A Sobering Reality Check

Jun Lin's grieving father Diran Lin at Mount Royal

I know this is going to make me sound like a terrible person, but for most of this past couple of months that I have been following this case - researching into Luka Magnotta's history and attempting to psychoanalyse the meaning of his extensive internet activities - I have really not given a great deal of thought to the actual victim in all this: Jun Lin!

I think I got a bit of a reality check today though when I read an emotive report in the Toronto Sun of Jun Lin's funeral last Thursday. 

Actually it wasn't so much the words but the pictures of Jun Lin's grieving father, Diran Lin, hugging the urn containing Jun's ashes at Mount Royal, Montreal, which choked me up.

I find myself now questioning what this past two months has really been about and why I have allowed this man Luka Magnotta to get under my skin.

I also feel a sense of shame that I have not given more thought to Jun Lin and his grieving family members or spent much time learning more about them and their lives.

I'm not sure anymore quite where I go from here. I can't see any meaningful purpose to what I have been doing thus far. Not really.

But of one thing I do feel resolute: this case is not about Magnotta; it is, and should always have been, about the brutal heinous murder of a young man called Jun Lin!

R.I.P. Jun Lin, 1978-2012

The 'Kitten-Gate' Conspiracy

I personally have not seen the notorious kitten killing videos that were uploaded to You Tube during 2010-11 and, whilst I do have concerns around the actual dates they were purportedly made and with the credibility of some of the 'evidence', I believe the balance of probabilities is that Luka Magnotta was involved!

However, in some quarters on the internet there are people who vociferously affirm a belief that Luka Magnotta was framed as the perpetrator of the kitten killing videos. In fact, there are even some who actually claim to have "irrefutable evidence" to prove this conspiracy theory that the video and photographic evidence linking Luka Magnotta to these crimes was deliberately doctored to set him up.

If Luka Magnotta was indeed set-up by some shadowy group of conspirators out to get him, then could someone please provide an explanation to these simple widely-known facts?

FACT - On 8th December 2011 Luka Magnotta protested his innocence of any involvement in the kitten killing videos during a  face-to-face interview with Sun reporter Alex West at his lodgings in Wembley, London. 

Alex West was dispatched to confront Luka Magnotta at the Fusilier Pub, Wembley, following several email tip-off's to the Sun about Luka Magnotta's whereabouts.  The Sun believes Luka Magnotta himself was the source of these emails about where he was staying.

Earlier that day Luka Magnotta had visited the London offices of the Sun Newspaper, after an article had been featured in the Sun linking Luka Magnotta to the notorious kitten-killing videos. Luka Magnotta denied involvement in animal cruelty and requested that the Sun stop "harassing" him.

FACT - On 10th December 2011 the Sun Newsdesk received an email from a UK Yahoo account in the name of 'John Kilbride' (a twisted reference to a victim of the Moors Murderers) intimating at the meeting with Alex West on 8th December 2011 and glibly admitting involvement in the kitten killing videos.  There is also a chilling reference to making future videos involving humans.
  
The Sun believes this email was from Luka Magnotta and whilst I am not the greatest fan of The Sun or the Murdoch press I do not see any reason to question the integrity of the journalism in this instance.

12th December 2011 - Sun reporter Alex West contacts the Metropolitan Police and is referred to the Malicious Communications Unit at Islington Police Station, where he hands over the evidence of the email from 'John Kilbride' plus copies of the intelligence he has gathered on Luka Magnotta and his alleged animal cruelty.  The Met's MCU team investigate and ascertain the email was sent from a server in The Netherlands, which is outside the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan Police so no further action is taken.

So, WHO else besides Luka Magnotta could have had knowledge of the confrontation with Alex West just 48 hours earlier on 8th December in relation to the kitten killing videos, that was so obviously intimated at in the 'John Kilbride' email?

If my memory serves me correct, the metonymy referring to a scandalous situation as a 'something-GATE' goes back to the 'Watergate Scandal' that engulfed and ultimately forced from office former US President Richard Nixon, whom some historians ascribe metaphorically hung himself with his own rope.

Might I suggest to you that 'Kitten-Gate' (as I call it here) could simply be a case of an individual who arrogantly believed he could outwit everyone whilst publicly continuing to protest his innocence, yet at the same time left a huge length of rope dangling behind him, by which he ultimately hung himself!

If anyone knows differently, please do feel free to enlighten me?!


11th November 2014 - Dr. Allard, forensic psychiatrist giving expert testimony in Magnotta's Defence, stated to the Court that Luka Magnotta admitted to her that he: "admits to having sent the email to Alex West, journalist with The Sun in London!"  Dr. Allard stated that Luka Magnotta is "embarrassed and ashamed" at having sent the email and that he "sent it because he wanted to scare Alex West."    Adding, "It was bad judgement."  Magnotta has also admitted to being involved in the kitten killings videos, although he claims he was made to do so!

