Murder and Mimosas Podcast
A true crime podcast with a focus on lesser known crimes and the background of those who commit these heinous acts. Each case is told with a bit of southern sass, but with tons of in depth research and respect for those lost. Join this mom and daughter duo as they sip their mimosas while diving into tragic cases. New episodes every Saturday, just in time for brunch (and a mimosa of your own)!
Murder and Mimosas Podcast
Behind the Beard: The Sinister Secret Life of Bruce MacArthur
What if the person playing Santa at your local mall harbored the darkest of secrets? Discover the chilling tale of Bruce MacArthur, a seemingly festive figure who led a horrifying double life. From his struggles with his identity and personal life to his unsettling transformation into Toronto's most notorious serial killer, we explore how MacArthur managed to elude suspicion while entwining himself into the lives of his victims. This episode of Murder and Mimosas uncovers the complexity of balancing seemingly ordinary roles with the sinister acts hidden beneath.
Brace yourself as we recount the vicious attack on actor Mark Henderson that marked a turning point in Bruce's life, and the eerie connection to a cannibal website that eventually cracked the facade he maintained. The tangled web of deceit and violence is unraveled, shedding light on the investigative challenges faced by law enforcement in connecting the dots between missing men and their predator. Join us as we navigate the unnerving territory between the visible and the hidden, where appearances can be fatally misleading.
Finally, we confront the grim reality of Bruce's crimes, focusing on how he used his landscaping business for sinister purposes. His victims, often vulnerable members of the community, were hidden in plain sight, raising questions about our assumptions and the importance of vigilance. We urge listeners to engage with us on social media and share their thoughts and suggestions for future episodes. Raise a mimosa with us and toast to awareness, staying vigilant during even the most joyful times.
Sources:
https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/3-men-vanished-toronto-investigators-190000842.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2010%E2%80%932017_Toronto_serial_homicides
https://www.vice.com/en/article/what-weve-learned-about-bruce-mcarthur-the-alleged-gay-village-killer/
https://www.therecord.com/news/waterloo-region/online-photos-led-to-months-of-obscene-telephone-calls/article_c2e9f5b9-7310-5190-ad2e-ff493d59a0d1.html
https://www.thestar.com/best-of/
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Dark Cast Network. Welcome to the dark side of podcasting. Welcome to Murder and Mimosas a true crime podcast brought to you by a mother and daughter duo.
Speaker 2:Bringing you murder stories with a mimosa in hand. Stories with a mimosa in hand Murder. Mimosas is a true crime podcast, meaning we talk about adult matters such as murder, sexual assaults and other horrendous crimes. Listener discretion is advised. We do tell our stories with the victims and the victims' families in mind. However, some information is more verifiable than others. However, you can find all of our information linked in the show notes.
Speaker 1:Welcome back to Murder Mimosas. I'm Shannon. It's that time of the year again and if you have children you're taking them to see the mall Santa or mall Santa somewhere. So you have to get that annual picture and they have to tell Santa what they want. But what if you had found out that Santa that you had your precious little bundle of joy sitting on their lap was a serial killer? Yeah well, we are going to talk about a man that would play the mall Santa in Toronto, canada. That was just that a serial killer. And this is the story of Bruce MacArthur.
Speaker 2:Okay, quick side note. I have a question here. Does anybody ever go to the mall anymore?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I actually thought about that too, because I thought I only took y'all to the mall Santa every year, but I thought I don't even know if people see the mall Santa anymore and there was such a long line every year.
Speaker 2:I found that already he's seen two or three different Santas and it's only the 5th of December when we're recording this but none of them are ever at the mall. There's always like some sort of big Christmas event that Santa's at.
Speaker 1:So you can tell I'm the old one and I'm the one that said this, because that is where I took y'all every year. That's where y'all saw Santa.
Speaker 2:Well, I mean I think everybody knows about the mall Santa. But I'm saying I was just wondering, does anybody do that anymore?
