48 Hours - Mark Twitchell: The Dexter Killer

Episode Date: August 19, 2024

Inside the mind of murderer Mark Twitchell. Letters from the man police say wanted to be like fictional serial killer Dexter. Troy Roberts reports.See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

Wondery Plus subscribers can listen to this podcast ad-free right now. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app today. Even if you love the thrill of true crime stories as much as I do, there are times when you want to mix it up. And that's where Audible comes in, with all the genres you love and new ones to discover. Explore thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. thousands of audiobooks, podcasts, and originals, with more added all the time. Listening to Audible can lead to positive change in your mood, your habits,

and even your overall well-being. And you can enjoy Audible anytime, while doing household chores, exercising, commuting, you name it. There's more to imagine when you listen. Sign up for a free 30-day Audible trial and your first audiobook is free. Visit audible.ca. In 2014, Laura Heavlin was in her home in Tennessee when she received a call from California. Her daughter, Erin Corwin, was missing. The young wife of a Marine had moved to the California desert

to a remote base near Joshua Tree National Park. They have to alert the military. And when they do, the NCIS gets involved. From CBS Studios and CBS News, this is 48 Hours NCIS. Listen to 48 Hours NCIS ad-free starting October 29th on Amazon Music. I'm Julia Cowley, retired FBI agent and profiler, and former special agent forensic scientist with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. This podcast is about criminal profiling. This is certainly an unusual case. I've never seen anything quite like this one.

With many serial killers, it's the killing part that they enjoy. And once they've killed the person, they're done. Not Mark Twitchell. Action. Mark Twitchell was an aspiring filmmaker. I interviewed him for my book, and we corresponded for a number of years. He wrote me probably 30 or 35 different letters, up to about 350 pages of letters.

In one letter, Mark Twitchell wrote back to me, and this is what he said. The fact is society in general has a deep and profound fascination with the dark side of human nature. I do think Mark Twitchell was using the filmmaking as an outlet to live out his fantasies, and it ultimately wasn't enough for him. And that's why his fantasies crossed into reality. I think Mark Twitchell believes that he is very smart, very methodical, very logical, very level-headed, much like the character of Dexter Morgan. And so I think he got ideas from the show. I think he was drawn to the character because that's what he wanted to be. There's significant links to Dexter.

He had a kill room set up with plastic sheeting. He had a table set up for his victims. He had this kind of processing kit that was very similar to what Dexter uses. Never once did it cross his mind he'd ever be caught. They aren't going to catch me. I'm too smart. Nothing's going to lead them to me. Our job is to put together the pieces of the puzzle, and in this case, we had a written document. There was this document titled SK Confessions

found in a deleted form on Mark Twitchell's laptop, and it appeared to read like a diary. This is the story of my progression into becoming a serial killer. And it documented luring people off the internet. His first victim was a man named Gilles Tetreault. I saw this lady she had blonde hair she's about five six she was very attractive looking. And what was her name? Her name was Sheena. Sheena. Yeah I messaged her she messaged me back how about we go to dinner and a movie? I thought that was a great idea

She wouldn't give me the house number, but she just sent me really really good directions on how to get there He thought hey, what's the worst that could happen? Troy Roberts reports, The Dexter Killer. It would appear that I'm unique in the world. There is no key, no root cause. If I really were capable of premeditated murder. Normal, healthy, well-adjusted, 30-year-old man. I once heard the legend of another worthy victim. Wonderful young children and great futures.

I dealt with his remains in a disrespectful manner that traumatized me forever. The psychopathic serial killer. My compassion. I quickly grew to resent and hate this man. These are the words of Mark Twitchell, written to author Steve Lillebuen. It is what it is, and I am what I am. For the first time on television, Lillebuen is revealing the contents of Twitchell's letters. It's a rare look inside the mind of a killer. Nobody would side with Dexter Morgan if he went around slaughtering school teachers

and mail carriers on a whim. Police say Twitchell was fascinated by the fictional character in the hit Showtime series, Dexter. I need to kill him. Twitchell's been dubbed the Dexter killer because of the numerous links between the television series and the real-life crimes.

