The Story of Luka Magnotta

Eric Newman alias Luka Magnotta 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick And Don’t Fuck With Cats

For someone who had committed a gruesome murder, Luka Magnotta seemed outwardly calm as he eluded Police. He was fixated with the need for attention and would shortly be an internationally fugitive. He had planned everything from the suffocation of kittens to this final murder. He had arranged his bedroom lights, the defilement of Lin’s body and the final picture of himself posing by the poster of Casablanca for maximum global viewership. To make sure he had it right, he had even gone through a ‘dry run’ 6 days prior to the murder and had included 53 seconds of himself straddling a naked unconscious body as he held an electric razor.

His calmness was all a facade as he went through mood swings from being fearful to feeling excited and then wallowing in nervousness. After the murder, he took an Air Canada flight from Montreal to Paris dressed in a dark wig and a Mickey Mouse tee shirt. Seated in Row 33 he acted very strangely and quite agitated. He smelt of stale sweat. At one point he was seen crying at the back of the plane . It was assumed by some passengers that he was afraid of flying!

Luka Magnotta, a failed Canadian porn model and actor, always wanted to be famous. He was in fact, just creepy looking, anti-social and basically a total loser. Regardless of reality, his warped dreams became an obsession that consumed him. How was he to use social media to reach out to the billions of people all over the world who would remember his name rather like a Hollywood movie star? Magnotta had penned a blog piece in 2009 entitled, “How to completely disappear and never be found.” His advice included how to assume a new identity. He had huge social media footprints on Facebook and YouTube, for example. A transsexual performer who dated him 10 years earlier said he had an obsessive addiction for fame because he was like a shell, empty inside. Magnotta even admitted it to her when she confided in a moment of kinky courtship passion, “I’m afraid that when you look into my eyes . . . that you’ll see that there’s nothing inside of me.” A moment of insight that at least was momentarily honest. One social media observer noted that Magnotta’s plan was to be famous and then have a trial where he would be found not guilty and then become a notorious legend.

He was born as Eric Clinton Kirk Newman on July 24, 1982 in Toronto and reinvented himself in 2006, in keeping with his online persona as Luka Rocco Magnotta. With his dark gruesome story appearing in all the major global media networks he succeeded in attracting notoriety. He successfully cultivated an online image of the angst filled youth with a twisted sexual image trying to find meaning in his convoluted world. At various points he has written about how he identified with James Dean in “Rebel Without A Cause.”

In 2006 Eric Newman legally changed his name to Luka Rocco Magnotta. He made a living as a small-time porn actor and part time model. He also moonlighted as a stripper and male escort. Although he was pictured as a pin up model in Toronto’s ‘Fab’ magazine his forays into TV (OUTtv and COVERguy) were not successful. He did achieve success of sorts in 2008 on ‘Plastic Makes Perfect’ after undergoing several cosmetic surgeries. He had trouble with the law in 2005 when he was convicted of impersonation and fraud. Disguised as a woman, he had applied for a credit card and bought goods worth $10,000. After pleading guilty, he was put on 12 months’ probation. He was overwhelmed by $17,000 worth of debts and applied for bankruptcy in 2007.

Magnotta had a penchant for making up stories about himself (for example, that he claimed he had sex with murderess Karla Homolka) under fake user names. Later he would personally go to the media to vehemently deny them often shedding indignant tears! He befriended international student Lin Jun from China who had been studying engineering at Concordia University since 2011 and was working part time in a convenience store. Lin’s friends reported him missing to the Police on May 29 after checking his apartment.

An 11 minute video called ‘1 Lunatic Ice Pick’ was posted on Bestgore.com on May 25, 2012 showing a naked young man tied to a bed and being stabbed with an ice pick and a knife. The body was cut up, partially eaten and Magnotta had sex with it. Two weeks before the video appeared, he had advertised it online. Several viewers in the US tried to report it but their attempts were rebuffed by Police who thought it was fake. On May 29, 2012 part of Lin’s body was mailed to the Conservative Party of Canada. The note accompanying it said that 6 body parts had been distributed and that the killer would kill again. Another package held up at Canada Post was being sent to the Liberal Party. A rotting torso was found by a janitor in a suitcase in Snowdon, Montreal. Cameras at the sight showed Magnotta carrying down garbage bags. It also matched his image caught on camera at the post office. Police searched Magnotta’s apartment and found blood in various places. Inside a closet were written the words, “If you don’t like the reflection, Don’t look in the mirror. I don’t care.” All the body parts matched Lin Jun. Lin was cremated in July, 2012.

