Christmas is a time for joy giving and togetherness, but today we're diving into a chilling story that casts a dark shadow over the season. One of Canada's most prolific serial killers who prayed on Toronto's LGBTQ plus community. This is the case of Bruce MacArthur, a man who played sants at the Mall while hiding an unfathomable secret.
My name's Nicole, my name's Ben. And you're listening to Wicked and Grim.
A true crime podcast listener question.
That it's Christmas Eve.
Sure is Sann is coming to town.
Officially, Sanna is coming to town.
And as soon as the clock strikes noon today, I'm going to start drinking for the next forty eight hours. Really, maybe maybe not.
I don't yet to hear this, but okay, I.
Want to have I want to have mimosas all day tomorrow, in the morning, at least probably into the after well into the afternoon. And when the clock strikes noon today, I'm going to be having an eggnog and I'm probably going to be having another eggnog.
After that to get some more eggnog. We don't have enough. You said we had enough, but I don't think we do now.
Okay, well I'll go out and get.
Some later then we're gonna have to stop.
Okay, I'll go out and get some before I have my first eggnog, Just just to make sure we're staying safe on the roads today.
There you go, oh every day, right, don't drink and drive obviously, of course, but yeah, anyway, Merry Christmas, Happy holidays, you know all that jazz.
Yeah, I hope you guys are having a good one. And you know what, if it's not that good, hey, you know what, it doesn't always end up being the best of seasons for everybody. Try and relax, try and breathe. We were talking over on our Patreon about trying to slow things down. Maybe just take things in, get yourself a drink, whether it's a hydrating drink, a glass of water, maybe it's a coffee, whatever, take some time for yourself, which you need to do, slow things down, just breathe.
Even just five minutes, and maybe even like turn off their Christmas tunes because that shit's depressing. Yes, I don't know what it is, but like, okay, there's been times like my mom passed away before Christmas at one year, and I could like not even listen to Christmas music, but this year is like I was trying, I'm like, you know what, I'm gonna like listen to this a bit, and like it just does even if you're in a fine mindset, I feel like it makes you sad. And I don't know why that is.
Is Yeah, I don't know, there's something. There's something about Christmas music that to me just doesn't fit today's society.
That well, you know, yeah, I don't know. We ended up putting on Christmas chill hop and that was That was a good jam.
Yeah. To those who go on YouTube and listen to like some low fied chill hop radio stuff, yeah, that's that's our jam. When we listened like Christmas low fied chill hop, that's yeah.
And that was good. That was good.
Yeah.
I didn't feel like I need to just go in the bathroom and cry for five minutes.
Understandable. Understandable. But we don't want to take up too much of your time today. I mean, you have probably a lot to do, so we shouldn't be chatting too much. But so before we move on, I do want to make sure we thank our patrons who signed up this week, so thank you, and shout out to Amanda Cahill, Claire Nankolis and and Amanda Lynn Tom Awesome, thank you very much. We appreciate you guys signing up.
Yeah, no, we really do. We always do.
Yeah, And we were just doing the over in our little Patreon pre show, and you guys are getting a double header on New Year's Eve because you're getting, hey, the regular episode that's going to be coming out on a Tuesday, which is New Year's Eve, and then the exclusive episode that comes out at the end of every month. Yeah, so you're getting a double header and that library is built up pretty good now at this point.
Can't go wrong there, can.
You definitely not? Definitely not.
Okay, Well, we have like a semi Christmasy themed case, if you will, today, and that's the case of Bruce.
MacArthur, which was picked out by our patrons.
It was actually I should mention that. So yeah, let's dive into the store without wasting any time, shall we.
Let's do it. Let's hear it.
Okay, So we're heading to Ontario in the nineteen fifties to a little rural town called Lindsey. That's where Thomas Donald, Bruce MacArthur, or we're going to refer to him as Bruce was born, so on October eighth, nineteen fifty one. He was born to parents and Ilt MacArthur. The family didn't stay in Lindsay, but they stayed in the general area of the Cowerthee Lakes and lived the farm life.
The farm life, Okay, love it. I'm also just wanted to point out really quick that I'm loving the fact that you are doing this case.
It's I know you're different, but I like you, just like you relaxed over there and you just like settled in. I like saw it of it from like my perferal vision there.
I feel like you should be on the couch with a for the blanket, you know, I'll wrap myself up snuggling in sort of thing.
Yeah, well, buckle up, I guess. And I should just say, like, I mean a lot of these these areas I'm saying are not like super well known. So for reference, it's it's the area outside Toronto, gotcha. Most people know probably where Toronto is.
I just recently did a case that was just north of Toronto. Oh okay, wasn't I'm pretty sure was Toronto? Yeah, I think it was well.
I mean, there's a lot of little outside areas of big cities like that, right, So Bruce grew up with one biological sister and a rotating cast of foster children as their parents opened up their home and took in children needing a home from Toronto, and sometimes they would have like as many as ten extra kids at a time they were fostering. Wow, which I mean, there's such a need for that. So that's awesome.
Yeah, good for them. That's just a very busy home.
