Murder, Mystery & Makeup - When a superfan goes too far for his "art" - The Wannabe Dexter Killer

Episode Date: February 18, 2025

Hi friends, happy Tuesday! What happens when a "Dexter" fanboy, a lifelong narcissist, and a pathological liar are all the same person? Murderer Mark Twitchell would know: you get a lousy attempt at ...being a serial killer and a life sentence in jail.  Also, let me know who you want me to talk about next time. Hope you have a great rest of your week, make good choices and I'll be seeing you very soon xo Bailey Sarian I sometimes talk about my Good Reads in the show. So here's the link if you want to check it out. IDK. lol: https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/139701263-bailey _________ :  :    F O L L O W    M E     :  : Discord:  https://discord.com/invite/BaileySarian Tik Tok: https://bit.ly/3e3jL9v Instagram: http://bit.ly/2nbO4PR Facebook: http://bit.ly/2mdZtK6 Twitter: http://bit.ly/2yT4BLV Pinterest: http://bit.ly/2mVpXnY Youtube: http://bit.ly/1HGw3Og Snapchat: https://bit.ly/3cC0V9d RECOMMEND A STORY HERE : cases4bailey@gmail.com  Business Related Emails : bailey@underscoretalent.com Wanna Send Me Something? Bailey Sarian 4400 W Riverside Dr Ste 110-300, Burbank, CA 91505 _________ Learn how to create the best retail experiences without complexity. Go to https://www.shopify.com/makeup

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Starting point is 00:00:00 Hi friends! How are you today? My name is Bailey Sarian and today is Monday which means it's murder mystery and makeup Monday! If you're new here, hi. My name is Bailey Sarian and on Mondays I sit down and I talk about a true crime story that's been heavy on my noggin and I do my makeup at the same time. Let me tell you about today's story because I went down a rabbit hole with this guy. This guy's too much. This guy's too much. Today we're talking about this 29 year old. His name is Mark and he was like a super fan of a TV show called Dexter. Do you remember? No? Okay great. Well we'll talk about it. Mark's obsession with the Showtime series Dexter would eventually lead to the media dubbing him as the Dexter killer.
Starting point is 00:00:53 Let me tell you. This guy is a lot. Let's get into it, shall we? Let me tell you about this Mark guy. Okay, so Mark Twitchell. He was born on July 4th, 1979 in Edmonton, Canada. It was said from a young age, Mark was obsessed with movies, right? And he dreamed of making it big in the world of cinema.
Starting point is 00:01:18 So Mark went on a study at the Northern Alberta Institute of Technology, and he participated in the school's radio and television arts program. After graduating college Mark married this woman named Megan in 2001. Now there wasn't much said about this first marriage situation. I'm assuming they met in college because like they got married like right after graduating college but you know whatever. But Megan she was from Illinois and the two of them they got married you know after graduating college, but you know, whatever. But Megan, she was from Illinois and the two of them, they got married, you know, and Mark ended up moving to Illinois with her.
Starting point is 00:01:50 And again, there was like not much said about their marriage, but I think it's safe to say it didn't work out because after three years of marriage, they got divorced. And like, that's all that was said about the marriage. After the divorce, Mark had moved back to Canada. And while that's all that was said about the marriage. After the divorce Mark had moved back to Canada and while he was back at home he signed up for a dating website. You know plenty of fish. He was like I'm gonna get back out there and start dating again. So he gets on this dating website and he ends up meeting a girl named Jess and this was like 2005 and the two of them they hit it off and they start dating
Starting point is 00:02:27 each other. So then in 2007 Mark you know he's still super into movies right and he wanted to create his own. It was his passion in life so he worked on like a little passion project and it was a Star Wars fan film that was written, produced, and directed by him. Oh yes, he did it all. Now when it came to this film of his, I mean, he went off. All the way off. I mean, Mark had a major talent for prop and costume design. For his film, he had created like replica suits from the Star Wars universe.
Starting point is 00:03:01 And honestly, they looked really legit. So the title of this movie was called Secrets of the Re Wars universe. And honestly, they looked really legit. So the title of this movie was called Secrets of the Rebellion. And it was said that it was receiving like some online hype. People were like kind of excited about it. But like, I'm not really sure because the movie, it wasn't ever completed or released. So I'm not sure who or where they were hyping this up,
Starting point is 00:03:23 but allegedly it was hyped. I feel like also Mark probably just was telling people like, yeah, it was super hyped. Mark loved Star Wars. He would dress up in like a costume that he made himself and he would attend movie premieres or anything that was related to the Star Wars world. Well, that's hard for me to say.
