1 00:00:10,560 --> 00:00:15,640 On this rundown farm, the Canadian police discovered an 2 00:00:15,640 --> 00:00:19,200 unimaginable horror. This is the largest serial 3 00:00:19,200 --> 00:00:21,080 killing investigation in North America. 4 00:00:23,160 --> 00:00:25,400 A slaughterhouse for human beings. 5 00:00:28,120 --> 00:00:31,880 There was DNA all over the farm body parts in the form of bones 6 00:00:31,880 --> 00:00:36,360 and teeth and partial jaw bones. For more than a decade, a 7 00:00:36,360 --> 00:00:39,040 predator had haunted women in Vancouver. 8 00:00:40,120 --> 00:00:44,680 The killing, the dismembering, it was just a process he really 9 00:00:44,680 --> 00:00:47,040 enjoyed. The skulls were bisected with 10 00:00:47,040 --> 00:00:49,960 the reciprocating saw, which he used in his slaughterhouse on 11 00:00:49,960 --> 00:00:52,920 the pigs. At the time of his capture, the 12 00:00:52,920 --> 00:00:55,520 number of dead and missing women was staggering. 13 00:00:57,360 --> 00:01:00,400 He was going for an even 50 as far as the number of victims 14 00:01:00,400 --> 00:01:04,319 were concerned. His shocking crimes earned him 15 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:09,200 the name The Butcher. Robert Willie Picton, 16 00:01:09,680 --> 00:01:12,480 Vancouver's most prolific serial killer. 17 00:01:18,440 --> 00:01:23,040 February 1999. Willie Picton was on the prowl. 18 00:01:25,800 --> 00:01:29,120 He headed to Vancouver's Downtown Eastside looking for a 19 00:01:29,120 --> 00:01:33,120 prostitute or a drug addict, any woman desperate for money. 20 00:01:36,240 --> 00:01:39,080 He spotted a young cocaine addict and offered to buy her 21 00:01:39,080 --> 00:01:45,280 drugs. Once ensnared, he took her back 22 00:01:45,280 --> 00:01:56,560 to his trailer. Once dead, Picton knew how to 23 00:01:56,560 --> 00:02:02,880 make his victim disappear. Willie was suspected of 24 00:02:03,840 --> 00:02:06,640 literally butchering the women, like the animals or the pigs 25 00:02:06,640 --> 00:02:14,320 that he butchered. Picton's gruesome methods made 26 00:02:14,320 --> 00:02:19,120 his crimes almost undetectable. To stop him, the police had to 27 00:02:19,120 --> 00:02:22,040 conduct the most complex investigation in Canadian 28 00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:31,240 history. Robert William Picton was born 29 00:02:31,240 --> 00:02:36,320 on the 24th of October 1949. His parents, Leonard and Louise 30 00:02:36,320 --> 00:02:40,640 Picton, ran a pig farm in Port Coquitlam, 15 miles east of 31 00:02:40,640 --> 00:02:43,920 Vancouver. On the farm, the family raised, 32 00:02:44,120 --> 00:02:46,320 slaughtered and butchered livestock. 33 00:02:48,080 --> 00:02:50,440 The life on their farm was very primitive. 34 00:02:50,960 --> 00:02:53,480 The animals were always allowed to run in and out of the Picton 35 00:02:53,480 --> 00:02:57,040 house. Willie's older sister, Linda, 36 00:02:57,040 --> 00:03:00,040 lived with relatives in Vancouver because his father 37 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:03,200 believed that a pig farm was no place for a girl to grow up. 38 00:03:04,040 --> 00:03:10,480 Willie and his younger brother David stayed behind to work, and 39 00:03:10,480 --> 00:03:14,360 their demanding mother made sure that the boys stayed on task. 40 00:03:18,240 --> 00:03:21,840 She really was a tyrant. She ran the roost. 41 00:03:22,000 --> 00:03:24,880 The kids worked very, very hard. And she had this distinctive 42 00:03:24,880 --> 00:03:27,160 voice. She'd shout at the kids and say 43 00:03:27,200 --> 00:03:30,040 you kids get out of here right now and she'd screech at them. 44 00:03:31,360 --> 00:03:35,440 For Louise Picton, pigs came first and cleanliness wasn't a 45 00:03:35,440 --> 00:03:39,800 concern. The Picton children were famous 46 00:03:40,240 --> 00:03:45,520 for stinking of manure and of pigs and unwashed clothing and 47 00:03:45,520 --> 00:03:48,080 unwashed bodies. When they got on the school bus 48 00:03:48,080 --> 00:03:51,040 in the morning, children didn't want to sit near them and they 49 00:03:51,040 --> 00:03:54,880 called them Stinky Piggy. Willie struggled at school. 50 00:03:55,240 --> 00:03:58,200 His teachers labeled him slow and he was given special 51 00:03:58,200 --> 00:04:02,280 lessons. He and his brother tried to 52 00:04:02,280 --> 00:04:04,360 escape school in any way possible. 53 00:04:04,920 --> 00:04:07,080 They would come back home and sneak into the house and hide 54 00:04:07,080 --> 00:04:10,080 under their beds, and they would stay there all day until school 55 00:04:10,080 --> 00:04:12,440 was out so their parents wouldn't know that they had 56 00:04:12,440 --> 00:04:15,760 skipped. Friendless, the young Willie 57 00:04:15,760 --> 00:04:18,920 focused on farm work, especially caring for the family's 58 00:04:18,920 --> 00:04:24,200 livestock. When he was 11 years old, Willie 59 00:04:24,200 --> 00:04:26,760 used his savings to buy a calf at auction. 60 00:04:27,520 --> 00:04:30,440 The animal became his pet and only friend. 61 00:04:31,760 --> 00:04:34,840 He just really loved the calf. Every day he would come home and 62 00:04:34,840 --> 00:04:36,480 nurture it, take care of it, feed it. 63 00:04:37,880 --> 00:04:40,840 One day he came home and the the calf was missing. 64 00:04:44,760 --> 00:04:47,560 Willie went to his mother and she was very brisk with him and 65 00:04:47,560 --> 00:04:52,040 said to go down to the barn. He went down to the barn and 66 00:04:52,040 --> 00:04:53,720 found that the calf had been slaughtered. 67 00:04:55,360 --> 00:04:58,720 He was hysterical. That numbed out any feelings he 68 00:04:58,720 --> 00:05:02,440 ever had for human connection and for understanding that that 69 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:04,960 he could love or to connect to someone. 70 00:05:05,160 --> 00:05:06,720 I think that was severed at that point. 71 00:05:07,960 --> 00:05:12,760 Willie continued to struggle in school and in 1963 the 14 year 72 00:05:12,760 --> 00:05:16,720 old dropped out. He found work as a butcher's 73 00:05:16,720 --> 00:05:20,680 apprentice where he discovered a talent for dissecting animals. 74 00:05:22,360 --> 00:05:25,520 He knew how to solve them, where to solve them, where to make the 75 00:05:25,560 --> 00:05:27,840 incisions in the body parts, how to skin them. 76 00:05:28,840 --> 00:05:30,640 In short, he knew what he was doing. 77 00:05:32,200 --> 00:05:35,200 For the next 4 years Willie kept up his chores and his 78 00:05:35,200 --> 00:05:39,520 apprenticeship. It was a relatively happy time 79 00:05:39,560 --> 00:05:44,520 for the 18 year old, but life on the Picton farm was rarely happy 80 00:05:44,560 --> 00:05:51,680 or normal for long. On the 16th of October 1967, 81 00:05:51,960 --> 00:05:54,160 Willie was taught a shocking lesson. 82 00:05:55,040 --> 00:05:57,800 Dave Picton had just got his driver's license. 83 00:05:57,800 --> 00:06:01,600 He was 16, and he took the family truck out for a bit of a 84 00:06:01,600 --> 00:06:05,080 joyride down the road. The inexperienced driver 85 00:06:05,160 --> 00:06:08,280 accidentally hit a young boy walking along a country Rd. 86 00:06:13,740 --> 00:06:16,620 David raced home and told his mother what had happened. 87 00:06:18,140 --> 00:06:21,900 As Willie later told friends, his mother knew just what to do. 88 00:06:23,860 --> 00:06:27,380 She told him to take the truck right away to the garage that 89 00:06:27,420 --> 00:06:31,620 looked after their vehicles and get it fixed and I'll take care 90 00:06:31,620 --> 00:06:36,400 of the kid. Louise found the boy lying in 91 00:06:36,400 --> 00:06:38,840 the road. He was badly injured but still 92 00:06:38,840 --> 00:06:41,480 alive. The evidence suggests that she 93 00:06:41,480 --> 00:06:44,840 rolled his body into a watery ditch where he drowned. 