Retailer removes Robert Pickton’s book from sale after manuscript smuggled out of prison was released through a self-publishing service, to the distress of his victims’ families

A memoir reportedly written by Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton and smuggled out of prison by another inmate has been withdrawn from sale on Amazon within hours of appearing on the website.

Pickton: In His Own Words was published by Outskirts Press, a Colorado-based self-publishing service on 29 January. It was added for sale on Amazon Canada on Monday. The Vancouver Sun reports that in the 144-page memoir Pickton repeatedly claims he is innocent, in between references to the Bible and entire transcripts of his interviews with police.

British Columbia’s provincial government and Outskirts Press contacted Amazon.ca and asked for it to be withdrawn from sale. During the time it was on Amazon.ca, family members of Pickton’s victims asked the public to not read it, more than 50,000 people signed a petition asking Amazon.ca to pull it, and multiple one-star reviews were added to the book’s listing, with messages urging customers to not buy it. It was removed from Amazon.ca and Barnes and Noble soon after.

In a statement, Outskirts Press said: “We have a long-standing policy of not working with, nor publishing work by, incarcerated individuals.” The book was listed as being by a Californian, Michael Chilldres, not under Pickton’s name.

Facebook Twitter Pinterest The cover of the book. Photograph: Toronto Sun

Chilldres told the National Post that he was sent the manuscript in the mail and had originally had no idea who Pickton was. “I got on Wikipedia and looked up his arrest record and stuff, and he was kind of creepy,” he said, adding he had published it as “favour” for a friend who had met Pickton in British Columbia’s Kent Institution

Chilldres said Pickton gave the manuscript to a cellmate, who sent photocopies of Pickton’s handwritten scrawl to Chilldres. Chilldres had a friend type it up and submitted it to Outskirts Press, a process that took a year and cost CA$2,500 (£1,300). He said Pickton would not profit from the book as he gave up publishing rights when he handed over the manuscript, but reportedly asked that 10% of profits went to charity.

Chilldres said a charity had not been selected yet and that there were plans to translate it into French and Spanish. “If I get my $2,500 back, then I’ll be happy, and if we make a couple dollars extra, then that’ll be good.”

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Multi-millionaire pig farmer Pickton was convicted in 2007 of murdering six women, with charges relating to 20 other deaths suspended. The victims – Mona Wilson, Sereena Abotsway, Marnie Frey, Brenda Wolfe, Andrea Joesbury and Georgina Papin – were among nearly 70 women who disappeared in Vancouver between the late 1980s and 2001. Pickton was arrested in 2002.

The prosecution claimed Pickton had confessed to 49 murders to an undercover police officer posing as a cellmate, saying he had wanted to kill 50 people before taking a break and killing 25 more.

British Columbia’s minister for public safety, Mike Morris said in a statement that the province was looking at measures to prevent criminals profiting from their crimes. “It is not right that a person who caused so much harm and hurt so many people could profit from his behaviour,” he said.

Public safety minister Ralph Goodale told the Canadian parliament an investigation had been launched into how the manuscript had been smuggled out of prison. “We will be examining all those who have assisted in any way in this odious enterprise,” he said.