Luka Rocco Magnotta was born Eric Clinton Kirk Newman on July 24th, 1982 in Scarborough, Ontario. I will use the name Luka or Magnotta in this episode as that is the name he is best known by and I don’t want to cause any confusion. His parents were Anna Yourkin and Donald Newman and Luka was one of three children. According to him, his mother was obsessed with cleanliness and would regularly lock her children out of the house. His father was diagnosed with schizophrenia in 1994, and then divorced his wife which led to Magnotta moving in with his grandmother. Both his grandmother and younger brother, Conrad, would often call him “faggot” for his feminine inclinations.
In 2003, he began to appear in pornographic videos, occasionally working as a stripper and a male escort. He appeared as a pin-up model in a 2005 issue of Toronto’s Fab Magazine using the pseudonym “Jimmy”. In 2007, he was an unsuccessful competitor in OUT tv’s reality series COVERguy. Magnotta had many cosmetic surgeries and auditioned for the Slice Network show Plastic Makes Perfect in February 2008.
Magnotta’s criminal activity started in 2005. he was convicted of one count of impersonation and three counts of fraud against Sears Canada, The Brick, and 2001 Audio Video after impersonating a woman to apply for a credit card and purchasing over $10,000 worth of goods. He pleaded guilty and received a nine-month conditional sentence with 12 months of probation. He legally changed his name to Luka Rocco Magnotta on August 12, 2006. Magnotta declared bankruptcy in March 2007, owing $17,000 in various debts. The bankruptcy was fully discharged in December 2007.
Magnotta created many profiles on several social media sites and discussion forums over many years to plant a variety of claims about himself. One rumour emerged in 2007, claiming Magnotta was in a relationship with Karla Homolka, a high-profile Canadian convicted murderer, though he denied this in an interview later with the Toronto Sun. During the murder investigation, Montreal police initially announced the pair had dated but soon retracted the statement and acknowledged that they had no evidence to corroborate the claim. As with the Homolka relationship, Magnotta repeatedly denied the claims he himself had planted as hoaxes and part of a campaign of cyber stalking against him. Police stated that Magnotta set up at least 70 Facebook pages and 20 websites under different names. According to the Southern Poverty Law Center, Magnotta posted on the white supremacist website Stormfront under two different usernames, and had followed the Twitter account of white nationalist Don Black. In one of his alleged Stormfront comments, Magnotta criticized Chinese people.
Lin Jun was born on December 30th, 1978 and died on either May 24th or 25th 2012. He was an international student from Wuhan, China and an undergraduate in the engineering and computer science program at Concordia University. He worked part-time as a convenience store clerk. Jun had been studying in Montreal since July 2011. He moved into a Griffintown-area apartment with a roommate on May 1st. He was last seen on May 24th, 2012, and his friends reported getting a text message from his phone at 9 pm. His boss became suspicious when he didn't show up for his shift the next day. Three of his friends went into his apartment on May 27th and he was reported missing to police on May 29th.
On May 25th, an 11-minute video titled 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick was uploaded to a Canadian shock site, depicting a naked male tied to a bed frame being repeatedly stabbed with an ice pick and a kitchen knife, then dismembered, followed by acts of necrophilia. The perpetrator uses a knife and fork to cut off some of the flesh and gets a dog to chew on the body. During the video, the 1987 New Order song "True Faith" plays in the background, and a poster for the 1942 film Casablanca is visible on the wall. Canadian authorities obtained a "more extensive" version of the video and said cannibalism may have been performed. Materials promoting the video appeared online 10 days before the murder took place.
On May 26th, an attorney from Montana attempted to report the video to Toronto Police, his local Sheriff, and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, but the report was dismissed by officials. Viewers from the website it was uploaded to also attempted to report the video. Police later confirmed it as authentic and identified the victim, an Asian male, as the same one whose body parts were sent to Ottawa.
At 11 am on May 29th, a package containing a left foot was delivered to the national headquarters of the Conservative Party of Canada. The package was stained with blood and had a foul smell. It was marked with a red heart. Another package containing a left hand was intercepted in a Canada Post processing facility, addressed to the Liberal Party. A janitor discovered a decomposing torso inside a suitcase, left in a garbage pile in the alley behind an apartment building in the Snowdon area of Montreal. He first saw the suitcase on May 25th, but it was not picked up due to the large amount of garbage that day.
After searching the scene, police recovered human remains, bloody clothes, papers identifying the suspect, as well as "sharp and blunt objects" from the back alley. Footage from surveillance cameras inside the building showed a suspect bringing numerous garbage bags outside, and the images matched the suspect who was captured on video at the post office.
At 11:33 pm EDT, police searched apartment 208 of the building, which Magnotta was renting. He had moved in four months prior, and his rent was paid up to June 1st. The apartment had been mostly emptied before he left. Blood was found on different items including the mattress, the refrigerator, the table, and the bathtub. "If you don’t like the reflection, don’t look in the mirror. I don’t care" was written in red ink on the inside of a closet.
On May 30th, it was confirmed that the body parts belonged to the same individual, later identified as Lin Jun. The suspect in the case was quickly identified as Magnotta, who had by then fled the country.
