Twitchell murder disturbs Dexter star

EDMONTON – The actor who portrays a fictional serial killer on the popular TV show Dexter says it’s horrifying to think a convicted murderer may have taken some inspiration from his character.

Michael C. Hall was a recent guest on the CBC arts program Q when host Jian Ghomeshi brought up the case of Mark Twitchell, who was convicted in 2011 of luring, murdering and dismembering an Edmonton man.

Twitchell’s trial heard how he had a fascination with Hall’s character, Dexter Morgan, who works as a police blood spatter analyst, but murders in the name of vigilante justice by night.

“All I can say to that is, it’s horrifying to entertain the notion that something you did inspired that,” Hall said. “I immediately found myself saying, ‘Well, you know, he would have found something else to inspire him,’ but I don’t know. To be perfectly honest, it’s a troubling thing to consider.”

Court heard how Twitchell, an amateur film director, followed his own movie script in killing and dismembering Johnny Altinger. Altinger thought he was going to meet a woman from the Internet when he showed up at a garage rented by the killer. Instead, he was ambushed by Twitchell, clobbered and stabbed in a kill room similar to the ones Dexter uses on the show.

Hall said he wouldn’t stop making Dexter as a result.

“I don’t think it is a primer on serial killing or it advocates the lifestyle,” he 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.”