Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer (2019): Season 1, Episode 3 - Closing the Net - full transcript

[keyboard clacking]

Now to Canada,

where police today
issued an arrest warrant

for Luka Rocco Magnotta

in a grisly murder case
where a man’s torso was found...

Residents had discovered
a human torso

inside a, uh, suitcase

left on the side of the curb
for garbage pickup.

And even more troubling,

Magnotta may have filmed the killing

and dismemberment of his victim.



[Deanna] It’s an atrocity.

This is world news.

This is red-alert, top-wanted news.

[reporter] What we know about him
is that he is a narcissist extraordinaire.

He has littered the Internet
with photos of himself

and couldn’t seem to get enough of himself
online.

He was clearly someone
who wanted this bizarre form of notoriety,

and it seems now he’s got it.

This is exactly what Luka wants.

He wants to be known
as some famous killer.

They are afraid
that he might try to befriend someone

and basically commit a similar crime

to the one that they're looking for.

[John] He had made it known



that he had planned
to make multiple movies.

He didn't say one movie,
he used plural, "movies."

[Deanna] With the kittens, he did it once,

he did it twice,

and he did it a third time.

So, I was sincerely expecting
two more videos.

He is a master of disguise.

He likes to, you know,
adopt different hairstyles.

One officer suggested
he might even disguise himself as a woman.

[Deanna] The attention that Luka wants
is "Jack the Ripper" level.

And I don't want to say
"like Jack the Ripper,"

because nobody ever knew
who Jack the Ripper was.

Luka wanted to be known.
He just didn't want to get caught.

[news anchor on TV] Tonight,
there are accusations

that online evidence of a twisted mind

was ignored by police.

Something could have been done
before a man was killed

and mutilated in Montreal.

[Anna] The animal activists,
in my opinion,

they’re a disgrace.

[reporter on TV] ...getting other news
that there was a person

who had witnessed this online.
They tried...

[Anna] You're not the police,

and you're also acting like stalkers.

[reporter] They tried
to contact the police but...

They'd zoom in on pictures
to make sure that this is the location

he's saying he was in at a certain time.

"Oh, we’ve tracked him here.

We've done this.

We've put this picture
and matched it up with this headlight...

this streetlamp
from this certain location."

They’re crazy.

Acting like high school children,
using the Internet to destroy somebody.

They're so inquisitive and yet so naive.

Like, if you really want to be
a wannabe investigator,

find the whole story because,

guys, you're after the wrong person here.

There's someone else responsible here.

[intense string music]

[Claudette Hamlin] As soon as
we have an arrest warrant issued,

we contacted the Montreal Airport.

And we informed them
that he's wearing a wig,

a black wig, down to the ears.

He's wearing a black T-shirt,
short-sleeve T-shirt

with a Mickey Mouse on it.

Eventually, we see a person walking around
in the airport.

We see him going through security.

We see him placing his hair,
always doing... and placing his hair.

And eventually,

Mickey Mouse.

Mr. Magnotta has...

a ticket...

for a flight of Air Transat number 610...

...to Paris, France.

Immediately,
we contacted the French authorities.

We explained the gravity of the crime,
the seriousness,

and the fear that he would strike again.

That he would repeat the same thing
and kill somebody else.

[distant sirens]

[man in French]
We received a report from Interpol Canada

about a suspect
who had committed a horrific murder

and then had flown to Paris.

A brigade of between 30 and 40 officers
was mobilized

to go to Roissy,
Charles de Gaulle Airport.

[French police siren blaring]

[Henri] We were told he was wearing a wig,

a Mickey Mouse T-shirt.

So, we check the CCTV footage.

Bingo!

He heads out to the taxi pickup area.

He doesn't speak to anyone,
and he acts pretty normal.

He goes up to a taxi driver,

puts his luggage in,
and gets into the car.

So, we search for
and identify the taxi company

who quickly give us
the name of the driver of this taxi.

And he says, "Yes, I dropped off
this person at a hotel called Novotel."

[suspenseful music playing]

We don't waste any time
and rush to the hotel.

Directly, when I arrive with my team,
we make our way straight to reception,

and we asked them
if they had a reservation

in the name of Luka Magnotta.

And immediately after checking,
they discover Magnotta has a reservation.