So how did this young Canadian filmmaker end up accused of horrific acts? The story begins in October 2008. To hear how everything happened, it was like you're watching the movie. Edmonton police detective... It's hard to say. ...Bill Clark.

But now we have it happening in real life. Jills Tetro was online on the plentyoffish.com website, which is a dating site. Tetro, who was 33 at the time, was excited to meet the woman who called herself Sheena. I was actually late, so I was driving quite fast to get there. She said, I'll just leave the garage door open for you. And then you just go in, go through the garage.

I don't think he ever imagined in a million years what would happen to him in that garage. It was dark. Then I kind of looked around for the door she told me to go through and that's when somebody came out and attacked me from behind. I finally looked back and that's when I see this man with this painted up hockey mask. I just chilled down my back. Wow, this is no date. He's about like six foot and has this black and gold hockey mask all painted up on his face. The hockey mask wearing man had ordered him to the ground at gunpoint.

And he tore a piece of tape and he covered my eyes with it. I start hearing different things, like a jingling noise and stuff like that. In my head, it was just racing. It's like thinking, what's going on? What's he going to do? Is he taking another weapon out? Jill decided

he wasn't waiting to find out. I can't do this. I've got to fight back. So I got up and ripped the tape off my eyes. He was stunned that I got up. And he started yelling at me to get back down on the ground. Instead, he grabbed the attacker's gun. When I grabbed the gun, I felt the gun was plastic. This is the greatest feeling I ever felt in my life

because then I knew I had a fighting chance to get away. That's when I was ready to fight. I punched him and I felt really weak. I'm like, wow, why was my punch so weak? What Gilles didn't realize was that he had been weakened by the effects of the stun baton. And then he starts punching me on the side of the head. He starts punching me on the side of the head. Just about then, he came up with a plan. He grabbed my jacket. I jerked forward to make sure he had a good hold on it. I thought, that's the perfect time.

That was part of your plan. You're thinking, OK, he grabs my jacket, and I can get free. So that's when I slipped out of the jacket, rolled underneath the garage door, and then got up. And it worked. And I tried to run, and all of a sudden my legs wouldn't work. And I just fell, boom, right on the gravel trifling. That's when he grabbed my legs, and he started pulling me back to the garage. So I'm like, oh no, what am I going to do now? I'm dead. Gilles was thrown back in the garage, but he surprised himself by rolling out again. This time, Gilles managed to get into his truck.

I stuck the key in the ignition and I just sped away. When Gilles got home, he discovered the profile on the dating site had been deleted, and he did his best to erase his own memory. Why didn't you go to the police immediately? At first, I was in shock. I said, I told myself, I'll do it tomorrow. And tomorrow came, and I felt so ashamed that I got duped. Embarrassed and confused, Gilles convinced himself that perhaps

it wasn't as serious as he first thought. I really thought I was a mugging at the time. But just one week later, another man, Johnny Altinger, would answer a similar dating ad and disappear. Where is he? What's going on? He wouldn't do this to us.

Gary Oettinger, Johnny's older brother, says the last time anyone heard from him was on October 10, 2008, when the 38-year-old left for a date with a woman named Jen. Not a message, nothing. And then not showing up for work, totally out of character. John was very, very, very responsible. And when did you grow concerned?

When I received that email. And this email was completely out of character. What did it say? I've met a woman named Jen, and I'm going away with her to Costa Rica, and I'll call you at Christmas time. I just thought right away, after I had read this, that's got to be the weirdest message I've ever received. That identical strange message

had gone out to all of Johnny's friends as well. Desperate for some answers, Johnny's friends broke into his apartment. They found his passport, and they found dirty dishes, and they found everything just like as if he were going to return an hour or two later. And with that information, then they went to the police and they said, hey, listen, you've got to do something.

