Wow...that is chilling.

Thank God they found that animal guilty. For whatever reason these women were on the streets, they were still people. People who loved, people who laughed, people who had good days and bad. I've just started delving into the "Missing Lives" article linked to the Picton story, and it's touching as the victims are given personalities, not just names/numbers. No one should have to die like they did.

Repulsive. Absolutely repulsive.

Occasionally I will hear people suggest there is no more need for feminism because we're all 'pretty much equal' now. But as long as there is a cultural pattern of sexual victimization and depraved violence against women, we aren't pretty much equal. Violence against women - all women - has to be stopped where it starts - compartmentalization, cruelty, fear, and misogyny.

A 'bad date,' indeed.

I concur, Miko. For me, the worst part of this case is the refusal of the police to take it seriously for so long, as family members and friends begged them to look into it, and as a profiler told them they likely had a serial killer operating in the Downtown Eastside (their response? They didn't renew his contract.) It just didn't matter; there was more than a little of the 'what do they expect, living like that?' attitude. It breaks my heart.

19 years??? Ugh, that's horrible... I can't believe someone could prey on people in one area for that long, and law enforcement couldn't connect the dots and say, maybe this is a serial killer.

"law enforcement couldn't connect the dots and say, maybe this is a serial killer."

That's a bit of a stretch on the part of the activists.

The problem lies in investigating street people, male and female, gender is not the issue. They have no identities, they are constantly on the move, they deal in cash, and they leave no paper trails. Not just the victims, but any possible witnesses.

The women Pickton killed are from the same lifestyle as those whom I have been trying to help get drivers licenses and social security cards. If any one of the people I know disappeared, I doubt very much that the cops would ever be able to find someone who would say they knew them by the time anyone noticed they were missing enough to actually report them. For one thing, just about every one uses a street name, and most of the prostitutes appear to wear wigs more often than not.

The only way I can imagine investigating these incidents any deeper is to institute Bush's vision of Homeland Security.

I see your point, mischief, but in this case there were too many disappearances, and many of the women were missed--their families filed missing persons reports and kept on at the police, insisting that this wasn't a coincidence. Their own geographic profiler told them that the number of disappearances pointed to a serial killer:

Rossmo said that disappearances from the neighborhood were normal, but that the number of incidents was abnormally high between 1995 and 1998.

Rossmo, who sued the Vancouver department for wrongful dismissal when they failed to renew his contract, claimed that a single predator was responsible for killing prostitutes in downtown Vancouver. The Vancouver department dismissed his claims as sour grapes. (from the background link)

Although these women lived on the margins, some of them called their families regularly, or had other people they kept in touch with or places they regularly visited. At the very least, it was clear early on that something abnormal was happening to women from this neighbourhood. The police also had indications for years that something bad was going on at the Picton farm. I can't find the story right now, but I do remember reading of a woman who escaped, bleeding, from the farm; her claims of assault were not followed up. I don't think it would have taken 1984-type intrusive laws to have looked into this much earlier.

There have been several concerns raised about policing the Downtown Eastside in general, including reports of beatings, deaths in custody, and deaths of people shortly after being released from custody. It may be that the slow reaction time was more due to their status as drug-addicted (and predominantly aboriginal--yes, that kind of racism is still prevalent here). However, I think it can be argued that the assaults themselves happened at least partly because street prostitutes are seen as 'disposable' at some level, and they were definitely based on gender--there are plenty of drug-addicted men in that neighbourhood, but none of them were chosen.

I understand that you wouldn't know much of this background, not having lived here. Maybe this will help you to understand the outrage many of us feel.

I am a bit confused by 6 2nd-degree murder convictions. In Canada, first degree murder is when the killing is planned and deliberate or when the death is caused during a sexual assault, aggravated sexual assault, kidnapping or forcible confinement.

I am not sure how you kill six people over a period of time and have them all be 2nd. Should you not see the pattern at some point and take the lead and stop doing whatever it is that lead you to kill?

Also, mischief, as elizard, points out, family, friends and fellow sex trade workers had been bringing this up to the police for years. Some folks even mentioned Pickton by name.

