Serial killer Robert Pickton in critical condition after prison assault

[Floyd R. Turbo]

Convicted B.C. serial killer Robert Pickton has been hospitalized and is in critical condition after he was assaulted in prison on Sunday.

The Correctional Services of Canada (CSC) confirmed in a statement Tuesday that Pickton was the victim of a major assault at the maximum-security Port-Cartier Institution in Quebec.

Pickton was taken to a hospital for treatment. The incident did not involve staff, according to the CSC.

"We are not able to disclose any additional details, including medical information," the statement reads. "The safety and security of institutions is paramount and an investigation into what occurred is currently underway."

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/quebec-prison-robert-pickton-assault-1.7209598

[jmbar2]

1. Convicted in 2007 for murdering women on his pig farm

The remains or DNA of 34 women, many of whom were Indigenous, were found on Pickton's pig farm in Port Coquitlam, about 25 kilometres east of downtown Vancouver.

Glad the took him out.

[Floyd R. Turbo]

3. Good documentary on Prime "The Pig Farmer". RCMP totally muffed the investigation.

One of the most chilling segments is that with a friend of Pickton that knew of the murders and was blackmailing him. At one point she admits to seeing a young woman hanging from a chain in a barn. She chose not to report it so as to keep the money flowing.

[jmbar2]

5. Did she get charged as well?

If she knew and did nothing, that would make her complicit.

[Floyd R. Turbo]

7. No charges whatsoever!

[jmbar2]

8. I'm shocked. May she rot in hell as well.

[malaise]

14. He killed mostly indigenous women

We are lucky they locked him up at all.
A fitting end

[Spazito]

13. The Vancouver police messed up big time on this case...

Kim Rossmo, a detective inspector at the time, founded a geographic profiling section within the Vancouver Police Department and, in 1998, determined that a serial killer was responsible for the murders but the higher ups refused to look into that and, as a result, Picton wasn't arrested for another 4 years which allowed him to continue killing the women.

Wikipedia has a good section on this:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kim_Rossmo

FYI, Rossmo went on to advise on cases in Canada and the US.

[RazorbackExpat]

18. Damn

That's horrible! Those poor women

[Spazito]

21. Had these women been white, middle class women...

both police agencies, the Vancouver Police and the RCMP, would have acted very differently, imo.

[RazorbackExpat]

23. OK. I'm kind of confused here

Wasn't this in a rural area, outside of the jurisdiction of the Vancouver police? I can see the RCMP botching this, as they seem to have become a sort of real-life Dudley-do-Right brigade.

At any rate, my daughter is currently in Vancouver, and I worry about her every day.

[Spazito]

24. The women were from the downtown eastside of Vancouver...

and were taken to Port Coquitlam which is outside the jurisdiction of the Vancouver Police and within the jurisdiction of the RCMP.

Because the women were reported missing from Vancouver, the Vancouver Police had the responsibility to investigate their disappearance while the RCMP had the responsibility to investigate Pickton as a suspect in the disappearances because he resided outside of Vancouver.

It was a total mess and both agencies blamed each other and defended themselves when their actions were investigated later.

Here is a good article about both agencies and their reactions after the fact:

Vancouver police, RCMP defend actions in Pickton case

The two police forces that failed to catch Robert Pickton as the serial killer hunted sex workers in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside say they acted reasonably when they received information that women were vanishing and that Pickton might have been responsible.

The Vancouver Police Department and the RCMP each filed statements of defence Monday in a series of lawsuits involving the children of nine missing women, who accuse both forces of inadequately investigating reports of missing sex workers in the 1990s and early 2000s.

The case was the focus of a high-profile public inquiry last year that identified a long list of failures and concluded that, had the victims not been poor, drug-addicted sex workers, the police would have done more to investigate what happened to them.

snip

The Vancouver police investigated reports of missing Downtown Eastside sex workers, while the RCMP examined Pickton as a potential suspect. In 2001, both forces formed a joint task force to review missing-person cases involving sex workers.

more

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/vancouver-police-rcmp-defend-actions-in-pickton-case-1.1929076

Vancouver, like any big city, has it's problems with crime and the downtown eastside is particularly dangerous for the inhabitants as they are vulnerable and often victims. Outside of that area, Vancouver is relatively safe, imo.

[RazorbackExpat]

28. Thanks a lot for the detailed reply

My daughter won't tell me exactly where she's living, but she's apparently working at a very nice place in Burnaby. The first place she stayed at in Vancouver was very sketchy, but I had introduced her to a very nice couple I knew in Vancouver, and after that they let her stay with them until she became better situated. But still, I worry about her all the time. Stories of women getting horrible things done to them in the Vancouver area practically give me an ulcer.

[Spazito]

29. I hear you...

I always felt safe in Vancouver when I had business there or was visiting and knew to stay away from the Downtown eastside area but taking safety precautions is always a good thing to do. Hopefully your daughter is taking those common sense precautions.

[RazorbackExpat]

32. So the East Hastings area is still the place to avoid

I once met a woman who told me that any place east of Cambie was best avoided. I wish my daughter would tell me exactly where she is staying.

[Spazito]

33. Hopefully she will share with you where she is...

so it can put your mind at ease assuming it isn't in the high-risk areas. It's a big worry no doubt.

