Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Beast of British Columbia” Pt. 2 - Clifford Robert Olson Jr.

Episode Date: October 15, 2018

A chance meeting with child killer Gary Marcoux inspired Olson Jr. to commit his own string of murders. What measures would law enforcement have to take to identify and locate the victims of his crimes? Subscribe to Parcast's new Podcasts HOSTAGE now! Sponsors! Caffé Monster - Available in Vanilla, Mocha, and Salted Caramel. Pretty Litter - Head to PrettyLitter.com and use promo code SERIALKILLERS for 20% off your first order. Upstart - Go to Upstart.com/SERIALKILLERS to find out HOW LOW your Upstart rate is! Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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listener discretion is advised. This episode includes dramatizations and discussions of murder and assault that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. Canada, a country known for moose and maple syrup. The frigid winters and harsh terrain

are made bearable by the noted friendliness of its people. It seems impossible to imagine that friendliness could turn violent. Clifford Olsen. stalked the streets of Vancouver for less than a year, but the 11 children that fell victim to his charm wound up drugged, raped, murdered, and discarded,

lost forever in the permafrost and snow. Hi, I'm Greg Polson, and this is serial killers. Today we finish our deep dive into the life of Clifford Robert Olson Jr. the first, also known as The Beast of British Columbia. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. Many of you've been asking us how you can support the podcast. If you enjoy the show, one of the best ways to help us is to leave a five-star review wherever you listen to podcasts.

While you're there, you can listen to previous episodes of serial killers, as well as Parcast's other podcasts. A new episode comes out every Monday. You can also find us on Facebook and Instagram at Parcast and on Twitter at Parcast Network, or in our website. site, parkast.com. Clifford Olson first killed on November 17, 1980, and went on a vicious killing spree until his capture on August 12, 1981. He was convicted of 11 murders. Clifford Olson killed in the suburbs and on the country back roads surrounding his hometown

of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He abducted teenagers of both sexes, drugged them, and killed them by stabbing, bludgeoning, and strangulation. Canada's first famous serial killer and most known for a controversial and unprecedented cash for bodies deal that he made with Vancouver law enforcement. Last week we covered Clifford Olson's childhood. Unlike other serial killers, Clifford Olson did not suffer any abuse, and yet he still developed narcissistic personality disorder and extreme psychopathy. All but five years of Clifford's adult life were spent behind bars. He would

break out of prison or be let out on parole, only to land himself back in prison weeks or even days later. In prison, he grew accustomed to raping other inmates and met a child killer named Gary Markoo, whose stories led Clifford to fantasize about becoming a child killer himself. Clifford was released from prison on parole for the last time in January of 1980. He was 40 years old. In February of 1980, he met a woman named Joan Hale at a bar. Joan had recently gotten divorced from an abusive ex-husband, and Clifford saw her as an easy target.

Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. Please note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for the show. Thanks, Greg. Clifford manipulated Joan into a relationship by following a pattern of pursuit used by many psychopaths. First, he wooed her with affection, attention, and passion. passionate sex, but slowly he let his dark side out. If she confronted him about his excessive drinking or his overuse of sleeping pills, he would blow up at her, scaring her away from confronting him in the future.

Eventually, Clifford had Joan so terrified that she was completely under his control. He took her money as he pleased, and he would beat and rape her. Clifford took pleasure in making Joan feel helpless. Much like other psychopaths, he pursued only. Only his own gratification at the expense of others. Once Clifford had Joan trapped, raping her was not enough to satisfy his grotesque sexual appetite. He enjoyed the hunt and he went on the prowl. He would go to nearby bars and motels, looking for teenagers left to wait outside for their parents.

Clifford looked for teens whose parents wouldn't notice or care if they went missing. He turned on his superficial charm and lured them to his car by offering money and work. Once he had the teenager in his vehicle, he offered them alcohol. The teens, thinking they were in safe hands, would drink as much as he offered. Once they were drunk, Clifford would pressure them into sex, molest them, or rape them, depending on how violent Clifford was feeling that day. Sometimes if the victim was willing to have sex, Clifford would bring the teenager back to his home and have sex with them in front of Joan.

Joan was disgusted by Clifford's actions, but every time he brought a teenager home, he would end the night by cornering Joan in a different room and threatening to kill her if she said anything to anybody. Joan stayed silent. Some sources claim that between Clifford's release in January of 1980 and his recapture on August 12, 1981, Clifford raped at least one child every single day. We don't know if those numbers are accurate,

but we do know several other things. Clifford chose his victims perfectly. He searched for unwanted children who would not not speak up about his abuse. He knew that even if they did tell someone about him raping them, nobody in their lives would care to listen. Some of his victims spoke up after Clifford's arrest, but most never said a word. In the end, we don't actually know how many children Clifford raped, but we do know that in July of 1980, as Clifford alternated between raping teenagers and raping Joan Hale, Joan became pregnant with Clifford's child. Clifford actually became

excited at the prospect of being a father. For a while, he began treating Joan a little better. He brought back some of his devilish charm and stopped beating her regularly. Joan thought he was finally shaping up. She hoped being a father would change him for the better. Unfortunately, Clifford's violence could not be repressed for long. On November 17, 1980, Clifford and the pregnant Joan got into a fight about Clifford's drinking. Instead of listening to his girlfriend, he beat her. He left the house to steal some money to buy more booze. And when he returned, Joan was not waiting for him. Instead, she had left a note.

