The rest of the true story is even more shocking.
Luka Magnotta documentary Don’t F**k with Cats leaves out key details and evidence
Note: The following article contains graphic details of crimes that some readers might find upsetting.
Don’t F**k with Cats is unlike your usual true crime documentary series, turning the bizarre and downright disturbing Luka Magnotta case upside down by tackling it from a different perspective.
It was these internet users, via a Facebook group, who helped identify and later compile evidence against Luka Magnotta after some videos surfaced on the internet of an anonymous person killing cats.
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Is that a good thing? Well, perhaps in purely formal documentary terms, it offers a new perspective and a new angle. But this isn’t a documentary about flower arranging or competitive angling: it’s about murder.
It’s one thing to sit watching at home and discuss a case with your friends and family. It’s fine to share those opinions online. But there’s a point where the line between private discussion and that discussion’s real-world consequences becomes blurred, and it behooves us all to at least be aware of it.
Jun Lin (we’ve presented his name in the westernised order forename-surname because that’s the form chiefly used in the documentary) was an international student from Wuhan, the capital of Central China’s Hubei province, and he had moved to Montreal to study computer engineering at Concordia University.
Although Lin’s family did not feature in the documentary, they delivered a victim impact statement following the verdict back at the 2014 trial.
According to a CBC article from the time, Jun Lin was described as a smart young man who was committed to his studies, and who was the pride of his family. He had been working part-time alongside his University course and his family said that he had plans to stay in Canada and was hoping to start a business.
It was revealed in Don’t F**k With Cats that Lin was dismembered and that some parts of his body were mailed to political parties. Others were also sent to two schools in Vancouver (via a 2012 article in The Hamilton Spectator).
Netflix
It was also detailed in the docu-series that Lin’s torso was recovered from a suitcase outside the apartment Magnotta had been renting in Montreal. While it was made clear in the show that he had been decapitated, it was not explained that the head was recovered after some time from Montreal’s Angrignon Park (via CTV News) when police received an anonymous tip. They had been determined to find this in order to give closure to Lin’s family.
The brutal killing caused concern and anger in China, and many believed the crime was racially motivated. According to the Globe and Mail’s Beijing-based reporter Mark MacKinnon (via a 2012 report published on Yahoo! News), it raised further questions about public safety in Canada particularly because, at that time, Lin’s murder was the second killing of a Chinese student in just over a year. In April 2011, York University student Liu Qian was killed in Toronto.
After a video depicting Jun Lin’s murder was posted online in May 2012, Luka Magnotta left Canada and soon became the subject of an international manhunt. Due to the nature of the crime and the disturbing developments that followed, the search garnered worldwide media attention.
Netflix
In 2012 Interim Liberal Party leader Bob Rae asked that Canadians mourn the victim rather than “in any way, shape or form” celebrate Magnotta’s notoriety. “Let’s not forget that a young man was killed in the most terrible of circumstances,” he said, before later adding: “His family in China is mourning, and his friends are in mourning, and all of Canada should be mourning for the person who died, rather than… celebrate the notoriety of Mr Magnotta.”
Magnotta pleaded not guilty to all charges against him. In December 2014, he was found guilty of first-degree murder and was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole for 25 years. Magnotta was sentenced to another 19 years for four other charges, to be served concurrently. According to an archival CBC News report, Magnotta “closed his eyes and showed no emotion” when the verdict was read.
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The documentary leads to the moment that Magnotta is questioned in Canada before the trial begins, but then gives its final moments to speculating on whether a mystery man named “Manny Lopez” existed.
(Luka’s mother asserts that a “third hand” in the videos is Manny’s. She told TMZ: “In the cat killing video there is a third hand, as you can see, my son’s two hands and third hand. You can’t see a face so it’s unidentifiable… but Manny was there.” The documentary does not pursue this as a line of inquiry.)
Having claimed diminished responsibility at trial, Magnotta’s mental state at the time of the crimes was reported to be a big focus in court.
Following the verdict, Magnotta’s lawyer Luc Leclair said that his client suffered “as the experts have said, from schizophrenia and personality disorder. When you first see him, it’s the histrionic personality that comes forward. However, with a bit of time it’s the schizophrenia that surfaces”.
According to a 2014 report in the Montreal Gazette, which published details from a 124-page report filed in court, Magnotta had told a psychiatrist that he had started hearing voices at the age of 17, and had been previously treated for severe mental illness.
Criminal psychology is also a big part of the true-crime genre, with many viewers tuning in to learn about the darkest parts of the human psyche. While psychology has never been a “hard science” – ie concrete predictions cannot be made from observations in the way that the laws of physics work – the insights offered by those who have spent careers studying the subject are surely to be considered of more value than mere public opinion.
Don’t F**k With Cats is available now on Netflix.
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