It is. That's a lot of kiddos. The household was also very religious, but interesting enough, each parent had a different faith and like you, I don't feel like you don't superhear that a lot.
Okay.
Bruce's mother was Irish Catholic and his father was Scottish Presbyterian, and so Bruce supported his mother, which of course added to any religious tension the family may have already faced.
I just want to say propts to them, because not very often can you have like cohesiveness between like religions in the same house.
Yeah, I feel like that'd be very hard. I mean I've heard it before. Were like one parent's religious and maybe the other isn't but like to both be of different faith and stuff. That's very unique.
Yeah, Usually when a relationship starts like that, there's someone who goes into the other religion, you know.
Yeah, so wow. So another rift between Bruce and his father may have been his father sensing Bruce's sexual orientation. So from a young age, Bruce realized something about himself, and that was that he wasn't into girls. This also caused him not to fit in with the other boys in his school. So, like many others in this you know, tight culture of the nineteen sixties, and like in a
small town of Ontario, Bruce played along. In high school, he started dating a girl named Janice Campbell, probably more to convince himself than anyone else. He continued to repress his sexual feelings, and Bruce and Janice eventually tied the knot when Bruce was twenty three years old and they had two kids, a boy and a girl. Bruce initially worked as a buyer's assistant for Eaton's. Do you remember Eaton's? Like, I mean, we weren't alive, I don't think, but like,
I do you recognize that name? It was like an apartment store.
Yeah, it sounds familiar.
Yeah, So he worked there and this later led to a travel a job, traveling as a salesman for McGregor Socks, and his family moved to Oshawa. I think that's how he us Oshauwa.
Yeah.
Yeah, So by day he was on the road working retail gigs in Toronto and Oshawa, and by the weekend he was a regular at church, playing the devoted husband and father. But sometime in the early nineteen nineties, that facade started to crack, as you know, I feel like that's expected that it would.
Yeah, you're wow, like hiding your true self for that long. I know, I think that would wear on you.
I know, I feel like that'd be very hard. And so Bruce came out to his wife Janie, admitting that he was gay and he had actually been sexually involved with men, so he was cheating, which is also terrible. Yeah, most likely something his traveling salesman position kind of gave him, like the freedom an opportunity to do right. Yeah, and it couldn't have been easy for her, but the couple
initially decided to stay together. I'm kind of assuming for the kids and maybe like the sense of stability, but this too was short lived once the couple faced some financial difficulties, with Bruce losing his job and their son actually went about finding himself in some legal trouble. I didn't dive into the super a lot. But he was making lewde phone calls apparently to women, whatever the hell that means.
Okay, so he's probably, like.
I think he was, like maybe it's kind of sounded like maybe borderline harassing in a sense.
Yeah, he was probably doing like almost a Peeping Tom situation sort of thing, without the peeping more of like just the calling, like the same women over and over, and like maybe the the heavy breathing, maybe the like I'm dodging myself.
Or who knows, I don't know. He had too much free time apparently on his hands.
Right, So I gave myself the creeps with that.
Yeah, I kind of just notice. I just moved on it.
Yeah I did.
Oh god.
So in nineteen ninety seven, the Maarthur's officially separated, and in nineteen ninety nine they had filed for bankruptcy. So, at forty six years old, Bruce packed his bags for a fresh start in Toronto to live the life that he desired, but ultimately This wasn't the kind of fresh start that anyone would have hoped for.
Done done, done.
Yeah. After years of hiding who he was, he embraced his identity and became a regular fixture in Toronto's LGBTQ plus community. He was out proud and he didn't have to live lie anymore, which you know is probably a pretty awesome feeling.
Yeah, no one should, but no. Yeah.
He was hanging out in gay neighborhoods like Church and Wellesley, which I think is usually referred to as the village, soaking up the scene and really immersing himself in the community. But all the good things must come to an end. Bruce had his ups and downs. He was in a long term relationship. I believe it was like about four years, so that's like a decent chunk of time. But it didn't last, and as most breakups do, it hit him hard.
He started going to therapy where he was prescribed antidepressants. Around the same time, he decided to launch a landscaping business called Artistic Design, And apparently he kind of attracted like wealthy little old ladies because they felt he was he was a bit charming. Okay, he had that charm to him. On the surface, it seemed like he was rebuilding his life. Business was picking up, he was meeting new people, and he had a knack for creating stunning
flower beds and lush gardens. But even as Bruce planted seas and nurtured gardens, something darker was growing beneath the surface. Not everyone in the LGBTQ community felt the same warmth he radiated to clients. Bruce had gained a bit of a reputation of being obsessive, controlling, and for engaging in rough sex and fetish play.
Okay, gotcha, So.
That was kind of like going around town, I guess, right.
Okay, so he I mean, honestly, it's not surprising when you suppress yourself for that long and then you're finally like free.
Like I ever thought of it like that actually, but yeah, well, like think of.
It in this regard when you get the classic the dog, when the gates left open and they just go right. It's the same sort of situation, Like he's been repressing, repress saying, and now he can actually be himself and now he's like in overindulging it, yeah, like overdoing it.
