Isabella Mueller (crime writer)
In the early 1980s, the name Clifford Robert Olson Jr. haunted Canada like an evil shadow. This Canadian serial killer confessed to eleven gruesome murders that shook the country. His victims were innocent children and teenagers aged 9 to 18 who were torn from their lives without warning and met a terrible end. Olson always used the same modus operandi, luring the children and teenagers into his car, usually under the pretext of earning extra money, then drugging them so he could rape and kill them in the wooded and secluded area of the Fraser River. To top it all off, he stuck nails and screwdrivers into their brains before killing them. But who was this brutal serial killer, referred to in the media only as “The Beast of British Columbia”? Clifford Richard Olson Jr. was the eldest of four children born to Clifford Sr. and Leona Olson on New Year’s Day 1940 in Vancouver. Until Clifford was 5 years old, the family lived in Edmonton before moving to Richmond on the west coast. The family lived in modest circumstances, with Clifford’s mother working hard in a fish canning factory and his father, Clifford Sr., delivering milk with his horse-drawn cart. Money was always tight, which is why Clifford developed a criminal streak at an early age in order to get his hands on cash. Not only did he sell expired lottery tickets in the neighborhood, he also stole the money left for milk deliveries. Clifford had a big mouth, but he was a bedwetter, which led to him being bullied by his classmates. He took out his anger on dogs and cats, which he tortured and then killed. He left school after the 8th grade in 1956. He began training as a long-distance truck driver, but just one year later, at the age of 17, he had to serve his first prison sentence of 8 months for burglary and theft. This was only one of a total of 94 prison sentences that followed. Until Clifford’s last arrest in 1981, he never remained free for more than a few months. He spent most of his life in prisons, from which he made seven escape attempts, earning him the reputation of an escape artist. Clifford led an unsettled life, keeping his head above water with odd jobs, resorting to theft, and drinking excessively. In 1974, Clifford was suspected of repeatedly raping a 17-year-old fellow inmate in a British Columbia prison. Four years later, he sexually assaulted a 7-year-old girl in the Canadian province of Nova Scotia. However, Clifford’s life seemed to change when he met Joan Hale in a bar. Joan Hale, a waitress in a pub, moved in with Clifford in early April 1980 to a row house development in Coquitlam. In April 1981, their son Clifford III was born, and just one month later, on May 15, 1981, the two were married. Joan did not know that she had married a monster who hid behind the facade of a loving husband and father. On November 17, 1980, Olson began his brutal series of murders of eleven children and teenagers. His first victim that day was 12-year-old Christine Weller. She lived with her unemployed parents in a shabby motel in Surrey, which she left that day to visit a shopping center. Afterwards, she borrowed a bicycle from her friend to ride home. But Christine never arrived. It was not until a week later that Christine’s parents reported her missing to the police, who initially assumed that Christine had run away and therefore paid little attention to the case. In reality, Christine had been lured into his car by Clifford, who had pretended to be a building contractor and offered to pay her $10 an hour for window cleaning or tidying up. There, they sealed their deal with a drink laced with a chloral hydrate pill. This made Christine dazed and helpless. He drove her to the woods near Vancouver, where he sexually abused Christine, then maltreated her with a knife and finally strangled her to death with a belt. Christine’s decomposing body was not found until Christmas Day 1980 by a man walking his dog on the banks of the Fraser River in Richmond. The horror continued with Colleen Marian Daignault, who disappeared on April 16, 1981, at the age of 13. Her body was not discovered until five months later. In quick succession, 16-year-old Daryn Todd Johnsrude fell victim on April 22, 1981, 16-year-old Sandra Lynn Wolfsteiner on May 19, and 13-year-old Ada Anita Court on June 21, with the bodies of the teenagers often not found until months after their disappearance. July 1981 was particularly disastrous. Within a month, six children and teenagers were murdered by Clifford, beginning on July 2 with 9-year-old Simon Partington, who was abducted, raped, and strangled. While the nation mourned the loss, Clifford targeted his next victim, 14-year-old Judy Kozma, on July 9. Her body was discovered near Weaver Lake on July 25. On July 23, 15-year-old Raymond King Jr. was added to the list of his horrific deeds during that grim month, followed by 18-year-old German tourist Sigrun Arnd on July 25, 15-year-old Terri Lyn Carson on July 27, and finally 17-year-old Louise Chartrand on July 30. It was striking that Clifford’s atrocities showed no preference for the gender or age of his victims, which made him unusual as a serial killer. His criminal career finally led to his arrest on Vancouver Island on August 12, 1981. On the basis of suspicions that he had attempted to kidnap two girls, the police finally confronted him. But the tragedy was not over yet. In a shocking turn of events, Clifford reached a controversial deal with the authorities. He confessed to the murders of eleven victims and showed investigators from the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP, where the bodies that had not yet been recovered were located. In return, he demanded $10,000 per victim, to be paid to his wife. In the end, she received $100,000, as Clifford waived payment for the last victim while he was negotiating from prison. In January 1982, 42-year-old Clifford Robert Olson pleaded guilty to all eleven charges. The court sentenced him to eleven life sentences, to be served concurrently in Canada’s maximum security prison in Sainte-Anne-des-Plaines, Quebec, which houses some of the country’s most dangerous criminals. Due to his classification as a dangerous offender, it was considered unlikely that Clifford would ever be released. But even behind bars, Clifford did not let the public rest. In 1997, he applied for the first time for a hearing under Canada’s “faint hope clause,” which allows prisoners to apply for early release. Despite the rejection of this application, Clifford was able to continue to submit a new application every two years, which he did, but without success. Controversy surrounding Clifford Robert Olson arose in 2010 when it became known that he was receiving two government pension payments while in prison. These payments totaled $1,169.47 per month and caused nationwide outrage. The Canadian government reacted quickly and announced measures to stop the payments. Although Clifford was prohibited from any contact with the media by government order, he eagerly wrote comments under videos about his crimes and also signed copies of a collector’s series for serial killers. Clifford not only corresponded with over 100 groupies, but also sent obscene drawings and letters to the relatives of his victims, in keeping with his sadistic tendencies. But eventually, illness caught up with the ruthless killer. In September 2011, it was reported that Clifford had been diagnosed with terminal cancer and had been transferred to a hospital in Laval, Quebec. Clifford Olson died on September 30 of that year, leaving behind a trail of pain and loss. The story of Clifford Robert Olson Jr. remains a dark chapter in Canadian history. It reminds us of the depths of human ruthlessness and that evil is sometimes closer than we think. Through his actions and the subsequent social debates, Clifford Richard Olson has left an indelible mark on the collective memory and will long be remembered as a cautionary tale.
