A Disturbing History of Serial Killers You Didn't Know About

Robert Hansen's Background:

Robert Hansen was born on February 15th, 1939 in Estherville, Iowa. Also known as the "Baker Butcher," Hansen abducted, raped, and murdered at least 17 women in Anchorage, Alaska.

Hansen was born into a family of bakers and became one himself as it allowed him to be isolated and away from the people who were picking on him. Robert was shunned by his fellow classmates for being very skinny and having a severe stutter. The main clique that shunned him were the attractive girls, who often made fun of his severe acne problems once they reached high school. The severe bullying that Hansen received led him to often have revenge fantasies that involved murdering the girls that made fun of him.

Besides working by himself in his family's bakery, Hansen also became very adept in hunting and archery skills, which he claimed were his mental escapes from the harsh life that he was accustomed to.

After high school, Hansen chose to enlist into the Army Reserves an infantryman, but was discharged after only one year due to his conduct while in a drilling status. After the Army, Robert worked as an assistant drill instructor for a police department in Iowa, and this is where he would meet his first wife.

On December 7th, 1960, Hansen was arrested after breaking into a school and setting the garage on fire. His wife would file for divorce while he was incarcerated. Hansen was sentenced to three years in the Iowa State Corrections facility, but only served twenty months and was let out early due to his outstanding conduct as an inmate. While in prison, Robert was diagnosed with manic depression (bipolar-ism). The facility psychiatrist noted that he had an infantile personality and was severely obsessed with getting back at the people who had wronged him early on in his life.

Hansen remarried in 1963 and relocated to Alaska with his new wife in 1967 to get a fresh start, and to start his spree of murders. When police interviewed his neighbors, they discovered that he was very well liked by them and was regarded as an expert hunter, and even set many local hunting records.

In 1972, Robert was arrested for assault, but was released in 1973 for again being noted as one of the most upstanding inmates within the facility. Hansen was released after only serving six months in prison. This arrest however was the beginning of the end for Hansen, as he had to adapt his ways and work around his arrest schedule.

Hansen plead guilty to larceny in 1976 and was sentenced to five years in prison. This time while he was in prison, he received treatment for his bipolar-ism and his sentence was reduced to three years.

This is where the story gets interesting.

Investigation:

On June 13th, 1983, Hansen was driving home and spotted a woman hitch-hiking and he picked her up. The woman he picked up was seventeen year old Cindy Paulson.

When she got into his truck he offered her $200 to perform sexual acts on him. After she refused and tried to leave the vehicle, he preceded to pull out a gun and hold her at gun point. Hansen then drove her to his home and chained her to a support beam in the basement by her neck, where he raped and tortured her for hours. When he was done, he laid down on a mattress near by and took a nap.

After Robert woke up, he forced her into his car again and drove her to a nearby airfield where he had a plane that he used to go to his cabin in Northern Alaska. When they arrived at the airfield, Hansen exited the vehicle to make sure that the coast was clear and left the doors unlocked. Cindy saw her chance and took it. She opened the door with her bare feet and when Hansen tried to grab her, she bit him as hard as she could.

Cindy ran down the road, and many people reported her running along the road in handcuffs screaming. Paulson hide in the near by woods while waiting for the police to come and find her, but they did not find her until the next day, and she was still in handcuffs when she was found.

At first the officer did not believe her and thought that she was on drugs and having a bad sexual experience, but she was able to point out a plane and said that she left her shoes in Hansen's car to prove that she had been in the car. The police did some research on who owned the plane and discovered that it was none other than Robert Hansen.

Hansen was brought in for questioning by the Anchorage police, but this was to no avail as he had an alibi from a close friend, and he was therefore not considered a serious suspect, and the case went cold.

Glenn Flothe:

Detective Glenn Flothe was working a case investigating the murders of three other women across the state of Alaska and determined that they were all killed by the same person. Detective Flothe reached out the the F.B.I. to get assistance from a behavioral specialist. Special Agent John Douglas said that the person Detective Flothe was looking for would most likely be an experienced hunter with low self esteem that also had a long running history of rejection especially from women. Special Agent Douglas also said that the killer would have kept trophies from his victims.

Based on the profile given by Special Agent Douglas, Detective Flothe brought in Hansen for an interview based on the profile. When the interview came up inconclusive, Flothe was able to get a search warrant approved due to Cindy Paulson's testimony and how accurate it was. The search warrant gave Detective Flothe permission to search Hansen's house, car, and airplane.

Arrest and Conviction:

On October 23rd, 1983, the Alaska State Troopers searched Hansen's house and found everything they needed for a conviction. Among the things found were: jewelry from all of the missing and murdered women, numerous firearms hidden in his attic, and an aviation map marked with "x" on the spots where he had dumped the bodies of all the women that he had killed.

When confronted with the evidence, Robert tried to deny the allegations for as long as he could, but eventually he caved in.

After a few hours, Hansen began blaming the women and had even tried to justify his actions by claiming that they deserved to die. He would later on confess to his crimes and said that he had been doing this since 1971. The age of his victims ranged between 16 and 19, and they were usually run-aways or sex workers. He was arrested and charged with four murders due to the fact that the police had not found the bodies of the other victims yet.

Once officially arrested, Hansen was able to strike a plea bargain. The deal was that Robert would confess and accept the charges for the four murders that the police had evidence of. In return he would provide the exact locations of the other bodies and explain how he killed them. Hansen also requested that he do his time in a Federal Prison. On December 11th, 1983, Robert Hansen was sentenced to 461 years in prison without the chance of parole.

From the start, Hansen had planned to get back to the "pretty girls" at some point in his life, but in the end, justice won as he will rot in a prison cell for the next 424 years.