Canadian Serial Killers: Trigger Warning for mention of rape, murder

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Canadian Serial Killers: Trigger Warning for mention of rape, murder

30 Sep

The announcement of Clifford Olson‘s death got me thinking about serial killers in Canada, and how they affect our lives and in many ways our culture.

When Olson was captured, it changed the way Canadians raise their children. Before Olson, kids went to school on their own, a couple blocks to walk and no big deal. After Olson, parents would take their children to school. And thanks to Olson’s ego, Canadians were continuously reminded of him over the course of the last thirty years, whether by his “Faint Hope Clause” at a 1997 parole hearing, or through his letter writing to the parents of his victims.

Olson’s memory hadn’t even faded yet, when another very serious killer came into the spot light.

In 1991, nine years after Olson was sentenced to 11 concurrent life sentences, Paul Bernardo and his wife Karla Homolka, kidnapped, raped and killed 14 year old Leslie Mahaffey. Shortly after, Bernardo and Mahaffey were married. The pair, dubbed the “Ken and Barbie Killers” would go onto to kill two more before being caught. The trial was a circus, and one that a judge put a media ban on, but many American news outlets ignored the ban, and broadcast the results of each day of the trial. Bernardo is still in prison in Kingston while Karla was released on parole in 2005. She was only sentenced with manslaughter, and many called her testimony and conviction a “Deal with the Devil” as the results of the video tapes shown during trial (Homolka and Bernardo would video tape the three rapes and killings) proved that Homolka was just as involved as Bernardo.

Michael Wayne McGray was convicted of killing at least four people, but claims to have killed many more. His spree spans over 20 years, and according to him, includes murders in Halifax, St. John, Montreal, Toronto, Ottawa, Vancouver, Calgary, Newfoundland and Seattle, Washington. There is a large number of unanswered questions as to whether or not McGray did indeed murder the number he has suggested, and even points to having accomplices. McGray himself has stated he killed a prostitute and a gay man in Seattle, two or three gay men in Montreal (the number changes based on reports). He would go onto continuously be in and out of court, and even stated that whether he was imprisoned or not, the killings would continue. On May 30, 2011, McGray was charged with the murder of fellow convict Jeremy Phillips.

Robert William Pickton was a pig farmer in British Columbia, who was known to police for the wild parties he sometimes hosted on his property under the name of a registered charity. Pickton was convicted with second degree murder of six women, all prostitutes, but according to some, his death toll was closer to 50. One undercover police officer stated Pickton informed him that he was one woman short of an even 50. Pickton’s trial, which began in 2007, had a heavy publication ban. As of April of 2010, very little information from the trial has been released. He was sentenced to life imprisonment, with no parole for 25 years.

The list of Canadian serial killers isn’t long, but does include these five and Wayne Boden, John Martin Crawford, Léopold Dion, William Patrick Fyfe, Gilbert Paul Jordan, Agnus McVee, Russell Williams, Peter Woodcock and the Wineville Chicken Coop Murders. (The last, while the murders took place in California in 1928, Gordon Stewart Northcott was from Saskatchewan) The main issue at hand, when actions like this happen in Canada, we hear about it. We’re horrified by it. It changes our lives.

Because of Clifford Olson, Canada now has Victim Impact Statements. Entire bureaus are dedicated to the listing and searching of missing women (though, sadly, a small percentage of those women are ever found). James Roszko could be classed as a serial killer, as he gunned down three RCMP Constables in Mayerthorpe, Alberta, but it was an action that was heat of the moment. It is still classed as the worst loss of life in the RCMP in 100 years. Canadians still had that memory fresh in their minds when two years later, Curtis Dagenais shot and killed two RCMP officers.

These actions resonate with Canadians, and we remember them. These are things that don’t happen a lot in this country, so when we hear about it, it’s a shock to the system, and it changes us a little bit.