The psychological disintegration of David Russell Williams

The Interrogation of Col. Russell Williams.

A woman who was ambushed in her living room and sexually assaulted by ex-colonel Russell Williams is now accusing the killer’s wife of knowing about his sadistic crimes before his arrest and concealing the truth from authorities.

Laurie Massicotte—who was attacked on her couch, stripped naked with a knife, and ordered to pose for Williams’s camera just weeks before he committed his first murder—alleges in newly filed court documents that Mary Elizabeth Harriman “was aware” of her husband’s “illicit conduct” but “did not report that conduct to the police.” Massicotte also claims her assailant’s longtime spouse “gained financially from this illicit conduct” by acquiring Williams’s assets after he was captured, including his half of the couple’s new Ottawa townhome.

The former commander of CFB Trenton, Canada’s largest and busiest air force base, Williams confessed four years ago to a vile crime spree that shocked the country: two horrific murders, two home-invasion sexual assaults, and dozens of fetish burglaries targeting women’s lingerie. But never before has anyone connected to the case—police, prosecutors, or other victims—publicly accused Williams’s wife of knowing he was a serial sexual predator.

Harriman denies the explosive allegation, stating in her own court filing that Massicotte has “provided no evidence whatsoever to support” such a “frivolous” and “vexatious” claim. Harriman’s lawyers, Mary Jane Binks and Jonathan Richardson, declined an interview request from Maclean’s but reiterated their client’s position in a prepared statement: “These allegations are scandalous and are nothing more than an attempt to diminish Ms. Harriman in the eyes of the public and the eyes of the Court.”