Robert Poulin
|
| “ | I don't want to die before I had the pleasure of fucking some girl. | „ |
| ~ Robert Poulin |
Robert Poulin (1957 - 27th October 1975) was an 18-year-old former student responsible for a rampage-style school shooting at St. Pius X Catholic High School which saw the death of a classmate and wounding five others before he took his life by a single shotgun blast to the head. [1][2]
Before the shooting, Robert had lured a neighbor, 17-year-old Sri Lankan named Kimberley 'Kim' Rabot, to his home. It was there where he had raped, sodomized, stabbed and asphyxiated her before setting fire to his house. [1][2]
Early Life edit
Robert Poulin was born to Stuart and Mary Poulin. Stuart was a former pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force working as an elementary teacher whilst his mother worked as a nurse. He also had three sisters, one seven years old. By all accounts they were loving parents. The Poulin family resided at 5 Warrington Drive, a two-and-a-half story Tudor-style home in South Ottawa.[1][3]
Robert was noted as being a studious and keenly intelligent young man. He greatly enjoyed war-gaming with his small circle of friends in person or over the telephone. Another interest Robert pursued was assembling model airplanes. [3]
Robert was described as "someone who would not hold a grudge". He went to church regularly, and had jobs delivering newspapers and working in a pizza shop. His parents described him as a very conscientious paperboy who at one time had two routes and never missed a day.[1]
While not a loner, Robert had a small circle of friends and was noted as being somewhat socially awkward and quite shy, especially around girls.
Hailing from a military family with his father once being pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force, Robert had asperations of following in his father's footsteps. These asperations were dashed after he was rejected from the training program due to psychological immaturity and physical conditions such as his poor eyesight and convex chest deformity.[1] It was also discovered that Robert had lied on his application, claiming that he played several team sports (he did not play sports at all).[1]
Following his rejection for officer training, Robert became steadily more depressed and suicidal.
Obsession with Sex and Pornography edit
Unknown to his parents, Robert Poulin had another hobby - pornography. Using a secret post office box that he rented, Robert had amassed a massive collection pornography with some 250 pornographic books and magazines which he meticulously indexed and categorized. It was all purchased with the earnings from his paper route.[1][3]
Robert kept eleven loose-leaf binder pages and scrapbooks containing nearly 1,000 separate entries on pictures and ads of nude men and women with "ratings" for them. His tastes would later turn sadomasochistic and violent, collecting images of women handcuffed to bedposts.[3]
Robert kept a diary in which he poured his thoughts into it. His entries painted a lonely figure in the grips of despair and obsession with sex. As early as September 1972 (over three years before his rampage), he confessed "There are some girls that I would love to be good friends with but I know I am still too shy to go up and talk to any of them. I wish I could overcome this fear of women."[3]
With his severe shyness overwhelming him and his carnal tastes darkening, Robert seem to have believed that rape was the only solution to his girl problems. In his diary he outlined plans to take a woman by force, disguising himself with a balaclava. He took steps in his plans by purchasing a knife and a .38 snub-nosed revolver.
Seeing as he was growing especially suicidal and unhinged, Robert attempted to solve his problems by ordering an inflatable sex-doll from California stating in his diary "Now I no longer think I will need to rape a girl, and am unsure as to whether or not I will commit suicide".[3] The doll failed to satisfy his needs and his thoughts of rape and death soon returned.[3] Though not officially established to Robert Poulin, but a number of women filed complaints concerning a number of indecent assaults and attempted rapes in the neighborhood. The descriptions provided of the assailant fit Robert with some reports stating the assailant wore nothing but a balaclava.[1][3]
As his thoughts grew more dark and sadistic, Robert decided to make his family suffer as well.[1][2][3] He also thought about killing his parents and sisters, but changed his mind as he thought death “was the true bliss” and that he didn’t want them to be happy.[2] He noted in his diary that the day he would commit suicide, he would burn down his house making sure to cost his family as much as possible: “I was going to make sure, though, that I burned the place down soon after payday so that they would lose the largest possible amount of money. I was also planning on having all my earthly possessions with me so that they wouldn’t gain one red cent from me.”[1] As to why he wished to hurt his family so much, Robert never gave any reason.
