Shooting Gallery: Todd Joseph Krantz

Well known to police as a member of the Independant Soldiers gang, Krantz was shot down in the stairwell of his mixed martial arts gym on 20 October 2008. Not surprisingly, his friends and family described him in glowing terms, despite drug and weapon seizures from a house he shared with his eight year old daughter.

Dishonourable Mention: Clifford Robert Olson

Clifford Olson's crimes need no introduction. In addition to a lengthy previous record, he killed 11 children in the span of a year, offered to reveal where their bodies had been disposed of and plead guilty in return for a payout to his wife and young son, and then continued to taunt his victims from prison. He died as he should have, in jail and painfully of cancer, on 30 September 2011.

Dishonourable Mention: Roch Thériault

Thériault, a cult leader who killed his wife and cut off the hand of a follower with a chainsaw, was killed in a prison altercation at Dorchester Penitentiary in New Brunswick, on 26 February 2011.

Dishonourable Mention: Daniel Richard Wolfe

Wolfe, a former gang member, was stabbed to death by fellow inmates at Prince Albert Penitentiary on 4 January 2010.

Shooting Gallery: Gordon Douglas Kendall and Jeffrey Ronald Ivans

Originally posted 29 September 2009

For all the bad press travel to Mexico has gotten lately, with many unsolved tourist killings over the past few years, sometime it's comforting to know that the criminal element there hates competition as much as it does in Canada. Kendall and Ivans, two individuals from British Columbia who RCMP had been well aware of, were gunned down in Mexico, presumably as part of gang warfare or the like. After both were shot in front of the apartment building they were staying at, the two, who were armed, were then shot repeatedly at close range by up to three gunmen just to make sure they had learned their lesson about the dangers of gang affiliation (especially the wrong one). Luckily for them, it was probably a much quicker and less painful death than by being hooked on whatever these two were peddling back home. Thankfully in Mexico, as in Canada, sometimes the right people are targeted, rather than the innocent.

Dishonourable Mention: Barry Manion

Manion, convicted of second-degree murder after pleading guilty in the death of a 12-year-old girl, was found dead in his cell on 13 March 2009.

Shooting Gallery: Raphael Baldini

The renter of an apartment in which four members of the Red Scorpion gang were executed, along with two innocent bystanders, Baldini was gunned down outside a mall in Surrey B.C. in a "targetted hit" on 3 February 2009.

Dishonourable Mention: Andrew Craig

While serving a 10-year sentence for robbery at Kent Institution in B.C., Craig was stabbed to death during a brawl on 13 November 2008.

Shooting Gallery: Hung Van Bui

Originally posted 30 July 2008

Sometimes in the criminal underground, you get lucky. And sometimes, if you don't take the hint the first time, you're a dead idiot. Such is the case with Hung Van Bui, a man police described as being "involved in the drug trade". Bui survived a shooting at the Fortune Happiness restuarant in Vancouver, British Columbia, where he and seven other people sitting at the same table were assaulted by two masked men with guns. Two of Bui's companions, also known to police, died in that attack. Despite being wounded in that attack, Bui couldn't take a hint, and so he was gunned down in his car in East Vancouver. The words of author Robert A Heinlein ring quite clear in this case - "You live and you learn, or you don't live long."

Shooting Gallery: Salim Khaki

Originally posted 30 July 2008

Salim Khaki, just finishing a sentence for trafficking cocaine, had apparently not learned from his previous encounters with the law and instead got back into the business, where he had an encounter with the competition. Even serving six years in a prison in the United States didn't convince him, so his bullet-riddled body was taken out of his car near Merrit, British Columbia. His family, however, described him only in glowing terms, one calling him "the best guy". I'm sure a lot of his addict customers thought so, too.

Rot In Hell Ryan Wagemans

Originally posted 30 July 2008

It is unfortunately a well-known fact that some of the worst of mankind take public transit. This was plenty evident in the case of Ryan Wagemans, who began acting erratically and violently on a bus in Surrey, British Columbia, requiring the attention of the RCMP. During his arrest he started having medical problems and was rushed to hospital, where he later died. Turns out Wagemans had had problems with authority figures before, as he was on probation from a previous conviction for assaulting a police officer. That didn't alter his brother's opinion of him, however, as Denial... sorry, Daniel Wagemans told a newspaper interview that "this didn't make his brother a criminal."

Dishonourable Mention: Michael Kenneth Wilmot

Convicted of Aggravated Assault after taking a shotgun to a childhood friend, killed himself at the maximum-security Atlantic Institution on 6 July 2008.

