Two women were recently brutally murdered by Russell Williams, the "decorated former commander of Canadian Forces Base Trenton, in eastern Ontario [Canada]" who "pleaded guilty to all 88 charges against him — including two counts of first-degree murder, two counts each of sexual assault and forcible confinement and 82 break-ins and attempted break-ins."

This man was high up in the Canadian military establishment, hobnobbing with such as the Minister of Defence and representing Canada in meeting with Queen Elizabeth II. He was apparently highly respected and admired, but obviously led a disturbing double life.

WARNING: Disturbing details of violence and sexual crimes:

http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/10/18/col-williams-court-1018.html

Williams pleaded guilty after being faced with the strong evidence against him that police had collected. He is in the middle of a sentencing hearing in which the evidence is presented, the videotape of his interview by police and subsequent confession is played, and friends and relatives of the murder victims read their victim impact statements. This is for the consideration of the judge who will pass sentence, and to satisfy the police resolve that when/if Williams is ever up for parole the deciders will know all the details of his horrific crimes, and to give friends and family a venue in which to express their grief, outrage and loss.

Both the women he confined, assaulted, raped and finally murdered apparently thought that if they submitted to him, did what he said, he would not kill them. They were tragically wrong about that. (He videotaped his rape and murder of both victims, which obviously adds to the abundant evidence but also to the pain of family and friends, living through exact details of the women's last day of life in which both were repeatedly assaulted and both pleaded with him not to be killed).

Outside the courtroom on the second day of the hearing (today), a friend of one of the victims cried "How could God create such a monster?" (Williams is being labelled a sexual deviant whose fetishes and sexual crimes escalated rapidly from stealing women's underclothing to sexual assault and then confinement, rape and murder within a couple of yrs from first incident of stealing underclothes to final two incidents of murder). This friend of a victim said that the murder of her friend is destroying her faith (in God).

I can relate. There are some questions that are very hard to answer.

And again I ask, what the hell is the matter with men like this? Men who enjoy exerting physical power and emotional control over women? This type of behaviour is why I have zero tolerance for even jokes about fundamentalist polygamy and other abuses of women, including sexist remarks and sexual slurs. Think about it.

One day this guy is a peeping Tom, then he's stealing panties, and suddenly he's stalking and murdering women. All the while he's commander of a major military base.

No matter how poignant a stranger's plight, it doesn't usually move uninvolved people to actual tears, but when just watching a newscast about it can choke you up you know it's a tear-jerker of a tragedy.



Edited 3 time(s). Last edit at 10/20/2010 10:49PM by Nightingale.

Funny that Boyd KKK Packer asked the same question about gays.

Obvious answer: Gawd has nothing to do with it.

As someone who lives in Canada I am quite familiar (as far as news goes) with this case.

Having said that, he is not a monster. In society we tend to use labels like "monster" because we don't want to face the fact that these people are people. Of course I don't condone what he did, but I think we need to recognize that it's not some super-natural being that did this. It was a human being. Only human beings inflict such cruelty to other members of the same race.

That is what of course scares people. That these predators are human beings. That to be a predator you can come from any walk of life, any social class, any education, etc. We us super-natural terms like "monster", "devil", to make ourselves feel better. To separate ourselves from them instead of facing the fact that they are human.

> In society we tend to use labels like "monster" because we don't want to face the fact that these people are people.

Exactly. There is a word to describe people like this: Sociopath.

It's not like there's a causal relationship between panty stealing and torturous murder. That guy is f-ed up in the head and oftentimes there's no explanation other than crossed wires in his brain.

At least one of the criminal profilers has said there is very much a causal relationship between the fetish of stealing panties and increasingly deviant sexual behaviour. I heard one say that such behaviour "always escalates".

I didn't know this - thought it was just a thing in the movies.

They are discussing what caused such an escalation over a period of just two yrs, from his first "low-level" offence up to rape and murder. He has apparently admitted that there would have been more victims. It seems like almost a fluke that the police caught him so quickly (due to tire tread and boot print evidence). Very good work on their part and apparently a brilliant interview/interrogation by one of the investigating officers that went from denial to full confession in 10 hrs.

This hideous excuse for a man gets to keep his military pension!

"At a news conference Monday afternoon, the Department of Defence announced it would work to strip Williams of his rank, military decorations and honours as quickly as possible.

He will not be able to call himself a retired colonel and will simply be a civilian, officials said. Officers who leave the military in a normal way are entitled to use their rank as a retired officer.

The military acknowledged it cannot do anything about Williams's pension and he is entitled to it unless the government takes steps to strip him of it.

It would be up to the federal government to enact legislation, for example, said Brig.-Gen. Neville Russell, director general of air personnel. The military would not play a role in the pension issue and has no way of removing the pension, he said."


Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/canada/story/2010/10/18/col-williams-court-1018.html#ixzz12xYOSkcR

Nightingale Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> No matter how poignant a stranger's plight, it
> doesn't usually move uninvolved people to actual
> tears, but when just watching a newscast about it
> can choke you up you know it's a tear-jerker of a
> tragedy.

I've been following this story since Feb.

It rips my mother heart that the one victim asked him just before he murdered her, "I don't want to die, please... If I die, will you make sure my mom knows that I love her?" I can't even wrap my mind around that poor girl asking her murderer to get a message to her Mom that she loves her.

When I was a Mormon I had a discussion with a TBM friend once and asked her, "How can Heavenly Father allow murders and rapes?" She said that He can't interfere with our free agency.
I gasped and said, "Whose free agency? The victim wasn't choosing to be murdered or raped."

When things like this happen I wish there was a God and he/she would intervene.

Nightingale do you know if there has ever been any reports that this Col. behaved in any way that made people wonder about him? I"ve read what a decorated commander he was of Canadian Forces Base Trenton. But you have to wonder if somebody didn't notice something. Is he a Jekyll and Hyde and did no one noticed anything?

I agree Helen about the humanity. I think we can all relate to the absolute tragedy of two lovely, productive women having their lives cut so short and in so brutal a fashion.

He and men like him get away with the double life thing for as long as they do, and lull their victims, in part by coming across as trustworthy. That has always chilled me as I have a strong tendency to be naive and trusting. A large part of that is due to expecting that everyone will act in accordance with a basic level of decency, obviously a mistake on my part. That unrealistic idea is being shattered lately with all the senseless violence and murder and other high-level crime that is happening more and more.

Regarding this murderer specifically, in one interview of a person connected to the military base who had dealt with other commanders, he said this one didn't seem like the others in that he was quiet and more of a loner; in short, didn't exhibit the personality this guy expected. But that is a man-in-the-street type interview, I didn't hear all of it and it's just his impression after the fact.

That's all I've heard so far. I will wait and see what the definitive interpretation of it all turns out to be. There is a lot of speculation right now but in the end we may never know. Maybe this guy himself doesn't know. It seems to be what he's saying.

I did hear a profiler say it is usually caused by something massively wrong in adolescence but again that is not conclusive. They are amazed though at his fairly advanced age (mid-40s) before he even started to commit the first offences. Usually such behaviour manifests itself earlier, the experts say.

Creepy and horrific, whatever the cause or whoever the perp.