October 27th 1975 edit
At 8:15am Robert Poulin had lured Kimberley 'Kim' Rabot, a long-time crush, to his home telling her he "had to show her something" and assuring her he would give her lift to school.[4] Leading her down into his basement, Robert then attacked. He handcuffed Kim to his bed, raped and sodomized her before stabbing her fourteen times and suffocating her with plastic bag he placed over head during the assault.[3][4] Shockingly, while Kim Rabot was unconscious or dead, Robert's mother Mary came down to the basement and spoke to Robert. She asked if she could talk to him, and from behind his privacy curtain he said “Yeah, but don’t come in.” She told Robert she had to run some errands. [1] An hour later Robert would emerge from the basement and eat a peanut butter sandwich and watch television blankly.
After killing his former crush, Robert laid a trail of Playboy magazines throughout the basement and doused them with gasoline in accordance with his plan.[2] Mary left at 11:30am to return two hours later to see smoke billowing from an upstairs window.[3] Firefighters battling the blaze would discover the charred body of semi-clad body of Kim Rabot cuffed to Robert's bed.[2]
At 2:30pm, Robert had arrived to St. Pius X Catholic High armed with a sawn-off 2200 Winchester pump-action shotgun. Robert walked to classroom 71 where a religious studies class was in session, he calmly took out the shotgun from his duffle bag then kicked in the door.[2][3] Grinning wickedly, Robert fired at the class of seventy-eight students while they scrambled for cover and safety. Poulin then backed out of the classroom. In the hallway, he put the shotgun to his head and pulled the trigger, killing himself instantly. The entire shooting lasted ten seconds.[2]
One student, Mark Hough, died fives weeks after the shooting due to his injuries.[2]
Victims edit
Killed
- Kimberly 'Kim' Rabot (17)
- Mark Hough (17)
Wounded
- Marc Potvin (18)
- Terry Vanden Handenberg (18)
- Michael Monette (17)
- Barclay Holbrook (16)
- Kurniadi Benggawen (16)
Aftermath edit
The rampage shocked the Ottawa community. The Mayor of Ottawa Lorry Greenberg initiated a voluntary, “no-questions-asked” turn-in of weapons after the killings. More than 178 guns of which 68 were restricted weapons were handed in to the Ottawa Police.[2]
Police during their investigation had uncovered Robert's abundant collection of pornography, noting four pairs of handcuffs in his bedroom. Other sexual items in his room included a box of women’s clothing (bras, panties, negligees), an inflatable sex doll, a condom-type vibrator device, and ominously a list of 18 names of girls with Kim Rabot's name underlined.[1]
Two psychiatrists at the inquest testified that Robert Poulin was “almost two people,” sufficiently hiding his deviant personality well that his sudden violent outburst could not have been predicted. The inquest would later absolve Robert's parents of responsibility for their son's monstrous behavior.[2]
The Liberal Government of Pierre Trudeau tightened controls on guns in 1977, two years after the Pius X High School shooting. Fully automatic weapons were prohibited the following year.[2]
The inquest recommended the complete restriction of pornography, which they had defined as “anything showing or representing the genital parts of the human body.” This restriction would not go ahead as planned. Pornography since the shooting has become more liberalized with only two complete outright restrictions - child pornography and extreme violent pornography involving blood and horror.[2]
Gallery edit
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Kimberly 'Kim' Rabot
References edit
- ↑ 1.00 1.01 1.02 1.03 1.04 1.05 1.06 1.07 1.08 1.09 1.10 1.11 https://schoolshooters.info/robert-poulin
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 https://todayinottawashistory.wordpress.com/2021/10/09/the-pius-x-high-school-tragedy/
- ↑ 3.00 3.01 3.02 3.03 3.04 3.05 3.06 3.07 3.08 3.09 3.10 3.11 https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Rampage.html?id=WFPAvt5iDnoC&redir_esc=y
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 https://todayinottawashistory.wordpress.com/2021/10/09/the-pius-x-high-school-tragedy/