You know, his red Mazda was missing. He had taken his vehicle, it couldn't be found. So obviously that's what we're going to look for first. Easier to find a car than a person. Based on the emails and they talk about Costa Rica, the officers search all the parking lots at the airport. It's not found. Everything's turning up negative. But there was one clue that would give police their first big break in the airport. It's not found. Everything's turning up negative. But there was one clue that would

give police their first big break in the case. On the day he disappeared, Johnny Altinger had forwarded the directions of where he was going to friends. Well, John's friends were concerned. His friend even questioned him on the email. You know, be careful. And John said, yeah, well, here's the directions. And if anything happens to me And John said, yeah, well, here's the directions, and if anything happens to me, you'll know where to look. Armed with the directions, police were led directly to the garage. They learned the garage was rented out to an individual named Mark Twitchell. Action.

Twitchell, then 29 years old, a married man with a young daughter, had used the garage as a set for a recent movie project. I'm glad I got the chance to work with you all and I hope I see you all in the industry. Mark denied knowing anything about a missing man or a red Mazda and he had no problem with the police wanting to search the garage. They have a look around and they see some what looks like blood and Mark Twitchell's explaining,

oh no, that's my movie prop. We did a film about killing a guy in here and I filmed it all and I've been cleaning it up over the last couple weeks. There were some things that were, you know, raising your spidey sense in this one, going, yeah, this isn't right. Something going on here.

I'm Erin Moriarty of 48 Hours, and of all the cases I've covered, this is the one that troubles me most. Listen to Murder in the Orange Grove, the trouble case against Crosley Green, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. In the Pacific Ocean, halfway between Peru and New Zealand, lies a tiny volcanic island. It's a little-known British territory called Pitcairn.

And it harboured a deep, dark scandal. called Pitcairn and it harboured a deep, dark scandal. There wouldn't be a girl on Pitcairn once they reach the age of 10 that would still have urged it. It just happens to all of us. I'm journalist Luke Jones and for almost two years I've been investigating a shocking story that has left deep scars on generations of women and girls from Pitcairn. When there's nobody watching, nobody going to report it, people will get away with what they can get away with. In the Pitcairn Trials, I'll be uncovering a story of abuse

and the fight for justice that has brought a unique, lonely Pacific island to the brink of extinction. Listen to the Pitcairn Trials exclusively on Wondery+. Join Wondery in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts or Spotify. For detectives in the Edmonton Police Department, the disappearance of Johnny Altinger was a mystery in more ways than one. It's a missing persons case. We don't know what foul plays happened here. It's a missing persons case.

We don't know what foul plays happened here, we don't have a body, we don't even know if we have a crime. Their only lead was Mark Twitchell's film set garage. Voluntarily, the amateur filmmaker came down to the Edmonton police station to speak with detectives. Altinger, does that name, the ring of metal, to you or mean anything to you? No.

Never heard it before? No. Mark appeared to be eager to help. He had no history of violence and was hardly a suspect. Action. In fact, he seemed guilty of nothing more than wanting to brag about his film career. I'm working on a comedy right now, which is a, it's actually a full-blown feature that's actually going to have a decent budget in the neighborhood of about three and a half million.

Mark Twitchell's first film project, a Star Wars fan film, had received some media buzz back in 2007. Word has gotten around that I'm making a $100 million movie for $60 grand, and some production and directing jobs have already come my way. But the police were more interested in Mark's latest production, a suspense thriller called House of Cards, where a hockey-mass serial killer lures a man to a garage via the internet and kills him.

I mean, it's kind of odd that you're filming that kind of thing. And we end up going to that garage because of a missing person who supposedly went there. That's really freaky, too. And as soon as they called me on the phone, I get this weird chill. He looked pretty comfortable in the interview. And when it was done and I watched, I went, wow, that guy interviewed well. Hours later, Mark Twitchell even agreed to let officers back into the garage where he had filmed House of Cards.

Little did they know the case was about to take an unusual turn. Detective Murphy goes, you know, and meets him and talks to him and there's this huge revelation about, oh yeah, I bought a red car off a guy. It's like, I remember getting the phone call at the police station just thinking, holy crap. That's because police were still looking for Johnny Altinger's red Mazda.

