Russell Williams was a commander of a Canadian Air Force base in Trenton, he had the full title of Colonel. He however harbored a dark secret that would finally come to light in 2010 when he was arrested for the murders of two women. At the time of his arrest he was in charge of around 7000 military personnel.
Prior to the murders.
The story begins with Russells first known break-ins, when he would break into women's houses and steal their underwear. These were Russell’s first known attacks on women, although they were not violent they were very disturbing. Russell would then wear this underwear and take pictures for his own sexual pleasure, a few of the photos are below.
These break ins did not fulfill his sexual desires and, as with many killers, Russell decided to escalate his crimes. On September 17th 2009 Russell broke into a womens house before pinning her down and stripping her naked. Already Russell has shown a huge escalation in violence from simply looking and stealing he has decided to physically attack a woman. He then took pictures of her lying there naked before fleeing the scene. The pictures he took are important to remember for later on. On September 30th 2009 Russell attacked again and stuck to his previous MO of subduing the woman, getting her naked then taking pictures as she lay helpless. Russell described this second attack as the ‘same kinda deal’. The way in which Russell conveys this is quite telling of his lack of emotion towards a woman he had now affected for life. It is important to note however Russell had not killed these two women, his next victim would not be so lucky.
A first Murder
Sadly Corporal Marie France Comeau, age 38, would not be so lucky. On November 25th 2009 her body was discovered by her boyfriend. Marie had actually met Russell on the base on one occasion. After their meeting Russell then found her address using the work database given he had access to all this information. Armed with her address he began staking out her house and found out that she lived alone. Russell then broke into Marie’s house for the first time whilst she was on holiday. Whilst inside Russell stole her underwear and used it to masturbate. Below is a clip of him describing what he did whilst Marie was away.
Unfortunately Marie eventually returned from holiday and Russell could no longer hold back his sexual urges towards Marie. On the night of the murder Russell broke into Marie’s basement through an open window and hid out down there. Marie had a cat that noticed Russell’s presence in the house and began acting strangely in the basement to which Marie investigated. She spotted a pair of eyes looking back from inside her basement and began screaming when she realized that there was an intruder in her house. Russell later described the moment Marie spotted him. ‘When she discovered me she was screaming quite a bit’. Almost as quickly as the screams began, Russell leapt from his hiding place and attempted to subdue Marie by hitting her over the head with the flashlight he had brought with him. Once he had subdued Marie he tied her up and took her upstairs towards the bedroom. Once inside Russell began raped Marie, later stating he spent 1 and ½ to 2 hours raping Marie. He then took pictures of her naked and with certain items of underwear on.
After Russell had fulfilled his sexual desires he then placed tape over the mouth and nose of Marie leaving her to suffocate. Later he gave the reason for doing this the fact that he had taken pictures and therefore if she lived to tell police this he would be caught.
Tragically Russell had claimed his first life. This escalation of crimes so quickly is quite interesting leading us to believe that once Russell experienced the violence he couldn’t turn back, having to experience a greater high each time to satisfy himself. Given Russell was Marie’s commanding officer he sent a letter of condolence to her father which no doubt would have fed his ever growing ego.
Desires not satisfied.
After this attack Russell’s desires seemed to have been satiated but only for a short while. On January 27 Russell spotted 27 year old Jessica Lloyd running on her treadmill. With his next target in his sights Russell returned the next day ready to carry out his next attack. He lurked outside her house and waited for her to fall asleep before carrying out his attack. He then stood over her while she slept before pouncing and tying her up. First he performed oral sex on Jessica, then he proceeded to rape her before finally having her perform oral sex on him. I can't even imagine how horrible this must have been for Jessica. Below Russell describes in rather upsetting detail just how he carried out this attack. It is also important to note the lack of emotion Russell shows when describing this brutal assault. Later in the interview but not in this clip Russell states ‘she swallowed it’ in reference to him ejaculating her mouth.
During the whole ordeal Russell was filming and taking pictures, the alleged video is over 4 hours long. Once he had finished his first assault, Russell took Jessica back to his second house in tweed and tied her up. I can only imagine what kind of sexual assault took place at this house given Russell had all the time he needed to carry out every last fantasy, all the while taking pictures of everything. Again this is another escalation for Russell as he has decided to kidnap his victim this time to ensure he has more time to complete his fantasies. A detective later asks what his feelings were towards Jessica and how he felt about the attack. Russell responded by saying ‘I thought she was a nice girl’.
Russell kept Jessica alive for ‘almost 24 hours’ before he decided against letting her go. He led Jessica out of the house before striking her on the back of the head with his flashlight in order to knock her out. ‘As we were walking out I struck her in the back of the head’. He then used the rope, which had tied her up, to strangle her to death.
Russell then left her ‘behind a fairly large rock’, with ‘a couple of towels wrapped around her head’. In the interview the detective asks where Jessica’s body is to which Russell responds flatly ‘you got a map’. The reason Russell gave for killing was the same as earlier as he said that the pictures he took would give him away to the police so he could not risk Jessica reporting this. Despite this the police were closing in and on February 7th 2010 they arrested Russell and charged him with the two murders. Once in police custody Russell was interviewed to determine whether they could get a confession out of the decorated colonel.
The Interview
While you have already seen some of the clips from the interview we thought that a general overview of how the interview went is quite useful. Right off the bat the interviewer begins calling him Russell something he would not be used to as everyone would have addressed him as colonel. Although this may only seem like a small detail it sets the tone instantly for the interview and gives the detective a platform to build some control. Russell seems unfazed by this and starts the interview in a confident demeanor, you could say almost cocky as if he was above this type of question. Below is an image of Russell’s body language at the start of the interview, it is important to note this as there is a dramatic change towards the end of the interview which is also shown below.
As the interview continues the detective begins to confront Russell with the evidence that they have against him. This evidence is only footprints however the detective likens them to being as accurate as fingerprints, this is not true but ramps up the pressure on Russell to confess.
Despite this information Russell sticks to his story however he seems to be loosening up. He seems to be worried about the consequences for his wife and states ‘I’m struggling with how upset my wife is’. The detective seizes on this and pushes the issue of finding Jessica’s body. Eventually Russell caves and says ‘you got a map’ when asked where Jessica’s body is. From this point onwards it is downhill for Russell as his tongue loosens and he admits to both murders, while describing in great detail each of his crimes. This detail can be seen on full display above.
The interrogation is a masterclass in working out a confession. The full interrogation can be found below.
Russell Williams was sentenced to life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 25 years. Another interesting thing to come from this case is the Netflix show The Fall which is claimed the main character is loosely based on Russell Willaims. Hard to know how much truth is behind this however having watched the show I can say there are similarities between the killers.
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