THE CROSS-DRESSING KILLER
Not a day passed during her 19 years of marriage to Russell Williams that Mary Elizabeth Harriman didn’t consider herself a very lucky woman.
Her husband was a well-respected colonel in the Canadian Armed Forces and she was passionate about her work for the national Heart and Stroke Foundation.
Their neighbours in Ottawa described them as the “perfect power couple”. They’d often see them strolling hand in hand, and they spent their downtime playing golf, boating and fussing over their cat Rosie. “You couldn’t ask for better people – they were a perfectly normal family,” said one neighbour.
But Mary’s world came crashing down in 2010 when her clean-cut husband was outed as a sadistic, cross-dressing, underwear-stealing rapist and murderer.
Police discovered the couple’s two homes were full of trophies from Williams’ crimes, including 48 pairs of women’s underwear stuffed in plastic bags, and boxes of sex toys stashed in the attic and basement.
Williams was charged with two counts of first-degree murder, two counts of forcible confinement, two of breaking and entering, and sexual assault, along with 82 more charges.
After confessing, he wrote to his wife, “I am so very sorry for having hurt you like this. I know you’ll take care of sweet Rosie. I love you.”