I do really hope they bring him to trial for the other 20.

Just reading more background, I see that people working in shelters and rape crisis centers were also familiar with his name and the reputation of the farm.

And in 1997, one woman actually managed to escape from him with multiple stab wounds, yet the case against him was dropped.

Sharon Eistetter knew about the farm, too. Her daughter, Wendy Lynn Eistetter, said that was where she was the night she was attacked and slashed by a man with a knife in 1997. "I know my daughter gave them information ... they could have got on this three years ago."

Robert Pickton was charged by the RCMP in 1997 for allegedly confining and stabbing Wendy Lynn on March 23 of that year. According to a police information report found in court files, Mr. Pickton "did attempt to commit the murder of Wendy Lynn Eistetter, by stabbing her repeatedly with ... a brown handled kitchen knife."

The information alleged he confined her and committed an aggravated assault.

A trial date was set, but the charges were stayed before the matter went to court. The prosecutor who handled that case refused to be interviewed.

"The Crown reviewed the state of the evidence and there was no likelihood of conviction," said Geoffry Gaul, a spokesman for the Attorney-General's office. [Link]

Aha, thanks, taz. That's the incident I was thinking of.

I think that there are a lot of reasons that police so often fail to act when the victims are fringe elements in society: lack of resources (so time is dedicated to crimes that get the most publicity/public self interest); lack of communication; unreliable witnesses; issues such as the ones mischief has pointed out... But I do also believe that it is a huge hindrance that in these sorts of cases, the victims are also what are seen by police as "the enemy" or basically, the target population - the people they are normally arresting, not protecting.

I think, ideally, there should be special urban forces that are officer-social workers trained to deal with these at-risk groups - specifically for their welfare as opposed to their prosecution. They would be officers who work with existing social and charity services and who would basically be embedded in the community so that they are familiar with the local dynamic, familiar with individuals, local history and context, who understand who is more reliable as a source of information, and who could spot patterns and incidents such as the red flags that police in this case failed to recognize.

In the standard paradigm police responding on these cases have this barrier of "you are a criminal, a drug addict, thief, prostitute, and liar - and we don't believe anything you say," whereas officers more knowledgeable of the scene on a day-to-day basis, as advocates, would understand when this particular individual, with whom they are perhaps already familiar, disappears, that it is an unusual event, because this is a person who calls their family every week, or provides care for their child, who has never dropped out before... etc.

It would take money, and that's always a huge obstacle, but it could be done, and I would bet that it would actually be an overall financial net gain for any given city in the long run. After all, I think over $7 million has now been spent on this case alone.

taz, your last response has a lot of good points. I'd love to add to it but I have friends out on the front lines in west Van and I can't betray their trust.

Lots of good starting places there though.

Too bad, arsey! I'd love to hear your thoughts.

By the way, I'm quite impressed with the introductory part (first page) of the article about this on the Crime Library; it seems to do a really great job of establishing the setting. I say the introductory part, just because I haven't read the rest yet, though I will.

Crime Library can be hit or miss - sometimes the writing is very sloppy and/or lurid, and sometimes it's quite good.

Aren't a lot of high-level positions in policing and justice elected in the US? Does this play any part in tales like this, I wonder?

I don't know what else to say - this is such a sad story in so many ways. I just can't fathom how a society can fail its members so badly.

then again, a guy came knocking on our door last night asking for help because his housemate threatened him with a shovel during a fight and I let him use the phone to call a cab, but made sure he didn't come inside and kept watch until he got picked up, so who am I to judge?

dg, this happened in Canada, where they're appointed (except for the Attorney General--he's elected as a member of the provincial parliament and then appointed AG by the Premier). And FWIW, I think how you dealt with a stranger at your door was sensible--he got the help he needed with minimum risk to yourself.

Guilty.

Thank the gods.

I wish I could give the jurors hugs. All of the articles I saw had a warning about graphic content at the head of the article. I couldn't bring myself to read them. Wading through the evidence must be one of the worst things they'll ever have to endure.