Criminology Emergency Remote Learning Media Literacy, True Crime & Can/US Differences #7 - Russell Williams

Canada hasn't seen a criminal case that has drawn so much widespread North American media attention since Robert William Pickton or Paul Bernardo. The Russell Williams case received coverage in Canada (both "Above Suspicion" and "The Confession" from The Fifth Estate on CBC and "Fall From Grace" shown on Global's 16 X 9) and in the United States as well ("Name, Rank & Serial Killer" on CBS 48 Hours, "Conduct Unbecoming" on NBC Dateline).

From David A. Gibb at the Huffington Post

Russell Williams, the former commander of Canada's largest military airfield, was convicted in October of first-degree murder in the sex slayings of two Ontario women, Cpl. Marie-France Comeau, 38, and Jessica Lloyd, 27. He also pleaded guilty to 82 fetish break-and-enters and thefts, as well as two sexual assaults. Williams methodically chronicled and catalogued his crimes, shooting videos and still photos of himself in the act and amassing a huge collection of undergarments stolen from women and girls. Dozens of gruesome photos were shown during his trial. He is currently serving a life sentence in Kingston Penitentiary and can apply for unsupervised release, including day parole, after serving 22 years of his sentence. The Canadian Forces stripped him of his rank of colonel after his conviction

Start by looking at the case in detail (on the school teams site there is a document called Criminology 2020 Russell Williams)... it looks like this:

 Then, watch "Above Suspicion"...


and then "The Confession"



There are lots of places to find information on the case but a good place to start is the accompanying website to the CBC documentary "Above Suspicion" and the Vice article "He Was a Top Officer in the Military, and Also a Serial Killer".  By the way the documentary was originally aired on September 24th, 2010 which was three weeks before Russell Williams plead guilty to all charges in the matters against him.

Be an active consumer of media for this one. Remember:

• Who created this media product? What is its purpose? 
• What assumptions or beliefs do its creators have that are reflected in the content? 
• What is the commercial purpose of this media product (in other words, how will it help someone make money)? How does this influence the content and how it’s communicated?
•  If no commercial purpose can be found, what other purposes might the media product have (for instance, to get attention for its creator or to convince audiences of a particular point of view)? 
• Who and what is shown in a positive light? In a negative light? Why might these people and things be shown this way? 
• Who and what is not shown at all? What conclusions might audiences draw based on these facts? 
• What techniques does the media product use to get your attention and to communicate its message? 
• In what ways are the images in the media product manipulated through various techniques (for example: lighting, makeup, camera angle, photo manipulation)? 
• What are the expectations of the genre (true crime television programming) towards its subject?

Now, compare the Canadian coverage to this true crime piece from CBS "Name, Rank, Serial Killer?" with reflects American coverage


NBC fictionalized the Russell Williams case in an episode of Law & Order: Los Angeles "Silver Lake". This episode aired on April 16, 2011...that's 6 months after Russell Williams plead guilty.

To film a television show (like a 1 hour drama police procedural) takes anywhere between six to eight production days. A day normally begins at 6 am and runs 11 to 13 hours long. It takes between 60 and 96 hours to produce 44 minutes of program content (for a 60 minute television show). That's just filming - don't forget the pre-production work which includes: script writing (when given an episode, scriptwriters are expected to turn out their draft in one to two weeks); story boarding; scouting & securing locations and location prep ("shooting" not on studio or sound stage means scouting out placers to film); casting talent and rehearsing...all told between 3-4 weeks. Then there's post production work too (editing and sound) which typically takes two to three weeks to edit a one hour, action-adventure TV show. It is important to note that with a TV series, different episodes overlap. One show is in pre-production (the writing), another episode is in production, and another is in post production.

So, NBC "ripped from the headlines" the Russell Williams story literally as it was happening. If you think that's fast consider that NBC's Dateline aired "Conduct Unbecoming" on Friday, February 18, 2011 (4 months after his guilty plea) and CBS aired the 48 Hours episode "Name, Rank, Serial Killer?", the one that we watched yesterday, on April 9th, 2011 (the L&O:LA episode aired one week later!).

Unfortunately the only version I can find online is cut into two parts. So try to start at the 50 minute mark of the first episode and then continue through the second part. When you watch the episode, pay careful attention to the interview/interrogation to compare it with what you saw in the true crime "The Confession, Above Suspicion and Name, Rank, Serial Killer? documentaries.


Remember Schadenfreude? Russell Williams was a heavy weight in the Canadian military. He was a powerful person who "fell from grace" which is part of what made his murders of Marie France Comeau and Jessica Lloyd a "newsworthy" crime story.

I have the following for you to answer:

Do you think that Canadian media coverage of crime is similar to American media coverage of crime? How did the Canadian and American coverage of the Russell Williams case differ? Use the 48 Hours episode "Name, Rank & Serial Killer?" as well as the Fifth Estate episode "Above Suspicion" as your sources of information. Do you think the news coverage of Col. Russell Williams' sentencing was too sensational? Do you think the court was right to release so much information and that the Canadian press were right to publish it all, or do you think that there is such a thing as too much information, and that there are some details we really don’t need to know? How much do we need to know about trials and the accused actions?

 (Watch the following CBC story to help...