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Robert Pickton: The Pig Farm Killer | The Murderous Minds Podcast

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Have you ever wondered what goes on within the mind of a killer? This episode takes us deep into the enigmatic psyche of Robert Pickton, infamous as one of Canada’s most notorious murderers. We scrutinize the gritty upbringing that shaped him, his uneasy childhood on a pig farm, his struggles at school, and a traumatic event that scarred his psychology profoundly. We also touch on an unexpected side of Pickton, his bond with his mother and an unlikely act of compassion towards a young girl.

The narrative takes a chilling twist as we dissect the string of women's disappearances in Vancouver's downtown east side between 1983 and 1998, puzzling investigators and leaving the community in terror. We scrutinize the prime suspects, the mounting tension within the investigative team, and the numerous challenges that stood in their path. As we get deeper, we lay bare the horrifying crimes committed on the Picton farm, his subsequent detention, and the explosive reaction from the victims' families.

In our final act, we continue our exploration into Pickton's disturbed mind, discussing his disputed autobiography and his various appeals following his arrest in 2002. We share a shocking testimony from a woman who alleges to have witnessed a body hanging in Pickton's slaughterhouse. Our guest, Laura Moshener, one of the first officers on the case, sheds light on the government's alleged attempts to limit information, undercover operations, and gives her perspective on the police's handling of the case. A chilling lawsuit against Vancouver Police Department, the RCMP, and the Crown by the victims' children adds a final, grim touch to this dark tale. Tune in and unravel the complex tapestry of Canada's most haunting murder case.

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Thank you for tuning in to MurderousMinds, the chilling true crime podcast that delves deep into the darkest minds. Join us as we explore the captivating stories of notorious killers, analyze their motives, and unravel the mysteries behind their heinous acts. Stay connected with us on Patreon for updates, bonus content, and behind-the-scenes insights. Remember, listener discretion is advised.

Speaker 1:

Welcome to Murderous Minds, a documentary series started by the Top 5's YouTube channel back in 2018, dedicated to exploring the twisted minds of serial killers. The following podcast episode is the audio version of our video series over on the Top 5's Patreon page. If you would like to watch the video instead of just listening, and would also like to support our show, then please head on over to Patreon using the link in the show notes. Thank you for joining, and now let's take a journey into the minds of murderers. Between the early 1980s and late 1990s, somebody was making sex workers in Vancouver's downtown east side disappear. Law enforcement dragged their feet, unwilling to investigate the sketchy vanishings of dozens of women when they could be working on unsolved cases in wealthier neighbourhoods. It wasn't until 2002 that Robert Pickton, a humble farm worker, bizarrely described as both creepy and nice, stumbled onto the police's radar Rating his property. They discovered the DNA of numerous women and Pickton was placed under arrest, charged and convicted of multiple murders. He is now one of Canada's most infamous killers. But who really is he and what made him kill?

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We aim to shed light on these questions and more, as we look at the life and crimes of Robert Pickton, the pig farm killer, robert William Pickton, was born on October 24th 1949, in Port Coquitlam, british Columbia, canada. He was the middle child of a pig farming couple, leonard and Louise Pickton, having an older sister, linda, and a younger brother, david. Pickton's birth was reportedly difficult, as he'd been born with the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck. For some time his family feared that he had suffered brain damage due to this incident, but over the years he proved that his memory was intact and he appeared to behave like any other child. Pickton spoke often about his childhood. He liked to tell people how, when he was just three years old, he crashed his father's truck. The vehicle had been loaded with pigs and he remembered them jumping off. As the truck began to move, his father Leonard ran after him, shouting and instructing Pickton to stop the truck. However, at three years old, he had no idea how to stop the vehicle and so he instead crashed it into a telephone pole. Pickton also recalled the time when he was four and his mother caught him smoking a cigarette. She forced him to smoke a cigar to make him drop the habit, and he did.

