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$45 upfront payment equivalent to $15 per month. New customers on first three-month plan only. Taxes and fees extra. Speeds lower above 40 gigabytes each detail. Welcome to the Serial Killer podcast. The podcast dedicated to serial killers. Episode 132. And I am your Norwegian host, Thomas Roseland Weyborg Thu. Finally, we come to the end of the saga of the killer colonel.
Russell Williams. It has been a long and windy road, but all things must come to an end, and in Williams's case it all came crumbling down around him in spectacular fashion. Much of it, as with so many of his activities, was also videotaped.
In addition to this being the final episode in this Canadian expose, I have a very special treat for you, dear listener. One of my very dedicated listeners, Nicola Tumath, is a highly talented musician. Not only that, but she is also one of Russell Williams' previous neighbours.
She remembers the case vividly, and has been understandably personally affected by Williams' heinous crimes. The intro music to this episode's main part, coming right up after my usual introductions, is her work, and I am proud to be able to present it to all my dear listeners. Enjoy.
Before we start the show proper, I want to, as always, publicly thank my elite TSK Producers Club. This club includes 23 dignified members of exquisite taste, and their names are Anne, Anthony, Captain Waters,
Cassandra, Christy, Colleen, Corbyn, Evan, Fawn, James, Jennifer, Jesse, Kathy, Kylie, Lisa, Lisbeth, Mark, Mickey, Russell, Samira, Skortnia, William, and Zasha.
You are the backbone of the Serial Killer podcast, and without you, there would be no show. You have my deepest gratitude. Thank you. As always, if you want to donate to the show, you can easily do so at patreon.com slash the serial killer podcast. You can choose from many differing tiers ranging from $1 to as much as you would like.
Bonus episode access starts at $10, while the TSK Producers Club starts at $15. Several bonus episodes are available. The latest two covering the expose of the Australian female version of Hannibal Lecter. So don't miss out and join now. Imagine, if you will, dear listener, the small town of Tweed, Canada, during winter. It is dark...
Around 2 a.m. at night, you have a bird's-eye view of the athletic body of Russell Williams as he is walking on a snowy gravel road. Slung over his shoulder is the stiff, frozen corpse of Jessica Lloyd. His shadow, looking like some sort of fantasy beast when combined with Jessica's body,
is long from the headlights of his SUV parked behind him. He departs from the gravel road and walks a short distance, about twelve meters, into the quiet forest. There, in a nondescript clump of rocks, he places Jessica's corpse. He looks at her pale face stoically, perhaps with a small smile, before promptly turning around and heading back to his vehicle.
No doubt he was already fantasizing about his next victim, laying details about his attack plans. But luckily for all, except him, all his work, all his plans, and his entire life would very soon crumble and fall.
When Williams walked into Interrogation Room 206 at the Elgin Street Police Building on Sunday, four days after dumping Jessica Lloyd's body in the woods and then attending a meeting in Toronto, Ross Williams was familiar enough with rudimentary criminal law procedures to know that he didn't have to say anything at all.
The rules in Canada and the United States in these situations are not quite the same, in that an American suspect's so-called Miranda rights provide slightly more leeway to abort a police interrogation than do their Canadian equivalent.
Nonetheless, Williams was free, at any point during the ten-plus hours of interrogation that lay ahead, to exercise his constitutional rights and reach for the lawyer of his choice. Said lawyer would assuredly have instructed him to clam up immediately. Doing so would have made him look even more suspicious than he already did, but it might have bought him some time.
and no one was more keenly aware of that fact than OPP Detective Sergeant Jim Smith, as he prepared for what would be a duel of wits between two very intelligent men. By three in the afternoon, when the interrogation began, Smith and his police colleagues were fairly confident Williams was responsible for the disappearance of Jessica Lloyd.
His behavior at the roadblock, especially a lie he told there that he was in a hurry to get home to a sick child, looked suspicious. And as the afternoon wore on and the off-site investigation progressed, the officers became completely sure they had the right man. The trick would be to keep Williams talking until he admitted his guilt.
There is a kind of catch-22 with extracting a confession. If a suspect has not been advised very clearly of his right to remain silent and of his right to counsel, any subsequent admission of guilt is not admissible as evidence in court, although it can be useful to police in other ways.