Right, Yeah, I never I never thought like, even with all my research and reading about that, I never put that together for somebody that makes a lot of sense.
It does.
It does. So some people mentioned you would maybe think twice about getting too close with Bruce. And as those concerns were rising, so were the number of disappearing men from the village. They were disappearing without a trace, and no one could figure out what was going on. For years, it was a mystery, and sadly, for years the police did not connect the dots. So the story of Bruce MacArthur's victims began with and I'm just gonna say I
apologize ahead of time. There was some like some names in here that are a little bit hard to pronounce. But I'm going to try my best here.
Okay, Okay, we got you. We're going to back you up on something. I support you.
So yeah, the first victim here that we're talking about is Scandalage and we're going to go buy Scanda Navarantum. He was a kind and vibrant man who had come to Canada from Sri Lanka in the early nineteen nineties as a refugee. So scandal was building a life for himself. He studied at the University of Toronto and later worked at Ryerson University. By the summer of twenty ten, he
seemed happy. He recently got a puppy and was absolutely smitten with it, constantly sharing photos and bringing the dog everywhere he went, which I just love puppies and dogs just bring like the just joy in life.
We would get along with this man.
Yes, and I feel like too, if you're like lonely or starting out like that's just so perfect just to have this like companion, because it's so nice to come home to, you know, energy, rather than just like a quiet dark house, right.
Right, someone who's there to greet you and they're happy to see you no matter what.
Totally yeah. So when Scanda disappeared in September twenty ten, leaving behind this puppy that he loved, it was a massive red flag because you know, normally when you have a dog, you set up a scenario for someone to come check on it or board it or whatever. Scanda was officially reported missing on September sixteen, twenty ten, but the last confirmed sighting of him was earlier that month.
In the early hours of September sixth, he was seen leaving a Toronto nightclub called Zippers with two unidentified men. His friends and family were worried sick, but when they reached out to police, their concerns didn't get the attention they deserved. The police were informed about Scanda's occasional alcohol and drug use, which may have influenced how serious they
took his case. To complicate matters, some family members thought he might have gone into hiding because of unresolved immigration issues. Despite all the speculation, there was no real leads. His friends and family knew something was wrong. Scanda wouldn't just vanish without a trace. Even his laptop, which police eventually seized, sat unexamined for years with no evidence of foul play. The investigation stalled almost as quickly as it had begun.
The authorities moved on, but his loved ones did not.
Dang, do we know what happened to his dog?
No?
I don't. Oh, okay, I don't. Hopefully, Yeah, I know. I'm like almost, I feel like I can't, Like you'd almost could guess, but who knows.
I hope the dog's okay, Yeah, going to put that out there, or it was okay, I guess at the time.
Yeah. So then came another disappearance on December twenty nine to twenty ten. And this is where are we here? Bazier Phasey vanished under eerily similar circumstances. So Basier, like Scanda, had come to Canada in search of a better life. Originally from Afghanistan, he had immigrated in nineteen ninety nine and was working as a machine operator. He was married with children and appeared to be a devoted family man. What Besier's family didn't know was that he was gay,
a secret that caused him immerse like immense stress. The night Besier went missing, he told his wife he was meeting a friend instead. He was last seen around eleven PM at Steam Works, which is a gay sauna in Toronto. His wife and cousin called repeatedly trying to reach him, and when they couldn't, he was reported missing the following day.
A few days later, on January four, twenty eleven, Bassier's car was found abandoned on Moore Avenue, about ten minutes from the sauna, and the location made no sense to his family. They insisted he had no reason to be in that area, and once again the case went cold. There were no clear leads and with you know, his sexuality not being known to his family, important details about his life and where he spent time remained hidden. Gotcha, Okay, yeah, so there you're going to see a theme here.
I kind of already am, but I mean, yeah, as more as you talk about more, I have a feeling that theme is going to carry on.
Yeah. So this is a couple of years later to about two years or so. On October twenty five, twenty twelve, Majeet Hamid Kahan and he go like, we're going to go by Hamid here was reported missing. So Hamid, like this year, was originally from Afghanistan. He had been married with two kids, but he was secretly gay, a truth he struggled with even after his divorce and a move into Toronto's LGBTQ Plus district. Despite living in the heart of the gay community, he still found it difficult to
fully embrace his identity. The last converm sighting of Hamid was on October fourteenth, twenty twelve, when he visited his son. After that, there was nothing, no phone calls, no sightings, just silence. When police went to check his home, there were no obvious signs of foul play, but one detail stood out and that was that Hamid had pet birds and they were dead. Oh no, this was completely out of character. He was very meticulous with their care and if he ever had to leave town, he always asked
a friend to look after them. This was a clear indication that something was seriously wrong. So at this point there was three men missing from Toronto's LGBTQ plus community. You'd think this would raise some alarms, and maybe it did, but there was a disconnect between the disappearances, with no one really seeing the bigger picture.
Here, gotcha. Okay, so everyone's just kind of like, oh, they're all just individual cases, not really drawing them together totally, assuming that these people kind of had like secretive lives, maybe are into drug use, and who knows what they're off doing. They probably went off on their own free will. Wow.
