In January of 2018, a young man, referred to has “John,” was heading to what was likely meant to be a consensual hook-up with another man. “John,” who’s identity has been kept secret, is a married man, and in text messages that would eventually be read in court, had discussed with the man he was meeting about keeping their affair a secret. The two had met on a dating site aimed towards gay men, and as far as “John” knew that day, he was going to be continuing this affair. Unfortunately for “John,” the man he was meeting was not just any person – he was a serial killer, planning on ending “John’s” life. He fit his attempted killer’s victim type perfectly – he had moved to Canada from the Middle East five years earlier and his family was not aware of his sexuality. What neither man had expected was the police showing up, saving “John’s” life in the process (“Bruce Mcarthur: Door Knock Saved Serial Killer’s Victim”).
Unbeknownst to “John,” the man he was meeting had been under surveillance for some time the day he arrived at his apartment. This ultimately saved his life, as seeing this young man walk into the apartment building of a suspected serial killer prompted investigators to jump into action. While “John” was experiencing a true horror – his lover had handcuffed him without his consent to a four-poster bed and put a black bag with no holes for breathing or seeing in through, which his attempted killer was trying to replace with tape after he attempted to remove the bag – investigators were standing outside. As tape was pressed over his mouth, a knock came at the door. Bruce McArthur, ex-Mall Santa and landscaper, was arrested under suspicion of multiple murders while investigators freed “John” (“Bruce Mcarthur: Door Knock Saved Serial Killer’s Victim”). The apartment was searched, and soon McArthur would be connected to a total of eight killings.
How did Bruce McArthur, now nearing 70, come to investigators’ attention? The first investigation into the missing men came when an investigator from Switzerland contacted Toronto investigators, believing a man in Ontario may have been connected to an international cannibalism ring. This investigation turned up evidence that pointed to McArthur, but was never followed up on due to the tunnel-vision investigators had developed relating to cannibalism. Eventually, it was determined that the suspicious content that lead to the investigation into the Ontario man were actually his disturbing fantasies and he was not an acting cannibal, thought he was arrested for child pornography (Austen). McArthur had been getting away with his crimes for seven years, as far as we know, when he killed his final victim. Andrew Kinsman, 49, was a well-known man. He was heavily connected with Toronto’s church, as well as Wellesley’s gay community, and was the caretaker for the apartment building he lived in in Cabbagetown. When he went missing shortly after Toronto’s Gay Pride parade in June 2017, it was quickly noticed. Within days, missing posters were hung about and his disappearance had become a major topic of conversation (McNab). Unlike a majority of McArthur’s victims, who were largely of Middle Eastern and South Asian descent, Kinsman was white and had many connections. The insistence of his friends and family pushed investigators into action (Austen). Two months after Kinsman’s disappearance, the Project Prism Task Force was formed to investigate his disappearance, as well as another victim of McArthur’s, Selim Esen, 44 (Dziemianowicz).
McArthur’s killings didn’t start with Kinsman or Esen, but in 2010, with Skandaraj Navartnam, 40-years old. Navartnam was described as being intelligent with a jovial disposition, despite struggling with coming out. He reportedly dated McArthur and was last seen leaving Zipper’s, a local nightclub. His friends alerted investigators to his disappearance when he didn’t return home to the puppy he got just before he disappeared. Like Navartnam, second victim Abdulbasir Faizi, 42, was also reported missing in 2010. Unlike Navartnam, Faizi was not openly gay and actually had a wife and two daughters, who had no idea of his sexuality. He was last seen at a bathhouse in The Village, a neighborhood in Toronto known for being largely LGBT+. His family reported him missing (Dziemianowicz).
Victim number three, Majeed Kayhan, 58, was an Afghan immigrant living a double life. His adult son reported him missing in October of 2012, and combined with the first two disappearances, a small investigation was prompted. It ran from 2012 to 2014, but ultimately resulted in no answers. It is now known that Kayhan was employed for a time as a landscaper by McArthur, who claimed they had a sexual relationship. In August of 2015, his fourth victim was reported missing by his wife. Soroush Mahmudi, 50, was an Iranian refugee, living in Canada with his wife and children, when he went missing. He lied down for bed with his wife and was gone the next morning, never to be heard from again (Dziemianowicz).
Kirushna Kumar Kanagaratnam, 37-year old asylum seeker form Sri Lanka, was likely murdered in January of 2016. He arrived in Canada in 2010, but didn’t have refugee status and had to live an underground lifestyle. When he first disappeared, it was believed that he had just gone into hiding. As of now, his connections to McArthur and The Village are unknown. Victim six, Dean Lisowick, 47, struggled with his mental health and substance use. He was known to have worked as a sex worker, but was never actually reported missing. Lisowick spent a significant amount of time in homeless shelters before he was murdered. Investigators believe Lisowick may have been murdered on April 23, 2016 (Dziemianowicz).