On the other hand, once those rights have been read, often the interview abruptly ends, especially in something as serious as a murder investigation. So, for the detective conducting such a conversation, a key question is always one of timing regarding when the officer should read the suspect his rights.
There is no obligation to do so at the outset, especially if the interrogation begins as an informal chat. But until that caution has been issued, any confession that spills forth is at best only half usable.
So it is instructive to see that Williams' rights were not only explained to him by Smith at the very beginning, right after the pleasantries and the offer of coffee, but also repeatedly emphasized. Three separate times Williams is also told that audio and video recorders are monitoring everything taking place inside the small room.
Such cautions are routine in police interrogations, but the thoroughness in this instance suggests two things. First, it was of paramount importance to the police that down the line no defense lawyer would be able to argue that Williams' rights had been infringed upon.
But it also seems apparent that the detectives and the forensic psychiatrist who crafted what would later be hailed as a brilliant, even textbook interrogation, believed Williams was confident he could steer his way through the shoals up ahead and would not be scared off.
Certainly, he looked brash enough as he strode in, removed his yellow rain jacket, sat down, grinned into the closed-circuit video camera overhead, and agreed that, yes, this was the first time in his life he'd been seriously questioned by police. He exuded cooperation, even as he prepared to give an account of events that was almost entirely a lie.
Yet even early into the interview he was clearly struggling, as shown, for example, in his insistence that he had met Comeau, one of my people, as he called her, just one time, which was demonstrably a straight-up lie. And although psychopaths such as Williams are used to lying regularly, they are not always experts at doing so when put under pressure.
Here is what the killer colonel said when asked about Jessica and how many times he met her. I quote, Um,
I can't even remember. I think it was one day trip. I did a number of trips in Canada, transporting our, you know, troops for the first leg out of Edmonton. And we went to hopscotch them across until they get into... So anyway, I can't remember which trip it was, but...
I did a number of them out to Edmonton just to pick up the troops, bring them to Trenton, and then put a fresh crew on. And of course we fly out and back in the same day, so pushing the edge of that fresh crew on and continue on after a couple hour delay." As my avid listeners can probably tell,
It was very clear to the interrogating officer that Williams was trying to deflect, and not clearly and helpfully answer his question. The officer, noticing that he has touched upon a weak spot in Williams's mental defense, wastes no time to pout. He probes Williams on Comeau's untimely demise, and when he first learned of it—
Given the gravity of such an event, especially for a military man such as the colonel, it should have been something he would have had a crystal-clear memory of. Instead, he started sputtering utter nonsense. Again, I quote,
Well, I can't remember what, again, what day that the message came in. Just a second. No, I can't remember what day of the week, but let me just think. There was all a bunch of activity spun up as a result, obviously. No, no, I can't remember the day of the week.
Um, I'm just trying to think through the news reports I read. No, I... I'm sorry, I can't remember what day from act that was the, um, the MPs had learnt of, uh, her death. I think quite a bit after her body had been discovered. I had been in Ottawa earlier in the week, uh, for some meetings over in, uh, Gatineau for one of the, um,
C-17 Globemaster Aircraft Acquisitions. I was project director when I was here in Ottawa for that, so just some follow-up stuff on that. So I had been here at some point in that week. Again, I can't remember how the days all fell together, but I seem to remember that I got this word shortly after having come back from Ottawa. Seems to me it was the same week.
End quote. In detective jargon, this is dissonance, a stress-induced babble as the brain races and tries to synchronize itself with the torrent of words pouring out. The interrogator keeps the process going by smoothly but abruptly jumping from topic to topic, as Smith, a polygraph specialist, did throughout much of the long interview.
At the outset, Smith had made clear to Williams why he had been asked to come in. There was a clear geographical connection between him and the four occurrences the OPP were now examining as a group. The two sex attacks in Tweed in September, the murder of Comeau in Brighton two months later, and now the disappearance of Lloyd.
So when Williams was asked for fingerprint and blood samples, Williams could have had no doubt that he might be in major trouble. But if he did not provide them, or if he walked out of the unlocked interview room, as Smith had emphasized he could do any time he pleased, he would look very suspicious indeed.