Okay, And with some of them too, like being immigrants, I don't I can't remember if if it was those three. We do talk about it at some point with especially with one victim, but like they some of them, you know, were facing potential like deportation or something. So then even if they were missing, like friends and family you know, didn't want to like draw attention to them. Either gotcha, Yeah, which is just it's so fucking.
Sad, no kidding.
So police did go about launching Project Houston. So this was a task force put together to initially investigate just one of the missing men, and that was Scanda, the investigator. The investigation was launched after a man posted on the cannibal web forum Zambian meat. I'd have no idea if that fucking still exists. I thought about googling it and then I was like, fuck, this.
Understandable because I'm was like not, I don't want to deal with that shit.
So a man posted on this that he had killed and eaten a man in Toronto, so it was believed that Scanda was murdered by one of the so called members. It was actually a man named James Bruton, dismembered and then consumed, which is just all a bit odd. Toronto police eventually concluded James's claim was just fantasy. But the investigation did in the end serve a purpose, and that
was that it linked the three missing men's cases. So there was something good that came about this, which you know, and I think I didn't really dive into it because I'm sure this James Broughton is like a whole nother fucking case on its own. I don't think he was like the best of people. But in this scenario, it was found that he did not like eat this man.
Okay, so this was not factual, at least not with this person.
No, because he was part of this forum forum and he did talk about like eating people, but it was just like a fantasy thing, I guess for him. But then there was also speculation that he might be like a pedophile too, and all that Jazz still not a great person.
He's a grand kind of individual, isn't he.
Could you imagine, just like I don't know, going on a form and fantasizing talking about eating people like it. It's even interesting that something like that exists out there.
But anyway, hey, I mean it's the Internet.
Yeah, everything exists out there, right yep. So by January twenty thirteen, during the ongoing investigation, police came across an email address, and this was silver Fox fifty one at hotmail dot com.
Okay.
They had no idea at the time that it would eventually lead them to Bruce. For now, it was just another small piece and a very complicated puzzle. The idea of a serial killer on the loose seemed to be too far fetched. They didn't really want to believe that.
In November twenty thirteen, Bruce was actually interviewed by police and connected to two of the missing men, but they didn't dig too deep, and maybe they would have if they were aware of a violent incident Bruce had in twenty eleven where he received a year of house arrest followed by three years of probation. So this was an incident involving Mark Henderson. He was an actor, model and nursing student, and Bruce ended up following Mark into his apartment.
It's unclear how well these two knew each other, if at all, but it was very clear that he wasn't a guest of Marx or anything. Some reports kind of said Mark let him into his apartment. Some said they they did know each other better. I don't know, but anyway, like he wasn't a welcome guess. So without warning, Bruce attacked Mark from behind, clubbing him with an iron pipe out like just like basically like went the fuck to town,
which is crazy. Mark, thankfully, you know, realized it was like do or die here, and so he fought for his life and was able to fight Bruce off, But when he later reported the incident to police, the police allegedly made light of the crime, which is so weird. They made jokes at the scene and like neglected to take a witness statement.
What the fuck?
Yeah, because he was he was quite injured, Like it wasn't just like a little bit of an injury here, this is just me making an acquisition. But Mark at the time was in the escort market. So maybe because of this, they weren't taking him seriously, which I'm not saying is right by no means, but maybe because he was, you know, a sex worker of sorts, they just kind of felt that sort of thing happened. I don't know, Well, there is that.
Stigma around police treating sex workers that way. Yeah, so yeah, I can see what you're saying. It may not be surprising that that it actually occurred, because hey, that stigma, I mean, it comes from somewhere.
Yeah. It's too bad too, because Mark even he has come out, come like out and talked about this incident, and like like I said at the beginning, he was in most cases kind of introduced as just being a sex worker, but he was also like a model, and he was like a nursing student and stuff too, right, so there was like more to him than that.
Yeah, that anchors me. Yeah, but Devil's advocate. Potentially they're introducing him as a sex worker because authorities are assuming the sex work is what initiated the crime. Yeah, so maybe that's why they're referring to him as a sex worker, because that's what links him to this initially. But yeah, still not good.
Not okay. Bruce did end up turning himself in for this crime, though, claiming he had blacked out and couldn't remember anything about the attack the attack, also pleading guilty in court.
Then how the fuck did he turn himself in if he didn't remember anything about it?
I know, I didn't really get that either.
It's like I was the one who did that, but I don't remember doing it. What the fuck?
So he did go about receiving fairly light conditions, and I'm assuming is because he, you know, like didn't remember what the hell happened and actually turned himself in. It was also along with psychiatric reports that suggested Bruce was unlikely to commit any further crimes.
I have a feeling that is some very wrong information shadowing some shits we.
Already know because this was prior to those.
Oh I see missing, gotcha? Gotcha?
Okay, well they're just missing at this point, I guess, right, So he's late.
So hold on, those three are missing currently?