Like Lisowick, Selim Esen struggled with substance use as well. He arrived in Canada from Turkey in 2013, as an openly LGBT+ person who was unhappy in his home country. Esen was last seen alive on April 15, 2017, and was reported missing by a friend. The final victim, Andrew Kinsman, was described as a gentle giant (Dziemianowicz). Kinsman was known to have an interest in serial killers and true crime, and a colleague from Toronto People With AIDS Foundation reported that he had been hooking up with someone with an extensive knowledge and interest in serial killers before his disappearance. After he went missing, investigator’s searched his apartment. On his computer they found files saved about Dennis Nilsen, known UK necrophile and serial killer, as well as a documentary on infamous American serial killer, John Wayne Gacy. They also found evidence connecting Kinsman to McArthur – 10 photos of McArthur taken on September 11, 2010, on Kinsman’s camera. There is some speculation that perhaps Kinsman suspected McArthur was a killer and was conducting his own investigation into him, but there is no proof (McNab). In his diary for June 26, 2017, Kinsman had only the name “Bruce” written down, possibly a plan to meet up with the man. Surveillance footage captured Kinsman getting into a red car that would later be traced back to McArthur (“Bruce Mcarthur: Door Knock Saved Serial Killer’s Victim”).
Strangely, McArthur had several encounter with investigators while he was active, and had known Kinsman and Navartnam for years before he murdered them (“Bruce Mcarthur: Door Knock Saved Serial Killer’s Victim”). On Halloween 2001, Mark Henderson was beaten with a lead pipe by McArthur outside his apartment. Henderson had been heading into his apartment building when McArthur came running up behind him. Assuming he was heading to one of the offices in the building, Henderson held the for him and continued to his apartment. As he was attempting to open his door, McArthur attacked, full of rage. Henderson suffered a fractured skull and finger, and severely damaged hand in the attack, and McArthur quickly turned himself in. McArthur gave no reason for this attack at trial in 2003, and even apologized for the pain he had caused Henderson. While he could have been sentenced to 10 years in prison, he was instead sentenced to one day served, one year house arrest, a two year ban from The Village, and three years on probation. In 2014, McArthur was able to apply for a pardon on this conviction, which wiped it from his criminal record. This essentially resulted in the attack not appearing on background checks (Haines). McArthur was interviewed in relation to the disappearances of Navartnam, Faizi and Kayhan in 2013, but not as a suspect, Instead, he was interviewed as a witness due to his long standing friendship with Navartnam. McArthur would by a new van just two weeks after this interview. Finally, in 2016 McArthur was interviewed by investigators after he had reportedly attempted to strangle a friend while having what started as casual sex. According to the victim, he had been invited into the van, which he noted was lined with plastic, and McArthur grabbed his hand. He was apparently angry, and soon began to attempt strangling the victim. Somehow, the victim managed to escape and call for help, but after questioning McArthur police determined that it was a case of mistaken consent. McArthur thought the victim was consenting to being choke during sex. McArthur was never charged (“Bruce Mcarthur: Door Knock Saved Serial Killer’s Victim”).
Starting in September of 2017, McArthur was under physical surveillance by investigators. His DNA was sampled from a discarded coffee cup, and when he dumped his red Dodge Caravan at a local scrapyard in November 2017, investigators seized it and began forensic examination. Inside the car, they found blood and semen that connected Kinsman and Esen to the van, and were able to obtain a warrant. The warrant lead to a covert search of McArthur’s apartment (“Bruce Mcarthur: Door Knock Saved Serial Killer’s Victim”).
After McArthur’s arrest, investigators began their search for the remains of his eight victims. They searched 75 properties McArthur was known to have worked on, and on one of these properties they discovered the dismembered remains of the eight victims. The house in Leaside had large planter boxes, where McArthur had buried some of the remains, and an adjacent ravine where the rest of the remains had been disposed of. The homeowner remembered McArthur as being a talented gardener and great with children, most definitely a great grandfather. She chose not to move after the discovery was made, and on the one year anniversary of McArthur’s arrest a memorial was held at the house for the victims which included a bagpiper playing a lament (McNab).