And he knew those suspicions would not fade away. Quite the reverse. It was at this point that his world began to crack and crumble. The interrogation of Russell Williams is today used in police training academies as a textbook example to be followed. It has gained an almost legendary status among police professionals.
Smith conducted himself in such an expertly manner that fellow officers still remember the interrogation as almost a piece of art. The whole dialogue was actually videotaped and published on the Internet, and I would like for you, dear listener, to have a listen to the killer colonel and his nemesis, Detective Smith's, actual voices. Enjoy.
You just had to see Russ. The guy I was speaking with on whatever night that was was Russ as well. Oh, yeah. And he took every number I had. Yeah. Now, they were doing some pretty thorough interviews that night. Yeah, absolutely. I was glad to see it. I'm just going to move your gloves here. That's a little microphone just to make sure there's nice and clear. As you can see here, everything in this room is videotaped and audiotaped. Check. You ever been interviewed by the police in a room like this before? I have never been interviewed. Oh, no? Okay. No. Let's get this set up here.
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Alright, well again Russell I appreciate you coming in an investigation like this. I mean I'm sure you can appreciate it's been big news especially down Belleville way. And you know obviously our approach to cases like this is that we don't give up on somebody being alive until we get evidence that they're not.
Because of that, we're treating Jessica's case as an emergent situation, obviously. So we're fast-forwarding things that we might normally take our time with, and that's why we're here on a Sunday afternoon. So, again, I appreciate it. No problem.
We're going to do a pretty thorough interview today. Okay. And the reason for that is because the last thing we want is to be calling people back again and again and again. Okay? So what we're going to do is we're going to go over a number of things, and I'm going to explain what all those are to you. Okay. I'm a big coffee guy. I don't know if you're a coffee guy or not, but I didn't want to drink in front of you. No, I appreciate that. All right, go ahead. Are they black? Yeah, they're just black with sugar. Okay.
I'll just throw it in there. I'll probably have it in a little bit. Sorry, do what, sorry? Gum. Just a piece of gum. Well, there's napkins there if you want to toss it or whatever. I appreciate that. All right. And again, like I said, this interview is going to be very thorough. But again, I have a simple rule when I talk to people. I'm sure you're the same way. I treat everybody with respect. I don't want to ask you to do the same for me. So what we're going to do is we're going to start off by going through what your rights are, okay? Okay. Just like everybody else, okay? Okay.
Have you ever read your rights before? No. I'm sure you've seen it on TV a whole bunch of times, but that's usually the American version. So I'll go over it with you briefly, okay? Basically in Canada, as you know, I'm sure, is we all have our rights guaranteed under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms, okay? Now, Russell, just to avoid any confusion, because people do get confused when they're talked to by the police, is that...
As you can hear, Smith is exceedingly polite and professional.
He does not appear threatening in any way. In the video of the interview one can see that Smith is not physically intimidating either. He is a rather slender man in a pale blue shirt, black suit and tie. He has dark brown hair and looks to me more like an accountant than a police officer.
That is also probably deliberate. The point of the interrogation was not to scare Williams or aggressively confront him, but, through deliberate use of psychological techniques, manage to end up with Russell Williams confessing to his crimes. But the quote-unquote good cop routine was only part of what was going on in the interrogation room.
even as he seemed to drip with good-will smith kept piling on the pressure peeling back layer after layer of damning facts some of which were literally being uncovered as the interview progressed
Throughout the afternoon and early evening, as the search warrants were producing fresh evidence, Smith was kept apprised of developments, periodically going out of the room to confer with colleagues, while Williams was left alone with his thoughts, and he made sure that Williams understood what was going on. But it had to be done piecemeal.
The tire tracks. The boot prints. The anticipated DNA findings. The computer searches. Because if Williams were to be confronted with everything at once, there was a risk he would be overwhelmed and simply shut down. So.
Even as he relentlessly turned the screws, Smith also constantly emphasized that bad as things were, and rapidly getting worse, Williams could make them marginally less so by summoning up the fortitude to tell the truth. Otherwise, Smith gently explained, he would be buried in the avalanche of evidence that was about to land.