“Sir, you have got a medical problem, and you need to always take medication. If you do not, your life is going to get messed up.”

Those are not my words of wisdom, but the summation by Madam Justice Lauren Marshall taken from the Ontario Courts of Justice transcript during Luka Magnotta's fraud Trial in June 2005.

Back in 2005 Luka pleaded guilty to charges of defrauding three retail stores of $16,900 and impersonating a vulnerable 21-year-old female acquaintance to obtain a credit card, but details have just emerged of the Court transcript of the case.

The Court transcript recorded that Luka Magnotta, known then as Eric Clinton Kirk Newman, met the female in January 2004 after first chatting to her online and coerced her into accompanying him to three stores to obtain credit for himself in her name, giving her an assurance that he would pay the bills. He also fraudulently obtained an American Express card by impersonating her over the telephone.

The Court transcript noted that the 21-year-old female "had a mental age of an 8-12 year-old", a fact which the Judge felt Luka Magnotta had exploited to his advantage.

The exact nature of Luka Magnotta's mental health condition was not publicly disclosed during the trial but the Court transcript recorded that Luka Magnotta had “significant psychiatric issues...and did not always take his medication”.

In passing sentence, Madam Justice Marshall ordered Luka Magnotta to take his medication, receive treatment for mental health issues and counselling for life skills, in addition to a 9-month conditional sentence and 12-months probation. 

Judge Marshall also advised Luka Magnotta: “Please listen to your parents. They may not be perfect, but when it comes down to it they are the ones in the world who care most about you and are going to always try and give you the right advice.” 

His community service order was reduced from the 100 hours requested by the Crown to 20 hours in view of his mental health issues.

Full story covered in a report on The Globe and Mail.

It was disclosed during the preliminary hearings in 2013 that Luka Magnotta had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia, which is the condition Madam Justice Marshall referred to in his 2005 Trial.

A Theory that happens to fit the Facts!

Yesterday I posted a blog hypothesising about a large gap in Luka Magnotta's career and internet activities, although I conceded I lacked the evidence to back up my thinking.

Well, what a difference a day can make!

After writing my blog posting I was researching some background history for my Timeline pages when I happened across this excellent blogspot.  Much of the information referenced in this blog I was already aware of, however my interest was pricked by a long list of articles written by Luka Magnotta in June/July 2009 on a journal website called www.estrip.org.

This was the first time I had heard of estrip.org, but visiting the site and finding some 44 lengthy articles written by Luka Magnotta between 23rd June 2009-1st July 2009 has been a revelation!

In the space of just a week Luka Magnotta wrote these 44 journal entries about a wide range of topics, including four detailed entries about his difficult personal relationship with a guy of middle-eastern appearance whom he calls 'Mike' and describes as his boyfriend.

I'm sure each of these journals is insightful in itself, although I have to confess that I have not read the majority of them right through as of yet.  But if one considers the proliferation of journal entries written in such a short timeframe it does strongly indicate a hyperactive thought process, i.e. manic thinking!

Manic episodes or cycles, commonly referred to as "mania", is a primary feature of Bi-Polar disorder but also Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), whereby a sufferer manifests an intense disturbance in their mental state arising in over-active thought processes and compulsive behaviours.

It is my hypothesis that Luka Magnotta's writings in these journal pages are indicative that he was experiencing a manic episode associated with BPD, because underlying much of what he has written about is an intense disturbance in his sense of self-image and self-identity; rather than strictly relating to a disturbance in mood more commonly associated with Bi-Polar.
  

Such episodes of mania can last days, weeks or even months at a time, during which time a person can become highly unstable and at high risk of engaging in dangerous, harmful behaviours either towards themselves (i.e. self-harming) or other people.

If Luka was in the midst of a manic episode when he wrote these articles then I believe it would be a reasonable assumption that at some point after writing these journals he experienced a crisis in his mental health condition, as a result of which he may have required some from of psychiatric care and treatment which limited his activities online for a period for time.

As for what caused Luka to get in such a state of mind, I believe you only have to look at what is known of his activities around this time to understand the pressures and stress factors he would have been experiencing.  

I think it is highly probable that the hate campaign against him on YouTube over his comments on Family Guy is a significant factor.

I have put together a PDF Document individually cataloguing the 44 journal entries, with a link to each of the journal postings on estrip.org

Taking Stock

In many ways the Magnotta Case has been the proverbial mystery, wrapped in a riddle, inside an enigma, with such a huge body of information to sift through and piece together to try to make some sort of sense.

  

Following this case has certainly given me an appreciation of the mammoth task confronting the police investigators, whom one must remember are the real sleuths in this case, and it would certainly never be my intention to do anything to impede their investigations!

