Sadistic Killers: Profiles of Pathological Predators (17 page)

That year Robert’s wife gave him a second child, a son, and he took on a second job in order to fund his growing family.

But he felt bored and began to steal frequently for thrills – he would later tell a psychologist that he got an erection whenever he stole. (British serial killer Archibald Thompson Hall, who killed with accomplice Michael Kitto, had the same sexual response to stealing expensive jewellery.) When Hansen was caught stealing a chainsaw, he was indicted for larceny.

Deciding to pursue a psychological defence, Hansen returned to a psychologist he’d seen earlier, Dr Allen Parker, but he didn’t like Dr Parker’s perceptive evaluation of him. The doctor wrote that Hansen was ‘markedly disturbed, somewhat antisocial, paranoid by nature and with a relatively weak ego.

There are indications of severe heterosexual conflict, both with a desire for women and a fear that he will not be able to relate 141

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to them. He is capable of acting out impulses. He has a great deal of free-floating anxiety.’

Meanwhile another doctor diagnosed him as bipolar, suggesting that the kleptomania formed part of his illness. He was prescribed the tranquilliser Thorazine, but this affected his ability to work so it was changed to lithium. This doctor thought that Hansen might stabilise if he remained on the drug, but added that he’d be capable of committing crimes when in the manic phase of his illness. And his probation officer noted that he’d often seen his client hanging around dance clubs and that he’d urged him to return to counselling, but Robert Hansen had replied that he didn’t need help.

Hansen now made a statement to the court, saying that the lithium had rid him of his stutter and that as a result his self-esteem had rocketed. He added that his family needed his financial support, and cast himself as a victim rather than a criminal.

In turn, the judge sentenced him to five years and ordered that he have psychiatric treatment. Unfortunately this length of sentence had to be served at the Juneau Correctional Institute which had no psychiatric facilities. So the judge added that after two years Hansen could be transferred to the Eagle River Correctional Facility which did have a rehabilitation suite.

Hansen’s family must have had mixed feelings about his arrest. On the plus side, he never hit his children but he was sometimes emotionally abusive towards them and towards his wife.

An abducted victim escapes

In 1978, Hansen was released early from prison and returned to his wife and children. He immediately resumed his shooting hobby, killing foxes, coyotes and wolves, with other hunters noticing how deeply he loved the thrill of the chase. He bought himself a Ruger, a semi-automatic which could fire off several 142

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Robert Hansen

shots in quick succession and which he’d eventually use to shoot his human prey.

Hansen chartered a small plane (though he would never hold a pilot’s licence) and began to shoot at animals whilst airborne.

For a year, this form of killing seemed enough to sustain him, then he went on the hunt for a girl to sadistically rape.

In October 1979, he went to a dancing club and asked one of the dancers to meet him outside for oral sex. When she got into his camper, he grabbed her hair and pulled it tightly, momentarily disconcerted when her wig came off in his hands.

Then he stripped her naked and cruelly bound her wrists with wire before throwing her into the back of the van. Realising that further torture was sure to follow, she managed to free herself moments after he began to drive into the wilderness.

Promptly locking the camper’s back door, she began to scream hysterically.

Afraid that someone would hear, Hansen parked the van and broke the window to get to her. She then jumped through the broken glass and raced, naked, down the street with Hansen in hot pursuit. Fortunately he couldn’t keep up and she escaped.

The traumatised woman went to the police and gave them full details of her ordeal but she was unable to identify her assailant from photographs. (Years later, when he decided to tell the FBI everything, Hansen would admit to this crime.) Eklutna Annie’s murder

Later that autumn the increasingly sadistic Hansen picked up a young girl in downtown Anchorage, who agreed to have sex with him for money. He was on his way to Eklutna Road to hunt bear. At some stage Hansen offered to drive the girl home, then took off in a different direction. When the woman protested, he pulled his gun on her. He drove towards Eklutna Lake but became stuck in the mud and she had to help him winch his vehicle. After the truck was freed, she started to 143

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head off at speed into the woods. Hansen raced after her and grabbed her by the hair and she began to plead for her life, then produced a large knife to defend herself with. Hansen grabbed the knife and forced her to the ground. When she was lying on her stomach he stabbed her in the back then buried her in a shallow grave. She was never identified so the authorities named her Eklutna Annie after the area in which she’d been killed.

Shortly after this, Hansen was drinking beer in a club when the girl whom he’d previously abducted in his camper van recognised him and called the police. But the police decided that he was a respectable family man who’d had a momentary weakness with a prostitute so he wasn’t charged.

Joanne’s murder

Hansen liked to see a girl struggle in her bonds – but he was enraged when she fought back, and for any girl who did her death was almost assured. This allegedly happened in May 1980 when he took unemployed Joanne Messina out for a meal. He’d later state that the attractive brunette offered sex for money and that this triggered his rage – but sadists are experts at blaming other people for their cruel acts.

Hansen drove her along Seward Highway towards Snow River, but she realised that he was taking her into the wilderness so jumped out of the camper van. He told detectives that he pursued and battered her, whereupon she fought back and he shot her twice in the head with his .22 Magnum revolver then shot dead her German Shepherd dog. In reality, it’s more likely that he shot the dog first to make sure that it couldn’t defend its owner. He would also have enjoyed seeing Joanne’s terror at the demise of her pet. We’ll never know exactly what Robert Hansen did to the unfortunate young woman, but he eventually buried her in a shallow grave and threw the dog’s 144

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body into the woods and when Joanne’s corpse was found two months later it had been half eaten by bears.

