Killer Stories with Harvey Guillén - “The Tweed Creeper” David Russell Williams Pt. 2

Episode Date: May 6, 2021

Having moved from break-ins to aggressive sexual assault, David Russell Williams carefully planned his first horrific murder in late 2009. It was not his last. But the high-ranking military officer could only fly under the radar for so long. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Due to the graphic nature of this killer's crimes, listener discretion is advised. This episode includes discussions of abnormal and explicit sexual desires, sexual assault, rape, and murder that some people may find offensive. We advise extreme caution for children under 13. In November of 2009, 49-year-old Russell Williams parked his Nissan Pathfinder on a quiet road in Brighton, Canada. It was nearing 11 p.m., and not a soul was around to witness, as he left the the car and made his way down the street.

Russell approached a darkened home and slipped around to the side. There, he pulled the screen from a small basement window and squeezed through. He knew exactly what to do. Just a week earlier, he'd scoped out the house to confirm that his target lived alone. That was standard practice for him. But in the case of the woman who owned this house, he knew much more, because he was her Superior. Marie France Camus was a military flight attendant stationed at the base where Russell served as commanding officer. He had access to her records and work schedule, so he knew that at that

exact moment she was on her way home from a transatlantic flight. But she'd be home any minute now, and Russell would be waiting. I'm Greg Paulson. This is serial killers, a Spotify original from Parkast. Every episode, we dive into the minds and madness of serial killers. Today, we finish our look at the life of David Russell Williams, otherwise known as the Tweed Creeper. I'm here with my co-host, Vanessa Richardson. Hi, everyone. You can find episodes of serial killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify, or wherever you listen to podcasts. Last time, we met Russell Williams as he rose through the ranks of the Canadian military. We learned about his sexual fetishes and how he began breaking into homes and stealing women's underwear in order to satisfy

those desires. Today, we'll discuss how Russell evaded authorities for so long and why he graduated to murder. Then we'll learn how the police eventually closed in on their unexpected suspect. We've got all that and more coming up. Stay with us. This episode is brought to you by ZipRecruiter, whether you're hiring for a role or searching for a killer, the hunt can be exhausting. When detectives looked and searched to find any kind of evidence to find the person they were looking for, like Jack the Ripper, the Golden State Killer, the Unit Bomber. It's tedious work to find what you're looking for. So, if you're hiring, I've got news for you.

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Slow burns, second chances, chemistry you can feel through the screen. Your next obsession is waiting. Watch only on Prime. In September 2009, 46-year-old Russell Williams escalated his crimes from simple breaking and entering to aggressive sexual assault. After getting away with it, all he wanted was to do it again. So two weeks later, he set his eyes on 46-year-old Lori Massacott. He'd already broken into her house before, so he knew it well. But this time, he wanted to take things further. Lori was a single mother who lived alone. That night, she decided to wind down by watching some

TV on the couch. Exhausted from her day, she ended up falling asleep while the show blared in the background. A short time later, she woke up to a sudden and excruciating pain, only to realize that she was being punched. Before she could comprehend what was going on, her masked attacker had tied her up and blindfolded her. For the next three and a half hours, Russell assaulted Lori. He did the same to her as he'd done to his previous victim. He stripped her down, apparently using a knife to cut off her clothes. Then he groped her breast. Then he groped her breast, and forced her to strike pornographic poses for his camera.

Eventually, Russell was satisfied, so he took his camera and left. With all the pictures he'd taken, he'd be able to relive the experience as many times as he pleased. Once he was gone, Laurie escaped her restraints and frantically called 911. When the police arrived, she told them everything she could, but couldn't help with her attacker's identity. Little did she know, the man responsible, lived just three doors down. the street. After the attack on Lori, Tweed residents got seriously freaked out. There weren't many

people visiting from out of town at the time, so it seemed clear that the perpetrator was one of their neighbors, which launched everyone's paranoia into overdrive. The cops seemed to take the attack more seriously, too. The first woman who Russell sexually assaulted, who still unidentified today, raised the alarm. But it wasn't until Lori reported her own attack that authorities were convinced it might happen again. Unfortunately, Lori was their only witness. As such, she felt the pressure to name her possible assailant, even though she had never seen his face.