So investigators called Mark again. And again, he voluntarily agreed to answer more questions. This time, Bill Clark conducted the interview. So as you know, Mark, we're just here trying to find this John Feller, John Altinger. Clark listened while Mark told him how he came into possession of a red car, a detail he failed to mention when he spoke with police earlier. This guy taps on my window, you know, hey buddy, do you want to buy a car? I have shacked up with this really rich lady

and she's going to buy me a new car. So I'm just looking to unload buying. How much do you have on you? Mark claimed he bought the red Mazda for just $40 and that it was parked at a friend's house. So what are you thinking when you hear that, that he purchased a car for $40? I just thought that's unbelievable.

That's just, right away I'm thinking to myself, this is a bunch of crap. The strange story about the red car, the serial killer movie being filmed. For Clark, it could only mean one thing. There's absolutely no doubt in my mind that you're involved in the disappearance of John Altinger. No doubt in my mind at all. Why? But it was only a hunch. Clark had no hard evidence against Mark. Police began digging deeper into his background. They were interested in speaking with anyone who had worked on House of Cards, where actor Chris Hewitt's character meets an untimely, bloody end in the film. My character was killed with the samurai sword. They said they would have a mannequin or a dummy to run the sword through,

and when I got there, there was none. I looked at the weapons, that was my first sign. When I saw that they were real, I thought, this is off. Why didn't I tell somebody where I am? Hewer left the garage film set unharmed but rattled, and his unease only escalated when police asked him about that allegedly fake movie blood they spotted in the garage.

How much of the blood splatter on the wall was from your filming? I said, none of the blood splatter was from mine. And then in a search of Twitchell's belongings, police found his laptop. They pulled off a hard drive, a deleted file, titled SK Confessions. SK Confessions SK confessions

police believed SK was shorthand for serial killer one of the first lines it says I'm not sure when I decided I'm a serial killer but it was a feeling of pure euphoria SK confessions told the story of a man who was lured to a garage and stabbed to death a plot strikingly similar to House of Cards. I plunged the knife deep into his neck. It was unbelievable. I just remember reading it all and just was fascinated by this document, going, holy mackerel.

But was the document a screenplay? Or was it, in fact, Mark Twitchell's confession of murder? It just doesn't make sense. Where there's smoke, there's fire. Two weeks after the disappearance of Johnny Altinger at a garage film set, police had sharpened their focus on filmmaker Mark Twitchell. Police cameras were rolling as the forensics team processed Twitchell's family car and the garage he rented. And a few miles away, detectives had been at the Twitchell home

where they found just Twitchell, Mark's unsuspecting wife of two years. What I said was, we're investigating a missing person. I believe your husband's got something to do with it, and it's quite possibly, you know, could be a homicide. I didn't really go into anything more, but I think that was enough. I mean, she was emotional.

Police soon discovered that the Twitchell marriage was already fractured. They had been living in, basically, sleeping in separate bedrooms. She was basically living on the main floor. He was living in the basement. So there was obviously troubles in paradise there, we knew that. Twitchell had been having an affair with an old girlfriend

and lying to his wife about having a job. He found out that he was telling his wife he was going to work every day, he had no job. He was getting his friends to invest in his alleged movie-making business with his Hollywood connections, and basically Mark Twitchell was living off their money. Interestingly, the document police had found in Twitchell's laptop, titled SK Confessions, also referenced a crumbling marriage and secrets. It read, and went through great lengths to bring my wife over to the comfortable belief I wasn't cheating on her. It was basically almost like a movie script. But what was real and what was fiction?