Shooting Gallery: Bhupinder Singh Benning

Originally posted 28 May 2008

Targeted shootings continue to be the death of choice for anyone involved in criminal activity. Not surprisingly, everyone who becomes a body on the ground continues to (thankfully) think themselves somehow immune to high-velocity lead poisoning. Such is the case of Benning, who, being described as "known to police and police believed he had links to organized crime" was shot and killed outside a friend's house in Burnaby, British Columbia. It is comforting that the same stupidity that leads one to a life of crime also makes them think they can't be touched, and it is equally comforting to society when that thinking is proven wrong.

Rot In Hell Samantha Dawn Sczerkowsky

Originally posted 9 May 2008

Sometimes, simply the gravity of a situation does the work for you. When a search warrant was executed on an apartment in Richmond, British Columbia, Sczerkowsky, who was in the apartment with the two suspected fraudsters named, joined them in climbing off their fifth-storey balcony in an attempt to escape. While the two named suspects unfortunately made it to a third-floor balcony and escaped in the ensuing chaos, Sczerkowsky was left hanging upside-down from a fourth-floor balcony, from which she fell head-first onto a concrete sidewalk. She died later in hospital. Her employer, J. Malone's Pub, subsequently held a fundraiser for her family's expenses, which according to many Richmonders, is simply another good reason to avoid J. Malone's Pub.

Dishonourable Mention: Darren Joseph Fagen

Fagen, convicted on previous theft, weapons and sexual assault charges, killed himself in jail while awaiting trial on new kidnapping and sexual assault charges in St. Johns, Newfoundland on 5 February 2008.

Rot In Hell Ricardo Francis Scarpino

Originally posted 23 January 2008

Sometimes the best people to deal with criminals are other criminals, who not only do themselves the service of eliminating the competition, but also the general public the service of removing one more criminal from their midst. Ricardo Francis Scarpino, whom the Vancouver Police Department describe as being well-known to them and having connections to many other criminals and criminal activity, was gunned down after arriving to his own engagement party at an upscale steakhouse in downtown Vancouver. The attack also injured Scarpino's fiancee, and unfortunately killed a friend of the couple who had no apparent record with police. The timing of the hit was impeccable, not only for knowing when and where Scarpino would be vulnerable, but also for taking out this criminal before he married and possibly had children, passing on his defective genes to humanity and becoming a twisted role model for unsuspecting children.

Update: As a final insult to the intelligence of Vancouver citizens, the family had the balls to publish this obituary (pictured) in both major Vancouver newspapers. One wonders how, exactly, he "made us all better people" or managed to find the time to be "living out his dream", considering he had only been released from prison for cocaine trafficking the week before his death.

Dishonourable Mention: David Ramsay

Ramsay, a former British Columbia judge who bought sex from minors and coerced girls who had appeared in his courtroom for sex, died in prison in New Brunswick of cancer on 19 January 2008.

Rot In Hell Carlos Alcantara-Gomez

Originally posted 5 October 2007

Some people will go to any length to avoid being in police custody following an act of stupidity on their part. Not surprisingly, trying to escape police usually involves more stupidity. Such is the case of Carlos Alcantara-Gomez. Alcantara-Gomez was the suspect in a bank break-in in Ottawa when he was struck by a police car moving in pursuit of him. He was taken to Ottawa Hospital to be treated for back injuries, under police guard. Alcantara-Gomez recovered enough to realize his situation, and broke through his hospital room's second-storey window and leapt out, landing on his head on an overhang and subsequently dying of his injuries.

Rot In Hell Peter Kyun Joon Lee

Originally posted 5 September 2007

The mass murder-suicide committed by this particular criminal comes as being especially shocking. First, this crime will be noted as being one of the more senseless and brutal of all, since it involved two elderly persons and his own six-year-old son. Second, it took place in one of the more exclusive and upscale communities in Canada, the Municipality of Oak Bay, near Victoria, B.C. Finally, and most telling, in one swift stroke, Lee more than doubled the total number of murders committed in Oak Bay during its 101-year history. Lee was a powder-keg of a control freak. In addition to his marital problems leading up to this awful event, he also is accused of slashing an employee's wrist and holding her against a wall by the throat. It's no wonder he then ignored a court order, went to his home, killed his wife, son, and his in-laws visiting from Korea, before finally taking his own life. To others in Lee's position, we once again advise expedience... Kill yourselves first!