After a family friend encouraged her, she called the station and told them she might actually know who it was. She said the man sounded like her neighbor who lived on her street. But it wasn't Russell Williams. It was a man named Larry Jones. The police got warrants to search Jones as a man. home and brought him in for questioning. Despite the inconvenience, Larry cooperated fully. He didn't even call a lawyer. He knew he was innocent and was willing to do anything to prove it. Eventually,

the cops had to acknowledge that they had absolutely nothing to incriminate him, so they had no choice but to let him go, although they continued to keep an eye on him. After Larry's brush with authorities, Russell knew that he dodged a bullet, so he laid low, kind of. He still broke into a few homes around Tweed, which was his home base during the week, but he refrained from doing anything more serious than that. He targeted houses that he knew were empty, going through his familiar pattern of breaking in, stealing underwear, snapping photos, and leaving. Not only was Russell careful to cover his tracks, he also kept a comprehensive log of all his deeds. In addition to the photos he took, he jotted down notes to remind himself what he had done. These were so detailed that

During this time, he even went out of his way to break into a house on the one-year anniversary of when he had first broken into it. If he couldn't escalate his crimes, then he at least wanted to experience some other additional thrill, and returning to the scenes of his previous break-ins always seemed to do it for him. Vanessa is going to take over on the psychology here and throughout the episode. As a note, Vanessa is not a licensed psychologist or a psychiatrist, but she has done a lot of research for this show. Thanks, Greg.

According to forensic psychologist Liam Ennis, Russell's actions here prove that he most likely didn't live with antisocial personality disorder or ASPD. He had too much self-control. He knew when to pull back and lay low, and he didn't let his desires get the better of him. That's also what made him so dangerous and terrifying. According to Ennis, Russell had a clear sexual deviance streak, but he also had a strong frontal lobe, the part of the brain that regulates decisions.

In many serial killers, the frontal lobe is usually underdeveloped, which is why they lack the ability to rein in their impulses. But Russell was able to hit the pause button, so to speak. He wasn't impulsive. But even though he had more self-control than most killers, he couldn't rein in his urges, at least not forever. Two months after his assault on Laurie Massacot, Russell struck again.

Usually, Russell chose his next victim by stalking his own neighborhoods. He might see a woman walking her dog or spy on her through her window, and if he thought she was pretty enough, he'd set his sights on breaking into her home. Even if she wasn't there at the time, he seemed to be driven, at least initially, by his own attraction to the woman or girl whose room he was invading. But in November of 2009, Russell changed tactics.

He set his sights on 37-year-old Corporal Marie France Camus. While he was just as attracted to her as his other victims, she wasn't a random neighbor. She was a military flight attendant who worked at CFB Trenton under Russell's command. We don't know how or when they met exactly, but it's clear they knew each other personally. At the very least, Marie France had once helped Russell practice his French, but it's quite possible they had interacted more often than that single occasion.

One way or another, Russell set his sights on her as his next victim. He waited until he knew she was out of town on a mission, which was easy enough, considering he had full access to her records and schedule. On November 16th, he drove to Marie France's home in Brighton, a town just west of Trenton. Once he got there, he parked down the street in a wooded area. Then he made his way to her house and looked for the best entrance point, settling on a small basement window on the side of the house,

he took the screen off and squeezed himself inside. The point of the break-in was to do a little reconnaissance. He wanted to make sure that she was living alone, which it turned out she was. There was no sign of anyone living in the house except her and her two cats. Of course, even once Russell had that information, he wasn't just going to leave the house empty-handed. He found Marie-France's lingerie and dressed himself.

in it and took dozens of photos. When he was finally done, he took the underwear with him and slipped back out the basement window, replacing the screen as if he'd never been there. For eight days, Russell waited patiently for Marie France's return. She was on a work trip to Singapore, but he knew she'd soon be back. And that's when he would strike. The day finally came. On Monday, November 23rd, Russell locked up his office and drove from the Trenton base to Brighton. By the time he got there, it was around 11 p.m. He knew that Marie France would be returning soon. Just like he had a week earlier, Russell parked his car down the street and broke in through the basement window. Then he waited in the cellar, heavy flashlight in hand.