Starting point is 00:03:43 Star Wars world. You get it. He would dress up. That's great. Like I like like have your hobby. That's great. But listen I guess his costumes were like really really good because there were two costume contests that he won in 2007. One was at Bears Halloween Howler and the other was at Sonic's Monster Mash Halloween Bash. What a name. And like each of these were Halloween parties and you know they had awards for like best costume and Mark he won. Great you know. You know the movie Transformers? Yeah you know the movie Transformers. So I guess his costume he made a suit that was just like Bumblebee from Transformers. But Mark said that he went through 240 square feet
Starting point is 00:04:31 of plexiglass and foam to make this suit that he made. I'm sure it made him feel good to, you know, when you go off like that and to like be acknowledged and win a prize and good for him. You know, that's the only time we'll be rooting for him, I guess. Anywho, not long after Mark and his girlfriend, Jess, they would go on to get married. And then about a year later, they would have a daughter.
Starting point is 00:05:00 So throughout 2008, Mark started to work on like another passion project of his. It was a short crime film called House of Cards. Now this short film was like about a killer who lured a cheating man off of an online dating website, attacking the victim with a lead pipe and then stabbing them to death. I know it was very clue. A lead pipe? Come on. Not sure what the moral of the story was but like that's you know that's what he was going with. So with
Starting point is 00:05:30 this film Mark um you know he would do the same thing. He would write, produce, and direct it and then on top of that he was also trying to gather funds to produce a feature-length comedy called Day Players which I guess was going to be about like the secret lives of extras in the film industry. So I mean, that's great, you know, good for him, I guess, whatever. Well, while following his passions in life, things were not going so well back at home. Jess Twitchell, Mark's wife, would later say that the marriage started to go like downhill in the fall of 2008 and that they were at this point sleeping in separate rooms and like also trying to go to marriage counseling. Now during the time of their marriage she was under the impression that Mark was working as a
Starting point is 00:06:21 salesman for a security company. I mean every day Mark would get up. He would go to work every day. You know where I'm going with this. Because later on, she would learn that Mark actually didn't have a job and was just pretending to go to work for the last five months. She had no idea. She had no clue. She didn't think twice about it, you know? He's like literally getting up every day, leaving the house and going to work and then returning like around five or whatever.
Starting point is 00:06:53 Uh-uh, run for the hills quick, okay? Nay, nay. No, okay? No. I'm trying to think of like, if I found out I was with someone and they were lying to me about going to work every day and they weren't going to work I don't know what the f I would do I
Starting point is 00:07:10 what you know I what do you what what have you been doing what have you been what have you been doing it doesn't matter but she finds out so Jess would later tell the court that um on the days where he was committing his crimes, there was a note on the family kitchen calendar that said Mark was at his psychiatrist appointment. Oh yes, you know the calendar that you keep in the kitchen, everyone, you see everyone's schedule. His was saying that he was at a psychiatrist appointment and boy, boy. On October 3rd, 2008, a computer company contractor, his name was Gilles, he was looking for love as everyone deserves.
Starting point is 00:07:51 So he goes on plentyoffish.com and he ends up matching and messaging this beautiful five foot, six inch blonde woman named Sheena. Now the two of them, I guess like hit it off. They're talking and messaging back and forth and they decide to meet in person and Gilles thought it was kind of weird when the Sheena woman she would not like give an actual address of where to meet her. Instead Gilles was sent detailed directions that would lead him to the location where they would meet. I know it kind of sounds confusing actually. You know like normally you'd be like hey meet me
Starting point is 00:08:31 here and you send like an address or something or maybe at the McDonald's like on the corner. But this was not the case. This Sheena person was like you're gonna make a left then you're gonna go straight then you're gonna make a right and like wouldn't give an address and then Sheena told Gilles that quote the garage door will be open for you say okay no front door all right that's fine so when Gilles gets to this location you know it's a garage great and it's kind of like partially raised and he can kind of like see inside the garage and it's pretty dark in there it's like kind of a weird way to enter but you know this is what Sheena told me to do so okay. You know when there's like a crack in the garage and you got to get down low so you can get into the garage? You get it. So he does that and he gets into the garage and then as soon as he gets
Starting point is 00:09:20 into the garage Gilles feels someone grab him from behind. Surprise! It was Marc. Marc was inside wearing a hockey mask. As soon as Gilles gets inside, he attacks him with a stun baton as soon as he like steps in that garage. Now a stun baton is like I guess way more intense than a stun gun based off of my quick little Google research. I could be wrong. But from what I Googled, it said the stun baton is like way more intense than the stun gun. I don't know how he got his hands on one of these, but I guess maybe you could just go get one.
