EP74: Killing for Clicks
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All right, welcome back to another episode of the Psychopedia Podcast. I'm your co-host, Thanks Sinatra, here with my micro-psycho co-host. Investigators later, why are you saying it like you're on speed? Well, I just listened to the Antill Kids on 1.5 speed. I don't know how you do that. It's fun. It's not. I'll tell you what.

It's nauseating. The theme song is unbelievable. Okay, maybe, but... It's so fast. That was good. It makes me want to like run around. I know, but when I listen to the actual words being spoken at 1.5 speed, it's dizzying. I was a big fan of the Micro Machine Man, so I'm very familiar with talking. I'm just kidding. I listen to rap. If I can hear Kendrick Lamar saying what he's saying...

I can hear what you're saying. Kendrick Lamar can say anything at this point. He can. And you'd be sold. Listen. Take that out because I sound like a fucking daffy duck. Listen here, you waskily wabbit. If this is your first time listening, welcome. If you've come here before, welcome back, freak.

And it was during... You're not going to hear it, but I said something that was pretty funny while during the break. And I'm just going to power through it. So rate, review, subscribe, YouTube, Apple, Spotify. I have to say it. You know what I mean? Just to remind people. It means a lot to us when you do it. All right? So it is what it is. And this could be somebody's first episode. So you're also just informing newcomers. Exactly. You know? Exactly. Newcomers. Very important. And also let them know who's in studio with us today. We have Investigator Slaters, who...

Dog of the highest proportions and standards, cash-ish. It's just cash, but yes. I like cash-ish. I know. I don't know why. Probably because I'm a former drug addict and just like, you know, anything. Might have something to do with it. Yeah.

So I was at my son's graduation today, real quick. Yeah. Older one or younger one? Older one. Okay. So I think I might be... I think I said to someone at the gym the other day, I was like, I think I might be becoming like a grumpy old man. I mean, did you need this graduation to tell you that? Well, two things happened. One, I was at the gym and I asked this kid who was on a piece of... Was he 35, this kid? No, he was like early 20s, late teens. And...

I was like, are you guys on this? He goes, yeah, yeah. And I was like, all right, no problem. Should have asked if I wanted to work in, but whatever. So I go do three sets of something else. He hasn't even fucking touched a bar. Rude. So I, like, that's me being like, usually I'll just let it go. But like, I didn't like the fact that he was not even using it.

Of course. He was going to eventually at some point, I'm sure. But this is not your private gym. And I'm not saying it's all young people. That was just what happened. And he happened to be young. As a matter of fact, at this gym, they made an announcement two weeks ago. It was brilliant. I fucking loved it so much.

The woman gets on the thing and she goes on the intercom and she goes, we are so glad to have our college students back. Welcome. Welcome to Gold's Gym. But make sure. And then someone yells, put your fucking weights away. She goes, yes, yes. Put your weights away, please. Very good. Oh, my God. It was so smart. So anyway, if you love us and you're not getting enough of what you want here, head on over to patreon.com slash psychopedia pod.

Where I'm not grumpy. Yeah. Okay. Make Tank happy, please. I'm not grumpy. You get ad-free episodes, an episode of Unhinged per week, which is when we revisit a case, barely. And then new thing, Slaterpedia. Oh, yeah. Which is a whole brand new true crime case that you haven't heard us do before. But like a regular psychopedia case episode, full on bonus content over there. Full blown. We're giving you more of what you want. And then we do Tankopedia over there.

which is fantastic, is me researching a case. I actually have the case I think that I want to do already for next time. I know I'm trying to get ahead of it. I'm going to knock your socks off. You do every single time you do it. No, no, no. I mean, really, like, you're going to cry. You're going to do more than 18 hours worth of, like, research in advance of 18 hours before recording? I plan to. Good. I haven't heard to that. Who knows what's going to happen? Life is tricky, you know?

But do you have anything else to add before we roll into this case? No, no. Just that if you want to check out our...

vibe today because I got on new sunnies. Yes. Go over to YouTube. Yeah. Take a look. Yeah, yeah. And let us know what you think. I think I'm more of a big dinner plate sunglasses kind of gal. You are. But today I'm a little futuristic and I'm going with it. Yeah, yeah. And over there, you can also leave a heart, do your part, leave a heart. Yes. Do your part, leave a heart. Just let us know you were there. We just like seeing people. We do. You know what I mean? That's why we do this. We do this. Okay. So without further ado,

Grumpiness. Please. Why don't we get into this week's case? All right, let's go. Okay. On an otherwise tranquil Canadian morning in May of 2012, the staff at Falls Creek Elementary School in Vancouver noticed an unexpected, mysterious package placed near the entrance of the school.

The package seemed out of place just sitting by the door and definitely seemed to exude a confusing, if not completely unsettling aura. Especially when a dark, ominous fluid began to leak out of the corners. There we go. The school principal, horrified, immediately called in the authorities who instantly sealed off the entire area and urged everyone to stay far back.

And as the package was cautiously opened, the scene went from concerned tension to absolute chaos when the contents turned out to be human. Because inside that package left at the doorstep of this elementary school was a human hand.

Meanwhile, across the city at St. George's School, located on West 29th Avenue, another package was discovered. No. This time, it was found by an unsuspecting teacher on her way to class. And inside that package, at that school, was a human foot. Can you just for a second imagine you're at work, you go outside to go to your lunch or whatever, you see a box and you don't know where it's from, so you open it to see what's in it.

And there's a hand in it? I think your first thought would be serial killer. Yeah, probably. Yeah. You'd probably look at a box and go, I bet there's a head in there. Oh, I would start to analyze it immediately. I'd be like, the cut is clean, indicating precision. A Stanley blade was not used. Exactly. You and your fucking Stanley blades.

Simultaneously, okay, with these two happenings at these two schools, about 2,500 miles away in Ottawa, at the heart of the nation's political scene situated at 130 Albert Street, a third package was discovered.

A woman named Jenny Byrne, who was the director of political operations for the Conservative Party of Canada at the time, decided to open the package, a decision she instantly regretted when she discovered what was inside. Because sure enough, inside that package was a severed human foot.

Hours later, a headless torso in a suitcase amongst a pile of garbage that smelled like, quote, a pig roast left out to rot. Oh, God. Was discovered by a janitor at an apartment building in Montreal, as was a deceased black and white puppy. No. I know. I'm sorry. Cash is black and white. I know. I know.

Each of the different packages, as well as the suitcase, contained individual body parts that, once pieced together, pointed forensic teams towards a singular, chilling connection. And that connection was to a depraved, cannibalistic, necrophiliac, 29-year-old porn star with an ice pick and a flair for the dramatic...

named Luca Magnata. Get the fuck out of here. Yeah. I swear, when you were going through it, it didn't start to sound familiar until, obviously, it's Canadian. I'm thinking like, oh, yeah, obviously, you don't want to go over the border with a fucking, with a head or whatever. Right, right. And people have been begging us to do Don't Fuck With Me. Yes, well, I aim to please, so here we go. That's one of the few true crime documentaries that I actually watched. You did watch it? Whole thing.

Really? Yeah. Oh, man. I hope you still, like, find this case astonishing. Well, much like anybody who listens to something over and over again, like, can't.

Kendrick maybe or anything. I can't believe you go straight to Kendrick now and over Jay-Z. It's a little bit like... Kendrick has me in a chokehold. I know, I know, but... I tried to describe what one of his songs was about to Jessica. I was crying. I couldn't fucking tell her what it was about. It's called How Much a Dollar Cost. It's on To Pimp a Butterfly. I couldn't hear these words.

I mean, I'm going to give you a list of songs that I think you'll like. Okay, do it. That you cannot listen to. I will listen to it. I watch and listen to what you send me. I really do. Okay, so you know who Luca Magnata is. Not only did Mr. Magnata commit the unthinkable crime against a living, breathing, innocent human being, but so too did he have the sickening gall to also fuck with cats. Yes. This is the case of one lunatic,

One ice pick. We're starting in the middle today and then working our way back to the beginning before winding up at the insane ending. We're microwaving it. Which is, yes, a gift from me to your beautiful ADHD. Do you know what a microwave is? Yeah, we're nuking it. It's from the inside out. Yeah, I got it. Which is why the middle of the hot pocket is always...

