by KRISTIAN GRAVENOR

Karla Homolka ignores most epistolary efforts to contact her at the Ste-Anne-des-Plaines prison near Joliette, including letters from perverts who send money asking for her used panties in return, says Stephen Williams, author of a new biography on Canada’s most notorious female sex-criminal.

But although Williams says Homolka “disliked” his previous book, Invisible Darkness, about the rape and murder spree she participated in with then-husband Paul Bernardo in the early ’90s, she still replied 18 times to his letters between April 2001 and September 2002. Williams tells the Mirror that he initially got her writing back after he wrote her expressing sympathy with her for being refused parole. Williams feels that Homolka deserves to remain behind bars the rest of her life, but that technically, as a model inmate, she should have been granted an early exit from her prison sentence.

Eventually Homolka stopped answering Williams because he believes “somebody probably advised her to stop,” but Williams had enough to write an eye-opening account of Homolka’s life in jail. However, whether Homolka knew that her letters would be used in Williams’ new book isn’t entirely clear. Williams says he can’t remember whether he ever explicitly stated that he would use her letters for his book. But, he adds, “She entered into the correspondence knowingly.” In spite of that, Williams speculates that she won’t be happy to see her inner thoughts in print. “I believe she feels I betrayed her,” he says.

Homolka’s hand-written notes form the basis for Williams’ recent 400-page book, Karla: Le pacte avec le diable. Williams, who had trouble finding an English-language publisher for a prison bio on such a detested public figure, claims that an unnamed publisher will finally put his book out in English next month.

The letters and the law

Although Homolka’s letters are not directly quoted in the book, Ontario police have suggested that their usage might be less than kosher. They have launched an investigation into the affair and have asked Williams to provide copies of letters to and from Homolka as well as the English language version of his manuscript. Williams has refused, describing the investigation as “beyond ludicrous” and scoffs at the Ontario police for being unable to “find a bilingual cop who could read the book in French.”

The basis for the investigation lies in the Ontario Attorney General’s contention that Homolka, in participating in the book, has violated the terms of her 1993 plea bargain. In the deal, she received a 12-year sentence rather than the mandatory 25-year term for her crimes, and was banned from discussing her gruesome misdeeds with the media. Williams argues that the limitation on Homolka’s right to talk to the media was no longer in effect after 1995, when a new deal was struck that, he argues, invalidated the earlier press ban.

Although Williams condemns Homolka’s murderous actions, he appears to be of two minds in many ways concerning the woman whose case “haunted” him since he started researching her over a decade ago. Williams says that, “If I believed in the death penalty, I’d think she should get it.” But he also doesn’t believe her to be likely to return to a life of crime when she gets released—supposedly to a life in Montreal—in two-and-a-half years. “She’d have to find another Paul Bernardo and that’s unlikely.”

Williams even reserves praise for the prison pariah. “She’s bright and funny. It’s surprising considering the circumstances. Prison doesn’t usually do that to people.” When asked whether he likes Homolka, Williams pauses and eventually replies, “I don’t think that’s a question. I don’t like her. I think she’s an interesting correspondent.”

Canada’s federal prison system bans only Clifford Olson, Roch Thériault and Valery Fabrikant from being in contact with media, according to Corrections Canada’s media relations director Michele Pilon-Santilli. The measure is meant to “protect families of the victims,” she says. Although the Ontario Attorney General appears none too happy about Homolka’s literary dalliances with Williams, the prison system itself has no objection to her chatting with the press. Prison officials haven’t put Homolka or ex-husband Paul Bernardo under any media ban “because they themselves have refused to talk to journalists,” says Pilon-Santilli. :