Tonight, I caught a previously broadcast episode of Dateline about a horribly creepy guy.  The show originally aired in 2011 and the events that the show chronicled were in 2010.  Well, actually the show chronicled events that went further back than that, but a big chunk of the show focused on the actual interrogation video after the suspect was brought in to be questioned about two murders, two brutal sexual assaults, and countless breaking and entering charges.

The bad guy in this case – Colonel Russell Williams.  Williams was 46 years old and a respected member of the Canadian Forces when he was caught and charged with a laundry list of crimes.  He was living a horribly sordid double life.  He was a respected community member as far as everyone knew until some police work on a woman’s disappearance exposed the other face of Russell Williams.

It turns out, after years of successively more daring underwear and lingerie thefts in folks’ homes, Williams moved up to sexual assault and abuse of two local women as they slept in their homes at night.  He photographed extensively this attacks and made the women pose for sexually explicit photos. Indeed, Williams photographed everything he ever stole -many of the items he has photos of himself in as well.  After the assaults, Williams moved up to murder.  He had already brutally sexually assaulted and killed two women when he was caught.  He also video taped and saved on his computer those attacks and murders.

This guy – Williams – is a sick puppy in the most frightening of ways.  He is one of those folks that you would never think capable of such things.  I want to be able to see a criminal coming from a mile away and these types of folks – folks who you would never suspect – they are frighteningly dangerous.

Williams crime spree is a chilling story.  I cannot recount it all here as it really bothers me (but you can catch a recount of it here from CBC News).  I also cannot include the widely published photos of Williams in the lingerie he stole.  But if you Google Russell Williams (also know as the Tweed Creeper), you can see for yourself what I am referencing. He remains one of Canada’s most notorious criminals.  Sadly, both his murder victims pleaded for their lives to no avail (remember, Williams taped all this).  He did not know them, they were just the unfortunate recipients of his depravity.

Jessica Lloyd and Cpl. Marie-France Comeau

I am pretty sure that I am going to have a bad dream about this tonight.  But I am not complaining.  I guess I would rather be reminded that these kinds of folks are out in the world so that I can keep my radar finely tuned.  The world is a scary place folks…sometimes wolves dress up as sheep or something else disarming – maybe even as a military leader in a uniform.