My brother got a second degree burn, I think, on his face from a Hot Pocket in college. Jim Gaffigan, one of the greatest comedians of all time, you know the Hot Pocket bit? No. He does like a seven minute bit on Hot Pockets. He says, Hot Pockets. Every time he makes a joke, it gets funnier and funnier. And he said, imagine if they served them at restaurants. Oh, well, what is it like? Well, it's frozen on the outside. Yeah.

And scorching lava in the middle. Exactly. Exactly. They have not like figured it out. Yeah. Listen, life is long. They'll get it.

I have to warn our listeners, you obviously, knowing this case now, already know this, but first of all, there's going to be spoilers in here to the Netflix documentary series, Don't Fuck With Cats. So if you were planning on watching that anytime soon, I hadn't watched it. I have to say, I think that title was extremely misleading. I never watched it because I had no idea what it was about.

Like I had no idea it was a true crime case. He was fucking with cats. I know, but the name of don't fuck with cats, like that didn't give any indication that, well, I don't want to give anything away that this was like a seriously fucked up true crime case. I thought it was a joke.

So I just want to give a disclaimer also that we're going over scenes that involve animal abuse. Unfortunately, that I will endeavor to deliver with sensitivity in spite of my absolute rage and desire to cry every single time I talk about it. But here we are. On December 22nd, 2010, just one day after the viral release of a horrific video titled One Boy, Two Kittens, the internet erupted in explosive fury.

And here's why. The video, One Boy, Two Kittens, began innocently with a man in a dark green hoodie. Did you ever see the video, by the way? Just what was in it. Just what was in the thingy. So it started off with this guy in a dark green hoodie with black fringy bangs playing with two adorable little kittens on a wolf print blanket on top of a bed.

But then, tragically, it quickly took a dark and disturbing turn when the hooded man suddenly picked up the two kittens and placed them into a plastic bag. Then he attached a vacuum to the bag and sucked out all the air, killing the poor, innocent little animals.

Adding insult to injury, a follow-up video was posted afterwards depicting the hooded man rubbing the cat's limp bodies against his genitals. Oh my god, dude. And people on the internet went absolutely ballistic with good reason. Yeah. This one horrific video united people from every corner of the globe in joint outrage while mobilizing internet sleuths who were determined to identify and take down the depraved kitty killer.

A U.S. Army veteran named Ryan Boyle created an invite-only Facebook page called Find the Kitten Vacuumer for Great Justice. Great name, by the way. Does not roll off the tongue. I'm actually amazed that I was able to say that.

He received hundreds of requests for page access per hour and feverishly accepted each new member as quickly as he could in order to assemble a virtual army of his own against the ruthless Tabby Terminator. The group wound up having about 15,000 members, which is like a chunk of people. That's a decent group of people for most of us.

On the same day that Boyle created this Facebook page, a data analyst in Las Vegas who went by the online alias Body Move-In not only joined the group but started to dedicate every hour of her waking life to the efforts of finding the kitten killer. With her background in IT working for one of the largest casinos in Vegas...

This internet sleuth, Body Movin', whose real name is Deanna Thompson, poignantly expressed the following, and this is a quote. You can post porn, violence, somebody getting pushed downstairs, religious statues being defamed, and nobody gives a crap. But in this seedy underbelly, there's an unwritten rule, and rule zero is don't fuck with cats. And someone out there had very much broken rule zero.

So Deanna, along with some of the other careful, methodical, and highly skilled citizen sleuths, set to work. They began by analyzing objects in the kitten killer's room, pixel by pixel. I was so impressed with their work, to gather clues about his whereabouts. For example, they investigated the bedspread featuring a wolf image to determine where it was sold and whether it was unique to a specific area or region of the world.

They also examined the voices heard in the background of the video, questioning whether they were speaking Russian and whether the voices were from real people or from a television. And if they were real people, could the translation of their conversation provide insight into the perpetrator's location?

They also scrutinized the electrical outlets visible in the video to determine if they were European or North American or what. This dedicated group of citizen sleuths, which included a savvy individual named John Green, who you may remember from the documentary, pursued any visual clues that might help them to identify the hooded perpetrator.

By mid-January of that year, Deanna and John decided to join forces in a more focused approach by creating a new splinter Facebook group initially called Luca Intel and then later renamed Animal Beta Project. While they continued to monitor the larger Facebook group, they used their private group, which only had about 15 members, to work more effectively away from the angry drama and harsh emotions of the larger group of vigilante participants, which just allowed them to focus and crank. So now it's

It's a real core group of citizen sleuths. They began working 16 hours a day to crack this case, which is like relatable. Yeah. But no matter how hard they worked, they always seemed to be one step behind the hooded maniac.

My dad works in B2B marketing. He came by my school for career day and said he was a big ROAS man. Then he told everyone how much he loved calculating his return on ad spend. My friend's still laughing me to this day. Not everyone gets B2B, but with LinkedIn, you'll be able to reach people who do. Get $100 credit on your next ad campaign. Go to linkedin.com slash results to claim your credit. That's linkedin.com slash results. Terms and conditions apply. LinkedIn.com slash results.

LinkedIn, the place to be, to be. Because shortly after posting one boy, two kittens, someone using the username John Smith, which was clearly a sock puppet account. Sock puppet? Yeah. That's like a fake account that somebody like sets up. It's really one person posing as somebody else. It's just a fake account. It's called sock puppet account. Never heard that. This sock puppet account, John Smith, posted a link to some photographs before quickly deleting the account to avoid being traced. Okay.

And when Deanna clicked on the link before it was all deleted, she saw a young man with black fringy bangs wearing a green hoodie holding the two small kittens that he would later go on to kill on camera. Although the face in the photograph was blurred out, the intent of the photo was clear. The man in the green hoodie was taunting the sleuths.

By posting that photo, he was sending a message that he had infiltrated the Facebook group, was following the online investigation, and daring them to find him. It had become a game to him. And Deanna Thompson, John Green, and a third sleuth using the alias Nicey Punk were more than willing to play.

The first thing they did was convert the original video, One Boy, Two Kittens, into a program that broke it up into tens of thousands of still images for further analysis. Can you imagine? It's wild. Yeah. And sure enough, a clue was discovered in the form of a pack of cigarettes lying on the bed on top of the wolf blanket where the kittens were killed.

And the cigarette pack had a Surgeon General warning on the label indicating to the sleuths that the cigarettes were North American, which now provided a crucial clue as to the potential location. Another significant finding from the still images involved the vacuum cleaner that was used to suck air out of the bag.

It was yellow. Not very, very common, right? Yeah. So Deanna posted on an online vacuum cleaner repair forum asking for help in identifying the model. And she got it. The vacuum cleaner was identified as being a Kenmore canister with a very specific model number, which she learned was only ever sold in North America. And while this information was another crucial piece in the complex puzzle of locating the suspect...

It still wasn't enough to identify him. They had nothing in the way of an actual name. Until Deanna received a message from someone with the username Beverly Kent. Spoiler, Beverly Kent was another sock puppet account. But the message said, the person you're looking for, his name is Luca Magnata.

So now they had an actual name and they were about to find out exactly who he was. And so are you. Was that him again? Mm-hmm. Okay. All of this like comes together. Yeah. Luca Rocco Magnata, born Eric Clinton Kirk Newman on July 24th, 1982 in Toronto, Canada. He changed his name? Yes, he did. Gave himself a new middle name too? Yeah. Rocco.

Modern life. Rocco Rogolaccia pasta. Don't know it. It's from my Little League video. Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. I just remember bruschetta, the mother. What are you practicing for the family business?

Did you understand that joke or no? No. Like mobster shit, beating people up with bats. Oh, that was lost on me, but that's me. No problem. So he was born on July 22nd, 1982 as Eric Clinton Kirk Newman in Toronto, Canada, and was the son of Anna Yorkin and Donald Newman.