The note accused Clifford of loving alcohol more than he loved Joan. While this was true, Clifford was angry at Joan on principle. He was also somewhat scared that she would tell somebody about his poor treatment of her. Clifford went out in search of his absent girlfriend. In his drunkenness, he quickly got distracted. After driving down a few back roads, Clifford noticed a 12-year-old girl riding a bike in the parking lot of the Surrey Inn, a small hotel Anne Bar in Surrey Newton, a suburb of Vancouver. Clifford was a man of appetites, and those appetites needed to be fed.

He approached the girl like he had dozens of girls before. He asked her for directions to the nearest unemployment office so he could post job offers. This lie gave Clifford an air of dignity. The girl gave him directions, then told him her name was Christine Anne Weller. Clifford told Christine it was nice to meet her, then struck up a conversation. As always, he was devilishly charming. Clifford asked Christine what she was doing riding her bike outside a hotel bar. The 12-year-old told him that she had driven her drunken father to the bar

and that she had to wait outside until he was finished drinking so she could drive him home. She told Clifford that she had borrowed the bike from a friend who lived nearby. to entertain herself while she waited. Clifford asked her a few more questions, sussing out her background. He quickly discovered that she was just his type, young, lonely, vulnerable, and from a dysfunctional family.

He decided he would find and punish Joan later. For now, his attention was focused on Christine. Clifford pulled out a business card that he had made for the express purpose of swindling people. The card had the name of a construction company on it, and at Lent Clippard the credibility in the eyes of his victims. He gave the card to Christine and offered to give her a job washing windows. Christine was skeptical at first, but then Clifford upped the ante.

He told her that this job paid out $10 per hour. At the time, $10 per hour was three times the minimum wage in Vancouver and twice as much as the $5 wage that most companies usually paid window washers. Christine came from a poor family, and she wanted that job. She got in the car with Clifford, leaving her friend's bike at the bar. Clifford offered Christine a beer to celebrate the new job. Christine knew she shouldn't be drinking, but it wasn't every day that someone offered her a beer. She began to drink, but the alcohol began to make her feel a little uneasy.

Clifford had gone down this road with plenty of underage girls before. He knew how to ease Christine's worry and charm her into feeling comfortable in his presence. He talked to her about her family, her mother, He told Christine that he would like to meet her parents and congratulate them on raising such a wonderful kid. Christine was slightly more comfortable with Clifford, but she hadn't gotten drunk yet. Clifford pulled up to a house that was built by the construction company on his business card.

It encouraged Christine to have more beer while they waited for another employee. Christine quickly became drunk, and Clifford kissed her. The two began making out, and Clifford ejaculated in his pants before he had the opportunity to take it further. Christine asked Clifford for the time. It was one o'clock in the morning, hours past when Christine had intended to be home. However, Clifford was not about to let his night end there. He offered Christine weed, but only if she agreed to go with him to pick it up.

Christine agreed. Clifford drove back to his apartment and left Christine in the car. He checked to see if Joan had returned, but Joan was not home. He grabbed sleeping pills and went back to the car. Before Clifford reached the car, the apartment complex's security guard stopped him. The guard asked Clifford about the sleepy 12-year-old girl that was sitting in Clifford's car. Clifford convinced the security guard that Christine was his niece and that he was just about to drive her home. The security guard walked away, thinking nothing more of it.

Clifford got back in the car. Christine noticed that he didn't have any weed, and she asked him why. Clifford said he had something better, his wake-up pill. He convinced Christine that his pills would actually counteract her drunken stupor and clear up her mind. He convinced her to take several of them by pretending to take some himself. He drove Christine until she was unconscious. When she had finally passed out, he stopped in a field in the middle of nowhere and pulled her out of the car and raped her multiple times.

Once Clifford had had his fill of rape, he thought about his next move. He decided he would bring the unconscious girl back home with him and use the girl to mock Joan's powerlessness, knowing from past experience that Joan would be unable to stop him. Clifford walked back to his car, only to find that it wouldn't start. He tried for an hour before deciding that he would need to call a tow truck. Clifford knew that if anybody found a drugged 12-year-old girl sleeping in his car, he would be sent back to prison. He decided he had to get rid of her long before he could safely get her.

a tow truck. Clifford shook Christine awake and told her they had to walk to the nearest phone. Christine could hardly stand. Clifford supported her as she struggled to walk, but instead of going for a tow truck, Clifford walked her to the bank of the Fraser River. Christine passed out again and Clifford raped her one more time. He took off his belt and strangled her, then stabbed her with his hunting knife multiple times in the chest and abdomen just to make sure she was dead. Clifford pocketed a crucifix necklace and a ring that Christine was wearing. He had greatly enjoyed killing the girl, and he kept her jewelry to help him remember the occasion. He undressed her and threw all of her clothes and the rest of her belongings into the river, along with the knife

he had used to kill her. Then he hid Christine's body in a thicket of blackberry bushes, making sure she was very well concealed. Last week we told you about how Clifford had formed a friendship with child killer Gary Marku. Gary had killed a nine-year-old girl, and he had told Clifford every detail about the murder, including the evidence the courts had used against him. Clifford had learned from Gary's case what evidence the police looked for in cases of child murder, and he disposed of all of it. Clifford got his car towed home and gave it a deep clean.