Security Cameras Showed Magnotta & His Victim

The security camera feed showed Magnotta and Lin walking casually into his apartment at 10.16 pm. They looked at each other in an affirming way like any other couple warming up for a night of intimacy. After they entered, there was a four hour lull period. Then Magnotta began coming and going about 12 times. In all these occasions, he carried a bag. He also changed his clothes 4 times during this period. At one point he even wore his victim’s clothes. On 2 occasions he looked in the mirror to brush back his hair before moving on. He put some of the bags in basement barrels. Other bags were put on the curb. The trash included a dead black dog which the security camera feed showed was alive earlier in the night. After 18 hours of coming and going he ordered pizza. A day later, he was in Paris.

Arrest Warrant For Luka Magnotta

An international arrest warrant was put out for Magnotta for first degree murder, committing an indignity on a dead body, publishing obscenity and harassing Canada’s Prime Minister and several parliamentarians. Magnotta went to Paris then on to Berlin. On June 2, 2012 he was caught in an internet café in Berlin. He was always obsessed with fame and it seemed morbidly fascinating that he received it in the form of being named “Canadian Newsmaker of the Year” in 2012. On June 19th he pleaded not guilty to the murder charges. A preliminary hearing started on March 11, 2013. It was reported that Magnotta fainted once during the proceedings. In April, Magnotta was indicted on murder charges. On December 23rd 2014, he was found guilty of first degree murder and 4 other charges. He received an automatic life sentence with no possibility of parole for 25 years. An additional 19 years were added on for the four other charges he was found guilty of. Magnotta showed no emotion as the jury foreman announced their verdict. The jury of 8 men and 4 women had taken 8 days to reach their conclusion.

The craving to self promote on social media is not a new phenomenon. The very wide usage of social media networks like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter has made it easy to spread information to a huge worldwide audience. It just requires a few ‘friends’ to circulate a shocking or unique video, picture or information before it goes viral.

Magnotta had 70 Facebook identities and over 20 websites. He was known to make up stories to jazz up his supposedly glamorous life. Under one alias he wrote that Magnotta “is now living in the Caribbean with his new wife” This was fiction. Under another alias, he posted, “You are so HOT. I wish I lived my life like you…you have lived one hell of an exciting life. Don’t let haters get in the way of your happiness. Your No 1 Fan.”

However, becoming instantly world famous is not as easy or simple as I note here. This is because tens of millions of social network users are also looking at ways and means of enlarging their online footprints. It often requires some brazen self promotion and sometimes the mixture of facts and fiction in one’s posts to make network users sit up and take notice. For example, the Dutch woman who posted in Facebook about how she had tattooed the photos of her 152 friends all over her body was later found out to be lying, but not after her image had been viewed by millions!

There is a powerful desire to gain fame, fortune, notoriety or a combination of these in whatever ways possible. This can be a harmless hobby or a very dangerous pursuit.

Some can be innocent enough. Take the case of 13-year-old Rebecca Black who claimed she was spreading the ‘worst video ever.’ She managed to get 29 million viewers globally. Others go to personal lengths to acquire fame and fortune. For example, Ray Dolin, a West Virginia writer who claimed to be the victim of a drive-by shooting on a rural Montana road later confessed to having shot himself. He did this to promote his upcoming e-book ‘Kindness in America’.

It is a sign of the tech savvy nature of people in the 21st century that news only becomes highly newsworthy if it is outlandish, weird and bizarre. The gruesome details of Magnotta’s murder oversaturated online media e-pages for months. The cynical saying that ‘if it bleeds more blood it leads the headlines’ proved true in this case. Even when Magnotta was a fugitive on the run, millions were glued to news services and on the lookout for him.

A Toronto Sun report of 22/6/2017 noted that Magnotta was getting married in prison.

Magnotta’s fiance is Anthony Jolin who murdered inmate named Kevin Whynder in 2003. They will not be allowed to consummate their marriage. What is the aim of getting married then? Magnotta’s ex-girlfriend Barbie Swallows said that, “This is just his way to get attention and have his name back out in the spotlight by having media outlets writing about him again. The (prison) system is a big joke for allowing inmates to get married. What is this, Walt Disney World or something?”

Insights into the character of Magnotta

Three impressions seemed to stand out about Magnotta from the people who met him. He either did not create an impression (an ‘average guy’ or ‘an ordinary Joe Blow’ as one said) or gave the impression of being disturbed or was very self centered. Sophie Delancey a Toronto based PR director familiar with the erotic film industry hadn’t heard of Magnotta before his notoriety. (This could have been because Magnotta did not use his name in erotic promotional websites.) Larry Peloso, the TV director who oversaw Magnotta’s auditions for ‘CoverGuy’ said that he did not stand out in the crowd, perhaps because he was too thin and lacked confidence. A girl friend said that Magnotta was a regular at a strip club called Remington’s but patrons and staff there had no recollection of him.

