John Martin Crawford is a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 serial killer

Serial killer

A serial killer, as typically defined, is an individual who has murdered three or more people over a period of more than a month, with down time between the murders, and whose motivation for killing is usually based on psychological gratification...

.

Crimes

Crawford was sentenced in 1981 to 10 years imprisonment for manslaughter

Manslaughter

Manslaughter is a legal term for the killing of a human being, in a manner considered by law as less culpable than murder. The distinction between murder and manslaughter is said to have first been made by the Ancient Athenian lawmaker Dracon in the 7th century BC.The law generally differentiates...

 in the killing of Mary Jane Serloin, in Lethbridge

Lethbridge

Lethbridge is a city in the province of Alberta, Canada, and the largest city in southern Alberta. It is Alberta's fourth-largest city by population after Calgary, Edmonton and Red Deer, and the third-largest by area after Calgary and Edmonton. The nearby Canadian Rockies contribute to the city's...

, Alberta

Alberta

Alberta is a province of Canada. It had an estimated population of 3.7 million in 2010 making it the most populous of Canada's three prairie provinces...

.

While under police surveillance

Surveillance

Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...

, Crawford sexually assault

Sexual assault

Sexual assault is an assault of a sexual nature on another person, or any sexual act committed without consent. Although sexual assaults most frequently are by a man on a woman, it may involve any combination of two or more men, women and children....

ed Theresa Kematch, who was herself arrested, while Crawford was not.

Crawford was convicted in 1996 of killing three native women in Saskatoon

Saskatoon

Saskatoon is a city in central Saskatchewan, Canada, on the South Saskatchewan River. Residents of the city of Saskatoon are called Saskatonians. The city is surrounded by the Rural Municipality of Corman Park No. 344....

 in 1992, Eva Taysup, Shelley Napope, and Calinda Waterhen. He is currently serving three concurrent life sentences in Saskatchewan Penitentiary.

Media reaction

Crawford is discussed in Warren Goulding

Warren Goulding

Warren Goulding is a Canadian journalist and author. He wrote Just Another Indian, A Serial Killer and Canada's Indifference, which is about the less-than-notorious serial killer John Martin Crawford...

's book, Just Another Indian, A Serial Killer and Canada's Indifference with the message that crimes by marginalized minorities go unheeded by an uncaring society at large. The theory is posited that Crawford's case was played down by the media because his victims were Aboriginal

Aboriginal peoples in Canada

Aboriginal peoples in Canada comprise the First Nations, Inuit and Métis. The descriptors "Indian" and "Eskimo" have fallen into disuse in Canada and are commonly considered pejorative....

women.

External links

• Discrimination and violence against Indigenous women in Canada - Report Summary (mentions John Martin Crawford)