Getty Robert Pickton and the crime scene at his pig farm.
Robert Pickton, a former pig farmer who is one of the world’s most notorious serial killers, is dead after being attacked in prison on May 19 with a “broken broom-like handle,” according to Canadian news reports.
On May 20, the Correctional Service Canada issued a news release confirming that on May 19 “an inmate was the victim of an assault at Port-Cartier Institution, a maximum-security federal institution.” However, the agency did not name Pickton.
The AP says that Pickton has now died.
The Vancouver Sun reported that Pickton was the inmate who was attacked in the Canadian prison by another inmate who had been released onto Pickton’s unit even though he had “earlier assaulted other inmates at the prison.”
According to CBC, the attack occurred in a maximum-security prison in Quebec, Canada. Pickton was sentenced to a life prison term in 2007 in the murders of six missing Vancouver women, but “the remains or DNA of 34 women, many of whom were Indigenous,” were also located on Pickton’s pig farm near that city, CBC reported.
“Pickton claimed to have killed 49 women. His case was the largest serial killer investigation in Canadian history,” according to The Canadian Encyclopedia.
Serial Killer Robert Pickton Is ‘Clinging to Life,’ Reports Say
GettyRobert William Pickton is shown in this undated image from a television screen.
Pickton was “airlifted to the hospital” after the 2 p.m. attack, The Vancouver Sun reported.
Pickton was “speared in the head with a broken-broom-like handle,” a source told The Vancouver Sun.
The Correctional Service Canada confirmed he had suffered a “major assault.”
Pickton’s lawyer declined to comment to the Sun. The Vancouver Sun reported that Pickton was “clinging to life.”
CBC cited Radio-Canada as also confirming that Pickton was attacked in prison, saying he is in critical condition. Sources told CBC that “Pickton is between life and death.”
GettyCards, candles, photographs and flowers are left at a memorial for the more than fifty missing women near a pig farm April 4, 2002, in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia.
The Correctional Service Canada’s release notes: “The injured inmate was evaluated and transported to an outside hospital to receive treatment. The Sûreté du Québec is presently investigating the incident. The assailant has been identified and the appropriate actions have been taken.”
The release does not name Pickton or the suspect. “The safety and security of institutions, their staff, and the public remains the highest priority in the operations of the federal correctional system,” it says. “In order to improve practices aimed at preventing this type of incident, the Correctional Service of Canada will review the circumstances of the incident and take the appropriate measures.”
Missing Women’s Belongings Were Found at Robert Pickton’s Pig Farm Near Vancouver, Reports Say
GettyRoyal Canadian Mounted Police investigators move debris on a pig farm February 19, 2002 in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia.
According to the Canadian Encyclopedia, Pickton ran a family pig farm and held charity events on it called Piggy’s Palace Good Times Society.
Pickton would travel to downtown Vancouver because he “disposed of animal parts at a rendering plant there,” reported the Canadian Encyclopedia, which added that Pickton would take women “back to his farm” after offering them “money and drugs.”
At least 65 women disappeared from the area between 1978 and 2001, according to the Canadian Encyclopedia, but many of the deaths were not noticed. Police were accused of not properly following up on reports that a body may have been seen at Pickton’s farm, along with women’s purses. They searched his property in 2002 and found some of the missing women’s belongings, as well as blood, Canadian Encyclopedia reports.
The National Post reported that Pickton was accused of feeding bodies to pigs.
GettyMissing woman Mona Wilson is remembered at a memorial near a pig farm April 4, 2002, in Port Coquitlam, British Columbia.
Pierre Poilievre, leader of the Conservative Party of Canada, wrote on X in February 2024 that Pickton was eligible for parole.
“Today, one of Canada’s most notorious serial killers, Robert Pickton, has become eligible for parole,” he wrote. “Monsters like this should never be released from prison. Common sense Conservatives believe that mass murderers should face consecutive sentences so they only come out of jail in a box.”
The National Post reported that Pickton was eligible for day parole and full parole in 2027.
Other Notorious Inmates Have Been Attacked & Even Killed in Prisons over the Years
mugshotJeffrey Dahmer.
Other notorious inmates have been attacked and even killed by other inmates over the years, some in U.S. prisons.
For example, Milwaukee serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer was beaten to death by another inmate in a Wisconsin prison alongside Jesse Anderson, a convicted wife killer.
Whitey Bulger, a notorious mobster, was attacked in a federal prison in the U.S. and died.
Derek Chauvin, the former Minnesota police officer convicted in the death of George Floyd, was attacked in prison but survived.