Canadian accused in deaths of 26 women reportedly told undercover officer he wanted to kill 75

(AP) A pig farmer accused in the deaths of women from a gritty Vancouver neighborhood told an undercover police officer he wanted to kill 75 but planned to take a break after one more slaying made it "an even 50," according to a jail cell video shown at his trial Tuesday.

The officer _ who cannot be identified under a court order _ told the 12-member jury that he posed as a man who was facing attempted murder charges and gained the trust of Robert Pickton during their incarceration in February 2002.

Pickton, 56, is charged with 26 counts of murder. He denies guilt.

Prosecutors said when the trial opened three weeks ago that Pickton had told the undercover officer he killed 49 women and was caught before he could reach his goal of 50.

The videotape played for jurors Tuesday showed Pickton sauntering back into the jail cell after an 11-hour interrogation with police, appearing upbeat and confident. Looking over at the officer, he held up five fingers and made a zero with his other hand.

"Fifty?" asked the officer.

"I was going to do one more; make it an even 50," Pickton replied. "So let everything die for a while. Then, then do, do another 25 new ones."

Later in the video, Pickton seemed annoyed about getting caught.

"I was getting sloppy at the end, just sloppy," he said.

The undercover officer suggested that the ocean was an effective means for disposing bodies.

"I did better than that," Pickton replied. "Rendering plant."

Pickton also told the officer that police were baffled by him.

"They never seen anything like this before," he said, adding he was "bigger than the Green River."

Gary Ridgway, the so-called Green River killer, pleaded guilty in 2003 to the murders of 48 prostitutes in Washington state.

Pickton was apparently aware that he was being videotaped. At one point, he waved at the video camera in his cell and said "Hello!"

Pickton is being tried on the first six of the 26 charges of first-degree murder he faces in the deaths of women from Vancouver's Downtown Eastside neighborhood _ most of them prostitutes and drug addicts.