Mark Andrew Twitchell (born July 4, 1979) is a Canadian filmmaker convicted of
first-degree murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...
in April 2011 for the murder of John Brian Altinger.
His trial attracted particular media attention because Twitchell had allegedly been inspired by the fictional character
Dexter Morgan
{{More citations needed, date=August 2016
{{Infobox character
, color = red
, name = Dexter Morgan
, series = Dexter
, image = Dexter Morgan.jpg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan
, first = Novels:''Darkly Dr ...
.
Early life and filmmaking ambitions
Born in
Edmonton
Edmonton ( ) is the capital city of the Canadian province of Alberta. Edmonton is situated on the North Saskatchewan River and is the centre of the Edmonton Metropolitan Region, which is surrounded by Alberta's central region. The city ancho ...
, Alberta, Twitchell dreamed of making blockbuster films
and graduated from the Radio and Television Arts program at the
Northern Alberta Institute of Technology
The Northern Alberta Institute of Technology (NAIT) is a applied sciences institute in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. NAIT provides careers programs in applied research, technical training, applied education, and learning designed to meet the deman ...
in 2000. In 2001, Twitchell married an American woman and moved to Illinois, but they divorced in 2004.
In 2007, Twitchell directed ''Star Wars: Secrets of the Rebellion'', a full-length
fan film
A fan film is a film or video inspired by a film, television program, comic book, book, or video game created by fans rather than by the source's copyright holders or creators. Fan filmmakers have traditionally been amateurs, but some of the more ...
prequel
A prequel is a literary, dramatic or cinematic work whose story precedes that of a previous work, by focusing on events that occur before the original narrative. A prequel is a work that forms part of a backstory to the preceding work.
The term " ...
set a few days prior to
''Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope''.
''Secrets of the Rebellion'' included a
cameo by
Jeremy Bulloch
Jeremy Andrew Bulloch (16 February 1945 – 17 December 2020) was an English actor. In a career that spanned six decades, he gained recognition for originating the physical portrayal of Boba Fett in the ''Star Wars'' franchise, appearing as th ...
, a British actor best known for his role as bounty hunter
Boba Fett
Boba Fett ( ) is a fictional character in the ''Star Wars'' franchise. First appearing in the ''Star Wars Holiday Special'' (1978), where he was voiced by Don Francks, he is an armored bounty hunter featured in both the original and prequel fi ...
in the
original ''Star Wars'' films. The film, still in
post-production
Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments.
The ...
, never saw release. Twitchell also scripted ''Day Players'', a
buddy comedy
A comedy film is a category of film which emphasizes humor. These films are designed to make the audience laugh through amusement. Films in this style traditionally have a happy ending (black comedy being an exception). Comedy is one of the olde ...
.
In September 2008, he shot a short
horror film
Horror is a film genre that seeks to elicit fear or disgust in its audience for entertainment purposes.
Horror films often explore dark subject matter and may deal with transgressive topics or themes. Broad elements include monsters, apoca ...
entitled ''House of Cards'' at a garage he rented in the south end of Edmonton.
Murder of Johnny Altinger
In October 2008, John Brian Altinger, 38-year-old former White Rock, B.C., oilfield equipment manufacturer known to his friends as Johnny,
unknowingly interacted with Twitchell on dating website
Plenty of Fish
Plenty of Fish is a Canadian online dating service, popular primarily in Canada, the United Kingdom, the Republic of Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Brazil, and the United States. It is available in nine languages. The company, which is b ...
. On October 10, 2008, Altinger informed his friends of his plans to meet a woman with whom he had been chatting.
[ Altinger discovered too late that Twitchell had posed as the woman online in order to lure him into a "kill room" set up in a rented garage being used as a film-studio.] Twitchell bludgeoned and stabbed Altinger, before cutting him apart, partially burning him, and then dumping his remains in garbage bags into a storm sewer.
Altinger's friends became concerned after they received emails supposedly from Altinger claiming that his date had taken him on an extended vacation to Costa Rica
Costa Rica (, ; ; literally "Rich Coast"), officially the Republic of Costa Rica ( es, República de Costa Rica), is a country in the Central American region of North America, bordered by Nicaragua to the north, the Caribbean Sea to the no ...
. At work, a resignation letter
A letter of resignation is written to announce the author's intent to leave a position currently held, such as an office, employment or commission.
Historical
A formal letter with minimal expression of courtesy is then-President Richard Nixon' ...
arrived by email, but there was no response to a request for a forwarding address for sending a final paycheck. Altinger's friends broke into his condominium, where they found his passport, dirty dishes, and no indication of his having packed for a trip. A homicide investigation was soon launched by the Edmonton Police Service.
Twitchell related an improbable account to police of having met Altinger before his trip to Costa Rica. According to Twitchell, Altinger sold his Mazda 6 to Twitchell for 40 CAD, all the cash Twitchell had on hand. The police, not believing this story, impounded Twitchell's laptop and car, and found Altinger's blood in the car's trunk. Police arrested Twitchell on October 31, 2008, and, on the same day, charged him with the first-degree murder
Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification or valid excuse, especially the unlawful killing of another human with malice aforethought. ("The killing of another person without justification or excuse, especially the c ...
of Altinger.
