Journalist Seeks To Expose True Identity Of A Serial-Killer's Victims

Journalist seeks to expose true identity of a serial-killer’s victims

By Colleen Simard
The First Perspective

Just Another Indian: A Serial Killer and Canada’s Indifference by Warren Goulding

Published by Fifth House, $22.95 paperback

As a journalist for the Saskatoon StarPhoenix, Warren Goulding reported on the discovery of the bodies of three women in the fall of 1994; it was a story he would follow to the subsequent trial of serial killer John Martin Crawford.

Goulding came to the disturbing realization that something was very wrong in the way that the media and essentially our society saw these murders. These victims of brutality were treated as if they were unimportant, largely because of their lifestyle—and the fact that they Aboriginal.

The journalist became so intent on uncovering the true identities of the victims that he dedicated two years of writing to conceive his first book, Just Another Indian: A Serial Killer and Canada’s Indifference.

“I didn’t think the media coverage portrayed the victims accurately or fairly,” Goulding says. “Right away, the media decided that these three women were—number one— prostitutes, which is inaccurate.”

For the record, explains Goulding, two of the victims were mothers. Eva Tasup, one of Crawford’s victims, had four children.

These women were known to the “low-tracks” of Saskatoon, in the context that they often visited the Barry Hotel and the Albert Hotel in Saskatoon. There were instances in some of these victims’ lives when they did trade sex for alcohol or drugs, but by no means, explains the author, were they known prostitutes.

Just Another Indian is a tightly written book that covers the case from the discovery of the women’s bodies to the conclusion of the Crawford trial.

In attempting to portray the reality of these women, the author does not spare himself from the harsh criticism of the media that covered the killings.

“I was a part of that media pack that didn’t know these women,” he says. “I might have assumed that these were ‘bar girls.’”

Sadly, the horrendous murders received virtually no media attention; Goulding goes as far as to say that they “just had no interest.”

In the book’s final chapter, many arguments and comparisons are made in order to make sense of this injustice. The obvious comparison is the Paul Bernardo killings, which occurred a summer previous to the Saskatoon murders. It was a media frenzy where Goulding was also present.

“Every media outlet in Canada was there. It was a national story, an international story,” Goulding says. “So the question comes up: what was different?”

The answer is obvious to the reader from the start—that it is based upon racial and social stereotypes. Bernardo’s victims were Caucasian, girl-next-door teens. The book does an in-depth study of the case and examines many factors.

“Race, geography, incompetence and economics all play a role,” Goulding says.

At the heart of the matter are of course the inaccuracies of the media, and the justice system itself.

Goulding wastes no sentimentality on John Martin Crawford, and does a wonderful job of delving into the making of a serial killer. Crawford’s childhood experiences are laid open, providing an interesting schooling in the serial killer profile. Had the judicial and even the health system not been inept during instances in Crawford’s life, these women would still be alive.

Crawford was a substance abuser of almost anything that he could access, and had behavior problems that stemmed from his youth. He was known to cruise 20th Street in search of hookers every night. He was just a time bomb waiting to go off.

The author believes strongly that Crawford chose Aboriginal women for simple logistics, not because of a racial hatred towards them.

“I think it was a matter of survival. He had a better chance of getting away with it…a huge percentage of women that are on these streets are Native. In Saskatoon they use numbers like 80 per cent, sometimes I think that it’s closer to 90 per cent.”

This is a valid opinion and the readers are left to reach their own conclusion.

But what Goulding is sure of, is the fact that there needs to be measures taken to make sure these crimes don’t occur anymore.

“Saskatchewan has been described as ‘Mississippi North’—various studies have concluded that it is the most racist place in Canada,” says the author. “We’re at a really critical point in Saskatchewan…with this shooting on the weekend…It’s high time for a judicial inquiry along the lines of the Manitoba inquiry (The A.J.I.).”

Just Another Indian is not so shocking to this reader, whom over the years has read a variety of books along these lines before. Helen Betty Osborne, Minnie Sutherland, J.J. Harper, and most recently Corrine McKeowen and Doreen Leclair are all victims of some amount of ineptness and stereotyping in our society, and that sadly is nothing new. This book may not surprise Aboriginals, but it is a chance to understand the real tragedy: the loss of these women. It has long been known that there are differences in the way that the media views society and Aboriginal people in general.

Read this book to remind yourself of the barriers that have yet to be removed.

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