Speaker 1:I don't know. I don't know. I need to go to the mall and see if there's a line or even a Santa there anymore. I don't know. That's true, I don. It was not uncommon for them to have at least six or up to 10 children at a time in their home. Bruce says from a young age he wrestled with thoughts of being gay. But during this time, if you didn't want to be an outcast, you just learned to suppress those feelings. He met Janice Campbell in high school and the two dated throughout high school and eventually married when they were both 23. And Bruce had completed a program in general business. The two had a son and then a daughter. Bruce worked mostly in sales and he was very active in church. From the outside looking in, this is the perfect family. They have it all. But Bruce is always dealing with the same-sex attraction desires. Bruce finally gives in to his desires, having an affair with multiple men in the early 90s.
Speaker 2:So I won't say all women, but most women usually can tell if there's something going on, like when a man's being unfaithful or not being completely truthful. Did Jana suspect that he was having an affair?
Speaker 1:If she did, she didn't confront him. And some women of course turn a blonde on because they don't want to mess up their picture-perfect family or what they think is the picture-perfect family in their eyes. So Bruce says he came out to his wife after about a year of messing around with other men. Like I said, some don't want to mess up their family and they continue to live together. But things started to take a toll for the worse In 1993, bruce loses his job.
Speaker 1:Their son, todd, was prosecuted for making obscene phone calls to women and yes, you could actually do that back then and no one knew who was calling until they put a tap on your phone. So, yes, so the legal troubles with Todd also didn't help finances. They mortgaged their home and in 1997 and Bruce and Janice separated and he moved to Toronto where there was more of a gay community for him. So Church and Wesley was, like it was called, a gay village in Toronto where he frequented the gay bars often and began to explore his same-sex attraction openly. He actually went on to have a four-year relationship and I don't know what was the cause for the breakup. But after that breakup Bruce began seeing a psychiatrist and was given Prozac.
Speaker 2:So now you said he lost his job, so he's no longer working in sales. Did he find another job in sales or like, what is he doing for work at this?
Speaker 1:time. So I don't know how it came about maybe being raised on a farm but he started a landscape business called Artistic Designs and he built like a really great client base of mostly elderly, wealthy women, and most of these women just loved him and they would tell others it was like word of mouth he was doing really well for himself. I mean, however, this is Toronto and business is slow in the winter, so he would get odd jobs to make ends meet, hence the Moth Santa. He also made floral arrangements for charities.
Speaker 2:I mean, most of us have to have more than one job to make ends meet. You do what you have to do and it sounds like that's exactly what he did. I am a little apprehensive now about my son's trip to see the next Santa, because he could be a not so great guy like Bruce. So thanks for that added anxiety.
Speaker 1:Well, as I mentioned, bruce had Prozac, so talk to your mom, santa. So anyway, in Halloween of 2001, bruce meets actor Mark Henderson, and Mark asked him to come to his apartment and see his Halloween costume.
Speaker 2:You said it's Halloween. Is it like that the day you wear the costume? Why is he not wearing it? Yeah?
Speaker 1:right. So this was around noon and I couldn't find the sources, but I would have to assume he just hadn't put it on yet. Also, couldn't find out what the costume was, in case you're wondering, because that was something that I really wanted to know. But they get to his apartment and Bruce hits him in the head with this iron pop he carries around. I'm sorry.
Speaker 2:I don't think I've ever heard of someone just carrying around an iron pipe. And also, was it not like visible? Could no one see this iron pipe? And also, was it not like visible, could no one see?
Speaker 1:this iron pipe? Yeah, I mean pretty strange, I know, but he did, and I don't know, though, to answer your question, if it was visible. But mark tries to fight back, but he ends up losing consciousness. Once he comes to, he calls 911 and he ends up having several stitches on the back of his head and stitches on his fingers. So, bruce, just leaves.
Speaker 2:If he didn't kill him, he should know he's going to the police, or at least that any sensible person would.
Speaker 1:This is the part that doesn't make sense to me at all. I mean, bruce turns himself in but says he doesn't remember the attack at all.
Speaker 2:Okay, the math ain't mathin'. Hey, I definitely did this, but like I also doesn't remember the attack at all, okay, the math ain't math in. Hey, I definitely did this, but like I also don't remember doing that, how do you turn yourself in? But you don't know you did it.