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As children, the Pictons were raised in squalor. Many locals remember their homes on both Dorshill and Dominion Avenue as being messy, filthy and foul-smelling, as farm animals wandered around inside the houses and manure piled up in the corners of the homes. As the children had feeding and cleaning to do before school, they often turned up unbathed and smelling awful. Furthermore, the two boys, pickton and his younger brother, david, were treated differently from their eldest sibling, linda. Linda would often be bought pretty party dresses and was allowed to mingle with the other children in the neighborhood at social gatherings and was sent to Sunday school. The boys, however, lived a life that was the polar opposite. They were barely allowed to play with the other children and didn't attend Sunday school, spending most of their time helping around the farm. Despite this, pickton had a good relationship with his mother. He adored her and she did her best to look out for him, knowing he had a harder time than her other children.

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Academically, pickton struggled. Although he was a regular child, his grades were often far below average and in grade two he was held back to repeat the year and was ultimately kept in special education for the remainder of his school years. Fortunately, this seemed to work for Pickton, as he began to pass his classes and his teachers urged him to consider taking occupational classes in high school which would help him achieve blue collar jobs which required less education and training. One of Pickton's most traumatic childhood memories was from when he was 12 years old. At this time he had saved up $35, enough money for him to purchase his own calf. He went with his parents to a livestock auction and purchased a three-week-old black-and-white calf he described as really pretty as the day is long. In a letter to his pen pal, pickton recalled it was a nice calf and I was going to keep the calf for the rest of my life.

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While school was difficult due to his learning problems and the bullying he and David suffered from, he relished the thought of coming home and getting to see and feed the calf. But one day he returned home to find the creature missing, gone, as if it had never existed in the first place. Pickton frantically searched around the property, desperate to find his new friend. Years later he stated they say oh, it must have got out. I said how can it get out the door? The door is locked.

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Eventually his father grew tired of his son's distress and instructed him to check the barn. Pickton recalled and here I've seen the calf hanging upside down there. They butchered my calf on me. Oh boy, I was mad. I couldn't talk to anybody for three or four days. I locked everybody out of my own mind. I didn't want to talk to anybody. His mother gave him $20 and told him he could buy another, but Pickton remained angry and upset, telling her that he had planned to keep the calf for the rest of his life, and now it's gone.

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During the same time, another story of Pickton shows his softer side once more, when he met a young girl named Lisa Yelts who, after being abandoned by her parents, was being raised by a Chinese grandfather. Being half Chinese and half white, lisa was not used to being treated kindly, but she remembered the time that she visited Pickton's parents' store and he smiled at her and gave her a bag of hot dogs. Years later, the two would meet again and become close friends. In 1963, when the children were 15, 14 and 13 respectively, the family moved to a new home on Dominion Avenue. Linda, however, didn't go with them, instead moving in with relatives in Vancouver. Dominion Avenue was overgrown, muddy and had a harsh, dirt community road. Much of the Pickton's new property was swampy, with some of the land even containing patches of quicksand. The family continued to raise animals which they slaughtered and sold themselves. Their occasional baths never removed the stench of pigs and filth by this time.

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David and Pickton worked so hard on the farm that they often missed school, with Pickton eventually dropping out at the age of 15. He told Lisa Yelts that he quit education because the principal had threatened to beat him over a minor infraction, but Pickton's family cared little about his decision to leave school, because it could meant that he could help out on the farm more. At this point, leonard was in his late 70s and unable to do much of anything. While David managed to live a somewhat normal life, staying on at school, making friends, dating girls, he often got into trouble. At the age of 16, while speeding. He knocked over the son of their neighbours and fled the scene. Leonard had the car repaired and painted, while Louise moved the boy out of view to buy them more time. The coroner later discovered that the boy hadn't died from his injuries but from being pushed into the sly by Louise, where he had drowned. David was charged in juvenile court with failing to remain at the scene of an accident, and he was convicted in December of 1967, after which he was placed in indefinite probation and his driver's licence was suspended until he was 21.

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Louise's role in the young boy's death was the subject of local rumours for years. Following the horrific incident, Leonard passed away in 1978, with Louise following just one year later. After their deaths, the farm was left to the children, but Linda and David, both of whom were married by this point, had no interest in running the property. David did, however, want the house and Picton did not fight him on this. While David lived in the home with his wife and two children, picton continued to maintain the farm and lived in the basement. With the property now in the hands of Picton and his brother, rumours quickly began to spread.

