Man Pleads Guilty After Murdering, Eating Testicles and Hanging Body of Man He Met Online
This is the kind of crime that makes me wish that Michigan hadn’t famously become the first territory in the English-speaking world to abolish the death penalty 175 years ago.
(These crimes were evil, and it will require evil language to describe them; some readers may prefer to find something else to click on, and I wouldn’t blame them.)
A presumably lonely, presumably homosexual man named Kevin Bacon lost his life almost two years ago at the young age of 25.
No, that’s not quite right. He didn’t lose it.
Mark David Latunski took it. And he did so in a particularly brutal, gruesome fashion.
Bacon met up with Latunski after making a connection on Grindr, the self-described “largest social networking app for gay, bi, trans and queer people.” They apparently met in person on Christmas Eve, 2019, according to The Associated Press.
The then-50-year-old Latunski lured Bacon to his home in Bennington Township, about 20 miles northeast of Lansing.
WARNING: The following narrative and video contain graphic details that most people will find offensive.
There, he stabbed him in the back, hung him upside-down with his throat cut and removed parts of Bacon’s body, including his testicles, which he ate, according to local Michigan news site WNEM-TV.
According to court records cited by the AP, Latunski believes himself to be Edgar Thomas Hill, “a noble person from the Thomas Clan of Wales.” He gave Hill as his name during his arraignment.
Latunski, acting against the advice of his counsel, pleaded guilty Thursday to open murder and mutilation of a body. In Michigan, prosecutors can pursue a charge of open murder and let a jury decide whether the defendant, if found guilty, committed first- or second-degree murder or manslaughter.
Mary Chartier, Latunski’s lawyer, reportedly wanted her client to plead insanity, a recommendation he obviously declined. A hearing on Oct. 18 will determine which specific crime Latunski is convicted of.
It obviously means almost nothing, but there’s little about Latunski’s demeanor as he pleaded guilty that evidenced mental illness — other than his answers to his attorney’s questions, of course:
It’s hard to find anything redemptive in a story like this. I know that evil exists; I know that God doesn’t create it but does allow it; I know that He uses all things for His own purposes; I know His ways are higher than mine; I know that, no matter what effort I put into exposing or combating evil, some days it’s all I can do to keep from committing it myself.
I can’t say too much more than that with certainty. But I will add this: Kevin Bacon should not have died at 25.
Certainly, he engaged in risky behavior, but he wasn’t asking to be murdered any more than a pretty girl who goes out in public is asking to be raped. He did something foolish, but the consequences were far more than he should have been made to suffer.
Loneliness has pushed many of us — maybe all of us — to act foolishly. We start a relationship we know isn’t good for us — or maybe one we know isn’t good for the other person. Maybe we end up being used by someone as a result, like Kevin Bacon did.
Or maybe we end up using someone else. Like Mark David Latunski did.
Yeah, I know — pretty extreme examples. Few of us will be murdered; fewer still, one hopes, will become murderers. (Literally, anyway.) But it’s good to remember that it’s only the grace of God that keeps either of those from becoming more likely options.
Don’t get me wrong: Though Lutunski won’t get the death penalty because he did what he did in Michigan, my personal opinion is that his crimes warrant it, no matter where they were committed.
I’m just saying I wouldn’t want to be the guy who had to flip the switch.
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