If you, dear listener, have seen the excellent crime series The Night Of, you might be familiar with the phrase used by the protagonist's lawyer when describing the lead investigator. He called him a, and I quote, a gentle beast. In my opinion, that describes Smith very well.
Luckily, Smith was a beast fighting for society, not against it. What follows is the exchange up to and including Williams' admission of guilt on the 7th of February 2010 at around 7.30pm.
Smith has just explained that whatever efforts Williams might have made to clean up the contents of his computer, it was a futile exercise because the police tech guys could readily identify anything that had ever been there. Nor will any expense be spared, Smith says. Millions of dollars are available. Whatever the police want for this investigation, they will get.
They don't even need to ask. That's how big a deal all this is. Even on a Sunday afternoon, 60 or 70 people are working on the file, he tells his quarry. Smith's use of silence as a tool to lure out his prey is also prevalent, as you will learn. There are long pauses where Smith simply looks at Williams, waiting for him to break.
Again, I think Smith and Williams says it best themselves, better than what I read to you. So here is another recording of the interrogation, moments before and including Williams' final confession. And please note that there are long periods of silence. These are real and might be uncomfortable to listen to.
But imagine how horrible they must have been for Williams as the pressure was mounting. You can actually hear Williams as he heavily draws his breath and sighs repeatedly. What are we going to do, Russ? What are we going to do? Call me Russ, please. What are we going to do, Russ? Is Jessica somewhere we can find her easily?
Like is this something where I can make a call and tell somebody to go to a location and they're gonna find her or is this something where we have to go and take a walk? Which direction are we heading in here? Russ. Maybe this would help. Can you tell me what the issue is you're struggling with? What's the issue you're struggling with? It's hard to believe this is happening. Why is that? Why is it hard to believe?
It's just, it's just hard to believe. Whose decision was it, we're going to find out the answer to this anyway, whose decision was it to issue the directive to the base personnel that nobody had to speak to the police and to seek legal counsel before they were questioned? I don't think that was... My understanding that direction came from somebody that reports to you. What do you think they're going to say? Well... Russ?
No, no. What do you think they're going to say? All right. And let's step back for a second here, okay? I really don't think it benefits you or makes you look any better to start debating the little issues, okay? No, no, no. But that is news to me. I have a legal officer that reports to me who may have given that direction. But that's the first time I've heard it. If that's true, that's the first time I've heard that. All right. And that may be the case. But how does it look?
We're not even dealing with something that's really even evidence because it's not needed. I mean, when you have DNA and all this other stuff, that's not even needed. What was the direction? I don't recall, but it was something along the lines of telling the people on the base that they weren't required legally to speak with police and they should seek legal counsel before they decided to speak. Well, if that was actually said, it would not have been to the base at large. It may have been to the individual, the boyfriend who was the suspect.
My understanding, it went out to all personnel. No, absolutely not. Maybe only under your command, I don't know. It did. Okay, that's fine. I didn't ever see it. That's fine. Now let's get back to the issue. What's that? So you talk about perception. My only two immediate concerns from a perception perspective are what my wife must be going through right now. Yeah. And the impact this is going to have on the Canadian forces. Where do we go? Russ, is there anything you want from me? Is there anything you want me to explain to you?
Is there something missing that you're struggling with that I can shed some light on for you? I'm struggling with how upset my life is right now. Russ, what are you looking for? I'm concerned that they're tearing apart my wife's brand new house. So am I. But if nobody tells them what's there and what's not, they don't have any choice. Computers will be brought to Microsoft in California. They'll be picked apart. You can't erase things from computers.
It doesn't happen. I'm sure you've seen that. I'm sure that's pretty common knowledge these days. It just doesn't happen. They sell programs to try and help people clean their computers of stuff, and our guys are pulling that stuff out all the time. The FBI is pulling that stuff out all the time. This investigation will end up costing no less than $10 million. Easy. And they will say no to nothing. Any request this major case manager makes on this case, they've already been told that
It's approved. Don't even bother asking. So what am I doing, Russ? I put my best foot forward here for you, but I really have. I don't know what else to do to make you understand the impact of what's happening here. Do we talk? I want to minimize the impact on my wife. So do I. So do we do that? We start by telling the truth. Okay. So where is she? Get her out. Okay.