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Robert's brother in particular developed a reputation as a weird and creepy individual. He had a snarling dog that could tear you limb from limb if he so desired, and he often fed the canine raw meat. People also found it eerie that he resided in the home's basement and there were whispers that he and David were involved with making snuff films. David also continued to have run-ins with the law. He was sued three times for damages, with all three cases stemming from traffic accidents, and was convicted of sexual assault in 1992. His associates were bikers and drug dealers, and his convictions often meant nothing to him, as he was let off lightly and would travel under His brother's name and identity until his punishments were lifted. Robert, for his part, was known to lend people money and give his friends a helping hand in whatever way he could.

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During the 1980s, robert began cruising the streets of Vancouver's downtown Eastside. It was where many of the city's sex workers, drug addicts and vagrants called home, and is one of Canada's poorest postal codes. At the time, the streets were littered with blood stains and dirty needles, and Sex workers sold their bodies for as little as five dollars so they could fund their drug habits. The area was not new to violence. Every day, sex workers were beaten, sexually assaulted, tied up, howl down and tortured. Men were known to slam car doors on their legs and stuff items down their throats, and one man in particular Was known to force women to drink alcohol until they poisoned themselves. The local police force dragged their feet when investigating the latter string of crimes. It took reports and information compilations by the Vancouver Sun before any action was taken, and even then, gilbert Paul Jordan Was convicted of one count of manslaughter and walked out of prison after just six years.

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Some of the women who worked the streets here were known to frequent the Pictons pig farm, specifically a place called Piggy's Palace, which was a barn that had been converted into a bar with David, through parties. Locals believed the parties were for charity and the farm's employees, but the relatives of missing women claimed that their loved ones would go to these parties and never return. Unsurprisingly, however, the police were not interested in investigating. So when numerous women vanished between 1983 and the later 1990s, very little was done to solve their cases.

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Initially, in the early days of the disappearances, it was not easy to see a pattern. Rebecca Guno was just 23 when she was last seen alive on June 22nd 1983. She was reported missing after three days. Then, 43 year old Sherry rail vanished in January of 1984, although three years passed before she was reported missing. In March of 1986, 33 year old Elaine Orbach told her friends she was moving to Seattle, but she never made it. She was reported missing the following month. Teresa Ann Williams was a 26 year old native woman who disappeared in July of 1988, although her strange vanishing was not noted until nine months later, after 14 months of no activity. Ingrid Suet, 40, was the next victim. She vanished in October 1990. And Kathleen Wattley, 39, disappeared in June 1992.

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For three years the perpetrator was dormant, but then, in March of 1995, catherine Gonzalez, 47, went missing, followed closely by 32 year old Catherine Knight, 36 year old Dorothy Spence and 23 year old Diana Melnick. 33 year old Diana Melnick, tanya Hollick vanished in October of 1996, while 22 year old Olivia Williams disappeared two months later, although she was not named a missing person until July 4th 1997. On March 11th 1997, 20 year old Stephanie Lane went missing, while, tragically, a woman named Janet Henry, who'd already suffered a brush with death After encounter with a serial killer named Clifford Olson, was the next person to vanish. In August of 1997, three more women disappeared Marnie Frey, 25, helen Hallmark, 32, and Jacqueline Murdoch, 28. In September of 1997, cindy Beck, 33, disappeared alongside Andrea Bohaven, whose vanishing was not reported to the police until two years later. Kerry Koski, 39, went missing in January of 1988. Between January and July of that year, four more women disappeared Jacqueline MacDonald, 23, inga Hall, 46, sarah Jane Devereys, 29, and Sheila Agne, 20.

