41 Facts About Robert Pickton

Between 1995 and 2001, Pickton is believed to have murdered at least 26 women, many of them prostitutes from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside.

In 2010, the Crown attorney officially stayed the remaining 20 murder charges, allowing previously unrevealed information to be made available to the public, including that Robert Pickton previously had a 1997 attempted murder charge dropped.

Crown prosecutors reasoned that staying the additional charges made the most sense, since Robert Pickton was already serving the maximum sentence allowable.

The discovery of Robert Pickton's crimes sparked widespread outrage and forced the Canadian government to acknowledge the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women, with the British Columbia provincial government forming the Missing Women Commission of Inquiry to examine the role of the police in the matter.

Robert Pickton died in 2024 after being attacked in prison by another inmate.

Robert Pickton was born on October 24,1949, to Leonard Francis Pickton and Louise Helene Arnal, a family of pig farmers in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia, 27 kilometres east of Vancouver.

Robert Pickton was strongly attached to her and rarely interacted with his abusive father.

Robert Pickton struggled in school, being put in a special class after failing grade two.

Robert Pickton dropped out of school in 1963 and began working as a meat cutter.

Robert Pickton continued to do so for nearly seven years before leaving to work full-time at the farm.

Robert Pickton often hosted parties at an ad hoc nightclub called Piggy's Palace, which attracted the political and economic elites of the Lower Mainland along with the Hells Angels.

Robert Pickton told police he had handcuffed her, and that she had escaped after suffering several lacerations.

Robert Pickton told them she had disarmed him and stabbed him with his weapon.

Robert Pickton sought treatment at Eagle Ridge Hospital, while Eistetter recovered at the nearest emergency room.

Robert Pickton was released on C$2,000 bond and the attempted-murder charge against him was stayed on January 27,1998, because Eistetter had drug addiction issues and prosecutors believed her too unstable for her testimony to help secure a conviction.

Robert Pickton had been sued three times for traffic offences in 1988 and 1991, settling all three claims out of court.

Subsequently, the Robert Pickton brothers ignored growing legal pressure and held a 1998 New Year's Eve party, after which they were faced with an injunction banning future parties; the police were "authorized to arrest and remove any person" attending future events at the farm.

An employee of Robert Pickton found several purses belonging to the missing women from the Downtown Eastside and reported Robert Pickton to the police.

In June 1999, the police received a tip that Robert Pickton had a freezer full of human flesh in his farmhouse, which the police ignored.

On February 22,2002, Robert Pickton was arrested again and charged with two counts of first degree murder in the deaths of Sereena Abotsway and Mona Wilson.

On March 10,2004, the government revealed that Robert Pickton may have ground up human flesh and mixed it with pork that he sold to the public; the province's health authority later issued a warning.

In 2003, a preliminary hearing was held and the clothes and rubber boots that Robert Pickton had been wearing during the Eistetter assault were seized by police from an RCMP storage locker.

Robert Pickton's trial began on January 30,2006, in New Westminster.

Robert Pickton pleaded not guilty to the 27 charges of first-degree murder in the Supreme Court of British Columbia.

On that date, Robert Pickton faced first-degree murder charges in the deaths of Frey, Abotsway, Papin, Joesbury, Wolfe, and Wilson.

On December 9,2007, Robert Pickton was convicted of second-degree murder in the deaths of six women:.

Robert Pickton stood accused of first-degree murder in the deaths of 21 other women.

Robert Pickton was implicated in the deaths of but not charged with the murders of four women:.

The grounds of appeal related to a number of evidentiary rulings made by the trial judge, certain aspects of the trial judge's jury instructions, and the ruling to sever the six charges Robert Pickton was tried on from the remaining twenty.

On January 9,2008, lawyers for Robert Pickton filed a notice of appeal in the British Columbia Court of Appeal, seeking a new trial on six counts of second-degree murder.

On June 26,2009, Robert Pickton's lawyers confirmed that they would exercise his right to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

The effect of this was to broaden the scope of Robert Pickton's appeal, allowing him to raise arguments that had been rejected unanimously in the British Columbia Court of Appeal.

The argument that Robert Pickton should be granted a new trial was unanimously rejected by the Justices of the Supreme Court of Canada.

Families of the missing and murdered women have been calling for public hearings since before Robert Pickton was arrested and eventually convicted of six murders.

In February 2024, Robert Pickton became eligible to apply for day parole.

On May 19,2024, Robert Pickton was attacked by another prisoner at the Port-Cartier Institution in Quebec.

Robert Pickton was airlifted to a hospital and put on life support.

Robert Pickton is not directly referred to by name, but starting in the show's fifth season characters and advertisements made reference to "the pig farm" in relation to the case.

Killer Robert Pickton is a 2005 American horror film loosely based on Robert Pickton's killings.

Pig Killer, a biopic written and directed by Chad Ferrin, starring Jake Busey as Robert Pickton, was released in select theatres on November 17,2023.

In 2024, the comedy troupe Danger Cats was selling T-shirts online with a caricature of Robert Pickton headlined with "Robert Pickton Farms".