Robert Pickton, the worst serial killer in Canadian history, has released a paperback book proclaiming his innocence from behind bars.
In Pickton: In His Own Words, the former Coquitlam, British Columbia pig farmer claims he's "the fall guy" in a justice system that wrongfully convicted him for the murders of six women. The book, which is selling for $14.95 on Amazon, was published in the United States by a retired California construction worker named Michael Chilldres, whose name appears on the cover. According to CTV BC, Chilldres was given a copy of the manuscript by a former cellmate of Pickton's—a child sex offender who hopes to use the profits to pay for his own legal fees.
Judging by what appears in the online preview, the book, which is riddled with biblical passages, run-on sentences, and grammatical errors, is unreadable. It is, however, perfectly legal.
There is no federal law in Canada preventing prisoners from profiting by recounting their crimes, although that legislation does exist in Ontario, Alberta, Saskatchewan, and Nova Scotia.
Mike Morris, British Columbia's Minister of Public Safety, said his office is "investigating every means available to ensure that the families involved are protected from further harm and that Robert Pickton will not profit in any way from this book."
Toronto criminal lawyer Ari Goldkind says it's "unfortunate" no laws exist in British Columbia and criticized the government there for not following suit with what other provinces are doing.
"We're talking a very populated province with all sorts of killers and rapists who might want to profit off their story," he told VICE. "If the minister doesn't like it, go to a photocopy machine, photocopy Ontario's legislation, and put this before the legislature in BC."
Pickton, 66, was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder in 2007 and is currently serving a life sentence in Agassiz, BC. After his arrest in 2002, he told an undercover cop posing as a cellmate that he was responsible for the deaths of 49 women.
His book makes several assertions, including that the Hells Angels are behind some of the murders for which he was blamed and that the case against him was a "conspiracy theory linked to a bazaar insolent" (sic), CTV reports. He also says he's a "green horn" who has "little experience about women over sexual intercourse as sex is sin without marriage."
As distasteful as his remarks may be, Goldkind said Pickton is protected by free speech rights. He said Pickton likely leaked his writings to his cellmate to avoid having Canadian correctional agents "peekaboo" at his work. But even if prison officials had caught him, Goldkind said, they have no jurisdiction to interfere with publication of the memoir.
At one point, the Canadian federal government tabled legislation similar to that of Ontario's, but it never passed into law. Goldkind said it was based on the Son of Sam laws first enacted in New York in 1977, following reports that serial killer David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam, was being offered lucrative book deals. (Berkowitz did release a book called Son of Hope, but apparently didn't make money off it.)
In November, infamous Ontario rapist and murderer Paul Bernardo released a fictional e-book called A MAD World Order on Amazon, but it was quickly pulled offline due to public outrage.
As of noon Monday, Pickton's book had amassed 91 customer reviews on Amazon, and had earned 1.3 stars. Most people were expressing horror that Amazon would sell something penned by a serial killer, but there were five five-star reviews, including one that said "This is a rare opportunity to get into the mind of a serial killer. Hitler made a book and that's not illegal. Just read the damn book, you all know you want to!!!"
Speaking to the CBC, Sandra Gagnon, who believes her sister was killed by Pickton on his farm, said she finds the book deeply offensive. "It really disgusts me knowing that the worst serial killer in history has the nerve to write that book and reopen wounds."
Chilldres told CTV he empathizes with the victims' families but that he was just helping out a friend by publishing the book. "Don't shoot the messenger," he said, noting that he used Wikipedia to fact check Pickton's story.
Goldkind said the public should be more concerned about the kind of people who would willingly purchase a serial killer's book than about the fact that Pickton has written it in the first place.
"They know they're not getting literature, they know they're not getting great works, they know it's full of typos and grammatical errors, and it's a self-serving document," he said, pointing out that a full confession would be a much more compelling and potentially useful read than a book purporting to tell Pickton's side of the story.
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