Starting point is 00:09:55 I don't know what I'm talking about, but he stuns him. Okay. And then Mark pulls out a gun and then orders Gilles to get on the ground. He's like pointing the gun at him. He's like, get on the ground. Get on the ground. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:10:17 So when Gilles is on the ground, Mark then puts duct tape over Gilles' eyes. Mm-mm. Oh, yes. Gilles told himself, like, I'd rather go my way than his way. And, you know, adrenaline is pumping. So he gets up. He rips the duct way than his way and you know adrenaline is pumping so he gets up he rips the duct tape from his eyes I know I was like oh ah rips that shit off and then he grabs Mark's gun from his hand and at this point Gilles realizes that this gun was plastic it was a plastic gun which must be such a relief in that moment I'm sure well
Starting point is 00:10:46 adrenaline's going but you know you're like oh thank god this shit's plastic. Anywho so I guess after this like there's a violent struggle between the two of them so they're fighting each other and Mark is like grabbing at him and Gilles was wearing like a jacket, kind of like I got like a zip on, you know. So Mark was like holding on to his jacket. And Gilles like kind of maneuvers out of it. Do you know what I'm saying? Like when you can kind of like snake your way out of the jacket. He snakes out of the jacket. And then he rolls out from under the garage door, you know, getting ready to make a run for it.
Starting point is 00:11:22 But he like, he rolls out from under the garage stands up and I guess Mark is like right on his ass grabs his legs and like is trying to to you know drag him back into the garage run run Gilles luckily Gilles he is able to get that dirt bag get off my feet and takes off running and hollering. Now at this point Mark had like come outside of the garage. He's still wearing his mask. Comes outside of the garage and he's like gonna start going after Gilles but he looks and across the street there was like this couple who was walking their dog and they're watching like this whole like weird situation go down and they're like this is like so weird you know you would stop and be like what the fuck is going on so mark actually sees the couple he's
Starting point is 00:12:17 like oh shit you know and he's trying all of a sudden to act natural he's like haha i mean i guess mark wanted the couple to think like the two of them were friends and they were just playing around. So he's like trying to be loud and like, haha, my friend is so crazy. Haha, you know, wow. He's like, haha, isn't that crazy? Like I'm wearing a mask. LOL. So after taking a few moments to make it look like, I don't know, that was his friend. She's like, all right. And then Mark goes back into the garage.
Starting point is 00:12:51 Gilles was able to escape. Sadly, after the fact, Gilles wouldn't report like what happened to police because he was embarrassed, which is so sad. You hear about this, like men not wanting to report things because it's embarrassed they feel embarrassed by it and stuff and it's just like this it's just sad you know he didn't feel like he had a safe space to like report this Gilles would later say that like he tried convincing himself that the attack wasn't as serious as he was making it out to be or at
Starting point is 00:13:24 least like he was trying to convince himself of that. It's just so sad. I felt so bad when I read that. Because at first you kind of want to be frustrated with him. Like why wouldn't you report that? Like why wouldn't you report that? But I understand and it's just sad. I hope men feel like it's safe to come forward
Starting point is 00:13:39 if you're a victim of an attack, catfish, anything like that. Like you can come forward and you can speak out. Don't be embarrassed. And the couple that was walking their dog, they didn't report anything either because technically they just saw like a weird situation take place. But nothing I guess that was worth reporting to police. You know what I mean? Like you see something weird and you're like yeah that's weird but I'm not gonna call the cops weird. So noted and that was about it. So then it's October of 2008. Johnny Altinger is a 38 year old former oil field equipment manufacturer from British Columbia. So he too is looking for love. Hops onto Plenty of Fish and starts talking to people you know.
Starting point is 00:14:25 He matches with this nice lady and they start talking to one another. Seem to hit it off messaging back and forth and they decide that they're going to meet up and they're going to meet on October 10th. Now before going on this date Johnny actually met up with his friends and he told him that he was going to meet this lady from Plenty of Fish. Now Johnny actually gave his friends the address that Mark who was once again pretending to be a woman had given him for the meetup. So he's like this is where I'm going like this is the address and he gives this to to his friends. So once he's done hanging out with his friends he's like he heads out he's like, he heads out.