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It was only after this final disappearance, in July of 1998, that the authorities began to pay attention. A report by the Canadian Association of Sexual Assault Centers documents that the number of missing women spiked between 1998 and 2002, noting that more than 30 women vanished after 1997, when Picton was first brought to the attention of police. Eventually, the relatives of the missing women became tired of law enforcement's inaction In response to their lack of investigation, they began to protest and rally alongside organisations fighting for the rights of sex workers. In September of 1998, authorities examined the list they had been given, which named every missing woman from the area since 1983. While they noted that some of the women had died from disease or drug overdoses and others had actually left the city and were located safe and well, there were enough women still unaccounted for that one detective, dave Dickinson, decided to launch his own investigation and his superiors created a task force to help tackle the case. While the police began their review by examining 40 disappearances of unsolved women beginning in 1971, they eventually narrowed down their investigation to a group of sex workers who all vanished from downtown east side beginning in 1995. What began as a group of 16 became a group of 54 over time, with the time span widening to 1983 to 2001.

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At this point, 85 investigators were working on the case, but conflict was rife amongst those looking into the disappearances. Inspector Kim Rosmo was convinced, using a geographic profiling technique, that a serial killer was operating in the area, but Inspector Gary Greer told the press that the police did not believe this. Rosmo resigned from the police force after receiving a disciplinary demotion. Further issues that arose while authorities examined the cases included they had absolutely no evidence of foul play, no bodies, no physical evidence and no witnesses who were willing to speak to them about what they knew. Then, in the last few months of 1998, as the investigation continued on, four more sex workers disappeared from a downtown east side Julie Young, angela Jardine, who had the mental capacity of a 10 year old child, michelle Gurney and Marcel Creason. Between September 1999 and March 2002, five of the victims presumed to have been killed by the unidentified serial slayer were found dead of unrelated causes or alive. They were subsequently removed from the list of potential victims.

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While investigators were short on evidence, what they had was plenty of potential suspects. The issue was that problematic clients were often not reported by sex workers and witnesses were unwilling to engage with law enforcement. Still, detectives managed to establish several different possible perpetrators. One of them was a man named Michael Leopold. He was 36 and was arrested in 1996 for assaulting a sex worker in downtown east side. He had beaten her and attempted to force a rubber ball down her throat. The woman's screams were overheard by a passerby and Leopold fled the scene in a panic but handed himself in to the police three days later While he was incusted. At the time of some of the disappearances, the police thought that he was a good possible suspect, as the crimes dated back to the 1980s. Leopold told a psychiatrist that he had fantasies of kidnapping, raping and murdering sex workers, but claimed that the incident in 1996 in which he was arrested was the only time he had attempted anything in real life. In August 2000, he was convicted of aggravated assault and sentenced to 14 years behind bars. However, he was ultimately cleared of being involved with the disappearances.

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Another suspect in the case was a 43-year-old man from Alberta, barry Thomas Nidermere. In 1990, nidermere was convicted of pimping out a 14-year-old child and reported he left prison with a hatred of sex workers as a result. In 1995, he was back in jail after selling contraband cigarettes from his Vancouver-based tobacco shop, which was driven out of business with a hefty fine. Furthermore, in April of 2000, he was charged with violent attacks on seven sex workers, which ranged from sexual assault, to kidnapping, to administering noxious substance. He remained a person of interest for some time afterwards. While there were several other suspects in the case, many of them were unidentified, including a man who attacked a 38-year-old woman and bragged about sexually assaulting and slaying multiple other women in a downtown East Side area.

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The man that the police were looking for, the one responsible for the disappearances of dozens of women, continued to elude investigators. 37-year-old Bill Hiskocks was a windower attempting to get his life back on track when he began working for the Pictons at PMB Salvage, a job he'd found through Lisa Yelts, picton's friend. He often picked up his paycheck from the brother's farm and he noted that the property was creepy looking and added that it was guarded by a 600-pound bore that would chase you and bite at you. Bill's suspicions had been raised when he learned in the newspapers about the local women who were missing. He later told authorities that the Piggy Palace, the Pictons' brother's bar, had been registered as a non-profit society under the name of Piggy Palace Goodtime Society in 1996. While it was supposed to manage and host events, dances, shows and exhibitions on behalf of service and sports organisations, it was mostly just an excuse for the brothers to throw raves that were attended by downtown East Side sex workers. The police at this time were already familiar with the Pictons, given David's frequent clashes with the law. In December of 1998, the siblings were banned from hosting future parties on their farm and the authorities were permitted to arrest anyone who attended any function they held on the property. In 2000, the Piggy Palace finally lost its non-profit status as it failed to hand over compulsory financial statements.