Trial and sentencing
The key piece of evidence presented by the Crown at Twitchell's first-degree murder trial was a document, entitled "SKConfessions", which stood for "Serial Killer Confessions". The document had been recovered from Twitchell's laptop, despite having been deleted. The document begins with the passage: This story is based on true events. The names and events were altered slightly to protect the guilty. This is the story of my progression into becoming a serial killer
A serial killer is typically a person who murders three or more persons,A
*
*
*
* with the murders taking place over more than a month and including a significant period of time between them. While most authorities set a threshold of three ...
.
It presented an account of its narrator's planning, failed first attempt, and successful second attempt to lure a man to his garage and murder him, with fake online dating profiles used as bait. It went on to describe the process of dismembering the body and attempts to dispose of the remains.
During his trial, Twitchell admitted to killing Altinger and authoring the document, but claimed he had acted in self-defense. He described the document as fiction based on fact, as if he had planned Altinger's death deliberately, in order to craft a compelling story.
During the trial, Twitchell's interest in the television series ''Dexter
Dexter may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* Dexter, the main character of the American animated series ''Dexter's Laboratory'' that aired from 1996 to 2003
* Dexter, a fictional character in the British Diary of a Bad Man#Main, web series ''Diar ...
'' was noted repeatedly, and his personal identification with its lead character, Dexter Morgan
{{More citations needed, date=August 2016
{{Infobox character
, color = red
, name = Dexter Morgan
, series = Dexter
, image = Dexter Morgan.jpg
, image_size = 200px
, caption = Michael C. Hall as Dexter Morgan
, first = Novels:''Darkly Dr ...
, a vigilante serial killer, prompted several media outlets to refer to him as the "Dexter Killer."
Another document found on Twitchell's laptop did not make its way into the evidence file for the jury to read during his trial. Entitled "A Profile of a Psychopath
Psychopathy, sometimes considered synonymous with sociopathy, is characterized by persistent Anti-social behaviour, antisocial behavior, impaired empathy and remorse, and Boldness, bold, Disinhibition, disinhibited, and Egotism, egotistical B ...
", and believed by investigators to have been written by Twitchell, it is a detailed self-analysis of personality and behavior.
On April 12, 2011, Twitchell was convicted of first-degree murder for the death of Altinger, and sentenced to life in prison without possibility for parole for 25 years.
Attempted murder charge
Twitchell still faced an attempted murder charge for his alleged attack on Gilles Tetreault, a computer company contractor. Tetreault testified that he was lured using the website Plenty of Fish, expecting a date with a young woman named Sheena, only to be attacked by a man in a hockey mask with a stun baton when he arrived at the garage in Edmonton rented by Twitchell. After a violent struggle, Tetreault escaped, but did not report the attack to police. Tetreault claims that he did not report the attack because he was embarrassed. Tetreault was nicknamed 'The One Who Got Away' by several media outlets.
Crown prosecutors considered pursuing a charge of attempted murder after securing a conviction of first-degree murder. Detectives were adamant that they had gathered a mountain of evidence – much of it revealed during the murder trial – while even Twitchell himself admitted on the witness stand to committing the attack. In preparing the case for trial, the Crown had argued in court for the attempted murder and first-degree murder charges to be heard simultaneously as they were part of the same "transaction" of his attempt to become a serial killer. Under Canadian law, charges can only be heard together if they are linked in some way. Court of Queen's Bench Justice Terry Clackson was not convinced by the prosecution's argument that the attack on Gilles Tetreault and the murder of Johnny Altinger were part of the same transaction. He ordered the charges to be severed and heard separately. "The offences are related and connected, but remain discrete," Justice Clackson wrote in his reasons for the decision, "As a result, the attempted murder charge cannot stand on the same indictment as the charge of murder because they are different transactions." On June 17, 2011, an attempted murder charge against Twitchell was stayed in the Court of Queen's Bench of Alberta, meaning that Crown prosecutors could resurrect the charge within a one-year period. Since his conviction of first-degree murder secured a maximum sentence — life in prison with no parole eligibility for 25 years — there was no need to proceed with more charges, and the attempted murder charge against Twitchell was eventually dropped.
Media coverage during trial
Extensive media coverage of the case created debate both inside and outside of the courtroom. Observers argued for and against the media's reporting on the more sensational details of the crime.
Prior to the criminal trial, Crown prosecutors and the defense sought vast publication bans and sealing orders over the police evidence, preventing the media from reporting on the details of the case until the jury would hear it during the future trial. The media fought the application, but the judge agreed to both a sealing order and publication ban, stating in his ruling that "there is a real risk that pretrial publicity will undermine the accused's constitutionally protected right to a fair trial."[ The jury pool was then polled through a "challenge for cause" procedure to determine if a potential juror had been influenced by the media coverage prior to the publication bans taking effect.][ When the bans were lifted, a large media presence attended and reported on the trial, including American television programs '']Dateline NBC
''Dateline NBC'' is a weekly American television news magazine/reality legal show that is broadcast on NBC. It was previously the network's flagship general interest news magazine, but now focuses mainly on true crime stories with only occasion ...