Starting point is 00:15:05 He's gonna go on this date. Johnny heads to the location, you know, that was sent to him. And kind of like before, Johnny was told to enter through the garage. So he parks his car and then he goes into the garage. So when Johnny gets inside the garage, he's then attacked with a lead pipe and then like
Starting point is 00:15:27 once he's like knocked out or whatever attacked with a lead pipe and then after that he was stabbed to death brutal like what the what like he didn't have time to think well it was Mark okay it was Mark Mark then takes it like a step further and decides to cut up and dismember Johnny's body. I guess like Mark tried to burn some of the body parts. Yeah, but we know he tried to. I think he realized it either wasn't like a good idea or something because he gave up on that. But he ends up like dismembering the body and like
Starting point is 00:16:06 cutting it up and then putting the remains in different garbage bags and then he was going to take all those garbage bags and like drop them into the storm sewer which he does. I mean if you've been paying attention which I'm sure you have been, this whole attack was just like the movie that Mark had made called House of Cards, right? Mark had like just filmed House of Cards two weeks prior to this attack, to this murder, sorry. And it was filmed in that garage where the murder took place. I don't know what to say to that. So three days go by and Johnny's friends and family,
Starting point is 00:16:48 they're like getting kind of worried about him. You know, at first they thought like, oh, he's busy, you know, whatever. But on day three, they're like, okay, something's not right. Especially because there was an email that went out from Johnny's email account saying that he had met a woman who was taking him on a tropical vacation to Costa Rica.
Starting point is 00:17:11 And it's like, okay, what? Right? So Johnny had sent out an email from his account and I have it in my notes. Don't laugh at me. The email went out October 13th, 2008 at 8.52 a.m. It says, hey there, I've met an extraordinary woman named Jen who has offered to take me on a nice long tropical vacation.
Starting point is 00:17:34 We'll be staying in her winter home in Costa Rica. Phone number to follow soon. I won't be back in town until December 10th, but I will be checking my email periodically. See you around the holidays, Johnny. If I could flip this table, I would. So people were like, I don't know what kind of friends you have,
Starting point is 00:17:57 but like if you're a friend, I know, okay. If one of my friends sent me this type of email, I'd be like, first of all, what? Second of all, second of all where's the invite third of all what like it just right it doesn't it doesn't make sense it's just random and then on top of that Johnny's boss also received a resignation letter um through the email through Johnny's email and it was like I'm my job. I'm going to Costa Rica or whatever. The boss writes back asking for a forwarding address to send Johnny his final paycheck.
Starting point is 00:18:30 But like, he never got a response. So all of this is not sitting right with Johnny's friends and family. Like they knew something was up. And like, these are like some great friends, seriously. Three days and they're worrying. Like I could be missing for weeks. I don't know who's showing up but like these friends they end up driving over to Johnny's condo and they decide
Starting point is 00:18:51 to like break in because they think like inside they can find some kind of clue or evidence or maybe Johnny's inside like in the condo and like no no one knows or something you know they were just like going and looking for something. Now when they go outside, technically they don't, like there's no evidence found. But what they do notice was that there appeared to be no evidence that Johnny had left for a vacation. Like all of his belongings were all still there. There was no sign that he had like taken off for a long stay somewhere. Nothing like again bizarre weird not sitting right. So they decide it's best to call the police.
Starting point is 00:19:33 I know I was like these people these are some great friends right. So when they go to police you know they tell them everything they know but the handover the evidence that Johnny had shared with them remember like before he went on the date Johnny had shared the location of the date he was going on and that was like the last time they saw him so luckily they still had this information and they go to the police they give the police the location and these directions would lead the police directly to the garage Mark was renting. So police, they go out to the location and when they get there, they come across Mark. You know, and at first they weren't considering him to be a suspect or anything, they just wanted to ask him some questions, but they knew like
Starting point is 00:20:21 something wasn't right with Mark's story because Mark told police that Johnny had come by he's like yeah Johnny came by and bought his Mark's Mazda for just 40 Canadian dollars and then after that Johnny told him that he was leaving the country with a woman and police are like $40 huh red flag what that doesn't make sense so police they you know they're at this garage location and they're like can we like look around the garage so they're like looking around and they notice that there's blood spatter inside and the police are like you know what's this about uh there seems to be like blood all over the walls what's up and mark tells the police like oh i just filmed a movie called house of cards and we just filmed an execution scene and you know we got fake blood everywhere you know because it's for a movie so
Starting point is 00:21:16 the police ask like oh can we collect the names of like these actors from the movie so they can go and you know question them and make sure like this movie scene actually happened and mark is like and they find one of the actors who starred in Mark's film. And the police ask like, hey, how much fake blood was like used in that execution scene? Was it messy? You know, was there blood everywhere? And then the actor responds to police by saying like, there was no blood.
