The suspected serial killer charged with murdering five gay men, and feared to have killed many more committed an attack so violent that he was banned from a swathe of Toronto known as its ‘gay village,’ almost two decades earlier, DailyMailTV reveals Monday.
Court records seen by DailyMailTV disclose that Bruce McArthur was not only known to Toronto police, but that the man now charged with slaying and dismembering at least five men had a record of a brutal attack on a gay man.
As police in Tornoto admit they have no idea where McArthur’s suspected death toll will climb to, it raises the specter of a reign of violence against members of the city’s gay community stretching back decades.
Rumors of a serial killer have stalked Toronto’s gay community, leading to anger at cops’ apparent failure to take concerns seriously until all too recently.
When police finally moved to arrest McArthur they found a young man, handcuffed to a bed but unharmed, in his high-rise apartment. It has since transpired that they had his apartment under surveillance and were spurred into action when they saw the young man enter McArthur’s home.
Bruce McArthur, 66, who has been charged with the murders of five gay men in and around Toronto, once bludgeoned a man in an attack so violent he was banned from the city’s gay village
McArthur was sentenced to three years probation, was forbidden from possessing any weapons, and instructed to abstain from taking ‘gay drug’ poppers. Above he is seen posing by Niagara Falls
Now DailyMailTV can disclose that the 66-year-old landscaper bludgeoned a man with a metal pipe in 2001 and was convicted on three counts – possession of a dangerous weapon, assault with a weapon, and assault causing bodily harm – in 2003.
The attack was so violent that he was sentenced to two years less a day of a conditional sentence, and three years probation as well as having a host of conditions imposed upon being spared jailtime.
He was banned from the streets that constitute Toronto’s gay village and forbidden from consorting with male prostitutes.
He had a 10pm curfew, was forbidden from possessing any firearms or weapons, and instructed to abstain from taking any illegal drugs specifically amyl nitrate – also known as poppers – a commonly taken drug in the gay community.
He was also compelled to undergo psychological and psychiatric counseling including anger management.
It is two weeks since Toronto police arrested the landscaper and charged him with the murders of Selim Esen, 44, and Andrew Kinsman, 49.
This week the discovery of the skeletal remains of at least three individuals in the bottom of large planters at a suburban home at which McArthur worked saw him charged with three further murders.
McArthur used multiple dating sites such as SilverDaddies, where under the now deactivated profile SilverFoxx51 he trawled for hook ups – but in reality was a man with an explosive temper and penchant for rough sex
Neighbors say that they had never seen anything sinister in the white-haired, ruddy-cheeked man. To many he was a once married, affable father and grandfather who played Santa Claus (right) at Agincourt Mall
Thomas Donald Bruce McArthur attended Fenelon Falls High School in the Kawartha Lakes area. He was a clean-cut student and member of the Library Club whose nickname was Snoppy and who listed his ambition in life as ‘to become successful’
Investigators now believe that Majeed Kayhan, 58, Dean Lisowick, 47, and Souroush Mahmudi, 50, were also killed by McArthur.
Among the multiple missing person’s cases currently being investigated at least one man, Skandaraj Navaratnam, 40, was known to have had a relationship with McArthur.
Speaking at a press conference on Monday, Detective Sergeant Hank Idsinga admitted that the probe, which has now expanded to 30 properties on which McArthur worked, is ‘unprecedented.’
In the wake of the latest discoveries DailyMailTV has pieced together a disturbing picture of McArthur’s life.
We can disclose two very different versions of McArthur. To many he was an affable once-married father and grandfather who played Santa Claus at Agincourt Mall and filled his Facebook page with pictures of cats, flowers and recipes.
But in his sinister secret life, he was a man who stalked gay dating apps and sites such as SilverDaddies, where under the profile SilverFoxx51 he trawled for hookups. He was also a man with an explosive temper and penchant for rough sex.
The Globe and Mail reported that he had a profile on fetish site Recon in which he asked to be contacted by ‘submissive men of all ages.’
McArthur was arrested on January 18 when cops found a man bound in his apartment
This map shows the locations the five known victims were last seen in around Toronto. Kayhan and Esen were last seen around the city’s Gay Village area
McArthur was initially charged with the murders of Selim Esen, 44, (left) and Andrew Kinsman, 49 (right). Police suspect he had a sexual relationship with both men. Esen disappeared in March 2017 from the Church-Wellesley Gay Village district of Toronto and Kinsman vanished from Cabbagetown in June of 2017
McArthur’s now deactivated profile on SilverDaddies was tame by comparison. He described himself as ‘sexually versatile’ with a preference for men aged between 25 and 55.
He wrote: ‘I can be a bit shy until I get to know you, but am romantic at heart. I love to cook and enjoy most types of food. So many nice looking guys out there but so far away.’
