User:SkyBlueCat/Drafts/Luka Magnotta

Early Life

Luka Magnotta was born Eric Clinton Kirk Newman in Scarborough on July 24, 1982, where he was also raised. He was born to Anna Yourkin and Donald Newman as one of the eldest of three kids; he was named after Clint Eastwood and Kirk Douglas, who are Magnotta's father's favorite actors. Magnotta and the parents' two kids were born in the father's basement, including his brother Conrad and sister Melissa. Magnotta's parents later bought a home in Bethany, Ontario, where they lived and raised their children there.

His mother dropped out of high school at grade 9 and later met Magnotta's father when he was 10th grade. His father is a factory worker who has suffered from schizophrenia since 1994, and his mother is a writer who is obsessed with cleanliness and often wears surgical masks. Magnotta stated that both had health and drinking problems. Magnotta and his little brother were homeschooled by their mother while their father was at work for support, until the grandparents insisted they be enrolled in school. The mother sometimes locks her children out of the car or out of the house and leaves their pet rabbits outside in the winter to freeze to death as she "wanted total control over them". Similarly, Magnotta had fears of his mother having "big red nails" and also described her tying his brother in a chair in his room "when he was bad."

His father was an abusive parent before the separation, but was never abusive to Magnotta. According to Magnotta, he stated that his father was quiet while drinking and loved playing video games with him. However, his mother rumored that her father threatened to kill her and would watch her with binoculars, which Magnotta did not want to believe. His father smoked and slept excessively. His father, at one point, was arrested and fired from his job for drinking at work. The family had then lost their house and moved out to their paternal grandparents' home. Right after, his parents separated when Magnotta was at age 9 or 10. His mother moved on with her children to a new apartment, along with her new boyfriend from Toronto, Leo. 

When asked about his brother Conrad, Magnotta had no relationship with his brother. According to him, his brother was a "bad alcoholic" who was often arrested for drinking and driving, and he stood up for him when students teased him for looking "like a girl", and being homophobic whenever he helped him in any situation. Magnotta's sister Melissa later confirmed that Conrad had disclosed Magnotta's homosexuality "without his permission". From there, Magnotta became aware of having a relationship with his brother.

At age 16, Magnotta went to live with his grandmother, Phyllis, who felt "worried about him hearing things, speaking loudly, and feeling scared" most of the time and was described as a "mother figure" by Magnotta. The reason he is living with his grandmother is to escape from the psychological abuse of his mother's boyfriend. His grandmother took him to a psychiatrist in around 1999 after having concerns about him. Magnotta came to feel that his grandmother was a mother figure to him, as she had raised him correctly. She often dressed him in clothes, going everywhere with him, and slept with him when he was younger.

History of Education

Magnotta was enrolled in grade 6 at age 10 or 11, and had the ability to read and write at one point. He had a humiliating past at school, including being bullied by his students as they tried to ruin his hair, calling him a baby, and laughing at his clothes (as Magnotta's parents didn't have enough money to buy him clothes at Value Village). Magnotta would try to play nice by giving them a piece of chewing gum to make them stop. But instead, the students would still bully him. The class monitors would even be dismissive of him whenever he got into this situation. Apparently, Magnotta once threw a chair at a Grade 6 teacher. Although he was often bullied in school in the past, he somehow got into a communications with three other disabled wheelchair students. Initially, Magnotta had been placed in the special education classes when he first attended school due to his inability to do math and reading. His mother also wanted to attend, but dismissed because she was "thought to be intrustive."

After graduating from elementary school, Magnotta went to I. E. Weldon Secondary School, a high school located in Lindsay, Ontario. Magnotta began to lose touch with his brother, and he was never teased by him or the other kids again. However, Magnotta was completely unaware and tried to hide from the library at lunch, believing that everyone still hated him. Magnotta somehow failed Grade 8. 

He wrote a book report for school about Ava Gardner and Sharon Stone, the actors of his favorite film, Basic Instinct.