On the Farm: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver's Missing Women Paperback – Illustrated, October 25, 2011

I love reading books about serial killers and have read many. This book however is probably one of the most fascinating in that it goes deep into the killer's background and humanizes him rather than demonizes, as some books have done. In addition to plenty of background information on Robert Pickton, there are interviews and in-depth chapters written about his victims, which to me is the most important part of reading about the killer himself. More often, we remember the serial killer and never his victims, but in this book, Stevie Cameron does an excellent job of chronicling the lives of Pickton's victims, as well as his female friends. Interestingly enough, like Ted Bundy's friendship with Ann Rule, someone he once worked with and who ultimately became his biographer, Robert Pickton shared a deep friendship with more than a few women in his life, women who did not become his victims.This book is not always an easy read as of course, if you are aware of Pickton's crimes, he used his pigs and a rendering plant to dispose of his multiple victims, all of whom were prostitutes from Vancouver's worst neighborhood. In some sick way I found myself actually feeling sorry for Pickton and how he was raised, but ultimately ended up as I always do, wondering, what the heck makes these people tick to be able to commit such horrible crimes? The book also chronicles Robert Pickton's tumultuous relationship with his brother as well as the lengthy process and amount of time and incredible cost that it took to bring this man to justice.I highly recommend this book as a fascinating and chilling look into the mind of a killer, his family, friends, and victims all combined.

Well written book on Pickton. I particularly liked the emphasis on the lives of his victims, as so much work on serial killers (and mass killers in general) forgets the lives impacted by the violence the killer commits, not just on his direct victims but on the victims’ families and loved ones, especially when they’re marginalized people.It is a very detailed book and may be difficult to follow for some, particularly if you’re just looking for an entertaining read.

One of the more interesting books I've read about serial killers. I first heard of Willie Pickton on the Last Podcast On The Left and found the case so fascinating I had to pick this book up.It's extremely detailed and examines the case from the perspectives of the cops, the families of the victims and the people who knew Willie Pickton.All in all it's a very good book but I feel a lot of the details are repetitive which makes the book feel overly long. I seriously feel like this book could have been 200 pages shorter and it would've been a more addictive interesting read. My other complaint is it's pretty common to see a lot of grammatical and spelling errors. I'm generally not a grammar nazi but when a book is being professionally published it's pretty important to not have so many errors in the final print. In the picture I posted I'll give an example of this.Still it's a very good book and worth picking up if you're interested in the case.

The book was awesome and well laid out but it will put a permanent pit in your stomach as you will be sad and angry at how something like this could have gone on for so long. As sickened as I am about all these sickening deaths I can relate and understand to an extent because we have all witnessed laziness, office politics, ineptitude, etc but in this case it was to the extreme. Sad and sickening.

This book offers a very intimate look in the inner workings of a killer driven by a desire to be the most notorious in Canada. The reader will get a look at the depravity and savagery of the killer, coupled with the complete disregard for human life no matter who the victim may be. For those who are not familiar with the Canadian justice, the reader may be both surprised and appalled depending on your view of what true justice should be for a killer devoid of any conscience or feelings of remorse for the victims or what he made them endure. A must read for those true crime buffs.

It was easy to drift off trying to stay with this book; it could be very harsh and gritty at times and would then just float off into a lot of political gossip and speculation.Regardless of writing skill, the author spends a good amount of time really bringing the victims' stories to light. This serial killer was a true predator, and tragically succeeded in preying on a group of women that were deemed disposable for far too long. Theirs is a story that needs to be told.

Couldn't wait to get this. Heard about it on MORBID podcast

All in all it is a well written book and very detailed. One glaring mistake I noticed was the author listing Richard Speck as the Boston Strangler, when Richard killed a bunch of women in one night and only strangled the first, then stabbed the rest. I might not have caught this had I not just finished "Mindhunter" on Netflix about the creation of the behavioral science's arm that interviewed serial killers. It was these interviews that the author was referring to when he credited Speck as the Boston Strangler. Since this is not a typo but a mistake in fact, I am going always going to wonder if there was something I had not read or heard about before reading, that was wrong, but I just took it on faith that the author did his research.

It’s a good read. I’m glad this book tells the stories of the victims because they need to be heard. It is pretty horrifying though. Sick how there’s people in the world that enjoy hurting others

A very descriptive book. It is an easy read and gives great detail in living conditions and the area of the crimes, and gives an understanding of the lives of the people involved. A good read.

A very lengthy book, focussing on the missing women. Although the author attempts to humanise the victims by detailing their lives prior to slipping into addiction and prostitution, I was more interested in the gruesome details, such as the murders, the way the bodies were disposed and the meat minced and sold throughout butcher shops. I found the background info into the victims families and legal teams to be a bit tedious, although maybe this is because I’m not Canadian?

Amazing book! Would defineately buy it again. I had never heard of this case (which I can't believe) and it is amazing what this guy did and to what extent...Wow!

On the Farm Stevie Cameron: Robert William Pickton and the Tragic Story of Vancouver’s Missing WomenWhile reading my previous read—The Shadow of Death: The Hunt for the Connecticut River Valley Killer by Philip E. Ginsburg I thought of the Canadian killer Robert Pickton and that began my search for a book about those murders and my purchased of this e-boot—It being unavailable as an e-book to borrow from my local library.I had heard about Robert Pickton on the news years ago, but knew very little other than some of the most disturbing details of the dismemberment of the bodies on a pig farm and the mixture of victims’ bodies mixed in with ground pork for resale.Learning about Robert Pickton’s upbringing is shocking and sad. I could feel sad for the child he was, but not for the man he became and the choices he made. He is one of three children. As a toddler he was called Robbie and later referred to as Willie. His birth had been a difficult one, the umbilical cord wrapped around his neck.His family raised pigs and he and his brother had to do work on the farm as young children and went to school dirty and smelling bad.His older sister Linda was treated better by his mother. She was bought new dresses and attended social events. The same rules did not apply for the boys. Willie and his brother David rarely played with other kids.Their mother was quite a strange character and when Willie’s older brother David hit a young man along the highway one night instead of having her son face what he had done she tried to cover it up and rolled the injured young man’s body into the ditch where he later died from drowning.The author of this book, Stevie Cameron is a reporter. In 1998 she started following stories of the disappearance of the drug addicted sex trade workers from Vancouver’s Downtown Eastside.It wasn’t until 2002 that Pickton was arrested and it took till 2008 before he was found guilty. It was a massive search of the Pickton property to find the tiniest bit of bones and blood, for DNA to identity the many victims.The author goes into lots of detail about the police involvement or should I say lack of involvement. Their lack of caring about these missing women is horrible. These women were simply thought of as disposable. The police attitude was one of “they were just junkies and hookers” and they weren’t wasting their time on finding out what happened to them.The author gives a summary of each women’s background and how they ended up addicted to drugs. This made for such heartbreaking stories, making these women so much more real to me. It also brings to the foreground that becoming drug addicted can happen to anyone’s child whether we want to believe it or not. For some of these women their drug use had started innocently enough by a boyfriend introducing them to heroin and from there it was all downhill.Some information in this book is often repeated. This is a large book, well detailed, but not in a gory sensationalized way. There’s just enough detail to be able to imagine the horror of the rest.