Robert Hansen (serial killer)
Robert Hansen, often referred to as the "Butcher Baker," was a notorious serial killer who operated in Alaska during the 1970s and early 1980s. Born on February 15, 1939, in Estherville, Iowa, Hansen had a troubled childhood marked by bullying and strained family relationships. After moving to Alaska in 1967 and establishing himself as a seemingly upstanding family man and local baker, he began a horrific killing spree that lasted over a decade. Hansen primarily targeted vulnerable women, including prostitutes and exotic dancers, luring them into his vehicle with offers of money before subjecting them to rape and murder. He uniquely employed a method of hunting his victims by flying them into remote wilderness areas, giving them a head start before pursuing and killing them.
Hansen's criminal activities went largely unnoticed for years due to his double life, but in 1983, he was finally apprehended after one of his victims managed to escape and report the crime. His subsequent confession revealed he had killed seventeen women and raped many others, although he was convicted of four murders. Hansen received a life sentence in prison, where he remained until his death on August 21, 2014. His case is particularly chilling due to the gruesome nature of his crimes and the systemic failures that allowed him to evade justice for so long.
Robert Hansen (serial killer)
Serial killer
- Born: February 15, 1939
- Birthplace: Estherville, Iowa
- Died: August 21, 2014
- Place of death: Anchorage, Alaska
Also known as: "Butcher Baker"
Significance: Robert Hansen was a serial killer who transported his female victims to remote areas of the Alaskan wilderness by airplane, released them, and then hunted them down and killed them with a rifle. Hansen confessed to killing seventeen women and was convicted of four of the murders in 1984.
Background
Robert Hansen was born on February 15, 1939, in Estherville, Iowa. Hansen had a troubled childhood. He was rather small and suffered from horrible acne. He had buck teeth and glasses and spoke with a stutter, which became more pronounced when he was stressed. As a result, Hansen often became the target of bullies. Hansen had few friends and a poor relationship with his father, so he spent many hours alone in the woods. When Hansen was not in the woods, he worked in his father's bakery. His father treated him sternly, and sometimes Hansen had to work long hours.
Hansen's first foray into crime was petty theft, but he later escalated to committing arson. On December 7, 1960, he convinced a teenager who worked at his father's bakery to help him set fire to a school-bus garage. Hansen's reasoning was that he wanted revenge on people whom he believed had wronged him. The teen turned himself in afterward and implicated Hansen in the crime. Hansen received a three-year prison sentence but served less than two years before he was released.
After his release, Hansen continued to commit petty theft. He was arrested a few times, but no one ever pressed charges against him. In 1967 he moved to Alaska and opened his own bakery. At that point, from all outward appearances, he seemed to be the perfect family man to his wife and children.
Hansen also became a skilled game hunter. A few of the animals he killed were even recorded in the record books of the Pope & Young Club, a bow-hunting organization.
Killing Spree
From 1971 to 1983, the focus of Hansen's hunts changed. Whenever his wife and children were out of town, Hansen cruised the seediest sections of Anchorage looking for his next target. He often chose prostitutes, exotic dancers, or topless bartenders. He worked very methodically. First, he offered his victims money to lure them into his truck. Once they were inside, he pulled out a gun. He then tied them up and drove away.
He drove these women to a remote cabin, where he raped them and then released them with a warning not to report him to law enforcement officials. Other victims he raped and then murdered. Some of the women he took to Merrill Field, a public-use airport near Anchorage, where he kept a small airplane. He loaded the women into his airplane and flew them into the Alaskan wilderness. He often landed in an area near the Knik River. He then untied the women and released them, giving them a head start to try to get away. After a while, he followed after the women, hunted them down, and shot them with a rifle. Afterward he buried the women in shallow graves.
During this period, construction was occurring on an 800-mile (1,287-kilometer) oil pipeline. The work brought many new people to Anchorage who stayed for a short time and then left again. For police, it was sometimes difficult to determine when people had simply come and gone and when they were legitimately missing. This made it easier for Hansen's crimes to go unnoticed.
Over the years, a few women accused Hansen of rape, and the police brought him in for questioning. Each time, however, Hansen managed to avoid being arrested and charged. His image as an upstanding family man and local business owner allowed him to escape prosecution for his crimes for twelve years.
In 1983, when Hansen was forty-five years old, a seventeen-year-old girl named Cindy Paulson reported to police that Hansen had raped her in the basement of his home and that she had managed to get away from him. At first, police were not sure whether to believe the girl. Hansen had friends who vouched for his whereabouts. However, using only Hansen's psychological profile, police were able to get a warrant to search his home. There, they found evidence of Hansen's crimes, including his guns, trinkets from his victims that he saved as trophies, and a map identifying locations where he had buried bodies.
Following his arrest, Hansen earned the nickname the "Butcher Baker." He confessed to killing seventeen women and raping thirty others. Police were able to find the bodies for twelve of the seventeen homicide victims. In a plea deal, Hansen was convicted of killing four women and sentenced to life in prison plus 461 years.
Impact
Hansen's killing spree was the only known case of a killer transporting victims into the wilderness on a plane, releasing them, and then hunting them down. It is also important to note that Hansen had been convicted of larceny, or theft, during the period in which he had committed the murders. He had been sentenced to five years in prison but was released early. Three of the four murders for which he pled guilty were committed during the time in which he should have been serving his jail sentence. During Hansen's sentencing, the judge noted that police and the courts had allowed him to go free several times.
Personal Life
Hansen was married briefly before he burned down the school-bus garage in 1960. His wife divorced him shortly after that. He remarried soon after he was released from prison. He and his second wife had children. At the time of his arrest in 1983, Hansen and his second wife had been married for twenty years. Neither she nor their children had any idea that Hansen was a serial killer. His wife and kids later moved away from Anchorage to avoid harassment. Hansen died in prison in Anchorage, Alaska, on August 21, 2014, at the age of seventy-five.
Bibliography
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Shedlock, Jerzy. "'Butcher Baker' Robert Hansen Moved to Anchorage for Medical Treatment." Alaska Dispatch News, 22 May 2014, www.adn.com/crime-justice/article/robert-hansen-moved-anchorage-medical-treatment/2014/05/22/. Accessed 1 Sept. 2017.
"Slayer in Alaska Was Jailed in Other Cases, Judge Notes." New York Times, 28 Feb. 1984, www.nytimes.com/1984/02/29/us/slayer-in-alaska-was-jailed-in-other-cases-judge-notes.html. Accessed 1 Sept. 2017.
Townsend, Catherine. "Serial Killer and 'Butcher Baker' Robert Hansen Hunted Women Down in the Woods." CrimeFeed, 15 Feb. 2017, crimefeed.com/2017/02/crime-history-robert-hansen-who-hunted-women-in-alaska/. Accessed 1 Sept. 2017.