A serial killer hidg bodi planters is horrifyg and mabre enough — but the early vtigatn to what beme the Bce McArthur se went off on a pletely different, and twisted, tangent. From 2010 to 2017, several men disappeared om Toronto’s predomantly gay neighborhood The Village. In 2018, the killer was unmasked: 66-year-old Bce McArthur, a genial landsper who ocsnally moonlighted as a mall Santa. McArthur eventually plead guilty to murrg eight men, mostly gay men of Southeast Asian or Middle Eastern scent. He is Canada’s most prolific serial killer ever. The story is a chillg one, and as seen the Oxygen special “Catchg A Serial Killer: Bce McArthur,” the vtigatn to the strg of murrs actually first foced on the possibily of a nnibal killer. On Sept. 6, 2010, Skandaraj Navaratnam left a gay bar The Village wh an unknown man. He was never seen aga. A few months later, on Dec. 29, 2010, Abdulbasir Faizi told his wife he was headg out to meet a iend. Instead, he was last seen equentg a lol bathhoe The Village. Then, 2012, Majeed Kayhan was reported missg by his son. He had last been seen alive on Oct. 8, 2012. All the men vanished wh blocks of each other, acrdg to “Catchg A Serial Killer: Bce McArthur.” However, the missg men did not ially receive much attentn om thori. It was only when they were ntacted by Interpol (the Internatnal Crimal Police Organizatn) 2012 that they realized somethg was serly amiss. Interpol ntacted Toronto thori bee a source Swzerland had a nversatn wh a person on a nnibal fantasy webse lled Zambian Meat, where ers discsed torturg and eatg people, CTV News reported 2018. This er particular claimed he had killed and eaten a man Toronto. “When you’re first told that, ’s unbelievable, ’s like, ‘A nnibal, really?’” Det. Sgt. Hank Idsga wh the Toronto Police Service told “Catchg A Killer: Bce McArthur.” “Then, hold up, well, actually we do have a missg man om Toronto that fs the profile this person is talkg about.” Authori believed the victim the er was referrg to was Skandaraj Navaratnam, as the er allegedly referred to “Skanda” durg nversatns, CBC News reported 2019. They also realized they had a few other men who matched the scriptn — Majeed Kayhan and Abdulbasir Faizi — and after flyg to Swzerland to terview the source and termg the tip credible, they lnched an vtigatn to the three missg men, dubbed Project Hoton, after the famo phrase, “Hoton, we’ve got a problem,” acrdg to “Catchg A Serial Killer: Bce McArthur.” Invtigators were able to trace the er qutn — “Chefmate50” — and learn his real inty: Jam Alex Bnton, a married former hospal technician livg Peterborough, Ontar, CTV News reported. Those workg on Project Hoton lled him “Spect Zero.” For seven months, they surveilled Bnton as they vtigated his potential volvement. They also nsired a possible lk between him and another notor Canadian killer: Le Magnotta, a young man who rerd a vio of himself murrg and dismemberg llege stunt Jun L 2012, acrdg to CBC News. Magnotta mailed the victim’s hands and feet to schools and polil party headquarters, and he ate some of the body parts, the New York Daily News reported 2017. Magnotta, who also posted several onle vios where he tortured ts, was recently the foc of the doceri “Don’t F—k Wh Cats.” Magnotta was ctody durg the vtigatn, and the possible nnibal nnectn, as well as several other clu, drove thori to see if Bnton and Magnotta had any lks. While chattg wh other young men onle about nnibalism, Bnton often mentned a nnibal named “Nathan,” who worked as a dancer at a club lled Remgton’s, CBC News reported. Magnotta had also once worked as a dancer at that club and had lled himself “Nathan” text msag, acrdg to the outlet. Magnotta had even put up onle ads lookg for Middle Eastern men only a few months before Navaratnam, the first victim, vanished. Pl, when Magnotta was a teenager, he lived only a few blocks away om Bnton. All of the cinc alarmed vtigators, but the evince was clear: They nclud Bnton’s nnibalism fantasi were jt that — make believe. Neher Magnotta nor Bnton were ever nnected to the aths o Navaratnam, Faizi and Kayhan. Project Hoton was over. Bnton, however, was nvicted of child pornography charg 2014, CBC News reported. In the end, the man behd all the murrs was Bce McArthur. And while would take several more years for Toronto thori to tch him, Project Hoton did first surface McArthur’s name to vtigators, CBS News reported. A ername and email addrs, "silverfoxx51,” was found Navaratnam and Faizi’s puter data. After fdg a rrpondg number to the email addrs Navaratnam’s ntact list, tectiv were able to intify silverfoxx51 as McArthur. McArthur was terviewed as part of Project Hoton 2013 as a potential wns, acrdg to CBC News, but not as a spect. Six years later, McArthur was sentenced to life prison for murrg eight men. For more on this se, watch Oxygen’s special “Catchg A Serial Killer: Bce McArthur” here.
