The Butcher ~ One of Canada's Most Prolific Killers Part 1.

 

Hi everyone. If you are either not Canadian, or you don't know why I am posting a picture of a pig to start this story off... this one will be a real shocker! 

Today, I am writing about Robert William Pickton aka "The Butcher" aka "Pig Farm Killer". A monster who terrorized British Columbia, Canada beginning in the early 1990s until his capture in 2002. He was a serial rapist, serial killer, and a cannibal. 

So the question may be why it took soooo long to capture such a creep???

His victims were people that most wouldn't have noticed were gone, (as horrid as that sounds, it is the truth)... He chose prostitutes, addicts, transients and homeless women. But before I get into his case, I would like to write a little about the man/monster first.

Robert William Pickton was born in 1949, to a family of pig farmers; I am not including his parents, nor sister or brother's names, as they really don't have anything to do with the case. His parents were deceased, and the pig farm was inherited.

There was somewhat of a battle of whether Pickton was a product of his environment; you know, the nature versus nurture arguments. 

Robert and his brother (their sister was sent off to live with relatives, as her parents felt the pig farm was not a proper environment for a girl), were very much abused by their mother, who would always make the pigs a priority; causing them to work insanely long hours.

They were relentlessly picked on at school because of their lack of proper hygiene. They both stank like manure and were known as "stinky piggy" in school. Robert was special needs, and mainly stayed close to his mother as his father was even more abusive. He dropped out of school, very young, working as a meat cutter on the family farm for seven years, before he went to work full time on the farm.

Somewhere between 1994 and 1995, Robert and his two siblings inherited the farm. One of their workers described Robert as someone who was difficult to have a conversation with as he was pretty quiet. He DID, however, have some very strange behaviours that drew attention to him. No one suspected any substance abuse though.

In March 1997, Robert WAS charged with attempted murder of a prostitute named Wendy Lynn Eistetter. He had her handcuffed and stabbed her numerous times, but she managed to gain control of the weapon and stabbed Robert as well. He was arrested, but released on $2,000 bond... the attempted murder charge was "stayed" in January 1998. 

You want to know why???

It was felt that Wendy was unreliable because she had a drug addiction; so she wasn't a sure bet for a conviction. 

The ironic thing is Robert's brother, David was charged and convicted of sexual assault back in 1992, only being fined $1000 and 30 days probation. There were trafficking charges three different times between 1988 and 1991 ~ all three cases were settled out of court!!!

The brothers had given up on the agricultural part of the farm, and had begun having raves, special events, dances, shows and exhibitions there. It was these events that many of Vancouver's sex workers would gather at the "slaughterhouse" on the Pickton Farm. Robert and David ignored all the legal cases building against them, not paying fines to the point that after a 1998 New Year's Eve party, they were banned from hosting any type of future event.

Law Enforcement Officials (LEO) had grown suspicious of the brothers and on February 6, 2002 they executed a search warrant, searching for illegal firearms; after what the LEOs found, they arrested the brothers and obtained a second warrant. This was all part of the "BC Missing Women Investigation". The warrant produced several personal items that belonged to some of the missing women, taken  and sealed into evidence; both brothers being charged with weapon offences. The Vancouver Police and RCMP, didn't reveal what they had discovered, but kept Robert under surveillance.

Fourteen days after they had the second search warrant, on February 22, 2002, Robert Pickton was arrested and charged with 2 counts of first degree murder of Sereena Abotsway and Mona Wilson. 

He remained in custody and on APril 2, 2002 there were 3 more charges of first degree murder of Jaqueline McDonell, Dianne Rock and Heather Bottomley. 

A sixth charge came on April 9, 2002 where he was charged with first degree murder of Andrea Joesbury and then the 7th victim was Brenda Wolfe.

I am not going to mention all the victims' names because there are many of them, but on September 20th he was charged with 4 more murders. October 3rd, he was charged with another 4; bringing the death toll at 15 already. On May 26, 2005, TWELVE more charges were laid; makign the total of first degree murder charges of 27 women, thusfar.

The police had not stopped there, and by November 2003, the cost of this investigation was well over $70 MILLION!!! AT this point, forensics were having a hard time identifying any more bodies, as either they were eaten by insects or pigs; which is to be expected when human remains are left to the elements. I feel the most disturbing part of this was on March 10, 2004, it was revealed that Robert Pickton had ground up some of their flesh and mixed it in the pork that he sold to the public ~ the government's response??? The health department issued a public warning.

Interestingly enough, the police still had DNA from when Robert attacked Wendy and they when it was retrieved from the RCMP, it showed that there was DNA from Andrea Borhaven and Cara Ellis; two of the women that he was charged with their deaths on May 26th, 2005.

Stay tuned for part 2 of the court trials of Robert PIckton