Toronto Sun’s Joe Warmington who met Magnotta in 2007 said that he had come forward to deny his links to convicted murderer Homolka and noticed that he was not all there. Magnotta’s ramblings seemed to be centered around his fantasies about someone killing his dog and his popularity as a male escort. Warmington could see he was troubled and delusional and somebody he felt sorry for. London Sun reporter Alex West who met Magnotta in London found his appearance weird and his behavior strange as he spoke in a high-pitched voice for 20 minutes denying he killed cats on YouTube videos.

A girlfriend remembers that although Magnotta was nice to her, he was obsessed with fame. His whole apartment including the hallway was plastered with only his photos. She accidently knocked down one of his pictures and he yelled and snapped to be careful. When he was caught in a Berlin internet café, Police were surprised to find that he was watching nude images and videos of himself.

Magnotta’s road to fame

Magnotta went to extraordinary and bizarre lengths to get the fame and notoriety he craved.

Magnotta had a fascination for movies and death. The poster of the Hollywood movie ‘Casablanca’ featured prominently on the wall adjacent to the bloodied bed where the gruesome murder took place. The movie recounts the story of an American expatriate torn between love and virtue. If he did not help his lover’s husband, he would surely die at the hands of the Nazis.

The name “Magnotta” was taken from the 1996 video game ‘Ripper’ that starred Hollywood legend Christopher Walken. It was about a serial killer who butchered his victims. Magnotta’s penchant for gruesome violence was developed over a period of time. In 2010 he posted several YouTube videos showing cats being killed. In ‘1 boy, 2 kittens’ he suffocated 2 kittens with a vacuum cleaner. Yet another was drowned in a bath tub. It was alleged that he also produced ‘Python Christmas’ a video displaying a kitten being consumed alive by a Burmese python. His cruelty to cats was linked to necrophilia because just as he took sexual liberties with Jun Lin’s corpse he rubbed the dead cats on his genitals.

Magnotta’s use of social media to let the world know of his crimes is not new. Convicted US murderer Mark Mitchell, among other killers, also used social media to gain online notoriety. Regarding his actions, Magnotta wrote in a blog that, “It’s not cool to the world to be a necrophiliac. It’s bloody lonely. But I don’t really care. I have never cared about what people thought of me. Most people are judgmental idiots.”

Reactions to the online video have elicited shock and horror. One viewer said, “I saw the Luka Magnotta video and the images are not leaving my mind…please help. I did a very stupid thing. Curiosity got the better of me and I watched parts of the 1 lunatic 1 ice pick video. Saw about 30 seconds only by fast forwarding many parts which became too unbearable.”

A second viewer reported that. “I made the mistake of watching it and I was so shocked and upset that I basically couldn’t really function for three days. I’ve never seen anything like this before. While it was stupid, I was curious to see what a sicko like Magnotta actually did, and to see if the descriptions by the media were just hype or true. As it turns out, I wasn’t fine, but I don’t think I could have known that prior to watching it.”

Magnotta has also attracted a gaggle of admirers, mainly young women, who have set up blogs dedicated to defending him. One reads, “If you feel Luka is a monster, a psychopath, I encourage you to adjust your focus and perception. You can either focus on humanity’s imperfections, which will eventually create emotional poverty and bankrupt you of all optimism and faith in humanity, or you can choose to focus on light. I will choose to angle my light to reflect value and brilliance.” The majority of blogs are in the vein of ‘wanting to touch his lips’, ‘really want to taste him’ or ‘want to have sex with him.’

Perhaps as a way to unconsciously explain his bizarre behavior, he noted that he had a traumatic childhood. He claimed to have been sexually abused by a male relative. In his teenage years he wrote that he experimented with drugs and alcohol and wound up being hospitalized for a ‘depressive disorder.’ After he was released, he claimed to have left home and lived as a street kid. His life improved when he met a social worker who helped him get medication and positive living conditions.

There was a prophetic post in one of his blogs!  “Only God can judge me and I’m waiting for my judgment day. Life is too short, live every day like it’s your last!”

Magnotta went through delusions of grandeur often boasting that he earned $250,000. In another post he wrote, “I am now successful beyond my wildest dreams. I travel the world, ride around in limos and have only the most expensive clothes. I’ve come a long way from eating out of old pizza boxes on the streets”

In one of his posts written under a fake identity he wrote, “Apparently now he (Magnotta) has moved to France, and splits his time between Paris and Russia, he is Russian/Italian. He is married with one child and he owns his own online business and works as a legal consultant. I believe he has retired from films and modeling.”

