The Next Call Introduces | Uncover: Calls From a Killer

June 3, 2025·34 min·2 clips

The only time Arlene saw Clifford Olson in person, he emerged from a prison corridor, spotted her unexpectedly, and winked — then called her name as she walked away.

It starts with Olson's contact and a call. Arlene Bynum, a journalist and radio broadcaster, explains that Clifford Olson began calling after he was already locked away. Authorities thought the story was over. Bynum says it was not. The calls went on for years, even though Olson was not allowed to speak with the media. After his letter, she writes back. A week later, she asks him a plain question: what is your story. About a month after her reply, the operator announces a collect call from Clifford Olson. Bynum accepts the charge, knowing this contact should not be happening. Olson is careful right away. He tells her not to say he is calling, because the line could be cut if anyone finds out. The setup is strange but workable: Olson says the call is going through his lawyer as a conference call. That gives the conversation cover, and makes it feel even more uneasy. Bynum is stunned. Olson had picked her, and she does not yet know why. Her question is not for drama. She wants to know why he did what he did, and whether hatred of women was part of it. He says no. From there, the talk moves into conscience, forgiveness, and the way a person tries to speak about living with what they have done. Nothing lands cleanly. The tape leaves the listener inside a guarded conversation where access and secrecy are never far from danger. The close hands off to Calls From a Killer, a new season of CBC's Uncover, with Episode 2 already waiting.

As heard by us

A restrained entry into a case that never really went quiet.

Arlene Bynum gives the story its center. Her long, secret phone calls with Clifford Olson, the serial killer who murdered 11 children in the 1980s and may have killed more, open a grim stretch of Canadian true crime, and the episode is strongest when it stays close to her memory…

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Why you'd press play

You want to hear how a journalist got a collect call from Clifford Olson and turned it into a season of CBC's Uncover.

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