As he anticipated Marie France's return, one of her cats made its way down the stairs. Its attention fell on Russell, standing by the furnace, covered in shadow. The cats stared him down, but stayed eerily still. So did Russell. Just then, Marie France opened her front door. She was exhausted from her trip, which had taken her from Japan to Singapore to India. Even so, the first thing she wanted to do was see her cats. When she couldn't find one of them upstairs, she made her way into the basement.

She called out its name as she went down the stairs and then stopped when she saw it in the cellar. Its gaze was locked on something, and when she noticed what it was, she screamed. Russell moved in a flash. She shouted and tried to get away, but he hit her in the head with a flashlight until she fell to the ground. Russell tied her to a pole to restrain her, binding her arms behind her back. Then he covered her eyes and mouth with duct tape, leaving only a little. an airhole for her nose so she could breathe. With his victim secured, Russell locked down the house to make sure they wouldn't be interrupted.

He reattached the broken screen on the basement window. He jammed the front door lock so that it wouldn't open, not even with a key. And then he draped a sheet over the window in Marie France's bedroom and removed all the nightlights from the room. Then Russell returned to the basement. Marie France struggled against him as he untied her and tried to move her up the stairs. frustrated, he knocked her unconscious. He paused on the stairs to take pictures of her, then carried her up to the bedroom.

Once there, he set up a video camera and trained it on the bed. The next two hours of horror were captured on film. While Marie France still remained bound and gagged, Russell raped her repeatedly. He stopped only to take close-up photos with his other camera or to get alternative angles. He wanted everything recorded so that he could relive it again and again. And yet, despite the torture she was enduring, Marie France kept fighting back. At one point, Russell stopped assaulting her

so that he could check out the living room window to make sure no one was coming. In that moment, she managed to get up and make a run for it, but she was still tied and blindfolded and ended up in the bathroom. That's where Russell found her, and then dragged her back to the bed. Eventually, when he tired of her struggling, he decided to end things. He took another piece of duct tape and covered up her nose. As the camera continued rolling, Russell stood over her and watched her suffocate to death. Russell continued to take photos of her after she died until he was finally satisfied.

Then he cleaned up the crime scene with bleach, placed her on the bed, and left with her lingerie. It was still dark outside as Russell climbed into his car and switched his phone back on. He turned the key and headed back to the Air Force Base for an early morning meeting. Mr. Hyde was gone and Dr. Jekyll was back. It was business as usual for the commanding officer of Canada's largest Air Force Base. Coming up, Russell claims his second victim. Wayne Simmons spent 27 years undercover for the state. CIA. When he retired from spy work, he got a big break. Terrorism analyst on Fox News. Then he met

Kent Clisby. So I'm a real CIA guy. This is total nonsense. I'm Alex French, and I'm here to figure out who's telling the truth. Was Wayne Simmons a spy, or was he nothing but a con man? Impostors is a Spotify original from Parcast and premieres Monday, May 3rd. Follow and listen exclusively on Spotify. Want to support your gut health? Take Activia's gut health challenge by enjoying two Activia yogurt today for two weeks and see if you feel a difference. With billions of probiotics and 20 years of scientific expertise, Activia is one of the easiest and tastiest ways to start your gut health ritual. Try Activia today.

Enjoying Activia twice a day for two weeks as part of a balanced diet and healthy lifestyle may help reduce the frequency of minor digestive discomfort, which includes gas, bloating, rumbling, and abdominal discomfort. Now back to the story. In November 2009, 46-year-old Russell Williams broke into the house of his co-worker, 37-year-old military flight attendant Marie-France Camus. Like his previous victims, he assaulted and photographed her, but then things escalated. Throughout the night, he raped her repeatedly, before eventually killing her.