The closer police looked, the more the lines blurred. Police discovered Twitchell spent countless hours making elaborate Halloween costumes. It's almost like at times Mark Twitchell lives in a fantasy world. But it was Twitchell's Facebook page comparing himself to TV's fictional serial killer, Dexter Morgan, that really raised eyebrows. Mark has way too much in common

with Dexter Morgan, Red Twitchell status. He talked a lot about how he loved the show Dexter. I need to kill him. Twitchell even posed as Dexter Morgan on Facebook. We all have a dark side, some darker than others, and you're not the only one to relate to Dexter. It sometimes scares me how much I relate. I mean, look at this profile. That profile had caught the attention of a woman named Renee from Cleveland, Ohio. I am a huge fan of the Showtime show, Dexter. So I thought, oh, well, you know, I'll be friends with him.

Eventually, Twitchell revealed his true identity. He was a filmmaker. We are rolling. And he was working on a new thing called House of Cards. Camera's rolling. Renee was intrigued. After all, she was an aspiring writer. And her friendship with a movie maker could open doors.

I thought it was going to be like a working relationship, a working friendship. You know, we had a lot in common. I mean, you spoke to him a couple of times a day online? Couple of times a day. Was it flirtatious? Oh yeah, absolutely. Their email exchanges soon became dark. It was shortly before Johnny Altinger disappeared. We talked about, you know, serial killers and, you know, the psychology behind a serial killer. At the time, Renee was upset with her ex-husband's new wife. And I wanted her dead at the time, but I said I couldn't do it. And hypothetically, how would you get away with it? How do you get away with it? He said, you cut her up in little pieces. You put her in trash bags like Dexter. And since I was close to the lake, you run a boat and dump her out in the middle of Lake Erie.

But then she began to wonder. He said over the weekend he did something and he liked it. I crossed the line and I did something and I liked it. And what did you take that to mean? That he killed somebody. What other line is there to cross? Something inside my head just gave me red flags and said he did it. And her suspicions kept growing with another email he sent.

There's an enormous missing person, possible homicide investigation, going on centralized around a location I've been renting for film work. So of course the police have tossed my house and impounded my car. Not fun considering they won't find anything. But Twitchell had underestimated the police.

He thought he was way smarter than the police. One of the biggest mistakes I think that he made was he had no idea how we do our job. And that was a huge advantage to us. Adding to their circumstantial case, Twitchell possessing Altinger's car, the SK Confessions document, and his Dexter obsession,

investigators finally had hard evidence. They found Altinger's blood in Twitchell's trunk. When we got the word that the DNA matched, we briefed our tactical team, our arrest team, and we had officers ready to make the arrest. On Halloween morning, 2008, while Twitchell was putting the finishing touches on his Halloween costume at his parents' home,

police were busy laying a trap. We got an undercover operator to work the Internet and pretend he was an investor. He was lured out on the promise to meet this guy at this coffee shop, and when he got about three blocks from his house, the tactical team swooped in on him and took him down. Tough guy Mark Twitchell peed his pants. He was so scared.

And it was a little taste of his own medicine, I guess. Back at the station, Detective Clark and Twitchell came face-to-face in the interrogation room once again. As I told you that night, I knew that you were involved in the disappearance at that time of Johnny Altinger. That's changed slightly. I now know that you killed John Altinger. Three weeks after Altinger's disappearance, police charged Twitchell with first-degree murder. The once talkative movie director barely uttered a line. You didn't get much of a reaction, did you? No. He's, uh, well, he knows not to say anything.

Talking to his lawyers, he's not going to admit to anything. He didn't have to. SK Confessionsessions which police had been dissecting word by word spoke volumes they were now convinced it was no screenplay but rather a diary of murder one passage about a knife read i thrust it into his gut his reaction was pure hollywood we do believe as investigators that the account written by Mark Twitchell in that S.K. Confessions is exactly what he did to John Altinger. By now, Rene had called the police.

As authorities began building their case, there was one crucial part of S.K. Confessions they wanted to verify about a victim who had survived. It was just a huge piece of evidence because not only would it verify what was written in SK Confessions, it would also have a living witness. So it was paramount that we find this person. Did you know that the movie Candyman was partly inspired by an actual murder? Listen to Candyman, the true story behind the bathroom mirror murder, early and ad-free on Wondery Plus and the Wondery app. Hot shot Australian attorney Nicola Gaba was born into legal royalty. Her specialty? Representing some of the city's most infamous gangland criminals. However, while Nicola held the underworld's darkest secrets, the most dangerous secret was her own.