He got rid of the beer bottles, and he burned the club. he was wearing when he murdered the girl. Joan returned home later the next day. Clifford claimed he had cooled down, and he convinced Joan to go on vacation with him to decompress. From this, it seems as though Clifford believed the catharsis theory, or the idea that releasing your anger through acts of aggression will reduce your anger and aggression later on. Catharsis theory is pretty common among the general population, according to a study published in the Journal of Personality and social psychology. Psychologists Colin M. Bushman, Brad M. Baumeister, and Roy F. Phillips found that people who believe this theory engage in aggressive acts to regulate their anger.

Unfortunately, catharsis theory seems to be incorrect. Multiple studies, including one published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, also partially written by Brad J. Baumeister and Roy F. Phillips, found that responding to anger with aggression may reduce anger in the moment, but it only increases aggression later on. In other words, acting aggressively now only makes it more likely that you will act aggressively down the road. This partially explains why Clifford's violence became more commonplace and frequent throughout his life. Instead of immediately seeking out another victim, however, Clifford drove down to Bellingham, Washington in the United States and had a relaxing getaway with Joan. For Clifford, it was meant to be

the perfect alibi, but the alibi ended up being entirely unnecessary. Clifford had chosen his victim well. Christine had run away from home on multiple occasions, and her father and her grandmother were entirely unconcerned with her disappearance. Only two people were looking for Christine, Clive Walker, her friend who had lent her his bike, and Alex Walker, Clive's angry father, who was now convinced that Christine had stolen Clive's bike to run away again. Alex, trying to find the bike, called the police and informed them that Christine was missing.

The police told Alex that only family members could file missing person reports. Alex also called the Welfare Crisis Center, an organization partially built to help find missing children. But the crisis center was also convinced that Christine had merely run away from home. When Alex saw that nobody seemed to care that the girl was missing, he stopped caring about the bike and became genuinely concerned for the girl's safety. Alex tried informing multiple organizations about Christine's disappearance, but nobody began a search. On Christmas Day, 1980, a man on a morning stroll along the Fraser Riverbank

found Christine's body, frozen under the Blackberry bushes. Fred Mela, an investigator with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP for short, looked into the murder. The closest lead they could find was a different grown man who had had sex with a 12-year-old, a month before her disappearance. They did not have enough evidence to prosecute the murder case, and it remained open for months after the initial investigation. The investigation had no knowledge of Clifford Olson's involvement.

Clifford Olson had his first taste of blood, and he had suffered no consequences. Christine Weller was only the first victim in what would soon be a very large pile of bodies. That's all on the way. Our story will continue in a moment right after the break. You tell yourself, no one wants your college-era band teas, but on Deep Pop, people are searching for exactly what you've got.

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From November 1980 to April 1981, after killing 12-year-old Christine Weller, Clifford Olson went back to raping without killing his victims. Clifford thought it was a lot more work to murder and hide the bodies, so he left most of his victims alive. However, after a while, rape wasn't giving him the high that it usually did. He looked at the jewelry he had taken from Christine and thought back to how much he enjoyed killing her. He dreamt about killing again.

He needed an opportunity to find another victim. Meanwhile, other areas of Clifford's life were undergoing fundamental changes. In mid-April of 1981, Joan Hale gave birth to Clifford Olson's son. Always the narcissist, Clifford Olson insisted that Joan name his son after himself. Clifford Olson the Third's birth should have been the happiest moment in Clifford Olson the second's life. Instead, Clifford used the birth of his son

as the perfect cover. His wife was laid up in the hospital bed and he was free to search the streets for more victims. On April 16, 1981, 41-year-old Clifford Olson noticed a 13-year-old girl skateboarding down a quiet road. He found out her name was Colleen Danielle and asked her for directions to the local unemployment office. so he could post some job openings.

