Serial Killers on Biography
If you get the Biography channel on cable, you can watch me as an expert on a show about serial killer Robert Pickton, a pig farmer charged with killing 27 women in Canada. Here is the description:
The show airs at 8:00 eastern time tonight, Dec. llth.
Update: If you are a night owl and don't mind having nightmares, you can watch it again tonight, Dec. 12th at 12:am.
Between 1995 and 2001, serial killer Robert "Willie" Pickton killed at least six Canadian women. All the women were known drug addicts or prostitutes from "Low Track"--Vancouver's gritty Downtown Eastside neighborhood. Pickton picked up his victims from the street and took them back to his pig farm in Port Coquitlam. There, Pickton would strangle or shoot each woman before mercilessly cutting her up in his slaughterhouse. By the time police caught up with Pickton, more than sixty women were missing from Low Track. After the most extensive forensic investigation in Canadian history, Pickton was charged with murdering 27 women. He was finally convicted on six counts of second-degree murder. He is currently appealing those charges, and is yet to stand trial for a further 20 murders.
The show airs at 8:00 eastern time tonight, Dec. llth.
Update: If you are a night owl and don't mind having nightmares, you can watch it again tonight, Dec. 12th at 12:am.
Labels: media stuff
posted by Helen at 8:39 AM
20 Comments:
I'm ready for my close-up Mr. DeMille
i would hazzard a guess that his mother was a prostitute and that she abandoned him at an early age.
Or she was an overbearing, anal-retentive control-freak who beat the daylights out of him on a regular basis, and taught him he should be grateful for it.
I would love to see you on tv but I cannot watch that series. It keeps me up all night thinking about the inner workings of the killers.
A part of me is quite interested in profiling and such, but it gets going in my head and it won't stop and literally keeps me up at night. So I think I will have to watch a couple of episodes of the Sarah Conner Chronicles instead.
But congratulations! I know you will do great, here is hoping that more opportunities come from it.
Trey
Trey,
I understand completely. I don't watch this type of show much either because I think about the horror of what these people do and it can be very disturbing. My tv watching mainly consists of HGTV or comedies that make me laugh.
Helen, I had the dubious honor of actually being acquainted with KC's Robert Bordella. Very strange and creepy kinda guy. He ran a curio shop in the local flea market. There was always this 'odd' feeling I had whenever I dealt with him. Told my daughter "You never go in his shop alone." Right about the beast, wrong about his targets.
Canada has a dysfunctional criminal justice system. The facts are clear that he followed a systematic process of murder for years that was specifically intentional and involved lots of planning and preparation. So why wasn't he charged with first degree murder instead of 2nd degree? I bet he is set free someday to resume his career.
He is charged with second degree murder because he murdered prostitutes. Prostitutes don't rate. In fact, if you know a prostitute that is missing more than likely the police won't care. Half the problems is that women involved in prostitution tend to disappear for days at a time, the other half is that prostitutes don't vote and are committing crimes themselves so when they vanish the police feel that they become one thorn in their side. Never mind that hookers are someone's sister, daughter, loved one.
Vancouver isn't that big of a place where 60 someodd women can go missing and people don't notice. This guy was murdering for years with impunity, he was probably shocked when it finally caught up with him. The same could be said for the Green River killer and the guy in Cleveland.
The moral of this story is that if you want to be a successful serial killer and have a long career, go with the street walkers.
Cham, your reference to the Green River killer is at odds with your opinion. Lot of hookers and the police spent lots of time and effort and lots of public exposure to the fact he was about.
With the Green River killer it took 7 years and 7 bodies for the police to get interest in that case. The relatives and loved ones had to beg for police to continue the investigation after the killer took a hiatus. The police even had a very good lead and questioned the killer at his home at one point, but opted not to probe too deeply. It was 8 years after the killing began in 1998 for the police to determine what type of gun and what type of ammo the killer was using. It was another year before dumb luck caused them to stumble onto the killer. What is also amazing is the the local police force never asked for help from federal agencies, with so many dead women you would think they would take help anywhere they could get it.
Cham ->
Dr Helen, you are so hot!!!
Rats. Missed it.
Is there a replay time?
br549,
It replays tonight, Sat, at 12 am
http://www.biography.com/listings/episode_details.do?episodeid=510320&airingid=510916
Flash - I agree about our justice system up here and have no idea why he's charged with second-degree murder, but there is a law up here called the dangerous offender act. Even though the maximum sentence is 25 years, a judge can call you a dangerous offender and keep you locked up forever. Clifford Olson, Paul Bernardo, and this Pickton guy are going to die in jail.
Helen et al,
You might enjoy waxing on this article:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34353701/ns/entertainment-gossip/
"Rihanna admits she prefers ‘high-risk’ men
One might think Rihanna would welcome a drama-free relationship after her romance with Chris Brown came to such an abrupt and violent end. But one would be wrong.
When Glamour U.K. asked the singer what she looks for in a man, she made one thing clear — no nice guys.
“Definitely the high-risk (type),” the Grammy winner said. “I don't like cream puff, corny guys. Usually they are the nice guys, the ones that won't hurt you. They'll pull out the chair for you and the whole nine yards. Everything is perfect and boring … I like the risk. I like the edge. That's the thrill for me.” "
Also Dr Helen, I just watched the second episode of the first season of the HBO therapy series "In Treatment."
In it, a Navy pilot tells the therapist about how he had a heart attack while long-distance running and had a death experience. Interesting that the episode combined two of your markers.
Topher,
Thanks for the link to the article. I have only seen "In Treatment" once or twice but will have to check it out again.
I saw the show. The main reaction I had to it was feeling glad that I do not have a job that requires me to interact with people like that on a regular basis. I have a cousin who recently retired as a policeman. Decades of dealing with some of the worst people on earth has definitely changed him from the type of person that he was when we were kids. (Not that the years have not changed me too, but I am definitely nowhere close to as hard and cynical as he is today.)
Dr.Helen, I am glad to see that a career spent in close company with some depraved and evil people does not seem to have warped you or dimmed your sunny disposition.
Mark,
Thanks very much for watching. I agree that dealing with a lot of darkness can change one's disposition to one that is more negative. I hope your cousin regains some of his optimism now that he is retired.
Post a Comment
<< Home