Willie Pickton
is not an animal!
CANADA – Oct 10 07 – After listening to Sandy Humeny and then the chemical
expert, so-called 'Forensic Consultant' Jon Nordby, who runs his own lab, and seemingly his
own experiments, trial watchers may be wishing for a return to the lucid and clear cut
testimony provided by the cast of wild and wooley drug addicts. They may have consistently
alluded to a humane side in Willy Pickton, but they didn't go wandering off into stupid
arguments and their experiments were, frankly, more practical. Yes, Willy begins to
emerge from the shadows like some kind of strange, exotic,
deep-sea fish that no one has ever seen before. It is a short lived appearance
in relation to the gravity of his alleged deeds, meanwhile the testimony of ex-wives and
experts honestly sounds more made up than a dream-state composed out of low-grade
crack cocaine ('cause it goes 'crack 'a crack 'a crack when you burn it) and terrifying
notions of deeds done to others that remain indescribable and will
be forever. When she testified that she wondered why the RCMP locked down the
farm so tactically, even morons like myself fell out of chairs wondering what
else the police might do to contain their disgust and begin the task of finding
the rest of the body parts in buckets, finding body parts in pig stys, finding
blood evidence in sort of Mansonesque taunt to authority. What did she
expect the police to do? She prattled on about how stupid Willy Pickton is, and
while I wasn’t there, I can just imagine the grin on his face while he
lapped up this loving portrait of a former sister in common-law.
Sandy lived with the boys from her mid teens to her
early twenties, a kind of hill-billy portrait emerges, and she bore David
Pickton two children. She farmed with the alleged mass murderer
while his brother David ran some kind of truck and heavy equipment
business that continues to this day. These
guys are nothing if not focused on long term projects.
The judge noted that the defence of Robert William ‘Willy'
Pickton would be over 'before the snow flies' and confusion reigned over just how stupid
this man is, sort of. Defence counsel Adrian Brooks said Willy Pickton had been a
repeater of grade two and eventually landed in occupational training school.
Brooks said, Willy Pickton was too stupid to realize the gravity of events when
he proceeded to go to work the day RCMP descended on the pig farm to dredge up
bodies. Brooks doubted if somebody who was actually guilty would go to the
pains of such a cover-up. He also said the jury must take pains to remember the
man sitting in the glass booth in New Westminster is actually innocent until
they determine otherwise. The defence is also working hard to question the
veracity of testimony from Lynn Ellingsen, who was alone in identifying Willy
Pickton as the killer of, in this case, Georgina Papin. Ellingsen said all
along that dates and times were not her strong suit. The defence is saying her
testimony doesn’t add up.
Aug 23 07, The defence of Willy Pickton was to take
place starting this week, Mon., Aug 20 07, after the prosecution wrapped up
proceedings with almost 100 witnesses. The reports are the defence will be
presenting evidence and calling witnesses, although the media has noted they
have been quiet about their intentions. Adrian Brooks, one of the defence
lawyers, said the defence will bring evidence, which puts the last word in the
Crown's possession. (FROM AUG 13 07) This is one of two two gruesome trials
underway at opposite ends of Canada this year, each one a look at the dark side
of a human heart, a misunderstood part of mankind’s nature (apparently people
cannot live without one, but it appears some people get by without a heart for
extended periods while committing atrocities). Both trials are imbuing
Canadians with horror; one is the trial of Desire Munyaneza for Rwandan crimes
against humanity (under Canadian law) on a break in Montreal until Sep ‘07.
In New Westminster, BC, summer heralded only a
brief stop of two weeks (until Aug 7 07) in the trial of Robert William (Willy)
Pickton, Port Coquitlam, BC, the ‘uptown’ pig farmer accused of first degree
murder of 26 women. To paint a believable picture of an unbelievable event
remains a challenge for Willy Pickton’s prosecutors.
With confusion over forensic evidence as intended
by the accused or not, prosecutors resorted to a cast of least-credible
witnesses imaginable for primary testimony. No matter how long the witnesses
testify, every drug-addled story is bizarre, often unreal, and hardly makes
sense of time and circumstances on the farm, in the slaughterhouse, or
surrounding the deaths.
Testimonies have missing details and this suggests
reasonable doubt, and some prosecution witnesses testify on behalf of the
defendant! After listening to them all, bystanders are wont to ask, 'Do
prosecutors have the actual person who committed the murders?'
Willy Pickton himself has been cloying, admitting
to knowing of body parts on the Pickton pig farm premises but pleading he
killed no one. He faces terrified witnesses who seem resigned to small
comprehension of events. One prosecution witness expressed warm feelings for
Willy Pickton.
The testimony became meaningless to outsiders
during a parade of drug-addled recollections. As the summer heat rose Canadians
tuned out and many details failed to register with the public. Some of the
variations introduced by the defence made Willy Pickton burst into laughter at
the witnesses from inside the glass-encased prisoner’s box.
(And this avuncular chap faces 26 murder charges!)
The defence implicated one of the witnesses in sex-trade homicides around
Edmonton until Mr. Justice James Williams slammed the door on it.
