Serial killer Robert Pickton dead after prison assault

( Post Millennial )

Notorious Canadian serial killer Robert Pickton, 74, died in prison on Wednesday after he was beaten into a coma earlier this month. His death was announced by the Sûreté du Québec on Friday.

Pickton, known as the "Pig Farm Killer," confessed to killing 49 women. He was reportedly attacked by another inmate, 51, who speared him in the head with a broken broomstick on May 19. Pickton died as a result of the injuries, according to APTN News.

The inmate who attacked him has been taken into custody at a prison in Quebec, police spokesman Hugues Beaulieu said earlier this month.

Robert "Willie" Pickton was sentenced to life in prison in 2007. He was convicted of six counts of second-degree murder after being charged with the murder of 26 women. Pickton brought women to his pig farm in Port Coquitlam, a suburb of Vancouver, and killed them. He confessed to killing 49 women to an undercover police officer, AP reports.

Authorities located the remains and DNA of 33 women at his pig farm. The killings occurred between the late 1990s and early 2000s. Pickton picked up most of his victims from Vancouver's downtown eastside.