That was probably difficult to get through. But I wanted you to actually experience a real-life confession of a serial killer. As you heard, I ended the recording at his point of confession. It occurred at 7.42.28 p.m., with Williams saying, Got a map? as a reply to Smith asking where Jessica's body is. From there on out, Williams opened up and started talking about his crimes.
After confessing to Smith on the Sunday evening, Williams did not remain in Ottawa for long. In the early hours of Monday morning, he was driven to the woods outside Tweed, where he had left Jessica Lloyd's body, and he showed Smith and another detective the spot which police had been unable to locate, despite fairly precise directions.
Later that day, he appeared briefly in court in Belleville, where the charges of murder, sexual assault and forcible confinement were read out. From there, he was taken to the Quint Detention Center in Napanee, halfway between Belleville and Kingston, where he would remain for the next eight months.
He made no effort to secure bail, and like most accused murderers, had little prospect of getting it. Williams's new home must have been a rude shock to him. Detention centers for accused criminals awaiting trial or bail hearing
tend to be more confined and generally less welcoming than federal penitentiaries, where there are programs for the inmates and where the rhythm of daily life lends a certain stability.
The 228-bed Napanee lock-up, visible from Highway 401, is a bleak little compound of concrete and rusting chain-link fence, with a remote-controlled wire mesh gate that creaks open each time a car drives in or out.
"'Visitors must park on an adjacent mud-lot, "'walk to the gate and speak through the intercom "'before they're allowed through. "'For anyone locked up there, "'the crashing boredom "'and the nail-biting uncertainty "'of not knowing what the future holds "'are bad enough. "'But for Williams, "'daily life was even more restrictive, "'because on arrival, "'he immediately had to be segregated "'from the other prisoners.'
The main reason for this was that he was an accused sex offender, which is always the lowest and most despised rung in the prison hierarchy. Also, to the general prison population, a military officer is not much different from a police officer, and police officers are hated almost as much as sex offenders.
So he was lodged in one of the very small protective custody cells. That meant being locked up twenty-three hours a day on most days, with one hour to shower, use the phone and walk around in the small exercise yard, usually alone. It's an environment that's a recipe for despair. What he did not do was stop speaking to the police. Quite the contrary.
He kept talking and talking, even after he was persuaded, probably by his wife, to engage the services of Ottawa defence lawyer Michael Edelson. Court records show that while incarcerated at the detention centre in Napanee, Williams was interviewed by Smith six more times, three times in February, twice in March and once in May.
It is unusual in Canada for someone accused of first-degree murder to keep cooperating with the police, unless there is some chance the charge might get knocked down to second-degree murder, a near impossibility in this instance.
After it transpired that Williams had confessed, many were wondering what he planned to do next. He told Detective Sergeant Smith that he had no interest in retaining counsel, and that one of his priorities, along with trying to keep Harriman's distress to a minimum, was to keep his legal costs down.
The widespread public assumption was, therefore, that matters would be dealt with quickly, probably within weeks, and that a quick confession would translate into a quick guilty plea. But, as I keep telling my dear listeners, psychopaths lie.
A few days after Williams was charged, Williams hired Michael Edelson, well-known in Ottawa despite his low profile and with a long-standing reputation as one of the city's most combative legal advocates. As Edelson and his colleagues began sifting through the thousands of pages of evidence disclosed by the Crown, the police were looking hard at Williams's past.
To them, too, it seemed highly improbable that he had launched his career as a fetish-driven sex killer so late in his life. So they cast their net as widely as they could, examining every phase of his adult life. There were, nonetheless, plenty of other unsolved murder cases for the Williams investigation team to look at, all involving women, as seen in
Evidence ruled out any involvement in the 1987 Margaret McWilliam rape strangulation in Scarborough, where Williams had graduated from university a year earlier. Another case police looked into was the June 2001 slaying of 19-year-old Nova Scotia native Kathleen McVicar, found raped and stabbed to death at the Eight Wing base in Trenton.