Speaker 1:That doesn't make sense to me at all either, and he's charged with assault with a weapon and assault um causing bodily harm, and received a conditional sentence of 729 days. He spent his first year under house arrest and six months with a curfew and three years probation. This part is odd to me. He was banned from, as I'd mentioned earlier, church and Wesley area, except from work and medical appointments, and he could not spend time with male prostitutes, so he could not consume drugs without medical prescription and he was banned from taking aminonyl nitrate.
Speaker 2:Aminonyl nitrate. I mean that's kind of oddly specific that he can't take this specific medicine.
Speaker 1:And what's the reason for that? Yes, it is weird. So at the time he was taking his anti-seizure medication with amyl nitrate, which is a muscle relaxant and supposedly sometimes taken before sex for recreational use. They were not sure if this could have caused him to not know what occurred. Those were the odd things he was ordered, in my opinion, but he was also not allowed to. You know the usual things like not possess firearms for 10 years. He had to submit his DNA to a database. He was required to psychological and psychiatric counseling as well as anger management. Was he required to wear an ankle monitor? I would assume during home arrest, but I honestly can't say for sure.
Speaker 2:Why it's hard to monitor. Like being in a certain area, or if he's spending time with no prostitute. I mean I wouldn't think they have the resources to have. Like even in a certain area, or if he's spending time with a male prostitute, I mean I wouldn't think they have the resources to have like yeah, that's true and a good point, most of this, I would assume, is really not enforced.
Speaker 1:I mean, you really can't enforce most of this. You're not walking around and seeing if somebody's with a male prostitute, or yeah, it's just really strange.
Speaker 2:We're relying on the honor system for the guy who beat a guy over the head with an iron pipe.
Speaker 1:Yes, so I also want to mention I had to look up what we may know Mark from, since he is an actor and he seemed to have just been in one episode of a lot of shows, but probably not something that would stand out to you. I also saw his Instagram and it said he was a male model and a boudoir model, which he has these pictures posted, or at least the tamer ones. He is also dressed as Santa in one, but how Santa normally dresses he's not really dressed like that. He said the attack really traumatized him and he did not want to give an impact statement at trial. But in November of 2012, toronto police get a tip that a man on a website called Zambian Meat, which is for those that dub themselves cannibals someone on there called themselves Chef Mate 50, said he kidnapped, skinned and ate a brown skin man in toronto.
Speaker 2:there's a website for people to talk about people they ate. This is like a very macabre blog for food bloggers or so.
Speaker 1:there was that um back then it was taken down, but I would assume there are probably others if you checked it out. I did not try, so the Toronto police checked missing men, batching that description and find a man by the name of Skanda. He was last seen September 6, 2010,. Leaving Zippers, which was a gay bar in the gay village with an unknown man, which was a gay bar in the gay village with an unknown man, which is where Bruce was forbidden to go right, but also only forbidden to go there on the honor system.
Speaker 1:Right, cool. And he was reported missing September 10th or 11th of 2010. And he had worked for Bruce and they also had a relationship from 1999 to maybe somewhere around 2008 with Bruce. So he was also a refugee from Sri Lanka I hope I'm saying that right, I'm not sure. I probably butchered that and he did not have any family in Canada.
Speaker 1:The Toronto police noticed there are two other men matching this description and began a task force called Project Houston. They get a warrant to find out who is Chef Mate 50, and it turns out to be a man named James Burton. He was married and he was a hospital tech. They did surveillance on him for months and was able to get a warrant for all his emails. And once they realized he would be out of town for Christmas, they had a warrant to get in and search the house and clone his computer and there are tons of stuff to go through. But they noticed he talks a lot about taking men to a cabin and butchering them and eating them.
Speaker 1:Police locate this cabin and they see a burn pit outside with a post with various boots nailed to it. They assume these are trophies and they extract DNA from the boots, but it's no match to any of the missing men. They also find video set up in a boy's locker room where he's watching these boys shower and dress. And they could bust him now for child pornography, but they want him on murder charges, so they decide they will have one of their officers go on Zambian meat and try to befriend him, which they did. This guy says he's coming to the airport and wants him to pick him up. They are ready and this is it. And they have people everywhere. I mean they're following him. They have stoppers on the roof, people on the ground, and he doesn't show up. Did he get tipped off somehow? Well, they bring him in and he tells them all they have on him and he says he made all that up, killing people and eating them. That's just a fantasy.