After the murder, Russell's actions were robotic. He was incredibly focused and precise, as he cleaned up. the crime scene and then got back to his regular life. We don't know for sure, but this rehearsed exit strategy seemed to indicate that Marie France's killing wasn't impulsive, that he had planned it from the start. Even though it was his first kill, and he knew his victim personally, Russell didn't seem to have any remorse. He was completely at ease with what he had done. As Russell returned to work, he left Marie France's body to be eventually discovered. He anticipated no one would notice her absence for at least 24 hours. As her superior, he knew that she'd just

been given the day off after the long flight she had just returned from. Meanwhile, Russell attended meetings at the Air Force base as if nothing unusual had happened. By mid-afternoon, he finished his work and went to meet his wife, Mary, at a restaurant for dinner. After their meal, Russell kissed Mary goodbye, then drove back to Tweed to spend the night in their cottage, which was closer to work. He likely slept soundly that night. He wasn't at all worried about being caught. The following day, Marie France's boyfriend went to go check on her. He hadn't heard from her since she got back from her trip, so he was worried. Moments after he led himself into her house, he found her dead body on the bed. Horrified, he called the cops immediately. When they arrived, the police were as

shocked and confused as anyone. It was the first murder in Brighton in more than 30 years. As the police tried to piece together what happened. News of Marie France's death spread to the base. When Russell received an email informing him of the murder, he sent back a brief, current response that he understood. Later that day, the Air Force base released a press statement, which Russell himself looked over and corrected. He made sure her name was correctly printed as Marie France, not just Marie. After the statement went out, Russell also got an email from the military police chief, updating him on the case. Faining concern, Russell promised to keep the officer in the loop if he heard anything that might help the investigation. On the whole,

Russell was extremely nonchalant about the whole affair. He had no problem inserting himself into the aftermath of the crime he had committed. He even wrote to Marie France's father on military letterhead, offering his sympathy and prayers. However, besides these actions, which were necessary duties of his station, he laid low. That might have been because of the heightened scrutiny around the area and Russell's own awareness that he couldn't draw more attention to himself. But it also seemed that something about the murder satisfied him in a way that his previous crimes hadn't. It was a smart move, because the police were narrowing in. They couldn't find signs of forced entry, so investigators assumed the killer was someone Marie France had known well. Even after

rescowering the crime scene, no one had noticed the displaced basement window. So, as often happens, investigators focused on Marie France's boyfriend. They put him through the ringer, trying to get him to confess, but he insisted on his innocence and never buckled. When he finally passed a polygraph test, they let him go. Strangely enough, their next suspect was an unidentified Air Force pilot from the Trenton base. How they landed on him is unknown, but for nearly two months, the cops put him through round after round of interrogations, in hopes of getting answers. Meanwhile, Russell's confident attitude continued over the holidays. He celebrated Christmas and New Year's with his wife, without a care in the world.

He didn't seem to panic or make any suspicious moves. For him, life was just grand. And it got even better, professionally. In the middle of January 2010, Russell was given a special recognition from his superiors. They awarded him with the Canadian Forces' decoration first class for his 22 years of faithful surface. But by that point, Russell's professional accomplishments did little to satisfy him. No amount of awards could prevent his darker desires. Around that same time, Russell was itching for another victim.

The same month he received his award, he caught. outside of a woman inside her Belleville home, conveniently located along his commute. Russell watched as 27-year-old Jessica Lloyd ran on her treadmill, her ponytail bouncing behind her. He thought she was cute, and he wanted her for himself. The next night, he broke into her house while she slept. Like he had with his previous two victims, he beat and then bound her. Then, for the next three hours, he took photos of her, forcing her to model her own lingerie. But then he did something out of character.

He decided to take her to his house. He forced her into his SUV, and though she struggled at first, he assured her that if she cooperated, he would let her go. So she got in the car. Russell brought Jessica back to his Tweed Cottage residence. Once there, he made her shower.