Starting point is 00:21:37 And then the police go and they find one of the actors who starred in Mark's film. And they go and they ask, hey, how much fake blood was used in that execution scene? And messy yeah was there blood everywhere and then the actor responds to police by saying like there was no blood there was no fake blood there was not you know I think you get it like they're like okay this Mark guy weird we're gonna go back we're gonna do like he's obviously know something they end up going back to Mark's garage and they end up doing a luminal test and the luminal test can uncover blood that isn't visible to the naked eye. Like they could
Starting point is 00:22:10 spray it on or whatever and then when they do a black light it'll show you all the blood that used to be there before it was cleaned up. So they do this luminal test and it reveals that like there was excessive amounts of human blood that had been cleaned up around this garage. And they're like, fucking sound the alarm. This is no fake blood. Like this was real. And it was a lot. Well, police, they're like, okay, we have our guy, right?
Starting point is 00:22:37 Obviously. They're like, that was easy. Mystery solved. So the police say no, that this is their guy, right? And on October 31st, 2008, Mark Twitchell was arrested and charged with first degree murder. On Halloween. I know, I was like, wow, that's very fitting, kind of. You know? Like, all right.
Starting point is 00:22:56 Once the media gets a hold of this story, it's out there, it's circulating, you know, it's getting around. And you know who sees it? Gilles. Mark's first victim he sees the story he sees the story and he's like oh my lord like this is the same dude who attacked me. So once he sees the story Gilles goes to police he decides to come forward and and see what happened to him and he does this on November 3rd. So just a few days after everything went down you know. So when Gilles came forward the media gave him the nickname the one who got
Starting point is 00:23:32 away which is like okay yeah I mean spot on and Gilles would later write a book called the one who got away escape from the kill room. He got to share his story poor guy I was thinking he probably had so much like guilt you know maybe. I don't know. I don't want to make assumptions but I could only imagine. So Mark ends up sitting in custody for like quite some time and during this time he's like swearing he's innocent. He's telling everyone that like he quote-unquote accidentally killed Johnny in self-defense and it was like make it make sense but he wasn't trying self-defense. And it was like, make it make sense. But he wasn't trying.
Starting point is 00:24:07 He was just like, it was self-defense. But after two years behind bars, Mark finally like cracks and he ends up giving police handwritten directions as to where he dumped Johnny's remains. Because at this point, they didn't find his remains yet. So they print out this little like Google map. And then what's his name? Mark. He like, he wrote handwritten details at the bottom of the page. And it kind of like drew like, where the remains were at. So at the bottom, he like hand wrote the location of where to find the remains in an alleyway between 86 and
Starting point is 00:24:41 87th Street, south of 130 Avenue, where two manhole slash sewer covers are in close proximity the only area in the alley where this occurs the cover on easternmost edge of alley on private property fifth light post from 130 avenue indicated by red circle above and then he signed it and then he dated it. They were able to uncover the remains. Then in June 2010 Mark was like fully ready to take the stand at his trial. Like he really thought he was gonna like say something good that was gonna get him off the hook because he really like wanted to argue that he had quote-unquote accidentally killed Johnny in a horrific accident of self-defense. Like he was going to fight for this. So while he was in prison, this guy named Steve,
Starting point is 00:25:29 Steve was working as like an investigative journalist with Edmonton Journal. He got wind of the story, wanted to talk to Mark. So he like wrote him a letter and started talking with Mark behind bars. And boy, did Mark deliver. Kind of. Steve said that like Mark just like straight up called him out of the blue. I was like, hey, got your letter. Would love to communicate with you.
Starting point is 00:25:54 And then afterwards, the two of them kept in contact by writing each other letters. So they were sending letters back and forth. And Steve said that he got around 30 to 35 letters from Mark. It was like a total of 350 pages. Steve said he was trying to push Mark to explain himself, but like he never received a good answer. And it was like, yeah, you know, I don't think you can receive a good answer
Starting point is 00:26:16 with these types of people, right? There is no good answer. I don't know what would qualify as a good answer. I did it for the gram. I don't know. What is a good answer? It doesn't for the gram. I don't know. What is a good answer? It doesn't matter really, but there wasn't one. Okay.
Starting point is 00:26:29 One of the letters from Mark said, quote, after curiously shoving aside my human sensibilities, I dealt with his remains in a disrespectful manner that traumatized me forever. End quote. He was referring to Johnny's murder. And then in another letter it said quote it would appear that I'm unique in the world there is no key no root cause end quote I know have you ever noticed that like killers they always want to be so unique and special they
Starting point is 00:27:02 always claim this shit you know I mean I am, I am talking about him. So I guess like, I don't think he's unique. Okay. Thank you. There was another letter that said, quote, it is what it is. And I am what I am. Wow. I know he's so deep. Steve, the journalist, he actually wrote about the conversations that he had with Mark in a book titled The Devil's Cinema, The Untold Story Behind Mark Twitchell's Kill Room. So when police had arrested Mark, they also searched his home and his car, and they took away like anything and everything that might have been evidence or have evidence on it, with that being said, at the time of his arrest,
Starting point is 00:27:44 they got Mark's laptop. Oh, the laptop. So of course they search it, right? And they uncover a document that Mark tried to delete. And you know how computers go. Like you think you delete something, baby girl, Lisa, listen, no, it can always be found. Can always be found.