Wow. Wow.

and constantly needed to relocate to make ends meet. Life was complex for the Newman family, especially after Donald, who was a proud Nazi enthusiast, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. Oh, wow. Yep. According to Anna, life with Donald was like being in a cult. He ruled by fear and treated everyone around him like worthless underlings, especially Luca, whom he so lovingly would refer to as...

quote, little faggot. Horrible. Donald was incredibly violent and

would slap the children, and would punch Anna in front of the children as well. One time, he even choked Anna until she passed out. He continuously raped Anna, one time at gunpoint, and controlled all of the family's money, holding her and the children financially captive as he ruled the roost in absolute brutality. Finally, in 1995, Anna managed to take the children and leave Donald.

They moved into her mother's home located on a large two-acre property, and for a time, life was stable and safe. Until Anna met and got pregnant by a new man named Leo Bellinger and moved herself and the children out of the grandmother's house on this two-acre property where life was grand and

and into this apartment in Toronto to live with Leo. And unfortunately, Leo turned out to be an abusive alcoholic asshole as well, who tortured Luca both physically and verbally. And Luca had no escape from mistreatment because after entering public school, the other boys absolutely tormented him.

He was painfully shy and the children called him weird and teased him about being gay and they hurled slurs at him and made it impossible for him to make friends. Wait, so Luca was gay? Yes. And his dad was calling him that as like, like for real? Yeah. Oh, wow. That's interesting. Horrible.

He also had learning difficulties and was teased relentlessly for crying by the very kids who pushed him to his emotional limit. It never seemed to end for Luca, as even after he entered high school, he continued to be tortured, laughed at, and humiliated by the other students while also being completely dismissed by his teachers.

Finally, after turning 16 years old, Luca dropped out of high school, moved out of Leo's apartment and back in with his grandmother, where he proceeded to do which of the following things? Pop quiz. A, seduce her geriatric friends and then rob them. B, sleep in bed with his grandmother and sometimes wear her clothing. C, physically and verbally abuse his grandmother. C? No. Oh.

A? Nope. You came up with that one? Yep. That's fucking weird. I know.

So there has to be a B. It does. Look at how you backed into that. He would sometimes sleep in bed with grandma and wear her clothing. He also developed an intense fascination at this point with Marilyn Monroe and began to idolize her glamorous persona and actually began to see himself in a similar light, sexy, seductive, and irresistibly appealing. Probably a couple of missing pieces, but sure. What do you mean?

Like he wasn't all the way Marilyn Monroe. Oh, I'm going to agree with that. He was so close, though. He was. He didn't have Joe DiMaggio on his arm, for example. Luca obsessively watched Marilyn's films and absorbed her mannerisms and her just general vibe. He started to identify as the blonde bombshell, drawing a newfound confidence and sense of identity from this perceived connection.

This obsession with Monroe further fueled a transformation in Luca as he embraced the seductive allure and charismatic charm he associated with her and now with himself. It's like me and Jay-Z. Yeah. But you're a good person. Yeah. But yeah, that's basically, yeah. He started to like absolutely come out of his skin. He started to identify as a blonde bombshell? Yeah. Is that what you said? Yeah. Well, her mannerisms, her vibe, her seduction, like...

I think he was pulling from her what he wanted to see in himself. But despite this newfound confidence that he suddenly had, Luca was still more or less on the decline in terms of his life's trajectory. At about 20 years old, he too, like his father, was diagnosed with schizophrenia. And while he was prescribed antipsychotic medication to manage his symptoms, Luca often failed to take his medication as directed.

Then at 23, Luca got arrested after stealing the credit card of an intellectually impaired woman and using it to purchase $17,000 worth of merchandise, including a television, DVD player, and several mobile phones. He actually only ended up spending 16 days in jail because he was ultimately placed on probation just for a year after his lawyer argued that he was mentally ill. But now we're starting to see that he's running in with the law.

Continuing to grapple with low self-esteem, mental health issues, and a lack of financial security, Luca wound up engaging in sex work for money. He started out by masturbating in front of a webcam for older men. But after performing oral sex on the owner of a strip club in Toronto called Remington's, Luca then landed a job as a stripper. Still, he wasn't making enough money to his liking and wasn't receiving enough attention, and he was not getting enough money to pay for his sex work.

So he decided to perform in low-budget porn films while simultaneously becoming an escort. And this is where he actually began to make some decent money. With his chiseled jaw, high cheekbones, bright blue eyes, and remarkable stamina. This is like actually what's said about him. Luca found himself in high demand, earning between $1,000 and $2,000 per week. Per week? It's not.

you you can't compare well come on i thought you were gonna say per day which is still like all right you're selling your body that's okay whatever you want that's what you want to do but for like 50 grand a year i think he could not do he was not working any other job i mean you could get a job at fucking home depot and make that true probably more but that wouldn't he's going through shit yes okay so it's probably he didn't get too into it for the money

No, I don't think he got into it for the money, but at this point he was doing well for him. Can we say that? All right. He also attempted to do something else during this time.

pop quiz. What did he attempt to do? A, indoctrinate himself into sick thugs, aka the Sicilian thugs gang. B, blackmail the treasurer of the conservative party in Ottawa by making a secret sex tape with him as an escort. Okay. Or C, get onto a reality TV show geared towards aspiring male models. C. Yeah. Did you know that from the documentary? Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. God, this

This sucks. These quizzes are definitely not going to get you, I feel like. I just got the one before that. True. Totally wrong. True, true, true, true, true. Such a short memory. Well, this also, we go way deeper than the documentary, so. Of course. All right. Yes, he auditioned to be on the reality TV show called Cover Guy, where 30 aspiring male models were set to compete for a whopping $1,000 cash prize. Well, maybe that's not a lot of money for you. I was waiting for you to come back. I was waiting for it, the clap back.

A fashion photo shoot, a one-year membership to Good Life Fitness Club, and the front cover of About magazine. I've heard his audition tape. Did you hear it? Did they play it in the documentary? I don't remember. Okay, so whatever the panel of judges would say to him in this audition, he would respond by saying, a lot of people tell me that. So...

he would apply like whatever they wanted to see from him. He would use that expression. So for example, when one of the judges told him he has like a very remarkably deep voice, he responded with, a lot of people tell me that I have a really deep voice, right? But the best line he dropped that I have to bring up is he goes,

A lot of people tell me that I'm devastatingly good-looking. Wow. He's just so cringe. I would bet almost my entire life savings that nobody said that to him. I mean... Setting aside a lot of people. He was such a despicable piece of shit, but he was attractive. Yeah, but I don't think I've ever described anybody as devastatingly good-looking. Right. Yeah, it's intense. Yeah. One time I described somebody as having exquisite good looks...

And I've learned my lesson. You did not. And I learned my lesson. I won't do that again. He also discussed on this, like in his audition, having nose jobs, hair implants, and a desire to get calf and pec implants. Like he was basically, I will do whatever you want me to do. I need to be on this reality show. Yeah. Which he didn't get on, by the way. Oh, he didn't? No, he did not.

What we start to see, though, in staggering abundance at this stage in the case is an overwhelming, albeit complex, display of narcissistic traits. Now, it's important to note, because I got hung up on this in the research, because I was like, but he had such low self-esteem. How is it that all of these sort of psych analyses that I'm reading are saying he's narcissistic? I mean, now that I've finished the research, I understand it, but I wanted to bring this up in case anybody else is confused. Yeah.

Low self-esteem and narcissism can coexist because I think they might have, I don't know about that, but narcissistic behavior is often a coping mechanism for deep-seated insecurities. Yes. I actually thought that people with like true narcissistic traits, like really truly think that they are God's gift. Well, self-esteem, I don't know if we've discussed this before, but your self-esteem is however big the gap is,

between what you would say about yourself and what other people who love you would say about you. So if there's a huge gap there, you have very low self-esteem. We talk about...