A note was found with the package sent to the Conservative Party, saying six body parts had been distributed and the perpetrator would kill again. The other three packages also contained notes, but their contents were undisclosed by police, who cited their concerns about possible copycat crimes.
On June 5th, a package containing a right foot was delivered to St. George's School and another package containing a right hand to False Creek Elementary School in Vancouver, British Columbia. It was confirmed that both packages were sent from Montreal.
On June 13th, the four limbs and the torso were matched to Jun using DNA samples from his family. On July 1st, his head was recovered at the edge of a small lake in Montreal's Angrignon Park after police received an anonymous tip.
Jun's body was cremated on July 11th and his ashes were buried on July 26th at Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery in Montreal.
An arrest warrant for Magnotta was issued by the Service de police de la Ville de Montréal, later upgraded to a Canada-wide warrant by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, accusing him of the following crimes:
o First-degree murder;
o Committing an indignity to a dead body;
o Publishing obscene material;
o Mailing obscene, indecent, immoral or scurrilous material; and
o Criminally harassing Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper and several (unnamed) members of Parliament.
On May 31st, Interpol issued a Red notice for Magnotta at the request of Canadian authorities, and for several days before and after his arrest his name and photo were displayed prominently at the top of the home page of the Interpol website. The Red Notice requested that Magnotta be provisionally arrested pending extradition back to Canada by any Interpol member state.
Magnotta booked a ticket for a flight from Montreal to Paris on May 25th, using a passport with his own name. After his arrival in France, his cell phone signal was traced to a hotel in Bagnolet, but he had left by the time police arrived. Pornographic magazines and an air-sickness bag were found in the hotel room. Magnotta used a false passport with the name "Kirk Trammel" at the hotel. He had contacts in Paris from a previous visit in 2010, and police were following a large-framed man who had been in contact with Magnotta. Another man he stayed with for two nights did not realize who he was until he had left. Magnotta then boarded a Eurolines bus at the Bagnolet coach station bound for Berlin, Germany.
On June 4th, Magnotta was apprehended by Berlin Police at an Internet café in the Neukölln district while reading news stories about himself. He tried giving fake names before admitting who he was. His identity was confirmed through fingerprint evidence. Magnotta appeared in a Berlin court on June 5th, 2012. According to German officials, he did not oppose his extradition. There was sufficient evidence to keep him in custody until extradition, and he agreed to a simplified process.
On June 18th, Magnotta was delivered to Canadian authorities in Berlin and flown aboard a Royal Canadian Air Force CC-150 Polaris to Mirabel International Airport, north of Montreal. A military transport was reported by the government to be necessary due to safety concerns with using a commercial flight and potential legal difficulties if the plane was diverted to another country. He was placed into solitary confinement at the Rivière-des-Prairies detention centre.
Reactions in China were highly critical, with some believing the murder was racially motivated. Some Chinese questioned public safety in Canada, as the killing was the second high-profile murder of a Chinese student there in slightly over a year. Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird called Chinese ambassador Zhang Junsai to convey his condolences.
On June 4th, Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper said he was pleased that the suspect was arrested and congratulated the police forces on their good work in apprehending him. Interim Liberal Party leader Bob Rae said that Canadians should mourn the victim rather than "in any way, shape or form" celebrate Magnotta's notoriety.
Two days later, Lin Jun's family arrived at Trudeau Airport in Montreal. The Chinese Students and Scholars Association of Concordia University established a fund to cover expenses incurred by Jun's family while in Canada and an award was created in his honor. A candlelight vigil was held in Montreal.
Magnotta was named Canadian Newsmaker of the Year by The Canadian Press, which caused a lot of controversy.
On July 16th, 2013, Edmonton police charged the owner of the Canadian shock site, Mark Marek with corrupting public morals, a rarely used obscenity charge, for posting the 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick video online. On January 25th, 2016, Marek changed his plea to guilty and was sentenced to a six-month conditional sentence after a joint submission from the Crown and defence. He had to serve half of the six-month sentence under house arrest.
On June 19th, Magnotta appeared in court by video link to plead not guilty to all charges through his lawyer. On June 21st, Magnotta appeared in person at a high-security Montreal courtroom to request a trial by jury.
A preliminary hearing began on March 11th, 2013. The evidence presented is subject to a publication ban. Magnotta's defence team requested the media and the public be barred entirely from the hearing; this was declined the next day. Lin Jun's father, Lin Diran, travelled from China to attend the hearing. On March 13th, one of Magnotta's lawyers resigned, due to a possible conflict of interest. Expert witnesses testified, including a forensic pathologist, a forensic toxicologist, a forensic odontologist, a bloodstain analyst, data recovery specialists and an Internet investigations officer. The prosecution also displayed video evidence. Both Magnotta and Jun physically collapsed at separate times during the proceedings.
On April 12th, 2013, Magnotta was indicted on charges of first-degree murder, offering indignities to a human body, distributing obscene materials, using the postal service to distribute obscene materials, and criminal harassment.
