My latest book, The Pickton File, which will be out later this month from Knopf Canada, is a first-person account of working on the Missing Women/Pickton story for five years. It begins with the research plan for a story across the country - a story that required me to move to Vancouver part-time - and find the people who could tell me what happened.
Publication bans are still in force and Willie Pickton's first trial, on six counts of first degree murder, is still under way so it isn't possible - yet - to tell the whole story.
So what I have done here, while I describe the process of investigating this story, is give you a guide to the unfolding events and the players: Willie Pickton and his family, the lawyers on both sides, the victims' families and even the journalists who are covering the unfolding case.
I also take you into the Downtown Eastside, home to the women who disappeared, and tell you what their lives were like. And I take you out to the infamous Pickton farm, to Piggy's Palace where Willie and his brother Dave hosted riotous parties and to the nearby Hells Angels clubhouse.
Most of the photographs you see in this book are ones I have taken over the years; a few came from friends and two new ones - one of Dave Pickton, Willie's younger brother, and one of Piggy's Palace, came from Global Television. Court artist Jane Wolsak provided three illustrations.
And there are several maps to help you understand the geography of this story including a map of the Downtown Eastside, another of Willie Pickton's route from his home in Port Coquitlam to downtown Vancouver, a map of his farm and even a diagram of the interior of his trailer.
Publication bans are still in force and Willie Pickton's first trial, on six counts of first degree murder, is still under way so it isn't possible - yet - to tell the whole story.
So what I have done here, while I describe the process of investigating this story, is give you a guide to the unfolding events and the players: Willie Pickton and his family, the lawyers on both sides, the victims' families and even the journalists who are covering the unfolding case.
I also take you into the Downtown Eastside, home to the women who disappeared, and tell you what their lives were like. And I take you out to the infamous Pickton farm, to Piggy's Palace where Willie and his brother Dave hosted riotous parties and to the nearby Hells Angels clubhouse.
Most of the photographs you see in this book are ones I have taken over the years; a few came from friends and two new ones - one of Dave Pickton, Willie's younger brother, and one of Piggy's Palace, came from Global Television. Court artist Jane Wolsak provided three illustrations.
And there are several maps to help you understand the geography of this story including a map of the Downtown Eastside, another of Willie Pickton's route from his home in Port Coquitlam to downtown Vancouver, a map of his farm and even a diagram of the interior of his trailer.
1 comment:
I look forward to your new book as I am impressed by what you have done in the past uncovering Mulroney's mess.
I was a foster mother of Mona Wilson and I was her daycare teacher who reported her sexual abuse. When she went into care I fostered her in a system that refused to do anything but the bare minimum for her. I asked for psychological assistance in helping her deal with the abuse but was refused. It was a second form of abuse she had to deal with dealing with the foster care system.
When Mona was in daycare we had a lunch with the same police division that screwed up this whole case and ignored her dissapearance. I still have the photo of Mona at 3 eating lunch next to a policeman, who was there to show kids on the downtown eastside that they could trust the police. Obviously not true and just a public relations gimmic as far as I am concerned.
Mona Wilson was a wonderful child who loved so deeply, that even as she was abused at a center that I visited her in weekly she didn't tell me to prevent me from being worried. She faced in her short life what many would not face in many lifetimes.
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