The truth however was not as flattering as he made out. Magnotta’s landlord said that he was an average quiet guy, an “ordinary Joe Blow” who wasn’t shabby and did not trash the cheap apartment he had rented (and where he had committed the gruesome act.)  Although ‘a little skinny guy’ he spoke eloquently and had a deep voice. The landlord had suggested that he look for a career in broadcasting though Magnotta had laughed it off as a joke.

Derek MacKinnon an actor who played a serial killer in the 1980 horror movie ‘Terror Train’ said that he lived in the same apartment building as Magnotta and occasionally spoke to him. MacKinnon thought that he probably related to him since he was gay and in the movie he had killed 11 people. He found Magnotta to be cold and aloof. He always looked presentable except for one occasion where he noticed a hair dyeing job gone haywire since he spotted red hair looking like a bad wig rather than his jet black standard look.

Magnotta had a morbid fascination for serial killers especially cannibal Jeffrey Dahmer, who raped, dismembered and had sex with his male victims. His adoption of necrophilia in the murder of Lin Jun was copied from Dahmer who killed his victims first before having sex with them. This was the only way Dahmer could get an erection. The killing was also done so that the sex partner would not resist or reject the overtures. A girl friend remembers that he was afraid of intimacies perhaps because most of his sex was through male prostitution and he saw it as something dirty.

In one of his blogs he had written, “What about the child molesters, the rapists, the murderers, the thieves, the backstabbers, the gossipers and the liars? Would you give up your life for them? “Would you walk into Jeffery Dahmer’s home knowing that he would kill you in a horrible torturous way, if it meant that he would have a chance to improve his life?”

The Victim, Jun Lin

Jun Lin is described as a kind and hard-working man who believed in Buddhism. Friends said that he had a positive view of life, had an entrepreneurial bent, liked to make friends and was helpful to others.

It is reported that Jun Lin broke up with his lover Lin Feng 12 days before he was killed. (They had been together since 2010). Lin Feng reported that Jun Lin had faced family pressures to get married. They had not been aware that he was gay. It is reported that Jun Lin had used a gay hookup app called Grindr and used westernized aliases like Justin. Jun Lin is described as a faithful partner with an obsession for gym activities. He wasn’t into drugs or rough sex. He and his ex partner remained friends and exchanged text messages daily until he died.

He never mentioned Magnotta in his blog on Weibo.com. His posts centered around fashion, food, favorite TV soaps, his cat Andy and his emotions about going back to university classes in Canada. He wrote that he felt nervous because he had been out of school for such a long period. He realized that he would be ten years older than his peers and they might call him ‘uncle.’ He wrote that this was a crushing thought. His last post was written one week before he was killed. One story that emerged in court was that Magnotta had advertised for a partner interested in kinky sex and Lin had responded. Lin was outgoing and friendly while Magnotta was introverted. These incompatible characteristics were often the basis for friendships.

In a blog post he put up prior to the killing Magnotta wrote,

“When I was a young child, I used to spend much of my time alone, either in the woods or in the local cemetery, where there was the grave of a 19 year old boy who died in the early half of last century. I felt close to that boy and would pick flowers in the woods and take them to his grave. In 2003, I discovered a mummified corpse of a young man in a vault, in a church where I was doing restoration work for a friend. I fell in love with him, and it broke my heart to seal him in there. I wanted to take him home and look after him. I day dream about having him here with me. Silly ordinary things like watching TV together, listening to music, taking him out for picnics, watching a DVD late at night before taking him up to bed with me. All very ordinary things, apart from the fact that I want to do them with a desiccated or mummified corpse. I don’t have a problem attracting living men. I’m just naturally attracted to the dead.”

Jun Lin’s mother stated that at first, she considered Magnotta a monster for his gruesome act. However, she has since been changed spiritually by her Christian faith. She discovered her spiritual self and began to develop sympathy for Magnotta realizing that a troubled youth would bring negative consequences to society later in life. She highlighted that by showing compassion, we would be able to sustain peace and love in society. It was noted in court that Magnotta’s dad had suffered from schizophrenia.

Jun Lin’s parents have indicated that they will set up a charity foundation in their son’s name to help troubled young people. They hope that the proposed fund would help stop suffering young people from becoming killers in their adulthood.

Jun Lin’s mother said that he believed he would be contented with this decision. ‘Mommy will stay strong. Rest in peace, my son. Goodbye!’ she said at the funeral.