Almost all of Clifford's murders followed the exact same pattern. He would stop his victims on the side of the road, figure out if they had an unstable home life, get them in his car by offering them a high-paying job, fill them with alcohol and sleeping pills, then rape and kill them. He followed this pattern very closely because it almost always worked. When he wanted to experiment with his killings,

instead of changing his process, he would simply use different weapons to end his victim's lives. Once Clifford had Colleen unconscious, he raped her. He thought of himself as a clever person, so he wanted to try killing the girl in a clever way. He pulled out a hypodermic needle. He wanted to see if he could kill the girl by injecting air into her bloodstream. He stabbed her with the needle multiple times,

but he was unable to find an artery. When his initial attempt to kill Colleen failed, he decided to drive to a wooded area near Surve. British Columbia and think up a different way to offer. Feeling safe in the woods, Clifford actually fell asleep with the unconscious 13-year-old lying next to him. Unfortunately for Colleen, Clifford woke up before she did. He took the opportunity to rape her one more time. When she woke up, he insisted they walked to a nearby house. Colleen knew that something was deeply wrong, but she also had no idea where she was. She was scared and helpless, left her

with few options, so she followed Clifford's instructions, hoping that Clifford would leave her alone if she did what he asked. But Clifford had no intention of letting her go alive. While they were walking, Clifford pulled out a hammer. He swung the hammer against the back of Colleen's head, crushing her skull. As she bled to death, Clifford stripped off her clothes and buried them. He left Colleen's body in the woods, covering her with leaves and branches. Clifford returned to the hospital to pick up Joan and the baby. Joan noticed blood on Clifford's clothing, but she was too scared to ask where it had come from.

The next day, Colleen's grandmother suspected that Colleen had gone missing. Colleen's grandmother knew that Colleen was happy with her life, and she didn't think Colleen would ever run away from home. The RCMP suspected that Colleen had gone to see her mother, who lived in a different city. Even after Colleen's mother told the police that she had no knowledge of Colleen's whereabouts, the police treated Colleen as a runaway and made no further effort to investigate her disappearance. Even though Clifford had incorrectly guessed how Colleen's family would react to her disappearance,

he had correctly guessed that the police would treat her as a runaway. He chose his victims well, and the early police indifference to Colleen and other cases allowed Clifford to keep killing. On April 22, 1981, Clifford noticed a 16-year-old boy named Darren John. route, walking to buy cigarettes. Darren was from Saskatoon, but he was in town visiting his mother and stepfather. Clifford followed his usual playbook to a tea. He got Darren into his car, filled Darren with pills and alcohol, then drove him to a forested area north of Fraser River, and raped Darren's unconscious body on a picnic blanket. After that, he beat Darren's skull in with a

hammer. He tossed the murder weapon and Darren's clothing into the river, and hid Darren's body under some bushes at the bottom of a ditch. Clifford had been drinking a little more than usual that night. As he drove away from the crime scene, he crashed into a different ditch. He paid a man who lived nearby to pull his car out. Then he crashed his car into a second ditch a little further down the road. The man towed Clifford's car out of the ditch a second time. As Clifford drove away, the man returned to his house and called the police.

Clifford managed to get to his parents' home and clean his car. Looking back on that night, Joan remembered getting a drunken call from Clifford that she found deeply unsettling. Clifford and his parents were crying into the phone. Joan asked Clifford's mother what was wrong, but Clifford's mother said, I can't tell you, Clifford made me promise not to tell anyone. Joan was confused, but would later realize that Clifford must have told his parents about the murder that night. When Clifford got home, he burned his share.

shoes and clothing before the police could find him. The police gave Clifford a ticket for driving under the influence. Clifford was just happy he wasn't being arrested for murder. At the time, DUIs were not taken as seriously as they are today, so Clifford was left free to go on killing. Darren's mother and stepfather immediately went to the police about Darren's disappearance, but once again, the police treated Darren like another runaway. On May 2, 1981, two hikers found Darren's body lying in the ditch. The police arrived, but his skull was so severely crushed and his face was so badly decomposed that they initially told Darren's parents that the body was not their son. Forensic scientists later identified Darren's body using his dental records,

and the RCMP apologized to Darren's parents for the devastating mix-up. As Clifford continued killing, the RCMP continued to make foolish mistakes like these. The controversy surrounding RCMP's handling of Clifford's murders would only grow as time moved forward. Fred Mayla, the same RCMP investigator who was looking into Clippert's first murder, was also assigned to Darren's case. He initially saw no reason to suspect a serial killing. Serial killers usually rape and kill either only women or only men. Bisexual serial killing was a rare phenomenon. As such, Fred was unable to find a reasonable suspect,

and the case remained open. While Clifford was off killing other people's children, Joan was at home taking care of Clifford's son. At some point, Clifford thought it would be appropriate for his son's parents to be married. On May 15, 1981, Clifford Olson and Joan Hale got married. Joan became Mrs. Joan Hale-Ulson, and her metaphorical noose became just a little bit tighter.

Once again, Clifford used what should have been a joyous occasion, as a cover for his vicious deeds. Four days after the wedding on May 19, 1981, Clifford picked up a 16-year-old hitchhiker named Sandra Lynn Wolfsteiner. Sandra was supposed to meet her boyfriend for lunch, but instead she fell prey to Clifford's act. Clifford offered her a job, then filled her with pills and alcohol. He tricked her into walking into the woods.

Clifford brought out a hammer and bludgeoned Sandra to death. As she lay dying on the forest floor, he raped her body. He covered her with branches and leaves. He changed his clothes and threw the hammer and Sandra's belongings out the window of his car as he drove down the Canadian backroads. Sandra's boyfriend immediately went to the police after she didn't show up for lunch. Sandra's parents then filed a missing person report after the required legal waiting time of two days.