Contents:
- CRACKG THE TORONTO GAY VILLAGE SERIAL KILLER CASE: HOW BCE MCARTHUR WAS FALLY CGHT
- SERIAL KILLER WHO STALKED AND TERRORIZED TORONTO’S GAY VILLAGE SENTENCED TO LIFE
- BCE MCARTHUR: GAY VILLAGE SERIAL KILLER GETS LIFE SENTENCE
- BCE MCARTHUR: TORONTO SERIAL KILLER STROYED GAY SAFE SPACE
- ANTI-GAY BIAS LED TO 'SER FLAWS' TORONTO SERIAL KILLER VTIGATN
- MEN KEPT GOG MISSG FROM TORONTO’S GAY VILLAGE — WHY DID POLICE DENY THERE WAS A SERIAL KILLER?
- “UNVER: THE VILLAGE”: A SERIAL KILLER, TORONTO’S GAY COMMUNY, AND A PODST THAT TRANSCENDS TE CRIME
- SERIAL KILLER DOCERI 'LAST CALL' RECKONS WH NYC'S HISTORY OF ANTI-GAY VLENCE
- ANTI-GAY BIAS HRED TORONTO POLICE AS A SERIAL KILLER ROAMED
CRACKG THE TORONTO GAY VILLAGE SERIAL KILLER CASE: HOW BCE MCARTHUR WAS FALLY CGHT
A iendly garner and mall Santa, McArthur may also have been the worst ever serial killer of gay men. Did police turn a bld eye? * toronto gay serial killer *
Some argued that police were too slow to warn the muny of a possible serial killer, sayg liv uld have been make matters worse, Toronto police appeared to put some blame on the gay muny for the killgs when chief Mark Snrs told reporters that they might have ught McArthur sooner had rints of the gay village been more forthg. Their requt to participate 2018 was, April, a move that some have terpreted as an acknowledgment of their neglect of the gay muny, police announced that they were reopeng 25 ld s – all murrs associated wh Toronto’s gay date om 1997 all the way back to no one is suggtg is Santa to serial killerWhile vtigators are still velopg a profile of the alleged serial killer, they are certa of one thg.
His age, as well as his unthreateng appearance – round featur and a broad, cheery se – ma him seem approachable to children shoppg wh their parents, as well as to gay men seekg a dark sexual enunter wh someone they uld McArthur a photo posted on a social media acunt.
SERIAL KILLER WHO STALKED AND TERRORIZED TORONTO’S GAY VILLAGE SENTENCED TO LIFE
For almost a , Bce McArthur ed Toronto's Gay Village as a huntg ground for victims. * toronto gay serial killer *
Photograph: RtersAfter divorcg his wife, McArthur, who had been active on his church board Oshawa, east of Toronto, beme a regular the cy’s gay village. He was sentenced 2003 to two years probatn and told to stay away om the gay 2010, reports started to e through of men gog missg om the village. The first, Skandaraj Navaratnam, rts particularly heavily on the md of Haran Vijayanathan, executive director of the Alliance for South Asian Aids Preventn (ASAAP) men are Sri Lankan, Ta and gay.
BCE MCARTHUR: GAY VILLAGE SERIAL KILLER GETS LIFE SENTENCE
Toronto’s LGBT muny griev after one of their own is charged wh targetg and killg gay men. * toronto gay serial killer *
Jt as gay men om North Bay and Moose Jaw flocked to Toronto the 1970s to live ee and open liv, a new generatn of gay men om south Asia and the Middle East have been drawn to Canada the last 20 years for the same reasons. Gay men – particularly gay refuge or other relatively new Canadians – f to a populatn that clus prostut, aborigal women and then there is what Lee refers to as “missg whe woman syndrome”: the ia that police, media and the public are ls cled to pay attentn to crim that are perpetrated on margalized muni.
