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On June 8th, 2008 the Edmonton Journal published a trio of articles, part of the paper's last chapter in the story of Thomas Svekla.

Written by Daivd Staples and Karen Kleiss, the articles were drawn from exhaustive research of court documents and interviews with those close to Svekla.

Murderer snagged spotlight with a finger on his lips
Tom Svekla's secret life
Cunning practitioners of the 'pity play'

Murderer snagged spotlight with a finger on his lips

But even Svekla can't decide what his 'shhh' meant

by David Staples and Karen Kleiss, The Edmonton Journal

Convicted killer and pedophile Thomas Svekla calls it the gesture that made him famous ...

Staples and Kleiss gathered together a variety of explanations for the unusual gesture, most of them from Svekla himself.

The writers researched statements made by Svekla to Project KARE investigators and spoke to American crime writer Ann Rule.

The entire article can be read here.

Tom Svekla's secret life

Tom Svekla doesn't want you to know he's a "needy attention-seeker," not to mention a pedophile and a cold killer

by David Staples and Karen Kleiss, The Edmonton Journal

One summer night some 20 years ago, Tom Svekla, then a teenager of about 17, hammered his bloody hand on the door of an acreage house, asking for someone to let him in. A teenage girl, a friend, appeared and ushered him inside. Her name, like the names of so many of the women in Svekla's life, cannot be revealed because she was to be Svekla's victim, his first major victim, and now a court order prohibits identifying her. We will call her J ...

Writers Staples and Kleiss delve into Svekla's past, drawing on interviews and letters with the man while he was in the Edmonton Remand Centre during the summer and fall of 2006.

Talking with police, family members and former associates, Staples and Kleiss carefully pieced together the story of a man whose own lawyer, Robert Shaigec, characterised as a weird and strange liar.

From the article:

... a tragic and destructive behaviour does indeed appear to run deep in the Svekla clan. Svekla's grandfather shot himself in the head in a granary, Svekla has said. His grandmother was once arrested for selling moonshine. His father's two other brothers died as a result of their chronic drinking. One other uncle, who ran a grow-op, killed himself by driving intoxicated into a train.

Staples and Kleiss detail Svekla's relationships with a number of women, some who had testified at his trial and others whose stories have never been told before.

From the article:

"I played therapist to him. Trying to figure him out, trying to fix him, and then I just got sick of it. He just had no social norms. He was just too far gone. And I was just having such a hard time dealing with the fact."

The entire article can be read here: Part One | Part Two | Part Three

Cunning practitioners of the 'pity play'

by David Staples, The Edmonton Journal

Leading psychiatric researchers are convinced there exists a type of person known as the psychopath, unemotional and sinister men and women who are different from the rest of us right down to the basic workings of their brains ...

David Staples interviews mental health professionals trying to unlock the puzzle that is Thomas Svekla and whether his behaviour was brought about by nature or nurture.

From the article:

Some psychopaths are capable of behaviour that normal people find not only horrific but baffling. For example, they can torture and mutilate their victims with about the same sense of concern we feel when we carve a turkey for Thanksgiving dinner.

The entire article can be read here.

Judging from published Letters to the Editor, not all Journal readers appreciated the coverage given the man who liked to be called "Mr. Hockey Bag" by his fellow inmates.

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