Latest / The conspiracy / The Serial Killer Who Hunted Women For Sport _ Robert Hansen

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The Serial Killer Who Hunted Women For Sport _ Robert Hansen · The conspiracy

• 0:00
  Speaker 1: How does a serial killer hide in plain sight for
• 0:02
  Speaker 1: over a decade. Robert Hanson did it by being the
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: last person anyone would ever suspect. He was a baker,
• 0:10
  Speaker 1: he was a family man. He stammered when he talked,
• 0:13
  Speaker 1: He went to church on Sundays, and police officers came
• 0:17
  Speaker 1: into his shop every morning for coffee and donuts and
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: knew him by name, all while he was hunting people
• 0:24
  Speaker 1: for sport. This is the case of Robert Hanson. Crime, conspiracy, cults,
• 0:29
  Speaker 1: serial killers and murder all things that I love to
• 0:32
  Speaker 1: consume and I know you do, Doo, you sick, twisted,
• 0:34
  Speaker 1: middle of intellectually minded for brick, and today we are
• 0:37
  Speaker 1: talking about I feel like a lesser known serial killer case.
• 0:42
  Speaker 1: A lot of TV shows, episodes, even movies have been
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: made roughly about this particular man, but a lot of
• 0:50
  Speaker 1: people don't know that this monster is actually real. All
• 0:54
  Speaker 1: of these movies are based off of someone who is
• 0:57
  Speaker 1: actually real and who actually hurt real people. So, without
• 1:01
  Speaker 1: further ado, let's unbuckle our seatbelts, go mock faved on
• 1:03
  Speaker 1: the highway, syam of the Branks, and muster the windshield
• 1:05
  Speaker 1: into this serial killer case together, so as you can
• 1:24
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• 2:54
  Speaker 1: to it. Robert Christian Hansen was born on February fifteenth,
• 2:58
  Speaker 1: nineteen thirty nine, in in Esterville, Iowa, a small town
• 3:02
  Speaker 1: in the northwest corner of the state with a population
• 3:05
  Speaker 1: of around six thousand to seven thousand people. Little town,
• 3:08
  Speaker 1: so naturally everyone just knew everyone. And in a place
• 3:12
  Speaker 1: that small, reputation meant everything. Secrets were rarely kept, and
• 3:17
  Speaker 1: if you did have them, you kept them buried down deep. Now,
• 3:21
  Speaker 1: Robert's father was Christian Hansen, a Danish immigrant who came
• 3:25
  Speaker 1: to America searching for a new life, a life grounded
• 3:29
  Speaker 1: in flower and yeast. Because Christian owned and operated a
• 3:33
  Speaker 1: bakery in town, a business he was proud of and
• 3:36
  Speaker 1: intended to continue in the Hanson family for decades, and
• 3:39
  Speaker 1: by all accounts, Christian was not a kind man, unfortunately,
• 3:44
  Speaker 1: and people described Christian as overbearing, demanding, and sometimes just
• 3:48
  Speaker 1: impossible to please. Sounds like my mother in law, am
• 3:52
  Speaker 1: I she's great, She's great, But Christian ran a household
• 3:56
  Speaker 1: of discipline with no tolerance for weakness, a personality Christian
• 4:01
  Speaker 1: kept at home and at work at the bakery. And
• 4:04
  Speaker 1: Robert's mother, Edna Margaret Hanson, was an American born woman
• 4:08
  Speaker 1: who was second in command of the household. So the
• 4:10
  Speaker 1: overall family dynamic was traditional, as most were during that
• 4:15
  Speaker 1: time period, but almost to the point of oppression. Like
• 4:19
  Speaker 1: Christian's word at this point was law. Because this was
• 4:22
  Speaker 1: a very religious household, and those specific denomination details aren't
• 4:27
  Speaker 1: entirely clear. What is clear is that the harsh treatment,
• 4:30
  Speaker 1: the overall traditional upbringing, and that religious environment created a
• 4:34
  Speaker 1: very rigid and rough world for young Robert to grow in.
• 4:38
  Speaker 1: So Robert would learn early on not to show weakness
• 4:41
  Speaker 1: or emotions, knowing his father would not approve. So between
• 4:45
  Speaker 1: the small town, the demanding father, and the heavy labor
• 4:48
  Speaker 1: of a family business, Robert Hanson did not have a
• 4:51
  Speaker 1: good model of what love looked like. And overall, the
• 4:55
  Speaker 1: children were just expected to listen, learn, obey, work, and
• 5:00
  Speaker 1: shut up when they were told. Their lives were in
• 5:03
  Speaker 1: the bakery. And the bakery wasn't just how the Hansons
• 5:06
  Speaker 1: made money, it also defined their entire social identity. In Asterville.
• 5:11
  Speaker 1: The Hansons were the bakers and it was their birthright.
• 5:14
  Speaker 1: So from the earliest years, Robert was different. Let's say
• 5:19
  Speaker 1: he was different, and this man he's a bad, bad person,
• 5:25
  Speaker 1: monster of a man. But the kid had it rough.
• 5:28
  Speaker 1: I'm not gonna lie because it was different, and not
• 5:30
  Speaker 1: in a way that earned him any sympathy from his classmates.
• 5:34
  Speaker 1: He was different in the way in which he had
• 5:37
  Speaker 1: a stutter, a speech impediment that made every conversation humiliating
• 5:42
  Speaker 1: because sentences were constantly coming out broken and in a
• 5:45
  Speaker 1: small town where social standing mattered, it simply wasn't really
• 5:50
  Speaker 1: that charming because girls and boys were expected to hold
• 5:52
  Speaker 1: their own in conversation, but Robert couldn't even get a
• 5:55
  Speaker 1: word in, and that stutter would have been manageable on
• 5:59
  Speaker 1: its own, But Robert was dealt a pretty rough hand.
• 6:02
  Speaker 1: As I was saying, and on top of the stutter,
• 6:05
  Speaker 1: he suffered from severe acne that absolutely ravaged his face.
• 6:11
  Speaker 1: And this wasn't just normal teenage hormones. It left him
• 6:14
  Speaker 1: with disfigurements, and the acne left permanent pockmarts and scarring
• 6:19
  Speaker 1: that would last his whole life. And years later, Robert
• 6:22
  Speaker 1: himself described his childhood as quote unquote one big pimple,
• 6:27
  Speaker 1: which honestly is how I would describe him as human being.