94 00:06:51,600 --> 00:06:55,080 Although suspicious of the circumstances, the police ruled 95 00:06:55,080 --> 00:06:58,880 the death an accident. None of the Pictons were charged 96 00:06:58,880 --> 00:07:02,800 with a crime. It was a family where if you 97 00:07:02,800 --> 00:07:04,480 could get away with something, you got away with it. 98 00:07:04,840 --> 00:07:08,160 Picton's mother was extremely antisocial, and I think it was 99 00:07:08,160 --> 00:07:13,280 those antisocial traits that Louise had that really affected 100 00:07:13,280 --> 00:07:18,040 Willie and really shaped his feelings about what he could get 101 00:07:18,040 --> 00:07:23,400 away with. In 1970, just after his 21st 102 00:07:23,400 --> 00:07:26,800 birthday, Willie inexplicably left his apprenticeship. 103 00:07:27,400 --> 00:07:30,120 He went to work full time on his parents farm. 104 00:07:32,560 --> 00:07:35,840 There was really no one else but Willie to do the the farm work. 105 00:07:36,280 --> 00:07:38,400 I think in the back of his mind he thought, if I go out in the 106 00:07:38,400 --> 00:07:40,800 world, you know, there's a possibility I'm going to fail. 107 00:07:40,880 --> 00:07:43,840 The feeling of being connected, maybe almost too dependent on 108 00:07:43,840 --> 00:07:45,720 his mother. I think that pulled him back 109 00:07:45,720 --> 00:07:48,720 towards the farm and gave him a feeling like it was it was a 110 00:07:48,720 --> 00:07:52,760 safer place to be. Willie continued to feed the 111 00:07:52,760 --> 00:07:57,240 pigs and shovel manure, and he added a few new jobs to his 112 00:07:57,240 --> 00:08:00,640 list. He'd go to auction and buy pigs, 113 00:08:00,640 --> 00:08:01,840 then bring them back to the farm. 114 00:08:01,840 --> 00:08:06,880 And slaughter them. Willie's work often took him to 115 00:08:06,880 --> 00:08:10,920 West Coast Reduction, an animal waste disposal facility near 116 00:08:10,920 --> 00:08:15,160 downtown Vancouver. Willie was known to drop off 117 00:08:15,160 --> 00:08:18,960 barrels of materials at the rendering plant, which would 118 00:08:18,960 --> 00:08:22,720 take the materials and turn them into other products. 119 00:08:23,880 --> 00:08:27,720 After trips to the plant, Willie often visited A seedy 120 00:08:27,720 --> 00:08:31,120 neighborhood known as Low Track in Vancouver's Downtown 121 00:08:31,120 --> 00:08:35,159 Eastside. The area attracted prostitutes 122 00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:38,720 and drug addicts. The Downtown Eastside is 123 00:08:38,840 --> 00:08:41,559 probably the biggest concentration of human misery 124 00:08:41,640 --> 00:08:43,240 that exists in the developed world. 125 00:08:43,520 --> 00:08:46,120 I mean, there's nothing like it anywhere else in terms of the 126 00:08:46,120 --> 00:08:49,520 numbers of people that are down and out and never coming back. 127 00:08:50,040 --> 00:08:53,680 People are forced to support themselves through selling 128 00:08:53,680 --> 00:08:56,000 drugs, selling their bodies, stealing. 129 00:08:57,440 --> 00:09:00,360 At St. Corners and dingy bars, Willie 130 00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:05,160 could pay for companionship, affection and sex, things he 131 00:09:05,160 --> 00:09:10,480 couldn't get anywhere else. He spent large amounts of money 132 00:09:10,480 --> 00:09:13,480 on the girl, whatever she wanted for like and this month. 133 00:09:13,480 --> 00:09:17,400 So when they returned they would brag about him to her, their 134 00:09:17,400 --> 00:09:19,600 friends. And this guy is like really good 135 00:09:19,600 --> 00:09:23,800 guy to go be with. Amid the sordid lives of Low 136 00:09:23,800 --> 00:09:26,680 Track's population, Willie found his niche. 137 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:31,880 He began frequenting the Astoria Hotel, a pub on East Hastings 138 00:09:31,880 --> 00:09:35,400 St. Here, men talked to him as 139 00:09:35,400 --> 00:09:38,440 equals and women offered him sexual favors. 140 00:09:41,480 --> 00:09:46,080 He had grown up as a very powerless person and to have 141 00:09:46,080 --> 00:09:51,080 people that he could do favors for, help out, do anything, gave 142 00:09:51,080 --> 00:09:54,520 him a position, gave him a feeling that he had some sort of 143 00:09:54,520 --> 00:09:58,240 power. Power that he enjoyed. 144 00:09:58,960 --> 00:10:01,760 But gradually Willy's need for power grew. 145 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:05,760 He picked up prostitutes with increasing regularity. 146 00:10:06,560 --> 00:10:11,880 Outwardly, he seemed friendly, even caring, but once a girl got 147 00:10:11,880 --> 00:10:14,200 into his car, he could turn violent. 148 00:10:18,480 --> 00:10:21,520 Guys like Willie, they need more and more stimulation because 149 00:10:21,520 --> 00:10:23,560 they feel restless, they feel bored. 150 00:10:23,840 --> 00:10:27,360 And I think the only way to get that is to do to, to kind of up 151 00:10:27,360 --> 00:10:29,280 the ante and to do something more. 152 00:10:31,000 --> 00:10:34,880 Willie Picton's harsh childhood and dark desires were 153 00:10:34,880 --> 00:10:41,040 transforming him into a monster, and the women of Vancouver's Low 154 00:10:41,040 --> 00:10:43,520 Track would prove to be easy prey. 155 00:10:44,200 --> 00:10:48,600 He just did what he knew and that was butcher and dispose of 156 00:10:48,600 --> 00:10:53,240 things and you've got this recipe for murder that just 157 00:10:53,320 --> 00:11:04,880 doesn't end. In 1970, five 25 year old Willie 158 00:11:04,880 --> 00:11:10,240 Picton spent his days butchering pigs and his nights trawling for 159 00:11:10,240 --> 00:11:13,840 prostitutes in Vancouver's CD Downtown Eastside. 160 00:11:14,480 --> 00:11:17,720 Willie had two personalities, you know, He would be the kind 161 00:11:17,720 --> 00:11:21,880 of, aw, shucks, simple farm boy out in the country, in town. 162 00:11:21,880 --> 00:11:26,560 He was the big spender, the boss of the Astoria, handing out the 163 00:11:26,560 --> 00:11:30,360 money, handing out the drugs. He'd settled into a predictable, 164 00:11:30,440 --> 00:11:36,040 if not disturbing routine, but in 1978 Picton's life changed 165 00:11:36,040 --> 00:11:40,080 abruptly. His parents health had been 166 00:11:40,080 --> 00:11:43,560 failing and in January of that year his father died. 167 00:11:46,800 --> 00:11:50,120 Soon after his mother became terminally ill with cancer. 168 00:11:52,040 --> 00:11:55,920 As Willie took care of her, he saw this once all powerful woman 169 00:11:55,920 --> 00:12:01,880 become sickly and frail. He changed her diapers, he 170 00:12:01,880 --> 00:12:05,720 looked after her, he nursed her, and he'd also found that very 171 00:12:05,720 --> 00:12:09,000 traumatic. The most basic, primitive thing 172 00:12:09,000 --> 00:12:11,680 in the world is a relationship a child has with its mother. 173 00:12:11,680 --> 00:12:14,800 It's the first relationship, and it's one that is very hard to 174 00:12:14,800 --> 00:12:17,280 break. To have to care for her was 175 00:12:17,280 --> 00:12:19,320 probably one of the hardest things he had to do. 176 00:12:20,920 --> 00:12:24,040 In April, Willie's mother died, leaving the farm and 177 00:12:24,040 --> 00:12:25,840 slaughterhouse to her three children. 178 00:12:28,360 --> 00:12:31,520 The siblings split the modest inheritance, but Willie's 179 00:12:31,520 --> 00:12:33,960 brother and sister wanted nothing to do with the family 180 00:12:33,960 --> 00:12:39,400 business. They left the farm work to 181 00:12:39,400 --> 00:12:42,600 Willie. After all, butchering pigs was 182 00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:47,240 what he knew best. Willie's not the brightest guy 183 00:12:47,240 --> 00:12:52,640 in the world. He was dirty and he lived like a 184 00:12:52,640 --> 00:12:56,000 pig and his life revolved around pigs. 185 00:12:57,320 --> 00:13:02,320 I really don't think he enjoyed life on the farm, but he knew it 186 00:13:02,320 --> 00:13:05,240 was his responsibility, that it was something he had to do. 187 00:13:06,640 --> 00:13:08,720 There was a fear that he wouldn't succeed out in the 188 00:13:08,720 --> 00:13:11,360 bigger world, and there also might have been a feeling on his 189 00:13:11,360 --> 00:13:12,880 part that they did have this pig farm. 190 00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:16,400 It could be worth something someday, and it might be worth 191 00:13:16,400 --> 00:13:20,000 sticking around. Willie's brother Dave took over 192 00:13:20,000 --> 00:13:23,560 the main house and Willie moved into a trailer on an isolated 193 00:13:23,560 --> 00:13:28,880 part of the property. He was still stuck on the farm, 194 00:13:29,440 --> 00:13:33,440 but for the first time in his life, Picton could do whatever 195 00:13:33,440 --> 00:13:38,720 he wanted whenever he wanted. He frequently entertained female 196 00:13:38,720 --> 00:13:41,400 guests. He'd bring women out to stay for 197 00:13:41,400 --> 00:13:44,400 a while and he would teach them butchering skills and they would 198 00:13:44,400 --> 00:13:46,680 go to movies and they would go shopping. 