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I am your Norwegian host, Thomas Weyborg Thun. Merry Christmas, dear listener. I am writing this episode on Christmas Eve here in my cozy office with the Norwegian King Winter, having finally returned with some proper snow outside. This is the second and final part of my Bruce MacArthur Redux series.
Last episode I gave you a brief recap of the case and went into detail as to who Bruce MacArthur was growing up. Tonight I will give you details of his crimes and what eventually became his sentence. When I visited the case over a year ago, his case was steaming fresh. His last victim barely rescued from his clutches only a couple of months before I released the episode.
But now that the blood has dried on the walls, and the adrenaline has receded, we can look closer at the Santa serial killer case with a clearer vision. Enjoy. This episode is, just as quite a few of the recent ones this December of 2019, 100% sponsored ad-free.
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The victims of serial killers are too quickly forgotten. And so it is that I wish to tell you a little bit about each of those we know lost their lives at the hands of Bruce MacArthur. Several of them have non-Western names, so apologies for my probable horrible pronunciation. Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40 years old.
Navaratnam was MacArthur's first victim, that we know of. The 40-year-old had moved to Canada from Sri Lanka in the 1990s as a refugee and settled into life in the city's gay village. He has been described as someone who was very social and jovial and always ready to help out his friends.
One friend said he was an educated and curious man with a strong interest in global affairs and who was unbeatable at Scrabble. His laugh was just ridiculous. Jody Becker, a bartender at Zibbers and close friend of Navaratnam's, told the Toronto Star newspaper after he went missing, If Skanda started laughing, everybody started laughing, even if nothing was funny."
When he disappeared in September of 2010, abandoning a new puppy alone in his apartment, his friends called police. According to court documents, police found a silver bracelet belonging to Navaratnam in MacArthur's bedroom during their investigation. Navaratnam knew MacArthur since the early 2000s, and they had dated. Abdul Basir Faizi, 42 years old.
Faizi's disappearance in December 2010, along with that of Navaratnam and Majid Kayan, who went missing in 2012, prompted Toronto police to launch Missing Persons Task Force Project Houston, which was shuttered after 18 months. Faizi was married and a father of two.
He divided his life between the Toronto suburb of Brampton where he lived and his social life in the gay village downtown. His family reported him missing, but because they didn't know his ties to the gay village, his disappearance largely flew under the radar of Toronto's LGBT community.
During MacArthur's sentencing hearing, his wife said in a statement that his daughters, who were aged six and ten when he disappeared, often still cry for their father. She said she is struggling to support the family. Faizi's car was found abandoned near a home that MacArthur had access to at the time of the killing, Majid Kayan, 58 years old.
Like Faizi, Kayhan was believed to have led two separate lives, one with his family and one in the gay village. Kayhan was an Afghan immigrant and the youngest of many siblings. He had a wife and children and also frequented many of the bars in the gay village and kept an apartment in the area. His adult son reported him missing in the autumn of 2012 when he could no longer reach him.
MacArthur told police that he had employed him as a landscaper, helper, and claimed to have had a brief sexual relationship with him. His brother told court the following, and I quote, I still have not comprehended how this crime happened. It has consumed the majority of my thoughts. End quote. Police believe Kyan was killed around the 18th of October, 2012.
Surush Mahmoudi, 50 years old. Mahmoudi was a refugee from Iran and reported missing by his wife. In a statement to the court, she called him her soulmate and said she has been overwhelmed by grief at his brutal slaying. Police believe Mahmoudi was killed in August 2015 and found a coat with his DNA on it in MacArthur's van during their investigation.
Kirushna Kumar Kamagaratnam, 37 years old. He came to Canada on the MV Sunsea in 2010, a ship carrying almost 500 Sri Lankan asylum seekers that arrived in Canadian waters that summer. His refugee claim was denied, and he was ordered to be deported. Police and family did not report him missing because they assumed he was in hiding.
Kanagaratnam was close with his family and talked to them regularly, the court heard. Family members described in court documents the shock and pain they felt upon learning of his fate. Police have said it is not clear how Kanagaratnam came into contact with MacArthur, given he had no clear ties to the Toronto's gay village. Evidence suggests he was killed in January 2016.