He reserved
in the name of Luka Rocco Magnotta

for one night.

But, unfortunately,

he never slept at the hotel.

At this point, we don't know where he is.

He could be anywhere.
In Paris, around Paris.

He could have left the city already.

So, we are back to square one.

[news anchor in English]
Luka Rocco Magnotta,

a 29-year-old Canadian
whose job résumé includes acting.

Police think Magnotta could now be
in France.

Really quickly, why France?

Why do Canadian authorities think
that he may have run to France?

[Deanna]
So, we're not boots on the ground.

We're not gonna be able to go
into hotels

and look around and whatnot.

But we did want to offer
the police assistance

because we thought it was valuable.

[reporter] Perhaps he figures Europe
is a better place to go,

less heat on him. Who knows?

[Deanna]
Clearly, he wants to get away with this,

but on the other side of Luka,
that we also know very well, is that...

he likes the chase.

One of the people that he admired
was the Leonardo DiCaprio character

in Catch Me If You Can.

That guy evaded the FBI agent
the whole movie.

And Luka looked up
to that level of genius.

One of the things Luka does,
though, is he leaves us breadcrumbs

'cause he wants us to chase him.

One that we found...

was, like, super significant.

[John] Years before,

Luka had made a blog post,
talking about "Luka Magnotta:

How to Disappear and Never Be Found."

[Deanna] This blog post talked about,
you know,

how to successfully evade law enforcement.

Step one: Cut ties with everybody
who knows you.

Don't talk to your sister no more,
cut off all your friends.

Don't talk to Mom. Step...

...two, it talks about liquidating
all your assets into cash

so that you don't have
any digital footprint,

you have no bank account.

And step three:
acquire false identification.

Get a fake passport,
a fake driver's license.

But in Luka's mind,

there's no sense in being on the run

and being this Internet villain
if nobody's chasing you.

[Henri in French] The Canadian police
gave us a crucial piece of information,

that one of Luka Rocco Magnotta's
credit cards

was used for a withdrawal
at an ATM located in Place de Clichy.

So we check through the CCTV footage.

And that's important for us

as it confirms he's still in Paris.

You could definitely assume
that Luka Magnotta would like this area.

It attracts a lot of prostitutes.

So potentially, yes,
the people he might meet...

could end up being his victims.

At that time, I ordered my team
to go to every hotel

in the area, one by one.

After four or five hours
of checking hotels...

the search comes to nothing.

Once we'd exhausted all lines
of investigation for the day,

everybody goes home.

The following morning,

I turn on the TV, and I come across
the 24-hour news channels...

Luka Rocco Magnotta,
a 29-year-old Canadian,

currently the target
of an international arrest warrant.

He is at the center of a sordid murder
that took place in Montreal last week.

He is, nevertheless, now in France.

For me personally,
I don't think that's a good thing.

We're used to working in the shadows
at the Fugitive Task Force

because our cases aren't usually covered
by the media.

But in fact, it's the only thing

the 24-hour news channels
are talking about.

[reporter 1] Luka Rocco Magnotta...

[reporter 2] Luka Rocco Magnotta...

[reporter 3] Luka Rocco Magnotta...

A troubled personality with many faces.

He almost looks like any tourist.

He has mentioned
he has a "thirst for blood."

This publicity leads
to many people coming forward,

and so we receive an enormous number
of sightings.

[reporter] In every area of Paris,
this man is trying to avoid the police.

[in English]
He come here just one time.

[Henri in French]
For us, this could be a blessing.

[newscaster in French] He has been spotted
in several bars in the capital.

But it's also a curse

because we've got to authenticate
every single one.

As of now,
the leads are not very productive,

but police will continue the search

to find the man they are already calling
the "Butcher of Montreal."

[reporter in English] The French media
have named Magnotta "le dépeceur,"

meaning "butcher" or "cutter."

And they say French police
have tracked him all over Paris.

[news anchor] We've now also learned

that Magnotta's family lives
in Peterborough, Ontario.

That is just northeast of Toronto.

And our Alex Mihailovich is now
in Peterborough and joins me live.

So, Alex, so what can you tell me
about Magnotta's family there?

Are they saying anything?

Well, we're standing right in front
of Magnotta's mother's house.

Her name's Anna Yourkin.

