Teh One Who Knocks
07-11-2012, 06:13 PM
By RUSSELL GOLDMAN - ABC News
http://i.imgur.com/AIMFj.jpg
Luka Magnotta is a strange obsession for teenage girls and young women. He's a onetime porn actor accused of murdering his gay lover, dismembering the man's corpse, tasting it and mailing his body parts to schools and government offices in Canada.
Magnotta, 29, boyishly fresh faced and currently awaiting trial in a Montreal jail cell, has found a legion of fans and supporters online. Many of his fans are female and most are willing to look past the gruesome crimes for which he is accused.
"I spend nearly half the day reading, thinking, or writing about him," a fan using the Facebook handle Luka Magnotta Supporter, but who identified herself as an 18-year-old student from the U.K. named Soph, told ABC News. "I worry for him, so I always have to keep myself updated about him. I've started having dreams about him. He is a beautiful man, but it isn't that. I'm attracted with who is inside of him. I'll support him no matter what."
Dozens of websites, hosting hundreds of supporters, have popped up online in the weeks since Magnotta was arrested in Germany on June 4. Police believe he is seen in a Web video hacking a man to pieces and putting knife and fork to his flesh. He has pleaded not guilty to murdering Chinese student Jun Lin.
One Facebook fan page, "Support Magnotta," had more than 1,400 subscribers before the social networking site shut it down for "inappropriate content." At least four other Facebook pages have risen to take its place, including "Free Luka Magnotta" and "Support Luka Rocco Magnotta," in addition to several blogs where fans post images and share their fantasies.
"I like EVERYTHING about him," Destiny St. Denis, the 21-year-old creator of the now defunct page told ABC News in an email. "He needs to know that there are A LOT of people that care about him. He doesn't have to go through life thinking that no one does. That isn't fair. What he did, is his business! No one is in the position to judge him. I support him because he is a human being who deserves love, respect, and affection just like anyone else."
Magnotta had an Internet presence long before his arrest, posting what appear to be hundreds of photos of himself, many of them with his shirt off. He is also alleged to have posted videos of himself torturing animals.
Those pictures, the glamour shots, are fodder for his fans, who repost them with comments like: "Look at that beautiful smile! He's so gorgeous!"
For Lexa, a 30-year-old married mother of two, who runs the blog Luka Magnotta Obsession, her infatuation with the accused cannibal started by following news stories about his arrest.
"Basically, the big part for me is that I'm absolutely fascinated by this character," she told ABC News, explaining that she started the blog as a way to "explore her feelings of obsession." She spoke on the condition she be identified only by her first name.
Over time, she said, her feelings have shifted from obsessive observer to "bordering on" a crush, blogging about romantic dreams involving Magnotta and trying to keep her obsession and the blog a secret from her husband.
Lexa said she believes Magnotta likely murdered Lin, but that only adds to his mystique."
"He's a bad boy," she said. "I've always been attracted to bad boys. Good boys are boring."
St. Denis said she had heard some in the supporter community talk about raising money for a Magnotta defense fund. His lawyer, Pierre Panaccio, told ABC News that no such fund currently exists.
http://i.imgur.com/AIMFj.jpg
Luka Magnotta is a strange obsession for teenage girls and young women. He's a onetime porn actor accused of murdering his gay lover, dismembering the man's corpse, tasting it and mailing his body parts to schools and government offices in Canada.
Magnotta, 29, boyishly fresh faced and currently awaiting trial in a Montreal jail cell, has found a legion of fans and supporters online. Many of his fans are female and most are willing to look past the gruesome crimes for which he is accused.
"I spend nearly half the day reading, thinking, or writing about him," a fan using the Facebook handle Luka Magnotta Supporter, but who identified herself as an 18-year-old student from the U.K. named Soph, told ABC News. "I worry for him, so I always have to keep myself updated about him. I've started having dreams about him. He is a beautiful man, but it isn't that. I'm attracted with who is inside of him. I'll support him no matter what."
Dozens of websites, hosting hundreds of supporters, have popped up online in the weeks since Magnotta was arrested in Germany on June 4. Police believe he is seen in a Web video hacking a man to pieces and putting knife and fork to his flesh. He has pleaded not guilty to murdering Chinese student Jun Lin.
One Facebook fan page, "Support Magnotta," had more than 1,400 subscribers before the social networking site shut it down for "inappropriate content." At least four other Facebook pages have risen to take its place, including "Free Luka Magnotta" and "Support Luka Rocco Magnotta," in addition to several blogs where fans post images and share their fantasies.
"I like EVERYTHING about him," Destiny St. Denis, the 21-year-old creator of the now defunct page told ABC News in an email. "He needs to know that there are A LOT of people that care about him. He doesn't have to go through life thinking that no one does. That isn't fair. What he did, is his business! No one is in the position to judge him. I support him because he is a human being who deserves love, respect, and affection just like anyone else."
Magnotta had an Internet presence long before his arrest, posting what appear to be hundreds of photos of himself, many of them with his shirt off. He is also alleged to have posted videos of himself torturing animals.
Those pictures, the glamour shots, are fodder for his fans, who repost them with comments like: "Look at that beautiful smile! He's so gorgeous!"
For Lexa, a 30-year-old married mother of two, who runs the blog Luka Magnotta Obsession, her infatuation with the accused cannibal started by following news stories about his arrest.
"Basically, the big part for me is that I'm absolutely fascinated by this character," she told ABC News, explaining that she started the blog as a way to "explore her feelings of obsession." She spoke on the condition she be identified only by her first name.
Over time, she said, her feelings have shifted from obsessive observer to "bordering on" a crush, blogging about romantic dreams involving Magnotta and trying to keep her obsession and the blog a secret from her husband.
Lexa said she believes Magnotta likely murdered Lin, but that only adds to his mystique."
"He's a bad boy," she said. "I've always been attracted to bad boys. Good boys are boring."
St. Denis said she had heard some in the supporter community talk about raising money for a Magnotta defense fund. His lawyer, Pierre Panaccio, told ABC News that no such fund currently exists.