• 6:30
  Speaker 1: Knowing who he is now, I feel bad for the
• 6:32
  Speaker 1: little kid, but nah, I don't really care anymore, and
• 6:35
  Speaker 1: you won't in about ten minutes. But even in photographs
• 6:38
  Speaker 1: from later years, it still showed his scarred face that
• 6:41
  Speaker 1: was marked since childhood. And on top of that, he
• 6:45
  Speaker 1: was also not as big as the other boys. He
• 6:47
  Speaker 1: was slight and kind of had a skinny build. And
• 6:50
  Speaker 1: on top of all that, he wore glasses. You know,
• 6:52
  Speaker 1: nothing wrong with glasses, though nothing wrong with all of
• 6:55
  Speaker 1: this stuff. To be perfectly clear, I'm just telling you
• 6:59
  Speaker 1: how he was dealt pretty rough hand as a kid.
• 7:01
  Speaker 1: So by every measure, Robert was the classic outcast of
• 7:05
  Speaker 1: nineteen fifties America. But it wasn't just his appearance that
• 7:10
  Speaker 1: held him back. There was another physical element too. Robert
• 7:14
  Speaker 1: was naturally left handed. A witch just kidding, I think
• 7:18
  Speaker 1: left handed people are some of the coolest people to
• 7:20
  Speaker 1: ever live, except for this guy, but left handed people
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  Speaker 1: at that time was seen actually as almost a disability
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  Speaker 1: that needed immediate correction, so his parents would force him
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  Speaker 1: to write with his right hand, trying to fix the
• 7:33
  Speaker 1: so called problem. And according to later research, forcing a
• 7:36
  Speaker 1: child to switch hands can cause further speech problems and
• 7:40
  Speaker 1: significant psychological stress, and Robert would later claim exactly that,
• 7:44
  Speaker 1: saying his stutter was getting worse because of the added pressure.
• 7:48
  Speaker 1: So he sat at the very bottom of the social
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  Speaker 1: ladder in that small town, and girls didn't just find
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  Speaker 1: him unattractive, but they mocked him, laughing at his stutter
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  Speaker 1: and his acne and scarred face, just making it very
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  Speaker 1: clear the way that normal asshole teenagers do. But all
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  Speaker 1: in all, Robert was labeled as undesirable, and he was
• 8:09
  Speaker 1: seen with outright disgust a lot of the time. And
• 8:13
  Speaker 1: to add insult to injury, he had no one to
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  Speaker 1: lean on after the relentless teasing, because he had a
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  Speaker 1: few connections, but no one really close, and he didn't
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  Speaker 1: really let anyone in either, so he was just profoundly isolated,
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  Speaker 1: and living in a small town made that even more intolerable.
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  Speaker 1: So just to let's just start making this stew, I
• 8:37
  Speaker 1: think we have fifty ingredients in there already, the serial
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  Speaker 1: killer stew, bad bad combo to start, I'm just going
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  Speaker 1: to say that. But Christian Hansen, Robert's father, of course,
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  Speaker 1: didn't offer comfort, and Christian expected Robert to work, waking
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  Speaker 1: up before dawn from an early age to help with
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  Speaker 1: the bakery. So the bakery was just another place where
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  Speaker 1: failure wasn't an option. So Robert just desperately needed and
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  Speaker 1: wanted an escape because the people around him mocked him
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  Speaker 1: and he couldn't rely on them. So he eventually found
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  Speaker 1: solace in just disappearing from society altogether and going hunting
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: and going fishing and practicing archery out in the woods
• 9:15
  Speaker 1: and fields surrounding Esterville, and out there Robert finally found
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  Speaker 1: something he was actually good at. He was patient, Robert
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  Speaker 1: could focus, stock and kill prey with precision, the qualities
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  Speaker 1: a successful hunter needed. And the best part was that
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  Speaker 1: the animals couldn't mock him out there. Out there, he
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  Speaker 1: was the hunter instead of the prey. He was in control,
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  Speaker 1: with no one that could bother him. But out there,
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  Speaker 1: Robert also had a lot of time to think, time
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  Speaker 1: to think about the people who mocked him and the
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  Speaker 1: family that treated him as a tool instead of an
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  Speaker 1: actual son. So resentment was building inside Robert, invisible to
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  Speaker 1: those around him, just kept deep down inside. Poor kid
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  Speaker 1: was just bottling all this up. But with every laugh
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  Speaker 1: and every rejection and every mocking joke, he was nursing
• 10:09
  Speaker 1: fantasies of revenge and planning to make them pay because
• 10:12
  Speaker 1: he didn't want to be at the bottom of the
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  Speaker 1: food chain anymore. But he was still too young and
• 10:17
  Speaker 1: didn't know exactly how he would act on it just yet,
• 10:21
  Speaker 1: but the desire was there and it was growing. So
• 10:24
  Speaker 1: years would go by, and finally Robert was old enough
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  Speaker 1: to enter high school, a place where most find their identity,
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  Speaker 1: make lifelong friends, and shape themselves into who they want
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  Speaker 1: to be. For some, wasn't me, wasn't me, did not
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  Speaker 1: peak in high school. I'll tell you what, okay, and
• 10:41
  Speaker 1: that's okay. But for Robert it was another four years
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  Speaker 1: of hell, and he would attend Pocahontas High School in
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  Speaker 1: Pocahontas County, Iowa, and Robert participated in the usual activities
• 10:52
  Speaker 1: like track and choir, but he was no standout. He
• 10:55
  Speaker 1: never won races and never had a solo performance. He
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  Speaker 1: just kind of made it by always under the radar.
• 11:02
  Speaker 1: But no matter how unremarkable he was, Robert was still
• 11:06
  Speaker 1: targeted and bullied. And while everyone else was having normal
• 11:10
  Speaker 1: teenage experiences first dates, strips to the movies, you know,
• 11:14
  Speaker 1: whatever else teenagers do nowadays, six seven, first dates, strips
• 11:18
  Speaker 1: to the movies, etc. Robert was pushed aside and forced
• 11:22
  Speaker 1: to work at the bakery, and that work was relentless,
• 11:25
  Speaker 1: with early morning shifts through late nights, weekends, and even holidays.
• 11:30
  Speaker 1: And Christian, Robert's father didn't feel that having a social
• 11:33
  Speaker 1: life was worth anything when there was bread to bake
• 11:36
  Speaker 1: in customers to serve, So those few escapes that Robert
• 11:40
  Speaker 1: did find were primarily solitary ones, and he would continue
• 11:44
  Speaker 1: to spend hours and hours outdoors when he could, hunting
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  Speaker 1: and honing skills that would later hold a much darker purpose.
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  Speaker 1: And Robert will become an excellent shot and learn to
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  Speaker 1: move almost completely silently through the wilderness, making it easier
• 11:59
  Speaker 1: to close in on prey because motionlessness and patience were key,
• 12:03
  Speaker 1: and Robert had both, and he continued to obsess over revenge.
