Robert Hansen

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Robert Christian Hansen (b. February 15, 1939, in Estherville, Iowa) is an American serial killer who flew his victims into the Alaskan wilderness and killed them.

[edit] Early life

As a child, Hansen was small and sickly with perpetual acne and a severe stutter; he spent much of his early life as a loner and a target for bullying from his peers and his domineering father. He married in 1960. On December 7 of that year, he was arrested for burning down a local school bus garage, a crime for which he served 20 months in prison. His wife divorced him while he was incarcerated. Over the next few years, he was jailed several more times for petty theft, and drifted through a series of menial jobs. In 1967, he moved to Anchorage, Alaska, seeking a fresh start with his second wife, whom he had married in 1963.

While he was well-liked by his neighbors and was famed as a local hunting champion, his life eventually fell into disarray again; in 1977, he was imprisoned for theft, diagnosed with bipolar-affective disorder, and prescribed lithium to control his mood swings. He was never officially ordered to take the medication, however, and was released from prison after serving a year. By now the father of two children, Hansen opened a bakery after his release.

[edit] Murders

He began killing prostitutes around 1980; he would pay them for sex and kidnap and rape them once they were in his power. He would then fly them out to his cabin in the Knik River Valley in his private plane, and stalk and kill them with a hunting knife and a .223-caliber Ruger Mini-14 rifle.

On June 13, 1983, one of his victims escaped, and told the Anchorage police what he had done to her.^{[citation needed]} Hansen denied the accusations — notably saying that "you can't rape a prostitute"^[1]— and was not initially considered a serious suspect. Alaskan State Troopers police, Detective Glenn Flothe contacted the FBI and requested help after another body was found, and famed profiler John Douglas was brought in to assist the investigation

[edit] Caught

Douglas theorized that the killer would be an experienced hunter with low self-esteem and a history of being rejected by women, and would feel compelled to keep "souvenirs" of his murders, such as a victim's jewelry or even body parts. He came to suspect Hansen upon learning of Hansen's hunting skill and socially isolated childhood. Detective Glenn Flothe and the police secured a warrant and searched Hansen's house on October 27, 1983 uncovering jewelry belonging to the victims, newspaper clippings about the murders and an array of firearms — including a .223-caliber Mini-14 rifle. He was arrested and charged with assault, kidnapping, weapons offenses, theft and insurance fraud. When ballistics tests returned a match between bullets found at the crime scenes to Hansen's rifle, he entered into a plea bargain in which he pleaded guilty to the four homicides the police knew about and provided details about his other victims in return for serving his sentence in a federal prison. He then showed investigators 15 gravesites in the Knik River Valley, 12 of which police were unaware of. He was then sentenced to 461 years in prison plus life.

Upon conviction, Hansen was first sent to the maximum security prison in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania. In 1988, still in custody, he was returned to Alaska. He was one of the first to be incarcerated at the Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward, where he remains to this day.

[edit] Media

Robert Hansen case was featured on the crime documentary "Crime Stories", shown on the Discovery Channel and Biography Channels.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] References

• Crime library article on Hansen
• Article from explorenorth.com - includes books for further reading