Yes, okay, because member they started this Project Houston. Yes, Bruce came up, but they didn't know about and I'm going to talk about this here in a minute, they didn't know about his past criminal like these this attack because Bruce's criminal record was allowed to be wiped clean. Oh shit, yeah, so like it wasn't it wasn't known that he had had this incident prior to him being interviewed with in regard to these street missing men. Oh fuck,
okay yeah wow. So so by April twenty fourteen, Project Houston was it was done, the case with the cases were left unsolved, and any momentum from the investigation just kind of like fizzled out. So and then, yeah, here's where I say, Bruce's criminal record, you know, it was allowed to be wipe clean, so his past arrest didn't show up anymore, and one checking his background wouldn't see his history of violence.
Shit.
So in August twenty fifteen, another man would go missing, Charuche Mamoodi, a forty nine year old originally from Iran. Charuche was married and had a step son. On the day he disappeared, he left for work but never came home. His disappearance, however, didn't raise raise any alarms. He wasn't part of the Toronto LGBTQ plus community and he wasn't seen in the village, so his case wasn't connected to the earlier missing men for quite some time. For now,
it was just another unexplained disappearance. Meanwhile, Bruce found himself yet again at the police station in June twenty sixteen for another alarming incident. A man came forward reporting that Bruce had nearly choked him to death during a hookup in the back of Bruce's van. According to the victim, the encounter started consensually, but took a terrifying turn when Bruce became violent and started choking him. The man barely managed to escape and ran straight to police. Bruce, in response,
again did go about turning himself in. He admitted to the hookup, but claimed that the choking was consensual. According to Bruce, the man had asked him to do it, but then freaked out for some reason. And here's the shocking part though, is that the police believed him. Oh, they chalked it up to, you know, a consensual encounter that had gone wrong and let him go. And once again,
Bruce was, you know, walking free, walking free. I think it's almost it's interesting that he goes about turning himself in. It is that's almost because it shows that he's having like remorse, you know, like it's it seems very strategic to me.
I don't know if it's remorse.
I think it shows that he has remorse to the police and to people, I think, but doesn't I'm not necessarily he has it.
It shows Okay, yeah, it's showing pretend remorse potentially, Yeah, it's portraying remorse. There we go. It's portraying remorse. It's not showing remorse. But yeah, I think what he's trying to do is he's trying to say one step ahead. He's like, Okay, if someone reports me, I'm gonna do them better and I'm gonna report myself and then I can play victim. And then it's like then you know, it can be brushed off.
Rather it's only his story versus the others, like who you know, who are they going to necessarily believe?
Yeah, rather than someone being like reporting you and then you run and you hide, that shows.
Guilt, right, Yeah, yeah it does.
So if he's all like, oh, you know I was involved in this, you know, I can't believe it went this bad. You know, I really just expecting it, like you know, you play the victim cards sort of thing, right, And so yeah, I think he's what he's doing is he's not remorseful, like you say. It portrays remorseful, but he's more so just yeah, trying to to stay ahead of looking guilty.
There's actually an interview out there where he's talking to police about this this incident, and it's just like so awkward, Like it's just so I don't know, so awkward the stuff he's talking about and like the rough sex and stuff. And I'm just like, oh my god, what am I
watching here? Like it was just a moment where I was, you know, I would never want to be sitting there and because the police are just like okay, you know, like I don't know if I could just be listening to this this guy talk about like this rough sex and all this shit and just be like okay, with like no facial reaction whatsoever.
Well, you just talked about it, and then you did just have no reaction.
You went Okay, inside I'm just like losing my shit. So I don't know, it would be really hard, gotcha.
Well I think you'd be able to do it though. You just did do it, so there you go, see see, But.
Then to have to carry on and think about your next sentence and then again he's talking about you know, the rough sex. Okay, Like I don't know, it's just so fucking hard.
Anyway, you're about to carry on to your next sentence. Now, see you can.
Do this shit, Oh I guess so. In April twenty seventeen, Slim Espen was reported missing by his ex husband so Slim, originally from Turkey, had struggled to adjust to life in Canada after divorcing his husband. He turned to substance abuse for a time, but things were looking up for him. Just before his disappearance, they seemingly out of nowhere, just
like vanished. He was last seen in the village. Yet, like the others, his disappearance wasn't initially initially linked to Project Houston or the earlier cases, which you know is an ongoing thing here. Just two months later, in June twenty seventeen, another man disappeared, and this time it thankfully wouldn't go unnoticed as the others had. Andrew Kinsman was
last seen on June twenty eighth, twenty seventeen. Andrew was a beloved figure in Toronto's Gate community, and he was deeply involved in h HIV and AIDS networks and foundations. He was known as a kind, generous person who dedicated himself to helping others and supporting his community. When police search Andrew's apartment, they found several red flags. His beloved cat, who he doted on, had been left without food and water, which was a clear sign that Andrew had not planned
to leave. But the biggest clue was on the calendar in his apartment, written on June twenty six, two days before his disappearance, was a single word, and that was bruce, along with three PM. So now with the disappearance of another middle aged man from the village, the obvious question was could Andrew's case be connected? So they're finally certain to be like, holy shit, like what's going on? And I think it was because Andrew he kind of he was he would be really missed too, right, like people
would like notice that his presence wasn't there. So police wasted no time investigating. They scoured CCTV footage and managed to find a crucial clip. Andrew was seen getting into a red Dodge Caravan at exactly three pm, the time written on his calendar. So here they have a vehicle.