Starting point is 00:28:09 So when they searched his computer, they came across a document called S.K. Confessions. And this would end up being like the key piece of evidence for the murder trial. S.K. Confessions, to their surprise, stood for Serial Killer Confessions. Police are like, great, you know, confess away. Love that, we love a confession.
Starting point is 00:28:34 SK Confessions starts off with, this story is based on true events. Great, love that. The names and events were altered slightly to protect the guilty. This is a story of my progression into becoming a serial killer. Like anyone just starting out in a new skill, I had a bit of trial and error in the beginning of my misadventures.
Starting point is 00:28:57 Allow me to start from the beginning, and I think you'll see what I mean. It's like, go on. I don't remember the exact place and time it was that I decided to become a serial killer, but I remember the sensation that hit me when I committed to the decision. It was a rush of pure euphoria. I felt lighter, less stressed, if you will, at the freedom of the prospect. There was something about urgently exploring my dark side that greatly appealed to me, and I'm such a methodical planner and thinker, the very challenge itself was enticing to behold. This realization was just the last in a series of new discoveries I made about myself.
Starting point is 00:29:39 I just knew I was different somehow from the rest of humanity. I feel no such emotions as empathy or sympathy toward others, for example." Great. So this document literally had Mark's planning, his failed first attempt, and his successful second attempt to lure a man to his garage by using a fake dating profile in order to murder them.
Starting point is 00:30:07 Like it matched line by line to Johnny's murder. Line by line. In this document, I mean, it included like the hockey mask, the attack with a lead pipe, the quote unquote Dexter prepped garage. There was a line about the killer trying to burn the remains in a barrel, which police had found a barrel, a burned barrel inside of Mark's garage.
Starting point is 00:30:32 So they were like, okay, check, check. Just kind of like a, it was like a checklist really. In the confession, it got really dark. He wrote about how he cut Johnny's head and like gave details saying um I grabbed his jaw with my gloved hand and moved it while making a funny voice to make it look like it was talking and chuckled to myself at the total silliness of it all. You know what the hell do you even say to that? So this document alone is pretty damning.
Starting point is 00:31:06 But police, I mean, they found lots of other evidence of Mark's involvement in the murder. Like they found Johnny's blood on several articles of Mark's clothing. They also found the knife that was used, the murder weapon. And it, you know, it belonged to Mark. There was like dozens of pieces of evidence tying Mark to Johnny's death and they were found in Mark's home. They were in his car, they were at his parents' house and also the rented garage where the murder happened.
Starting point is 00:31:38 There was also like evidence that was recovered from Johnny's car. I guess after the murder, Mark was straight up driving around in Johnny's car. I guess after the murder Mark was straight up driving around in Johnny's car. Yeah great. So Mark also admitted to accessing Johnny's email after his death and sent out that email telling Johnny's friends and family that he was going away on vacation. Like he admitted to it which was just confusing to me because he was claiming it was self-defense but then like this doesn't help your case you know oh oh oh and then there was also another document that was found on his computer and this document did not make its way into evidence i don't know why i didn't i'm sorry i didn't really look that heavily into it why what didn't make it
Starting point is 00:32:23 into evidence sorry about that i'll do better next time. But I have it in my notes. It was titled, A Profile of a Psychopath. Now, obviously, investigators, they find it on his computer and they believe, like, you know, Mark had written this. It was on his computer. But it went on to say some stuff. It started off with saying, I habitually lied my entire life, despite my incredibly well-adjusted and healthy family life and upbringing. It never stopped. I always apologized, but never meant it and never corrected the behavior. For as long as I can
Starting point is 00:32:58 remember, I have always had a distinct lack of empathy. I've always had a dark side. I've had a sugar coat for the world. I've often fantasized about killing people who have wronged me or threatened to hurt me or my family in the future. But that's where it ends. Well, obviously not. Well, it goes on to say like, I can direct my dark energies into my film work. And like, as a producer, I can profit from the sale of my work and like, blah, blah, blah. No one cares about your movie shit. Sorry.