[RazorbackExpat]

35. I actually lived in Vancouver

about 30 years ago, and everyone back then told me the places to avoid-- any place east of Cambie, any place east of Gas Town, any place around East Hastings. But my Vancouver friends have told me that it's gotten worse since then. I want my daughter to tell me her address, but maybe she thinks that if she does, it'll make me worry even more

[Spazito]

36. It certainly is a very, very expensive place to live these days...

so maybe she is living in one of the neighbourhood areas like Burnaby, New Westminster, etc. which are slightly cheaper for renting.

[RazorbackExpat]

37. New West, when I was there, had a bad reputation

Burnaby had a much better reputation. But that was 30 years ago...

[GenThePerservering]

38. I stay not a half mile from the DTES

and walk through there all the time. Yeah, it's rough, but I've lived in just as bad.

[TheBlackAdder]

43. White woman in trouble

[LudwigPastorius]

48. "She chose not to report it so as to keep the money flowing."

Jesus Fucking Christ

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

45. omg awful

[Spazito]

2. No sympathy from me.

[Floyd R. Turbo]

6. Ditto! Incredibly he is currently eligible for day parole and full parole in three years.

[Spazito]

9. Geez...

Life should mean life and not 25 years with time off for good behavior. The current law should be changed to make life mean life, imo.

[Floyd R. Turbo]

11. Not long ago he was transferred from a maximum security facility to medium security. It's possible that the

attack would not have happened if he’d stayed put.

[Disaffected]

30. Eligible to apply for parole.

The chances of getting parole, he being a notorious serial killer, are near zero.

[Mountainguy]

4. Hope he lives

And is rendered bedbound and in xinstant incredible pain for many more years

[Floyd R. Turbo]

10. I'm sure his attorney will use the attack as a reason to grant parole.

[Irish_Dem]

12. Pickton was speared in the head with a broken broom-like handle.

https://vancouversun.com/news/crime/bc-serial-killer-robert-pickton-savagely-attacked-in-prison

Notorious B.C. serial killer Robert (Willie) Pickton was on life support Monday after a brutal attack by another prisoner in Quebec’s maximum Port-Cartier Institution.

One source said the attacker had earlier assaulted other inmates at the prison before being moved to segregation. The attack on Pickton allegedly happened after the prisoner was then released back onto the same unit as the serial killer, Postmedia has learned.

[ZonkerHarris]

22. so he's done. oh well. whats for lunch?

[Irish_Dem]

25. The karma train came for Mr. Pickton.

And it was brutal.

[ZonkerHarris]

31. Karma knows everyones address

[Irish_Dem]

34. Killed by a homemade spear after brutalizing indigenous women.

[Bucky]

42. I see newspaper headlines FULL of proof that just ain't true.

[LudwigPastorius]

49. That's going to leave a mark.

[electric_blue68]

15. No pity, Murderous bastard!!!

[John Shaft]

16. Don't kill him

make him suffer so bad he will wish he was dead.

Good job, convicts!

[WhiskeyGrinder]

17. Prison doesn't keep people safe.

[sarisataka]

19. And that is exactly how people want it to be

[Mountainguy]

20. Ok no prisons

What do you do with people like the pig farmer here?

[orange jar]

26. actually

prisons keep women safe by keeping scum bags like Pickton locked away. Too bad a "life sentence" in Pickton's instance doesn't mean his entire life. Some people need to be kept away for the safety of everyone else. That is reality.

[happybird]

27. Yep.

I wonder how all these people being gleeful about the attack would feel if their son was in this same prison for something like drug-related conspiracy, or any of the legal messes addicts often get into and severely punished for, and housed with the inmate who committed this assault, as well as assaults on other inmates.

Yeah, the guy who was attacked is a massive piece of shit who deserves to be locked up for life, I’d even say he’s evil, but the bottom line is prison should be safe for the inmates. All inmates. Basic human rights should still exist, and be protected, even for convicted felons in jails and prisons. No one gives a shit, though. They’re just criminals, right? Subhumans. We just throw people away and private companies profit off of it. It’s sickening and barbaric and just plain old fucked up.

[Silent3]

40. Indeed. Regardless of the way many people celebrate the supposed "poetic justice"...

…of events like this, our prisons should be run in a manner where such attacks (including prison rape, which so often earns an appreciative chuckle) are nearly impossible.

[Bucky]

41. Oh, that poor fellow. I do hope he can recover and get back to his much needed rehabilitation.

[XanaDUer2]

44. Kick nt

[BlueWaveNeverEnd]

46. his mother was a monster

Robert and his younger brother, David Francis Pickton, began working at the farm at an early age and their mother was very demanding, prioritizing the pigs over the brothers' personal hygiene, and forcing them to work long hours raising the farm's livestock.[7]

She often sent them to school in unwashed, dirty clothes reeking of manure and earning the brothers the nickname "stinky piggy" from their classmates. Pickton was strongly attached to his mother and he had little interaction with his abusive father.[8] Pickton struggled in school, being put in a special class after failing grade two.[9] At the age of 12, Pickton began raising a calf which became his beloved pet. Two weeks later, after failing to find it after school, he was told to check the barn where he was heartbroken to find it slaughtered.[10]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Pickton

[jmbar2]

47. jeezus...

Sounds like his rage against women had no bottom. I don't know if he survived the prison attack, but glad that he'll never see the light of day again.