He added: ‘no pic no chat.’
And in a further dark twist DailyMailTV can disclose that McArthur’s own son, Todd, 36, also has a string of more than two dozen convictions in Durham Regional Court, for harassing multiple different women with obscene and terrifying phone-calls.
In 2014 he was sentenced to 17 months in prison for criminal harassment of a woman from Kitchener, Ontario.
He has been diagnosed with ‘telephone scatalogia,’ a compulsion to make obscene calls, and was just a teenager when he was first convicted in 2001 – the same year as his father’s vicious pipe attack in Toronto’s gay village.
The suburban site of this week’s grizzly discoveries is one of five properties associated with McArthur. Police have been combing through the property’s two-car garage and removed several plastic crates and bins along with a grey suitcase and a hacksaw.
Neighbors have told how they had seen McArthur coming and going from the home over the past eight years, especially during summer. None had seen anything sinister in the white-haired, ruddy-cheeked man.
Above are two of more than two dozen charges against McArthur’s son, Todd, 36. He was diagnosed with ‘telephone scatalogia,’ a compulsion to make obscene calls, and was just a teenager when he was first convicted in 2001
In 2003, McArthur was forbidden from consorting with male prostitutes. He was also compelled to undergo psychological and psychiatric counseling including anger management
Thomas Donald Bruce McArthur attended Fenelon Falls High School in the Kawartha Lakes area.
He was a clean cut student and member of the Library Club whose nickname was Snoppy and who listed his ambition in life as ‘to become successful.’
By 1985, then 35, McArthur was married and living in suburban Oshawa with his then wife Janice. She did not answer the door when DailyMailTV approached her this week. She and McArthur have a daughter, Melanie, as well as son, Todd both of who still live in the Durham Region. Melanie is now married and mother to a daughter.
According to CBC McArthur encountered money problems in the late 90s, first mortgaging his house in 1997 and then declaring bankruptcy in 1999.
The house was sold in 2000 with records indicating that McArthur was still married at the time but by then he had already embarked on a romantic relationship with now missing man, Skandaraj Navaratnam whom he met in 1999.
The pair continued a relationship until 2008 and Navaratnam was reported missing in 2010.
But while associates and former clients have all expressed shock and disbelief that the white-haired fixture on the gay scene could be capable of such wide-ranging violence, the net has been closing on McArthur since last fall.
It is believed that a DNA sample taken from McArthur back in 2003 may have contributed to linking him to the murdered men.
Last October cops approached Dominic Vetere, the owner of Dom’s Auto Parts, roughly 70km northeast of Toronto searching for McArthur’s rusty, maroon Dodge Caravan, which he had sold in September.
McArthur was oblivious to the fact that he was on police radar in connection with the disappearance of two men from Toronto’s Gay Village.
They hauled away the vehicle, which had racked up 243,000km and had been purchased by Vetere for $125.
A forensic search of the vehicle revealed traces of blood.
Now police and members of the gay community are facing the grim reality of having to map out McArthur’s movements, relationships and online hook ups spanning years and possibly hundreds, even thousands, of miles.
Police have reportedly been ‘swamped’ by tips about McArthur from all over the world. Toronto is an international destination for travelers and McArthur may well have come into contact with young men simply vacationing in the Canadian city.
Investigators have acknowledged the daunting task ahead as they try to identify the body parts already found and brace themselves for further discoveries.
Chillingly one tip they have received was from a local restaurant owner to whom McArthur sold a planter. As he handed it over to the man, McArthur commented: ‘God knows what inside it.’
WHO WERE THE VICTIMS OF TORONTO SERIAL KILLER
Toronto landscaper Bruce McArthur, 66, has been charged with first-degree murder in the deaths of five men. Police fear there may be even more victims yet to be uncovered.
Majeed Kayhan, 58
Reported missing on October 25, 2012.
An immigrant from Afghanistan who frequented bars in the Gay Village near Church and Wellesley Streets.
Soroush Marmudi, 50
Reported missing by his family in Scarborough in August 2015.
Marmudi was not known to openly associate with Toronto’s gay scene.
Selim Esen, 44
Last seen April 14, 2017 in the Yonge and Bloor area.
A Turkish native, he frequented the Gay Village area and Kensington Market and often had a small plastic suitcase on wheels similar to a carry-on bag.
His relationship with McArthur is unclear.
Dean Lisowick, 47
A homeless occupant of the shelter system who had not been reported missing.
Police believe he was murdered between May 2016 and July 2017.
Andrew Kinsman, 49
Last seen June 26, 2017 at 71 Winchester Street.
Friends begin posting his image in the area and surrounding neighborhoods soon after he disappeared.
Police believe he had a sexual relationship with McArthur.