Starting point is 00:33:27 He admits to cheating on his wife pretty often, like all the time. And he said, I still cheat, but only for the thrill of it. And then going on to say, I had a conversation with my wife one night where we fully explored my lack of empathy. She asked me a variety of probing questions. Every answer I gave her, although truthful this time, were deeply disappointing to her. No after no when she was looking for yes after yes. His wife is an excellent mother and the greatest partner that anyone could ever ask for. So it's little mixed there isn't it huh so they find this
Starting point is 00:34:08 now this again doesn't it doesn't get admitted to evidence at all but they found it and i think that says a lot too so the trial let's talk about the trial so the trial began and through his lawyer mark tried to plead guilty so he would get a lesser charge of interfering with a dead body but the prosecution rejected that offer and they continued with the first degree murder charge. So the prosecution requested that Mark also be charged with the attempted murder of Gilles in the same case but for some reason well the judge decided to keep the two cases separate. During his trial Mark admitted to killing Johnny and also to writing the SK confessions but he went with his original story saying that the murder
Starting point is 00:35:00 was an act of self-defense. Mark also went on to say that the SK Confessions was fiction based on fact. As if to say he planned Johnny's death deliberately in order to write a compelling story. I know. I was like, I'm not sure how, again, how is this helping you? How is this helping your case? I don't know. At least he's confessing. I'll give him that.
Starting point is 00:35:25 The prosecution, they really focused in on Mark's obsession with the television program, Dexter. If you don't know, Dexter was an American crime drama about this guy named Dexter Morgan, who was like a blood spatter expert who solved murders but committed them to. I guess he was a serial killer but his justification was that he was killing quote-unquote bad people. The show ran from like 2006 to 2013. People really liked it. Okay everyone talked about it. Mark liked it too. He even posed as Dexter Morgan on Facebook. Like he was a total fanboy. I know everyone, everyone was talking about that show when it came out and everyone was like you have to watch it. You have to watch it and I never watched it. Oh I'm sorry. I know. I hear it was
Starting point is 00:36:16 so good. I'm sorry. I missed that boat. Everyone got on that boat. I was like, bye boat. Bye, I'll be over here watching Full House again. I don't know. I just never got, maybe I'll watch it one day. I don't know. But everyone loved that show. Okay, everyone loved it. So the prosecutors were like, Mark wanted to become a serial killer
Starting point is 00:36:40 inspired by this television program. And like he was trying to merge his violent fantasies with real life experiences just like the tv character did so once again you know the Dexter connection when the media heard about this they started referring to Mark as the Dexter killer so keeping the Dexter theme going many believed Mark's kill garage resembled a scene right out of the show like the inside of his garage it had plastic sheets like all over covering all the windows there's a table with like blood spatter all over it and then there were cleaning supplies laid out so Gilles took the stand and told the court about his experience with Mark and literally how just
Starting point is 00:37:27 like a week before Johnny's death, he barely escaped Mark's attack. There was also another person who took the stand. Their name was Renee. And I guess this person was like kind of friends with Mark, not understanding fully what their relationship was, but Mark felt comfortable enough with this person to like talk freely with them. So this person, Renee, told the court that Mark had sent them a message on Facebook saying that he quote, crossed the line. And he sent this message the weekend of Johnny's death what line so then Mark went on to discuss through Facebook message messenger with this Renee person the best way to kill someone
Starting point is 00:38:16 so all right you know I don't know what Mark was doing here, but you know, thank God for like receipts. This guy is just an idiot. So on April 12th, 2011, after five hours of deliberation, the 12 member jury returned with the verdict of guilty. I mean, right. And they should, if they didn't, we'd probably, probably I'd be like what the fuck. So after the verdict came through that's when the courts did the um the victim impact statements. It's part of like the uh sentencing procedures. Johnny's mother was there and she went on to say like it was just really sad. There's like no words to describe the pain and feeling of horror one goes through. There's no joy in my life.
Starting point is 00:39:05 It's been ripped away from me. And then adding it was her wish that Mark die a slow death in prison reflecting on his crime. Makes sense. Yeah, I would probably wish that too. After what the judge called a very difficult case, Mark was given life in prison with no chance of parole for 25 years. Once Marc was convicted and sentenced to the maximum prison term, the court found that there was no need to try Marc for the attempted murder of Gilles. Which is like, I'm torn on that.