That in meetings, like have an inferiority complex with a big ego, low self-esteem. Sorry, that's what it's called. Okay. Yeah. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I'm not a doctor, but I feel like narcissism doesn't manifest unless there's deep-seated insecurities. Nobody who has a healthy self-image would go so far to convince other people that they are something. That makes sense.

With Luca, over time, he began to seek validation and attention through increasingly extreme measures, perhaps seeking to assert control and gain recognition in response to his deeply ingrained insecurities and need for validation. But whatever the root psychological cause, there can be no doubt in saying that Luca Magnata was a narcissist. He for sure developed grandiosity, a need for admiration, and scarily, a total lack of empathy.

At this stage, he began to live his life according to his favorite expression, which goes like this, Meaning, he's now choosing to dismiss criticism in exchange for emphasizing an attitude of self-importance and disregard for others' opinions. Gone was the little boy who was teased for crying because of his hurt feelings.

and now stood a man who people would notice, would sweat, would want to be or be with, a man destined to be seen. And this need for recognition and fame had ultimately become, in many frightening ways, the tail that wagged the dog because Luca Magnata developed an obsession with becoming famous and achieving notoriety by any means necessary. Everything he did and everything he became was in pursuit of fame.

He began allowing, likely encouraging, his clients to post sex tapes they made with him, as long as they kept private the ones that involved being pissed on, shit on, or whipped until he bled and cried for mercy. Of which there were quite a few. Yes, everything else was fair game.

At this point, Luca began to ramp up his online presence on social media. He feverishly posted photos jet-setting to destinations like New York, California, Denver, France, Germany, Italy, Switzerland, and Russia.

This is when he officially changed his name, by the way, from Eric Newman to Luca Magnata and flooded his social media accounts with hundreds of influencer-like photos, all showcasing a lavish lifestyle with pursed duck lips and unoriginal captions designed to make viewers hate their own dull, boring, unexciting lives by comparison because that's what fucking so many people do on social. Exactly.

He seemed to be amassing followers at breakneck speed, all of whom were chomping at the bit for more content, more photos, more Luca. But here's the thing. Those flashy sizzling photos, that mouthwatering content, all fake.

Well, that was going to be a question of mine. Like, how did he, what was he doing? Photoshop. Photoshop. The followers he seemed to be amassing were actually the aforementioned sock puppet accounts he created to generate buzz about himself.

So in Influencers in the Wild, the game, there's a card that says you got caught photoshopping yourself into an Italian vacation, lose 50,000 followers. Amazing. Yeah. Which by the way, the game is amazing. If you go to influencersinthewild.com to buy it, then I don't have to be homeless, which would be great. You won't be homeless. You guys can live with us. Oh, okay. Well, so, I mean, I'd like to- Sell the game. Yeah, get rid of some games.

So all of these sock puppet accounts use the same language, punctuation, and turns of phrase, like referring to Luca as a prince and always, always, always commenting on how hot Luca Magnata is.

I have to tell you. Oh, hang on. You never need a pause before you speak. I can't wait to hear this. I don't even know where to begin. I'm going to try and make it as short as possible. First of all, I saw somebody get killed behind the candlelight diner. What? I don't want to say his name, but yeah, there was a fight that broke out. It was kids from a different town. His friend ran over him. No, you saw that? I went to the

I was friends with him. You saw that? I was there. Yeah. It was fucking awful. Oh my God. So his brother, who I worked with later, and I mentioned that because I think that had something to do, like, I think that affected him. I worked with him. He set up, I used to watch him argue with his girlfriend publicly on their Facebook. He claimed to work at this prestigious club in New York City, which he didn't.

At this club where he was working slash not, he claimed to have met this beautiful woman, right?

I don't even know where he got the pictures from. But anyway, it was him the whole time. Yeah, that's a sock puppet account. So he was like, I guess he thought it made him look. Of course. Whatever, like he was arguing with himself. Yes, yes. From that account publicly. Because I used to say like, why don't you guys text each other or call each other? This is like, you're doing it publicly? This is insane. That was the point. It had to be public. Exactly. That's so sad. Well, I mean, I just feel so bad for that whole family. Rest in peace.

According to Montreal police, Luca maintained about 70 Facebook pages and hundreds of Luca McNatta fan sites, all aimed at amplifying his online persona. That's right. This is still Facebook days. Yes. Yes, it is. He literally created multiple selves to dominate a space in the exact way that hitherto he had failed to do in real life. Nice. There it is.

By the way, talk about like a splintering personality manifesting in reality. Yep. So sad.

When Deanna Thompson, John Green, and Nicey Punk's sleuthing started pointing the spotlight at Luca Magnata since they now knew his name, because remember, they received it from Beverly Kent, who was really Luca Magnata. Oh, he told them his name? Yes. I'm going to go into that in a second. Okay. He would use his sock puppet accounts to defend himself and attempt to throw them off his scent.

So these fake profiles were all part of his strategy to simultaneously build his profile while also manipulating public perception and obscuring his true identity. And here's where it gets tricky and where we're seeing a duality, like a paradoxical behavior.

While Luca Magnata craved attention and notoriety on the one hand, more than anything, he also needed to avoid being caught given the fact that he was engaging in criminal activity. Yeah. Here's a clear example of this paradoxical behavior. Nice. It's a tightrope. It is. Yeah. Remember how I told you, which I just told you again, that the Facebook group received a message from someone named Beverly Kent who identified the name of the green-hooded, black-fringed hair perpetrator as being Luca Magnata? Yeah.

Beverly Kent was Luca Magnata. What did you just describe him as? Black hair, purple hair, did you say? Black fringed hair perpetrator. Perpetrator. So basically Finkel is Einhorn. Purple eater. Purple pizza eater. You're going to blow past an Ace Ventura reference? I smiled. All right.

So to that end, pop quiz. What else did Luca do in an effort to heighten the buzz around his name? Put this effort or energy towards something good. I know. Can you imagine? Like seriously. But you know why he's doing this? Like he's building the hype. He wants his name released. He wants Luca Magnata to be a name that people recognize.

But he also has to do like a little bit of push and pull because he can't actually be discovered. Yeah. The need for attention. Unfortunately, I get it. I planned on killing myself in a restaurant on a Friday night so that people would remember me. And then I was like, wait a second. Jeez.

man. And my chances are over. You know what I mean? Yeah. Thank God you're okay. But now I'm doing great. Yeah. It was a long time ago. Yes. But that just shows you that you can work through things. Obviously. Yes. Stick it out. Just don't act on the thoughts. Right. Yeah. Pop quiz. Shitty time, man. Okay.

What else did Luca do in an effort to heighten the buzz around his name? A, spread a rumor that he was in a relationship with none other than Carla Homolka, one half of the Ken and Barbie killer. Yeah, Carla. B, falsely claimed that he was going to be prominently featured in a Drake video being shot in Drake's hometown known as The Six, which is Toronto. C, pretend to bust a dogfighting ring while placing a citizen's arrest on the ringleader, all videoed and posted for full effect.

Videoed? Remember, he's a Photoshop king. B. No, false.

Eh? Yeah. Wow. You really didn't know that? No. Oh, good. No, I didn't remember that. Luca secretly disseminated rumors that he was dating Carla Homolka, one of the Ken and Barbie killers who had been living in Quebec at the time. Then... Wasn't he very out, though? Yeah, but he also was an escort and he also did a lot of threesomes that he used to, like, advertise about with, like...

men-women couples, like when they wanted to experiment, adding fuel to the publicity slash social media fire that he was hoping to ignite, Luca went on to publicly speak out against these fake alleged rumors by sitting down for an interview with the Toronto Sun.

And during this totally staged interview on Luca's part with a reporter named Joe Warmington, Luca emphatically denied these terrible rumors while lamenting how they were ruining his life and interfering with his ability to land gigs and showbiz. The one that he started? Yeah. So he, this is exactly what he does. He starts rumors. He starts buzz as fake people.

