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A Serial Killer's life: Sukhwinder Dhillon
Sukhwinder Dhillon's name occupies a unique and infamous place in the annals of murder in Canada, a country Dhillon immigrated to as a 22-year old to ultimately tragic effect.
Dhillon was born in the industrial Indian city of Ludhiana, in Punjab, on May 9, 1959. He was the third child of Fagun and Gobind Dhillon, his arrival perhaps something of a surprise, given that Gobind had not given birth to a child since delivering her second 11 years earlier. His two older brothers were named Sukhbir and Darshan.
Dhillon grew up in a relatively well-off family in the bustling Ludhiana neighbourhood of Birk Barsal, where his father owned a cattle farm in the urban environment. His father had been a career police officer, before leaving the force in Ludhiana abruptly, for reason that became murky in family accounts.
Dhillon was a mischievous child, was given the nickname "Jodha" by his father, which roughly translates in English to "brave warrior." The moniker resonated with dark irony later in a life punctuated by greed, deceit, and cowardly violence.
He was denied a father figure early in his life; Fagun died young of an apparent heart attack when Sukhwinder was five-years old.
Dhillon immigrated to Canada in 1981, along with his mother, following in the footsteps of his older brother Sukhbir, who had already settled in Hamilton, an industrial steeltown on the western extremity of Lake Ontario, 45 minutes outside of Toronto.
Dhillon worked briefly at a Hamilton factory, before finding his calling as a crooked used car salesman who ran his own dealership and engaged in auto insurance fraud on the side. He would doctor odometers on the vehicles he sold, so they would appear to have less mileage and wear than was the reality. He also arranged for bogus car collisions in which he was involved, in order to reap insurance payouts. He ultimately took his scheming for insurance money to murderous new levels.