Just Another Indian

Book excerpt: John Martin Crawford is a serial sex killer, but his crimes have gone almost unnoticed in the media and he is currently serving out his three concurrent life sentences in virtual anonymity. In addition to a prior sentence for manslaughter, Crawford has been convicted of three murders, all of them women, all of them Native. He is also suspected in at least three other murders or mysterious disappearances of aboriginal women. His name should be as notorious as those of Paul Bernardo and Charles Ng, yet few people have heard of him. Author Warren Goulding raises disturbing questions about racism in both the police force and the media treatment of John Crawford and his victims. He lays bare the assumptions and attitudes that resulted not only in Crawford's obscurity, but the public dismissal of the deaths of Mary Jane Serloin, Shelley Napope, Eva Taysup, and Calinda Waterhen. The result is a gripping and disquieting book that questions the value a predominantly white society places on aboriginal lives.