And then as Luca Magnata, he takes a public stance against it. He's just generating... In a fake interview. It was a real interview. Like the reporter really did the interview, but... Oh, I thought you said that it was a fake interview. Oh, no, I guess I may have misspoke. I meant staged, meaning like he choreographed it. It was like... You said staged, yeah. Yeah, like he choreographed it. He made this interview like, I need to settle this here and now. It's getting in the way of my life in showbiz. I have to put this to bed.

Yeah, his burgeoning career. Right. Meanwhile, which is so weird because I saw a video of this interview, he looked exactly like

Paul Bernardo. Really? Yeah. I feel like maybe he did that on purpose so that it would be even that much more believable that he and Carla were together, even though he was trying to say they weren't. Weird shit, man. Was she in jail or no? No, she was out. Okay. He also spread rumors claiming to be the long-lost cousin of River Phoenix, the son of Marilyn Monroe and former Canadian Prime Minister Pierre Elliott Trudeau. I got it.

I got so hung up on you saying that he was the long lost cousin of River Phoenix because I'm sure he said that because River was dead, but like just ask Joaquin then. Just do that. Yeah. He also said that he was dating Madonna, connected to the Russian mafia, and a victim of human trafficking. He's just pulling out all the stops. I might start making shit up about myself. Make some sock puppet accounts and generate some buzz about Tank Sinatra and see what happens. Should do that. You know?

At this stage, Luca was employing every possible tactic in a desperate bid for fame. He watched, possibly even studied, how others had gained notoriety through viral content,

Like the infamous Two Girls, One Cup video from 2007 where two women engage in scatological acts. Scatological acts. I've never watched that video. Good. Yeah. I couldn't bring myself to. I don't watch stuff that's like notoriously disturbing. Horrific. Yeah. The guy who did our paintings, Chris Soria, we were hanging out once when we were young, 13, 14, or whatever it was. And a new Nine Inch Nails album came out. Yeah. Yeah.

With the album came a video that was like a snuff film of like somebody being hung by their arms, beaten, stabbed, like poured gasoline over their head. Oh my God. We watched it. I was never, I was not the same person for like a month. I couldn't fucking, but you can't shake it. You still look at you 40,000 years old. Yeah.

40 what? And still talking about it. I'm not even 40,000 minutes old. No, I like, but then it came out that it was fake. It's not any better. It didn't matter. Yeah, exactly. I mean, it's better. Like, thank God nobody was actually really harmed or killed. Yeah. But it's not better in terms of how your brain processed what you saw. Oh yeah. It didn't undo anything finding out that it wasn't real because I found out years later. I,

I watched the Nicolas Cage movie 8mm when I was younger, which is similar. It's about... And I cannot shake. Yeah. I can't shake it. Well, because you know it is... They are real. Because it does exist. Exactly. Exactly. Fucking terrible. Determined to achieve similar recognition from those shining role models, Luca intensified his efforts to create shocking and attention-grabbing material. Enter one boy, two kittens.

which brings us full circle to the top of the episode, which is really the middle of Luca's journey, which is when he created that horrific video that ultimately created a global community of online sleuths working to find out where he was and who he was and to prevent him from hurting more innocent creatures. This Hot Pocket is perfectly warmed right now. Oh, like the Hot Pocket that is the keys? Yeah, yeah. Oh, good. Good, good, good. It's going to get sizzling hot now. Yeah.

Like a Chili's hot plate. Yeah. And Luca, seeing now that all of these eyes were out looking for him, feeding off that excitement of being wanted, created yet another devastating video in 2011 titled Python Christmas. Trigger warning.

In this video, Luca, wearing a Santa hat and playing little drummer boy in the background, fed a live kitten to a 17-foot-long albino Burmese python. In yet another video released on December 2, 2011, Luca duct-taped a kitten to the end of a stick before drowning him in the bathtub. Dude. Nope. Yeah.

And the username of the person who uploaded that video, which was really Luca, we know, using a sock puppet account, was Leslie Ann Downey. Leslie Ann Downey was one of the victims of the infamous Moores murders committed by serial child killers Ian Brady and Myra Henley.

who we will cover on Psychopedia one day. Yeah, I don't know anything about that. So he's fucking with everyone and perhaps leaving a breadcrumb of his ultimate intention, which is to harm a human. Luca also sent a reporter with the UK Sun named Alex West an email under the alias John Kilbride, who was another victim of the Moores murders, saying the following...

quote, it's so fun watching people work so hard gathering all the evidence and then not being able to name me or catch me. You see, I always win. I always hold the trump card and I will continue to make more movies. Next time you hear from me, it will be in a movie I'm producing that will have some humans, not just pussies. Once you kill and taste blood, it's impossible to stop.

You see, killing is different than smoking. With smoking, you can actually quit. I mean, yeah, obviously it's different. This seems like a good time, though, to discuss the numerous warning signs that Luca Mignotta displayed that he was a full-blown psychopath heading into full-blown serial killer territory. Yeah, nobody that they talked to was like, Luca? Huh?

Oh my God, I can't believe it. What do you mean? Like, you know, when they talk to people, family members or friends of the killer and they're like, oh yeah. Oh, no, no, no, no, no. It was like the Gilgo Beach murder. Everyone was like, yeah, I thought, I mean, that's about right. Took you long enough. Yeah. Right. We all knew. Exactly.

So warning sign number one, brutalizing animals. Now the link between animal cruelty and serial killing is well documented. People who hunt animals do not typically stop with animals. Not hunting like hunting for food or, you know, I meant to say hurt actually. I don't even know why I said hunt. People who hurt animals do not typically stop with animals.

Got it. 75%? 70%.

This behavior is known to escalate as the abuser becomes desensitized to violence and emboldened by their actions. I had to drown a bee the other day. Why? Well, I don't know, maybe it wasn't a bee. It was some kind of insect that was like debilitated, like its wing was missing. And it was on the top of something with water in it, so I just pushed it into the water and it wouldn't go under. Oh my God. To put it out of its misery. A mercy killing? Oh my God.

I saved Bugs. I felt so bad. What were you going to do? Sew the fucking wing back on Slater? No, but he was still alive. I mean, he wasn't like dead or dying. He just had an injury. He was as good as dead. Okay. Yeah. Well, you're a good person, so I'm going to just believe that. But it felt so bad. It's horrific. Yeah. I don't care if it's a— Honestly, I do not kill Bugs. I keep two plastic cups in my house, and I catch them.

I'm a bug catcher. And then we sing, I'm a bug hunter, yes I am. Instead of I'm a punk rocker, yes I am. What is that? It's a song. From? Sorry for all the hard questions. No, it's just I haven't, I don't, I can't remember. Okay, we'll figure it out. Well, the boys, my sons think that Dave sings it. Because Dave told them that he was the lead singer of this band. So I actually don't know who sings it. Okay, so that was the first warning sign, brutalizing animals. Warning sign number two.

sending letters to the press and inciting public panic.

This is a classic serial killer move. Several notorious serial killers taunted the press and instilled fear in the public. Some of the more infamous examples include the Zodiac Killer, BTK, Son of Sam, and even Javed Iqbal. Remember he wrote to the press? Yes, yeah, yeah. In this case, not only did Luca send a letter to the reporter and publish horrific videos of animal abuse, but he also uploaded a home video he shot to the Facebook group

Under an alias in which he filmed the casino where Deanna Thompson worked, the online sleuth. Oh, wow. This was his way of showing her that he knew who she was and where she worked. That's a little scary. Very scary. Warning sign number three. Luca exhibited a very dangerous personality profile that we often see in serial killers with many traits overlapping with narcissistic personality disorder or NPD.

So here's a look at how traits of NPD correlate with characteristics often observed in serial killers. Narcissistic personality disorder. Yes. Okay. One, grandiose sense of self-importance. Two, preoccupation with fantasies of unlimited success, beauty, power, and or control. Three, belief in being special and unique. Four, need for excessive admiration. Five,

Five, sense of entitlement. And this particular trait can lead killers to believe that they actually have a right to take lives, viewing others as mere objects for their own gratification or purposes. Six, interpersonally exploitative behavior used to manipulate people

So you could see this behavior very clearly in his audition tape where he was like putting on this sickening charm. Yeah. It was gross. Seven, lack of empathy. Eight, envy of others or belief that others are envious of them.