• 12:08
  Speaker 1: The people who bullied him in junior high just got
• 12:10
  Speaker 1: older and meaner in high school, and with no one
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  Speaker 1: to confide in but himself and the silent out in
• 12:16
  Speaker 1: those woods, Robert was growing more and more resentful with
• 12:20
  Speaker 1: every passing day. So in nineteen fifty seven, Robert Hanson
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  Speaker 1: graduated from Pocahontas High School and his graduating class was
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  Speaker 1: small and he was among the most forgettable members of it.
• 12:31
  Speaker 1: No awards, no tearful goodbyes. Robert was just now eighteen
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  Speaker 1: years old, scarred inside out, boiling with resentment and anger,
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  Speaker 1: and completely unprepared for adult life. But he was finally
• 12:45
  Speaker 1: free of the restraints of high school and now he
• 12:48
  Speaker 1: needed to get away. So after graduation and set with
• 12:51
  Speaker 1: his new freedom, Robert did what most people his age
• 12:54
  Speaker 1: were doing. He joined the military, and he would enlist
• 12:57
  Speaker 1: in the United States Army Reserve and the service was short,
• 13:00
  Speaker 1: only lasting about a year, but during basic training, Robert
• 13:04
  Speaker 1: proved competent with firearms, adding military marksmanship training on top
• 13:08
  Speaker 1: of his hunting skills. Scary and again, Robert was no standout,
• 13:14
  Speaker 1: but for maybe the first time since those solitary hours
• 13:17
  Speaker 1: in the woods, Robert was in an environment where social
• 13:20
  Speaker 1: awkwardness mattered zero because Robert only needed to follow orders
• 13:24
  Speaker 1: and perform tasks because all soldiers were on the same
• 13:28
  Speaker 1: level and the old social hierarchy didn't exist, so Robert
• 13:32
  Speaker 1: was on an even playing field and he held his own.
• 13:36
  Speaker 1: And it was around this period, either during the military
• 13:39
  Speaker 1: or shortly after, where he would have his first spicy experience,
• 13:45
  Speaker 1: if you will, and the details aren't entirely clear, but
• 13:48
  Speaker 1: what is known is that those experiences likely involved ladies
• 13:53
  Speaker 1: of the night, because Robert's stutter and social difficulties made
• 13:57
  Speaker 1: normal relationships nearly impossible and he would have to pay
• 14:01
  Speaker 1: for what other men his age were experiencing freely in relationships.
• 14:05
  Speaker 1: So after his reserve commitment ended, Robert returned to Iowa
• 14:09
  Speaker 1: and the small town he had been desperate to escape,
• 14:12
  Speaker 1: but he had nowhere else to go and no other
• 14:14
  Speaker 1: real aspirations, so there he was back at the family bakery,
• 14:19
  Speaker 1: trapped all over again. But he did find one new
• 14:23
  Speaker 1: opportunity around this time, and Robert's spense of time as
• 14:27
  Speaker 1: an assistant drill instructor with the Pocahontas Junior Police, a
• 14:31
  Speaker 1: youth civic program that trained young men in basic law
• 14:34
  Speaker 1: enforcement principles. So it wasn't a full police academy necessarily,
• 14:39
  Speaker 1: but it gave Robert a closer look at how law
• 14:42
  Speaker 1: enforcement operated. Knowledge he would quietly file away for later
• 14:47
  Speaker 1: scary again, and then, to everyone's utter shock, Robert did
• 14:52
  Speaker 1: something unexpected and in nineteen sixty he would get married,
• 14:56
  Speaker 1: and he would marry a young woman named Phoebe Paget
• 14:59
  Speaker 1: in pocahon Hans, the daughter of the town chiropractor. Because
• 15:03
  Speaker 1: somehow Robert convinced Phoebe to marry him. I don't know.
• 15:08
  Speaker 1: Seems like there's someone out there for everyone, and for
• 15:10
  Speaker 1: a brief moment, it seemed like he might finally have
• 15:13
  Speaker 1: a normal life. But the marriage had trouble from the start,
• 15:17
  Speaker 1: and it wouldn't last long because within just a few months,
• 15:21
  Speaker 1: Robert's life would take a full one to eighty, exposing
• 15:24
  Speaker 1: the darkness he had been holding in all of those years.
• 15:28
  Speaker 1: So on December seventh, nineteen sixty, Robert Hansen committed an
• 15:31
  Speaker 1: act that would kickstart his criminal career, and Robert burned
• 15:36
  Speaker 1: down a school bus garage in Pocahontas County, Iowa, his
• 15:40
  Speaker 1: own hometown, Subtle, and this was not an accident or
• 15:44
  Speaker 1: a prank gone wrong. It was deliberate, premeditated destruction of
• 15:49
  Speaker 1: property owned by the Pocahontas County Board of Education. But
• 15:52
  Speaker 1: he actually didn't act alone. And Robert convinced a teenager
• 15:56
  Speaker 1: who worked at his father's bakery to help start the fire.
• 16:01
  Speaker 1: Role model this guy. But when investigators looked into it,
• 16:04
  Speaker 1: the teenager immediately talked and identified Robert as the one
• 16:07
  Speaker 1: who put it all together. And Robert would be swiftly arrested.
• 16:11
  Speaker 1: And there's actually a bitter irony in the timing because
• 16:14
  Speaker 1: at the time of the arson, Robert also had been
• 16:18
  Speaker 1: serving as a volunteer firefighter. What is that that's that's up.
• 16:24
  Speaker 1: So Robert may have been one of the first responders
• 16:27
  Speaker 1: to the fire he had set, which is that's that's
• 16:32
  Speaker 1: that's some crazy iturny right there, I'll tell you what.
• 16:34
  Speaker 1: But he would be arrested and he would be convicted
• 16:37
  Speaker 1: of arson and sentenced to three years in prison at
• 16:40
  Speaker 1: Anamosa State Penitentiary, a medium security facility in eastern Iowa.