She's going to all the major groups within Melbourne's underworld, and she's informing on them all. I'm Marcia Clark, host of the new podcast Informants Lawyer X. In my long career in criminal justice as a prosecutor and defense attorney, I've seen some crazy cases, and this one belongs right at the top of the list. She was addicted to the game she had created. She just didn't know how to stop. Now, through dramatic interviews and access, I'll reveal the truth behind one of the world's most shocking legal scandals. Listen to Informant's Lawyer X exclusively on Wondery Plus. Join Wondery Plus in the Wondery app, Apple Podcasts, or Spotify,

and listen to more Exhibit C true crime shows early and ad-free right now. Detective Bill Clark knew his next move was finding the alleged victim who had escaped from Mark Twitchell's garage. One of the first things we did was check the police records, figuring hopefully someone called the police on this this and we have nothing. But police had found a helpful clue during the search of Twitchell's home. One of the things they had found was a hockey mask. The SK Confessions talked about how Mark Twitchell had worn this mask when he attacked both victims, but we figured it was something the first victim would key on.

Police soon took to the airwaves. We have some details on this male victim who was attacked, and we would like him to come forward. Gilles Tetreault was at home oblivious to the horror he had escaped when a friend told him to watch the news. To date, we do not know who this victim is. I believe the victim entered the garage and was attacked by another male who was wearing a hockey mask.

And it's the same hockey mask that I saw. Wow, yeah, this is the guy. This is what happened to me. It's the same mask, everything. What Gilles heard next came as an even greater shock. Another man had been lured to the same garage and met a gruesome man. We have not found John Altinger's body. And what were you thinking when you heard this? I couldn't believe it. Once you find out the whole story, I knew at that point it was not just a mugging.

It was actually, he was probably going to kill me. I'm like, wow, I have to go forward now. I have to come forward. Exactly one month after he was attacked, Gilles Tetreault walked into the Edmonton Police Department and told police his incredible story. I was all off balance. I couldn't run.

I fell down from the gravel driveway and basically crawling. So he dragged me back to the garage. Jill's story matched nearly word for word what was in SK Confessions i grabbed him by the leg as if to drag him back into the garage caveman style so i know that this diary we have is true after this all happened i realized how lucky it was seven days after gill was attacked police say twichell wasn't going to make the same mistake twice.

How did he kill John? We know that he lured him to the garage in the same way he lured Gilles Tetreault. And then in this case, because he learned from Gilles that the taser didn't work, he hit him over the head with a lead pipe. Following the narrative, police believe Altinger was then stabbed and dismembered on a makeshift autopsy table. What was the most damning piece of evidence that you discovered? We had a luminol test done on the floor. Large amounts of blood had been spilled on the floor of the garage. Probably one of the biggest pieces, a piece of tooth that was found

inside there. That piece of tooth matched up to our victim. According to SK Confessions, the killer then broke into Altinger's apartment and sent out those emails about taking an exotic vacation. The killer then attempted to burn the remains in a barrel, but failed. He next tried to dump them into the river, but was afraid of being seen. Ultimately, Mark Twitchell drove around with it, according to the SK Confessions document. He even talked about driving around with them and pulling up beside people at red lights and looking at them and thinking that they don't know I have a dead body in the trunk of my car.