Vijayanathan, who is one of the most outspoken crics of how Toronto let s gay muny down, sists that police only took the vtigatns serly when Andrew Ksman, one of two whe victims, was reported he also pots to racism wh the gay muny – parg the massive lol search mounted after the reported disappearance of the other whe victim, Andrew Ksman, wh the slower and ls hive rponse to the disappearanc of the brown-skned victims. Vijayanathan also believ the fai of some of the missg immigrant men failed to report their some s, he says, the disappearanc were the first time fay members learned their relative was gay (or MSM, men who have sex wh men but don’t intify as gay). For example, Kishna Kumar Kanagaratnam was a Ta refugee who me to Canada 2016 and was never reported missg, and after Navaratnam’s refugee claim was nied he rarely left the nf of the gay village.
“Throughout our history, people have e to the cy as a refuge and a place to explore their sexualy – often whout the knowledge of their fay and iends, ” says Tom Hooper, a York Universy historian who has voted much of his studi to the gay experience Toronto the Hooper also pots the fger at police. Seven of those s rema btal stabbg ath of William Dunn Robson at his home November 1978 me shortly after the popular 1970s gay magaze the Body Polic to qutn the sluggish police rponse to the strg of murrs, and the official stance that they were unrelated: “Could they have been mted by one man?
BCE MCARTHUR: TORONTO SERIAL KILLER STROYED GAY SAFE SPACE
As officials Canada tried to track down a serial killer who targeted gay men Toronto’s Village, they were thrown off by a post on a nnibalism fantasy fom. * toronto gay serial killer *
Crics dispute that theory by potg to a very different manner of executn and body disposal: the 1970s murrs were mostly stabbgs, and the victims were left where they were is disputable is that police never ught the killer, or killers – and ’s hardly a stretch to image that they didn’t feel much prsure to do so the homophobic atmosphere of the was a holiday tradn each Halloween durg the 1960s and 70s for Toronto rints to tnt gay men, pecially drag queens, as they entered bars on Yonge Street like the St Charl Tavern and the Parksi. They pelted eggs, which turned to rocks, which turned to beatgs on darkened si mostly looked the other way, rells the Rev Brent Hawk, a longtime lear of the cy’s gay rights movement who was once himself rtraed on a siwalk by two officers as a third punched him. Photograph: Frank Lennon/Toronto Star/GettyThe nstant harassment by police reach the boilg pot 1981, when 200 police officers scend on four gay bathho.
Photograph: Ian Willms/Getty ImagBut even as Toronto’s more tablished gay muny gas strength, new arrivals ntue to lead margal, vulnerable Hank Idsga, 50, the lead vtigator on the most high-profile of murr s, is keenly aware of media cricism that police did not take the missg persons reports or speculatn of a serial killer serly bee the men were gay and mostly brown-skned.
”The cisn to open the ld s – Idsga timat the number of unrolved s of murred gay men at 20 or more – is a belated attempt to make somethg very wrong at least a b more right. A former Mr Leatherman Toronto, Cribb told Global TV a wi-rangg terview that he felt fortable submtg to McArthur’s wish bee he looked so even brought up the mour of a serial killer attackg gay men Toronto, but says McArthur didn’t McArthur, Cribb has a tough appearance: sleeve tattoos, a black beard and a thick nose rg.
ANTI-GAY BIAS LED TO 'SER FLAWS' TORONTO SERIAL KILLER VTIGATN
"Systemic bias" and "ser flaws" imped the Toronto police vtigatn of a serial killer who preyed on gay and bisexual men for seven years, an pennt review found. * toronto gay serial killer *
Photograph: Bernard Weil/Toronto Star via Getty ImagBut as well as gettg to the head of McArthur, means tryg to heal a rift wh the gay muny that stretch back Sunday’s otherwise jubiliant Pri para will end wh a ntgent of anizers drsed black, to pay rpect to the victims of the killer and to all LGBTQ people who don’t feel safe their own some the gay muny argue that this is a time for healg – and that police participatn is ccial if the gay muny is gog to move forward – Black Liv Matter is not so eager to five, sistg that banng uniformed officers is a need prott agast broar police neglect and abe. He also exprs sympathy for the many LGBTQ members on Toronto’s police force who ually enjoy marchg uniform the says he has wnsed the growg matury of the partment over the s – wh an emphasis placed on sensivy trag and recg gay officers, cludg an openly lbian puty chief. NBC News lled him "Canada's 'Gay Village' serial killer, " sce the seven years before his arrt, he had murred at least eight men nnected one way or another to the Church and Wellley neighborhood, the cy's gay enclave.
Ksman was well known the neighborhood for his gay rights activism and his time tendg bar at a popular Church and Wellley waterg hole, and his iends drew attentn to his disappearance by postg flyers wh his picture on them.
