Serial Killer

Presentation

Andreina & Melanie

Robert Pickton

“Canada’s Worst Serial Killer”

Introduction-Robert William “Willie” Pickton

- Born October , 24, 1949

- Port Coquitlam, BC

-Canadian Pig Farmer

-Serial Killer convicted for the second degree murder of 6

women.

-Charged for the death of another 20

-Prostitutes and drug users.

Background-2 siblings: Linda (Oldest), Dave

(Younger)

-Called “Willie” by siblings

-Hardworking, caring family.

-Family bought a farm, which they called “The Piggy Palace”

Background-Friends used to compare Dave and Willie,

saying: “Dave is smart, Willie is goofy”

-Robert would spend his days working on the land or at Dave’s construction company.

-Worked 16-18 hours/day

-He was not religious.

-Never known for alcohol or drug use.

-Never had a steady girlfriend.

-Expressed he didn’t want to be tied down.

Education

-Repeated grade 2, and enrolled special classes after that.

-Grade 3, performing at grade 1 level.

-Grade 9, performing at grade 5 level.

Low track-Poorest neighbourhood in British Columbia

Known for:

- drugs and needle sharing

-Big amount of HIV positive people.

-Prostitutes

-Highest rate of drug overdose in Canada

CrimesFebruary 6, 2002

-Pickton was nabbed as part of an investigation into illegal firearms at the

property owned by Pickton

-Some personal items belonging to a missing woman were found on his

property.

-Police later obtained a second court search order as part of the larger BC

Missing Women Investigation.

-

Crimes-Police would later comb every

square inch of the pig farm property and others associated with Pickton

in search of evidence.

-Evidence of his crimes was hard to nail down as it is alleged that

Pickton fed his victims to his pigs.

-Pickton may have combined human flesh with ground pork from his

farm, and later given out to friends and visitors to the farm.

Evidence-Skulls cut in half with hands and feet

stuffed inside.

-Remains of a victim were stuffed in a garbage bag in the bottom of a trash

can and her blood-stained clothing was found in the trailer in which Pickton

lived.

-Part of one victim's jawbone and teeth were found in the ground beside the

slaughterhouse

-A 22 calibre revolve.

- A dildo containing both his and a victim's DNA was in his laundry room.

CrimesFebruary 20, 2002

-Two human heads were found in Pickton’s refrigerator.

-Feb. 22, 2002:

-Robert Pickton charged with two counts of first-degree murder :

Sereena Abotsway and Mona Wilson.

April, 22, 2002-Three more charges were added for the murders of Jacqueline McDonnell, Diane

Rock and Heather Bottomley.

April, 9, 2002-A sixth charge for the murder of Andrea

Joesbury was laid

May, 22, 2002-Pickton charged with first-degree murder of

Brenda Wolfe.

September, 20, 2002-Four more charges were added for the

slayings of Georgina Papin, Patricia Johnson, Helen Hallmark and Jennifer Furminger.

-

October, 3, 2002-Four more charges for the murders of Heather Chinnock, Tanya Holyk, Sherry

Irving and Inga Hall were laid on.

May, 26, 2005-Twelve more charges were laid against him for the killings of Cara Ellis, Andrea Borhaven, Debra Lynne Jones, Marnie Frey, Tiffany Drew, Kerry Koski, Sarah

Devries, Cynthia Feliks, Angela Jardine, Wendy Crawford, Diana Melnick, and

Jane Doe, bringing the total number of first-degree murder charges to 27.

http://www.citynews.ca/news/news_7121.aspx

TrialJanuary,30 ,2006-Pickton’s Trial began.-Pleaded NOT guilty to 27 charges of first-degree murder in the British Columbia Supreme Court, located in New Westminster.

August, 9, 2007-Justice Williams severed the charges and trimmed the indictment from 26 to just six counts. The remaining 20 counts have not been dismissed.

-The judge has explained that trying all 26 charges at once would put an unreasonable burden on the jury. -The judge also added that the six counts he chose had "materially different" evidence from the other 20.

December 6,2007-Justice James Williams suspended jury

deliberations.

-Discovered an error in his charge to the jury.

-Jury submitted a written question to Justice James requesting clarification of his charge,

asking "Are we able to say 'yes' [i.e., find Pickton guilty] if we infer the accused acted

indirectly?”

SentenceDecember,9, 2007

-Jury returned a verdict that Pickton is not guilty on 6 counts of first-degree murder, but is guilty on 6 counts of second-degree murder.

( A second-degree murder conviction carries a punishment of a life sentence, with no possibility

of parole for a period between 10 to 25 years)

-Justice James Williams sentenced Pickton to life with no possibility of parole for 25 years - the maximum

punishment for second-degree murder, and equal to the sentence which would have been imposed for

a first-degree murder conviction.

VictimsConvicted for the second- degree murder for

the death of:

-Sereena Abotsway

-Mona Lee Wilson

-Andrea Joesbury,

- Brenda Ann.

-Marnie Lee

-Georgina Faith Papin.

-Pickton still faces a further 20 murder charges involving other female victims from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

But… Is Robert

Pickton a psychopath

or a sociopath?

Psychopath-Anti- Social Behaviour

-- Learning problems.

-Appeared to be like everyone else.

-Actions extremely calculated

- Didn’t feel guilty

-Sadistic Behaviour

- Sophisticated modus- operandi.

Sociopath

-People used to say he was goofy and his brother was smart.

-Low Track’s hostile environment.