But where was Johnny Altinger's body. SK Confessions described the killer finally choosing a sewer to dump the remains. But that's where the pages stopped. It was a story without an ending. In any homicide investigation, you obviously want to bring closure to the family. So not only do you want to make that phone call saying, we got the guy that did this to your loved one, but in this case, we wanted to say to him,

look, we found Johnny. Detective Clark hoped Twitchell would provide the final chapter. I'm going to get the car ready. We're going to take a drive. You guys were driving around and there was a camera trained on him in the back of the police car. Tell me about that. When you read all the experts' books about these type of individuals is they tend to like the media attention So we thought well, maybe if we drive him around and we'll put a camera on him maybe he'll just we'll just take him to places because we had no idea where Where Johnny's remains were at that time. So in order to finish the movie We find the body take it back to the people

Family done movies over, you know, you're all done. Detective Clark was relentless, taking Twitchell on a tour of his old neighbourhood. And we first drove to his parents' house where he had been staying. We actually demanded that he tell us. He wouldn't. Look familiar, Mark?

Are we parked right on top of the sewer where you dumped the body? Next stop, the scene of the crime. So here we are back at the killing garage, the Dexter garage. Bring back any memories? Want to tell us where the body is now? We'll get this over with. But Twitchell remained silent.

So police kept searching on their own, looking in sewer after sewer. So all these manhole covers were pulled off in this alley. So anytime I'd see one, I always had my flashlight with me and would get out and actually take a look. Weeks, then months passed, and still no luck. Then a year and a half after Johnny Altinger disappeared, Twitchell, while awaiting trial, broke his silence and gave the police a map.

Just up here on the left, it's about a block south of his parents' house. Investigators followed it to an alleyway just a half block away from where they had stopped the search. And he had marked an X. X marks the spot. It took its right to this sewer cover here. We could see what looked like pieces of human torso down there.

In March of 2011, Mark Twitchell went on trial for the murder of Johnny Altinger. Prosecutors called Gilles Tetreault to testify and to prove that what Twitchell described in SK Confessions was not a work of fiction, but an account of what had actually happened. I wasn't really afraid of him at that time. I knew he couldn't hurt me anymore. The only witness the defense called was Mark Twitchell, and he had one unbelievable tale to

tell. Steve Lillibuen, a college professor and an investigative journalist, was covering the trial for the Edmonton Journal and went on to write a book, The Devil's Cinema, about the case. Mark Twitchell testified that this was all a big misunderstanding and he had killed Johnny in self-defense. Twitchell claimed that Altinger's death was nothing more than a publicity stunt gone horribly awry.

He said he intended to let both men go so they would create a buzz for his film by telling people that this had actually happened to them. But he claimed Altinger became enraged at being tricked and he accidentally killed him in self-defense. He blames Johnny saying it was Johnny's reaction to his attempt at this promotion is what happened. In the end, the jury took just five hours to find Mark Twitchell guilty. He was sentenced to 25 years to life. But for Lillebuen, there were still so many questions.

So the motive is the mystery. Why did he do this? What is Mark Twitchell's psyche? What led to this happening? Questions Lillebuen hoped might be answered when he got a call out of the blue from Mark Twitchell himself. He just said straight out, if you're going to be writing a book about me, you might as well come straight to the source.

What do you think Mark Twitchell's motive was? See the evidence presented at trial and more at 48hours.com. Have you ever wondered who created that bottle of sriracha that's living in your fridge? Or why nearly every house in America has at least one game of Monopoly? Introducing the best idea yet, a brand new podcast from Wondery and T-Boy about the surprising origin stories of the products you're obsessed with and the bold risk-takers who brought them to life. Like, did you know that Super Mario,

the best-selling video game character of all time, only exists because Nintendo couldn't get the rights to Popeye? Or Jack, that the idea for the McDonald's Happy Meal first came from a mom in Guatemala? From Pez dispensers to Levi's 501s to Air Jordans. Discover the surprising stories of the most viral products. Plus, we guarantee that after listening, you're going to dominate your next dinner party.

So follow The Best Idea Yet on the Wondery app or wherever you get your podcasts. You can listen to The Best Idea Yet early and ad-free right now by joining Wondery+. It's just The best idea yet. The first time I met him, he actually had me laughing. He's very charismatic. Mark Twitchell was nothing like

author Steve Lilibuen expected. Has very much that salesman, slick behavior. He knows how to put it on to get people to like him. Twitchell began writing to Lillebuen before he was even convicted in 2011. Over the course of almost three years, they exchanged dozens of letters. I learned really quickly that he preferred to talk through writing.

