Bruce McArthur, the 66-year-old landscaper arrested last January for the first-degree murders of eight Toronto men, has pled guilty to all charges, reports The Star. Most of his victims were men of color.
The murders happened from 2010 to 2018. McArthur scattered his victims’ remains in the lawns and planters of his landscaping business. Pending sentencing, McArthur will likely die in prison as he won’t be eligible for parole until age 91.
The Star briefly details the killings and his victims:
A short summary of the facts read out in court showed that some or all of the killings were sexual in nature, involved staging, and that there was evidence of confinement. McArthur kept some items belonging to his victims, such as jewelry or a notebook. In some of the deaths, there was evidence that a ligature was used… Police located a Duffel bag belonging to McArthur that contained duct tape, a surgical glove, zip ties, black bungie cord and syringes.
McArthur has admitted to killing: Andrew Kinsman, 49; Selim Esen, 44; Majeed Kayhan, 58; Soroush Mahmudi, 50; Dean Lisowick, 47; Skandaraj (Skanda) Navaratnam, 40, Abdulbasir Faizi, 42, and Kirushnakumar Kanagaratnam, 37. Many of the men had ties to the Gay Village and were of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent.
Police believe there may be more victims. When police arrested McArthur, they allegedly found a man tied up in his apartment.
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Before McArthur’s arrest, local LGBTQ activist Kerolos Saleib accused police of “selective policing and racial bias” claiming that police never began seriously looking into the murders until a white man, Kinsman, went missing.
Related: Following the arrest of a serial killer, Toronto police find gay man stabbed to death
Toronto Police Chief Mark Saunders responded by stating that his department’s slow movement was partially due to a lack of information from the gay community. After his comments, local transgender activist Nicki Ward accused Saunders of victim blaming.
Vince
Ahhhh.. He looks so sweet. Like someone’s grandpa.
Hussain-TheCanadian
mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm………………………………………Isn’t it interesting that he’s “white”, and the majority of his victims are Muslim men?
Curtispsf
Someone’s grandpa. Someone else’s serial killer.
Kangol
Glad this evil monster is off the streets. He’s lucky he’s in Canada, because if he’d pulled his monstrous stunt in many parts of the US he’d be facing the death penalty, which he deserves.
bjohnmasters
I don’t know about that Kangol. The victims were gay…so he could probably get off with six years or so.
Kangol
@bjohnmasters, he killed so many people he’d probably be on death row in states that allowed it, or locked away forever (and offed) in states that didn’t. He also supposedly showed no remorse in court; what kind of monstrousness is that?
winemaker
Where I’m from aniamls ike this get swift justice and not from law enforcement. He’d have a friendly visit from cousins Al, Ricardo, and Sal. They’d rearrange his face and maybe break his knees. And it’d be a nice clean, quiet job and they’d never find the body thus saving the taxpayers wasted funds on this POS. We Italians don’t tolerate this kind of disrespect!
PoetDaddy
I’m not sure how things are in Canada, but in an American prison the murderer of eight men, most of them men of color, would not last long. He’ll never see 91.
Dwik27
Above all things – Satan is a deceiver.