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:
- GAYCANNIBALFANFICS
- GRDR 'NNIBAL', 19, WHO LURED GAY MEN ON APP WANTED BODY PARTS AS 'MEMENTOS AND FOOD'
- A GAY CANNIBAL
GAYCANNIBALFANFICS
A twentieth-century viewer of the patg nnot help but notice what a twentieth-century viewer would ll homoeroticism.
2 But as a d reference to homosexualy, the patg pops up odd plac.
GRDR 'NNIBAL', 19, WHO LURED GAY MEN ON APP WANTED BODY PARTS AS 'MEMENTOS AND FOOD'
And several years ago, the Irish folk-punk group The Pogu (“pogue” is early twentieth-century Amerin slang for a passive homosexual) put the patg on the ver of their album Rum, Sodomy, and the Lash. Gériult and his dience mt also have seen this homoeroticism, but they probably unrstood differently, as a kd of symbolic thkg, where one vlatn of social norms stood for another. To reprent nnibalism by homoeroticism is not, I hope, tuive today.
A GAY CANNIBAL
This paper will try to renstct how the practic of nnibalism and homosexualy figured that system. A discsn of parallels between the neteenth-century ias of nnibalism and homosexualy should beg by tablishg an important difference between the two. In ntrast, the word “homosexualy” did not appear English until 1892.
” Often, the periphras only substute for the morn word “homosexualy;” they alert the rear to the epistemologil anachronism, whout removg . I will not make any special effort to avoid the word “homosexual, ” but I will try to avoid nfg a twentieth–century mory inty wh what, the mid-neteenth century, was at most a sensibily.
The tth is, that although we know Melville met Taylor and read his work, homosexualy was so visible the 1840s that is impossible to say for sure whether Melville, like Mart, uld have regnized Taylor as his era’s advote of “the other love.