Hansen often gave the impression that his victims had escaped – and had to be shot dead – before he had a chance to torture them, but bandages found in some of the graves suggested otherwise. They had either been used to tether the victim’s wrists and ankles, or else had stemmed the blood after the girl had been tortured, perhaps by being nicked numerous times with a knife. It’s likely that some of the girls were also violated with implements, as sadists enjoy causing such vaginal and anal trauma – and we know that Hansen’s last victim, who eventually escaped, had a hammer thrust into her.

Roxanne’s murder

The following month, the baker was ready to kill again. This time he made a date with 24-year-old Roxanne Easland, who sometimes used the name Karen Baunsgarden. Hansen took the small dancer to his favourite bear-hunting location deep in the Alaskan woods. The authorities would later surmise that he bound and tortured the girl (and many of his other victims) in his cabin for several days, until his rage-fuelled lust was sated or he had to return to his family and his job. Hansen lost his stutter once he had control of a girl and he enjoyed telling her that he was going to kill her, making her beg for her life.

Lisa’s murder

He struck again in September of that year, this time targeting a petite long-haired brunette called Lisa Furrell. She was a dancer who looked much younger than her 42 years. Lisa was very maternal towards younger dancers who arrived in Alaska and was respected and well liked. Hansen bought Lisa a drink then stayed to watch her dance. After her shift ended, he met her outside.

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Like most of the other victims, she was abducted at knifepoint, handcuffed and gagged then flown by Hansen into the Alaskan wilderness. Once she was safely trussed up in his cabin, he would have carried out his favourite atrocities – the police would later find that his possessions included laces to bind victims as well as gags made from bandages, metal cuffs and chains. He eventually shot the woman dead and buried her close to Knik Bridge, one of his preferred burial sites.

Missing

The following year, in February 1981, three more dancers were reported missing, all of whom worked at bars which Hansen frequented. By now he was sometimes wearing false beards and moustaches to avoid being recognised by dancers whom he’d tied up and raped. But no one paid much attention to the small, slim acne-scarred man with the hang dog expression.

They only noticed him when he introduced himself as a doctor or photographer and offered them several hundred dollars for a date or photo session…

Malai’s murder

In June 1981, he probably offered money to 28-year-old dancer Malai Larsen who didn’t enjoy working in the Alaskan bars and was homesick for her native Thailand. She’d found, as other dancers had, that the dance bars kept a large percentage of her earnings so it was hard to save enough for her passage home. Hansen arranged to meet her, flew her to his cabin and repeatedly carried out his depraved fantasies before burying her alongside the Knik River.

Sherry’s murder

Five months later, on 17 November 1981, the hunter claimed another victim. This time Hansen told his prey, 23-year-old 146

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Sherry Morrow, that he was a photographer. The shy blonde dancer agreed to meet him at a café and go on to a studio where she’d pose for him for 300 dollars. Hansen met her in the car park, invited her into his vehicle then held her at gunpoint. He blindfolded her with a bandage, stripped her, handcuffed her hands behind her back then drove to an isolated stretch of the riverbank. We’ll never know exactly what happened next, but, according to Hansen, she went mad, kicking him so hard on the legs that she left bruises. He said that he then shot her twice with his Ruger then buried her naked body in a sandy grave.

But would a naked, gagged and blindfolded victim have been able to kick effectively at her assailant? And, even if she did, why would he immediately shoot her dead given that his fantasies involved torture and rape?

Stories like this suit the sadist, who is usually desperate to hide the worst of his excesses from the authorities. According to predators like Hansen, the victim invariably dies quickly before any form of torture can be carried out. In reality, he would have worked hard to keep her quiet and tied up whilst he escorted her to his safe place.

In September 1982, Sherry’s remains were found by two off-duty policemen who were out hunting moose. A bandage appeared to have been wrapped all around her head so it’s possible that Hansen was using it as a blindfold as well as a gag.

The police later discovered her necklace amongst the souvenirs he’d taken from his murder victims, a trophy he’d have masturbated over again and again.

Andrea’s murder

A fortnight later he was ready to carry out another torture-murder. This time he promised to take dancer Andrea Altiery on a shopping spree. The 23-year-old got into Hansen’s car, only to be handcuffed, blindfolded and warned to do exactly 147

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what she was told. He drove her to an isolated area alongside Knik River (probably tying her up in the meat shack which he often used as a safe house) and forced her to fellate him whilst he held a Browning automatic pistol to her head. Again, we will never know what torments followed but, according to Hansen’s sanitised account, she grabbed the gun and tried to shoot him so he immediately killed her in self-defence. In truth, she may have been one of the victims who were stripped naked, tortured and then told to run, sadistically hunted and eventually shot dead. Some criminologists believe that Hansen hunted several of the girls in this way, some on the ground and some from his plane – he had even been seen practising by shooting at ice floats from his aerial vantage point. But other crime writers think he only killed one in this way, shooting the others at much closer range.

Self-employment

Throughout his murder spree Hansen had been working for a supermarket bakery but now he opened his own store, financing it from a fraudulent insurance claim. The business was hugely successful from the start, allowing Hansen to stop renting other people’s aeroplanes and buy his own, a Super Cub. He lovingly customised it, just as other serial killers have customised their torture vans. Hansen put tundra tires on his plane so that he could land in remote swampy locations and took out the rear seat so that he could tie up his handcuffed victims in the back.

Sue’s murder

For the first few months of 1982, Hansen was possibly busy with his new business and aeroplane but he was definitely back at the dancing bars by May 1982. There he saw 23-year-old Sue Luna, a dancer, and introduced himself as a photographer who 148

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wanted to take pictures of her. Like most dancers, Sue needed the money so arranged to meet him at a café for breakfast the following day. The café owner saw Sue eat part of her breakfast then go out to meet a man wearing glasses. He gave her the money for her meal and she handed it in to the staff then walked out to his car.