And lastly, number nine, arrogance. I mean, he checks every single box. Now, it is very important to recognize that not everyone with a personality disorder like NPD goes on to become a serial killer. Not even close. Yeah, like... This guy's on psychopedia because... Also, like many serial killers, Luca also exhibited traits from other personality disorders as well, such as anti-personality disorder, psychopathy,

Psychopathy. Want to say psychopathy? Is it antisocial personality disorder? What did I say? Antipersonality. It's okay. Do you realize I do that every time we talk about that personality disorder? What is that? I don't know. You forget stuff. No, but it's this one condition that I'm always messing up. Antisocial personality disorder. What was the next one? Psychopathy. And I just wanted to know if you wanted to say it real quick. Psychopathy. Yes. And borderline personality disorder. BPD. BPD.

But the point is, is that Luca McNatta was a chilling case in point with many, if not all, of these warning signs.

And Deanna Thompson and John Green knew it. And so did Alex West, the reporter with the UK Sun. They contacted Scotland Yard, the RSPCA, and other police agencies and even provided them with a lengthy dossier on Luca's past behavior and presumed future past, but nothing ever came of it. In fact, some of the agencies even felt that the kitten killing tapes were fabricated.

So Deanna and John went into overdrive with attempting to track this fucker down on their own. And this is when Deanna, who remember is an IT data analyst, began to study the metadata on Luca's photos known as EXIF, E-X-I-F, which stands for exchangeable image file format. And by studying that, she was able to figure out times, dates, and GPS of photos. And she was able to figure out the time, dates, and GPS of photos.

Now, most of her analysis turned up blank because most of his photos were photoshopped. Yeah. However, one photo of him sitting on a chaise lounge in a mall did indeed reveal a GPS location. Toronto Eaton Centre, which is a mall located in Canada. In Toronto, probably, right? Yeah. Yeah.

And crucially, the date on which the photo was taken was October 25th, 2010, which was just one month before One Boy, Two Kittens was released. Then, after analyzing another one of his photos more closely, they discovered a gas station on the corner of the photo called Petro-Canada. Using Google Maps and rotating the camera, they were able to pinpoint exactly where Luca had been when he took the photo, which was 304 Mill Street in Petro-Canada.

Adabakook, Toronto, Canada. They got them.

Or so they thought. Yeah. Because after looping in the Toronto Police Department, who actually agreed to send a patrol officer to the residence in question, they were informed by the current resident that the previous tenant, Luca Magnata, had moved to Russia. Oh, so they did find the actual place. They did. Yeah. Now, he didn't actually move to Russia, but it's what the resident was told by Luca when he moved. So once again, Luca Magnata was just out of town.

Yeah, because it's totally possible to just move to Russia. Especially this dipshit, you know? No one could seem to track him down, though. And while Luca continued to successfully evade internet sleuths and law enforcement alike...

He went ahead and posted his fourth and worst video yet on May 25th, 2012 in a snuff film titled One Lunatic, One Ice Pick. Oh my God. Across various gore sites, One Lunatic, One Ice Pick brought in approximately 100,000 views.

And in this video, Luca unsurprisingly displayed a total escalation in behavior from previous videos, having sadly kept his word about moving on to human victims. And here's exactly what happened in One Lunatic, One Ice Pick. That attention does get addictive. I'm just so glad that I took another route.

That you channeled it differently. Well, I hate to say I understand it because I don't understand the actual act of what they're doing, but I understand the pursuit. And my first thought, like when it happens when somebody makes like, I don't know, a video about something they don't normally make content about. Yeah. Their whole account becomes that.

They're just chasing that high over and over and over again. Oh. Yeah. You mean if they have a video that does well? A specific video that does well. Then they just try to recreate that or one-up it. Or just be in the same range. So they're like, now I create this type of content, right? And with this guy, times a million. Yes. Yes.

This is where, for me, social media gets very toxic. Probably most people. Because you fall into that. You do. Myself included. Like, I fall into that. And if I don't, like, recognize that and stop myself, like, I mean... You know why I don't talk about it? Because I saw a guy once in Starbucks go... He walked in, he was waiting for his drink, and I'd seen this guy around. You told me this story. And he's like...

I posted something on Instagram the other day. It got 92 likes. He was telling the baristas. Yeah. When he left, they were like, wow, dude, 92. No, it's weird. I know, but I hate it. This is my thing. Like,

this guy's like chasing it. He thinks he has it. He's really a joke to other people. And like the whole thing is toxic. Yeah. I hate it. People are toxic. I know, but, but especially on social media. Yeah. So let's get into what one lunatic, one ice pick revealed.

The night officially began at 10.20 p.m. on May 24, 2012, when CCTV footage from Luca's apartment building in Montreal revealed a 33-year-old Chinese international student named Jun Lin entering the building. Jun Lin and Luca had only met for the first time the day before after Jun Lin responded to Luca's Craigslist ad seeking to have casual kinky sex involving bondage. Someone actually responded to one of those? Yeah. Yeah.

What? Are you kidding? Craigslist is a fucking breeding ground for this shit. I never got any responses. Just saying.

No, yeah, I can't even imagine that people would, like, that's a joke to me. Like, oh, what'd you get? Were you going to meet on Craigslist? Like, that's, I can't even imagine. It's not a joke for a lot of people. Just putting it out there for real. Yeah. How is it different than like a match.com or like a dating website? Now, with the kinky sex bondage angle, very, like, whatever, niche. But the idea of meeting somebody online, nothing wrong with it. Craigslist has a different vibe to it. Mm-hmm. Yeah. Because of cases like this.

Oh, yeah. Yeah. Well, I mean, yeah. Right. So what? Because sometimes people get killed? Yes. Pretty much. After Jun Lin enters the building, he and Luca go upstairs to Luca's apartment and enter his bedroom where Luca proceeds to turn on his camera. The camera is directed on the bed where Luca had tied Lin up naked and spread eagle.

Luca then straddled Lynn and proceeded to viciously stab him 55 times in his chest and abdomen using a torque screwdriver that he fashioned to look like an ice pick. And the reason for this was to emulate a horrifically violent scene from one of his favorite movies, Basic Instinct, where a male victim is stabbed to death with an ice pick while having sex with Sharon Stone's character.

The way Luca straddled Joan Lynn was identical to the way Sharon Stone's character straddled the victim. And it was an iconic cinematic scene that Luca was replicating. You can't, like, I don't know if people that listen to us remember when that movie came out. You cannot under-emphasize the pivotal moment that happened when Sharon Stone flashed her bush to the world. It was insane.

It was legitimately, it took. And it was really her, by the way. It wasn't like a stunt person or like a whatever. Oh, I know. I mean, people lost their minds. I mean, it was a big fucking deal. Yeah. Yeah. Probably bigger for her. No, I mean, to be honest with you, I was like, oh, okay. I mean, yeah. What was that? Yeah. Yeah. I was just scared. Yeah. I was scared by the whole thing. I don't even know how I was allowed to watch it. I don't think I was. I think I got my hand on the Blockbuster tape.

And then I had a tiny TV in my bedroom and popped that right in. Yeah. The weapon that Luca used went deep enough to reach John Lynn's lungs and intestines. Wow.

Lynn's head was also hit numerous times with a hammer, which, if inflicted when Lynn was still alive, most likely contributed to his death or at least knocked him unconscious. Lynn's coccyx was broken and his rectum was torn, probably by a wine bottle that was used to rape Lynn post-mortem. Additionally, Luca Magnata went on to eat some of Lynn's flesh while also feeding a piece of his buttocks to a small black and white puppy...

that if you remember from the intro, was later found dead next to the suitcase that contained Lynn's torso.