• 16:45
  Speaker 1: And it was during the time there that Robert underwent
• 16:47
  Speaker 1: a psychiatric evaluation and the results were revealing because, according
• 16:52
  Speaker 1: to the diagnosis, he had what they called quote manic
• 16:56
  Speaker 1: depression with periodic schizophrenic episodes un quote, which in a
• 17:01
  Speaker 1: more modern context would most likely be classified as bipolar
• 17:05
  Speaker 1: disorder with psychotic features. And this indicated Robert experienced severe
• 17:11
  Speaker 1: mood swings that could sometimes break from reality. Not an
• 17:15
  Speaker 1: excuse in my books, but interesting to know. But the
• 17:18
  Speaker 1: evaluation didn't stop there, and psychiatrists also noted that Robert
• 17:22
  Speaker 1: had what they described as in quote infantile personality unquote,
• 17:27
  Speaker 1: meaning Robert was emotionally immature, unable to handle frustration or
• 17:32
  Speaker 1: rejection in healthy ways, with the lack of impulse control
• 17:35
  Speaker 1: attributed to children. And most significantly, the psychiatrist observed Robert's
• 17:40
  Speaker 1: deep obsession with getting back at people who wronged him,
• 17:44
  Speaker 1: just that constant, burning plot of revenge. And after about
• 17:48
  Speaker 1: twenty months into his three year sentence, Robert was paroled
• 17:52
  Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty two. They just said, ah, there's a
• 17:55
  Speaker 1: lot there's that, you know what, now that we're looking
• 17:57
  Speaker 1: at it, there's a ton wrong with him. He probably
• 18:00
  Speaker 1: shouldn't be out on the streets. He could definitely hurt somebody.
• 18:02
  Speaker 1: He's got deep seated rage and he's very violent. But
• 18:05
  Speaker 1: you know what, I say, let him go make cupcakes.
• 18:09
  Speaker 1: You know, I don't know, that's just what I think.
• 18:11
  Speaker 1: I really like those. I really like those chocolate cupcakes
• 18:14
  Speaker 1: he makes with his daddy. You know. Different time, I'll
• 18:16
  Speaker 1: tell you what. And Robert's first marriage was already over
• 18:20
  Speaker 1: by this time, and Phoebe had filed for divorce. God
• 18:22
  Speaker 1: bless her, and Phoebe had gone on to Mary, a
• 18:25
  Speaker 1: new man she barely knew, and within months Robert had
• 18:28
  Speaker 1: committed arson and been diagnosed with psychiatric problems. So Phoebe
• 18:33
  Speaker 1: won that naturally, and Robert was then released from Anamosa
• 18:37
  Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty two and was back at square one,
• 18:41
  Speaker 1: no wife, no job, branded as a felon and diagnosed
• 18:45
  Speaker 1: with severe mental illness, and didn't get any help. Basically
• 18:50
  Speaker 1: just let to walk free, you know, And now Robert
• 18:53
  Speaker 1: was even more resentful than before. What could go wrong? Right?
• 18:57
  Speaker 1: So the years following Robert's release from Animosa were not pretty,
• 19:02
  Speaker 1: and he would continue down a path of instability and
• 19:05
  Speaker 1: criminal behavior, and he would become a drifter, unable to
• 19:09
  Speaker 1: stay in one place or hold a job, and between
• 19:12
  Speaker 1: the felony record, the stutter, and the social difficulties, finding
• 19:16
  Speaker 1: steady employment was borderline impossible. So Robert would try working
• 19:21
  Speaker 1: in bakeries, possibly even his father's, but it never stuck.
• 19:25
  Speaker 1: And because Robert couldn't hold a job, he turned to stealing,
• 19:29
  Speaker 1: and he would be arrested multiple times throughout those years
• 19:32
  Speaker 1: for petty theft. And it wasn't even really about economics.
• 19:36
  Speaker 1: Robert was a kleptomaniac stealing things he didn't even need,
• 19:42
  Speaker 1: because the impulse was psychological, not practical, And still they
• 19:46
  Speaker 1: didn't think, hmm, maybe we should get this guy doctor.
• 19:50
  Speaker 1: Maybe we should lock this guy up, maybe give him
• 19:52
  Speaker 1: a coup of medications, you know, maybe let him talk
• 19:55
  Speaker 1: to a unbiased third party different time. It upsets me
• 19:58
  Speaker 1: because that really could have saved a lot of women.
• 20:01
  Speaker 1: And we haven't even got into it yet. But it's
• 20:02
  Speaker 1: just very frustrating to read about. But each arrest continued
• 20:06
  Speaker 1: to add to an already rough criminal record, and each
• 20:09
  Speaker 1: failed job just reinforced the feeling that Robert was an
• 20:12
  Speaker 1: outsider who didn't fit into normal society, in outcasts, just
• 20:17
  Speaker 1: like when he was a little boy. And then unbelievably,
• 20:22
  Speaker 1: Robert would meet someone new, and in nineteen sixty three,
• 20:25
  Speaker 1: a woman named Darla Henrickson caught Robert's eye. And Darla
• 20:30
  Speaker 1: was from Pocahontas, so a local girl from Robert's hometown. Now,
• 20:33
  Speaker 1: the details of how they met are scarce and somewhat mysterious,
• 20:38
  Speaker 1: but something must have caught Darla's eye because later that
• 20:41
  Speaker 1: same year they got married. Now, Darla was a devoutly
• 20:45
  Speaker 1: religious woman and maybe she believed she could pull Robert
• 20:48
  Speaker 1: out of the darkness, but regardless, their relationship lasted over
• 20:52
  Speaker 1: two decades and Darla and Robert would eventually have two children,
• 20:57
  Speaker 1: and she would stand by Robert through moves and career
• 21:00
  Speaker 1: changes throughout the years, and Robert would continue to get
• 21:04
  Speaker 1: in trouble with petty theft, continually being the troubled man
• 21:07
  Speaker 1: he always was, but Darla would not leave, and eventually,
• 21:11
  Speaker 1: in nineteen sixty seven, Robert and Darla packed up and
• 21:14
  Speaker 1: moved to Alaska because Iowa had nothing but bad memories
• 21:19
  Speaker 1: for Robert. The bullies, the projections, the arson conviction, and
• 21:23
  Speaker 1: the first failed marriages on top of all the other
• 21:26
  Speaker 1: arrests that happened. So Robert was ready for a change
• 21:29
  Speaker 1: of scenery, and Darla was along for the ride. And
• 21:32
  Speaker 1: Alaska was known as the last Frontier, a place where
• 21:35
  Speaker 1: people could reinvent themselves and where their past didn't necessarily follow.
• 21:39
  Speaker 1: And at the time, Robert Hanson was only twenty eight
• 21:42
  Speaker 1: years old and ready to leave the world he knew
• 21:45
  Speaker 1: behind for a second, third, maybe fourth chance, because it
• 21:49
  Speaker 1: didn't matter out there, according to Robert, because he could
• 21:53
  Speaker 1: be anyone. He wanted to be, a baker, a family man,
• 21:57
  Speaker 1: a church coher, a hunter, and no one had to
• 22:01
  Speaker 1: know the true darkness Robert was carrying behind all those facades.