As she did, he set up the video camera. Then he dragged her back to the bed and raped her repeatedly, pausing only to take photos. The assault totaled nearly 20 hours. This was Russell's sexual sadism at its worst. He was getting what the DSM-5 describes as intense sexual arousal from the physical and psychological suffering of another person. But the fact that it was increasing in intensity with each victim wasn't unusual.

According to psychologist Margot C. Watt, when people practice sexual sadism with non-consenting partners, the activity is likely to be repeated until the person is apprehended. And until that happens, the severity of the sadistic acts just keeps getting worse. In other words, with every attack that he got away with, Russell was more and more inclined to escalate things. He was never going to back down. So when Jessica appeared to have a seizure in the morning, Russell didn't let up.

She begged him to take her to the hospital, but he ignored her pleas. A few hours later, Russell removed the rope and even led her to the front door. He let her believe that he was going to help her, but Russell had no intention of bringing her to the hospital. Instead, he hid her in the head with his flashlight, then strangled her with a rope until she died. When at last his latest victim was still, Russell removed the body from his living room. Then he wrapped her body in a blanket and left it in the garage. Around 10 p.m. that night, Russell drove back to CFB Trenton to sleep at the base. It's possible he didn't want to spend the night in his home with Jessica's body.

Then again, it might have been motivated by simple convenience. He had an early flight to California the next morning. When he returned later that same day, he went back to his Ottawa house to see his wife. Eventually, he couldn't put it off any longer. He had to get rid of the body that was currently lying in his wife. garage. He made his way back to Tweed and gathered the blanket-wrapped bundle up. He dumped it in a nearby wooded area and went home, assuming everything was taken care of. But it didn't take long for people to notice Jessica was missing. Not only was she a popular young woman, she was never late for

work. So when she didn't show up on Monday morning, her coworkers immediately knew something was wrong. The Ontario Provincial Police were called in to investigate. But they were to investigate. But they didn't find much in the house to explain her disappearance. However, they did find tire tracks and a pair of boot prints near her home. Volunteers poured in from all over, offering to help search the surrounding woods and fields. The Air Force even sent personnel from CFB Trenton, along with a helicopter. All of that had to be approved by the base commander, who just happened to be Russell Williams. Of course, the cops had no idea that the man's sending military aid to the search was the one responsible for it in the first place.

What they did know was that Jessica Lloyd's disappearance likely wasn't an isolated case. Now they saw a connection between this, the two sexual assaults in Tweed, and Marie France's murder in Brighton. Because these crimes occurred in different places under different police jurisdictions, and they varied in the specifics, it had been hard to see them as linked, but there seemed to be similarities in how the victims were tied up, which led investigators to believe there had to be a connection, and they feared Jessica's disappearance was just the latest in the series. As for the dozens of lingerie break-ins, most of those had gone unreported, so police had no

idea just how many really happened. They chalked up the few reports they'd received to isolated incidents. At that stage, there was no indication that they had anything to do with these assaults or murder. So while they weren't sure exactly what or who they were dealing with, the Belleville police did warn the public that there was a dangerous criminal on the loose. Their warning was specifically directed at women, especially those living alone. They urged them to change their personal routines, make sure they're never alone, and always lock their doors. Thankfully, their efforts didn't stop there. On February 4th, two days after Russell dumped Jessica's body, authorities erected a roadblock on the highway between Belleville and Tweed. They were armed with photos of the tire treadmarks

found near Jessica's house, along with a tape measure to check tire width. The police had done a computer search of all the cars in the area that could potentially be a match, which narrowed it down to 450 possibilities. Now, the cops who manned the roadblock had strict instructions. If any vehicle driving through was on the list, the drivers were to be questioned, and then immediately put under surveillance. Sure enough, Russell was one of the first drivers to pull up to the roadblock. Unfortunately for him, he was driving his Nissan Pathfinder instead of his BMW that night, and the Pathfinder was one of the cars on the list. He had no idea his whole life was about to come undone.

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Details at yamava.com must be 21-20. Please gamble responsibly. Monopoly is a trademark of Hasbro. Hasbro is not a sponsor of this promotion. Now back to the story. On February 4th, 2010, 46-year-old Russell Williams pulled up to a police roadblock between the Canadian towns of Belleville and Tweed.

