Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime

Probe under way into sale of Clifford Olson's personal items

The Daily News (Truro)
Tue 29 Jul 2008

The Correctional Service of Canada is investigating how personal prison items from Clifford Olson wound up for sale in an on-line auction. Letters, legal documents and other items belonging to Canada's most notorious serial child killer are available on a U.S.-based website www.murderauction.com. The Ottawa Sun says Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day has ordered a probe into how the material left the prison. Spokeswoman Melisa Leclerc says Day "is concerned with the fact that an individual would consider making profit out of a heinous crime."

Olson, now 68, is serving life prison sentence for killing 11 children and teenagers in British Columbia in 1980 and '81. Leclerc says Day is awaiting results of the investigation, then will discuss options with CSC Commissioner Don Head. Heidi Illingworth, executive director of the Canadian Resource Centre for Victims of Crime, calls the killer collectibles "sick and twisted" and more must be done to track the flow of material leaving penitentiaries.