McArthur’s known active period was September 2010 through June 2017, during which he worked as a Mall Santa as Agincourt Mall in Toronto for at least two years. He was working as a landscaper and was fairly well known for being able to turn yards into lush gardens. After his arrest in January 2018, investigators searched his apartment and began to search properties he had worked on during his active period. They found several things in his apartment – ropes and a metal bar believed to have been used as a ligature for strangulation, his preferred method of murder, necklaces belonging to victims Navartnam and Lisowick, a notebook that belonged to Esen, and an unsettling USB drive (McNab). The USB drive contained nine files. The first eight were named for the eight victims, and the final file was named for the man he had tied to his bed when he was arrested (“Bruce Mcarthur: Door Knock Saved Serial Killer’s Victim”). Inside the files were photos of his victims post-mortem, posed for pictures. Some victims were posed naked with a fur coat or hat, and a cigar in their mouths, some had their heads and beards shaved, and others had their eyes closed and the ligature still around their necks. He would pose the victims either in his apartment on Thorncliffe Park Drive or in his red Dodge Caravan. After taking these photos, McArthur also took close-up shots of his victims’ genitals (McNab). The final file, named for “John,” contained photos of him that McArthur had downloaded the day Kinsman was murdered (“Bruce Mcarthur: Door Knock Saved Serial Killer’s Victim”).
McArthur came out later in life, having been married and fathered two children before coming out in middle age. In the 1970s, he found work as a traveling salesman (Hunter), and in the 1990s, he officially came out. He was on good terms with his family after coming out and moved to Toronto. There is speculation that, while he was a traveling salesman in the 1970s, he may have been involved with more murders. Between 1975 and 1978, 14 men from Toronto’s gay community were murdered, and only about half of these murders have been solved. As of now, no evidence suggests that McArthur was involved in any of the unsolved cases, but it is noted that these murders seemed to stop when McArthur stopped working as a traveling salesman (McNab).
McArthur is slightly unusual for a serial killer in that, as far as is known, he didn’t begin killing until his 50s. On average, serial killers begin killing young, in their 20s, and as they age the urge to kill ebbs, usually around their 40s (Hunter)(McNab). While his age was unusual, his tendencies weren’t. Many serial killers go after marginalized groups such as LGBT+ people, sex workers, homeless people, and those that struggle with substance use. The posing of his victims and taking photos is not unusual either, a similar practice seen in Dennis Nilsen. These were essentially trophies, or reminders of his crimes, along with the hair he saved from shaving his victims’ heads and beards. He kept the hair in Ziploc bags in a shed near Toronto Cemetery (“Bruce Mcarthur: Door Knock Saved Serial Killer’s Victim”).
It is no doubt that Bruce McArthur committed atrocious crimes. He plead guilty at trial, though he showed no signs of remorse, and would likely continue to kill were he given the opportunity. For each of the eight murders, McArthur received a life sentence with no parole until 25 years. There is little doubt that McArthur will remain in prison for the rest of his life (McNab). Unfortunately, the bias within the system and among investigators, including stereotyping of LGBT+ people, likely contributed to the high victim count (Austen). Had the disappearances been taken more seriously sooner, or the previous conviction for beating Henderson with the pipe not been wiped from his record, perhaps McArthur would have been caught sooner, and fewer victims would be gone.
Haines, Avery. “The Bruce Mcarthur Victim Who No One Took Seriously Might Have Stopped A Serial Killer”. W5, 2020, https://www.ctvnews.ca/w5/the-bruce-mcarthur-victim-who-no-one-took-seriously-might-have-stopped-a-serial-killer-1.5148167.
Austen, Ian. “Anti-Gay Bias Hindered Toronto Police As A Serial Killer Roamed”. Nytimes.Com, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/04/13/world/canada/toronto-serial-killer-bruce-mcarthur.html.
Dziemianowicz, Joe. “Who Were Serial Killer Bruce Mcarthur’S Victims? These 8 Men Were Killed Over 7 Years | Oxygen Official Site”. Oxygen Official Site, 2021, https://www.oxygen.com/catching-a-serial-killer-bruce-mcarthur/serial-killer-week/who-were-serial-killer-bruce-mcarthurs-8.
McNab, Duncan. “Serial Killer ‘Santa’ Posed Victim’S Bodies For Photos Then Buried Them On Client’S Property | 7NEWS.Com.Au”. 7News.Com.Au, 2020, https://7news.com.au/original-fyi/crime-story-investigator/serial-killer-santa-posed-victims-bodies-for-photos-then-buried-them-on-clients-property-c-689998.
“Bruce Mcarthur: Door Knock Saved Serial Killer’s Victim”. BBC News, 2019, https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-47123372.
Hunter, Brad. “HUNTER: What Made Serial Killer Bruce Mcarthur Tick? | Toronto Sun”. Torontosun.Com, 2021, https://torontosun.com/news/local-news/hunter-what-made-serial-killer-bruce-mcarthur-tick#:~:text=McArthur%20spent%20years%20preying%20upon,layers%20of%20this%20chilling%20enigma.
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