It had been just days since he murdered 27-year-old Jessica Lloyd, and the whole region was on high alert. As Russell pulled to a stop, he started to sweat. He didn't know that the cops had found tired tracks at his latest victim's house, so he had no real reason to think that they'd suspect him. Still, he was nervous all the same. So he tried to pull rank. When a police officer tapped on his window and started to ask questions, Russell tried to bluff his way out of an interrogation. He said that he was in a rush to get back home to take care of his sick child. That was an odd lie to tell, especially because he didn't have

children, and his lie could easily be discovered. But his effort was futile anyway. The cop wasn't going to let him just drive by, even if he was the commander of the nearby Air Force base. The officer checked out Russell's tires and was shocked when he found that they seemed to be a match. But he hid his surprise and didn't say anything. He just finished filling out his paperwork and waved the colonel through as if it had been just another routine stop. Russell breathed to sigh of relief. He figured he was free and clear. So he headed back home to his cottage on Kosci Cove Lane,

feeling as though he had gotten away with everything. He felt untouchable. He was wrong. Back at the roadblock, there was a big debate going on. If Russell had been anyone else, he would have been placed under surveillance immediately, but his posting at the Tretton base made some of the cops want to give him the benefit of the doubt.

they thought his matching tires were just a coincidence, and that to surveil a military commander would be a waste of everyone's time. But not everyone felt that way. Some of the officers thought it was absolutely necessary to take the precaution. The guy's tires were a perfect match. Within a few minutes, the debate was settled. They would start surveillance on 46-year-old Colonel Russell Williams. But as the gravity of the situation weighed on all of them,

everyone shared a similar, chilling thought. They might have just found their murderer. It didn't take long for the surveillance detail to be arranged. Having spent months watching the women of his community from the shadows, Russell was the one being observed, but it didn't last long. Just enough time for investigators to get their ducks in a row. And after just three days of surveillance, detectives asked him to come down to the station for questioning.

At this point, Russell was still confident that he could outsmart the cops. He had no idea that they had identified his car, nor did he realize that as he drove to the station, teams of officers were standing by to execute search warrants on his homes. As Russell entered the interrogation room, he planned on being cooperative, or at least pretending to be so. He saw this encounter as a game of cat and mouse, one that he, a powerful military man, should have no problem winning.

He took a seat across from Detective Sergeant Jim Smith, looking like he didn't have a care in the world. He leaned back, chewing gum, and declined to call a lawyer. Russell was overconfident. Too used to being the guy in charge, he never imagined that someone else held the power here. But Smith knew exactly how to play Russell. Step one was to let Russell talk and commit to his story.

With a tone of deference, Smith asked about the military commander's whereabouts over the last week, encouraging him to divulge more and more. He kept it casual, like two buddies having a bit of a catch-up. Despite his confidence, or perhaps because of it, Russell didn't see what was happening. At that point, he was more concerned with how the interrogation would affect his reputation. He asked that the police remained discreet about calling him in. He was happy to help, he said, but he didn't want anything to reflect poorly on him or the Canadian forces. Smith put him at ease, but continued to pepper him with questions.

Then it was time for the next step, breaking down the hierarchy between them. This was especially important because Russell was a high-ranking military commander. He was used to being in charge to getting things his way. But now, Smith started using Russell's first name as he spoke to him. According to retired homicide detective Mark Mendelssohn, this was a simple yet effective way to take away any special status Russell might have felt entitled to. In that interrogation room, he wasn't a commander, he was a suspect. And now Russell was slowly realizing that Smith was the one with all the power.