• 22:05
  Speaker 1: All right, raise your hand if you've been putting off
• 22:08
  Speaker 1: a doctor's appointment, and yeah, my hand is up to Okay,
• 22:12
  Speaker 1: I am the person who dooms scroll symptoms and self
• 22:15
  Speaker 1: diagnoses and spirals quietly and then says it's probably fine,
• 22:20
  Speaker 1: so familiar. Well this here, we're actually doing something about it, okay.
• 22:24
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• 22:27
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• 22:30
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• 23:06
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• 23:10
  Speaker 1: you love today. That's zetocdoc dot com slash CCCM. Thank
• 23:16
  Speaker 1: you so much to ZocDoc for sponsoring this video and
• 23:18
  Speaker 1: supporting the channel. And let's get back to it. So.
• 23:20
  Speaker 1: Robert and Darla Hanson arrived in Anchorage, Alaska in nineteen
• 23:23
  Speaker 1: sixty seven, new arrivals, like so many others who came
• 23:27
  Speaker 1: seeking opportunity and a fresh start, or just a place
• 23:30
  Speaker 1: where their past wasn't known now. Anchorage in nineteen sixty
• 23:33
  Speaker 1: seven was a city in transition, and the nineteen sixty
• 23:37
  Speaker 1: four Good Friday earthquake had destroyed parts of the region,
• 23:40
  Speaker 1: and the city was still rebuilding. But just a year
• 23:42
  Speaker 1: after the Hansons arrived in nineteen sixty eight, large deposits
• 23:47
  Speaker 1: of oil were discovered in the Prudeho Bay, triggering one
• 23:50
  Speaker 1: of the biggest economic booms in Alaskan history, and the
• 23:54
  Speaker 1: construction of the Trans Alaska Pipeline through the nineteen seventies
• 23:57
  Speaker 1: would eventually transform Anchorage from a frontier outpost into a boomtown.
• 24:02
  Speaker 1: But when the Hansons first arrived, it was still just
• 24:05
  Speaker 1: a small, cold, dark city of around fifty thousand people
• 24:09
  Speaker 1: rough around the edges, but full of work for those
• 24:12
  Speaker 1: willing to put in the hours. So Robert got a
• 24:14
  Speaker 1: job in something he was familiar with, baking, because decades
• 24:18
  Speaker 1: of forced labor under his father had perfected Robert's skills,
• 24:23
  Speaker 1: even if he despised the work, So he would move
• 24:25
  Speaker 1: between bakery jobs, at first building up a reputation and
• 24:29
  Speaker 1: saving money, and eventually he would save up enough to
• 24:31
  Speaker 1: open his own bakery, located inside a mini mall in
• 24:34
  Speaker 1: downtown Acreage, a modest place that served coffee, donuts, and
• 24:38
  Speaker 1: pastries to the working people of the city, and it
• 24:41
  Speaker 1: became successful enough to support his family comfortably and for
• 24:45
  Speaker 1: the first time Robert had found something in Alaska. He
• 24:48
  Speaker 1: had been searching for his entire life in Iowa. Respect
• 24:52
  Speaker 1: his customers liked him, and although Robert was still a
• 24:56
  Speaker 1: quiet man who struggled with his stutter, people saw Robert
• 24:59
  Speaker 1: as a hard working man instead of a cowering loser.
• 25:02
  Speaker 1: He was back in Iowa, so Robert was now Bob
• 25:06
  Speaker 1: the Baker, a family man who attended church, raising two
• 25:10
  Speaker 1: children with his wife Darla, never causing any trouble. But
• 25:14
  Speaker 1: Robert wasn't just known as the quiet Baker. He also
• 25:17
  Speaker 1: had a reputation for something else hunting in Alaska, hunting
• 25:22
  Speaker 1: isn't just a hobby. It's a way of life for
• 25:24
  Speaker 1: a lot of people. And Robert went into this head
• 25:26
  Speaker 1: first with an intensity that surprised people because he hunted
• 25:30
  Speaker 1: consistently and he was genuinely good at it, and he
• 25:34
  Speaker 1: entered competitions and he won those competitions for once in
• 25:37
  Speaker 1: his life, and even began setting records, and he was
• 25:40
  Speaker 1: eventually documented in the Pope and Young Club's record books,
• 25:44
  Speaker 1: one of the most prestigious bow hunting organizations in North America.
• 25:47
  Speaker 1: And he would also take trophy animals like doll sheet moose, caribou,
• 25:52
  Speaker 1: and bears. So he was living by all accounts, but
• 25:54
  Speaker 1: looked like a golden life. And then Robert added another
• 25:58
  Speaker 1: skill to the growing list and he attained a pilot's license,
• 26:02
  Speaker 1: though some sources suggest that the lithium prescription Robert was
• 26:06
  Speaker 1: on may have disqualified Robert from a proper certification, meaning
• 26:10
  Speaker 1: Robert could have been flying without it being legally granted.
• 26:13
  Speaker 1: But he's just known for doing silly stuff like that, right,
• 26:16
  Speaker 1: But either way, he purchased a Piper super Cub, a
• 26:19
  Speaker 1: small bush plane suitable for the Alaskan wilderness, and the
• 26:22
  Speaker 1: plane gave him access to remote hunting grounds that most
• 26:24
  Speaker 1: people just couldn't reach, and it would also serve as
• 26:28
  Speaker 1: a much darker purpose later on if a Hanson family
• 26:31
  Speaker 1: eventually settled into a home on Old Harbor Road in Muldoon,
• 26:35
  Speaker 1: a neighborhood on Anchorage's east side, and it was a
• 26:38
  Speaker 1: modest home, but it was filled wall to wall with
• 26:40
  Speaker 1: Robert's hunting trophies, mounted heads, antlers, and pelts covering the
• 26:45
  Speaker 1: floors and walls, so to any visitor it was the
• 26:48
  Speaker 1: home of a successful hunter and outdoorsman, and Robert and
• 26:51
  Speaker 1: Darla's two children, attended church and participated in their community.