From everything that we can discern

out of this situation,
we've talked to some neighbors...

[Anna] The media was everywhere.

They were on the street.

They were, um...

on my porch.

The phone was ringing.

They were banging on the doors.

They were yelling
and asking me for comments.

[interviewer] Lots of people have said

the reason
that Luka committed the cat killings

and then graduated to the murder

was because he was after notoriety.

Do you think that could be true?

No, that is the farthest thing
from the truth that is out there.

This is not who you should be looking for.

It's... it's the puppet master
you should be looking for.

I have a bag to share
with some very special items

that I've kept over the years.

And one year, for my birthday,

Luka had these custom-made for me

that I absolutely love wearing
when it's cold

because it's like walking on pillows.

And I have here...

this old key chain.

A little Basic Instinct movie poster.

He liked Basic Instinct.

Loved all kinds of films,

so I keep this.

Luka always loved movies.

As a little boy, he was shy by nature,

and as he got older,
he was bullied nonstop.

It was, "We don't like
how you slick back your hair."

They would call him, "gay," "fag,"
"you're a little pussy,"

making his self-worth

um, just diminish every day.

It made him withdraw,

so he would sit in the living room
on his own,

watching movies.

He liked Humphrey Bogart,

James Dean,

Jean Harlow,

Marlene Dietrich.

He loved them.

So, when he was 16,
he moved to Toronto...

because he was trying to be an actor
and a model as well.

[woman] And to start off, Luka,
just give me your name and your age.

-Okay.
-Let's see what happens.

All right. My name is Luka Magnotta,
and I'm 25.

I'm pretty comfortable
in front of the camera, so...

I... would be very excited to do this,
and it would be a great opportunity,

and I think I would be a great candidate
for this... [chuckles]

-...position.
-[both laughing]

-Thank you.
-[woman] Yay.

Yay, Luka. I just want to get
a couple of shots of your head.

[Luka chuckles]

[Anna] But he didn't make it in acting.

And then I believe
that's when he started escorting.

He started to explain escorting to me
and what it was.

He was bisexual,

and he was making an awful lot of money.

He was a good-looking man.

Luka started telling me the clientele

he was seeing were becoming
more of a darker, elusive crowd.

They were into fetishes, abuse,

and they liked to dominate.

And I was, like,

"This sounds like it's getting
a little dangerous here."

Around this time, a client was becoming
more than a client.

More like his...

his keeper.

A client by the name of Manny.

Emmanuel "Manny" Lopez.

Luka told me, you know,
Manny would follow him.

He was a stalker.

And that he had moved,
but he'd continuously find him.

He'd changed his phone number.

He would continuously say,
"I have connections.

You'll do what I say."

And I thought,

you know, "I don't like any of this. I...

It scares the hell out of me."

A few weeks later...

[chiming]

...rumors start to circulate
around family members

that there was a video on the Internet...

...of my son, Luka,

murdering a... a cat.

The man...

resembled my son.

Something wasn't right.

I shut it off.

[Skype call ringing]

[Anna] So I called him up.

I asked him about the video.

He said,

"I was forced to do it."

He said, "Manny."

He explained that Manny was selling videos

of animals being tortured or murdered
on the deep web,

and he was making an awful lot of money.

He said, "Please go back
and look at the end of the video."

And at the end of the video,

I saw someone else.

The hands of Manny.

I said, "That's it,
we have to go to the police.

We have to before it gets out of hand.

It's already out of hand."

And he said, "If you go to the police,

I'm cut-- I'm severing all ties.

You don't realize what they can do.
To me, to you, to any of you."

[man] Back in 2011,

a year and a half before the murder,

I get this phone call from a man

insistent that he had to see me
right away.

He said it was a matter of life and death,

and he had to see me
in the next few minutes.

When he first came into my office,

he looked like a very pathetic,
vulnerable figure.

And one of the first things he said
to me was,

"You kind of look like Michael Douglas."

-And, uh...
-[interviewer] You get that a lot, do you?

I've-- Over the years,

I've gotten it here and there, yeah.

And I said, "Well, what's happening?"

And he said,
"Look, I'm accused of killing a cat."

I said, "Okay."

I said, "I have seven cats.
That's not a nice thing."

And he said, uh,

"Well, uh...

I didn't do it."