199 00:13:47,480 --> 00:13:51,520 It was sort of this bucolic, nice life with one of these 200 00:13:51,520 --> 00:13:55,120 women after another. These friends of Willy's didn't 201 00:13:55,120 --> 00:14:00,560 mind his poor hygiene. Willie was such a distasteful 202 00:14:00,560 --> 00:14:05,040 character that he had to troll pretty low to get friends. 203 00:14:05,440 --> 00:14:09,000 Most of his friends and associates were people that 204 00:14:09,000 --> 00:14:12,240 wanted things from him. Picton would often pay these 205 00:14:12,240 --> 00:14:15,760 women with money and drugs to clean his trailer or help around 206 00:14:15,760 --> 00:14:18,280 the farm. But they never had sex with 207 00:14:18,280 --> 00:14:24,840 Willie, and he wanted it badly. One evening in 1980, Picton was 208 00:14:24,840 --> 00:14:26,480 cruising the streets of East Side. 209 00:14:26,800 --> 00:14:29,080 He spotted a young girl on Hastings St. 210 00:14:29,560 --> 00:14:33,160 According to the girl, Willie picked her up in his truck and 211 00:14:33,400 --> 00:14:36,800 as she later told a journalist, he quickly turned violent. 212 00:14:37,240 --> 00:14:41,160 She was a 14 year old that he picked up in his car in downtown 213 00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:47,400 Vancouver and attacked her with a knife and he raped her and 214 00:14:47,440 --> 00:14:49,600 threw her out into a parking lot. 215 00:14:52,600 --> 00:14:54,960 He really saw the prostitutes as no better than the pigs. 216 00:14:54,960 --> 00:14:58,440 Maybe they were sort of lowlifes to him, people that you could do 217 00:14:58,440 --> 00:15:02,480 things to him getting away with it just sort of further the 218 00:15:02,680 --> 00:15:07,280 thrill. Despite this seemingly new found 219 00:15:07,280 --> 00:15:11,040 lust for violence, this alleged attack seemed to satiate with 220 00:15:11,040 --> 00:15:15,680 his desires. For over a decade, he resumed 221 00:15:15,680 --> 00:15:18,800 his routine of days on the farm and nights on the town. 222 00:15:24,120 --> 00:15:28,720 Then in 1994, the Pictons sold the North End of the farm. 223 00:15:29,360 --> 00:15:32,120 The sale netted them almost $2,000,000. 224 00:15:34,320 --> 00:15:37,960 Flush with cash, Willie and his brother started a social events 225 00:15:37,960 --> 00:15:45,280 business in 1996, Piggy's Palace Good Time Society was an excuse 226 00:15:45,280 --> 00:15:47,400 for the brothers to throw wild parties. 227 00:15:52,400 --> 00:15:54,680 There would be literally hundreds of people, sometimes as 228 00:15:54,680 --> 00:15:56,680 many as 1800 people had showed up. 229 00:15:57,760 --> 00:15:59,800 Willie. Often took prostitutes from low 230 00:15:59,800 --> 00:16:04,240 track to palace parties. Afterwards, they'd go to his 231 00:16:04,240 --> 00:16:11,040 trailer. They engaged in kinky sex 232 00:16:11,040 --> 00:16:16,560 involving bondage. For the first time in his life, 233 00:16:16,680 --> 00:16:20,680 Willie was in control. His recent wealth gave him power 234 00:16:20,680 --> 00:16:24,000 over people, especially the wretched souls of Vancouver's 235 00:16:24,000 --> 00:16:29,560 low track. He exploited the vulnerable, 236 00:16:29,560 --> 00:16:33,440 drug addicted prostitutes in order to satisfy his disturbing 237 00:16:33,440 --> 00:16:37,560 sexual fantasies. He was a. 238 00:16:37,800 --> 00:16:40,880 Pig farmer who obviously. Had a kind of taste. 239 00:16:40,880 --> 00:16:44,720 For activities. That most of us would consider 240 00:16:44,720 --> 00:16:48,240 not pleasant. And when he didn't get what he 241 00:16:48,240 --> 00:16:53,400 wanted, he could turn violent quickly. 242 00:16:57,120 --> 00:17:01,920 In March 1997, a prostitute called Wendy Eisteter went home 243 00:17:01,920 --> 00:17:07,800 with Picton during sex, Willie trying to handcuff her, but she 244 00:17:07,800 --> 00:17:14,200 broke free. Picton grew enraged. 245 00:17:17,319 --> 00:17:19,560 He said that he was. He had a knife. 246 00:17:19,560 --> 00:17:23,560 He was coming at her. Wendy managed to grab a knife 247 00:17:23,560 --> 00:17:27,160 from the kitchen. For every stab he. 248 00:17:27,160 --> 00:17:28,760 Stabbed her and she stabbed him back. 249 00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:36,480 Barely closed and badly wounded, Wendy fled the farm. 250 00:17:37,080 --> 00:17:40,080 An elderly couple driving past picked her up and took her to a 251 00:17:40,080 --> 00:17:45,840 nearby hospital. She's got scars everywhere, all 252 00:17:45,840 --> 00:17:47,920 over the place. It's, it's horrible. 253 00:17:48,360 --> 00:17:50,360 Like huge scars. Like really. 254 00:17:50,400 --> 00:17:52,040 Like, gosh. Down and there and there. 255 00:17:53,520 --> 00:17:57,160 The police charged Picton with assault, but Wendy was too 256 00:17:57,160 --> 00:18:00,360 terrified to testify. She never showed up for the 257 00:18:00,360 --> 00:18:04,360 trial. The case against Picton was 258 00:18:04,360 --> 00:18:10,080 dismissed. He went back to his farm, back 259 00:18:10,080 --> 00:18:13,640 to his pigs and back to his butcher knives. 260 00:18:18,800 --> 00:18:22,960 In August 1997, Picton returned to the CD low track. 261 00:18:25,120 --> 00:18:28,240 He approached a 24 year old woman called Manny Frey. 262 00:18:29,160 --> 00:18:32,880 Manny was a heroin addict. Willie offered to buy her drugs 263 00:18:32,880 --> 00:18:39,320 in exchange for sex. He took her back to his trailer. 264 00:18:43,160 --> 00:18:51,560 After sex, he turned violent. Marni was never seen again. 265 00:18:52,440 --> 00:18:58,200 He probably took her body apart and buried it in pieces on the 266 00:18:58,200 --> 00:18:59,840 farm. Some of it anyway. 267 00:19:01,480 --> 00:19:04,720 What was left he may have disposed of at West Coast 268 00:19:04,720 --> 00:19:07,920 Reduction, the animal waste disposal plant that Willie 269 00:19:07,920 --> 00:19:14,680 frequented. The murder of Manny Frey marked 270 00:19:14,680 --> 00:19:17,480 the start of a violent new chapter in Picton's life. 271 00:19:18,280 --> 00:19:22,760 Along with a compelling desire to sexually dominate women, he 272 00:19:22,760 --> 00:19:32,120 now had a taste for murder. Between 1995 and 1997, 21 women 273 00:19:32,120 --> 00:19:35,840 vanished from Vancouver's sleazy Downtown Eastside neighborhood. 274 00:19:36,880 --> 00:19:39,960 He loved every bit of it. The pickup, the courtship on the 275 00:19:39,960 --> 00:19:43,920 street corner downtown, how much he'd pay, the killing, the 276 00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:48,520 dismembering. I think it was just a process he 277 00:19:48,520 --> 00:19:52,560 really enjoyed. No one suspected that Willie 278 00:19:52,560 --> 00:19:55,800 Pickton was luring women to his pig farm and slaughtering. 