Don’t F*** With Cats: 10 Things They Left Out In The Docuseries

Netflix’s Don’t F*** With Cats is a troubling docuseries on Netflix about Canadian killer Luka Magnotta and a group of Internet sleuths who tried to track down his identity long before law enforcement did. What drove them to do so? He was anonymously posting online videos of himself murdering kittens.

The series, comprised of three hour-long episodes, covered a growing Internet group’s hunt to discover Magnotta’s identity, their crafty ability to locate him, and law enforcement’s involvement after he murdered a young man, Lin Jun.

The riveting series covered many aspects of Magnotta’s life, and included interviews with law enforcement, the two people who headed up the Facebook group of “nerds” searching for justice, and even Magnotta’s mother. It covered a lot of ground over three hours. But there are some interesting facts they left out. (Note: potentially triggering and disturbing content ahead.)

10 He Had a Troubled Family Life

While we get glimpses of Magnotta’s troubled family life as a child, we don’t get the whole story. He was the first born of three children and his mother was reportedly obsessed with cleanliness and would even sometimes lock her children out of the house. She had even once reportedly, according to Magnotta, left their pet rabbits out in the cold to die.

With a drinking problem, his father was eventually diagnosed with schizophrenia. That left Magnotta to live with his grandmother. His parents were both very young — 16 and 17 — when they had him.

9 He Was Home-Schooled

While Magnotta did at one point enter the public school system, attending a secondary school in Lindsay, Ontario, he was originally home-schooled. His father revealed that, because of this, his son was often isolated and didn’t have much contact with other kids his age. And he says that he recognized Magnotta was “not normal” from an early age.

His mother, who never graduated high school, wanted to home-school all three kids herself. This was in part, his father revealed, because she was a serious germaphobe and didn’t want them to use public restrooms. Magnotta did eventually go to public school, at which point he was bullied.

8 Luka Magnotta is Not His Real Name

While this name has been forever tainted due to Magnotta’s evil deeds, it’s not actually his given name. Magnotta was born in the summer of 1982 as Eric Clinton Kirk Newman. He was named after the famous actors Clint Eastwood and Kirk Douglas (pictured here). He did, however, legally change his name to Luka Rocco Magnotta in 2006.

Name changes, however, were a common occurrence with Magnotta. As noted in the docuseries, he also went by several aliases, including Vladimir Romanov, Mattia Del Santo, Jimmy, Justin, Angel, and Kirk Trammel.

7 His Father Has Schizophrenia

Magnotta’s father was diagnosed with schizophrenia after reportedly hearing voices and having suicidal thoughts. He was diagnosed after the breakup of his marriage when Magnotta was 11 or 12. He continues to take medications, including both anti-psychotics and anti-depressants.

Interestingly, Magnotta’s father says he referred Magnotta to a psychiatrist when he was 19 or 20 because he had concerns about his behavior. He was reportedly hearing voices. Luka Magnotta was diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia at that time and was seeing a psychiatrist and taking medications like Paxil and Ativan.

6 He Had Cosmetic Surgery

We know from the docuseries that Magnotta is obsessed with his appearance. He desperately wanted to be a model or an actor. But more importantly, he wanted to be famous.

So it’s no surprise, though it wasn’t discussed in the docuseries, that he even had cosmetic surgery at one point. Or did he? It’s hard to tell what’s real and not with him. Nonetheless, he reported having had hair transplant operations and a nose job, and wanted to have muscles implanted next.

5 He Was Convicted Of Fraud in 2005

Long before the murder, Magnotta was known to local law enforcement after he impersonated a woman. He applied for a credit card and bought more than $10,000 worth of merchandise from retailers like Sears Canada, The Brick, and 2001 Audio Video, which sell furniture and electronics.

He was charged with three counts of fraud (one per retailer) and plead guilty to the charges. He didn’t go to jail, though. Instead, he got a nine-month conditional sentence along with a year of probation. 

4 He Declared Bankruptcy

Working odd jobs as a stripper, escort, and in pornography, Magnotta wasn’t making much money. In March 2007, he declared bankruptcy. He had racked up more than $17,000 in debt from various creditors.

His bankruptcy was discharged in December of that same year. He, as far as can be determined, continued to work as a sex worker and wannabe model. Yet he always managed to find time to, as the docuseries chronicles, create fake profiles and comments with photos of himself pretending to be a successful model.

3 He Had Posted to White Supremacist Website

While we know that Magnotta had created upwards of 70 different fake Facebook pages and 20 different websites using different names to bolster his online presence, he also reportedly posted on a white supremacist website using two different usernames.

In one of the comments on that site, he reportedly denounced Chinese people. The young man he brutally murdered, Lin Jun, was a Chinese international student from Wuhan who was in Canada studying as an undergraduate in engineering and computer science at Concordia University.

2 The Video Might Have Included More Than Murder and Dismemberment

While we know from the docuseries that Magnotta created and uploaded a video called 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick of him repeatedly stabbing Jun with an ice pick then dismembering his body, there was apparently more to the video.

Some sources say an extended version also shows acts of necrophilia, animal cruelty, and cannibalism. None of this has been confirmed, but the thought alone is terrifyingly disturbing.

1 He Left Notes With the Packages

The docuseries showed how Magnotta dismembered Jun’s body then packaged body parts like hands and feet and sent them out to government bodies and even schools. But what they didn’t reveal is that he also sent notes with the packages.

Apparently Magnotta disclosed that he had sent a total of six packages in the notes. And he said he would be killing again. Three other packages that were intercepted included other notes but police never disclosed what they said to prevent copycat crimes.

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