Wednesday, January 24, 2007
I hope that Justice is done
I hope this pig farmer, who was a pillar of the community, gets what he deserves. Reading this story makes me ill. He had been arrested before, but charges were dropped, and you can see what he got up to.
Mounds of earth can be seen where diggers started work in June 2002. By the time they had finished, a year and a half later, they had demolished all the farm buildings on the seven-hectare (17-acre) site 18 miles east of Vancouver, sifted 378,000 cubic metres of mud, and taken 200,000 DNA samples. In the wake of the disappearance of 65 women from Vancouver's downtown eastside, the findings confirmed the conclusion that the authorities had been avoiding for years: a serial killer was at work.
The evidence removed, including clothing and personal effects, suggested that the bodies of 30 women had been disposed of at the farm. Officials could not rule out the possibility that human remains were in the meat processed at the farm for human consumption.
Kate Gibson sits in her office, next to a poster showing the faces of the missing women. Executive director of a drop-in centre for sex workers, Ms Gibson is concerned that the trial, with its media blitz, will add further strain to the women's already precarious lives.
"Everybody knows somebody," she says. "The women who live on the street, they live the same life as the women who died. Conditions haven't improved. They face fear every day. When all this was going on I think they were scared out of their minds. This is such a big thing, it brings up so much awfulness for them."
Most of the women who disappeared from the downtown eastside worked as prostitutes. Some did not. Most of them worked to finance drug habits, some did not. And some worked for pimps.
Robert Pickton, known as Willie, used to drive in to the eastside to pick up prostitutes, who often attended wild parties at a barn he owned with his brother, less than a mile from his farm. The barn, known as Piggy's Palace, hosted two types of party: respectable functions for local dignitaries to partake of his farm-raised pork and help the charity Mr Pickton had set up; and debauched affairs with prostitutes and Mr Pickton's biker friends.
It was not the first time Mr Pickton had been arrested. In 1997 he was charged with confinement and aggravated assault after a sex worker named Wendy Lynn Eistetter escaped from his farm covered in blood. According to the police report, Mr Pickton had stabbed her repeatedly. But charges were dropped. Mr Pickton was a wealthy pillar of the community while Eistetter was a prostitute. Between Mr Pickton's release in 1997 and his arrest in 2002, 30 more women went missing from the area.
It is unbearable to think he could have processed these womens bodies as meat.
Here is the article, Pig farmer and pillar of community:alleged serial killer finally faces trial by Dan Glaister for the Guardian newspaper.
Labels: guardian, Murders, Streetworkers
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Interesting that all these women went missing but no-one really could be bothered to look for them. I expect if a prostitute goes missing it's just another one off the patch? One less for the police to arrest and charge....
The prostitute must be the most devalued human being in today's society. I don't see that changing. I don't even know where to begin to make the changes.
What a sad story.
The prostitute must be the most devalued human being in today's society. I don't see that changing. I don't even know where to begin to make the changes.
What a sad story.
# posted by 
:
Wed Jan 24, 10:14:00 pm
:
Wed Jan 24, 10:14:00 pm
Blueslady,
Thank you for your comments. You have hit the nail on the head. I cannot believe they took so long in taking this pig to court.
Thank you for your comments. You have hit the nail on the head. I cannot believe they took so long in taking this pig to court.
It was not the first time Mr Pickton had been arrested. In 1997 he was charged with confinement and aggravated assault after a sex worker named Wendy Lynn Eistetter escaped from his farm covered in blood. According to the police report, Mr Pickton had stabbed her repeatedly. But charges were dropped. Mr Pickton was a wealthy pillar of the community while Eistetter was a prostitute. Between Mr Pickton's release in 1997 and his arrest in 2002, 30 more women went missing from the area.
This almost says it all.
It is unbearable to think he could have processed these womens bodies as meat.
And I thought I found this story hard to read already...
As blueslady says:
"The prostitute must be the most devalued human being in today's society. I don't see that changing. I don't even know where to begin to make the changes."
There must be a way to change that attitude - and the expectation of such a perception?
But in the end - again as blueslady says:
"What a sad story."
B x
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This almost says it all.
It is unbearable to think he could have processed these womens bodies as meat.
And I thought I found this story hard to read already...
As blueslady says:
"The prostitute must be the most devalued human being in today's society. I don't see that changing. I don't even know where to begin to make the changes."
There must be a way to change that attitude - and the expectation of such a perception?
But in the end - again as blueslady says:
"What a sad story."
B x
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