Starting point is 00:39:39 Like, I mean, I get why they did it, you know? But at the same time, like, as a victim, you'd probably want, like, some kind of justice. Like, but it's fine. Like, he got, Mark got locked away forever. I just hope Jules is okay. And, like, he got the closure and healing that he needed, you know? So Mark, who was 31 at the time of sentencing, he was asked, you know, by the judge, like,
Starting point is 00:40:02 do you have anything you want to add? And Mark said, I think I'll pass on that. So for someone who likes to talk, he sure didn't want to talk, you know, by the judge, like, do you have anything you want to add? And Mark said, I think I'll pass on that. So for someone who likes to talk, he sure didn't want to talk, you know? So he was being like walked out of the courtroom, you know, by like the sheriff people or whatever. And one of Johnny's family members yelled, bye, have fun. Kind of nice little dig, you know? Fuck that gang. So in May of 2011, this was like a few weeks after his sentencing, Mark filed a written appeal without the help of a lawyer, where he requested a retrial, this time without a jury. He said, the media attention surrounding my case
Starting point is 00:40:40 was so extensive, so blatant, and so overtly sensationalized that it is unreasonable All right. He then added, lawyer did not, quote, adequately and satisfactorily addressed key points on state of mind and credibility. Those points include his advanced knowledge of computers, which undermines the implication I would use a computer to carry out a crime. All right, my guy, like, no, no, that ain't it. He's trying. Mark also took issue with how the Crown, aka the court, presented evidence where he lied to his former girlfriend, his wife, and also the police,
Starting point is 00:41:31 saying that, quote, this led the jury to make an inappropriate and skewed character judgment, concluding that I'm a lifetime liar, end quote. You know, actually, I believe in those, that SK Confessions, didn't it say i've been lying all my life i'm a habitual liar i think that is what actually made people think that uh he's a
Starting point is 00:41:53 lifetime liar just my opinion maybe it was that so mark tried he really did and then he dropped his appeal in february of 2012 when he realized he was an idiot. Mark Twitchell is serving his life sentence at a maximum security prison in Prince Albert, Saskatchewan. Well while he's been in prison he's still doing stupid shit. It was said that in prison Mark continued to watch Dexter. The media reported that he purchased a flat screen TV and also a cable package, which I was like what? All right, but he would watch like reruns of Dexter and then new episodes as they were coming out. Then two years after his imprisonment, Mark wanted to try and revive his film career. Oh yes, oh yes.
Starting point is 00:42:48 So while in prison, he requested access to the hard drives that the police had confiscated, which he believed had hundreds of hours of unreleased film footage on it. There was like a letter from prison. Mark wrote, all the footage is sheer gold. Way too many amazing people gave so much of themselves to make that film magic. I will see it completed if it's literally the last thing I do. All right. Mark believed that his life's work was being held
Starting point is 00:43:20 hostage, quote unquote held hostage by the courts and that it was slowly being like suffocated in the process so mark was like he's really wanted to get the footage he was like my life's work it means everything to me and i think like mark went on to say like i refuse to let my story my life life end in a tragedy yeah what a serious clown what a fucking clown sorry dude but you're an idiot stay locked up thank you i feel bad for his wife and stuff right like i don't i didn't really look too much into like what happened to her i kind of like to leave them out of it because it's like she didn't fucking know so there was like a staff staff sergeant who was like head of Edmonton's homicide unit who came out and said like, why would we give anything back to a convicted murderer? He's taken a life and he shouldn't benefit from that in any way.
Starting point is 00:44:16 Period. And that, my friends, is where this story ends. This was the Mark Twitchell case, aka thexter killer the clown the idiot like may he sit in prison forever rest in peace to poor johnny who just freaking wanted to go on a date huh it was so sad i mean like luckily he had some good friends and like people who cared about him right and this really helped like catch mark before he can move on to the next one, which I'm sure he would have done, right? He probably would have kept going because he thought he's something.
Starting point is 00:44:53 I thought about Gilles a lot, you know, just for like not coming forward when he was originally attacked. I understood like why, but I hope that men like feel like you guys do have a safe place to come forward if you're attacked and there's nothing wrong with speaking up if something happens to you you know which I'm sure my little speech means nothing but I don't know you know it's just sad just sad I hope he's okay like after the fact like surviving that awful crime and then you know like survivor's guilt I'm sure it was really hard other than that one make sure your man's going to work okay like real talk like this guy was lying like what was he doing he's being weird does your man have a job we gotta make sure okay two if you're going on a date
Starting point is 00:45:38 share your location share your location okay be careful out there you guys seriously go with your gut feeling if something doesn't feel right get the fuck out of there and make sure you meet in a public place and I don't know I'm kind of like the worst because when I was like doing online dating I was so dumb it's not funny but like you think I would be smart and I was like making stupid mistakes I was like what you want to meet in an empty parking lot sure and then I'd be there like wait this is probably not a good idea just don't be like me all right anyways well I hope you have a good rest of your day you make good choices please be safe out there okay and I'll be talking to you guys later goodbye

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