On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women

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Knopf Canada, Oct 25, 2011 - True Crime - 768 pages
Verteran investigative journalist Stevie Cameron first began following the story of missing women in 1998, when the odd newspaper piece appeared chronicling the disappearances of drug-addicted sex trade workers from Vancouver's notorious Downtown Eastside. It was not until February 2002 that pig farmer Robert William Pickton would be arrested, and 2008 before he was found guilty, on six counts of second-degree murder. These counts were appealed and in 2010, the Supreme Court of Canada rendered its conclusion. The guilty verdict was upheld, and finally this unprecedented tale of true crime could be told.


Covering the case of one of North America's most prolific serial killers gave Stevie Cameron access not only to the story as it unfolded over many years in two British Columbia courthouses, but also to information unknown to the police - and not in the transcripts of their interviews with Pickton - such as from Pickton's long-time best friend, Lisa Yelds, and from several women who survived terrifying encounters with him. Cameron uncovers what was behind law enforcement's refusal to believe that a serial killer was at work.

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Contents

Jane Doe 161225 76
1
Dominion Avenue
18
A Mothers Will
32
The Pickton Brothers
39
Geography Speaks
51
Cops under Fire
62
A Motley Crew
76
Prime Suspect
91
Police on Trial
360
The Last Woman
372
The Rookie Cop
380
TwentyFour Hours
393
The Largest Crime Scene in Canadian History
410
Scott Chubb
423
ON THE FARM
442
Getting Ready for Willie
443

The Trials of Kim Rossmo and the Growing List of Missing Women
106
Lisa Yelds
120
Piggys Palace
131
Maggy Gisle Cara Ellis and Sandra Gail Ringwald
141
Gina and Willie and More Missing Women
159
Sherry Irving and Marnie Frey
169
The Worst Year
181
Sarah de Vries and Sheila Egan
191
A Doomed Investigation
204
A Bad Start
214
Roommates
226
THE MISSING WOMEN
240
What They Saw
241
What Did the Police Do?
253
Closing In on Willie
268
Another Close Call
285
Deadly Girlfriends
292
Rossmo Out
300
Panic on Skid Row
312
The File Review
327
Do Something
337
A Newsroom Leads the Way
347
Mike Petrie Wants the Job
454
The Cell Plant
468
The Fordy Interview
482
Don Adam Takes Over
497
Back in the Cell
522
Taking Willie to the Judge
528
In the Workshop
542
The Forensic Team
556
Talking to the Families
565
What the Dead Reveal
575
Willie Goes to Court
589
Andy Bellwood Sandra Gail Ringwald
608
The Last Witnesses
627
The Aristocracy of Victimhood
640
From TwentySix to Six
654
The Jury
665
Guilty But of What?
684
Aftermath
699
Acknowledgments
705
Index
711
Copyright

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About the author (2011)

A woman of many talents, Stevie Cameron is a successful author, investigative journalist, commentator and humanitarian. Her investigative reports have been published by the Globe and Mail and Maclean's, among others, and her award-winning books have brought scandals to the public eye. They include the #1 national bestseller On the Take: Crime, Corruption and Greed in the Mulroney Years and The Last Amigo: Karlheinz Schreiber and the Anatomy of a Scandal, winner of the Crime Writers of Canada Arthur Ellis Award. Cameron's passions for writing, uncovering and dissecting stories of the day have earned her acclaim as one of Canada's foremost investigative journalists. She lives in Toronto.

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