If they want to wrap this up fast the work of the prosecution becomes
difficult, for despite initial suggestions by the defence it appears Willy
Pickton is far from a clinical idiot. The defendant realizes unless the IOC
makes serial killing an Olympic event for 2010, the Crown, and indeed society
in general, might prefer to end the dredging of details (leaving parts of the
story to historians?)
Perhaps the future holds either a long stay in
proceedings of this trial or a mistrial, because Willy Pickton would be smart
to prolong the defence into the next decade and probably will, and probably has
money to do it. Furthermore, he's not cracking, and frankly Willy Pickton
appears comfortable in the milieu of the court.
The DES (of Vancouver) remains a mysterious
neighbourhood to most Canadians (and entirely understood by the amalgam of 70
percent Aboriginal people in it). Most DES residents are raised in poverty,
many on Indian Reserves, and these folks have transplanted their archetypal
'poverty' along with a neighbourhood resembling an Indian Reserve, which puts
them in places like the DES.
North America’s worst slum is ten square blocks
reserved for an overwhelmingly Aboriginal citizenry. From this space dozens
(possibly hundreds) of women were led away to grisly deaths, some dying at the
hands of an indubitable madman allegedly Willy Pickton.
Justice Williams decided to split the case in two,
to proceed on six charges for the murders of Georgina Papin, Serena Abotsway,
Mona Wilson, Andrea Joesbury, Brenda Wolfe, and Marnie Frey.
So much DNA was everywhere it became confounding to
the peaked capped authorities assigned to stopping this macabre conduct, who
immediately found body parts, including skulls, hands, and feet stuffed in slop
buckets. The farm went on lock down and other bones were found, and Willy
Pickton had nothing to say, except, “I didn’t do it.”
During the opening hours of Jan 22 07 the Crown
stated Willy Pickton confessed to forty-nine murders and rolled videotape of a
policeman ‘planted’ in the cell. The conversation centred on why they were in
lock-up. Willy proved cagey with the cop. Then, suddenly, Willy Pickton was
famous; his face splashed across newspapers the world over.
And then he was under police interrogation, and, Willy Pickton replied,
"You're making me more of a mass murderer than I am," mocking the
interrogators having problems distinguishing DNA. Once, he muttered, "I
was gonna stop at 5-0." They showed him newspapers, and Willy Pickton
parried, "That don't mean I did it."
He may have admitted something, but in doing so he
added to a 'confession' others did some of the killing, namely, "Dinah did
some of it." [Dinah's note: 'Willy: TAKE A BATH! It's been SEVEN days!']
Regarding the victims Willy Pickton refused to admit feeding pigs their
remains. Others have said he described doing it, feeding pigs and disposing of other
parts through a Pickton family garbage collection company (whose trucks create
driving jobs).
Crown Counsel Derrill Prevett presented a chain of
evidence from the Pickton's property, including skulls cut in half with hands
and feet stuffed in them. Crown Counsel John Ahern described six women living
deeply troubled lives. The defence must have agreed wholeheartedly, noting each
victim had literally dozens of encounters with either police, social workers,
hospitals, clinics, outreach centres, and detox units.
The women were seen making these frantic rounds,
chased by demons or real flesh and blood threats, while Pickton’s defence would
probably touch lightly on the subject. The dates for disappearances can be
precisely recounted by police. Many victims were known for trying to leave the
mean DES streets to return to motherhood or families.
The six victims in these proceedings were known as
missing from exact dates, and are joined by many others who circulated through
the over-crowded DES out to the over-crowded Piggy Palace and back to the DES.
Regular contact with these victims stopped abruptly. (It is rare instances that
reports of a disappearance arrived a long time later).
These six victims had suddenly disappeared between
‘96 to ‘01, and police implicate Willy Pickton in missing persons related to
the Lower Mainland sex trade as far back to ‘83, implying he started at age 33.
On the other hand, police candidly admit Willy
Pickton is joined by other suspects, from a minimum 50 to a couple hundred. To
conceive of a mob of serial killers working as a team is strange indeed, for
what is the motivation?
Willy Pickton and Dinah Taylor were both heard
ranting about drug debts. History informs that street level situations of
mayhem often involve drugs by and large.
Scott Chubb, key prosecution witness, gave hearsay
testimony to gross indignity to human remains and alluded to cannibalism
underway, in relation to Willy Pickton selling meat over the fence. This takes the
killer’s motive into the realm of strange psychosis.
Chubb refrained from eating at the farm, noteworthy
for a starving man at the end of a drug binge, but once informed of the horrors
in his midst he apparently balked at the pig farmer’s generosity. It was he who
initially reported in ’02 the property patrolled by an aggressive 600 lb. boar,
that it was terrifying.
Police say Chubb broke the case after working as a Pickton employee on a
garbage truck for an extended period at the wheel. Chubb’s solid work history
was matched by zealous use of drugs. It was his testimony that puts Willy
Pickton on a visit to a shopping mall with Georgina Papin at the time
immediately prior to her disappearance.
As time wore on between the two Willy Pickton
offered Chubb a moonlighting job in the late 90's, suggesting, 'Kill them with
a syringe filled with windshield washer fluid,' because drug addicts never get
autopsied.