Just like Christine, Colleen, and Darren. The police assumed Sandra was a runaway, and they made no real effort to investigate her disappearance. Clifford began to get a little cocky. He already had an incredibly inflated ego, and now he was literally getting away with murder. His behavior can be likened to a study published in the Journal of Psychiatric Research entitled Post-Combat Invincibility that studied the effects of combat on veterans. The study found exposure to violent combat, human trauma, and having direct responsibility for taking the life of another person

may alter an individual's perceived threshold of invincibility and slightly increase the propensity to engage in risky behavior upon returning home after wartime deployment. Soldiers who had taken another person's life, even if they did not have any desire to do so, found themselves taking more dangerous risks. It makes sense that the same thing would happen with Clifford and that the effects of taking a person's life would only be magnified.

Unlike the soldiers in the study, Clifford killed with the full desire to do so. On May 26, 1981, Clifford picked up a 15-year-old named Kathy Sallow. Kathy had just dropped out of school and was looking for work. This made Kathy the perfect target for Clifford's false job offers. Kathy got into Clifford's car, drank his beer, and took his pills. Luckily for Kathy, Clifford was getting arrogant. Clifford began to fondle Kathy as he drove the car, and his attention was diverted from the road. Clifford crashed the car and flipped it onto its roof.

Some nearby construction workers saw the crash and went to help. A man named Spud Dyer noticed that Kathy was an incredibly inebriated teenager being dragged around by a middle-aged man. He called a friend who owned a towing company and had the friend call the police. Spud Dyer deceived the deceiver. He told Clifford he could give him and Kathy a ride to the towing station without letting on that he had already called the police. When the trio arrived at the towing company,

Clifford spotted a police car in the distance. He picked Kathy up and sprinted away, although, as anyone might imagine, this getaway proved challenging. Clifford eventually dropped Kathy and tried to escape on his own. After a prolonged foot chase, an RCMP officer named Daryl Kettles, finally caught Clifford, and arrested him for impaired driving and contributing to juvenile delinquency. Clifford promised to show up to court,

and because Kathy was too inebriated to tell the police that Clifford had done worse than simply giving her beer, the police were legally required to let him walk away. Daryl Kettles was not happy about having to let Clifford walk. He knew that Clifford would not show up to court, and after having looked up Clifford's criminal record, Daryl grew increasingly suspicious of him. Once Kathy sobered up, Daryl heard her story about Clifford's job offer.

He also noticed that Clifford had picked Kathy up only a few blocks away from where Darren Johns Rood, Clifford's third victim, had last been seen. Daryl Kettles quickly pieced two and two together. He immediately called Fred Mela, the investigator in charge of Christine and Darren's case. He knew that Clifford Olson was the man who had been abducting and murdering children.

over the past five months. We don't know exactly what happened next. Daryl Kettle's claims that Fred Mela dismissed his suspicions offhand and that the rest of the RCMP refused to listen to Daryl's theories due to his low rank in the police force. Fred Mela claims that Daryl lacked sufficient evidence to make a case against Clifford.

It's easy for us to look back in hindsight and see that Daryl was immediately right to suspect Clifford. Clifford was a lifetime criminal with a history of raping underage inmates in prison. Darrell had made the connection within one day of meeting Clifford, so it seems like a connection the RCMP should have made immediately as well. It's also easy to see that the RCMP was incredibly disorganized at the time. It later came to light that the suspicions of lower-ranked officers

were ignored in other high-profile cases at the time. However, it's also possible that Fred Mela was correct to say that Darrell lacked sufficient evidence to build a case again. against Clifford Olson. Clifford knew what evidence to dispose of, and he did so efficiently. Darrell insists that the RCMP had acted against Clifford Olson when he first suspected Clifford,

Clifford would have been unable to continue murdering. Unfortunately, that's not what happened. The RCMP ignored Darrell's warnings, and seven more children soon died horrid, gruesome deaths. Let's pause for a moment. There's something we'd like to share you. Choice Hotels gets you more of what you value. Here's a little tune to help you remember. Same drive different day. Don't you wish you were getting away? Hack your beds and come on

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While there, Clifford beat Ada to death with a hammer and raped her corpse. He buried her body and burnt her purse and clothing. Ada's parents reported. ordered her missing, and because Ada's parents were in a stable relationship for once, the police did not consider her a runaway. They searched for her, but they were unable to find her. Les Forsyth, the officer in charge of the Burnaby RCMP Detachment Sex Crimes Unit, was put in charge of her case. At the time, Les Forsyth believed all the recent child disappearances to be unrelated. Aside from Darrell Kettles, nobody in the RCMP suspected a serial killer to be stalking

the peaceful city of Vancouver. On July 2nd, 1981, Clifford abducted a nine-year-old boy named Simon Partington. He drove the boy back to the bank of the Fraser River, where he had killed Christine. Returning to the scene of his first murder, Clifford wanted to reenact the killing. A study titled Drug Tolerance, Drug Addiction, and Drug Anticipation by Shepard Siegel found that recovering drug addicts had increased withdrawal responses when they returned to the locations where they spent most of their time doing drugs. This means the environment acted as a behavioral cue, compelling them to return to past behaviors and chase past highs. For Clifford,