Dean Lisowick, 47 years old. Lisowick was MacArthur's sixth victim, but unlike the others killed by MacArthur, he was never reported missing to police. The 47-year-old was often found staying in homeless shelters in Toronto and worked in the sex trade. In a statement read in court, his daughter said, and I quote,
I will always have to live with knowing that I will never have a relationship with my father. End quote. His cousin told the court that his face lit up when he spoke about his daughter, and that he hoped to get his life together so he could do more for her. He also kept in touch with his parents until his struggles with mental illness landed him on the streets. But his uncle told the court
that even then he would still occasionally send cards to his mother that had been searched out carefully for their expressions of love. His uncle, Jerry Montanti, said, and I quote, he was a loving and caring man. He was not alone in the world, end quote. His name was added in February 2018 to Toronto Homeless Memorial, which remembers those who have died as a result of homelessness in the city.
He is believed to have been killed sometime around late April 2016. MacArthur kept some of Lissawick's jewelry, which police later found in his apartment, according to court documents. Selim Esen, 44 years old. Originally from Turkey, Esen came to Canada in 2013. He disappeared from his home near the village in April of 2017.
Eason's brother said, and I quote, According to his family, Eason's tender and kind humanity came before everything else.
The court heard in February 2018 that Eason spoke to his best friend every day, and when he did not reply to a text his friend reported him missing. Eason had struggled in the past with substance abuse, but friends told the court during MacArthur's sentencing hearing that he had reached a turning point and hoped to help others in their recovery.
He was described as a nature lover who enjoyed managing a café, who had a passion for sociology and philosophy, and who was generous and selfless with his friends. Many told the court they are still struggling to come to terms with his murder. MacArthur kept a notebook owned by Ayerson, which police later found in the serial killer's apartment. Andrew Kinsman, 49 years old.
The first two charges laid against MacArthur by police was for the murders of Kinsman and Asen. It was Kinsman's disappearance in June 2017 that sparked a community-wide search and rekindled rumors of a serial killer in the gay village.
Kinsman was active in the city's LGBT community, and friends hung posters of the missing 49-year-old around the village and nearby Cabbage Town, where he went missing. Soon after, police launched a task force, Project Prism, to investigate his and Aysen's disappearance. His sister, Karen Coles, told the court in February 2018 the following, and I quote...
He wanted to make the world a better place for those struggling to survive. End quote. His sister continues to describe him as someone who, under his gruff demeanor, cared deeply about other people and who championed social justice issues. He was, according to her, an extraordinary, quirky and caring individual. Police believe Kinsman was sexually involved with MacArthur
and they found the entry Bruce in Kinsman's diary on the 26th of June 2017, the day police believe he was killed.
More than half of Toronto's 2.7 million residents identify as a visible minority. Around 15% are South Asian, and 1% come from the Middle East. The city is known for its inclusiveness, but it can still be a challenging place for new Canadian citizens.
nearly all of the men had disappeared from the Church and Wellesley neighbourhood, also known as Toronto's Gay Village, between 2010 and 2017. Though the area's history as a
LGBTQ-friendly enclave dates back years of late gentrification in the village has driven up the cost of rent, and the area mainly functions now as a meeting place for people who connect online and come into town for drinks.
In November 2012, a month after Kayan's disappearance, the Toronto Police Service convened a task force to find out what had happened. Within a few months, they had uncovered clues to suggest Navaratnam had met with foul play. The leads, which initially pointed to an online cannibalism ring, were dismissed as fantastical and eventually ruled out. But they brought Officer Idzinga,
Into the case, investigators began by interviewing Navratnam's friends. According to multiple reports, this included a then 60-year-old landscape designer, Bruce MacArthur, known as Santa for his seasonal employment at a shopping mall. MacArthur was a twinkled-eyed grandfather who liked tropical birds and hated Donald Trump.