They just were unable to make out the license plate. However, the specific Dodge Caravan model ended up being a unique addition, and when they searched the model and the name Bruce, only one man popped up, and that was Bruce MacArthur. And now the police had Toronto's most prolific serial killer in their crosshair.
Yes, fuck this guy.
I know, fuck this guy for sure, like he sucks.
And I don't mean that like the with the gay stuff right now, I'm talking like, fuck him, you know.
With the rough section.
Yeah, not that, that's not what I'm referring to. I mean, in your own time whatever, but not with this.
I'm glad. They clarified that the discovery led to the launch of a new task force. You know, people like their task force.
I feel like, yeah, we do like the A team right, Guardians of the Galaxy.
August twenty seventeen, it was called Project Prism. The police had linked five missing men together, the original three from Project Houston, so there was Scanda, Basir and Hamid plus now Andrew and Salim as police piercings together. Bruce obviously became a major person of interest. Investigators learned he had been interviewed four years earlier during Project Houston and had
no connections to some of the missing men. They also uncovered the twenty sixteen choking incident, where he'd been reported for nearly strangling a man during a hookup, but wasn't charged. It was all starting to paint a very disturbing picture. Bruce was placed under twenty four to seven surveillance and investigators kept a close eye on him as he moved in and out of his apartment at ninety five Thorncliffe Park Drive. They also collected his DNA and obtained a
warrant to seize his red Dodge Caravan. Unfortunately, by the time they acted, Bruce I think was like, you know, a ware that he might have been under fire and he had gotten rid of the vehicle shit or so he thought. In October twenty seventeen, investigators found the van and conducted a forensic search. What they uncombed was chilling. The DNA of four different men was present inside the vehicle. One sample was of course, belonging to Bruce, but another
to Andrew, and two more from unknown individuals. As police tailed Bruce, they observed him snapping photos of men in public, often like without their knowledge. This is a real kicker. They followed him to malls where he worked as a mall santa, which you know, yeah, we kind of chatted about, like what the fuck.
Yeah, we knew that one was coming.
This is where I don't think criminal records should be like fully able to be Is the word pardoned? I don't know, because when it comes to working with kids, if you've ever had like a criminal record and it's been pardoned, like, I don't think. I just don't. I don't like this man should not be a mall santa for god's sakes. Yeah that's not okay.
Yeah I don't. I yeah, I agree. I do believe there should be like very special circumstances where like yeah, okay, maybe your your criminal record is erased, but that's like should be like a federal legislation that's really kept tight knit, and it's like you have to go through you' a major fucking thing to have that like erase like tenfold on what it already is.
And probably for something more minor than like bashing someone's head in Yeah.
Right. I feel like it's like, okay, like maybe you did do something bad, you got a criminal record, and then you go to war and you like save your fucking country and then say, okay, you know what, We're going to go with this process and get you a fucking new life because you deserve it exactly. Like those are the situations where I think, maybe, yeah, okay, it could be wiped, not just for some dude who's like, eh, you know what, sure, why not?
Yeah? I don't want this record, so like let's get rid of it. By this point, the evidence was overwhelming. The DNA, the photos, the connections to the missing men. It all pointed to one conclusion, and police finally said what everyone had been dreading. We have a serial killer. The next step was to search Bruce's apartment and digital devices, so on January eighteen, twenty eight teen, the police were
ready to take down Bruce once and for all. Armed with a warrant, they busted into his apartment and what they found was straight out of a nightmare. First, if the evidence wasn't enough, Bruce had had a man he'd met through a gay dating website handcuffed to his bed, thankfully still alive.
I mention that man was terrified.
But yeah, it's from I mean, there isn't a shit ton of information out there, but he was like planning to kill him, so wow.
Because yeah, I mean, he could have been handcuffed to the bed and like really happy, or he also could have been handcuffed to the bed and really terrified. One of those two.
And I think it was one. See I couldn't find a shit a shit ton on it, but one source did say the guy had like a plastic bag on his face and Bruce was like in the process of going about like you know, cutting off his airflow and shit. I don't know, so I don't know if they were still in like the funds age of shit or if it's like gone past that, but anyway, it was that's like a scene from a movie. Really, someone's you know, basically kind of on their deathbed and the police bargin
and like they're saved. That's kind of it's good.
I'm pretty sure that it's like every episode of CSI you know, actually actually yes.
As they searched, they found more deeply disturbing evidence. On Bruce's laptop, they discovered over a hundred photographs of Andrew, as well as pictures of many other men. Among them were images taken in Bruce's bedroom. On a USB. They discovered nine folders, each labeled with the name or in some cases, a description of one of the victims. And we have talked about not or no, I think we've
only talked about six individuals. But of one of those folders was the man that was like handcuffed to the bed. He had photos in there of him like alive. Oh shit, So you know that there was going to be added because inside we're photographs of victims, often taken after death and post So after killing his victims, Bruce would pose their naked corpses for photos, sometimes dressing them in like for coats and hats and placing cigars in their mouths.