279 00:19:57,600 --> 00:19:59,760 Serial clues generally need a bigger and bigger thrill, and so 280 00:19:59,760 --> 00:20:02,360 they escalate their violence. When you see that with Willie, 281 00:20:02,360 --> 00:20:05,600 you see that he went from going to have sex with prostitutes to 282 00:20:05,600 --> 00:20:10,440 bringing them to his home, to raping someone, to killing in. 283 00:20:11,320 --> 00:20:16,840 1998 Nine more women vanished. The police did not investigate, 284 00:20:16,960 --> 00:20:19,560 and they discounted the possibility of foul play. 285 00:20:20,760 --> 00:20:23,640 There were family members and friends and associates, the 286 00:20:23,640 --> 00:20:26,800 women that were were missing that were filing police reports 287 00:20:26,800 --> 00:20:29,960 and being told, you know, these, these women just get on the get 288 00:20:29,960 --> 00:20:32,720 on the greyhound and they go somewhere else. 289 00:20:32,720 --> 00:20:34,880 Police don't like to investigate any case where there isn't a 290 00:20:34,880 --> 00:20:36,480 body. So they said, oh, she's just 291 00:20:36,480 --> 00:20:38,360 visiting her family in Florida or whatever. 292 00:20:38,360 --> 00:20:40,440 They didn't want to take these cases seriously. 293 00:20:40,720 --> 00:20:44,200 But the prostitutes and drug addicts on Vancouver Skid Row 294 00:20:44,400 --> 00:20:46,360 knew that they were being targeted. 295 00:20:47,120 --> 00:20:50,920 There wasn't no notice like we weren't informed or anything 296 00:20:50,920 --> 00:20:55,320 about the beware there's a monster on the street and just 297 00:20:55,320 --> 00:20:57,040 girls that. We're not on the car anymore. 298 00:20:58,960 --> 00:21:02,360 Elaine Allen ran a shelter that provided food and social 299 00:21:02,360 --> 00:21:04,440 services to women who worked the streets. 300 00:21:05,000 --> 00:21:08,320 It was horrifying watching women going missing. 301 00:21:08,320 --> 00:21:12,280 We were so aware of it. I think we all felt so powerless 302 00:21:12,280 --> 00:21:15,480 to do anything about it. Allen reported several 303 00:21:15,480 --> 00:21:18,560 disappearances, but the police didn't follow them up. 304 00:21:19,640 --> 00:21:22,920 We were just constantly rebuffed and told that, you know, well, 305 00:21:22,920 --> 00:21:25,960 this this woman typically takes off and she'll take off with a, 306 00:21:26,240 --> 00:21:28,480 with a John and you know, she's fine. 307 00:21:28,480 --> 00:21:32,960 I'm sure she's just fine. The Vancouver police wouldn't 308 00:21:32,960 --> 00:21:36,000 even say serial and killer in the same sentence. 309 00:21:36,560 --> 00:21:38,960 They would say, well, what do you expect? 310 00:21:38,960 --> 00:21:43,320 These women will get in a car with a stranger, so who knows? 311 00:21:43,320 --> 00:21:45,600 Where they are like. You know, sort of a shrugging of 312 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:49,920 the shoulders kind of attitude. Women from low track continue to 313 00:21:49,920 --> 00:21:53,320 go with Willie Picton, partly because of the money he gave 314 00:21:53,320 --> 00:21:56,840 them and partly because he had developed a reputation for being 315 00:21:56,840 --> 00:22:00,360 a nice guy. He even maintained friendships 316 00:22:00,360 --> 00:22:02,560 with a few women. I don't think it's. 317 00:22:02,560 --> 00:22:04,840 Surprising that. A serial killer has another. 318 00:22:04,840 --> 00:22:06,440 Life. It's not a simple. 319 00:22:06,440 --> 00:22:07,400 Direction. That. 320 00:22:07,680 --> 00:22:09,960 Every woman that they encounter, they must kill. 321 00:22:09,960 --> 00:22:13,080 It's a It's more complicated than that. 322 00:22:13,880 --> 00:22:16,920 One of Willie's friends was a crack addict called Lynn 323 00:22:16,920 --> 00:22:20,920 Ellingson. For several months in 1999, she 324 00:22:20,920 --> 00:22:25,000 lived on his farm. After getting high in Willie's 325 00:22:25,000 --> 00:22:27,200 trailer one night, Lynn fell asleep. 326 00:22:30,320 --> 00:22:34,000 Something had awakened her that night, and she looked out and 327 00:22:34,000 --> 00:22:36,080 saw a light coming from the slaughterhouse. 328 00:22:37,200 --> 00:22:41,120 Curious, she went outside to take a peek and see what was 329 00:22:41,120 --> 00:22:53,180 going on. Dangling in front of her were a 330 00:22:53,180 --> 00:22:58,980 woman's purple painted toenails. It was Georgina Papen, Picton's 331 00:22:58,980 --> 00:23:02,660 latest victim. Terrified, Lynn fled the farm. 332 00:23:04,340 --> 00:23:09,900 Willie did not go after her. Well, Willie was a bit of a 333 00:23:09,940 --> 00:23:11,940 conundrum. Perhaps he didn't kill Lynn 334 00:23:11,940 --> 00:23:15,920 Ellingson because she was a friend and he'd gotten to know 335 00:23:15,920 --> 00:23:19,680 her. Most serial killers kill people 336 00:23:19,680 --> 00:23:22,800 that they don't know. Ellingson never went to the 337 00:23:22,800 --> 00:23:25,560 police and Willie continued to butcher. 338 00:23:27,240 --> 00:23:31,320 The pig farmer millionaire was on his way to becoming Canada's 339 00:23:31,320 --> 00:23:39,840 most prolific serial killer. By February 1999, pig farmer 340 00:23:39,840 --> 00:23:44,280 Robert Willie Picton had murdered at least two women, but 341 00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:47,280 more than 30 women were missing from the streets of Vancouver. 342 00:23:47,920 --> 00:23:50,600 As the police continued to discount the disappearances, 343 00:23:50,880 --> 00:23:53,320 Picton prepared to claim another victim. 344 00:23:55,880 --> 00:23:59,760 Her name was Brenda Wolfe. She was a drug addict who had 345 00:23:59,760 --> 00:24:02,560 come to Willie's Pig Farm hoping to score some drugs. 346 00:24:03,360 --> 00:24:13,880 She never left. He typically bound his victims 347 00:24:13,880 --> 00:24:18,360 or handcuffed them in strangled some victims either with wire, 348 00:24:18,400 --> 00:24:22,160 with belt. As Willie later claimed, he 349 00:24:22,160 --> 00:24:25,200 carried his victims lifeless bodies to the slaughterhouse. 350 00:24:28,320 --> 00:24:32,160 With the precision of an experienced butcher, he cut them 351 00:24:32,160 --> 00:24:36,320 up. He just did what he knew and 352 00:24:36,320 --> 00:24:39,000 that was butcher and dispose of things. 353 00:24:39,560 --> 00:24:44,040 He probably never gave it any. Thought for most of his victims, 354 00:24:44,320 --> 00:24:48,040 Picton would load their remains into barrels and dump them at 355 00:24:48,040 --> 00:24:53,920 West Coast Reduction. Brenda was the 53rd Vancouver 356 00:24:53,920 --> 00:24:58,200 woman to vanish without a trace. The missing women were all 357 00:24:58,200 --> 00:25:00,840 prostitutes or drug addicts from the city's Skid Row. 358 00:25:03,400 --> 00:25:05,680 Women were very scared. They saw their friends were 359 00:25:05,680 --> 00:25:08,200 going missing. They they knew that I heard 360 00:25:08,200 --> 00:25:09,960 women say I'm going to be the next one. 361 00:25:10,600 --> 00:25:14,120 If you don't see me tomorrow, you know I'm going out tonight. 362 00:25:14,720 --> 00:25:18,080 Come looking for me. As women became increasingly 363 00:25:18,080 --> 00:25:21,360 nervous, Willie began having trouble convincing them to come 364 00:25:21,360 --> 00:25:24,680 to his farm. Willie has diminished 365 00:25:24,680 --> 00:25:26,320 capacities. He's. 366 00:25:26,760 --> 00:25:30,960 A bit of a dim bulb, but. He was shifty and clever in in a 367 00:25:30,960 --> 00:25:35,600 kind of animal way. The pig farmer had a few female 368 00:25:35,600 --> 00:25:39,760 friends, and he found ways to use them to lure victims. 369 00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:45,280 One of his friends was Dinah Taylor. 370 00:25:45,920 --> 00:25:48,600 Willie sent Taylor to women's shelters in search of 371 00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:52,960 prostitutes and drug addicts. Dinah Taylor would go in there 372 00:25:52,960 --> 00:25:55,280 and they'd say, let's go party with Uncle Willie. 373 00:25:55,280 --> 00:25:58,400 He's got drugs, he's got booze, he's got money. 