At 5 feet 10 and 221 pounds, or 177 centimeters and 100 kilos to us metric users, Santa was unassuming in both appearance and demeanor. He was the type who baked muffins, sipped wine, and lavished friends with roses on their birthdays. A former friend had described him to police as, and I quote, the kindest person I've ever known.
the owner and sole proprietor of Artistic Design, a man-in-a-van landscaping business, he was popular with clients. His clients were often older, wealthy Torontians, who appreciated MacArthur's love of succulents, especially exotic varieties with thick, fleshy leaves. Police learned MacArthur had employed Navaratnam as a landscaper. The two had also dated, on and off, for years.
MacArthur was interviewed, then let go, and having failed to find any criminal evidence, Project Houston, as the task force was named in 2013, closed down. Mahmoodi, Lissowick, Eason, Kinsman, and Kamigaratnan all met their fate over the next four years.
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But it's good to have some things that are non-negotiable. For some, that could be a night out with the boys, chugging beers and having a laugh. For others, it might be an eating night. For me, one non-negotiable activity is researching psychopathic serial killers and making this podcast. Even when we know what makes us happy, it's often near impossible to make time for it.
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Never skip therapy day with BetterHelp. Visit betterhelp.com slash serialkiller today to get 10% off your first month. That's BetterHelp, H-E-L-P dot com slash serialkiller. By summer 2017, pretty much everyone in the village knew there was a serial killer in their midst.
All of these men had gone missing, each with a connection to the neighborhood, most from social groups that were marginalized in one way or another. Even civilians with a glancing knowledge of the typical serial killer profile by now knew that many seek out those on the edge of society, people whose disappearances take longer to be noticed, if at all. In the 1980s and 1990s,
Jeffrey Dahmer infamously operated within the gay community in Milwaukee by using his familiarity with its members and their social landscape to find targets, while also benefiting from the fact that many of his victims had fewer than average connections to society at large.
More recently, the suspected serial killer I have also covered on this show, nicknamed the Long Island Serial Killer, is perhaps responsible for the deaths of up to 16 female sex workers on New York's Long Island. He is thought to have used the relative anonymity of Craigslist to solicit some of his victims.
While the Toronto of 2017 was an undeniably more progressive place than the Reagan-era Rust Belt, it still had its share of the kinds of collective isolation that such killers could take advantage of. Officially, the police continued to deny what seemed obvious to many in the community.
However, Officer Idzinga and a small group of detectives quietly launched a new investigation called Project Prism. By the summer of 2017, they had begun to look more closely at MacArthur, and they didn't have to dig too deep for signs that suggested a history of violence. On the 31st of October, 2001,
Lisa arrived at the apartment of a male escort, who called 911 after awakening from a blackout. The victim had invited MacArthur into his apartment around noon that day, and was considering showing MacArthur his Halloween costume when MacArthur, unprovoked, hit him in the head with a metal pipe that he had brought with him.
I don't know why I did it, MacArthur reportedly said after turning himself into police. In January 2003, MacArthur pleaded guilty to assault, causing bodily harm. He received a conditional sentence, barring him from the village and further contact with escorts.
In 2016, MacArthur was investigated for a potential sexual assault, though police set him free without charging him. Itzinga's team learned that MacArthur was once a regular of the Black Eagle, the bar where Andrew Kinsman had worked. MacArthur had both dated Kinsman and employed him at Artistic Design, as he had with Navaratnam.
He was also active on gay apps and websites, including Grindr, Scruff, ManJam, and Silver Daddies. He was meeting guys, hooking up with them, employing them, and then, it seemed to investigators, murdering them. In September 2017, a month into Project Prism, MacArthur dumped his work vehicle, a maroon Dodge Caravan, at a scrapyard.
taking a cash offer of $150. In October, police recovered the van and found traces of blood in the trunk and on the backseat, according to the scrapyard's owner, Dominic Vettere. Newly unsealed records suggest investigators began to remotely track MacArthur's movements and monitor his calls, starting in November.
Then, in December, police obtained warrants to secretly enter MacArthur's apartment and clone his computer's hard drive. On the 17th of January, 2018, police reportedly found another link, possibly DNA, that potentially connected him to two of the missing men. He was put under 24-hour surveillance while police prepared warrants for his arrest.
