HE’S the psychopathic killer who filmed himself feeding a live kitten to a python and suffocating another in a plastic bag in a chilling bid for internet notoriety.
But the sickening videos were a prelude to monstrous Luka Magnotta’s final act – stabbing a lover to death, chopping up his body and posting out the severed body parts to schools and politicians.
AFPLuka Magnotta, a model and porn actor, was dubbed the ‘Canadian Psycho’[/caption]
Jun Lin was violently murdered by Luka Magnotta in 2012Rex Features
CollectMagnotta used a python and other cruel methods to kill kittens in videos he posted online[/caption]
Yet the Canadian, now 42, who was jailed for 25 years in 2014 for murdering Chinese university student Jun Lin, 33, remains remorseless according to true crime expert Teemu Saarenpää.
After exchanging letters with Magnotta, real name Eric Newman, he believes the “extremely ego-centric” killer “lives in la la land” and remains in denial that he committed any wrongdoing.
Teemu, 41, who runs blog Forenseek, tells The Sun: “He lives in a totally upside-down, candy land world where he believes he’s accused of something he didn’t do.
“He’s in denial, doesn’t take responsibility for what he did and portrays himself as someone misunderstood by an evil society that set him up.
“He was unreflective of his deeds and is clearly a wannabe celebrity who wanted to be famous and a glamorous god.
“Because he wasn’t able to obtain that fame through any real talent, he decided to become infamous instead.”
Magnotta, who was the subject of hit 2019 Netflix docuseries Don’t F*** With Cats, is one of many monsters Teemu has been able to see inside the mind of by writing letters to them in prison.
Other notable inmates he’s probed include Charles Bronson, who made a distasteful quip about hostage-taking, and ‘Night Stalker’ serial killer Richard Ramirez, who was the “most evil person” he’s spoken to.
Speaking to The Sun for our Meeting a Monster series, Teemu admits he was particularly surprised by Magnotta’s absolute refusal to acknowledge his callous crimes.
In one letter Magnotta, known as ‘Canadian Pyscho’, refuted claims he was an animal killer – despite being captured on film – and brushed it off as jealous rivals who were “very good with Photoshop”.
CollectPolice say Magnotta had up to 80 aliases online[/caption]
Magnotta had aspirations of being a model
A dead dog along with other incriminating things were found near to Magnotta’s flatSplash News
AP:Associated PressThe Canadian stabbed his lover Jun Lin to death with a screwdriver after tying him to a bed[/caption]
Among the incriminating clips was ‘1 Boy 2 Kittens’, which showed him putting the animals into a plastic bag before using a vacuum to suffocate them.
Yet Magnotta told Teemu: “I never in my life harmed any animals – I actually adore them… I was falsely accused of willingly participating in some bizarre animal videos. I’m completely bewildered.”
Chillingly, he also signed off his letter: “Luka, aka cuddle cat”.
Magnotta snubbed doctors, who diagnosed him as schizophrenic, claiming they were “self-serving” and created “misleading reports”.
One medical professional, he alleged, was “obsessed with making a name for himself” – when in fact, according to Teemu, it was Magnotta who possessed a “desperate obsession with getting a personality cult on the internet”.
Magnotta, who says he has a 132 IQ score, also denied having created multiple online aliases – despite police reporting as many as 80 existed – claiming it to be the work of deranged fans.
I never in my life harmed any animals – I actually adore them… I was falsely accused of willingly participating in some bizarre animal videos. I’m completely bewildered
Luka Magnotta in a letter to Teemu Saarenpää
“If these idiots copied photos of me and impersonated me online, that’s on them, that’s their problem… I’m told people posing as me is an epidemic online,” he told Teemu, who’s from Finland.
“I find it so pathetic and have always ignored it. I never, I repeat NEVER had any fake accounts, nor did I ever pose as anyone other than myself.”
When Magnotta was snared for murdering Jun Lin, cops discovered an 11-minute snuff film titled ‘1 Lunatic 1 Icepick’, which showed him repeatedly stabbing his victim with a screwdriver and dismembering him.
Sickeningly they revealed the killer used one of Lin’s body parts to perform a sex act, then carved up his body with a knife and fork and fed bits of it to a dog.
Teemu considered Luka deluded, describing him as “in his own munchkin world” – unlike his other killer pen pal Richard Ramirez, who “was aware he was evil and didn’t give a s***”.
‘The most evil person I’ve written to’
Monster Richard Ramirez murdered at least 14 people in the 80s
NetflixRamirez was known as ‘The Night Stalker’ killer[/caption]
Getty – ContributorRamirez proudly flashed a pentagram he had drawn on his hand in court[/caption]
The monster, dubbed ‘the Night Stalker’, murdered at least 14 people and raped multiple women at knife-point, often in front of their partners and children.
Teemu wrote to Ramirez, who plagued California during the Eighties, in a bid to understand how someone “so tangibly evil” thought.
“He was definitely the most evil person I’ve written to,” Teemu says. “Ramirez embraced being as depraved, as horrible, as deplorable as a human being could be.
“He was a Satanist. He embraced everything evil and spoke about worshipping the Devil, who he believed to be a real entity.
“He didn’t give a s*** about anything, killing was for fun for him, and even after he received the death penalty, he said, ‘Big deal, death always came with the territory, I’ll see you in Disneyland’.”
But in Ramirez’s letter, Teemu claimed he came across “more like a chilled Californian surfer” or “Keanu Reeves in the Bill & Ted movies” than a depraved murderer.