It has been enormously helpful - for the sake of my sanity if for no other reason - to start putting together a timeline of events, although this process is far from complete with much more information to collate and include in my Timeline and Biographical pages; particularly in relation to events surrounding the alleged kitten killing videos.

I think clear patterns have emerged in Luka Magnotta's behavioural activities, whether online or in his everyday life, that have substantially resolved the few niggling doubts I had about the case initially.

However, something still bothers me about the video and photographic evidence implicating Luka Magnotta as the perpetrator behind several videos killing kittens during 2010-2011.   I feel much more inclined to accept his involvement now, but if the perpetrator is Luka then it strikes me he looks an awful lot younger in appearance than he would have been in 2010-11 for a man in his late-20's.

I also have an unease about the revelations that have emerged from US-based animal rights groups, some of them comprised of police and military personnel, that in 2011 and again in 2012 they attempted to entrap Luka with "sting operations" in order to bring him to justice for the alleged animal cruelty offences; including the setting up of fake YouTube accounts in June 2012 to "bait" Luka by linking him to the Hervey Medellin murder in California. 

There is no evidence such groups had any direct involvement in the wider Magnotta Case, but it does cause one to question what other information, that we have hitherto assumed came from Luka Magnotta, could have been one of these groups or activists attempting to set him up in some way.

My finally niggling doubt is related to a report that Luka Magnotta is alleged to have made on 24th May 2012 - the day of Jun Lin's murder - on the RipOff Report website regarding a former friend and Toronto fitness instructor, Nader Eid.  I have written more about the details of this report in my Timeline, but it still doesn't make sense to me why Luka Magnotta would write this about a person from his past on the very day he allegedly perpetrated a most brutal murder.

Any thoughts or comments would be most welcome!

Happy 30th, Luka!

Today Luka Magnotta turns thirty-years-old and what a way to be spending such a landmark birthday, languishing in a prison cell contemplating a lifetime of incarceration.

I dare say he'll have been sent loads of cards from the legion of fans and well-wishers, but even so I doubt there is much of chance anybody will actually be there to celebrate the ocassion with him.  

Maybe his legal team might pay him a visit, but it is most unlikely that any family members will.

Irrespective of conclusions I may have reached about Luka's guilt, a part of me still feels compassion towards him and a profound sense of pity for him that he has ended up where he is now, when he had so much going for him.

But then I am also mindful that a 33-year-old man called Jun Lin will never see another birthday again, as a consequence of the heinous crime that Luka allegedly perpetrated.  

He started off by killing kittens...He then brutally butchered a MAN...but all this was only the beginning...his latest victim is probably YOU!

Okay I guess right now you might be thinking I have completely lost the plot, but I urge you to at least hear me out before reaching any conclusions.

If you are reading this posting I assume you have found this blogspot whilst searching for information about Luka Magnotta, right?

Well you are not alone in that endeavour, because ever since this case was first publicised back in May a great many people have been totally gripped by it for a wide variety of reasons. For some people it is a need to gain an understanding and search for answers to resolve the crime; for others it's a morbid fascination with this type of criminality; but for many it comes down to being seduced by the attractive features and charisma of the alleged perpetrator; or a combination of all three!

Modern society is hooked by the cult of celebrity and an insatiable yearning for more and more information about our favoured celebrities, good or bad it doesn't seem to matter, as long as people get their fix of the latest celebrity gossip. Indeed, popular culture has redefined the very meaning of celebrity with the rise of a new breed of celebs borne of an endless stream of reality tv shows, whilst conversely some 'celebs' cling on to fame long after their talent has waned by dramatising every twist and turn in their lives on the front pages of tabloid newspapers and women's magazines.

In allegedly perpetrating this crime I believe it has become quite apparent that Luka Magnotta was seeking notoriety, manifesting narcissistic personality traits with a highly distorted self-image and delusional state of thinking influencing many of his actions; most likely developed to counter intense feelings of self-loathing, low self-esteem and issues around body image integrity (symptomatic of BPD and possibly BDD).

Many people have quite wrongly assumed, in my opinion, that Luka Magnotta lacks intelligence. I would counter this with the simple argument that it takes a degree of intelligence to carefully plan and execute a crime of this nature in the manner that he did, especially when one takes into account the extensive internet legend he painstakingly created for himself in the years and months leading upto the murder of Jun Lin. Where he is deficient I believe, is lacking in emotional intellect to apply his intelligence in what would be considered a normal healthy manner, i.e. he exhibits signs of a maladaptive coping mechanism caused by emotional dysregulation (Borderline Personality Disorder).

I have come to the conclusion that this crime was never about someone acting out of a sociopathic desire to kill or even just about a delusional craving for fame and notoriety. It has always been my view that the very nature of how this crime was staged and released onto the internet suggests a person with an agenda beyond just the criminality or notoriety.