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Adding to Bill's suspicions was the fact that in 1997, picton was charged with attempted murder after he stabbed a sex worker on the farm. The woman, wendy Iseter, told authorities she had gone to the property for drugs, but Picton attempted to hand her and attack her, so she stabbed him with his own knife. In panic she fled the farm and was found by a passing motorist at around 1.45am and Picton attended Eagle Ridge Hospital so he could be treated for the single stab wound he'd received. He was released by a $2,000 bond following his arrest, but the charge was ultimately dismissed without explanation. It has been stated that because of Wendy's involvement with drugs and sex work, she was not considered a credible witness and the case was dropped. Bill seems privy to much of Picton's life. He noted that Picton frequents the downtown area all the time for girls and that he had all the purses and IDs that are out there in the trailer and stuff. Authorities took Bill's statement and believed his words, but three subsequent searches of the farm turned up no evidence that would indicate that either brother was involved with the missing sex workers. They remained persons of interest in the case, but no further actions were taken at the time. In late 1997, three further women vanished and around this same time investigators added the names of six other missing women to their list of possible victims. Although the details of each disappearance are sketchy at best, months later they added more names to the list, names that had gone, forgotten and unacknowledged by investigators and the public for years and in some cases over a decade.

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On February 5th 2002, investigators received a tip from a former farm employee that Picton had unregistered guns on his property. In response to this, two days later the police raided the farm. What they found on the property prompted them to gather a second warrant, this time to search for the missing women. Picton was arrested on February 22nd 2002 and for two years law enforcement searched the farm. They took apart trailers, buildings and barns and sifted through tons upon tons of dirt and filth, searching for evidence. Forensic experts were brought in to examine body parts to determine whether bones and flesh were human or animal and, according to the police, thousands of samples of human DNA were gathered from the scene. Following the end of their search, the Picton farm had become the site of the largest crime scene search in Canada's history. Picton's lawyer, a man named Peter Ritchie, released a rather patronizing statement claiming that no remains were found at the farm, stating.

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While DNA evidence can be enormously complex, there are some simple and basic concepts that may not be well known. For example, an object that you touch may have your DNA on it. Your DNA may appear in places where you have been, depending on the transportability of an item that you have touched. The bus that you coughed in may contain your DNA. The pen that you hold has a trace of your DNA and can hardly be described as containing your remains.

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However, using the DNA found at the scene, authorities began to lay charges against Picton. Initially, he was charged with the slangs of Mona Wilson and Serena Abbotsway, but he was soon charged with the deaths of 13 other women, whose names are as follows Diane Rock, jacqueline MacDonald, heather Bottenly, andrea Josbury, brenda Wolfe, jennifer Firminger, helen Hallmark, patricia Johnson, georgina Pappin, heather Chinook, tanya Hollick, sherry Irving and Inga Hall. Prosecutors at the time wished to also add charges for the slangs of seven other women Marine Frey, tiffany Drew, sarah DeVeures, cynthia Felix, angela Jardine and Diana Malnick, along with an unidentified woman known only as Jane Doe. The families of Mona Wilson and Serena Abbotsway were frustrated during this time. Both women had gone missing after the farm was initially searched in 1997. Why had nobody been watching Picton Reportedly? He had been monitored for only three days before the police superiors pulled the surveillance team.

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Many, even outside of the victims loved ones, wondered why no evidence had been found on the property previously. It is worth noting, however, that according to a Global Post article in 1998, the police received a tip that Picton had a freezer containing human remains on the farm. Picton was interviewed but denied any knowledge of the freezer or the missing women. He gave his consent for the property to be searched, but the police opted not to carry one out at the time. Furthermore, one year before that, dc Larimer Schenner claimed that a call had been made to a police tip line about Picton, indicating that he should be investigated in the case of the disappearances. However, larimer's superiors were disinterested in taking a closer look at Picton. In March of 2003, authorities warned the public that human remains may have been added to the meat that the pig farm produced. Although it was not sold commercially, it was given away to locals, served at barbecues and handed to close associates of Picton. There were also allegations that Picton fed the remains of his victims to his pigs.