He said that, oh,
he was forced to do it by, um...

this person,

and his name was Manny.

I told him...

Manny has to be reported.
You have to go to the police.

He said that Manny is always there.

Manny is torturing him

and forcing him to do these things.

Well, later that day,
I get an e-mail from Luka,

the title of which is
"List of Abuse from Manny."

"Strangled me with his hands
and with an electrical cord.

Stabbed me with a pencil and pen.

Forced me to eat animal parts.

Bought worms and made me eat them.

Forced me to have sex with his puppy

and numerous cats."

I mean, uh...
it just was mind-boggling, this list.

A week later,

I was home,
and I received an e-mail late at night,

obviously referring to Manny.

Then I received a picture of Luka,

apparently after suffering some injuries.

Um, there's a black eye,
bruise on the nose.

It looks like a scarring or ligature mark
on his neck,

a bruise on his lip.

About a week after, I receive a phone call

from the Miami Beach Police Department

regarding Luka Magnotta.

And they said Luka ended up
in the hospital.

Apparently, he was drugged,

kidnapped from New York,
brought down to Miami,

raped by Manny and other people,

and then left on the beach,

and the police took him to the hospital
for treatment.

It made me think that, A,

there was corroboration of the abuse
that Luka was talking about

with regard to Manny

and, B, that Manny
was indeed a very dangerous person.

Then, a year later,

when I heard that Luka was the suspect
in this horrible, sadistic murder,

I couldn't believe the Luka that I knew,
vulnerable, timid,

could have committed such a heinous act,

and if so, could have committed it alone.

[reporter in French] ...the Canadian,

already nicknamed
the "Butcher of Montreal."

Several leads are being investigated
by the police.

[Henri in French]
Among the tips that were received,

there was one that leaped out.

This witness was called Jean-Christophe.

And he explains that someone came
to his home by the name of Luke.

And he told him that he had been staying
at the Novotel Hotel.

This clue had never been disclosed
to the media,

so we immediately call him in
for questioning.

[man on recording in French]
Can you tell us the circumstances

of how he got into contact with you?

[Jean-Christophe in French]
The first written contact we had

was through the Internet site PlanetRomeo.

It's a website to meet people.

I received a text message,
if I remember correctly.

It said, "It's Luke.
I'm in Paris. Can we meet?"

[man] Tell us about his demeanor
when he stayed at your place.

[Jean-Christophe] He walked in,

was courteous, polite.

He seemed a little nervous.

[man] And then what happened?

[Jean-Christophe] Nothing.

[man] What do you mean?

[Jean-Christophe] I went to sleep.

[man] And him?

[Jean-Christophe] He slept on the sofa.

-Any sexual relations?
-No.

-Any physical contact between you two?
-No.

[Henri] It's surprising that
he spends the night at Jean-Christophe's

two days after committing his violent act,

and yet he doesn't say that Magnotta
is in a complete frenzy

or that he is acting strangely.

[Jean-Christophe]
He stayed until the next morning.

But when I found that he was a wanted man,

I thought, "Can this really be him?"

I had two pieces of information
that he had given me.

The hotel where he stayed,

and the second one
was the phone number he used.

I imagine that
he got that phone in France.

[man] Why do you think
that he got it in France?

[Jean-Christophe]
Because +06 is a French number.

[Henri] The most important thing
that he gave us

was the phone number
that Magnotta had used to contact him.

This was more than we'd hoped for.

We were able to find out
where the phone had been bought.

In a store near Port de Bagnolet.

So, we checked every hotel
around the Porte de Bagnolet station.

This is the Soumman Hotel.

It's a hotel better suited
to someone who wants to hide out.

And the manager of the hotel,
when we show him the photo,

he says, "Yes, that rings a bell.

He booked the room for eight
or nine nights, which he paid for in cash.

It's possible he's even here now."

My team progresses,

keeping in mind
that Magnotta could be behind the door.

They enter the room.

In the bedroom, we find the T-shirt
he was wearing when he first arrived.

Unfortunately, Magnotta isn't there.

And in the toilet,
we found a student ID card.

He's clearly trying to erase
the Magnotta identity.

He was gone.

We were not far behind him.
We were really not very far behind him.

