Pig Farmer Convicted Of Six Murders
Canada's Worst Suspected Serial Killer Hears Verdict In First Of 26 Cases
-
Photo
Robert William Pickton, 52, is seen in this undated image made from video. The Canadian pig farmer is accused of murdering at least 26 women. (AP)
-
Interactive
Serial Killers & Mass Murder
Meet some of the world's worst killers, find out how some have gotten caught and what some have said about their crimes.
Robert 'Willie' Pickton was facing the first of 26 murder charges for the deaths of women, most of them prostitutes and drug addicts from a seedy Vancouver neighborhood.
Pickton, 58, was found guilty of the murders of Mona Wilson, Sereena Abotsway, Marnie Frey, Brenda Wolfe, Andrea Joesbury and Georgina Papin. The defense acknowledged that their remains were found on Pickton's farm outside Vancouver, but denied he was responsible for their deaths.
Pickton listened to the verdict with his head bowed. He will receive life in prison and will not be eligible for parole for at least 10 years when he is sentenced Tuesday. The jury had no recommendation Sunday on whether to extend that 10-year period. When the jury entered the courtroom again for that announcement, Pickton smirked.
Two jurors, both women, wiped tears from their eyes while the verdict was read.
The jury of seven men and five women took 10 days to reach a verdict. They had the option of finding Pickton guilty of first-degree murder, second-degree murder or manslaughter or not guilty on any of the six counts.
Second-degree murder is a lesser charge that means a murder was not planned. First-degree murder, which means a murder was planned, also carries a mandatory sentence of life in prison but does not offer parole eligibility for 25 years.
"It should have been first degree," said Rick Frey, father of Marnie Frey. "You don't have six murders over that time and not have first degree."
Family members and friends gathered for a candlelight vigil outside the courthouse after the verdicts.
Last week, Judge James Williams reviewed the transcript of a videotape in which Pickton is heard telling an undercover police officer that he had planned to kill one more woman before stopping at 50, taking a break and then killing another 25 women.
"I was going to do one more; make it an even 50," Pickton told the officer, who had been planted in the accused killer's cell and gained his trust.
A day earlier, Papin's three sisters cried and clutched each other's hands in court while the judge reviewed the testimony of witness Lynn Ellingson, who said she walked in on a blood-covered Pickton as Papin's body dangled from a chain in the farm's slaughterhouse.
The judge also reviewed testimony of prosecution witness Andrew Bellwood, who said Pickton told him how he strangled his alleged victims and fed their remains to his pigs.
Pickton has been charged in the slayings of 26 women, but almost 40 others are on a police list of missing women. The investigation into their disappearances is ongoing.
Prosecutors said Pickton will be tried for the 20 other murder charges later, but no date has been set.
Health officials once issued a tainted meat advisory to neighbors who might have bought pork from Pickton's farm, concerned the meat might have contained human remains.
© MMVII The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.



For the life of me, I can''t figure out how the jury could come up with second degree murder?
Could it be these were not little innocent kids he killed, but Prostitutes?
Not even Prostitutes deserve to be killed and fed to the pigs on his farm.
For the life of me, I can''''t figure out how the jury could come up with second degree murder?" posted by nirak2
I also live close to where this is.
"Second-degree murder is a lesser charge that means a murder was not planned. First-degree murder, which means a murder was planned..."
He told the cop he was going to make it an even 50, doesn''t that mean it was planned?
Not necessarily, he is eligible for parole in 10 years.
It''s time for your meds, Nancy. Ha Haaaa
"The jury had no recommendation Sunday on whether to extend that 10-year period?"
The Canadian far left must be as brain dead as the American far right.
Just sentence this freak to life in prision without the possiblity of parole and save the Canadian taxpayers the waste of money to have the parole process even take place.
Or, maybe we could put the far left and the far right people on a space shuttle to Pluto. That may be a better solution to the planets problems.
Tainted meat? This man is sick like Dahmner, Hitler, Manson etc. and should be immediately executed.
If that wasn''t planned I don''t know what planned is!
However I am glad Canada doesn''t have the death penality. Let him rot in Prison!
One innocent person sitting on death row is too much for me and we all know there are many in the States and here who have been found guilty and were innocent.