McArthur also began explorg his newfound sexual eedom by equentg Toronto's gay district, the Church and Wellley neighborhood, but he soon began to show that he was not as jolly as the red velvet su would lead one to believe.
MEN KEPT GOG MISSG FROM TORONTO’S GAY VILLAGE — WHY DID POLICE DENY THERE WAS A SERIAL KILLER?
On CTV's W5: Invtigative reporter Avery Ha on the shockg tip that led police to start lkg men who had disappeared om Toronto's gay village. * toronto gay serial killer *
Over the next three years, three more men lked to the cy’s gay neighborhood vanished, cludg Soroh Mahmudi, 50, Kishna Kumar Kanagaratnam, 37, and Dean Lisowick, 47.
“UNVER: THE VILLAGE”: A SERIAL KILLER, TORONTO’S GAY COMMUNY, AND A PODST THAT TRANSCENDS TE CRIME
Forty years ago, 14 gay men were btally killed Toronto. Half of those s are still unsolved. Police are lookg for any potential lks between those homicis and the on alleged serial killer Bce McArthur is acced of now nnectn wh men missg om the cy’s Gay Village. * toronto gay serial killer *
For years, members of Toronto’s gay muny warned that there was a serial killer on the loose, that vulnerable men were gog missg, that the streets were not safe. He plead guilty last a sentencg hearg that end Tuday, Canadians heard how he lured and murred men he met Toronto’s Gay Village, then posed rps stum, keepg pictur of each victim labeled digal learned McArthur was stopped when police raid his home, fdg a man tied to a bed.
He was a potential nth victim, the urt heard, and McArthur had a folr a cy that pris self on beg gay-iendly and welg to new Canadians, McArthur sought out men margalized by their sexualy, ethnicy, immigratn stat or poverty.
Some have argued that the police rponse was slowed by homophobia and racism — that the force might have acted more quickly if different men had disappeared. McArthur will not be eligible for parole before he is source, Toronto Police/BBCImage ptn, Clockwise om upper left: Selim Esen, Andrew Ksman, Majeed Kayhan, Dean Lisowick, Kishna Kumar Kanagaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi, Skandaraj Navaratnam, Soroh MahmudiMost of his victims had ti to Toronto's Gay Village neighbourhood, as did McArthur were Selim Esen, Andrew Ksman, Majeed Kayhan, Dean Lisowick, Kishna Kumar Kanagaratnam, Abdulbasir Faizi, Skandaraj Navaratnam and Soroh Mahmudi.
SERIAL KILLER DOCERI 'LAST CALL' RECKONS WH NYC'S HISTORY OF ANTI-GAY VLENCE
Sarah Larson on “Unver: The Village,” a podst, om the Canadian Broadstg Company, about a seri of murrs Toronto’s gay muny, reported and hosted by Jt Lg. * toronto gay serial killer *
Image source, FacebookImage ptn, Bce McArthur was arrted on 18 JanuaryFor years, there were whispers Toronto's gay muny about a serial killer stalkg the muny. Now that one of their own has plead guilty to the murrs of eight missg men, they wonr why the police didn't act a small park the heart of Toronto's Gay Village, about 200 people assembled the snow to mourn the victims of an alleged serial wore armbands pated wh the words "love", "heal", "rise", "grieve".
He knew he was gay om a young age, but tried to ignore , urt documents for an asslt charge would later grandfather and father of two me out his 40s after abptly leavg his fay Oshawa and movg to Toronto, where he beme a regular the Gay Zipperz, one of the bars equented by many of his alleged victims, he uld often be found stg at the bar, havg a drk or chattg up a fellow patron. In 2003 he was given a two-year ndnal sentence for assltg a male prostute wh a metal source, BBC SportImage ptn, An attene at the vigil wears an armband wh the word "love"As part of his sentence, he was required to stay away om male prostut, the Gay Village and rea om g amyl nre, also known as was close wh several of his landspg clients.
Loted at the tersectn of Church Street and Wellley Street, Toronto's Gay Village has been the cy's enclave for the LGBT muny sce the 1960s.