Placing cigars in their mouths. Yeah, that's an interesting detail.
So I don't know if that that got got him going or what I mean there's a whole lot there because he's probably he's posing them for his own his When you're posing someone like that, it is for yourself.
Yeah. And then with these photos and I mean memories as well to go with it. I mean, that's that's the definition of a spank bank right there.
Yeah. Oh, it's like my my upper body is so tight right now because the skuy just like pisses me off. He gives the creek it's uncomfortable.
Well, I wholeheartedly understand, but yeah, that's that's like walking the line of like that necrophilia.
Right, oh, one hundred percent. Yeah, But as far as I know, he wasn't. I mean, but who the hell knows what the hell he was doing right afterwards. But as far as we know, he wasn't necessarily having I just quotated like you could see that intercourse with the disease.
It's very possible he could have because I mean, how I'm sure there is going to be some signs and things that investigators can find in forensics. But if he's you know, having relations with these individuals and then killing them, what's to say that like he can't have relations again? And then because it was pre and post Yeah, that the signs are like mixed and you can't tell.
I know, I'm sure that I'm sure he did some indacent things that you know, no one will really ever know.
I do imagine that they're I do want to clarify. I'm sure there are signs post mortem rather than pre but it would be much harder to determine, you know.
Yeah. In some of the images, the victims were also photographed naked with ropes tightly tied around their necks. It soon became clear that this was the murder weapon. Bruce had used a metal bar with rope attached to strangle his victims. So he was twist the bar, oh to tighten Oh the knots. I guess, like I don't just even visualizing that his horride.
So he like wraps the rope around their neck and the hand.
Then twists the bar.
Yeah, and it just slowly tightens more.
I don't even know how you would go about, you know, getting yourself really out of that.
Oh you fucked. Yeah, he's got too much leverage. You can't do it.
Oh, okay, Bruce, all right, Yeah, we're just gonna move on from that, because that is just thinking about that way of death is something Bruce had meticulously documented his crimes, keeping gruesome trophies in digital form. Police also discovered that Bruce cap a journal where he detailed some of his killings. So he wasn't really hot. He was hiding shit, but he wasn't hiding shit in his home.
I guess how not how to get caught one on one.
Yeah, he was arrested on the spot, charged with first degree murder and hauled off in handcuffs. With Bruce and custody. Police turned their attention to his landscaping business and one particular property in the Lee Side neighborhood of Toronto where he had a deal. He you know, stored equipment there because they had space in return for him doing some yard work. So good averdogs were brought in and lead investor or led investigators storry to large planter boxes among the property. Inside.
Oh that's where yeah, yeah, I know where this is going.
Oh God. Inside inside they found several sets of human remains. Officers spent week set the Lee Side property, which they referred to as Ground Zero due to the amount of evidence found there. In the end, seven sets of dismembered remains were found in planters and an eighth was found in a ravine near the property.
Eight Wow okay, yeah shit.
And can you just imagine too this, This fucking dude is just like your landscaper, but he has access to your property and he's just freaking like these beautiful planter boxes that you probably have going up to your property, you know, at the bottom of them is just a decay and corpse.
Which in turn would fertilize the plants really well.
So you're probably just tickled pink that they were doing so well and little did you know, right, Oh my gosh, I don't even know how you could go boat living in there again, like in your home.
Yeah, it's dark as fuck.
Yeah. So the remains belong to six of the missing men we have previously talked about, but there were also two a day victims police hadn't known about before. So I apologize ahead of time. It's hit this name, it's Kirshnama Kermar kind of garnum. My apologies to you. I know you have a beautiful name. It's just very hard to pronounce. So he was also a refugee from Sri Lanka who had been trying to avoid deportation. He lived in twenty or he disappeared in twenty fifteen, and he
was living homeless. So I mean, like just someone that you know could very easily go to tech detected, undetected, detected.
I thought you're going to say, go to Texas. For a minute, I was like.
What which is Bruce's m O.
Right, Yeah, trying to find those that yeah, can fly under the radar without being missed.
Yeah. And then the second one was Dean Lisa Wick, a former bar worker who had struggled with addiction and became a sex worker. He was last seen in April twenty six So in the end, Bruce was charged with the murders of eight men. His chilling, trophy keeping and methodical planning left no doubt that he was a predator who had been hiding in plain sight for years. But thanks to a combination of police work and timing, Bruce's final victim escaped and the reign of terror finally came
to an end. In twenty eighteen, Bruce was charged with the first degree murder of all eight men. By January twenty nineteen, he pled guilty, which I do have to say, I appreciate when these fucking people just pleaded guilty to things because this spared the families of his victims the agony of like a lengthy trial.
Yes, however that is very much so up his alley.
To Yeah, pleaded.
Actually he went in and admitted it constantly, right he did.