As a matter of fact, Mychal bell was only given 18 months with credit for time served. The only reason he got that much was because of prior convictions. The justice system was very lenient. All the rest of the perps walked persumably because they had shorter criminal records.
Posted by incog-nito at 11:29 PM : Dec 09, 2007
actually, some people in prison have been shown to adapt to general population or solitary confinement very well. (Even the supermaxx 23 hours in solitary, 1 hour out per day kind) You do not believe in the death penalty--that is obvious--but keeping someone alive and healthy for the rest of their life is more expensive than simply killing them even with appeals. Do not delude yourself, even cons who do not get the death penalty tie up the system and exhaust it with numerous appeals. the good thing about the death penalty is that they never return to do repeat their types of crime. They really don''t. Check the stats, less than .0000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000% come back and sucessfully kill. You want to justify keeping them alive--try a better rationale, those who support the death penalty are not into torturing people or punishing them harder--you miss the point--it is to provide surcease to society, on behalf of the victims family and it is to also ensure the killer never does it again. Most who oppose the death penalty argue similarly to you--but the funny thing is, they fail to understand why so many endorse it--because it works--not to stop new killers, but to stop ones already caught from repeating the offense.
That would completely be out of the question in Canada but NOT the U.S.
There is no way that this guy will ever get parole.
And his sentence was decided by the JURORS when they made it second degree murder.
I am pretty sure that there were more than 6 murders, that is just all they could get him on.
I don''t believe in the death penalty anymore; not since over 200 people have been completely exonerated by the Innocence Project in the United States just since 1999.
This is exactly why we don''t want a socialist, liberal America.
This is NOT Justice it''s Repulsive!
I really feel so badly for the families of these people that fell into this very sick person.
Finally the family members can put this entire horrible part of their lives to rest. There is no way shape or form that the family members will rest but at the very least they will be able to feel better about the situation.
This man will be able to get parole? I just do not get it at all.
MAY GOD BLESS ALL THE FAMILY MEMBERS OF THESE PEOPLE THAT ARE NOW ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE CURTAIN AND RESTING FOR THE FIRST TIME IN YEARS!!!
with 49 murders admitted to he could never be allowed to live in America, However according to erasmus6 Canada is glad to make sure he lives the rest of his life without any problems or worrys.
The sick fact that a man could kill 26 people and be considered for parole in only 10 years, should be enough to have all of America''s serial killers scurrying to cross the border into Canada.
Yes. I can accept the fact of mistakes--it is a part of life and unfortunately, it will and does happen. You may be able to accept the fact of life in prison, but since sentences are often communted or can be reversed or people receive credit for time or the prisons get overcrowded, etc to propose life in prison is not a guarantee and many men PREFER life in prison as it is the only life that they know. As for solitary confinement and Supermaxes, they cost about 3X times the price as general population. Once a sentence is given, what happens down the road as parole boards, gov. and the system changes is out of our hands. It''s okay if you cannot stomach or countenance the loss of even one innocent life. That is why we have the "state" assuming the ultimate role of victim and executioner--to recuse individuals from the huge weight of error and horror of murder themselves.
As Mr. Spock said: "The needs of the many must outweigh the needs of a few" Not a perfect system, not a panacea, but the murders and murderers are not stopping or even slowing down due to the moral dilemma of some.
We don''t get that many extreme cases like this.
We do have the death penalty for people that kill cops.
This guy ain''t going to get parole. They will never let him out.
There are many more woman that are missing they just haven''t found them yet.
The only reason the jurors came up with a 2nd degree murder conviction is because they figure that he was not alone in these crimes. Also, even though the bodies were found on his property, I don''t know if they actually found any of his DNA on anything.
If he was dead, he would have no more worrys but he ain''t and so therefore he is going to have plenty of worrys. His worrys begin when he has to start bending over for all his cell mates.
-
by erasmus6
December 11, 2007 9:04 PM PST
- Pickton was sentenced today to life in prison and he will not be eligable for parole for 25 years, not 10. He will be AT LEAST 83 by the time he is able to get out but I doubt he ever will.
-
Reply to this comment
-
See all 39 Comments