killing was a better drug than alcohol or pills. By reenacting his first murder, Clifford was trying to recapture the thrill of his first kill. Instead of beating Simon to death with a hammer, he strangled Simon with his belt and stabbed Simon with a buck knife, just like he had done with Christine. Clifford threw Simon's body into the river and drove away. Simon being only nine years old, was too young to be considered a runaway by the RMCP and was immediately declared missing. Over a hundred people searched the city for Simon, and the news media began signal blasting his disappearance. Now that two bodies had been found and two more children had been officially declared missing, Les Forsyth, the officer in charge of Ada's case, became the second

officer convinced that they had a serial killer running loose in the streets. After hearing Daryl Kettle's theories, Les Forsyth also believed that Clifford Olson was the killer. Les began looking into Clifford's past. He noticed several sexual assault and sexual misconduct charges that had been brought against him. Clifford had never been convicted of a sexual crime, but the record showed sexual assault accusations that had previously gone unnoticed by the police, including Clifford's penchant for raping younger inmates in prison. Les knocked on Clifford's front door to speak with Clifford about his past. Les noticed that Clifford was incredibly uncomfortable with the questions. He only grew more suspicious when he noticed that Clifford lived across the street from Ada

Court's brother. After further digging, Les learned that Clifford liked to drive around the areas where several other missing kids had last been seen. He also started to hear stories about Clifford offering teenagers' work and alcohol. Les built a profile and submitted Clifford as a serious suspect in the disappearances of Ada, Darren, and Simon. But despite the increasing suspicion, Clifford remained free. On July 9, 1981, Clifford picked up a 14-year-old girl named Judy Kosma. He got her drunk and drove her to Weaver Lake.

same location where he killed Ada. Once again, Clifford was trying to recapture past highs. Only this time, Judy woke up and vomited. Before Judy could run, Clifford beat her unconscious with his fists. He then dragged her to the riverside, pulled his knife, and stabbed her 19 times. He hid her body, burned her clothes, and stashed some of her jewelry in a secret spot in the woods. Olson then called his wife Joan and declared they were going on a vacation. to Disneyland. He wanted to skip town and get out from under the suspicion of Daryl Kettles and Les Forsyth. On July 10th, 1981, a day after he murdered Judy, Clifford took his wife, Joan and his son Clifford the third, and drove down to California. They stopped at a hotel along the way to Disneyland.

It was there that Clifford searched Joan's purse for cash and found out that Joan had hidden some money from him. Clifford was livid that Joan had been holding out. He demanded that she gave him the money, but she refused. She'd been saving it up to pay back a loan her father had given her, and she didn't want Clifford to spend it on booze. Clifford did not accept that. When Joan left the hotel room, Clifford took a knife and cut his own infant child just below the heart.

The wound bled profusely, but Clifford left his son bleeding in the crib until Joan came back. The cut was a message. Joan could do nothing to stop Clifford. he would even hurt their own son to get a little money from his wife. He cared only about himself, and his behavior was truly psychopathic. Joan gave Clifford all the money she had. Then Clifford turned his family around.

Instead of going to Disneyland, the happiest place on Earth, Clifford drove them back to Vancouver, Joan's perpetual hell. Clifford thought that his trip to California would reduce the RCMP's suspicions. He didn't know that the RCMP's investigation was only just beginning. On July 15, 1981, Les Forsyth and Daryl Kettles presented their evidence against Clifford at a law enforcement conference centered on unsolved cases. They didn't have enough evidence to arrest Clifford, but the RCMP began to consider surveillance on Clifford. They hesitated for two reasons.

Surveillance costs a lot of money, and surveillance cops are required by law to remove. If they see illegal activity, they cannot make arrests when they see a crime taking place. Instead, they're supposed to observe and report evidence in a court of law. Without this rule in place, the courts would be unable to get convictions in criminal cases that would require surveillance. For these reasons, the RCMP hesitated to fully investigate Clifford, but while the RCMP debated about the best approach to acquire evidence against Clifford, he was killing on the street. On July 23, 1981, Clifford picked up a 15-year-old boy named Raymond King Jr. from a bus stop. Clifford repeated his abduction methods over and over. He got Raymond drunk and high on weed.

Then he drove Raymond out to Weaver Lake. At Weaver Lake, Clifford raped the boy. He decided to be a little more precise with his murder weapon this time. Instead of beating Raymond's face in with a hammer directly, he decided to drive a nail into Raymond's skull. Raymond didn't die right away. Clifford took the opportunity to rape Raymond a second time, watching the blood leak out of the head wound. Clifford then tossed Raymond down a nearby cliffside and crushed his head by throwing rocks down on top of him. He covered the body by rolling sticks and rocks down the cliff until Raymond's little body was undetectable. Raymond's father reported him missing five hours after his disappearance. The RCNs,

The MP took his disappearance seriously, and they had already begun moving to get more information on Clifford. The same night of Raymond's murder, Detective Dennis Tar knocked on Clifford's door. He asked if Clifford would be interested in being an informant on a couple of robberies that had happened around town. Clifford was interested, and cocky. He thought he could leave any conversation with the police while maintaining the upper hand, and he invited Detective Tar in to talk. In reality, Detective Tar had been sent by Detective Fred Meila, the man in charge of investigating Clifford's first and third murder. Tar pretended to be interested in hiring Clifford as an informant in an attempt to gain information that might implicate Clifford in the child murders.