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Meanwhile, david was shocked by what had taken place on the farm while he was out of town managing his construction business. He claimed I'm baffled, I beat my head against the wall. He couldn't operate equipment. He didn't have the intelligence, the coordination. He added that his brother was unintelligent and too simple to pull off such a horrific span of crimes. My brother, I don't think he could pull it off because he wasn't smart enough. He had a lot of weird people hanging around him. Somebody had some intelligence. You see weird people pull down there all the time. Willie, can I use the phone in the trailer? Lots of people come down and help him do slaughtering. David also defended Piggy's palace, even showing his bar to some of the family members of Picton's victims. He claimed that it was a good, clean place to party and that he only wanted people to have a good time, but prosecutors would prove that this was not the case.

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On January 30th 2006, picton's trial began. He attended the Supreme Court of British Columbia in New Westminster and pled not guilty to 27 charges of first degree murder. On March 2nd, justice James Williams dismissed one of the 27 counts, citing that there was not enough evidence to lay the charge. Eight months after the trial began, justice Williams split the charges into two one group of six and one group of 20. The group of 20 were to be heard during a separate trial at a later date, with Justice Williams explaining that 26 charges at once would put unreasonable strain on the jury, who may have to participate for up to two years and would be more likely to lead to a mistrial. The group of six trial began on January 22nd 2007,.

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Picton faced first degree murder charges in the cases of Marine Frey, brenda Wolfe, serena Abbotsway, andrea Josbury and Georgina Pappin, as well as Mona Wilson. During this time, the media ban which had been imposed when the Picton farm was raided was lifted, revealing what investigators had found that had caused them to press charges. During the search of the property, authorities had discovered skulls cut in half, with hands and feet stuffed inside. The remains of one victim inside a garbage bag, blood stained clothing found in Picton's trailer, a garbage can in the slaughterhouse containing the remains of Mona Wilson and part of a victim's jawbone and teeth found beside his slaughterhouse. They had also discovered a 2-2 caliber revolver with a sex toy attached to it which carried both his and a victim's DNA. Picton testified that he had attached the sex toy to the weapon as a makeshift silencer, although many, including the prosecution, thought this was a flimsy cover story, as the sex toy would have done a poor job at silencing something like a revolver. The reason that the search warrant in relation to the missing woman was executed in the first place is that an officer searching for Picton's alleged unregistered guns discovered an asthma inhaler bearing the name of one of the missing women.

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During the trial, lab staff testified that around 80 DNA profiles were discovered from the evidence recovered from the farm. They are all unidentified and are split roughly in half between male and female profiles. Furthermore, the trial also heard of the items located in Picton's trailer, including the loaded 2-2 revolver with one round fired, boxes of.357 magnum handgun ammo, night vision goggles, two pairs of fake fur lined handcuffs, a syringe containing 3ml of blue liquid and a Spanish flu aphrodisiac. The startling piece of evidence revealed during the trial was a friend of Picton's on videotape who explained that Picton had told him he had a good way to slay a woman who was a heroin addict who was to inject her with windshield washer fluid. A second tape involved another friend of the farmers who stated Picton mentioned killing sex workers by handcuffing and strangling them, then bleeding and gutting them before feeding them to the pigs. The graphic, grisly details of the crime shocked the jurors.

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During the trial, picton sat expressionist behind a bulletproof screen To avoid a mistrial. Justice Williams banned reporting on the case as he worried that contempt or prejudice would interfere with the verdict. 130 witnesses were called to the stand over a period of 10 months. The trial itself was not without its issues. On October of 2007, a female juror was accused of having already decided before the hearing was over and all the evidence had been disclosed. However, the woman denied the allegations and was allowed to remain on the jury as it could not be proven that she made the statements she had been accused of. Furthermore, the judge suspended deliberations two months later when a mistake was discovered in his charge to the jury On December 9th 2007,.

