E5: Joan

The voice of a killer. The truth uncovered.For years, journalist Arlene Bynon took forbidden jailhouse calls from notorious murderer Clifford Olson. Hundreds of hours of secret recordings — hidden from prison guards and the public — are now being revealed.In Uncover: Calls From a Killer, Arlene, joined by Nathaniel Frum, will expose what Olson told her, what police got wrong, and why authorities paid a serial killer $100,000. 

Arlene’s patience with Clifford Olson is wearing thin until he says something truly shocking: he’s stolen a handcuff key and plans to escape.And that’s just one of many ways he’s twisted the justice system to his advantage.In the present day, Arlene and Nathaniel grapple with the devastation Olson has left in his wake. Alongside the families and loved ones of his victims, they consider why it’s important to shine light on this difficult story. 

Clifford Olson is serving eleven life sentences for killing eleven children. By now, Arlene has been speaking to him for years and is starting to understand this serial killer - and starting to suspect he’s guilty of more murders.Now, she just needs to get him to confess.

After months speaking to Clifford Olson, Arlene is still searching for answers. So she turns her attention to his mysterious wife: the woman who received the ‘cash for bodies’ payout.  She’s been attacked by the media and faces the scorn of the public - but Arlene knows there is more to Joan Olson than meets the eye. 

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?

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.

‘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.

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.