But then we discover

that, in fact, the booking was not made
in the name of Luka Rocco Magnotta,

but in the name of Kirk Tramell.

At this point, I feel like he's moved on
to the next phase,

and he has, in fact,
decided to truly go on the run

by using a new identity.

He could be anywhere.

[computer chimes]

[Deanna] I had just woken up.

[continues chiming]

And I had something like...

six missed calls.

I had 37 unread messages.

A hundred and twenty-five
Facebook notifications.

And I'm like, "Oh, my God,
what has happened?'

And I start reading my notifications,

and it's all, you know,
"Baudi! Baudi! Baudi! Baudi!"

And John Green had posted a video.

And it's, like, this random CCTV,

and I'm thinking to myself,

"What the fuck is this?"

[man in German] It was a Monday.

The weather was nice.

Nice and fresh.

I came to work at the Internet café
here in Neukölln, Berlin.

I read the newspapers, as usual.

I love reading the news.
It's an obsession of mine.

Then I read a report about a man
that chopped up his lover,

cut his head off,

and then mailed the body parts
to the Canadian government.

I couldn't believe a person
could be so brutal.

What kind of character can do that?

And then suddenly,
he's standing in front of me.

I was shocked,

but he was very polite,
with a French accent,

and he looked totally normal.

Like the guy next door.

So he said, "Sir, Internet?"

And I said, "Okay, come with me."

The Internet booths are up here.

Thirty-six Internet booths.
Please follow me, and I will show you.

And here at number 25,

where he was sat.

He sat with his back turned to me

so that I could watch him
and see what he was doing.

[Marc Lilge in English]
On that Monday morning,

I was training eight police cadets
in my van.

I was a teacher,

and we were doing some practice work,

um, helping all the other police cars,
doing accidents or small things,

what is not very dangerous,
which we could do with the cadets.

[Kadir in German] I still wasn't sure
if it was actually him.

He doesn't look like a murderer.

So I went upstairs to number 25.

So I grabbed this trashcan
as if I were cleaning up.

I picked up an ashtray,
but one eye was always on him.

I wanted to check exactly
what he was doing on the Internet.

I saw that he had gone
onto the Interpol site.

He was looking at his own mug shot.

It was clear to me he was the one.

[clock ticking]

[Marc in English] All of a sudden,
I saw a man rushing out of the road

from that Internet café.

[Deanna] All of a sudden,

the most badass
German fucking police department walks in,

just one after another, boom.

There were like ten of them.

Ten of them in these
awesome little berets and shit.

It was dope.

And he's got nowhere to go.
He's got nowhere to escape.

You see him come into frame,
and he's got handcuffs.

And it was just like,

"Holy shit!"

And I just kind of, you know,
put my hands up in the air.

They finally caught him.

And it was just like the perfect way
for Luka to go down.

Luka was caught in an Internet café

because he couldn't stay away
from his vanity.

[Claudette] The German police wanted us
to extradite him as quick as possible,

but no air company wanted to be associated
to Mr. Magnotta.

So we asked the Canadian army force
for one of their planes...

to go and get Mr. Magnotta.

It's highly unusual for a suspect
to be brought back home

by Canadian military transport.

But police say there was simply no way

that this suspect could be put
on a commercial flight

where others might recognize his face

and the horrifying acts
of which he is accused.

We were literally tracking the flight
across the Atlantic.

[male reporter] Luka Rocco Magnotta
returns to Montreal,

his hands and feet shackled
during the flight.

[suspenseful music playing]

[John] And I remember thinking,

"Oh, that's the moment
we've been waiting two years for.

Touchdown. He's back in Canada."

And I mean, I swear,
I have goosebumps thinking about it.

It was just fucking awesome.

"Catch me if you can"?
Well, guess what, motherfucker.

You just got caught.

[indistinct chatter on police radio]

[Claudette] I thought that I saw
Mr. Magnotta grinning,

like he was enjoying
all the exposure that he got.

Like...

"I think I achieved what I wanted...

celebrity."

[siren wailing]

[cameras clicking]

This was unbelievable. A real circus.
A media circus.

It reminded me of O.J. Simpson.

[news anchor] Luka Rocco Magnotta,

who's been
the focus of an international manhunt

since fleeing Canada last week,
was arrested by police

at an Internet café.

[reporter] ...will face Canada's
justice system.