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Picton was found not guilty on six counts of first degree murder, but guilty on six counts of second degree murder. This lesser conviction still carried a hefty punishment, including a life sentence with no possibility of parole. On December 11th, after 18 victim impact statements were read aloud, justice James Williams sentenced Picton to life in prison with no possibility of parole, for 25 years. This sentencing was the maximum that could be given for second degree murder and the equivalent of what would have been given had he been convicted of first degree murder. As he passed the sentencing, justice Williams stated Mr Picton's contact was murderous and repeatedly so. I cannot know the details, but I know this. What happened to the victims was senseless and despicable. At one point he also addressed Picton directly, telling him Mr Picton, there is really nothing that I can say to adequately express the revulsion the community feels about these killings.

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On January 7th 2008, the Attorney General filed an appeal in the British Columbia Court of Appeals against Picton's acquittals on the first degree murder charges. This decision came as a surprise to many, including the families of Picton's victims, as Attorney General Wally Appel had said just days prior that the prosecution would likely decline to appeal, largely due to the fact that Picton had received such a hefty sentence that it was felt unnecessary. Furthermore, relatives were concerned that the successful six convictions could be jeopardized if the Crown argued that errors were made by Justice Williams. Wally Appel, for his part, apologised to the families for not letting them know of his plan, but argued that the appeal was filed mostly for strategic reasons, in anticipation of an appeal by the defence. He felt that if Picton appealed and was given a new trial, the prosecution would want to hold the trial on the original 26 charges of first degree murder but would not be able to do so unless their own appeal was filed successfully.

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Two days after his appeal was filed, picton's lawyers also submitted an appeal on the killer's behalf. They sought a new trial on the 6th counts of second degree murder. Picton at this time was represented by Gil McKinnon, a former prosecutor. Their filing highlighted areas in which the defence felt the judge had made mistakes, including the charge of the jury, An error Justice Williams had made in December of 2007. However, the following year, the Court of Appeal dismissed this request for reconsideration, so Picton then appealed to the Supreme Court of Canada. In July of 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada also dismissed Picton's appeal and affirmed his convictions. Following this, it was announced that the 20 other charges against the serial slayer would be discontinued. A BC Crown spokesman stated in reaching this position, the branch has taken into account the fact that any additional convictions could not result in any increase to the sentence that Mr Picton has already received.

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Picton has declined to give media interviews since his arrest in 2002, and even 20 years later, much of the investigation and subsequent trials remain a mystery due to media publication bans. However, in 2006, an individual named Thomas Lordermey, who was a 27-year-old Fremont California resident at the time, claimed that he had received several letters from the serial slayer After Lordermey had sent his own using an alias. The Vancouver Sun broke the story and reported that in the letters, picton claimed he was innocent and that he was the full guy in the investigation. In a letter dated February 26th 2006, and signed Willey, he wrote I myself is not from this world, but I am born into this world through my earthly mother and if I had to change anything I would not, but I have done no wrong. This specific letter was four pages long and was one of three supposedly sent to Lordermey. As the letters were written before the trial, picton at the time believed he would be exonerated and levied a tremendous amount of criticism of the police. He also stated that he planned to write a book. In his letters, picton often referenced and quoted the Bible.

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Since Picton refuses to speak with the media, it's unclear whether or not these letters are authentic. However, the Vancouver Sun attempted to confirm them by taking several steps, including proving that the envelopes were authentically stamped with the facility's name and address, that the postage stamp and Canada post details were not forgeries and that the meter number on the stamping machine belongs to a legitimate agency that does government mailings. Notably, picton isn't the first criminal to write to Lordermey, who has also been in contact with other killers, including Clifford Olson. Lordermey is reportedly an aspiring journalist and uses different identities to contact the killers, using what he knows about them to determine who they are, who they are more likely to speak to. He wrote to Picton under the name Maia Barnett.

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Picton's responses were littered with grammatical and spelling errors and Bible passages. When discussing his upcoming trial, he said I like what the judge has said in court, that I want to give his con demnem man a half decent trial. And I smiled and said to myself. My father was a condon-ned man of no wrongdoing, and for that I am very proud to be in this situation, for they are the biggest fools that ever walked the earth. But I am not worried, for everything on earth will be judged, including angels. He also alleged that much of the testimony of the trial would be fabricated. Picton also politely asked Maia for a photograph of herself, but discouraged her from visiting him before the trial, fearing for her safety. He also asked her if she smoked or drank alcohol, because Picton did not. His letters bizarrely display the words of a thoughtful and Godfearing man rather than an unhinged killer.

