Narcissist. Selfish. Sick. Psychopath.
These are words a retired homicide investigator with 27 years of experience with the Toronto Police uses to describe Luka Rocco Magnotta, who is suspected of a grisly murder and dismemberment that has rocked Canada and is reverberating around the globe.
Dave Perry, now co-CEO of a private investigations company, says Magnotta is a narcissist, and was overwhelmed by a life “rich with fantasy” and the incessant need to improve his image.
His impression of Magnotta is that he’s “selfish and cold. And motivated by having some celebrity if you will."
On Thursday, Global News released exclusive footage of Magnotta in a February 2008 audition for a Slice network program called Plastic Makes Perfect.
The 22-minute video shows a 24-year-old Magnotta chronicling his laundry list of cosmetic surgeries and how his obsession with his appearance weakened ties with his loved ones.
‘My name is Luka and I’m a cosmetic surgery addict’: audition tape
Eager for the spotlight
After watching the video, Perry said the footage reveals key characteristics that offer tell-tale signs of Magnotta’s background.
Perry says Magnotta was hungry for celebrity and even relished in the risks he took to garner attention.
“From what I saw on the various videos that I’ve studied on this individual is that he wasn’t just doing this for fame. This guy enjoyed it,” he said.
Comfortable with pain
At one point during his audition, Magnotta discusses his previous hair transplant surgeries in detail.
“Even though, I’m awake, I can still feel them cutting open my head, but it’s now like you feel all the pain,” he said.
“And you can actually feel, like, the blood dripping down your neck. It’s kind of graphic,” he says, laughing. He said he had two hair transplants, along with a nose job and work on his eyes.
Perry says he’s convinced Magnotta experienced “particular delight” in the pain he may have felt during those procedures.
“He’s a sick individual just to start with and he’s probably a bit of a sadist and enjoys pain …” he said.
Perry says that portion of the video made it clear officials were dealing with “somebody who’s quite different.”
“Somebody who’s really into pain ... and enjoying it. And feeling quite proud talking about it.”
Magnotta even refers to seeing what looked like “devil horns” protruding out of his forehead. He said he saw a man on another cosmetic surgery show who had the problem and “grinded down” his skull to remove the deformity but had to stop so his forehead wouldn’t collapse in.
“I have the same thing too . . . when I look there, it’s getting bigger and bigger on my forehead,” Magnotta said.
Out of touch with reality
Dr. David Nussbaum says the audition tape showcases how self-absorbed Magnotta is.
Nussbaum is a University of Toronto professor who has two decades of experience in studying human aggression and forensic mental health.
“This has to do with this sense of narcissism, a sense that he is extremely special, and he needs this to demonstrate to everybody how perfect he is.”
Nussbaum says there are two major components to that psychopathy. The first includes a sense of callousness towards others and a lack of empathy, which enables people to easily manipulate others. The second is impulsivity – an inability to consider the consequences of their actions because their thought processes are centred on their own goals.
“They’re focused entirely on their own gain,” he explained.
“One of the problems with personality disorders is that they don’t often consider how their behaviour comes across to other people. Especially the cluster that speaks to narcissism because these people are very much into themselves so much that they don’t generally perceive the negative impact…”
Nussbaum says that if he were to ask people how valuable their appearance is to them, only a few would concede that their looks are a top priority.
In Magnotta’s case, however, he admits that retaining his youth, at any cost, is sacred to him.
“No. 1 is looks, number two would have to be intelligence. And I don’t know what the rest are. All I care about is No. 1. All I do is care about how I look,” Magnotta tells interviewers.
“That speaks to a shallowness, a superficiality, and that is part and parcel of a personality dimension known as histrionic personality disorder,” Nussbaum says.
Those with the disorder tend to have shallow emotions, making it different to bond with others.
Nussbaum is hesitant to tie this condition to what may trigger criminal behaviour – in this case, an alleged murder that was videotaped.
“Each of these things that we’ve discussed or mentioned are small pieces of an overall puzzle.”
Little to lose
Police say Magnotta lived in a $490-per-month apartment in a working-class neighbourhood in Montreal.
Magnotta, in his audition, said he’d head to Montreal or Los Angeles from Toronto for gigs in modelling and adult films.
“When you look at his lifestyle, he’s living just above the poverty line. He’s barely paying rent, he’s got nothing going on for him,” Perry says.
“He’s got no steady relationship, he’s got no family support and he has nothing at all. People like this from time to time can become very, very dangerous …”
What’s next for Magnotta
While he’s in a Berlin jail cell now, Magnotta’s lawyer says he won’t fight extradition and upon return he will be charged with murder along with a string of other offences.
Perry anticipates a large-scale trial, which is uncommon in cases with suspects accused of violent crimes.
“I think he wants to run a full trial, I think he’s going to want to sit back and enjoy the notoriety.”
The potential verdict may be what will hurt Magnotta, Perry speculates. For starters, if he’s convicted, he’ll be barred from any cosmetic procedures and won’t be able to maintain his appearance.
“It’ll devastate him. This is a guy who needs to be in full control and needs to be able to manipulate people to satisfy his own lust for his own persona . . .,” Perry said.
© Global News. A division of Shaw Media Inc., 2012.