Magnotta elected to be tried by judge and jury. He pleaded not guilty, admitting to the acts of which he was accused but claiming diminished responsibility due to mental disorders. Crown Attorney Louis Bouthillier made his opening statement on September 29th, 2014. Quebec Superior Court Justice Guy Cournoyer presided over the trial, which lasted 10 weeks. On the opening day, he instructed jurors that Magnotta "admits the acts or the conducts underlying the crime for which he is charged. Your task will be to determine whether he committed the five offences with the required state of mind for each offence."
Six tools (a pair of scissors, two knives, a screwdriver, an oscillating saw and a hammer) were recovered outside Magnotta's apartment and analysed by ballistics expert Gilbert Desjardins. He said none could be definitively linked to the killing, and no skeletal marks suggested the screwdriver or scissors were used, but some were consistent with saw and knife or X-Acto blade injuries.
During the trial, defence attorney Luc Leclair argued that Magnotta was in a psychotic state at the time of the crimes and couldn't be held responsible for his actions. The Crown prosecutor argued that the murder of Lin Jun
was organized and premeditated and that Magnotta was "purposeful, mindful, ultra-organized and ultimately responsible for his actions." Magnotta chose not to testify during the trial.
After a 12-week trial which included 10 weeks of hearing testimony, the jury of eight women and four men received final instructions from the trial judge on December 15th, 2014, and was sequestered before beginning its deliberations the next day. On their eighth day of deliberation, they returned a verdict of guilty on all charges. Magnotta will serve a mandatory life sentence and will be eligible for parole in 25 years. He was also sentenced to 19 years for other charges, to be served concurrently.
Magnotta filed an appeal for the convictions to be annulled and new trial ordered. The appeal was filed with the Quebec Court of Appeal by Magnotta's defence counsel Luc Leclair, citing judicial error in jury instruction. The appeal further claimed that the "verdicts are unreasonable and unsupported by the evidence and the instructions." Magnotta withdrew his appeal on February 18th, 2015.
During his trial for murder, defence witnesses provided evidence that Luka Magnotta had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia as a teenager. Defence expert Dr. Joel Watts testified that Magnotta showed signs of episodic schizophrenia, histrionic personality disorder, borderline personality traits and paraphilia not otherwise specified. The prosecution revealed that Magnotta had been using illegal drugs during his teenage years which led to symptoms that mimicked schizophrenia and that Magnotta has been diagnosed with borderline personality disorder by Crown expert Dr. Joel Paris at Jewish General Hospital in Montreal in April 2012. Dr. Renée Roy, the forensic psychiatrist who has been treating Magnotta at Rivières-des-Prairies Detention Centre since November 2012, through his preliminary hearing and right up to the murder trial, diagnosed Magnotta with borderline personality disorder with histrionic features. Dr. Gilles Chamberland, another Crown expert who was not able to interview Magnotta, diagnosed Magnotta with anti-social, histrionic and narcissistic personality disorder. The prosecution accused Magnotta of pretending to be schizophrenic since his defence pleaded diminished responsibility due to alleged schizophrenia.
Magnotta is alleged to be the person behind a series of videos of animal cruelty involving cats which were posted to YouTube beginning in 2010, including one titled "1 boy 2 kittens" which showed a man deliberately suffocating two kittens with a vacuum cleaner. In January 2011 a private Facebook group identified Magnotta as the person in these videos; animal rights activist groups subsequently offered a $5,000 reward for bringing him to justice. In February 2011, Toronto police began investigating Magnotta in connection with the videos after receiving a complaint from the Ontario Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals. The OSPCA also contacted the Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals in England, the FBI, and police in Montreal due to the suspect's extensive travels.
Alex West, a journalist for British tabloid newspaper The Sun, met Magnotta while he was living in London in 2011, following claims that he had made "Python Christmas", an online video showing a kitten being eaten alive by a Burmese python. The Sun contacted Scotland Yard, which denied that the python video incident had occurred within its jurisdiction, stating that the video had been "posted from somewhere in North America". Following his meeting with Magnotta, Alex West said he received a threatening email, which he believed was sent by Magnotta.
On June 8th, the Los Angeles Police Department announced they were in contact with Montreal police to determine if Magnotta was involved in the then-unsolved murder and decapitation of Hervey Medellin, known as the "Hollywood Sign Murder", but later announced that they did not believe he was involved in the crime. The animal rights group Last Chance for Animals claimed responsibility for posting YouTube videos linking him to the Hollywood Sign Murder in an attempt to lure Magnotta into contacting them. LCA offered a $7500 reward for information leading to his arrest while he was on the run. On November 16th, 2015, Gabriel Campos-Martinez was sentenced to 25 years to life for the murder.
The case also drew comparisons across North America to Mark Twitchell, a convicted murderer inspired by Dexter, who used social media in his crimes and to self-promote his work. Author Steve Lillebuen, who wrote a book on the case, described a new trend in crime where social media allows killers to become "online broadcasters" and have direct, instant access to a global audience they may crave.
Magnotta was also investigated for possible links to the 2010–2017 Toronto serial homicides, although this lead was eventually abandoned for lack of evidence.
And that is the disturbing story of Luka Rocco Magnotta and the terrible and tragic death of Lin Jun.