Williams, who had been living and working in Ottawa at the time, was swiftly excluded from that murder case too. Police in Halifax contacted the OPP in connection with three unsolved murders that took place while Williams was at the Sharewater, Nova Scotia base from 1992 to 1994. The killings of Andrea King, 18,
Shelley Connors, 17, and Kimberly Ann Lucas, 23. In all three, no connection could be drawn. The same was true with an old Winnipeg murder that had occurred in 1991, that of Glenda Morisseau, 19, while Williams was at the nearby Portage-la-Poirie flight school. And there was interest in U.S. law enforcement circles, too.
Detectives in North Carolina, where Williams' father, David, had a home, inquired whether there might be a link to the double murder in 2008 of Allison Jackson Foy and Angela Nobles Rothen, both stabbed to death and dumped in a patch of woods near Wilmington.
The OPP detectives handling the Williams investigation found no link in that case, nor in any of the dozens of other cold cases whose details piled up on their desks. In his isolation cell at the Quint Detention Center, Williams spent a lot of time reading during his first weeks of confinement.
To the jail staff he appeared reasonably good-spirited and compliant, sufficiently so that he was removed from the round-the-clock suicide watch that had monitored him when he first arrived.
That meant he was allowed to wear regular prison clothes instead of a suicide-proof type of smock that couldn't be ripped, to eat regular meals rather than food that had to be eaten by hand, and to enjoy the occasional cup of hot tea.
but his apparent satisfaction with his condition may have been a trick designed to lull his jailers into a false sense of security because over the april twenty tenth easter week end williams tried to kill himself and almost succeeded
He had collected some scraps of tinfoil and cardboard, compressed them into a cardboard toilet roll cylinder, and forced the tube down his own throat, jamming the lock in his cell door with more tinfoil before he did so.
But first, he had written a message on the wall of his cell, using packets of mustard he'd squirreled away from his meals, telling the world that he'd put his affairs in order as best he could, and that he found his plight unbearable. Through the cell door window, jail guards spied him choking, and managed to force the door open and save his life.
And so it was that on the 18th of October 2010, Russell Williams' fate was to be determined by the Canadian justice system.
The proceedings began with Williams entering a guilty plea on all eighty-eight charges. One by one, as he stood ramrod straight in the prisoner's box, the long list of offences was read out by the court clerk, beginning with the two counts of first-degree murder and then on through the long series of sexual attacks and
and house break-ins beginning in september two thousand seven in which he either stole lingerie or hunted for it at the end he was asked how he pleaded to all eighty-eight guilty your honor he replied in a clear voice and sat down
one of the few people in canadian judicial history to plead guilty to more than one charge of first-degree murder and one of the extremely few to plead guilty to more than eighty offenses
After entering his 88th guilty plea, Williams sat down as Burgess and co-prosecutor Robert Morrison began to read out the lengthy agreed statement of facts, which Burgess had advised the court would be extremely disturbing. The evidence will cause emotional pain for the loved ones of victims."
In the body of the court were close to 40 spectators who were either victims or friends and relatives of victims. Jessica Lloyd's mother and older brother sat side by side, the former clutching a framed portrait of her slain daughter. Looking on from the jury box were OPP lead investigator Detective Inspector Chris Nicholas and Belleville Police Chief Corey McMullen.
The events were laid out chronologically, beginning with the first two burglaries in Tweed in 2007, and then methodically detailing how Williams broke into each home, the photographs he took, and the items he stole. Many of the photos were shown on the twin TV screens at the front of the courtroom, and the killer would occasionally glance up at them for a moment, never longer.
As the evidence was presented, it became grimmer and grimmer. As Morrison outlined what he called Williams's dangerous escalation, some spectators wept. Many just shook their heads in disbelief. Almost everyone was aghast. After court adjourned at the end of that first day, Andy Lloyd told reporters that as well as being shocked, he was angry.
Day two was immeasurably worse, as the prosecution outlined the circumstances of the two sex attacks in Tweed and then the two ghastly murders. No photos or video clips were shown. Instead, a detailed written synopsis was read out.
It was a chronicle of violence and deprivation so awful that neither Lloyd's brother nor her mother were present in court to hear how she died. As Burgess reached a point in his narrative, near the end of Lloyd's ordeal, when she said to Williams, "'If I die, will you tell my mom I love her?' The sound of weeping filled the courtroom."