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In 2016, picton released an autobiography named Picton, in his own words. Reportedly, he was able to get his manuscript out of prison by passing it to a former cell mate, who then gave it to a man in California, michael Childers, a retired construction worker. Childers typed up the manuscript and published a 144 page book under his own name. It was briefly sold on Amazon for 20 Canadian dollars. Naturally, the public was outraged by the publication of the book and began petitioning for it to be removed from Amazon. Colorado based publishing house Outskirts pressed stopped printing the book and asked Amazon to remove it from their site.

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After discovering that the author was Picton himself, who was in prison, british Columbia's Solicitor General, mike Morris, also stated that the government was taking steps to ensure Picton did not profit from the sale of the book. In the writings, picton claimed that he was innocent. Morris stated that the sale of the novel was deeply disturbing. Childers reportedly told CTV News that the money made from the book would go to a former cellmate of Mr Picton's who was convicted of assaulting a teenager. Although he maintains his innocence, it is unclear if this is the same former cellmate who smuggled the manuscript out of prison. According to an article by Vicecom, the book was rambling, largely incoherent and, like his letters, quoted passages from the Bible. It also argued that his 2007 trial was the blind leading the blind and that prosecutors led the jury down a crooked and dark pathway.

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During his time behind bars, picton told an undercover police officer that he had been one short of hitting his target of 50 slayings. Furthermore, years after his conviction, it was revealed that a woman named Lynn Ellingson had spent time with Picton in the downtown Eastside area, helping him approach and pick up other women. Lynn claimed that she had once walked into Picton's slaughterhouse to see what she believed was a woman's body hanging from a meat hook. He was unfazed by her presence on the body and continued cutting strips of flesh from the body's legs. Lynn had been unaware that human fat was yellow. This was deemed to be a detail which lent credibility to her story. Back before Picton was arrested, lynn had told this story to an anonymous tipster, who passed her information to the police, but she had refused to engage with authorities when they approached her. She later admitted that she had blackmailed Picton several times about the incident.

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In 2010, in response to heavy public pressure, the government of British Columbia formally announced that a missing woman commissioner of inquiry had been established to examine law enforcement's conduct during the investigation. This inquiry noted that the investigation had suffered from a lack of leadership and that the authorities showed a deeper bias against the poor, drug addicted and marginalized women of downtown Eastside. Laura Moshener, one of the first officers who worked on the case and determinedly searched for answers for years, told the BBC in 2017 that he felt there was an effort by the provincial government to restrict the amount and type of information that was made available to the public at the time. He adds, however, that he has no solid evidence to back up his suspicions. Lorimer had a unique perspective during the investigation as at the time, he was still living pre-transition as a woman. While still identifying as a female, lorimer worked undercover on the streets posing as a sex worker so he could arrest men who wanted to solicit sex. He noted that he was subject to torrents of verbal abuse and threats and was often put in dangerous situations during his time on the streets. In 2015, he published a book on his time working on the investigation.

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That lonely section of hell. Ex-global news reporter John Daly stated when asked about the poor response from the police on this case. It was a horror story and the families were right they were ignored. They were families who went to VPD to report sisters and relatives missing and were told basically to buzz off. They were on some kind of prostitution track and they were getting ignored.

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In May of 2013, the children of the victims filed a civil lawsuit against the Vancouver Police Department, the RCMP and the Crown for failing to protect their loved ones. They settled less than a year later, in March 2014, where each child was to be compensated for $50,000 Canadian dollars without an admission of liability. Due to the reserved and secretive nature of Picton, it's difficult to say what triggered his years of slaying. In childhood he is described as a simple boy who seemed to desperately need and want a friend, who was then betrayed when his only companion, his calf, was taken from him by his family. If anything, picton was seemingly a good child in comparison to his brother, but somewhere along the way he became a cold-blooded and ruthless monster, preying on the city's most vulnerable inhabitants.