• 26:55
  Speaker 1: So by every outward measure, the Hansends were a normal
• 26:59
  Speaker 1: and respectable family. And Robert Hanson had done it. He
• 27:02
  Speaker 1: had reinvented himself into someone who wasn't the awkward loser
• 27:06
  Speaker 1: from Estreville. He was the family man, the record setting hunter,
• 27:10
  Speaker 1: and the quiet baker. But deep below the good man
• 27:14
  Speaker 1: was someone still full of anger, still resentful, still full
• 27:19
  Speaker 1: of dark fantasies about getting revenge on the people who
• 27:22
  Speaker 1: had wronged him. Those feelings had never gone away, and
• 27:25
  Speaker 1: despite everything finally coming together for the better, Robert was
• 27:29
  Speaker 1: still not happy because in Alaska he would finally begin
• 27:33
  Speaker 1: to act on the impulses he had been holding back
• 27:36
  Speaker 1: for decades. So by the early nineteen seventies, the respectable
• 27:40
  Speaker 1: mask was already starting to slip, and Robert Hanson could
• 27:43
  Speaker 1: not contain himself anymore, And in December of nineteen seventy one,
• 27:47
  Speaker 1: Robert cracked, and he cracked hard, and within just a
• 27:51
  Speaker 1: single month he was arrested twice for violent crimes against women,
• 27:56
  Speaker 1: things that should have ended Robert's freedom right there and
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: drop everything that came after. And the first arrest was
• 28:02
  Speaker 1: for the abduction of a housewife where Robert attempted to her,
• 28:07
  Speaker 1: and details about the situation are limited due to both
• 28:10
  Speaker 1: the era and protecting the victims of privacy, but what
• 28:13
  Speaker 1: is known is that Robert threatened her with a weapon
• 28:15
  Speaker 1: to force compliance. So Robert was caught and charged with
• 28:18
  Speaker 1: assault with a deadly weapon, and then shortly after that
• 28:21
  Speaker 1: first arrest, Robert a lady of the night in a
• 28:25
  Speaker 1: very similar pattern, forcing himself on women without any restraint,
• 28:29
  Speaker 1: all within the same month. But instead of being put
• 28:33
  Speaker 1: behind bars for decades, as you'd assume he would be
• 28:37
  Speaker 1: for being a serial you know what, Robert got what
• 28:41
  Speaker 1: can be described as a frickin' slap on the wrist
• 28:45
  Speaker 1: because Robert pleaded no contest to the assault with a
• 28:47
  Speaker 1: deadly weapon charge in the housewife case, and the charge
• 28:51
  Speaker 1: was dropped entirely as part of a plea bargain. And
• 28:54
  Speaker 1: as for the lady of the night, no one believed
• 28:57
  Speaker 1: her because the word of her against a sixth tessful
• 29:00
  Speaker 1: local businessman was testimony against a brick wall, and the
• 29:04
  Speaker 1: law took Robert's side. Now, he did receive a five
• 29:08
  Speaker 1: year prison sentence, but he only served about six months
• 29:11
  Speaker 1: before being placed in a work release program and put
• 29:14
  Speaker 1: into a halfway house, a facility designed to help inmates
• 29:18
  Speaker 1: reintegrate back into society, and after just a short time,
• 29:22
  Speaker 1: he returned right back to his normal life, just like
• 29:26
  Speaker 1: back in Iowa. They just said, the cupcakes are good.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: Let him out, you know, it's just incredibly messed up.
• 29:34
  Speaker 1: And he got to go back to his community, his family,
• 29:37
  Speaker 1: and his bakery like nothing ever happened. And for the
• 29:40
  Speaker 1: next several years it seemed like he had never learned
• 29:44
  Speaker 1: his lesson. He wasn't getting in trouble for it by
• 29:47
  Speaker 1: any means in the way that he should be. So
• 29:50
  Speaker 1: he would keep a lower profile and build up his
• 29:53
  Speaker 1: bakery business and continue setting hunting records and play the
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: family man. But he just couldn't help himself, and his
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: kleptomania came roaring back in nineteen seventy six when Robert
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: was arrested again for theft, and this time for trying
• 30:08
  Speaker 1: to steal a chainsaw from a fred Meyer store in Anchorage,
• 30:12
  Speaker 1: something he didn't need. This guy needs to be locked up,
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: but this time the police conducted a more thorough examination
• 30:19
  Speaker 1: for once and the following year, during sentencing proceedings, Robert
• 30:23
  Speaker 1: was properly diagnosed with bipolar disorder by a court psychiatrist,
• 30:27
  Speaker 1: consistent with the earlier manic depression diagnosis from prison, so
• 30:32
  Speaker 1: he would be prescribed lithium and a mood stabilizer. And
• 30:36
  Speaker 1: he was also sentenced yet again to five years for larceny,
• 30:40
  Speaker 1: but Robert served nowhere close to that time before being released,
• 30:45
  Speaker 1: and just like that, Robert was free again. So the
• 30:48
  Speaker 1: system just kept failing again and again. Robert just kept walking.
• 30:53
  Speaker 1: And to truly understand Robert Hansen, you have to understand
• 30:57
  Speaker 1: how he lived day to day, because Robert wasn't just
• 31:01
  Speaker 1: one man, he was two completely different people existing in
• 31:05
  Speaker 1: the same body. By day, Robert was Bob the baker.
• 31:09
  Speaker 1: Robert woke up early, he got right to work at
• 31:12
  Speaker 1: the shop in the downtown mini mall and served coffee
• 31:14
  Speaker 1: and donuts and pastries, making small talk with customers despite
• 31:17
  Speaker 1: his stutter. And Robert was always polite, unassuming, easy to forget,
• 31:22
  Speaker 1: and police officers would sometimes come in for coffee and
• 31:25
  Speaker 1: donuts and a lot of them knew him by his name.
• 31:28
  Speaker 1: And he was a happy family man with two kids
• 31:31
  Speaker 1: and his wife, and they would go to church regularly
• 31:33
  Speaker 1: and took part of community activities. He looked to be
• 31:36
  Speaker 1: a devoted businessman, husband and father, But Robert was not
• 31:41
  Speaker 1: a good man. He was living a double life, one
• 31:45
  Speaker 1: that was embedded in anchorages underworld, and he would frequently
• 31:49
  Speaker 1: visit Fourth Avenue, which by the late nineteen seventies and
• 31:53
  Speaker 1: early nineteen eighties had transformed from a strip of dive
• 31:57
  Speaker 1: bars into a corridor of strip club and Robert wasn't
• 32:01
  Speaker 1: there for the entertainment. He was a predator selecting prey,
• 32:06
  Speaker 1: and he had developed a method, and it was consistent.