He's expected to go
before a judge tomorrow.

[Deanna] You have to remember,

this guy is no dumbshit.

This is a huge game for him.

He intentionally misdirected us
for almost two years,

so, clearly, we were all thinking
that this was not the end.

That was really scary 'cause
we didn't know what was coming next.

[Anna] It was overkill.

Why do you need so many people
to transport my son?

He's... you know, he's a young boy.

And then I see them lead my son out,

and he looked so confused and scared.

What could possibly be going
through his head?

Was he afraid...

of Manny?

[door opening]

[Antonio] Hi, Luka.

How you doing?

[door closing]

How'd you sleep last night?

I'm looking at him.
He's not looking at me.

He's looking mostly downwards
towards the table.

Look at me. Look at me.

I feel you're not listening to me
if you are not looking at me.

He was very meek.
He was very meek, very quiet.

Is it because you are shy of me, or...

But we knew that he was the author
that committed this horrible murder.

We didn't want to know if it was him.
We knew it was him.

What we wanted to know was why.

Why this happened.

All I want is the truth.

Okay, Luka, listen.

I'm not gonna talk about the case.

What happened in the past,
we can't change anything,

you understand?

The reason why you're here today
is because something went wrong.

I just want to remain silent
about everything.

I don't want to say anything
about anything.

[Antonio] And is it because
you're scared, or...

I just want to remain silent.

[Antonio] Okay, Luka.

This, today, is maybe one
of the most important days of your life.

Okay? A lot happened
from the end of May till today.

Okay, Luka?
Listen, we don't need to know if you did.

-Is it possible--
-[Antonio] Listen. Listen to me--

Is it possible that I could get a sweater

-or something? I'm cold.
-[Antonio] A sweater?

Do you have another sweater with you?

Or a blanket or something?
I just feel cold.

[Antonio] Okay, you feel cold, okay.
We'll take care of that.

[Claudette] I was watching the interview
in another room.

[Antonio] Okay.

[Claudette] And I thought,

"He's so tiny.

He's so small. He's so, uh... fragile.

And so polite."

I can't say I was scared of the person.

He looked vulnerable.

And he's... he's like a little puppy.

He doesn't look like a killer.

[Antonio] Luka, I'm sure you're emotional.

It's only normal. I know that, you know,
you cried on the plane,

so there's something in you
that's working.

You're not a machine.

You know,
you don't look like a bad person.

You're very polite.

You understand what I'm trying to say?

Sometimes in life,

things don't work out
exactly the way we planned them out.

Life is full of deceptions.

Can I have a cigarette?

-[Antonio] A cigarette?
-Please?

Thank you.

[Antonio] Today, we're here not
to find out if you did harm Jun Lin.

We know all that. We have the evidence.
That's not a problem.

You know? Okay.
What's important for me, just right now,

at this moment, is the family.

This is a picture I was able to get.

Take a look.

The family, they want an explanation.

What's wrong?

What's wrong?

I don't want it.

[Antonio] You don't want it?

What you wanted to accomplish, Luka,
well, you succeeded.

It's done.

Everybody knows Luka Magnotta.

You understand?

There must be a reason
why things went that way.

Maybe, I don't know,

maybe something happened,
and it pushed you to do what happened.

Only you can explain that.

Luka?

Is it because you're scared, or...

How do you feel right now inside?
Are you, like, worried about something?

What's your biggest fear at this moment?

-You must have a feeling. You understand--
-I'm starting to feel tired.

[Antonio] Yes, well,
that's understandable.

It's understandable.

So, just give me a few moments.

[Luka] Hello?

Hello?

Can somebody help me, please?

Hello, I need help.

I need help.

I need help.

[Joel Watts]
My role in the Magnotta case was,

at the request of the defense,

to conduct a forensic assessment
of Mr. Magnotta

to try and help the court determine

whether or not he could be found
not criminally responsible for his crimes.

Very early in our discussions,
Mr. Magnotta shared with me

that he hadn't done this alone

and that there
was another individual involved,

an individual by the name of Manny.

And it was very clear that Mr. Magnotta
was very fearful of this individual

and that Manny had been the one
to incite Mr. Magnotta to kill Mr. Lin.

You know, is this plausible?

Is he... is he having me on here?

