Clifford Olson killed 11 children. With a cigar in his mouth, he pointed to where they were buried

• From an early age, Clifford Olsen Jr. was interested in breaking the law. He spent most of his youth in prison
• On November 17, 1980, he committed his first murder. Over the next nine months he committed more crimes
• He agrees to cooperate with the police and mentions the places where he hid the bodies. He did it for money
• He died in prison in September 2011. He was not allowed to be released on parole until the end of his life.
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Although Clifford Olson, born in Vancouver in 1940, did not grow up in a pathological family, he caused problems from an early age. At school, he often played tricks or bullied other children, abused animals, and at the age of 13 he committed his first robbery.

He first went to prison at age 17 and spent most of the next 25 years there, serving 90 convictions for fraud, theft and armed robbery. He escaped several times, but it didn’t take long for him to end up behind bars again. In 1981, Clifford Olsen married Joan Hale and had a son. By then, he had already killed three children, and four days after he said his wedding vows, he killed again.

He stood before the altar and killed him four days later

A series of murders and rapes against children began on November 17, 1980 in New Westminster, Canada. Olson then abducted 12-year-old Christine Weller, whose body, covered in machete and showing signs of strangulation, was found the next day. For a while, Olson remained silent, although police suspected he had sexually assaulted a 5-year-old neighborhood girl. He was acquitted for lack of evidence.

In April 1981, he killed 13-year-old Colin Taignault, who was found five months later. Around this time, Olson also killed 16-year-old Darin Todd Johnsrud with a hammer. He left his body in a ditch. In May, as a newlywed and a new father, he kidnapped and murdered 16-year-old Sandra Wolfsteiner. A month later, the same fate befell Ada Court, three years her junior.

In July 1981, he abducted and murdered six children and teenagers. He raped some of them and buried their bodies. The victims were 14-year-old Judy Kozma, 9-year-old Simon Bardington, 15-year-old Raymond King Jr., 18-year-old Sigrun Arndt (a tourist from Germany) and 15-year-old Terry Lynn Carson. . In the first person, Olson takes a notebook of friends’ phones and calls them, whispering, “You’re next.” During this time, he was accused of sexual assault, but because he had no contact with the victims, he again escaped justice.

Initially, the police did not connect these cases. Only three bodies were found, the victims varied in age and sex, and in the case of some victims it was believed that children had simply run away from home. During this time, Olsen kidnapped 17-year-old Louis Chartrand and beat him to death with a hammer.

He asked for a missing persons poster and pointed out the victims

On August 12, 1981, he was arrested after attempting to kidnap two hitchhiking girls near Port Alberni. In his car, the police, who followed for a while, found a notebook belonging to Judy Kozma. Six days later, Clifford Olsen was charged with her murder.

At first, the man avoided answering questions about the fate of the children. Finally, after pressure from the authorities, he asked for a poster with missing persons. “Yeah, yeah. That’s it,” he listed, pointing to the faces of the men he’d killed. The public was horrified and outraged, and he earned the nickname “The Beast of British Columbia.”

He agreed to reveal the locations where the bodies were hidden, but for money. He wanted 10 thousand. Toll for evidence linking him to the victims found or pointing to the burial location of others. The sum of PLN 100,000 for the doll should go to his wife and son. The place where the body of the eleventh victim was hidden – as he said – “he threw free.”

Olson kept his word and took the police to all the shallow graves he dug. While officers and technicians were investigating crime scenes, he enjoyed puffing on cigars. When Joan found out what the government was paying her husband for, she immediately returned the money. After some time, she filed for divorce.

He was put behind bars, but he never let himself be forgotten

Initially, Clifford Olson did not confess to any of the 11 murders. He changed his mind three days after the trial, but expressed no remorse and mocked the victims’ families. He loved the media attention he received. In January 1982, he was sentenced to 11 life sentences – one for each child killed.

Even behind bars, Olson hasn’t let himself be forgotten. Claiming his sentence violated his human rights, he wrote petitions to install plexiglass walls in his cell to protect him from inmates or to provide him with a blow-up doll. During his parole hearing, he claimed to have killed 100 people or had classified information about the 9/11 terrorist attacks. None of his proposals were accepted. Clifford Olson died of cancer on September 30, 2011.

His crimes and the years he served contributed to changes in Canadian law and beyond. A movement for victims of violence was established in the country, representing them during court cases and parole hearings, and a registry of missing children was established.

Canada’s Criminal Code has been amended to prevent serial killers from getting early release from prison, and a new federal law strips them of their right to $1,100. hole A government pension after age 65, as in Olsen’s case. With then-prime minister Stephen Harper investigating and his benefits (which he eventually did), Olsen sent The Sun reporter one of the final checks. In an attached note, he asked the journalist to donate it to Harper’s re-election campaign.

Source: True Crime Canada, theglobeandmail.com, vancouverisawesome.com, Wikipedia