The conversation eventually touched on the nine-year-old boy that Clifford had killed. But Clifford's poker face was rock solid. Tar was unable to get enough information to know whether he had the right guy. The conversation ended with very little gained in the way of concrete evidence. Without police being able to stop him, Clifford let his blood lust loose once again. The next day, July 24, 1981, Clifford picked up an 18-year-old foreign exchange student from Germany named Sigrune Arndt. He got her drunk and brought her near the Fraser River, where he had killed Christine and Simon. As they were walking by the train tracks, Clifford brought out his hammer,

and whacked Sigourne's legs, knocking her to the ground. He dragged her to some tall grass and began to rape her. She was too drunk to know what was happening. As Clifford was raping Sagram, a train drove past them. Clifford made eye contact with the brakeman on the train, and he waved. The brakeman waved back as the train sped away. The brakeman assumed he was watching a couple have consensual sex. In reality, he was the only witness to a rape and murder as in.

it happened. Clifford, having tricked someone in the middle of committing a heinous act, felt absolutely invincible. Once Clifford had finished raping Sagram, he beat her to death with the hammer and threw her body into a muddy ditch. Clifford felt like he was on top of the world. The next day, on July 25, 1981, a group of hikers found a different dead body, that of Judy Cosma. Clifford had killed Judy two weeks earlier, and police raced to face.

find any evidence directly connecting Clippard to the crime, but they had no such luck. The discovery of Judy's body convinced the RCMP that a surveillance detail was necessary. On July 27th, the RCMP sent surveillance detail to Clifford's home. They watched his apartment intently, waiting for him to make a move. Unfortunately, Clifford was not there. Instead, Clifford was driving to a town called Hope with a 15-year-old passenger named Terry Lynn Carlin. Clyford was driving to Hope to cash traveler's checks he had stolen from his last victim, Segroon. Terry had been hitchhiking to a town near Hope, so she didn't find anything odd about this man taking her a few miles down the highway. Clifford got Terry drunk in his usual style

and tricked her into taking sleeping pills. Once she passed out, he pulled into an empty parking lot. The potential of being seen both thrilled and frightened Clifford. He raped Terry but finished quickly, watching the cars drive by on the nearby highway. He brought out a screwdriver and held the point up to Terry's forehead. He lifted his hammer and brought it crashing down. He watched as Terry continued to breathe. He noticed a nearby creek, dragged the lobotomized teen to the water, and held her under. Clifford left her body in the creek and drove to the nearby credit union.

When he returned home, his surveillance detail had already left. To save money, the RCMP had only budgeted to pay Clifford's surveillance during the day. The RCMP made many mistakes in investigating Clifford. When the details of the investigation became public, the victims of the families were outraged to hear that the RCMP had allowed Clifford to continue killing, just because they didn't want to pay people for a night shift. Clifford's surveillance went back on the clock the next day, July 28, 1981. They watched Clifford all day long, but he was a model citizen, didn't so much as litter.

The police were worried that Clifford had somehow noticed that he was being watched. In reality, Clifford just felt like taking a short break from his usual debauchery. Concerned that their surveillance had been compromised and worried that they were wasting money, the RCMP called off their surveillance of Clifford Olson. Two days later, on July 30, 1981, Clifford picked up a 17-year-old girl, named Louise Marie Chartrand. Clifford drugged Louise and took her to a wooded area. There he raped her.

But unlike the other victims, Louise had a brief moment of sobriety. She accused Clifford of intending to kill her. Clifford reeled. This had never happened to him before. He tried his best to convince Louise that he had no intention of hurting her. Louise could tell he was lying. She spotted the knife on Clifford's belt and grabbed it, attempting to stab Clifford in self-defense.

He said. Clifford caught her wrist and threatened to break it. Louise promised to let go of the knife if Clifford would promise not to kill her. Clifford did what he always did. He lied. Louise dropped the knife and the duo got in the car, but Louise's judgment was still impaired. She asked Clifford to pull over so she could use the restroom. While Louise relieved herself, Clifford sprinted up behind her and brought his hammer crashing down onto the back of her head. she dropped to the ground, dead. Clifford hid her body, but he was unsettled. It had been a close call, too close for comfort. He sped away from the body and fled to Alberta to lie low for a few days.

On August 5th, the RCMP discovered the body of Raymond King, whom Clifford had killed by dropping a rock on his head, and the skull of Ada Court, whom Clifford had killed with a hammer six weeks earlier. The discovery of two more bodies cemented the RCNEDA. The RCMP's resolve to capture Clifford Olson. On August 7th, the RCMP commenced 24-hour surveillance of Clifford's activities and discovered that he had returned to Vancouver. Clifford went back on the prowl.

