Serial Killing 101

THIS POST HAS BEEN UPDATED:

So, as we were saying, here, here and here ...

Thank you Rosie. You get it. You really really get it. You wrote the column I would have written.

In distressing ways, it’s The Balcony Rapist all over again, nearly a quarter-century after that repeat offender attacked a string of women in downtown Toronto, 12 years after Jane Doe won her civil suit against Toronto police, with a judge finding the force guilty of negligence and gender discrimination for failure to inform the public about ongoing sexual attacks in a defined area, the victims all of a physical resemblance.

Williams appears to have had no preferred type. He was all over the map in his 82 fetish break-ins in terms of females targeted, from pubescent girls to middle-aged moms.

His creeping was not all over the map geographically, however, the home invasions clustered around a specific Ottawa neighbourhood and the small eastern Ontario town of Tweed.

“Not related” is the disclaimer that appears constantly in comments from police officials following Williams’ arrest last February and the subsequent media sifting of events: They had no reason to believe a link existed between what was happening in communities more than 200 kilometres apart.

But to hear at least some cops tell it, they weren’t even seeing a connection in the serial burglary of underwear in Tweed, a town with a population of less than 6,000. In retrospect, alarm bells should have been blaring. Yet at least one officer characterized the thieving of undergarments as not particularly uncommon, thus not noteworthy.

Unless sleepy Tweed just happens to be Planet Central for underwear-snatching, it should damn well have been apparent that something peculiar and disturbing was going on.

Incidentally, I would like to draw your attention to Killing for Sport: Inside the Minds of Serial Killers, page 53.

Yes. Well.

H/T to Facebook friend Nadine Lumley who pointed out the book.

UPPITY WOMAN DATE:

But officers investigating the Ottawa and Tweed fetish burglaries also had little reason to assume the two crime sprees were connected, a source close to the investigation told the Star.

I bet that source was real close to the investigation.

“These fetish burglaries are pretty widespread,” the source said. “It’s not that unique a behaviour.”

You know. Just panty raids.

SPEAKING OF WHICH DATE: Rick Barnes has more.

 Did the Police look at these break-ins of underwear as a pranks, or minor because they did not involve something of significance like a big screen TV or a wallet full of cash?

What the person did in the break-ins was intimidate and humiliate the women and girls whose privacy and space he invaded.  He made these girls and women feel very vulnerable and I expect scared.  Some did not report the break-ins because they felt so humiliated.

 

UP YOURS DATE: Nice. Not.

Stephen Harper has spoken. And not a soul has the guts to take him to task. Read this:

"The Canadian Forces are the victim here, [pause] as are the direct victims of these terrible events."

So says Stephen Harper. I didn't insert that "pause" for no reason. On the tape it exists and it suggests, to Harper, that the direct victims of Williams' crimes were secondary to the effect on the Canadian Forces as a whole.

Which shows what Harper knows about the Canadian Forces. And could care less for the actual victims.

Nothing.

Dave has more on this here.

(Via Dammit Janet!)

CLEAN UP DATE: Some weird formatting happened there for a while.. Sorry.

Comments

[Kim P]

That about says it all, doesn't it. We need a Public Inquiry and reform to the police system so these "petty" crimes are taken seriously.
I have seen those maps of the location of the occurences of the B&E's, sexual assaults and murders, and they are in a tight cluster around the residences of Williams in both Tweed and Ottawa - I find it unbelievable and grossly negligent of both police departments to ignore this .... One B&E and theft - maybe an isolated incident, Two B&E's - perhaps a coincidence, .... Three? - a pattern. But several dozen in each location???? Alarm bells should have been sounding - THAT is just pure incompetence and negligence on the part of BOTH police departments.
We need to start screaming from the rooftops for an Inquiry so this never happens again.

[Diana Marie]

All that can be said has been said about Mr. Williams and his heinous crimes. It is indeed fortunate that the Star still has informed and analytical writers/researchers such as Ms. Dimanno and Ms. Zerbisias who put to shame the emotionally uncontrolled and mindless and seemingly unedited output of the Star's latest female columnist.

[CanNurse]

Thank you so much for bringing up the PM's comments! I heard the clip on the radio while driving & almost drove off the road in my rage-filled reaction at his ignorance, his gross insensitivity and his blatent stupidity. ""Our thoughts go out to all the members of the Canadian Forces who knew the commander and who have been very badly wounded and betrayed by all of this. Obviously, this in no way reflects on the Forces." The FORCES have been deeply wounded & betrayed?!! How about the Canadian women who were dismissed, ignored, , ignored, raped, brutalized & murdered! I have not read 1 single other journalist who even mentioned the appalling idiocy of the PM's remark. This piece should have been on the Front Page of the Star!
Last night I saw William's interrogation on the CBC show, W-5. They had the psychiatrist assigned to Williams commenting, saying there is no way we can predict these kinds of actions because there's no studies or profiles of such rare individuals. Arghghghg! Hello?! Note the book your mentioned in this article. Note criminology studies. Between the police & the psychiatrist, I fear nothing has penetrated their bubble of self-congratulations & ignorance about these known behaviours. Thank you for this, Antonia & Rosie too!

[Connie Donoghue]

Why is it that you guys in TO get so angry at the PM for saying what many of us were thinking, and what the nation fears. ?? I was angry too when I heard those words but it was because of this. Harper's words validated my soul-gnawing fear that the near absolute power of a base commander over the general-issue-clad population of the bases under his command escalated Col. Williams into a rapist and murderer. He had all that power over all those people, including all those baby-faced recruits... Williams with the power of life and death over those kids and him in the same general-issue underwear as everybody else there! At some point (after Camp Mirage) Williams was a full-fledged 'power of life and death' junkie and violently satisfied that addiction.

All of the psychological experts on the programs that you've encouraged your readers to watch, those experts all point out that it's an unusual trajectory for a panty fetish to escalate to violence in mid-life in the way that the prosecution recently argued in court. And yet that is what the evidence shows. And even if the Military hasnt done, nor is it planning on any, thorough *investigation* re: possible violent crimes in the places of Williams' early postings, no one seems to have come forward wtih complaints from those earlier postings either.

And since there was no formal court proceedings to determine the longterm status and disposition of the huge amount of evidence in Col. Williams' crimes, and since there's no body or organization that has ensured the public interest is served in the Forces' review of Williams record, and of the screening processes that Williams was subject to throughout his military career.

And since we can only take their word in what can only be described as more closed, backroom, paternalistic 'processes'.... why on earth would you get mad at the one guy who's come the closest to admitting personally to those poor Forces grunts that, ya "Russ" did (in fact) first get off on ordering all y'all around in his GI undies! ...before he took his violent fantasies to the 'hood.