374 00:25:59,520 --> 00:26:02,040 I do remember seeing her in the center a few times in the 375 00:26:02,040 --> 00:26:04,600 evenings. She would pop in and sometimes 376 00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:06,280 pop out with with the woman with her. 377 00:26:08,800 --> 00:26:14,280 And once he had them at his farm, the women were easy prey. 378 00:26:15,320 --> 00:26:18,200 It's sort of a psychological thrill to go from being the 379 00:26:18,200 --> 00:26:21,120 rejected to being the one that sits back and has women being 380 00:26:21,120 --> 00:26:22,680 brought to him. And not only being brought to 381 00:26:22,680 --> 00:26:25,000 him, but being brought to him to prepare for slaughter. 382 00:26:26,040 --> 00:26:29,240 He would usually accuse them of stealing something from him, 383 00:26:29,440 --> 00:26:33,000 stealing money from his wallet, something like that, and use 384 00:26:33,000 --> 00:26:35,360 that as an excuse to work up a Rage Against them. 385 00:26:35,480 --> 00:26:42,800 And then he'd attack them. By January 2001, the number of 386 00:26:42,800 --> 00:26:46,720 missing women had reached 62. The authorities could no longer 387 00:26:46,720 --> 00:26:50,360 ignore the problem. That April, the Vancouver Police 388 00:26:50,360 --> 00:26:53,760 Department and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police launched 389 00:26:53,760 --> 00:27:00,840 the Missing Women's Task Force. Reward posters promised $100,000 390 00:27:00,840 --> 00:27:02,680 for information leading to an arrest. 391 00:27:04,360 --> 00:27:07,120 Over 12,000 tip offs flooded the hotline. 392 00:27:07,680 --> 00:27:11,080 Several callers mentioned a pig farmer east of Vancouver. 393 00:27:14,000 --> 00:27:17,160 Willy's name was eventually added to a list of suspects. 394 00:27:17,840 --> 00:27:21,040 He had a prior arrest for assault, but no convictions. 395 00:27:22,040 --> 00:27:23,920 The police didn't probe any further. 396 00:27:26,760 --> 00:27:29,960 They didn't really know how to look for a serial killer. 397 00:27:30,360 --> 00:27:33,680 They didn't have the manpower, they had terrible records. 398 00:27:33,680 --> 00:27:36,640 They didn't have Adna Bank to check the identity of these 399 00:27:36,640 --> 00:27:39,520 women. The families of the missing 400 00:27:39,520 --> 00:27:41,400 women were desperate for answers. 401 00:27:42,080 --> 00:27:44,160 They urged the police to investigate. 402 00:27:45,960 --> 00:27:48,840 It didn't matter how many times you phone them and explain to 403 00:27:48,840 --> 00:27:52,720 them that we think that she could be on this farm or 404 00:27:53,640 --> 00:27:55,120 somewhere else in Purkukullam. They. 405 00:27:55,640 --> 00:27:59,080 Didn't seem to care. I don't know why they didn't put 406 00:27:59,080 --> 00:28:02,880 more importance on him. They were tracking a whole lot 407 00:28:02,880 --> 00:28:05,680 of different people and he probably just fell through the 408 00:28:05,680 --> 00:28:08,920 cracks. Willie continued his killing 409 00:28:08,920 --> 00:28:13,600 spree during the course of 2001. In June, he murdered Andrea 410 00:28:13,600 --> 00:28:20,760 Josbury, and in August, Serena Abbotsway became his next 411 00:28:20,760 --> 00:28:25,120 conquest. But unlike his other victims, 412 00:28:25,360 --> 00:28:28,080 Picton didn't immediately dispose of their bodies. 413 00:28:28,800 --> 00:28:33,400 Instead, he placed their heads, hands and feet inside plastic 414 00:28:33,400 --> 00:28:36,080 buckets and stored them in a meat freezer. 415 00:28:39,040 --> 00:28:41,800 I think he'd got sloppy. I think he got careless. 416 00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:45,200 Here's a man who may not have really understood the 417 00:28:45,200 --> 00:28:48,360 implications of what could happen to him. 418 00:28:48,920 --> 00:28:50,760 I think he thought he was sort of invulnerable again, going 419 00:28:50,760 --> 00:28:52,840 back to his mother. He, his mother got away with 420 00:28:52,840 --> 00:28:55,640 murder and I think he felt sort of invincible. 421 00:28:56,440 --> 00:29:00,400 In November 2001, Willie stopped on the corner of Main and 422 00:29:00,400 --> 00:29:03,520 Hastings to talk to 26 year old Mona Wilson. 423 00:29:04,320 --> 00:29:08,000 At his promise of free dope and booze, she jumped into his car. 424 00:29:10,240 --> 00:29:13,640 Instead of taking Mona to his trailer, Picton LED her to a 425 00:29:13,640 --> 00:29:18,480 camper van behind a barn. After sex, he savagely beat her. 426 00:29:22,360 --> 00:29:25,160 Perhaps this particular woman tried to fight back or did 427 00:29:25,160 --> 00:29:27,880 something that was outside the script that that Willie had in 428 00:29:27,880 --> 00:29:30,720 his mind and that somehow it must have set off whatever 429 00:29:30,720 --> 00:29:35,040 psychological rage that he had. Picton then shot her with a 22 430 00:29:35,040 --> 00:29:40,720 caliber revolver. Her blood spattered the walls 431 00:29:40,840 --> 00:29:44,280 and soaked into the mattress. It just could have been that as 432 00:29:44,280 --> 00:29:47,040 time went on, he was escalating his violence because he had more 433 00:29:47,040 --> 00:29:51,160 and more of a need just to act it out in ways that were more 434 00:29:51,160 --> 00:29:55,920 violent. By the end of 2164, women from 435 00:29:55,920 --> 00:29:59,520 Vancouver's low track were on the list of missing women, but 436 00:29:59,520 --> 00:30:02,160 the police were no closer to breaking the case. 437 00:30:04,200 --> 00:30:08,600 Finally, on the 1st of February 2002, investigators got an 438 00:30:08,600 --> 00:30:13,880 unexpected lead. A truck driver who occasionally 439 00:30:13,880 --> 00:30:17,360 worked at the Picton farm told an officer that he'd once seen 440 00:30:17,360 --> 00:30:19,320 illegal weapons in Willie's trailer. 441 00:30:20,240 --> 00:30:23,440 Curious to learn more about a potential murder suspect, the 442 00:30:23,440 --> 00:30:25,000 police obtained a search warrant. 443 00:30:25,720 --> 00:30:27,320 They had to move very, very carefully. 444 00:30:27,320 --> 00:30:28,560 They didn't want to lose this one. 445 00:30:29,600 --> 00:30:33,080 Four days later, the Vancouver police closed in on the Picton 446 00:30:33,080 --> 00:30:38,200 property. Their gruesome discoveries would 447 00:30:38,200 --> 00:30:42,000 trigger the largest forensic investigation in Canadian 448 00:30:42,000 --> 00:30:51,530 history. The 5th of February 2002, drug 449 00:30:51,530 --> 00:30:54,410 addicts and prostitutes were mysteriously disappearing from 450 00:30:54,410 --> 00:30:58,770 Vancouver's Downtown East Side. What the police didn't know was 451 00:30:58,770 --> 00:31:02,290 that one man had murdered at least six of these women and 452 00:31:02,290 --> 00:31:04,170 sadistically butchered their corpses. 453 00:31:05,250 --> 00:31:08,650 But a confidential tip off was about to lead to an unexpected 454 00:31:08,650 --> 00:31:12,240 break in the case. Armed with a search warrant, the 455 00:31:12,240 --> 00:31:15,640 police were preparing to raid Robert Willie Picton's pig farm. 456 00:31:16,120 --> 00:31:19,640 Their search was for illegal weapons, but they soon found 457 00:31:19,640 --> 00:31:22,880 much more than that. One of the investigators came 458 00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:27,280 across an inhaler that had one of the missing women's name on 459 00:31:28,040 --> 00:31:29,760 it. It was prescribed to Serena 460 00:31:29,760 --> 00:31:35,400 Abbott's way and at that point the joint task force decided to 461 00:31:35,600 --> 00:31:40,040 halt the firearms investigation and obtain new search warrants. 462 00:31:42,840 --> 00:31:45,560 Willie Picton spent the night behind bars. 463 00:31:48,320 --> 00:31:50,920 The police alerted the media to the break in the case. 464 00:31:52,040 --> 00:31:55,200 By dawn, reporters and camera crews from across the country 465 00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:59,480 had surrounded the farm. Everyone just stood there with 466 00:31:59,480 --> 00:32:02,640 their mouths. Open the imaginations went wild. 467 00:32:02,640 --> 00:32:05,440 It was like everyone's. Worst nightmare come true? 468 00:32:07,040 --> 00:32:10,400 Inside the property, investigators uncovered a grisly 469 00:32:10,400 --> 00:32:13,360 scene proof of Mona Wilson's murder. 