Is this Manny character,

is he just making this up
to try and excuse his behavior?

I looked into his records
and saw that he had complained

to many other people, many years ago,

that this Manny character

actually existed and was abusing him.

I called family members.

I called lawyers that
he had contact with in the past.

Many of these individuals told me

that Mr. Magnotta had talked about
this individual, Manny,

many years before.

That suddenly made it like it was real.

This Manny character
might actually be a real person.

[Anna] I made the trip up to Montreal
to the detention center

to finally meet with my son.

They brought him in the door,
and the door shut,

and my heart sank.

I thought, "Oh, there he is."

And I wanted to hug him so badly.

And I put my hands up,
and he put his hand up on the glass.

And I said,
"I love you so much. I love you."

And he said, "I love you too."

[interviewer] Did Luka tell you
what happened the night of the murder?

Yes.

He told me that him and Jun Lin
had met on Craigslist.

And they were both hooking up
for casual sex.

You know, a one-night stand.

But Manny knew that he was
going to see a man that night

and wanted to film it.

Luka was apprehensive and didn't want to.

But Jun Lin had agreed with him

that, "Yeah, it's no big deal.
We'll just videotape us having sex.

We're only having sex."

Then, what happened, next, um...

my son and I never spoke about
the actual...

incident of what...

how the murder took place,

but I was told that...

it was under Manny's direction.

Manny was outside of the apartment
in a black SUV, watching them.

Manny was repeatedly phoning
and giving him orders.

"You need to do what I tell you.

You know what I can do to you."

My son...

did as he was told.

And then, the snuff video,

it goes into Manny's hands,

and he distributes it.

This was definitely being orchestrated
by Emanuel "Manny" Lopez.

[mouse clicks]

[reporter] The first-degree murder trial
of Luka Magnotta begins today in Montreal.

The 32-year-old has pleaded not guilty

to the murder and dismemberment
of a Chinese engineering student.

[cameras clicking]

We're, as a group,
watching this all unfold.

And we find out that he was being analyzed
by a psychiatrist.

[news anchor] Luka Magnotta's defense team
is hoping the accused's troubled past

will counter the prosecution's portrayal
of Magnotta as a cold, calculating killer.

[John] We started to wonder,
is Luka gonna get away with it?

Luka is now coming forward saying,
"It's not me.

I'm the victim here.

I've been under the spell
of this unknown Manny person."

So, let me tell you who Manny is.

[computer booting up]

[Deanna] Luka, from the beginning,

had this list of known aliases
that he liked to use.

Vladimir Romanov,

Beverly Kent, Artemis Young,

and Kirk Tramell.

So typically, when Luka uses an alias
when he makes a post, that's important

because they mean something more.

So, one of our group members looks up
the name "K. Tramell."

And of course,

the main character played by Sharon Stone

in the movie Basic Instinct
is called Catherine Tramell.

K. Tramell.

[Deanna] Basic Instinct was a movie
that came out in the early '90s

with Sharon Stone

and Michael Douglas.

So we were like,
"Oh, why don't we go look at that movie

and see if there's any clues."

[clicks]

Miss Tramell?

So, you start watching,
and what do you see?

You see a female straddling a naked body
on a bed.

Catherine Tramell is
on top of her boyfriend,

straddling him...

He's got his arms tied to the bedpost,

and above him...

...is a, like, stained-glass window.

It's center frame.

[John] And I remember thinking,

"Holy shit,

that looks exactly like the murder video."

[Deanna]
Luka straddles this man on the bed.

[John] He's got his arms tied
with white cord, and above him...

[Deanna]
...the Casablanca poster, center frame,

just like the stained-glass window.

And then, just like Luka,

Catherine Tramell kills her lover
with an ice pick.

Luka's making an homage to Basic Instinct.

[Anna] This old key chain.
Basic Instinct movie poster.

He liked Basic Instinct,

loved all kinds of films.

-[Catherine] How was he murdered?
-With an ice pick.

[Claudette]
That screwdriver, it was painted.

Modified to look like an ice pick.

In the e-mail that was sent
to Alex West of The Sun,

there's a specific line that's mentioned

which is almost a direct rip-off of a line
that Sharon Stone says.

Killing isn't like smoking.

You can quit.