Then, Luca dismembered Jun Lin's body into several pieces. The pathologist who later analyzed the remains, Dr. Jan Deys, noted in his 13-page autopsy report that the fingers of Lin's left hand had been cut, suggesting an attempt to remove fingerprints. Lin's head, which wasn't found until July 1, 2012, in Angringen Park,

was in an advanced mummified state and showed signs of animal activity. Dr. Days indicated that most of the injuries, except for the blows to Lynn's head and the cut throat that he suffered, occurred after he had already died. The amount of blackened blood found in the neck area provided irrefutable evidence that the throat cutting happened while Lynn was still alive.

A piece of Lynn's left buttock was also missing, which matched what was seen on the video. Additionally, two medications, the antihistamine Benadryl and the sleeping pill Temazepam, were also found in Lynn's body.

Now, the exact time of Lynn's death is not known, but we know that he sent his former boyfriend in China a text message around midnight, and CCTV footage captured Luca wearing Lynn's yellow T-shirt at 2.06 a.m. on the morning of the 25th. Yep, I remember that, too. So we can surmise, then, obviously, that the death occurred between midnight and 2.06 a.m. And I believe that Luca was wearing...

June Lynn's yellow t-shirt because it was a trophy. Yeah. Which is classic serial killer behavior. Pop quiz.

Almost immediately after killing Jun Lin, dismembering his body, raping his corpse, and eating his flesh, what did the camera capture him doing next? A. Luca checked out his own reflection. B. Luca tried to make a show of crying, but just could not do it. C. Luca opened and ate a bag of hot Cheetos. A. Yes. Yep.

In terms of Luca's post-killing and post-narcissistic steps, here's what we know.

Mm-hmm.

He carried packages to two different post offices where four of Lynn's body parts would remain for the next 48 hours before they were finally mailed to the two schools and one government building that Monday. Oh, he mailed them? Yeah. I thought he dropped them off. Apparently another package was actually sent to the Liberal Party government building as well, but it was intercepted.

Finally, Luca arrived at Montreal's Pierre Elliott Trudeau Airport wearing a wig and a Mickey Mouse t-shirt. He passed through security and boarded an evening flight to Paris.

Four days after the murder and after Luca fled Canada, Montreal police named him the prime suspect in the homicide case, and Interpol added him to its wanted list. This put police in 190 countries on notice. What is Interpol again? Is it like the European FBI or something?

International Criminal Police Organization, an intergovernmental organization that helps police forces from its 196 member countries working together. Is America in Interpol? Yeah. By then, Luca was already boarding a bus to Berlin, where upon arrival, he stayed with a man he'd met online named Frank Rupert. Frank Rupert later testified that he and Luca went out for dinner and to some bars and that Luca had behaved completely normally.

But Luca was anything but quote-unquote normal. And it was his extreme narcissism that wound up nabbing him in the end because he could not resist Googling himself and reading about the international manhunt that was happening in his name.

On June 4th, 2012, one week after the murder, a man recognized Luca's face at the Spatkauff Internet Cafe in Berlin at 11 a.m. In spite of the fact that Luca was wearing makeup and sunglasses, the man who recognized Luca, named Kadir Anlisili, flagged down a group of cadets in training that happened to be passing by.

When they confronted the Butcher of Montreal, as Luca had become known in France, or the Porno Killer, as he was known in Germany, all Luca Magnata said was, you got me. He was immediately apprehended and delivered back to Canada via the Royal Canadian Air Force Military Transport on June 18th, where he faced five charges. First-degree murder, committing an indignity to a body, publishing obscene material, and

obscene material and criminal harassment for sending those items to government buildings. During the police interrogation that followed, Luca remained mostly quiet and eerily still throughout the interview. He asked for a cigarette at one point and the only thing you can see that was like, you know, whatever, was his hand was shaking. Oh. Yep. So he is human. Yes, yes. All of these people are human, which I like to remind you of. He was...

Also shown a picture of Jun Lin by the detective who was interrogating him, but he refused to look at it. So the detective put the photo on Luca's lap.

And to me in this interview, Luca looked small, insignificant, defeated. Because indeed, he was all of those things in spite of his best efforts. Yeah, his true self. But the best part of the interrogation for me was when the detective said, what you wanted to accomplish, Luca, you succeeded. It's done. Everyone knows Luca Magnata. You understand?

The trial that followed focused primarily on Magnata's mental state at the time of the crime. But the prosecution had so much to work with, thanks to all of the work done by the internet sleuths who so diligently built a case against him for the last two years. In addition to having a smoking gun in the form of an actual snuff film, they also presented the jury with the email that Luca sent to the British journalist in which he described the pleasures of killing and the need to continue.

with a plan to produce a video depicting the death of a person rather than just pussies. Remember that? And then six months later, Lynn was dead and the graphic video was posted online. Yeah. Premeditation? Check. 100%. The prosecution also painted Luca as an attention-obsessed, needy, narcissistic man who drew on elements from the 1990s erotic thriller Basic Instinct when committing the crime that he so very, very much intended to commit.

In fact, he'd essentially promoted the video of the killing by releasing trailers, if you will, in which he began by killing kittens. Oh. The prosecution's main defense really was this. Luca Magnata killed for clicks. It was the defense that had the near impossible job of somehow mounting a defense on this fucker's behalf.

One angle that his attorney, Luke LeClaire, tried on for size was that Luca was being controlled by a male partner he met while escorting. LeClaire continued to point out to the jury that in the Christmas Python video, there appeared to be a second pair of hands helping to feed the kitten to the snake. He said that those hands belonged to a man named Manny Lopez, who essentially was the real culprit behind all of these killings.

Now, the mystery of these extra hands has never been solved, but it's possible that Luca Magnata just edited them in, considering he edited all of his videos with sound effects and photoshopped almost every single one of his photos. Yeah, but video is different. It is different, but it's just a theory. Nobody's ever been able to figure out the extra set of hands. So the defense used that. And he said that they were Manny Lopez's? Yeah. Did they ever find Manny Lopez? No, that's what I'm saying. No, no, no. Okay.

The defense also focused on Magnata's state of madness and used the CCTV footage in the hours following the killing to point out how quote-unquote insane he looked, suggesting, of course, that he was not criminally responsible for the killing.

Luca's attorney, LeClaire, asked jury members to focus on the evidence submitted at trial, including medical records that show his diagnosis of schizophrenia. To that end, Luca also maintained during trial that he heard a voice telling him to tie up and cut up Jun Lin as Jun Lin worked with the government and was a threat that needed to be stopped. Yeah, of course, I get it. So now he's hearing voices that were compelling him to kill, according to their defense.

After a 10-week, very graphic trial, 66 witnesses, and eight days of jury deliberation, the jury of 12 found Luca Magnata guilty on all charges.

Quebec Superior Court Justice Guy Cornier handed down an automatic life sentence without the possibility of parole for 25 years and thanked jurors for their patience and hard work. He said, Sir Winston Churchill would be proud. Whoa. I couldn't wait to drop that in. Madam Investigator Slater would be proud. After the foreman read the verdict, Luca Magnata showed no emotion whatsoever except to close his eyes.

Zero remorse. Yeah. June Lynn's father, Daron Lynn, delivered a heartbreaking victim impact statement through a translator and told the court how much it hurts him to know that his last words to his son were, be careful, son. Oh, God.

He said, I feel bad that I was not there to warn him that night. I will never see his smiling face on video chat or hear about his new accomplishments or hear his laugh. His birthday is on December 30th and he will never be there for his birthday or ours.

And I just want to leave off because we're done with the case, but I want to leave off on a thought-provoking angle similar to the documentary. So at one point during the online chase, Deanna Thompson, one of the online internet sleuths, got a message from Luca containing a quote from Nietzsche. And the message read...

Whoever fights monsters should see to it that in the process he does not become a monster. And if you gaze long enough into an abyss, the abyss will gaze back at you. Meaning, the more obsessed you become with hunting the monster, the more you become the monster. Deanna continues to grapple with the fear that by chasing Luca Magnata, she somehow contributed towards his escalation as he had become more and more obsessed with the attention and the chase.