470 00:32:15,800 --> 00:32:20,160 Her blood was found soaked into a mattress, was found on the 471 00:32:20,160 --> 00:32:25,520 floor, was found on cupboards. It was found on the walls all 472 00:32:25,520 --> 00:32:29,640 the way to the the kitchen. In a rubbish bin outside the 473 00:32:29,640 --> 00:32:32,440 campervan was all that remained of the missing woman. 474 00:32:33,440 --> 00:32:35,400 You could see her brain, you could see her hair. 475 00:32:35,400 --> 00:32:40,360 You could see the just the bisected human head floating in 476 00:32:40,560 --> 00:32:45,920 this pinkish soup. In an interrogation room, task 477 00:32:45,920 --> 00:32:49,120 force officers grilled Picton for hours, but he was 478 00:32:49,120 --> 00:32:52,000 surprisingly calm and he denied everything there. 479 00:32:54,880 --> 00:32:56,800 Was a part of him that didn't care, the same way his mother 480 00:32:56,800 --> 00:32:58,880 didn't care that he had feelings. 481 00:32:59,120 --> 00:33:01,280 He put his legs up over the edge of the chair. 482 00:33:01,840 --> 00:33:05,800 He was having a good time and he was really enjoying himself. 483 00:33:06,680 --> 00:33:09,840 After 11 hours of intense questioning, the investigators 484 00:33:09,840 --> 00:33:13,760 changed tactics. They decided to put an 485 00:33:13,760 --> 00:33:17,360 undercover police officer in the cell with Willie to see if he 486 00:33:17,360 --> 00:33:21,920 said anything. Willie knew he was under 487 00:33:21,920 --> 00:33:24,880 surveillance, but that didn't stop him from bragging to his 488 00:33:24,880 --> 00:33:27,840 cellmate. At one point, Willie told the 489 00:33:27,840 --> 00:33:31,640 undercover cop that he was going for an even 50, which in 490 00:33:31,640 --> 00:33:34,200 Willie's mind meant that he'd killed 49 women. 491 00:33:35,080 --> 00:33:38,360 Picton also implied that he'd used a disposal plant to get rid 492 00:33:38,360 --> 00:33:42,360 of the bodies. He mentioned to the undercover 493 00:33:42,360 --> 00:33:44,960 policeman that he got sloppy in the end. 494 00:33:46,000 --> 00:33:48,240 He finally had somebody that he could talk to about what was 495 00:33:48,240 --> 00:33:50,120 really happening. One of the biggest parts for 496 00:33:50,120 --> 00:33:52,240 serial killers is to get to brag about how many people they've 497 00:33:52,240 --> 00:33:55,880 killed. On the 22nd of February, the 498 00:33:55,880 --> 00:33:59,680 police charged Picton with the murders of Serena Abbotsway and 499 00:33:59,680 --> 00:34:03,200 Mona Wilson. Meanwhile, a small army of 500 00:34:03,200 --> 00:34:06,720 police and forensic specialists were converging on the farm to 501 00:34:06,720 --> 00:34:08,920 search for the remains of the other victims. 502 00:34:11,000 --> 00:34:14,159 The police investigators made a grid of the entire property and 503 00:34:14,159 --> 00:34:16,600 they were searching it grid box by grid box. 504 00:34:17,199 --> 00:34:20,639 The forensic investigation revealed A terrifying record of 505 00:34:20,639 --> 00:34:24,840 murder and depravity. There were some freezers in 506 00:34:24,840 --> 00:34:28,000 there. One of the freezers contained 2 507 00:34:28,000 --> 00:34:33,880 buckets, with each containing the head and hands and feet of 508 00:34:33,960 --> 00:34:36,400 Serena Abbott's way and Andrea Josbury. 509 00:34:37,920 --> 00:34:41,520 They took literally hundreds and hundreds of thousands. 510 00:34:41,520 --> 00:34:44,960 Of DNA samples. It was just a mind boggling 511 00:34:45,080 --> 00:34:48,800 police operation, just a forensic search that probably is 512 00:34:48,840 --> 00:34:55,679 unrivaled almost anywhere. By April 2002, the police had 513 00:34:55,679 --> 00:34:59,120 enough evidence to charge Picton with five more counts of murder. 514 00:35:00,280 --> 00:35:03,920 Stories about Picton's butchery made headlines across Canada and 515 00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:08,200 the United States. A few times I had phone calls 516 00:35:08,200 --> 00:35:11,200 from journalists asking me if I knew a particular woman, and I'd 517 00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:12,920 say, yeah, sure, I know her. Why? 518 00:35:12,920 --> 00:35:15,200 And they'd say, well, her remains were just found on 519 00:35:15,200 --> 00:35:20,440 Robert Picton's farm. I had to process the fact that 520 00:35:20,440 --> 00:35:23,000 they were talking about someone who I had assumed was alive. 521 00:35:24,160 --> 00:35:28,000 Even with Picton behind bars, details about the murder spread 522 00:35:28,000 --> 00:35:33,320 terror throughout the city. On the 11th of March 2004, 523 00:35:33,440 --> 00:35:36,320 Canadian health officials issued a shocking statement. 524 00:35:36,880 --> 00:35:40,400 Cross contamination could mean that that human remains did get 525 00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:44,760 into or contaminate some of the pork meat that was produced. 526 00:35:47,640 --> 00:35:49,520 We've. Been given a lot of pig meat 527 00:35:49,520 --> 00:35:52,640 from that pig farm. The night that this all broke on 528 00:35:52,640 --> 00:35:56,440 the news, we phoned Lynn and the first thing that my daughter had 529 00:35:56,440 --> 00:36:01,120 said to her aunt was I was really sorry with Auntie Lynn 530 00:36:01,880 --> 00:36:04,240 because it's possible we could have eaten Marnie. 531 00:36:08,120 --> 00:36:11,920 No one brought meat forward, but for many, Picton's trial could 532 00:36:11,920 --> 00:36:17,960 not start soon enough. The forensic investigation of 533 00:36:17,960 --> 00:36:21,520 the evidence gathered at Willie Picton's farm lasted 22 months. 534 00:36:22,000 --> 00:36:26,000 By the end of 2005, the police had catalogued enough evidence 535 00:36:26,120 --> 00:36:29,520 to charge Picton with a total of 27 murders. 536 00:36:32,080 --> 00:36:34,760 But their case wasn't as strong as they'd hoped. 537 00:36:35,560 --> 00:36:41,160 January 2006, the trial of Canada's worst serial killer was 538 00:36:41,160 --> 00:36:44,800 about to begin. Throngs of spectators, including 539 00:36:44,800 --> 00:36:48,400 dozens of victims family members filled a Vancouver courtroom. 540 00:36:49,080 --> 00:36:51,760 They came to see a killer brought to justice. 541 00:36:55,400 --> 00:36:58,960 Pig farmer Robert Willie Picton was charged with killing and 542 00:36:58,960 --> 00:37:05,720 dismembering 27 women, but the authorities believe that the 543 00:37:05,720 --> 00:37:08,880 number of victims could be as high as 49. 544 00:37:10,520 --> 00:37:13,960 Chilling details about his crimes gripped people in Canada 545 00:37:13,960 --> 00:37:16,320 and the US. What makes? 546 00:37:16,320 --> 00:37:21,200 Picton front page news. Is this almost perverse 547 00:37:21,200 --> 00:37:24,240 combination? Pig farming and you know. 548 00:37:24,520 --> 00:37:29,080 Serial sexual predators. It became a sort of 549 00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:34,520 fascinatingly lurid case. Pretrial hearings took almost a 550 00:37:34,520 --> 00:37:37,520 year. Justice James Williams dismissed 551 00:37:37,520 --> 00:37:39,520 1 murder charge for lack of evidence. 552 00:37:40,040 --> 00:37:43,040 He also divided the cases into two trials. 553 00:37:44,760 --> 00:37:48,000 The cases were just so complex. And so long the judge. 554 00:37:48,000 --> 00:37:49,960 Ordered a severance SO. That the case would become 555 00:37:49,960 --> 00:37:53,400 manageable. Picton would first stand trial 556 00:37:53,400 --> 00:37:58,200 for six counts of murder and to ensure a fair trial, the judge 557 00:37:58,200 --> 00:38:01,800 issued A strict ban limiting what details journalists could 558 00:38:01,800 --> 00:38:08,000 share about the proceedings. The first trial began on the 2nd 559 00:38:08,000 --> 00:38:12,640 of January 2007 inside the New Westminster Supreme Court. 560 00:38:12,880 --> 00:38:16,640 Family members came face to face with the man that many called 561 00:38:16,840 --> 00:38:22,560 the Butcher. He's always got a smirk on his 562 00:38:22,560 --> 00:38:24,440 face. He just gives me the creeps. 