Robert William Pickton recorded his life story, including the "stupid things" he did as a child and the modelling job he was offered, on an audiotape played for jurors at his murder trial Wednesday.

The pig farmer from Port Coquitlam, B.C., made the 55-minute cassette tape in 1991 and addressed it to a woman known only as Victoria whose identity is unknown. Pickton is heard telling the woman he will be mailing her a long letter and some photos, along with the cassette.

Pickton has been charged with the first-degree murders of six women who disappeared from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. He has pleaded not guilty to the charges, as well as to 20 other charges that he will go on trial for later.

On Wednesday, the jurors in B.C. Supreme Court in New Westminster heard Pickton talk about the "stupid things" he did as a child, including crashing his father's car when he was three or four years old, on the audiotape found during the police search of his farm in 2002. 

'I am just a plain old farm boy. They want me for a model.'—Pickton on audiotape

He recounts a tale of a prized 30-week-old calf he bought when he was 11 or 12, only to discover it slaughtered three weeks later. He says he was so upset by the calf's death that he did not speak to anyone for days. Pickton then adds that that is part of life. 

Pickton also provides a resume of sorts, listing the variety of jobs he had done over the years — working as a meat cutter, driving a dump truck and a truck for BC Hydro, framing houses and welding. He says the one job he wished he had done was work in a sawmill, but he never got hired.

He also talks about his six-week trip to the United States in 1974. He toured Kansas City, Chicago, St. Louis and Detroit, and met a lot of people who all wanted to come back with him, he says. 

"There was so many people want to come back with me, it was unbelievable," he says on the tape. "They says, 'Can we go back with you? Anymore guys like you around?'"

It was during that trip that he was offered a job as a model, he says.

"I am just a plain old farm boy. They want me for a model,” he says, noting that he turned down the $40-an-hour job.

"I says, 'No, I am here on my holidays. I don’t know what I am getting into here.'"  

Speaks of growing up poor

On much of the tape, he talks about life on a farm — about growing up poor and working long hours on a daily basis. He mentions he is tired of the farm and is considering selling it.

"I want out. I gonna start a whole new life, with a whole new place," he says.
 
Pickton explains that he would like to find someone to settle down with and build a house. He says his dream house would have nine-foot (three-metre) ceilings, a spiral staircase, tennis court and swimming pool.

He speaks of himself highly at times, as being skilful in different trades, but notes that people should never think of themselves as "No. 1" and take all the credit for their success.

Pickton is on trial in connection with the deaths of Sereena Abotsway, Mona Wilson, Brenda Wolfe, Georgina Papin, Andrea Joesbury and Marnie Frey.