Speaker 1:I mean I don't know whose fantasy, I guess his. But to the point of your question, no, he never planned to get this person at the airport. We have no evidence to prove otherwise and he's only charged and convicted of child pornography.
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Speaker 1:See you soon. So gay men in the gay village continue to come up missing and all seem to look very similar. Those that live in that community feel like the police just don't care, and these men are missing. June 26, 2017, andrew Keensman disappeared by the 28th. His friends go into his apartment. They don't see anything out of place, but they notice that his cat is out of food and water, which never, ever happens. The only thing amiss was that his medication was there and they knew he would not leave that or his cat.
Speaker 1:A new task force was formed, project Prism. They go back to Andrew's house and they are scouring it for anything that could be remotely useful. They said they had a hard time with things because they would see things where he would see many men on dating sites and these were strangers at unknown locations and no one knew who they were, when or where, and getting the warrants to extract this information was time consuming, as well as searching all the dates once they did and I know we have said it more than once that if you want to meet somebody, do whatever, let somebody know where you are going and who you are going with.
Speaker 2:And I'm sure, since you listen to us, you've probably heard our ads for Help Me Find you. But that's a great thing to utilize and it's perfect for these types of situations.
Speaker 1:Yes, definitely Use that. That would have been so helpful and so much less time consuming. So, while police are in his apartment, they see written on his calendar Bruce at three o'clock. No one knows who Bruce is, but at least they have something to go on. And, like I said, this was time consuming.
Speaker 1:They don't know what they're doing, but they are able to get video surveillance of the day he went missing. And they see Andrew get into a red minivan. They can't make out the driver or the license plate, but they take a still shot to the dealership to see if they can pinpoint the year of the minivan. They are sure that it's a 2004 Dodge Caravan. They put this in this 2000 Dodge Caravan into the database, and there are over 6,000 in Toronto. Yes, so they find all the people who are named Bruce that have a minivan registered to them that's red, which brought this down to only five.
Speaker 1:Yes, so they look into all five of these men and they've decided it has to be Bruce MacArthur. They find out where he lives, but he no longer has this minivan. They spent tons of time driving around to salvage yards trying to locate this minivan. On October 3rd of 2017, they finally find it. They take it to have it examined and they find blood in it that matched DNA of Andrew. So with this evidence they were able to obtain a warrant for Bruce's cell phone and access into his apartment. So they had a tracker on his new van and once he was out of the apartment they went and cloned his computer I'm glad they're being diligent, but I feel like andrew's dna in the van might would have been enough to arrest him.
Speaker 2:but I guess if it's been at a salvage yard any decent lawyer would say someone else could have been in it, touched it, planted it, so yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I totally agree, and I guess they wanted to have tons of evidence. So there is tons of stuff in there from his hard drive to comb through, I mean, which you know is not a quick task. So, finally, they extract pictures that have been deleted of Arthur and another man who turned out to be 44 year old, Selim Eason. I hope I'm saying that right. The men appeared to be dead in these photos and they continued surveillance on Bruce, but was advised if he was seen alone with any man to arrest him. So, January 18th 2018, they see a man enter Bruce's apartment With orders to intervene if seen with a man. The police burst into the apartment and find the man handcuffed to the bed with a black bag over his head.
Speaker 2:This feels like one of those really, you know, important moments where they like save the day and CSI or Criminal Mind, like busting in just in the nick of time.
Speaker 1:Right. And I mean if they had surveyed him or surveillance him the whole time, think of how many men, male prostitutes, they may have gotten. So but he could have been next. But he said he had met Bruce through a dating site called Growler and had met up with him for sex several times. So we may have thought you really messed up today. So who knows, I mean he may have been like man, like I had such a good thing going on here. No-transcript, Right, Unless you know who you're doing it with. I mean, you tell me who this is and I'm like, see ya. But although they still didn't have any bodies, they arrest him and continued the search. They began to canvas all the yards of the people he landscaped for.
Speaker 2:Oh yeah, I didn't think about that before. But I guess if you're like digging and you're doing all that, like no one's going to suspect if you come in with a dirty shovel and dirt all over you, like that's a good.