He says: “There are some killers who are very verbose and self-reflective, but Ramirez was the exact opposite.
“He liked AC/DC, Eighties muscle cars, chicks, beer, that sort of thing.”
I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near him. If he was in a 10km radius, I’d get on a bus in the opposite direction
Teemu Saarenpää
Teemu suspects Ramirez was either not very intelligent or masquerading with a “mundane mask of sanity” to pretend he was normal.
Teemu found one element of Ramirez’s letter particularly chilling – the question: “So any nieces or nephews in your life?’
“It was such a weird and specific thing to say that I looked it up online and Ramirez has a habit of asking penpals that question before trying to get them to send pictures of them,” Teemu explains.
He fears this was a ploy to solicit snaps of underage children – and suspects it shows Ramirez – who died of natural causes in 2013 – was a paedophile.
The death row inmate was known to have previously molested two kids in a lift and forced a three-year-old boy, who he tied up, to watch his mother being raped.
Shock discovery
Teemu’s fascination with dark subject matter began after meeting a sweet old lady who he became friends with during his childhood – only to discover she was a murderer.
“Sometime later I heard from my parents that she killed her husband and buried him in the garden of her home,” he says.
“You absolutely wouldn’t believe it if you met her. It made me realise there is no ‘killer gene’ or anything categorically different in the brains of killers to the rest of the public, which I found really intriguing.”
The revelation set him on a path to try to get inside the minds of famous killers, initially through reading books and watching documentaries, before deciding to write to them.
“I find the dark side of human life, full of stories so different from my lived reality, so fascinating,” Teemu says.
“I’m a normal, middle class dude, a bit like Milhouse from The Simpsons, so finding out about these people is like looking into the inverse mirror.
“It makes me think how my life could have been if I was born in a warzone, watched people die, gone through a traumatic childhood or lived in an abusive family.”
‘Violent psychopath’
Charles Bronson wasn’t as intimidating in letters, as Teemu predicted
SuppliedBronson sent Teemu a painted postcard[/caption]
Teemu also exchanged letters with Charles Bronson, who he says came across like a “jolly British bloke” and acted like “someone you’d meet in a pub after an Arsenal match”.
He wrote to the crook because he found his “totally relentless one-man war against the authorities” fascinating.
“If you told him, ‘You can turn right to gold and chocolate and left to hell’, he would turn to hell and refuse to obey, even if the decision did not help him,” Teemu says.
Bronson sent Teemu a piece of artwork depicting himself topless on a beach musing about no longer being in prison.
It featured the Latin phrase ‘Candor dat viribus alas’, which translates to ‘Candour gives wings to strength’, and the sketch of a book titled ‘Freedom is Wonderful by Charles Bronson’.
Additionally he sent a short letter quizzing Teemu about his life, and was “charismatic, verbose and always making jokes”.
“You can see how he would have a certain magnetism and women would want to be with him,” he says of the lag, who has married twice while behind bars and had several girlfriends.
You can see how he would have a certain magnetism and women would want to be with him
Teemu on Charles Bronson
But beneath the surface, Teemu noted a darker side. Bronson made a distasteful joke in response to him disclosing he had worked with refugees from Afghanistan, Iran and Iraq.
Bronson wrote: “You mention that you work with folks from the Middle East. That’s funny because you reminded me of a story where I took someone hostage – that person was Middle Eastern.”
Teemu adds: “He didn’t elaborate but… he said it like someone would say, ‘I went to Italy the other day,’ but being Bronson he’s like, ‘Oh yeah, I took an Iranian guy hostage’.”
He adds he would never meet the “violent psychopath” in person, admitting: “I wouldn’t want to be anywhere near him. If he was in a 10km radius, I’d get on a bus in the opposite direction.”
Read more about Teemu’s interviews with serial killers and murderers at www.forenseek.app.
SuppliedTeemu’s fascination with dark subject matter began after meeting a sweet old lady who he became friends with during his childhood – only to discover she was a murderer[/caption]
Who are the UK’s worst serial killers?
THE UK’s most prolific serial killer was actually a doctor.
Here’s a rundown of the worst offenders in the UK.
British GP Harold Shipman is one of the most prolific serial killers in recorded history. He was found guilty of murdering 15 patients in 2000, but the Shipman Inquiry examined his crimes and identified 218 victims, 80 per cent of whom were elderly women.
After his death Jonathan Balls was accused of poisoning at least 22 people between 1824 and 1845.
Mary Ann Cotton is suspected of murdering up to 21 people, including husbands, lovers and children. She is Britain’s most prolific female serial killer. Her crimes were committed between 1852 and 1872, and she was hanged in March 1873.
Amelia Sach and Annie Walters became known as the Finchley Baby Farmers after killing at least 20 babies between 1900 and 1902. The pair became the first women to be hanged at Holloway Prison on February 3, 1903.
William Burke and William Hare killed 16 people and sold their bodies.
Yorkshire Ripper Peter Sutcliffe was found guilty in 1981 of murdering 13 women and attempting to kill seven others between 1975 and 1980.
Dennis Nilsen was caged for life in 1983 after murdering up to 15 men when he picked them up from the streets. He was found guilty of six counts of murder and two counts of attempted murder and was sentenced to life in jail.
Fred West was found guilty of killing 12 but it’s believed he was responsible for many more deaths.
Published: [#item_custom_pubDate]