And then, once Smith had Russell right where he wanted him, the detective showed his cards at last, laying out all the evidence for Russell. Smith told Russell about the tire tracks and about a witness who described a vehicle parked behind Jessica's house that matched Russell. his pathfinder. Then he hit him with a big reveal. Right at that moment, Ontario officers were searching Russell's homes for evidence. At first, Russell didn't know what to say. Even with everything he'd just heard and knowing what the police would find at his residences, he couldn't bring himself to admit to what he'd done. Smith spent the next hour and a half convincing Russell to confess. He tried to wriggle his way out of it, but in the end, it was thought of it.

of his wife that made him cop to his guilt. He didn't want his actions to hurt Mary, or at least he wanted to minimize the damage. Smith latched onto that. He made it clear to Russell that his only chance to shelter Mary was to confess. Russell looked at the detective, weighing his options. Then he agreed to tell Smith whatever he wanted to know. According to anthropologist Elliot Layton, the potential shame that weighed over Russell was likely his reason for breaking. He He claimed that it was to protect his wife, and there might have been some truth to that, but Russell was a smart man who knew what was coming. It's possible he wanted to avoid his own public humiliation, or as much of it as possible.

So he decided to give up. Ellie still had some semblance of control over the situation. Not that it really made a difference in the grand scheme of things. The Ontario police already found more evidence than they bargained for. At Russell's homes in Ottawa and Tweed, police reportedly uncovered more than 500 pairs of women's underwear, plus the thousands of photos he'd taken during his break-ins. Additionally, they seized the horrific videotapes of Russell's sexual assaults and murders. With all that evidence, the police had more than enough to put Russell away for life, and he didn't put up a fight.

In October of 2010, he pled guilty to all 88 charges against him. him, two for murder, two for sexual assault, and 84 for breaking and entering. The hearing only lasted four days. At the end of it, 47-year-old Russell was convicted of all charges and sentenced to life in prison without any chance of parole for 25 years, two times over. The military wanted to punish Russell in their own way, too. They stripped him of his rank, his medals, and sent officers to his homes to collect all the military apparel he owned. But instead of repurposing it for another soldier, they decided to burn it. That was completely unprecedented, but no one wanted to wear the hand-me-downs of a serial killer.

Technically, Russell Williams murdered two people, so he doesn't fit the exact criteria for a serial killer, but experts agree that he would have killed again if he hadn't been caught. Despite his low body count, Russell is still one of the more terrifying killers in recent memory, not because he was more brutal or vicious or prolific, but because his violent murderous urges seemingly came out of nowhere. For 44 years, he was just the guy who lived next door, a career man who flew under the radar. Until one day, he didn't.

Thanks again for tuning in to serial killers. We'll be back soon with a new episode. For more information on Russell, Williams. Amongst the many sources we used, we found a new kind of monster by Timothy Appleby, extremely helpful to our research. You can find more episodes of Serial Killers and all other Spotify originals from Parcast for free on Spotify. We'll see you next time. Have a Killer Week.

Serial Killers is a Spotify original from Parcast. Executive producers include Max and Ron Cutler, sound designed by Anthony Valsick, with production assistants by Ron Shapiro. Trent Williamson, Carly Madden, and Bruce Kitovich. This episode of Serial Killers was written by Alex Burns, with writing assistance by Joanna Philbin and Joel Callan, fact-checking by Anya Bayerly, and research by Brian Petrus and Chelsea Wood.

Serial Killers stars Greg Paulson and Vanessa Richardson. Ryan Reynolds here from IntMobil. I don't know if you knew this, but anyone can get the same premium wireless for $15 a month plan that I've been enjoying. It's not just for celebrities, so do like I did and have one of your assistants assistants to switch you to MintMobile today. I'm told it's super easy to do at mintmobile.com slash switch. Up front payment of $45 for three-month plan equivalent to $15 per month required.

Intro rate first three months only, then full price plan options available. Taxes and fees extra. Seeful terms at mintmobile.com. A beloved 75-year-old man washing up getting ready for bed is brutally beaten and killed. Despite an exhaustive investigation, the killer avoids arrest and then strikes again. I'm Global News crime reporter Nancy Hicks. You might listen to a lot of true crime podcasts this year, but they're not crime beat. Search for and follow the award-winning podcast Crime Beat on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Amazon Music, and wherever you find your favorite podcasts.