Chubb fled the pig farm situation upon learning
about the inhuman conduct, and added penetrating testimony about a serial
killing machinery facing exposure by David Francis Pickton, Willy Pickton's
brother. Chubb reported the brother’s threat against a conspiracy of killers if
Willy Pickton is convicted of murder. Chubb openly expressed the physical threat
felt by all these street-level witnesses.
Next came Gina Houston discussing a conversation
with Willy Pickton after it was established, in Feb. 20 02, he was the primary
suspect. Willy Pickton might have been entering the denial phase of an alleged
killing spree (if such a phase exists) and prosecution witness Houston agreed
with defence lawyer Marilyn Sandford, stating, "Pickton said, 'I did not
kill Mona,'" or anyone else.
Instead, said defence attorney Sandford, he again
pointed the finger at Dinah Taylor, a pig farm roommate of 18 months once
investigated but never charged. Houston said Willy Pickton said Dinah Taylor
shot some of the girls, and Houston testified Willy Pickton was unable to stop
events occurring down on the pig farm. The crediblity of the testimony may come
into doubt because of Houston competing for Pickton's affections with Dinah
Taylor.
She described a telephone conversation with a
chatty Willy Pickton interrupted by a screaming woman, followed by another
screaming woman, then a screaming man, and a plea from Willy Pickton,
"Don't do it here," and finally, possibly, a life-emitting gasp.
The prosecution’s problem lies in credibility of
these witnesses. The defence keeps asking each of them over and over if they
are lying, and, what exactly are they remembering, about the accuracy and
veracity of these memories. Piggy Palace Good Time Society facilities hosted
recurring drug-drenched orgies, entree into which does not permit those of a
clear head. Some nights this Pickton property held over 2,000 drug-crazed
denizens. Police forced Piggy Palace to scale back in ’98 after a rape victim
escaped, partially shackled, but police never stopped it completely.
Gina Houston returned to testify about continued
affection for Willy Pickton. She said it was his close friend Dinah Taylor
killing women on his property. Dinah Taylor (no pictures available) is from a
central Canadian First Nation presently living without police protection who
vehemently, categorically, and dismissively denies involvement in murder. She
lived on the pig farm for 18 months at the height of disappearances and knew
several victims from shared experiences in the DES. Perhaps in the eyes of
some, maybe police, she was incredibly lucky and dodgy to survive.
The Lynn Ellingsen testimony placed Willy Pickton
on the killing floor with a victim, "standing covered in blood, next to a
dead woman who was hanging from a chain." Defence lawyer Richard Brooks
wanted Ellingsen to admit suffering psychotic episodes of drug induced hallucination
instead of seeing Willy Pickton in the barn with a dead Georgina Papin.
Questions fell upon Ellingsen (in two separate occasions on the witness stand)
to explain dates, which she finds impossible to remember.
In a classic case of Post Traumatic Stress
Disorder, Ellingsen wept through much of her own testimony. She was bad at
remembering dates and testified Willy Pickton took her on a ride in his magic
bus to the DES in Vancouver. They picked up Georgina Papin and all together the
crack cocaine use rose to a fever pitch, and Ellingsen was the first to say
Willy Pickton directly influenced her drug use.
In fact, aside from the horrific sidebars in all
these sketchy descriptions Willy Pickton emerges as a pretty generous guy, but
perhaps an enabler of drug use, doling out portions to maintain control over
situations and people. Even so, most witnesses are in a state of denial about
his role in the drug frenzy, but Ellingsen testified Willy Pickton managed the
drug program down on the pig farm and at the registered charitable Piggy
Palace.
Here was a world disguised by philanthropy with needy addicts the
potential volunteers. Ellingsen testified she had fallen for this philanthropy,
and one night, Georgina Papin, too, fell, to a different level. First they
shared a crack pipe in his company at Willy Pickton’s behest. Ellingsen said
Georgina was alive and wiped on crack cocaine in the evening, but dead and
mutilated before the crack of dawn.
Ellingsen alone has spoken to these monstrous
details. "I saw this body. It was hanging. Willy pulled me inside, behind
the door. Walked me over to the table. Made me look. Told me if I was to say
anything, I'd be right beside her." The defence implied Ellingsen was
coached to say what police want, because she has long been a dependent of
theirs and will say whatever they need.
Before the two week break, 37 year old Andrew
Bellwood became prosecution witness number 97 and the last long-time
crack-cocaine addict to testify. He was down and out meeting Willy Pickton in Jan
‘99 at the Pickton farm, then hanging around the property from Feb ‘99 to
mid-Mar ‘99, and, on a couple of occasions, staying over in Willy Pickton's
trailer.
The guy-talk was over the top, Pickton telling
Bellwood about prostitutes, "sometimes hesitant about leaving the
DES," so he offered incentives like a choice of drugs, heroin or cocaine,
or more money. It was Bellwood who testified how Willy Pickton demonstrated a
modus operandi for sex and murder and finished by saying he gutted the bodies
and fed the remains to the pigs.
The trial adjourned for a two-week break after
Bellwood’s testimony concluded. Still nobody has testified about why the
rampant killing spree might have occurred.