563 00:38:24,440 --> 00:38:27,000 When I'm in the courtroom, he just gives me the creeps. 564 00:38:27,920 --> 00:38:32,400 Willie Picton pleaded not guilty to murdering Marnie Frey, Serena 565 00:38:32,400 --> 00:38:37,480 Abbott's Way, Georgina Papen, Andrea Josbury, Brenda Wolf and 566 00:38:37,480 --> 00:38:43,240 Mona Wilson. The prosecution led the jury 567 00:38:43,240 --> 00:38:46,360 through a staggering array of evidence, including gruesome 568 00:38:46,360 --> 00:38:50,640 crime scene photographs, blood spatter analysis, forensic and 569 00:38:50,640 --> 00:38:54,440 DNA evidence. There was all kinds of evidence 570 00:38:54,440 --> 00:38:57,320 presented like. Woman's jacket and lipstick and 571 00:38:58,200 --> 00:39:03,520 night vision goggles, manacles, Just really ugly, terrifying 572 00:39:03,520 --> 00:39:05,960 stuff. Among the witnesses who 573 00:39:05,960 --> 00:39:09,520 testified against Willie Andrew Bellwood was a man who had lived 574 00:39:09,520 --> 00:39:12,560 at the Picton farm for several weeks in 1999. 575 00:39:14,080 --> 00:39:18,000 He testified that Willie had play acted the murder of 576 00:39:18,000 --> 00:39:24,160 prostitutes on his bed, kneeling down and pretending that he was 577 00:39:24,160 --> 00:39:28,640 strangling a prostitute with a belt or a piece of wire. 578 00:39:31,280 --> 00:39:34,800 The defense attacked Bellwood's credibility, citing his criminal 579 00:39:34,800 --> 00:39:39,240 record and former drug use, But Bellwood's story still chilled 580 00:39:39,240 --> 00:39:44,240 the courtroom. His descriptions were very, very 581 00:39:44,240 --> 00:39:47,520 detailed. Equally compelling was the 582 00:39:47,520 --> 00:39:50,840 testimony of Willie's one time friend, Lynn Ellingson. 583 00:39:52,280 --> 00:39:55,800 She was the only person that was going to testify that she'd seen 584 00:39:55,880 --> 00:39:58,080 Willie picked in with a dead woman. 585 00:39:59,160 --> 00:40:02,320 Picton's defence team shredded Ellingson's testimony. 586 00:40:02,800 --> 00:40:06,240 They exposed inconsistencies in her story and reminded the 587 00:40:06,240 --> 00:40:09,240 jurors that she'd been using drugs the night of the alleged 588 00:40:09,240 --> 00:40:12,680 murder. The defence worked very hard to 589 00:40:12,680 --> 00:40:14,560 undermine her credibility with a great deal of. 590 00:40:14,560 --> 00:40:18,760 Success As the trial continued, the defence team portrayed 591 00:40:18,760 --> 00:40:22,240 Willie as a simpleton who wasn't capable of committing these 592 00:40:22,240 --> 00:40:26,040 elaborate murders on his own. In some sense, he was almost a 593 00:40:26,040 --> 00:40:29,040 primitive animal. People talk about how smart he 594 00:40:29,040 --> 00:40:31,840 is, but wolves and animals kill all the time and Willie was 595 00:40:31,840 --> 00:40:33,520 probably one step removed from them. 596 00:40:34,480 --> 00:40:37,960 Picton's lawyers suggested that friends like Ellingson or Dinah 597 00:40:37,960 --> 00:40:39,760 Taylor could have been responsible. 598 00:40:41,480 --> 00:40:45,760 Final arguments concluded on the 26th of November 2007. 599 00:40:46,400 --> 00:40:48,560 The jury deliberated for two weeks. 600 00:40:50,760 --> 00:40:53,680 On the 8th of December, the victims, families and 601 00:40:53,680 --> 00:40:56,160 journalists gathered to hear the jury's verdict. 602 00:40:56,400 --> 00:40:59,640 Suddenly they realized that some of the jurors were in tears and 603 00:40:59,640 --> 00:41:02,840 that told me right away that there was going to be a problem 604 00:41:02,840 --> 00:41:05,960 with this verdict. And from the family's point of 605 00:41:05,960 --> 00:41:11,720 view, there was. The jury found Picton not guilty 606 00:41:11,920 --> 00:41:14,200 on all counts of first degree murder. 607 00:41:15,600 --> 00:41:17,880 The families that were in the courtroom started to scream. 608 00:41:18,720 --> 00:41:20,920 But Picton did not escape justice. 609 00:41:21,560 --> 00:41:25,400 The jury did find him guilty on 6 counts of second degree 610 00:41:25,400 --> 00:41:27,720 murder. Judge Williams gave him the 611 00:41:27,720 --> 00:41:30,720 maximum sentence, 25 years in prison and. 612 00:41:35,000 --> 00:41:38,320 It's essentially about premeditation and see wonder how 613 00:41:38,320 --> 00:41:43,560 someone who killed six women didn't premeditate that that it 614 00:41:43,560 --> 00:41:47,200 wasn't planned and orchestrated? The jury just couldn't reconcile 615 00:41:47,200 --> 00:41:49,800 in their mind whether or not he acted alone. 616 00:41:51,400 --> 00:41:54,080 A date for the second trial has not been set. 617 00:41:54,600 --> 00:41:57,640 Friends and family members of Picton's other 20 alleged 618 00:41:57,640 --> 00:42:00,720 victims are still waiting for their day in court. 619 00:42:01,720 --> 00:42:06,480 To think that we still have 20 charges that have never been 620 00:42:06,480 --> 00:42:11,080 tried against Robert Pickton feels like unfinished business 621 00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:14,280 to me. Investigators may never know 622 00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:17,560 exactly how many women were murdered on the Picton farm. 623 00:42:19,920 --> 00:42:24,160 And another haunting question What turned a lonely boy on a 624 00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:28,400 Canadian pig farm into possibly the country's most prolific 625 00:42:28,600 --> 00:42:32,120 serial killer? Is that combination of nature 626 00:42:32,120 --> 00:42:35,400 and nurture, of learning, of psychology and also maybe 627 00:42:35,400 --> 00:42:37,840 genetics? Maybe he had a predisposition to 628 00:42:37,840 --> 00:42:40,960 be in this way, but he also learned that life didn't really 629 00:42:40,960 --> 00:42:43,040 have. Much meaning I know a lot of 630 00:42:43,040 --> 00:42:46,720 women on the Downtown East Side who would say just let him walk, 631 00:42:46,840 --> 00:42:48,760 just let him be free for 5 minutes and we'll deal with 632 00:42:48,760 --> 00:43:08,110 them. On this rundown farm, the 633 00:43:08,110 --> 00:43:11,390 Canadian police discovered an unimaginable horror. 634 00:43:12,190 --> 00:43:14,870 This is the largest serial killing investigation in North 635 00:43:14,870 --> 00:43:19,150 America. A slaughterhouse for human 636 00:43:19,150 --> 00:43:24,160 beings. There was DNA all over the farm 637 00:43:24,240 --> 00:43:28,360 body parts in the form of bones and teeth and partial jaw bones. 638 00:43:29,040 --> 00:43:32,680 For more than a decade, a predator had haunted women in 639 00:43:32,680 --> 00:43:36,120 Vancouver. The killing, the dismembering, 640 00:43:37,120 --> 00:43:39,480 it was just a process he really enjoyed. 641 00:43:40,240 --> 00:43:42,800 The skulls were bisected with the reciprocating saw, which he 642 00:43:42,800 --> 00:43:44,840 used in his slaughterhouse on the pigs. 643 00:43:45,560 --> 00:43:49,120 At the time of his capture, the number of dead and missing women 644 00:43:49,120 --> 00:43:53,400 was staggering. He was going for an even 50 as 645 00:43:53,400 --> 00:43:55,440 far as the number of victims were concerned. 646 00:43:56,760 --> 00:44:00,240 His shocking crimes earned him the name The Butcher. 647 00:44:01,880 --> 00:44:06,400 Robert Willie Picton, Vancouver's most prolific serial 648 00:44:06,400 --> 00:44:14,760 killer. February 1999. 649 00:44:15,160 --> 00:44:21,360 Willie Picton was on the prowl. He headed to Vancouver's 650 00:44:21,360 --> 00:44:25,840 Downtown Eastside looking for a prostitute or a drug addict, any 651 00:44:25,840 --> 00:44:32,000 woman desperate for money. He spotted a young cocaine 652 00:44:32,000 --> 00:44:33,960 addict and offered to buy her drugs. 653 00:44:37,520 --> 00:44:40,400 Once ensnared, he took her back to his trailer. 654 00:44:48,560 --> 00:44:52,640 Once dead, Picton knew how to make his victim disappear. 655 00:44:54,600 --> 00:44:59,400 Willie was suspected of literally butchering the women, 656 00:44:59,400 --> 00:45:01,560 like the animals or the pigs that he butchered. 