At 10.30 in the morning of the 18th of January, 2018, they observed a young man, later identified as a male escort, entering MacArthur's apartment building in Thorncliffe Park in central east Toronto. Police, who were still awaiting judicial authorization on all of their warrants, moved in as they were concerned for the well-being of the young man. According to the Toronto Star,
They found a young man, bound, restrained to the bed, but unharmed. The man was freed, and MacArthur was charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the case of Ehsen and Kinsman, taken into custody and driven to the Toronto Police Service's 51 Division Building for Processing.
Using MacArthur's client list as a guide, the Toronto Police Service began searching properties across the city, initially 30 and then 100, at a small and neatly landscaped home on Mallory Crescent, where MacArthur did work on. Exchanged for storing gardening tools, police found the planters I mentioned in the last episode, the ones filled with body parts.
In the following months, six additional charges were filed for the murders of Navaratnam, Kayan, Paizi, Mahmoudi, Lisowick, and Kanagaratman. I released my first expose of the MacArthur case only three months after MacArthur's arrest. Since then, a lot more details of the case have been revealed.
Bruce MacArthur's meticulous planning of murder, his methodical approach to the killings, and the posing, photographing, and retaining of personal items from his victims reveal similar patterns of behavior with certain types of serial killers. One expert, named Ju Jung Lee, a professor who specializes in serial killers,
Said MacArthur's murders were similar to those of Dennis Rader, a.k.a. BTK. Just as BTK, MacArthur would tie his victims up before killing them. However, where BTK would simply masturbate over his victims as they were dying or dead, MacArthur would rape his victims repeatedly before finally strangling them to death.
The murder weapon was always a metal bar that had a rope attached to it to fashion a garrotte. This created a mechanism whereby rotating the bar would turn the knot, increasing pressure on the neck. Sometimes the ligature would be turned so tight that the neck would snap. Always the victims died as a result of the homemade garrotte.
Afterwards, just as BTK, he would pose his victims and photograph them, in order to have material to masturbate to later. The photos, dozens of them, showed victims with their eyes closed with a ligature around their neck. There were also photos of the victims being restrained and sexually tortured in various ways before being killed.
Often, the victims were posed naked, with cigars in their mouth, shaved, and at times MacArthur dressed their corpses in a fur coat and a hat. MacArthur, just as BTK, kept some personal belongings, like bracelets and notepads, and also kept digital files of all the victims, categorizing them in subfolders on his computer.
None of the Santa serial killer's victims were random acts of violence. He would carefully plan where and when to incapacitate, torture, rape, and murder his victims. And he always had planned how and where he should dispose of the bodies. Bruce MacArthur made his first court appearance on the 19th of January, 2018. He was represented by lawyer Marianne Salié,
A judicial pretrial was scheduled for the following 20th of June. The closed-door meeting with the Crown and defence attorneys and judge was to address issues such as resolving the case without a trial, for example by entering a guilty plea, the trial length and procedural and evidentiary issues.
On the 29th of January, standing before Justice John McMahon, Bruce MacArthur pleaded guilty to each of the eight first-degree murder charges that he was facing, ending the possibility of any trial.
On the 1st of February 2019, Ontario Superior Court Justice John McMahon ruled that Bruce MacArthur will be eligible to apply for parole after spending at least 25 years in prison. He will be 91 years old when his first chance of parole comes up.
In his sentencing decision, the judge noted the gruesomeness of MacArthur's crimes, but said there is a quote-unquote fine line between retribution and vengeance. He also stated that MacArthur's guilty plea had spared the victim's families a lengthy, graphic, and very public trial, and combined with his age, this resulted in the relatively mild sentence. However,
The judge also told the Pact University Avenue courtroom that there is very little chance the former landscaper will ever be granted parole and will most likely die in prison.
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I hope you enjoyed listening to me telling it to you. When I release my next episode, 111th in number, we will all have entered a brand new decade, the 20s. I look forward to it. I hope you do too. So, as they say in the land of radio, stay tuned. This podcast would not be possible if it had not been for my dear patrons, who pledge their hard-earned money every month.
There are especially a few of those patrons I would like to thank in person. These patrons are my most loyal patrons. Before I list the esteemed members of the $15 plus club, I have gotten a special request from one of them. The patron in question is happily married, and he wishes to give his wife a truly exclusive Christmas present. My listeners' demands are my command.
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