• 32:10
  Speaker 1: He would approach women, usually dancers or ladies of the night,
• 32:14
  Speaker 1: and offer them money, and the amount varied, but three
• 32:17
  Speaker 1: hundred dollars was common, and that offer was framed as
• 32:20
  Speaker 1: a photoshoot or modeling session, something that sounded legitimate enough
• 32:25
  Speaker 1: to not raise immediate suspicion, especially to women who already
• 32:29
  Speaker 1: worked in entertainment, and the money was enough to tempt them,
• 32:33
  Speaker 1: and usually they would agree. But once a woman was
• 32:36
  Speaker 1: in Robert's vehicle, his demeanor would change immediately. The easy
• 32:41
  Speaker 1: going man looking for models was suddenly pointing a weapon
• 32:44
  Speaker 1: at them and snapping handcuffs around their wrists, and he
• 32:48
  Speaker 1: would then sometimes take his victims back to his house
• 32:51
  Speaker 1: on Old Harbor Road, usually when Darla and the kids
• 32:54
  Speaker 1: were away, but he had also taken the steps to
• 32:57
  Speaker 1: sound proof portions of his home, and once Robert had
• 33:00
  Speaker 1: a victim secured in the basement, he would and torture them,
• 33:04
  Speaker 1: sometimes for hours at a time. But his true hunting
• 33:09
  Speaker 1: grounds weren't just his home. They were the vast stretch
• 33:13
  Speaker 1: of wilderness north of Anchorage, and he would not only
• 33:16
  Speaker 1: kidnap these women, but he would load these women into
• 33:19
  Speaker 1: his Piper supercub and fly them to remote locations, completely
• 33:24
  Speaker 1: beyond reach of any witnesses, far from roads, far from people.
• 33:29
  Speaker 1: And Robert's favorite spot was the Nick River Valley, where
• 33:33
  Speaker 1: Robert also owned a remote cabin, and once he had
• 33:36
  Speaker 1: his victims out there, he would do something that set
• 33:39
  Speaker 1: Robert apart from almost every other serial killer on record,
• 33:43
  Speaker 1: because Robert Hanson would release them and hunt them like prey.
• 33:49
  Speaker 1: And the concept wasn't new. It was the premise of
• 33:52
  Speaker 1: Richard Connell's nineteen twenty four story The Most Dangerous Game,
• 33:57
  Speaker 1: an idea that had inspired countless books and films since.
• 34:01
  Speaker 1: But Robert Hansen lived it, and he would give his
• 34:05
  Speaker 1: victims a head start, then pursue them through the wilderness
• 34:08
  Speaker 1: with a hunting rifle, typically his rugor Many fourteen chambered
• 34:13
  Speaker 1: in two two three caliber, And unfortunately for these women,
• 34:17
  Speaker 1: Robert was an exceptional hunter. The same patients, the same precision,
• 34:21
  Speaker 1: the same silence that earned Robert records in bow hunting competitions.
• 34:26
  Speaker 1: All of it came to bear on his victims. And
• 34:29
  Speaker 1: when Robert caught them, and he always caught them, he
• 34:33
  Speaker 1: would shoot and bury their bodies in shallow graves because
• 34:36
  Speaker 1: the Alaskan wilderness was unfortunately a great hiding place for corpses,
• 34:41
  Speaker 1: and Mother Nature never spilled her secrets, And afterward he
• 34:46
  Speaker 1: would just return back to his bakery, back to his family,
• 34:49
  Speaker 1: and back to his church as if nothing happened. Darting
• 34:53
  Speaker 1: with Celia Beth van Zantin, who was eighteen years old
• 34:57
  Speaker 1: at the time of her abduction. She was a young
• 35:01
  Speaker 1: woman whose life was just starting, and Beth came from
• 35:04
  Speaker 1: a religious family, raised with strong Mormon values and close
• 35:08
  Speaker 1: family ties. And Beth was a college student living in Anchorage,
• 35:11
  Speaker 1: trying to build a future for herself, and unlike many
• 35:14
  Speaker 1: of Hanson's other victims, Beth was not a lady of
• 35:18
  Speaker 1: the night or entertainer. Beth was, by all accounts just
• 35:21
  Speaker 1: a normal student, which made Beth exactly the type of
• 35:24
  Speaker 1: girl that Robert had resented and fantasized about harming since
• 35:28
  Speaker 1: his adolescence. But Beth lived on Kinnick Avenue in Anchorage,
• 35:33
  Speaker 1: in what should have been a safe neighborhood. But on
• 35:36
  Speaker 1: the evening of December twenty second, nineteen seventy one, Beth
• 35:39
  Speaker 1: left home and walked toward a nearby supermarket just a
• 35:42
  Speaker 1: few blocks away, a routine errand Beth had done countless
• 35:45
  Speaker 1: times before, but Beth never reached the store, and Beth's
• 35:50
  Speaker 1: disappearance was reported two days later on Christmas Eve, and
• 35:54
  Speaker 1: then on Christmas Day, December twenty fifth, nineteen seventy one,
• 35:57
  Speaker 1: Beth's body was discovered at Chugok Steak Park, and the
• 36:00
  Speaker 1: specific details of what Robert did to Beth were never documented,
• 36:05
  Speaker 1: but what is known is that Beth was killed within
• 36:08
  Speaker 1: days of her disappearance, suggesting Robert acted on impulse with
• 36:12
  Speaker 1: no elaborate plan, so this is thought to be Robert's
• 36:16
  Speaker 1: first murder, but he would never admit to Beth's murder,
• 36:20
  Speaker 1: and technically Beth's case was never officially closed with Robert
• 36:24
  Speaker 1: as the confirmed perpetrator. Other suspects were investigated, but an
• 36:28
  Speaker 1: ex mark on Robert's aviation map lined up with the
• 36:32
  Speaker 1: location where Beth's body was found, which is why investigators
• 36:35
  Speaker 1: believe Robert was responsible. And we'll get to that map later,
• 36:39
  Speaker 1: by the way, And at this point in time, Robert
• 36:42
  Speaker 1: was thirty two years old, about four years into life
• 36:45
  Speaker 1: in Alaska, and the bakery at this point was gaining success,
• 36:49
  Speaker 1: and within weeks of Beth's death, Robert was also arrested
• 36:53
  Speaker 1: for the housewife assault and the lady of the night assault,
• 36:57
  Speaker 1: but as we already know, Robert served only six month
• 37:00
  Speaker 1: and walked free. So it's pretty widely accepted that Robert
• 37:04
  Speaker 1: did end Beth's life, but it is not fully confirmed.