At the end of Don't Fuck With Cats, the documentary, she admitted, and this is a quote, one of the things that still bothers me about this time in my life, and that keeps me up sometimes at night, is were we complicit in Luca's crimes? When we look at ourselves in the mirror, are we proud of ourselves? Are we ashamed of what happened? Maybe I did exactly what Luca wanted. Did we feed the monster or did we create it?

Yeah. I mean, blame lies solely with him, obviously. Yeah. Yeah. It does. But what he was seeking is what they were giving. I mean, he tapped into human. Exactly. I don't think for one second they are to blame. I'm just, I can actually understand. That's probably something I would grapple with as well. Because it does happen this way that you, Deanna, or whoever Deanna is in anybody's life or situation, um,

you start to, you like the attention that you're getting. So you're figuring shit out and people are encouraging you and applauding you. And it's like, well, all right, good. I mean, this is making me feel good. It's making me feel important and useful. And if that is, I don't know, it's just, it's, listen, people are people. You can't blame yourself for eventually eating something

when you're hungry. Right. Right. No, I don't think that they're to blame at all, but I do think that they were giving him what he wanted. But I think if it wasn't them, it would have been someone else. Exactly. He would have found this way to do what he was going to do. Whether it was Deanna Thompson, an online sleuth, a real detective, nobody like he would have found a way.

to go through with this. Plus there's no way to undo the past. So just deal with what is, you know? So yeah, that's a, go ahead. Did you want to say something? Go. I was going to say that's the case. Then I wanted to know if you had a tanks tidbit. Do you want to know what I was just going to say? Yeah. Which is in line with tanks tidbit today. Six segue. Yeah. Six cents. So I've been thinking about this. This is something that happened to me when I was in my codependent area.

With Damian? Damian was after. This is when I was still very much in it. Okay. So I dated this girl who, she was a pretty girl giving me attention. I dedicated my whole life to her. Immediately. So after about three or four months, because she had just broken up with her boyfriend who she was with for like nine years. We were 25 or so. Long time she was with this guy.

So I was not looking for someone who was in a relationship. I didn't want that. Or was just at the tail end of one or just out of one. Yet I went for it. So that's red flag number one for me. Number two, she told me from the beginning that she was not looking or ready for or even interested in anything serious. Okay. I was like, yeah, right. We'd see you get to know me. We'd see you get to know this guy. It'll change your mind real quick. About three or four months after we started dating...

She broke up with me because I was just calling her incessantly. Which, by the way, she had to go. Six of her friends got engaged and were going to get married. So I knew that she went to three engagement parties, and she kept running into this guy. I knew he was going to be there. So he made a comeback? No, no. But a friend of mine who I was talking to said, yeah, dude, I get it. I'd be worried too. The question is, what are you going to worry about next week? What?

I was like, fuck, probably something for sure. Definitely something. So fast forward, we're still dragging out like a year later, right? I mean, I'm dragging out. And...

My sister has a baby and I say to her, it's Memorial Day weekend. So she's, she's a, she was a partier, which was like, not okay for me anyway, not good for me. And I get her on the phone. I'm like, Hey, my sister had the baby. You, you want to come meet me at the hospital? And she goes, she goes, ah, I'm in a car right now heading from one party to another. I was like, okay, do you want me to come pick you up? And she's like,

no, I think I'm just going to, you know, keep hanging out with who I'm hanging out with my friends right now. So I called my sponsor, right? My sponsor goes, well, does she know it's important to you? I go, she should know. He goes, well, don't should anybody like tell her it's important to you. So I call her back and I say, Hey, Hey, I just wanted to let you know that this is important to me. And I'd like for you to be there. She goes,

Oh my God, fine. Oh God. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Oh God. So I tell my therapist about it like two days later, right? I had an appointment with him and he goes, I'm telling him what happened. And then he goes, well, maybe she didn't want to be at the hospital. And then maybe your parents say to her and you, when are you guys going to, you know what I mean? No, don't make excuses for her. Listen, listen, just listen. Don't interject or judge yet because I'm the problem. Don't interject. That's rich.

So he says maybe she doesn't want to be there and be in that weird situation. And then I said to him, maybe that was it. I mean, she has been saying that she's not ready for or wanting to get involved in anything serious. And his jaw drops. He's like, how long has she been saying that for? And I go, like a year, like since day one. And he was like, dude, what?

Because he didn't know that. I kept that part out of me complaining about her, not giving her life over to me. And his advice and the tidbit for today, in any situation, for any reason, when someone tells you who they are, whether it's by words or actions, believe them, even if it hurts you, especially if it hurts you. Because if someone's telling you something that's going to hurt you, like I'm not saying believe everyone when they say, oh, you're, you know, you're the best or whatever, like,

there's people who will try and gas people up to win them over. But if someone is like, Hey,

I know what you want. It's not what I want. This is what I want. You're not going to change them. Believe them. The reason being, it's not easy to tell people what you want. It takes a lot of courage and balls and thinking and communicating clearly. So I hitherto, nice, had just disrespected that and disregarded it completely. And I haven't done that since then. So did you break up with her? Yes. As a matter of fact, that night I called her and

And I go, and I wasn't even trying to get any reaction out of her. I just like felt free. I was like free of it. I go, you know, you've been telling me for like a year that you're not looking for anything serious. And she goes, yeah. I go, I think I believe you. And she sounded sad. Yeah, of course. That's how it's, I could have told you that. Oh yeah. All of a sudden she's like, well,

we should give it a shot. Yeah, it's fucking textbook. Yeah, but just when people tell you who they are, especially with actions, believe them, even if it doesn't fit the idea of what you want them to be. Yeah. Because it's just, I mean, it's a losing proposition. It's like trying to get my son to go on a ride when he tells me 50 times he doesn't want to go on it. Yes. And I'm like, trust me, I know better. You're going to like it. You actually really...

Mean to say you want to go on it. You just don't know any better. I force him on the ride and the kids. Hate it. Fucking distraught. Oh, yeah. Giving me a thumbs down the whole time on the ride. Yeah. Looking like he's going to jump out of his skin. Yeah, because to tell your truth is brave. Yeah. After that, I was like, I'm so, I believe you. You know how you're always saying you don't want to go on any rides? I get it. I believe you. Well, now I want to go on rides. Well, I wanted, I, yeah, I wanted him to have that effect. Kind of reverse psychology. Exactly, exactly, exactly.

Like when I told you you weren't going to do the Britney Spears thing? I was going to do it regardless, but yeah.

It was a good push. Had a funny way of showing it. Well, that case was, I mean, I don't know any of that. All I remember about the documentary is the emphasis on how social media came together and found this guy. He was way more focused on that. That was their angle. The director wanted to make a statement about that. Yeah. More so than obviously like the way I like to explore these cases. Yeah, there was not a lot of background on Luca Magnata in that case. Background is important. I mean, he was a...

a piece of shit and he's exactly where he belongs, behind bars, but you know, he also went through some shit as a kid. Yeah. So, you know, just know it. Do with that what you want. Well, thank you for doing all that hard work. It was a pleasure as always. And thank you for interjecting. I'm never going to do that again. Exactly. I can tell you're still mad about it. Yeah, I'm mad. I took the sunglasses off so now you can see my face. Well, we're about to do Unhinged, so you're going to be injecting all over the place. Maybe.

Maybe not. Maybe it'll just be me talking for an hour, which I would love. Thanks, Sinatra. Off the rails. Why don't you take a nap? Go cuddle up with Cash on the couch. Oh, my God. My baby's here. Yeah, right? Yeah. My vantage point is so much better than yours. I know. It is. We should put that chair over there. No, we can't. No, it's good. It's good. He likes to... We're good.

All right. Well, thanks for listening to this episode. Yes. Thank you, everybody. And if you saw the documentary and you still sat through this episode and you're here at the end, thank you so much. Hope I brought you something different and unique and interesting. Yeah. And something to chew on. Obviously you did. Always. Thank you. Every single time. Thank you. You do a great job. Thank you. I see what's happening. I get it. Racking up points. Yep. Thanks for listening, everyone. Yeah. If you made it this far, you're a real one. Thank you for listening. We'll see you guys at the next episode.

Bye.