After all the agreed statements of facts were complete, Williams rose once again and was formally convicted as guilty on all charges. On day three, the court heard testimonies from the victims' loved ones and from surviving victims. Then, finally, on day four, it was time to hear from the killer himself. A small microphone was placed in the front of the prisoner's box.
Williams rose to his feet, blew his nose, and began speaking. He proceeded slowly, tearing up and taking long pauses between sentences, as if struggling to summon up the energy to speak. I quote, "'Your Honor, I stand before you indescribably ashamed. I know the crimes I have committed have traumatized many people.
The family and friends of Marie-France Comeau and Jessica Lloyd in particular have suffered and continue to suffer profound, desperate pain and sorrow as a result of what I've done. My assaults of Jane Doe and Ms. Massicotte have caused them to suffer terribly as well.
Numerous victims of the break and enters I have committed have been very seriously distressed as a result of my having so invaded their most intimate privacy. My family, your honor, has been irreparably damaged.
The understandable hatred that was expressed yesterday, and that has been palpable throughout the week, has me recognize that most will find it impossible to accept, but the fact is I deeply regret what I have done, and the harm I know I have caused to many.
I committed despicable crimes, Your Honor, and in the process betrayed my family, my friends and colleagues and the Canadian forces. End quote. Before passing sentence, Judge Scott said the following statement, and I quote, Nothing surprises me anymore.
Fortunately for all, the nature of these crimes are very rare in our society. They do happen, and they do occur when least expected. The depths of the depravity demonstrated by Russell Williams have no equal. One suspects that he has contained for the most of his adult life sexual desires and fetishes.
However, in 2007, these inner thoughts began to control his private actions, pushing him deeper and deeper into criminal behavior which culminated in the brutal and senseless murders of two innocents. Although not insane, it appears that Mr. Williams was and remains a very sick individual, but a very dangerous man nonetheless.
Russell Williams will forever be remembered as a sadosexual serial killer. Russell Williams lived a charmed life, the best of education, a leader of men and women,
A respected rising star in our beloved armed forces. His double life fooled most people. He may be best described in his biographical sense as Canada's bright, shining lie. Russell Williams' fall from grace has been swift and sure. His crimes have adversely affected this country and our community.
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My wish to you is that in the fullness of time, your lives will return to normal. But we all understand why we are here today. Not to take away from the seriousness of the other crimes, but it is the serious acts of violence towards four women, two of whom were murdered, that must be the centered focus of our attention.
Our thoughts and prayers are with all the victims, but these special victims and their families are the most damaged by the criminal behavior of Russell Williams. Marie France did not have to die. Jessica did not have to die. May all of you find the peace that you desperately deserve. End quote.
Along with the prison time for the sex assaults and the break-ins, he handed Williams twin life sentences for the two murders, which translates into a minimum of 25 years behind bars. A conviction for first-degree murder always means at least 25 years incarceration, but at the 15-year mark, the killer can seek permission for a parole hearing, though few get it.
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that Williams's Nissan Pathfinder be crushed, and that his camera be destroyed too, together with the hoard of stolen lingerie and the ropes he used. What was highly unusual was that he also specified where Williams was to be locked up, Kingston Penitentiary.
Normally, in Ontario, men who have been sentenced to two years or more are shipped to Millhaven Penitentiary, which doubles as a classification center, where they are assessed for a few weeks and then placed somewhere in the federal prison system.
But Williams was to go straight to Kingston, which would mean a cell in the facility's high-security segregation block. And with that, still in handcuffs and shackles, Williams was for the last time led away. He shuffled out of the courtroom without a backward glance.
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And with that, the saga of the Killer Colonel comes to an end. I hope you enjoyed listening to me telling it to you. The next episode, number 133 in number, will feature a brand new serial killer expose. So as they say in the land of radio, stay tuned. Finally, I wish to thank you, dear listener, for listening.
If you like this podcast, you can support it by donating on patreon.com slash theserialkillarpodcast, by leaving a review on Apple Podcasts, facebook.com slash theskpodcast, or by posting on the subreddit theskpodcast. Thank you. Good night and good luck.