These weren't ramblings of a crazy man. There was actually some substance in these letters. Yes, absolutely. So he's not crazy. He is lucid. At first, Lillibuen didn't want to push Twitchell away with too many probing questions about his crimes. I asked him a lot of softball questions just about who he was, his family, his upbringing, all that kind of background detail. He was newly married and a new father, so he was just a typical local guy who had dreams of making it big in Hollywood and really no red flags, no warning signs that something like this was on the horizon.

In letters, Twitchell clung to his defense that he had no choice but to kill Johnny Altinger and then dismember him. He writes, I killed Johnny Altinger in a horrific accident of self-defense. I killed Johnny Altinger in a horrific accident of self-defense. After cursorily shoving aside my human sensibilities, I dealt with his remains in a disrespectful manner that traumatized me forever. He still is adamant that this was not a planned and deliberate murder. And to be frank, he's wrong. Lillibuen points to SK Confessions,

where Twitchell describes how he turned that garage into a kill room, set up a makeshift autopsy table, had plastic sheeting, and a processing kit similar to the one Dexter Morgan used. Mark Twitchell wrote to me quite extensively about his interest in Dexter. Dexter on his mind. Twitchell drew this portrait of Michael C. Hall, the actor who plays him. And to Lillibuman's surprise, even behind bars, Twitchell was able to feed his obsessions. Previously on Dexter. Mark Twitchell had actually been granted access to finish watching the series while he was incarcerated. In 2012, Dexter star Michael C. Hall was asked about Mark Twitchell on a Canadian radio program.

It's horrifying to entertain the notion that something you did inspired that. notion that something you did inspired that. Twitchell's response to Hall's comments was to downplay his fascination with the Dexter character. So he wrote to me, as you're aware, Dexter has almost nothing to do with my case. Throughout their correspondence, Lillibuen continued to grapple with what drove Twitchell. And then Twitchell told him.

There is no key, no root cause. There's no school bully or impressionable gory movies or Showtime television series to point the finger at. It is what it is, and I am what I am. He's a depraved individual, and he knows that. Retired FBI criminal profiler Julia Calley didn't work on this case, but she spoke with Detective Clark and reviewed Mark Twitchell's writings and letters for 48 hours. She thinks she knows what made Twitchell tick. I think he identified with Dexter to some degree. I think he's different than Dexter.

He's not killing bad guys. He's killing very innocent, good people, living productive lives. And while he's technically not a serial killer, he was headed in that direction if they hadn't have caught him. Callie believes Twitchell took pleasure in planning and executing his crimes as if they were romantic trysts. I think the primary motivation was sexual. Sexual?

Yes. He's targeting men that perhaps he would be interested in having a date with. It's a combination of sexual motive and a thrill killing. He's pretending to be a woman. He writes extensively about what he's going to wear, the weapon that he chooses. He sort of describes it in seductive language. He said, I wanted the weapon used for the deed itself to be simple, elegant, and beautiful.

And in a strange twist, Twitchell's been able to feed that obsession, too. In 2017, he was allowed to join an online dating website for inmates. Which, you know, I find quite surprising considering the way he ended up in prison. I believe it's been taken down since then. The man who was tricked into that very bad date

in Twitchell's garage, Gilles Tetreault, continues to be haunted by the experience. We caught up with him recently. I still think about the painted-up hockey mask. I still think about the stun gun, you know, fight for my life. Mark Twitchell cannot be rehabilitated. This is who he is.

Action. And for Mark Twitchell, the aspiring filmmaker, there may be one final plot twist. Author Steve Lillebuen sold the rights to his book, The Devil Cinema, to a film company. Twitchell's story may be coming to

the big screen. If you like this podcast, you can listen ad-free right now by joining Wondery Plus in the Wondery app. Before you go, tell us about yourself by filling out a quick survey at wondery.com slash survey.