'' and '' 48 Hours''.
Following his first-degree murder conviction, Twitchell used the extensive media coverage of his case as grounds for an appeal. He argued in his notice of appeal that "the media attention surrounding my case was so extensive, so blatant and so overtly sensationalized that it is unreasonable to expect any unsequestered jury to have remained uninfluenced by it, regardless of judges' instructions in the charge." He abandoned his appeal in 2012.
Post-trial media coverage
In December 2012, Michael C. Hall
Michael Carlyle Hall (born February 1, 1971) is an American actor and singer best known for his roles as Dexter Morgan, the titular character in the Showtime series ''Dexter,'' and David Fisher in the HBO drama series '' Six Feet Under.'' Thes ...
, the actor who played Dexter Morgan, was interviewed by Jian Ghomeshi
Jian Ghomeshi (born June 9, 1967) is a British-born Persian-Canadian broadcaster, writer, musician, producer and former CBC personality. From 1990 to 2000, he was a vocalist and drummer in the Thornhill-based folk-pop band Moxy Früvous. In ...
on the Canadian radio show '' Q''. Hall stated that he did not think ''Dexter'' glamorized serial killers. "I would hope that people's appreciation was more than some sort of fetishization with the kill scenes," he said. Ghomeshi brought up Twitchell and Hall said, "I wouldn't stop making ''Dexter'' because someone was fascinated by it only in that way. I try to tell myself that their fixated nature would have done it one way or the other, but it seems that ''Dexter'' had something to do with it. It's horrifying."
In May 2013, it was reported that Twitchell had purchased a television for his prison cell. Twitchell stated that he had caught up on every ''Dexter'' episode that he missed since he was arrested and convicted of first-degree murder.
Twitchell's case was featured in the American magazine ''Crime Watch Daily
''Crime Watch Daily'' is an American syndicated investigative news magazine television series. Premiering on September 14, 2015, the program was originally hosted by veteran Australian television journalist Matt Doran. The remaining two season ...
'' on May 1, 2017. Much of that day's program focused on Twitchell's methods and featured interviews with Gilles Tetrault, his first intended victim, and Steve Lillebuen, author of the book '' The Devil's Cinema'', which focused on the case. Part of the report included a return trip by Tetreault to the garage in which the incident had taken place.
Tetreault made several media appearances related to his experience, including ''Dateline NBC
''Dateline NBC'' is a weekly American television news magazine/reality legal show that is broadcast on NBC. It was previously the network's flagship general interest news magazine, but now focuses mainly on true crime stories with only occasion ...
'', '' 48 Hours Mystery'', '' The Fifth Estate'', '' I Survived...'' on Biography Channel, ''Dates from Hell'' on Investigation Discovery
Investigation Discovery (stylized and branded on-air as ID since 2008) is an American multinational pay television network dedicated to true crime documentaries owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. As of February 2015, approximately 86 million Ameri ...
, and ''The Security Brief'' on REELZ
Reelz (formerly known as Reelz Channel) is an American digital cable and satellite television network owned by Hubbard Broadcasting. The network's programming was formerly devoted to entertainment-oriented programming focusing on the Hollywood ...
.
Books about the case
* '' The Devil's Cinema'' (2012) by Steve Lillebuen
Steve Lillebuen is a Canadian author and journalist. He divides his time between Australia and Canada.
Background
Born in Edmonton, Alberta, Lillebuen graduated from the University of Alberta with a Bachelor of Arts degree And later Monash ...
, a true crime
True crime is a nonfiction literary, podcast, and film genre in which the author examines an actual crime and details the actions of real people associated with and affected by criminal events.
The crimes most commonly include murder; about 40 per ...
account of the case and trial, written with the cooperation of Twitchell.
* ''The One Who Got Away'' (2015) by Gilles Tetreault, a personal account by the original intended target of Twitchell. 1st Edition. Triplicity Publishing. ; 2nd Edition. CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform.
See also
* Internet homicide
Internet homicide refers to killing in which victim and perpetrator met online, in some cases having known each other previously only through the Internet.http://www.napavalley.edu/Projects/189/Chapter_022_4th_ed__handout.pdf Napa Valley College ...
* Murder of Jun Lin
In May 2012, Jun Lin (December 30, 1978 – May 24/25, 2012), a university student, was fatally stabbed and dismembered in Montreal, Canada, by Luka Rocco Magnotta, who then mailed Lin's hands and feet to elementary schools and federal political ...
References
External links
*
48 Hours: "Screenplay for Murder" (2012)
SKConfessions Manuscript
Mark Twitchell's Profile of a Psychopath
Email exchange between Altinger and Twitchell posing as a dating woman
{{DEFAULTSORT:Twitchell, Mark
1979 births
Living people
Film directors from Edmonton
Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Canada
Canadian prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
Canadian people convicted of murder
People convicted of murder by Canada
Crime in Edmonton
21st-century Canadian criminals
Canadian male criminals
Dexter (series)