Speaker 1:Right, this is next to being like a graveyard digger, whatever they're called. This is like the next best thing. This is like the next best thing, okay. So their searches were extensive and they used cadaver dogs to aid them in the investigation. While searching one residence, the cadaver dogs detected something in these like really large planter boxes and, as I said, it's January and it's Toronto and these are frozen. They have to bring it in the heaters to thaw them and they find the skeletal remains of at least three men and all he was eventually charged with eight murders. It took a great deal of time to extract all these bodies and identify the men Some had reported missing, which was 42-year-old Abdul Basir Fazeh he was 50 years old Majed Kahan, 48-year-old Scandinavian, 50-year-old Salrusha Mahmoudi, 49-year-old Andrew Kingsman, 44-year-old Salim Essin, 43-year-old Dean Lisovic and 37-year-old Kirushan Karnom. I hope those are right.
Speaker 1:So, january 29, 2019, bruce pled guilty to all eight counts of murder. He gave some details, such as a DNA notebook of his victims. He liked to take post-mortem photos of his victims with the rope around their neck or naked, in a fur coat or hat. Some of the men that had beard photos were shaved and he kept their shavings in a Ziploc bag in a shed near a cemetery. Bruce was sentenced to life in prison, with no parole eligibility, for 25 years, which would make him 91 years old at the time. Well, there was an incident reported in 2016. Was the incident reported in 2016? A man and Bruce met on a dating app where they were masturbating each other in the back of Bruce's van. Allegedly, bruce began troggling the man. The man was able to break free. There are various sources, but one is that he went to the police. Bruce followed him there and Bruce claimed that the man asked to be choked and then got scared. He was supposedly arrested there, but there's no report filed on this whatsoever.
Speaker 2:This gives me Dahmer vibes, makes me think of the 14 year old like naked on the street and Dahmer's just like, oh, we're lovers, and he's just a little drunk. I don't know if it's because, like the police, are uncomfortable in these situations or like because of like how sure of themselves, like the killers are for something like this to happen, like I just it blows my mind every time I hear it.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean you're, you're so right. And there were a few others that had told about their encounters after the fact with Bruce, but they didn't report it to the police at the time. But Bruce was good at reading his victims. He prayed on men that had not come out to their friends or family about being gay. One was even married. He also found men that didn't have family around or were homeless. If there is no one to report them missing, then no one knows, can I?
Speaker 2:just say that it sounds like himself, like he left his family and moved to Toronto so he doesn't really have any family and for a long time he was the one whose friends and families didn't know where was Mary like, yeah, he's like just when anybody right. So like it seems very odd, other than, like it seems by the names, that maybe the ethnicity is off, but everything else seems very much like he's targeting almost himself and other people so that is true, other than the ethnicity, because six of the eight men were South Asian or Middle Eastern.
Speaker 1:So, like I said, he definitely had a top and he wasn't. He wasn't either of those. So, yeah, he definitely had a top. That I mean, you just had to look for somebody like him and I guess he knew like he was estranged from his family, like nobody's gonna tell, or maybe like beforehand, like when he was messing around on his wife, like he would not want anybody to know so he wouldn't say anything. So but of course things are not always as they seem. So if you get a chance, go look at him. He truly does look like he could play santa and he looks so harmless and sweet pictures up on her instagram, but are we going to try to put one up of the actor playing santa, or is that too risque?
Speaker 1:I will post the link okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, that is true if you need a little holiday here, you know, yeah, I'm not on my feed or some instagram, but yeah, no, this gives me like and I guess you don't really think about it like you're no, I mean because he honestly looks like, like I said to my Santa, he looks so harmless and innocent and you wouldn't think twice.
Speaker 1:But we hope you have a good holiday season. We always recommend more bubbly and less OJ Cheers recommend more bubbly and less oj cheers.
Speaker 5:If you'd like to see pictures from today's episode, you can find us at murdermimosas on instagram. You can also find us at murdermimosas on tiktok twitter and if you have a case you would like us to do, you can send that to murdermimosas at gmailcom. And lastly, we are on facebook at murder and mimosas podcast gmail dot com. And lastly, we are on Facebook at Murder and Mimosas Podcast, where you can interact with us there. We love any type of feedback you can give us, so please write and review us on Spotify, itunes or wherever you listen to your podcasts.