Yeah, you're right, trying to.
Stay ahead and trying to like, you know, almost be that victim. I'm so sorry, you know whatever, And that's he's still doing it.
Yeah, that's true. I mean, he's still like the most piece of shit person out there. But it does save money and puts people through less of agony, I guess.
Yeah, but it does go to show that, Yeah, he doesn't have remorse, because if he had that remorse the other incidents when he came forward to police, he would have stopped.
Yeah.
So it's not that he's remorseful he I mean he is. He's just remorseful that he got caught and he's trying to make himself seem a bit better.
So Bruce was sentenced to life in prison with no possibility of parole until he's ninety one years old, which you know, some people did have an issue with. I think it's like twenty or no possibility of pearl for twenty five years. But it was basically like, it's unlikely that he'll ever be granted this and he'll most likely die behind bars.
Rot.
Yeah good. The Toronto Police are came under intense scrutiny during and after the case. Of course, they were heavily criticized for their handling of the missing person's investigations, with allegations of racism and bias influencing how seriously the disappearances were taken. This lack of urgency gave Bruce the time and the opportunity to continue praying on vulnerable men. The fallout exposed systematic issues in how missing persons cases were handled,
particularly when they involved marginalized communities. And that, my friends, is the case of Bruce MacArthur, the Santa Claus killer. Bruce mcasshole mix, piece of shit, make piece of shit, piece of shit. That is a good name for him, Yeah, Bruce mcpiece of shit.
So yeah, I do you want to say, like at the beginning, when he was I don't want to say forced, but damn near forced. Probably you could say forced. When he was let's say forced, fuck it, when he was forced to hide him true self and like lock that part of him away and then finally he was able to live his life and he went and like I said, the gates left open, and the dog fucking goes and he just takes it way too far. Yeah he's fucking locked up again now. Yeah, before he didn't deserve it,
Now he fucking does. You can't live your life like that. Fuck you Like, yeah, you deserve to be locked up now.
I know I should say too, Like, this case was very heavy on the perpetrator, which we don't love to do, but there isn't even like a shit ton of information on all of his victims, and you know, he went about choosing them them for a reason, and so I almost feel like I have to apologize that this case was so, like Bruce MacArthur heavy, But they are sometimes right.
Sometimes the story is about the killer. Yeah, we like to really highlight, Yeah, you're right, the victims whenever possible, But yeah, sometimes it's we tell the story of a killer and how they are make piece of shit.
Yeah, I mean none of his victims deserved any of that, No, definitely not. They did. Like there was speculation too that there could be so many more victims because he did start this like quite late in his life, right, Like serial killers don't necessarily start the process when they're like in their late forties or fifties. Yeah, but the police, like said, they went they went through like all so
many disappearances and tried to connect and stuff. But these eight were the only ones that they really could.
So, but like you said, there's some that were like facing deportation and may have never been you know, reported missing, may have been assumed that they left the country.
Well, they went about finding all these bodies, so I'm sure that they probably they they went about all looking through all of the places. He did is landscaping, right, but there could be a place he hit a body somewhere else exactly.
Well put it this way, Yeah, he buried some bodies on these properties with his landscaping business. Right now, with landscaping, what's something else that you do. You do removal, think weeds, think removal of soil, to put in rock gardens, that sort of stuff. Who's to say he didn't put bodies in this removal that were then taken off to these like composting landfills that are now like thirty feet underground.
Well, because there could. But he also kept the folders right and there was only nine, true, but maybe that he killed a couple of people before that, Yeah, exactly. One thing I did watch too was one of the victims. I'm not certain which one it was, but they hadn't been reported, and so the police actually went about sharing like a photo of this man's face, like and he was deceased, you know, trying to identify him and stuff, which oh, just just terrible.
That is wow.
Yeah, Nick, piece of shit. So we'll ended that.
Well, good job in the case, and thank you to our patrons for suggesting that one.
Yes, no, it was good that they suggested it. It's so funny though, Oh has to do this because I think because there was like teeny bits of like neck potential necrophilia, cannibalism.
And you have a history of doing the next space.
Is I should just blow you all out of the water. And they're all cannibalism, all necrophilia.
Just as like gross as you can get. Yeah, you should do it. But yeah, if you want to join our community over on Patreon, you can go ahead. There is a link down below. We'd appreciate you and would love to see you there. We have a bunch of other links in the description of this podcast as well, website, YouTube, Facebook, Instagram, it's all there. Yeah, thank you for being here, Thank
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Christmas, holidays, holidays, enjoy enjoy this festive time of.
Year, Yes we did. We want you to enjoy it thoroughly. Okay, and don't be a.
Macasshole, a make piece of ship, make.
Piece of shit. Sorry, I already got it. I think I called him a macasshole earlier before the mike piece of ship. So that's that's why I reverted.
Back.
Piece of shit is better than macass.
Yeah, don't be a make piece of ship.
Yeah, think about your actions. We're spiraling anyway until our next episode.
Stay Wicked and Merry. I like it, Yeah, I do, I do. Okay, we'll stay Wicked and Mary