Series Review: "Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer" (2019).

From the director of Silk Road: Drugs, Death and the Dark Web comes Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer. This true crime docuseries written & directed by Mark Lewis. A twisted criminal's gruesome videos drive a group of amateur online sleuths to launch a risky manhunt that pulls them into a dark underworld.

Born on December 30, 1978, Jun Lin, also known as Justin Lin, came from Wuhan and had come to Canada in 2010 with the intention of starting a new life there and to study computer engineering. In 2012, he was registered as an undergraduate international student in the engineering and computer science faculty at Concordia University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Born on July 24, 1982, Eric Clinton Kirk Newman, also known as Luka Rocco Magnotta, worked as an escort, and appeared in gay pornographic videos. He also worked as a stripper. He appeared as a pin-up model in a 2005 issue of Toronto's fab magazine, using the pseudonym Jimmy. In early August 2006, he legally changed his name from Newman to Magnotta. In March 2007, Magnotta declared bankruptcy, owing $17,000 in various debts. In December, the bankruptcy was fully discharged. Lin, who was gay, had been using Grindr and other web applications to meet with men. Lin had responded to Magnotta's Craigslist ad proposing sex and bondage. On May 24, 2012, Lin was last seen. His boss became suspicious when he did not show up for his shift the next day. On May 27, three of his friends went into his apartment on May 27. He was reported missing to police on May 29. The last images showing Jun Lin alive were taken by a surveillance camera on the night of May 24, 2012: they showed Lin and Magnotta entering the apartment building where Magnotta lived. On May 25, 2012, an eleven-minute video titled 1 Lunatic 1 Ice Pick was uploaded to Bestgore.com, depicting a naked male tied to a bed frame being repeatedly stabbed with what appeared to be an ice pick (later revealed to be a screwdriver) and with a kitchen knife, then dismembered, followed by acts of necrophilia. After the video was posted online, Magnotta fled Canada, becoming the subject of an Interpol Red Notice and prompting an international manhunt. In June 2012, he was arrested in an internet café in Berlin. In December 2014, after eight days of deliberations, a jury convicted him of first-degree murder. Magnotta was given a mandatory life sentence and nineteen years for other charges, to be served concurrently.

No matter what you think of Magnotta and what he did, this series is highly watchable. Most of the time while watching I found myself either shaking my head or sitting there with my mouth agape. By making the conflict between the internet sleuths and Magnotta the central drive of the series, the docu series succeeds mainly in showcasing just how terrible Magnotta was and how determined the sleuths could be.

Simon says Don't F**k with Cats: Hunting an Internet Killer receives: