: Those are camera’s eh?
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE I would think so what do they fucking look like to you?
ROBERT PICKTON: Looks like a bubble.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE (chuckles) Yeah its’ what’s in those bubbles, ever walk into, what’s that..Wal-Mart or any of those stores?
ROBERT PICKTON: They got those?
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Yeah…you ah, you gotta get out of the house more.
ROBERT PICKTON: Hmm.
(PAUSE 34 SEC)
ROBERT PICKTON: I should (INDECIPHERABLE).
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Yeah..
ROBERT PICKTON: You said a minute ago…
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Somebody out there (INDECIPHERABLE) close…
(PAUSE 21 SEC)
ROBERT PICKTON: So, that’s a camera.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE (laughs) You sound surprised.
ROBERT PICKTON: I didn’t know that.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE No?
ROBERT PICKTON: I thought it was an ornament.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Come on you’re fucking with me?
ROBERT PICKTON: Nope.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE They always have these in fuckin cells, sometimes you actually see them as fucking as nice as that is get a camera here with a plastic thing over it…like a clear plastic, you know?
ROBERT PICKTON: Can you see it cause I can’t.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE No (Laughs)
ROBERT PICKTON: Well I’ll be.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE (laughs) I tell you man you gotta get on that computer, get caught up with the times.
(PAUSE 16 SEC)
ROBERT PICKTON: Well I’ll be God darned
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE (laughs).
ROBERT PICKTON: I think I see something in there but I’m not sure, it could be just a reflection.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE No, that’s the mother fucker, I’d say it is, no doubt in my mind.
ROBERT PICKTON: Hmm..
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE (laughs) That’s why you don’t see the guard all the time..
ROBERT PICKTON: What’s that?
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE That’s why the guard doesn’t come that often right? Fucking sitting there watching the TV screen, watches everybody.
ROBERT PICKTON: Hmm.
[SNIP]
ROBERT PICKTON: And going to tell Vancouver, those street people are wasting their lives away.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE I think you’re right.
ROBERT PICKTON: They’re wasting their lives away.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE For what?
ROBERT PICKTON: For what?
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE They’re crack heads, I don’t know about it here but fuck, go back to Toronto, they’re, they’re all over the place, street people, junkies..
ROBERT PICKTON: I saw..those people are able to look like everybody else…
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE –erious.
ROBERT PICKTON: …and they’re fucking, they, they throw their whole life away.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Their whole life for what?
ROBERT PICKTON: Doing nothing.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Fucking stealing from you and me is what their doing, you bring your car downtown, what do they do? Smash your window grab your stereo shit, so they can fucking stick a needle in their arm, fucking trash, that’s all it is. I’ve worked hard.
ROBERT PICKTON: I worked hard all my life.
[SNIP]
ROBERT PICKTON: I was gonna do one more, make it an even fifty.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE (LAUGHING)
ROBERT PICKTON: That’s why, that’s why I was sloppy about (INDECIPHERABLE).
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Yeah.
ROBERT PICKTON: I wanted one more, make, make the big five O.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Make the big five zero (LAUGHING) fuck. That’s fucked. Fuckin’ five, zero. Fuckin’ half a hundred. (Pickton laughing, nodding)
ROBERT PICKTON: Mmm Hmm.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Yeah. Like you say that’s the best part.That fuckin’ the one.
ROBERT PICKTON: Everybody says (POUNDING). How many of those? Wouldn’t tell em.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE (LAUGHING)
ROBERT PICKTON: I wouldn’t tell ‘em.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Yeah.
ROBERT PICKTON: Talk about half, about one quarter. Talking about all of them. I says no.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE (LAUGHING)
ROBERT PICKTON You know they got forty -eight on the list.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Yeah.
ROBERT PICKTON: You know the list has only got like, only got half the people in there. The other half might, might (INDECIPHERABLE).
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE (LAUGHING)
ROBERT PICKTON: So they thought it must (INDECIPHERABLE) me. They can’t even put a name to her.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE How the fuck does that all fit? That helps you.
ROBERT PICKTON: Yeah.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Right, it looks good on you.
ROBERT PICKTON: But I think most of them, based on that fuckin’, fuck evidence. I think I’m nailed to the cross.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Hmm.
ROBERT PICKTON: But, if that happens there will be about fifteen other people are gonna go down. Fuck sh.. some will go down the tank.
[SNIP]
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Well if you fuck, like I told you before, you fuckin’, fuckin’ hopefully you covered your tracks there.
ROBERT PICKTON: Just sloppy. (holding up 4 fingers)
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Yeah. Four…
ROBERT PICKTON: Four I was sloppy with. (holding up 4 fingers)
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Fuck.
ROBERT PICKTON: Four I was sloppy with. I just couldn’t finish it off, so I cleaned it up and that’s it.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE (LAUGHING)
ROBERT PICKTON: So let everything die for a while.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Yeah.
ROBERT PICKTON: Then, then do, do another twenty five new ones. (Laughing)
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Ha, Ha.
ROBERT PICKTON: Fuck.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Ha, ha.
[SNIP]
ROBERT PICKTON: Forty-nine.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Almost made it.
ROBERT PICKTON: Hum.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Almost made it.
ROBERT PICKTON: I’m worried about it.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Hee hee.
ROBERT PICKTON: All the way up to fifty.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Hey?
ROBERT PICKTON: I haven’t done fifty yet.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Yeah. Yeah. Fucks you though.
ROBERT PICKTON: Maybe that means that maybe that, maybe it does show that, before they made the list.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Hmm. (PAUSE 12 SEC).Yeah. Fuckin’ harsh. Kinda move that way y’ know.
(PAUSE 15 SEC)
ROBERT PICKTON: (Laughs) Top of the world.
[SNIP]
ROBERT PICKTON: There would be a lot of people, saying hey, congratulations.
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Fuckin’ shaking your hand.
ROBERT PICKTON: [They’d be saying] I can’t believe it I mean, I can’t believe it, I’m with the fuckin’ pigman
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE (laughs) You’ll be fucking signing autographs….. Hmm.
ROBERT PICKTON: That’s big…that’s bigger than the…Green River
UNDERCOVER CELLMATE Oh yeah, I don’t know what was that?
ROBERT PICKTON: [He got] 42.