Having followed this case pretty much full-time for some two months now and spent quite literally hundreds of hours extensively researching webpages and articles about Luka Magnotta, it has become clear to me that not only did he want to get the attention of a global audience by perpetrating such a horrific criminal act but in creating an extensive portfolio of information and imagery about himself on the internet, Luka Magnotta knew full well he would impress upon the psyche of a worldwide audience of internet users who would research every minutia of information about him and his background.

If there is one thing that Luka Magnotta understands only too well, it is the 'cult of celebrity' and he has exploited society's preoccupation with celebrity to project a lasting psychological affect via the internet; and every word written about him and everytime one of his webpages or images is viewed this affect is perpetuated! Yes, that includes this website too!

Think of it another way. What happens when a trojan horse malware virus infects your hard disk? Now think of Luka Magnotta as the trojan horse and your brain as the hard disk! Get where I am coming from?

I'll conclude this posting with a screen-capture of a post paraphrasing dialogue from American Psycho that was allegedly written by Luka Magnotta himself on the 4Chan forum on 30th May 2012 while he was on the run:

Thank you for reading and if you still think I've lost the plot then fair enough.

Simple Truths

Why is it that when presented with a fait accompli the human condition seemingly defaults to an inherent scepticism despite the obvious truths, preferring instead to believe in conspiracy theories and alternate explanations of the facts?

I am not making a moral judgement here, but I am trying to understand what it is about the Magnotta Case that lends so many people to entertain a belief that there is more to the case than is apparent from the established facts and plethora of evidential information proliferated across the web, allegedly written and/or posted by the prime suspect.

I have, myself, been disposed towards a somewhat sceptical view of some aspects of this case (I guess in some ways I still am) and I admit to struggling to comprehend the sheer scale of Luka Magnotta's web activities and how all this may or may not relate to the events leading upto Jun Lin's murder on 24th May 2012.

I am reminded though that sometimes in life things really are as straightforward as they seem, so maybe it is more a matter of reconciling ourselves to the simple truths in order to better understand the wider overview of the complexities of this case.

I guess only time will tell!

I call Romeo Salta for the defence, Your Honour

New York lawyer Romeo Salta has apparently been told by LM's lead defence counsel Luc Leclair not to divulge further information on his dealings with LM during 2011, a move seen as a preparation for Mr. Salta being called by the defence to give testimony about LM's claims of abuse during his "relationship" with the mysterious 'Manny' character (the original story and PDF of LM's emails to Romeo Salta is linked in the Timeline).

Now, hands up who didn't see that one coming? lol
 
Full story here:

Globeand Mail, 16th July 2012

Possibly in a related matter:

 

Does anybody know who this guy is pictured with Luka Magnotta?

There is no camera EXIF data to give an idea of when this picture was taken, or, for that matter, even where it was taken. 

Sockpuppets, Aliases and Wotnot

There are many mysteries to the Magnotta case that remain largely unresolved, despite the apparent abundance of anecdotal information and 'evidence' proliferated across the web.

I think it is worth bearing in mind that attribution of many of the writings and postings to LM is based on an assumption that he alone created the multiple identities and sock puppet accounts to propegate the webpages and forum postings we have become all too familiar with.

The principle reason we accept this to be the case is because we are being given this information in seemingly authoritative postings on numerous websites, which have produced lists citing alleged LM aliases and known sock puppet accounts.

However, an important caveat to such information must be that it is just an assumption that these accounts and identities were created by LM himself, unless there is irrefutable evidence to substantiate the supposition.

I have to admit that the prose and style of many of the blogs, forum postings and websites I have personally viewed so far - and, indeed, linked here in my Timeline - do appear consistent with LM's writings and self-promotion, so whilst it may well be a mute point about substantiating such identities I do still believe - in a case with so many twists and turns - it is something of which we should be mindful.

Having said that, here is a PDF I have compiled of known aliases and sock puppet accounts and Flickr Photostreams believe to have been created and used by Luka Magnotta.

Timeline

The timeline I have put together is now up and running here, or just click on the Timeline link at the top of my main blog page.

There are still some gaps which need filling in or expanding further on separate pages, but from now on I shall regularly update information.

Marc

Welcome to The Magnotta Files

Firstly, let me clarify that this blog is not another Luka Magnotta fanzine, but neither is it my intention to portray a negative bias against Luka Magnotta personally irrespective of the allegations against him.

My interest in the Magnotta case is based on a personal understanding and insight into Luka Magnotta's complex psychological issues .
 

I suspect like many who have been following and researching into the Magnotta case online, I have amassed a considerable amount of information about Luka Magnotta's background history, his online activities and psychological profile, which I have collated to produce a timeline of events and internet activities that I consider of significance leading upto the heinous murder of Jun Lin.

So, in the coming weeks and months I shall be posting relevant documentary evidence and updating my timeline history to this blog.