Corrections Canada has confirmed that serial child killer Clifford Robert Olson is days away from dying of cancer,
Known as the Beast of B.C., the 71-year-old Olson was transferred from a Quebec prison to a hospital in Laval earlier this week.
CBC News reported his cancer has metastasized and he isn't expected to live more than a few days.
Over several months from 1980-81, Olson abducted, raped and murdered eight girls and three boys aged between nine and 18.
The Coquitlam resident preyed on victims across the Lower Mainland, including Langley, Surrey and Maple Ridge.
Olson was arrested in 1981 and confessed in 1982.
The deal securing Olson's guilty plea -and sparing families of his victims the pain of a long trial -included a controversial $100,000 trust fund payment to his wife and infant son.
Prosecutors defended the arrangement as one that assured he went to jail and did not run the real risk that he might be acquitted.
In recent years, fresh controversy surfaced when it was made public that Olson - along with other prisoners - was receiving $1,170 a month in federal pension benefits while behind bars.
The federal government vowed last year to strip federal inmates of old-age pensions while they're in jail. Benefits would resume on release.
Olson was denied parole in 2010 and said he would not re-apply.