[dramatic piano music]

Can I have a cigarette?

Sharon Stone's character
has an abusive ex-boyfriend,

and his name is...

[man] Catherine Tramell...

formerly engaged to Manuel Vásquez.

Cheers. My friends call me Catherine.

What'd Manny Vásquez used to call you?

-Whoa, whoa, whoa. Manny Vásquez?
-Manny Vásquez.

-Manny Vásquez.
-Manny Vásquez.

-Manny Vásquez?
-Manny Vásquez.

Manny.

[Deanna] It's all just bullshit.

This Manny character
is Luka's bullshit alibi.

This is all just his fucking excuse,

and he's been using this alibi for years.

What a con!

Luka lives in a world where pop culture
is king, and fame is king.

[Romeo] When I saw the movie,

I experienced, like, a "holy crap" moment.

I went back to remembering where he said,

"Did anyone ever tell you,
you look like Michael Douglas?"

Now it all made sense.

[Claudette] He was playing a movie,

and he was the star of this movie,

and he wanted to be the star of the world.

The phone records show that, that night,

Mr. Magnotta did not receive
or did not do any phone calls.

Nothing.

Nothing in the evidence revealed
the existence of a Manny.

[Romeo] It's still shocking to think
that he started manufacturing

a possible defense a year and a half
before the actual murder

that he was planning.

And to have gone through

this entire elaborate scheme is...

absolutely psychotic
and brilliant at the same time.

[news anchor] Luka Magnotta
always seemed to be posing.

Originally from Toronto...

[man] The whole world
knows what he looks like.

[reporter] Take the most
unfathomably horrific details.

Take them a step further,
and you have this case.

[Benjamin] The really sad thing is

everybody is talking about Luka Magnotta,

but nobody has ever remembered Jun Lin.

Doesn't seem fair at all to my friend.

He doesn't deserve that.

Luka Magnotta didn't just kill
the person...

but also destroyed
the entire family's hope.

People don't understand.

In the Chinese culture,
it's always the son that carries...

the responsibility
to take care of the parents

when they... when they become old.

Now it's gone.

And it's not fair.

[knocking]

Hey, come on in.

[Deanna]
The craziest thing about all this is,

after all the things
that we had been through together,

I didn't actually meet
John Green in person

until after the murder and trial.

[John] Give me a hug.

How are you?

-[Deanna] How's it going?
-It's going pretty good.

-How about yourself?
-Good.

-Vegas sucks.
-[Deanna laughs]

[Deanna] It's really hot, right?

I thought this was going to be
a two-day thing.

Two days, I thought,
"I'll join this group,

take my mind off my breakup.

I never imagined that we would be,

you know, doing this for 18 months.
You know?

I'll never forget it.

Every time that memory pops up
on my Facebook, I'm like, "Share again."

Um, I just-- I'm...
I'm glad that we went through it together.

-Yeah.
-I might've actually given up without you.

-I might've given up.
-I'm sure you would've. Sure you would've.

-I'm sure you would have, too.
-Nah, I don't know about that.

-[Deanna] No, I mean, seriously.
-No.

[Deanna] And I-- And another thing I...

[computer booting up]

[Deanna] One of the things that still
bothers me about this time in my life

and that keeps me up
sometimes at night is...

were we complicit in Luka's crimes?

Do you remember what Luka wrote

at the murder scene
on the inside of the closet?

"If you don't like the reflection,
don't look in the mirror. I don't care."

I always wondered what that meant.

When we look at ourselves in the mirror,
are we proud of ourselves?

Are we ashamed of what happened?

[chimes]

You know,
maybe I did exactly what Luka wanted.

Are we pawns?

Are we being used to help him
tell his story?

What part did we have to play?

[mouse clicking]

[John] Before we agreed
to do this documentary,

we asked ourselves,
"Do we really want to do this?"

Do we really want to give him
more airtime?

Hi, my name is Luka.

Magnotta's my last name.

M-A-G-N-O-T-T-A.

[Deanna] Did we feed his narcissism
to the point where he had to go forward?

So much
that he was pushed to do what he did?

Did we feed the monster,
or did we create it?

And you,

you at home watching
a whole fucking documentary

about Luka Magnotta,

are you complicit?

Perhaps it's time...

we turned off the machine.

[mouse clicks]