657 00:45:06,880 --> 00:45:10,840 Picton's gruesome methods made his crimes almost undetectable. 658 00:45:12,000 --> 00:45:14,760 To stop him, the police had to conduct the most complex 659 00:45:14,760 --> 00:45:16,880 investigation in Canadian history. 660 00:45:23,720 --> 00:45:29,920 On the prowl, he headed to Vancouver's Downtown East Side 661 00:45:30,200 --> 00:45:34,240 looking for a prostitute or a drug addict, any woman desperate 662 00:45:34,240 --> 00:45:40,400 for money, He spotted a young cocaine addict and offered to 663 00:45:40,400 --> 00:45:46,920 buy her drugs. Once ensnared, he took her back 664 00:45:46,920 --> 00:45:58,200 to his trailer. Once dead, Picton knew how to 665 00:45:58,200 --> 00:46:04,520 make his victim disappear. Willie was suspected of 666 00:46:05,480 --> 00:46:08,280 literally butchering the women, like the animals or the pigs 667 00:46:08,280 --> 00:46:15,960 that he butchered. Picton's gruesome methods made 668 00:46:15,960 --> 00:46:20,760 his crimes almost undetectable. To stop him, the police had to 669 00:46:20,760 --> 00:46:23,680 conduct the most complex investigation in Canadian 670 00:46:23,680 --> 00:46:32,880 history. Robert William Picton was born 671 00:46:32,880 --> 00:46:37,960 on the 24th of October 1949. His parents, Leonard and Louise 672 00:46:37,960 --> 00:46:42,280 Picton, ran a pig farm in Port Coquitlam, 15 miles east of 673 00:46:42,280 --> 00:46:45,560 Vancouver. On the farm, the family raised, 674 00:46:45,760 --> 00:46:47,960 slaughtered and butchered livestock. 675 00:46:49,720 --> 00:46:52,040 The life on their farm was very primitive. 676 00:46:52,600 --> 00:46:55,120 The animals were always allowed to run in and out of the Picton 677 00:46:55,120 --> 00:46:58,680 house. Willie's older sister, Linda, 678 00:46:58,680 --> 00:47:01,680 lived with relatives in Vancouver because his father 679 00:47:01,680 --> 00:47:04,840 believed that a pig farm was no place for a girl to grow up. 680 00:47:05,680 --> 00:47:12,160 Willie and his younger brother David stayed behind to work, and 681 00:47:12,160 --> 00:47:16,040 their demanding mother made sure that the boys stayed on task. 682 00:47:19,880 --> 00:47:23,440 She really was a tyrant. She ran the roost. 683 00:47:23,640 --> 00:47:26,520 The kids worked very, very hard. And she had this distinctive 684 00:47:26,520 --> 00:47:28,800 voice. She'd shout at the kids and say 685 00:47:28,840 --> 00:47:31,720 you kids get out of here right now and she'd screech at them. 686 00:47:33,000 --> 00:47:37,080 For Louise Picton, pigs came first and cleanliness wasn't a 687 00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:41,440 concern. The Picton children were famous 688 00:47:41,880 --> 00:47:47,160 for stinking of manure and of pigs and unwashed clothing and 689 00:47:47,160 --> 00:47:49,720 unwashed bodies. When they got on the school bus 690 00:47:49,720 --> 00:47:52,680 in the morning, children didn't want to sit near them and they 691 00:47:52,680 --> 00:47:56,520 called them Stinky Piggy. Willie struggled at school. 692 00:47:56,880 --> 00:48:00,440 His teachers labeled him slow and he was given special lessons 693 00:48:02,480 --> 00:48:05,440 he and his brother tried to escape school in any way 694 00:48:05,440 --> 00:48:06,640 possible. They. 695 00:48:06,640 --> 00:48:09,000 Would come back home and sneak into the house and hide under 696 00:48:09,000 --> 00:48:11,920 their beds and they would stay there all day until school was 697 00:48:11,920 --> 00:48:14,080 out so their parents wouldn't know that they had. 698 00:48:14,080 --> 00:48:18,600 Skipped friendless, the young Willie focused on farm work, 699 00:48:18,880 --> 00:48:21,200 especially caring for the family's livestock. 700 00:48:23,880 --> 00:48:27,680 When he was 11 years old, Willie used his savings to buy a calf 701 00:48:27,760 --> 00:48:31,280 at auction. The animal became his pet and 702 00:48:31,280 --> 00:48:35,000 only friend. He just really loved the calf. 703 00:48:35,200 --> 00:48:37,680 Every day he would come home and nurture it, take care of it, 704 00:48:37,680 --> 00:48:41,520 feed it. One day he came home and the the 705 00:48:41,520 --> 00:48:48,000 calf was missing. Willie went to his mother and 706 00:48:48,080 --> 00:48:52,200 she was very brisk with him and said to go go down to the barn. 707 00:48:52,680 --> 00:48:54,800 He went down to the barn and found that the calf had been 708 00:48:54,800 --> 00:48:58,040 slaughtered. He was hysterical. 709 00:48:58,800 --> 00:49:02,240 That numbed out any feelings he ever had for human connection 710 00:49:02,240 --> 00:49:05,920 and for understanding that that he could love or to connect to 711 00:49:05,920 --> 00:49:07,920 someone. I think that was severed at that 712 00:49:07,920 --> 00:49:11,440 point. Willie continued to struggle in 713 00:49:11,440 --> 00:49:15,280 school and in 1963 the 14 year old dropped out. 714 00:49:17,080 --> 00:49:20,040 He found work as a butcher's apprentice where he discovered a 715 00:49:20,040 --> 00:49:25,280 talent for dissecting animals. He knew how to solve them, where 716 00:49:25,280 --> 00:49:28,760 to solve them, where to make the incisions in the body parts, how 717 00:49:28,760 --> 00:49:31,840 to skin them. In short, he knew what he was 718 00:49:31,840 --> 00:49:35,720 doing. For the next 4 years Willie kept 719 00:49:35,720 --> 00:49:37,480 up his chores and his apprenticeship. 720 00:49:39,600 --> 00:49:44,000 It was a relatively happy time for the 18 year old, but life on 721 00:49:44,000 --> 00:49:47,760 the Picton farm was rarely happy or normal for long. 722 00:49:50,600 --> 00:49:55,400 On the 16th of October 1967, Willie was taught a shocking 723 00:49:55,400 --> 00:49:58,800 lesson. Dave Picton had just got his 724 00:49:58,800 --> 00:50:01,640 driver's license. He was 16, and he took the 725 00:50:01,640 --> 00:50:04,760 family truck out for a bit of a joyride down the road. 726 00:50:05,080 --> 00:50:08,400 The inexperienced driver accidentally hit a young boy 727 00:50:08,400 --> 00:50:17,280 walking along a country Rd. David raced home and told his 728 00:50:17,280 --> 00:50:21,480 mother what had happened. As Willie later told friends, 729 00:50:21,520 --> 00:50:27,680 his mother knew just what to do. She told him to take the truck 730 00:50:27,680 --> 00:50:31,280 right away to the garage that looked after their vehicles and 731 00:50:31,280 --> 00:50:33,720 get it fixed and I'll take care of the kid. 732 00:50:36,400 --> 00:50:38,600 Louise found the boy lying in the road. 733 00:50:38,800 --> 00:50:41,000 He was badly injured but still alive. 734 00:50:41,640 --> 00:50:44,840 The evidence suggests that she rolled his body into a watery 735 00:50:44,840 --> 00:51:03,520 ditch where he drowned. On this rundown farm, the 736 00:51:03,520 --> 00:51:06,680 Canadian police discovered an unimaginable horror. 737 00:51:07,520 --> 00:51:10,200 This is the largest serial killing investigation in North 738 00:51:10,200 --> 00:51:14,440 America. A slaughterhouse for human 739 00:51:14,440 --> 00:51:19,480 beings. There is DNA all over the farm 740 00:51:19,600 --> 00:51:23,640 body parts in the form of bones and teeth and partial jaw bones. 741 00:51:24,360 --> 00:51:28,000 For more than a decade, a predator had haunted women in 742 00:51:28,000 --> 00:51:31,400 Vancouver. The killing, The dismembering, 743 00:51:32,520 --> 00:51:34,800 it was just a process he really enjoyed. 744 00:51:35,520 --> 00:51:38,080 The skulls were bisected with the reciprocating saw, which he 745 00:51:38,080 --> 00:51:40,160 used in his slaughterhouse on the pigs. 746 00:51:40,840 --> 00:51:44,440 At the time of his capture, the number of dead and missing women 747 00:51:44,440 --> 00:51:48,720 was staggering. He was going for an even 50 as 748 00:51:48,720 --> 00:51:50,760 far as the number of victims were concerned. 749 00:51:52,080 --> 00:51:57,720 His shocking crimes earned him the name The Butcher Robert 750 00:51:57,840 --> 00:52:02,080 Willie Picton, Vancouver's most prolific serial killer. 751 00:52:08,040 --> 00:52:11,440 February 1999. Willie Picton.