He piloted the plane that carried the queen, but nobody suspected he was dressing up like one to rape and murder when he was off-duty.
Tonight, Lifetime does a terrific job of bringing to TV a dramatized version of a story I’ve seen 48,000 times on “48 Hours.”
“An Officer and a Murderer” is the story of one of Canada’s most important military men, Col. Russell Williams, Air Force base commander, beloved national icon, husband, humanitarian, pilot to the Queen of England when she visited, and oh yes, a cross-dressing peeping Tom, rapist, sadist and murderer.
The story is so perfect-a-fit for Lifetime that if this disgusting man hadn’t done what he did, Lifetime probably would have made him up for a weekend movie.
Instead, it was handed to them on a blood-soaked platter.
The movie is the based-on-truth story of how Col. Williams—played brilliantly by Gary Cole— began his bizarre spiral into perversion that escalated into rape and murder.
Williams is first seen with his socially prominent wife, Mary Elizabeth (Nahanni Johnstone) at a charity event. We quickly realize that as much as the couple is envied throughout Canada, all is not as great as it seems.
Sure she’s a prominent fundraiser and he’s a handsome officer with national acclaim, but the good/bad colonel is just no longer interested sexually in his wife.
When he says he’s going out for a run, we see that he runs to the homes of unsuspecting women of all ages to watch them from the bushes.
When that no longer satisfies, he breaks and enters and steals women’s underwear to (gag) sniff and fondle the garments — wearing the undies he stole from other women.
Luckily for him, and unluckily for the women, Williams was trim enough to sport a nice bra and panties ensemble without a problem. We know this because he photographed himself hundreds of times. He also, unbelievably, filmed his attacks while neatly storing the undies, by color, in suitcases. He even wore bras and panties under his uniform and would change in the base’s locker room just begging for someone to catch him.
He next moves onto sneaking into homes while women are showering or sleeping, stripping naked and well, you get it.
Williams actually develops a special feeling for one of his underlings at the base, and unable to control himself, breaks into her home, rapes and kills her — putting the small town where he lives off-base in a lock-down panic until he’s caught.
Riveting.