ANTI-GAY BIAS HRED TORONTO POLICE AS A SERIAL KILLER ROAMED
Bce McArthur has plead guilty to killg eight men he met Toronto's gay muny. <i>Warng: This post ntas disturbg tails about the killgs.</i> * toronto gay serial killer *
Kishna Kumar Kanagaratnam, 37, January 2016Dean Lisowick, 47, April 2016Selim Esen, 44, April 2017Andrew Ksman, 49, June 2017Image ptn, Toronto's Gay VillageUnanswered qutnsPolice have not said how Bce McArthur beme a spect the killgs. Image source, FacebookImage ptn, Friends hung posters of Andrew Ksman around the Village and CabbagetownThen June 2017, Ksman's disappearance sparked a muny-wi search and rekdled mours of a serial killer the gay after, police lnched a send task force, to look to both Ksman and Esen's as late as December that year, Toronto police were publicly sayg there was "no evince" of a serial nial has damaged an already agile relatnship between the Toronto LGBT muny and the ptn, Street art Toronto's Gay VillageUnanswered qutns still hnt Haran Vijayanathan, executive director of the Alliance for South Asian Aids Preventn, who has been speakg on behalf of many of the victims. As officials Canada tried to track down a serial killer who targeted gay men Toronto’s Village, they were thrown off by a post on a nnibalism fantasy fom.
HBO's new serial killer doceri "Last Call" re-exam New York Cy’s yearslong search for a murrer who targeted gay men the early 1990s. * toronto gay serial killer *
"Systemic bias" and "ser flaws" the handlg of missg persons s imped the Toronto Police Service's vtigatn of a serial killer who preyed on gay and bisexual men Canada's largt cy for seven years, acrdg to an pennt review released 161-page report said "misnceptns" and "stereotypil ias" about LGBTQ people led police to overlook evince and miss "cril nnectns" durg their vtigatn to the missg men and Bce McArthur, who plead guilty 2019 to killg eight men, most of them people of lor. McArthur, a well-known figure Toronto’s gay bars, strangled and dismembered his a sentencg hearg last week, the urt heard that he also staged photos of some of his victims after they died, posg their rps a fur at and hat and placg cigars their submissns to the judge, assistant crown attorney Craig Harper said the term “serial killer” was “woefully aquate to scribe his moral blameworths … and heons of the offenc” crown also succsfully requted that McArthur’s prev nvictn for asslt 2003 be clud sentencg nsiratn.
W5 has spent months vtigatg the shadowy and twisted world of nnibal fantasy webs, as we retraced the first police probe to three men who had disappeared om Toronto’s gay village between 2010 and 2012.
An quiry found that systemic discrimatn terfered wh efforts to tch a murrer who targeted gay men, mostly of Middle Eastern or South Asian scent. * toronto gay serial killer *
Dpe the rash of disappearanc and the siari between the missg men — many were of Southeast Asian or Middle Eastern scent, all were gay, all vanished wh the same area — Toronto police refuted the ia of a serial killer even jt several weeks before the arrt of Bce McArthur, a 60-somethg landsper and ocsnal mall Santa who was eventually nvicted of murrg eight men. The Toronto police was heavily cricized by the public for this cisn, wh many claimg racism and homophobia hampered the vtigatn, and others sayg uld’ve saved liv if thori hadn’t downplayed the ia there was a serial killer the area, as seen the special.
At that time, the Gay Village was a small stretch of Yonge Street between College and Wellley streets, anchored on eher end by two bars — the St. Hawk remembers tellg people to leave the bars groups bee otherwise you’d risk havg “gay bashers beat you up, and you don’t want to have the police beat you up.
The heartbreakg disappearanc of eight men om Toronto’s gay district is turned to a tly unedifyg b of bberneckg * toronto gay serial killer *
Charl Tavern, one of Toronto’s most popular gay bars and a lotn that would bee a monaly at least four of the 14 homicis of gay men that . 18, 1975, 52-year-old Arthur Harold Walkley was stabbed a hoe on Born Street, about two kilometr om the Gay Village, where he was last seen.
Nearly a year after Fontae's asslt, the fall of 1976, Jam Kennedy was found ad si his Jarvis Street apartment, jt blocks om the neighbourg gay hangouts.
20, 1978 — police were lled to yet another grisly scene: the killg of Alexanr (Sandy) LeBlanc, the manager of the Stud II distheque at Church and Carlton streets and a well-known member of Toronto’s gay Penny, a former nstable wh Toronto Police's 52 Divisn, was one of the first officers to arrive. News reports 1978 noted 14 of what were lled “homosexual” killgs 3 1/2 years, cludg s of men who were left naked, tied to beds, stabbed or beaten to ath and wh their apartments ransacked. Charl Tavern, most were found their hom, stabbed or killed by blunt force trma a manner police ll “overkill, ” and they were all members of the gay muny.