Rot In Hell Chris Benoit

Originally posted 26 June 2007

The quest for physical or athletic perfection has led many athletes down the slippery slope of using anabolic steroids. However, it is a true mark of pitiable character when one trades his life and future on the use of steroids in a fake sport. WWE wrestler Chris Benoit, born in Montreal and raised in Edmonton, first killed his wife, then smothered his seven-year-old son, and finally hanged himself, in an apparent fit of psychological illness brought on by steroid use. No longer content with not actually hurting people in the ring, he decided to try doing it for real on the innocent people in his life. Sadder still, when Benoit's murder-suicide caused WWE's Raw program to be cancelled, a number of sports stations aired a tribute to Benoit, even after the news broke about what he had done. In a society that idolizes sports heroes, idolizing a manufactured hero in a scripted sport following the murder of his family sinks to a new low that even the most ardent trailer park-dwelling fan wouldn't touch.

Update: Although doctors have downplayed the role of steroids in his actions, they nevertheless found that repeated concussions left 40-year-old Benoit with a brain resembling that of an 85-year-old man with dementia.

Rot In Hell Michael Emmitt Reid and Michael William Arthur Laird

Originally posted 22 March 2007

Ah, yes, the Lower Mainland of British Columbia. While it unfortunately has a reputation as one of the worst places for car theft in the country, we can take heart that those who perpetuate it aren't always the brightest, either. Such is the case of Reid and Laird, who stole a car, sped away from police, ran a stop sign and ultimately slammed into another vehicle, killing them both. The victim's insurance should hopefully pay for the damage, but he can take heart in knowing that his vehicle was instrumental in putting two of Vancouver's least wanted where they belong.

Rot In Hell Daniel Antony King

Originally posted 13 February 2007

No one has ever accused any of the people who wind up profiled on this website smart, but Daniel Antony King takes criminal stupidity to a new level. King, already known to police, stole a car in the Greater Vancouver area and led police on a high speed chase through three cities before being cornered. King then did what any sensible suspect would do in this situation. No, not surrender quietly. He pulled out a replica handgun and then got out of the vehicle. Police, unaware that the gun was a replica, opened fire on King, who died later in hospital. A brilliant night's work for a thief in an area already known for its car thefts. If only they all had these replicas, it might not be such a problem.

Dishonourable Mention: Father Charles Sylvestre

Father Charles, a Roman Catholic priest who admitted to sexually assaulting 47 girls, died in prison (and went straight to his own religion's reward for such crimes) 22 January 2007.

Rot In Hell James Edgar Darwin

Originally posted 24 October 2006

The best situation for a criminal to end up dead is one in which he or she has little or no chance to do any potential victims actual harm. Such has been the case for James Edgar Darwin who, ironically, shares a name with the scientist who could've predicted his demise through natural selection. Darwin, who held a recreational pilot's license, was the pilot of a Piper aircraft that crashed near Vernon, British Columbia, during the night of 17 October 2006, killing himself in the process. Crash investigators subsequently found 109 kilograms of cocaine aboard the plane, which had run out of fuel. Darwin had legally rented the plane from a nearby flight school, but the school's owner noted that he did not have any training in flying at night, nor did his pilot's license class permit it. Luckily for any potential new cocaine addicts who may have fallen victim to Darwin, the same stupidity that made him take up criminal activities also caused him to be thinned from the gene pool. Perhaps, as a final tribute, someone should nominate Mr. Darwin for a Darwin Award.

Rot In Hell Rong Lilly Li

Originally posted 28 September 2006

Rong "Lilly" Li was a Chinese immigrant who used her newfound freedom of the economy in Canada to victimize desperate gamblers at British Columbia's largest casino. Her own sister confirmed she worked as a loan shark at River Rock Casino Resort, just south of Vancouver. She was last seen getting into a van outside the casino via surveillance camera on 26 May 2006, and then not heard of again until the weekend of 9 September when her body was found and a suspect charged in her murder. Though it remains to be seen what relationship the suspect had with Li, should he turn out to have been a "client", it seems unfortunate that he will be victimized twice, once by an individual mercenary enough to prey on his weaknesses and back it up with threats, and again by the RCMP and justice system. A medal seems much more appropriate.

Rot In Hell Kimveer Gill

Originally posted 28 September 2006

This charming individual had a less-than-healthy obsession with guns and left a wonderfully detailed view of himself on the website vampirefreaks.com. Despite this self-professed goth's image of himself as the Angel of Death, no one in his circle of acquaintances on vampirefreaks seemed to take any notice of what he was building up to. Everyone noticed, unfortunately, when this idiot stormed into Dawson College in Montreal, Quebec with three loaded guns and started firing on 13 September 2006. He ultimately took the coward's way out and put one of those guns to his head, but not before killing 18 year old student Anastasia De Sousa and injuring nineteen others. It would have been nice if he just spared us the trouble and blown himself away quietly in his basement, but he had to be a drama queen in life as well as on his blog.