On August 12, 1981, the RCMP surveillance team watched Clifford pick up two hitchhiking 13-year-old girls. Surveillance police aren't allowed to stop illegal activity, but they knew that if they didn't act, two more girls would wind up dead. The RCMP followed Clifford and the girls to a wooded area, where Clifford had set up a picnic blanket. Before anything bad could happen, cops rushed in, tackled Clifford and arrested him. Clifford mocked the cops, saying they couldn't convict him for having a picnic. He didn't suspect that they had him pinned for murder.

The investigators seized Clifford's car. They found Clifford's address book, and in it, the name of Judy Cosma. This notebook became the only fiscal evidence. linking Clifford to one of the murders. Investigators interrogated Clifford for days. With almost zero evidence, they needed Clifford to confess. Clifford was too cunning to incriminate himself, and he enjoyed the cat and mouse game he was playing with his interrogators.

He had all the time in the world to frustrate the police, and he planned on using it. The interrogators grew desperate. They outright asked him what it would take to get confessions. Clifford grinned. He told the RCMP that if they wanted information, they would have to pay for it. $10,000 per murder. Canadian law made it illegal for criminals to profit off their own crimes. Clifford got around those legal restrictions by having the money put into a trust fund under the name and care of his wife, Joan Olson. The RCMP debated for days. Ultimately, they decided it was more important to have closure on the murders and to have

Clifford kept behind bars. They agreed to the deal, while intending to take the money back from Joan Clifford as soon as it was legally viable. Clifford asked for $110,000 to pay for information on 11 murders. The RCMP told Clifford they would pay him $100,000 for 11 murders, but only if he could prove that he had unique knowledge by showing them the location of a body that had yet to be found. Clifford was more than happy to give the cops a freebie for $100,000. Over the course of the next week, Clifford took police to the hidden bodies and murder sites of 11 of his victims. Clifford enjoyed horrifying the officers as he brought them to a new body each day. He reveled in each gory detail about what he had done to these poor kids.

On January 11, 1982, Clifford Olson pled guilty to 11 counts of murder, and was sentenced to 11 concurrent life sentences. The media clambered for information on how the RCMP had caught the Beast of British Columbia, a term Clifford had coined for himself during the trial. One reporter discovered that the RCMP had paid out money and the news exploded. The deal became incredibly controversial. The families of the victims called it a cash-for-bodies deal and said it only served to encourage murderers to kill.

The families of the victims felt like the Canadian government had rubbed salt into the wounds of their already murdered children. To make matters worse, the deal had come at the end of what had been a lengthy and repeatedly botched investigation. Public outrage spread, and it spread quickly. The Attorney General and many high-level police officers in charge of the deal were forced to resign their posts. The RCMP was forced to restructure and give more weight to the opinions of the deal. low-level officers, like Officer Darrell Kettles, who had pegged Clifford as a serial killer when Clifford had killed only four children. Meanwhile, Clifford Olson took every opportunity to torment the families of his victims. He even sent them letters detailing how he had killed their

children. Enraged, the families sued Joan Olson for the $100,000 bribe, claiming the money should be paid in damages to them. The families won their initial suit, but Joan appealed the case. A British Columbian Appeals Court found that the money had been rightfully given to Joan. The money had been paid for information necessary to conviction, not for the murders themselves. And the money had been paid to a fellow victim of Clifford's, not to Clifford himself. In 1985, Joan Olson divorced Clifford, moved away and changed her name as well as the name of her son, Clifford Olson III. We don't know much about their lives after they vanished from the public eye, and that is a good thing for them.

Clifford Olson spent the rest of his life in prison. He offered to make another deal with the RCMP to give up information for more bodies, but after the political fallout from the first deal, the government refused to negotiate with Clifford. He claimed to have killed at least 11 more people, but he never provided their names or locations because he didn't want to give the government anything for free.

Clifford continued to antagonize the families, the media and the government for as long as he lived. He applied for parole on multiple occasions just to waste everyone's time. In 2011, a 71-year-old Clifford Olson was diagnosed with colon cancer. The cancer killed him on September 30, 2011. He had spent 50 out of 71 years of his life in prison. The families of his victims cheered when they heard of his death, and much of Canada cheered with them.

As happy as they were, they'll never fully heal from the memories of the 11 brutalized teenagers Clifford Olson left in his wake. Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. You can find more episodes of serial killers as well as all of parcasts, other podcasts, on Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, Google Play, Castbox, tune-in, or your favorite podcast directory. Several of you have asked how to help the show, and if you enjoy the show, the best way to help is, is to leave a five-star review. We'll see you next time. Have a killer week. Serial Killers was created by Max Cutler,

is a production of Cutler Media and is part of the Parcast Network. It is produced by Max and Ron Cutler, sound design by Carrie Murphy, with production assistance by Ron Shapiro and Paul Mahler. Additional production assistance by Carly Madden and Maggie Admire. Serial Killers is written by Giles Hoveseth

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