Uncover: Calls From a Killer

The Outlaw Ocean is an anthology podcast that plunges you into the vast and often lawless world of the open seas. Today we're featuring an investigation from S2 called The Shrimp Factory Whistleblower.  In this episode, Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Ian Urbina joins Josh Farenello. What started off as a dream job, slowly revealed itself to be a nightmare. Josh moved to southern India to oversee a shrimp-processing plant, but it soon dawned on him that he’d been really been hired as an American face to “whitewash” a forced-labour factory. The largely female employees were effectively trapped on the compound, routinely underpaid, and forced to live in inhumane, unsanitary conditions. Over several months, Josh meticulously gathered evidence that he brought to the Outlaw Ocean team for this exclusive exposé. More episodes of The Outlaw Ocean are available at: https://link.mgln.ai/oo-uncover [https://link.mgln.ai/oo-uncover]

Arlene Bynon answers a collect call. On the other end of the line is Clifford Olson: a man convicted of killing eleven children and teenagers in the 1980s. The oldest of them, eighteen. The youngest of them, nine. During years of secret phone calls from his prison cell, he tells this young journalist things he hasn’t told anyone else.  Decades later, Nathaniel Frum dusts off a box of old tapes inherited from his late grandfather. When he hears Arlene’s voice, he knows he needs to find her.  And they both know that this forgotten story needs to be told. Binge all 7 episodes of this season right now, early and ad-free, by subscribing here [https://apple.co/cbctruecrime].

‘They called him the Candyman.’ In British Columbia’s lower mainland, children are disappearing. Families are terrified as the local RCMP attempts to find out who is preying on vulnerable kids. At a time when both the public and the police don’t know how to deal with a serial killer, Clifford Olson slips through the cracks.

It’s the summer of 1981 and the RCMP have their sights set on Clifford Olson, who is well known to them as a career criminal and informant.  As police investigate, kids continue to be taken. Kids like Judy Kozma, a 14-year-old who never made it home from her shift at McDonald’s. By the time he’s finally arrested, Olson has murdered at least eleven young people.  The RCMP’s case against him is weak - until Olson proposes a deal.  In the present day, Arlene speaks to family members of those he killed.

The country is shocked to learn that a serial killer has been paid by the police - $100,000 in return for the locations of his murder victims.  Even as decades have passed, opinions are split on this controversial deal. Was Clifford Olson rewarded for his heinous crimes, or was this necessary to stop the killing? And what do the architects of the deal think about it today?