• 37:07
  Speaker 1: And the next victim was Megan Emeric, a seventeen year old,
• 37:11
  Speaker 1: and very little is known about Megan's background, partly because
• 37:15
  Speaker 1: Meghan was a minor and the details of Megan's disappearance
• 37:18
  Speaker 1: are largely unknown, and Robert also never admitted to Meghan's death,
• 37:23
  Speaker 1: and the worst part of Megan's story, the most devastating detail,
• 37:27
  Speaker 1: is that Meghan's body was actually never found not then
• 37:31
  Speaker 1: and not now, and for Megan's family there was never
• 37:34
  Speaker 1: any closure, and never any place to grieve, and never
• 37:38
  Speaker 1: any place to lay her to rest. And meanwhile, Robert
• 37:41
  Speaker 1: was just working at the bakery and acting like everything
• 37:44
  Speaker 1: was perfectly fine. So again, she is widely believed to
• 37:48
  Speaker 1: be victim number two of Robert Hanson. And the next
• 37:52
  Speaker 1: victim was Mary Kathleen phil a young woman between twenty
• 37:56
  Speaker 1: two and twenty three years old. Now. Mary disappeared in
• 37:59
  Speaker 1: July of nineteen seventy five, and the specific circumstances of
• 38:02
  Speaker 1: Mary's disappearance are unknown. And Mary was in Anchorage during
• 38:07
  Speaker 1: the summer of nineteen seventy five during the oil pipeline boom,
• 38:11
  Speaker 1: when thousands of new workers and families were flooding into Alaska,
• 38:14
  Speaker 1: making it even easier for someone to vanish without a trace.
• 38:18
  Speaker 1: And just like Megan Emerick before her, Mary Thill's body
• 38:22
  Speaker 1: was never found. But again, her disappearance is linked to
• 38:26
  Speaker 1: Robert as well. And the next victim would be known
• 38:28
  Speaker 1: as Eklutna Annie. And this is a tragedy in and
• 38:31
  Speaker 1: of itself because that is not her actual name, and
• 38:34
  Speaker 1: over four decades later, her real name is still unknown.
• 38:38
  Speaker 1: But based on her remains, investigators identified her as a
• 38:41
  Speaker 1: white female, likely between sixteen and twenty five years old,
• 38:46
  Speaker 1: and Robert told investigators later on that Annie was a
• 38:50
  Speaker 1: lady of the night or dancer, though he admitted he
• 38:53
  Speaker 1: wasn't entirely sure, and he also claimed she might have
• 38:56
  Speaker 1: been from Kodiak, but investigators believe she originally came from California,
• 39:01
  Speaker 1: but no missing persons report matched her description and she
• 39:04
  Speaker 1: had no identification, so Annie was invisible in the system,
• 39:08
  Speaker 1: which tragically made her a perfect target for Robert Hanson,
• 39:12
  Speaker 1: and Robert would later claim that Annie was actually his
• 39:15
  Speaker 1: first victim, though investigators believe that almost certainly wasn't true
• 39:20
  Speaker 1: based off of the timeline, because Robert said he picked
• 39:23
  Speaker 1: Annie up in Anchorage before she realized once they were
• 39:26
  Speaker 1: in the car together that she was in serious danger,
• 39:29
  Speaker 1: and while she tried to escape, Robert abbed Annie in
• 39:32
  Speaker 1: the back before dumping her body in a wooded area
• 39:35
  Speaker 1: about one mile south of Eklutna Lake Road near a
• 39:39
  Speaker 1: set of power lines in the Eklutna area, which is
• 39:42
  Speaker 1: how she got her placeholder name, and her remains were
• 39:45
  Speaker 1: found disturbed and partially consumed by wildlife in the area,
• 39:49
  Speaker 1: making identification even more difficult, and there are still ongoing
• 39:53
  Speaker 1: attempts to find ek Lutna Annie's real identity using the
• 39:57
  Speaker 1: same modern DNA techniques that have that named other Jane
• 40:01
  Speaker 1: does in recent years, but so far there's no match.
• 40:04
  Speaker 1: And at this point in Robert's life, he was at
• 40:07
  Speaker 1: the absolute height of his public life, respected by the
• 40:11
  Speaker 1: community as a kind businessman and incredible hunter. Robert was
• 40:15
  Speaker 1: about forty years old at this point, and he was
• 40:18
  Speaker 1: only just getting started because next would be Joanna Messina,
• 40:23
  Speaker 1: a twenty four year old woman who had come to
• 40:25
  Speaker 1: Alaska looking for work. Now, Joanna had trained as a nurse,
• 40:29
  Speaker 1: but was doing cannery work and odd jobs in the
• 40:31
  Speaker 1: Seaward area, a small port about one hundred and twenty
• 40:35
  Speaker 1: five miles from Anchorage. Now. Joanna told friends before she
• 40:38
  Speaker 1: disappeared that she was meeting a man who had promised
• 40:41
  Speaker 1: to take Joanna on a shopping spree. But Joanna didn't
• 40:43
  Speaker 1: know this man's name because this was a time when
• 40:45
  Speaker 1: things just seemed safer, when an offer like that didn't
• 40:49
  Speaker 1: automatically seem sinister. But Robert took Joanna to a remote location,
• 40:53
  Speaker 1: but according to forensic evidence, Robert struck Joanna and then
• 40:57
  Speaker 1: shot her with a twenty two caliber weabon, and he
• 41:00
  Speaker 1: would also kill Joanna's dog, which had been with Joanna
• 41:05
  Speaker 1: at the time, before burying Joanna's body in a grave
• 41:08
  Speaker 1: near Seward. And Joanna's body was discovered in July of
• 41:11
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty in a gravel pit, and by the time
• 41:14
  Speaker 1: investigators arrived, wildlife including bears, had scavenged the remains, but
• 41:18
  Speaker 1: despite the condition of the body, Joanna was identified through fingerprints. Luckily,
• 41:23
  Speaker 1: and after all that, Robert just went home to Anchorage
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: and carried on as normal. But each time he took
• 41:30
  Speaker 1: a victim, he would hunt them in some way or another.
• 41:34
  Speaker 1: He would find them on the street or just walking
• 41:37
  Speaker 1: out about, and then he would take them, do whatever
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: he wanted with them, and then hunt them down the wilderness.
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: And he would do this with the next victim, Roxanne Eastland,
• 41:47
  Speaker 1: and at the time she was twenty four years old now.
• 41:50
  Speaker 1: Roxanne was last seen at the Budget Motel and Anchorage
• 41:54
  Speaker 1: at the time of her disappearance on June twenty eighth,
• 41:57
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty, and very little is known about her life.
• 42:00
  Speaker 1: In the circumstances of Roxanne's abduction or where Robert took
• 42:05
  Speaker 1: her afterward, but based on later investigation, it is widely
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: believed she was also abducted and hunted down in the wilderness.
• 42:13
  Speaker 1: And the next victim was Lisa or Betty Foutrel, and
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: this would be the oldest known victim of Robert Hansen
• 42:19
  Speaker 1: at forty one years old. Now, Lisa worked in Anchorage's
• 42:23
  Speaker 1: nightclub scene, and again Lisa's life and disappearance and death
• 42:26
  Speaker 1: weren't well documented. That Lisa was last seen on September sixth,
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty and her body was not found for four
• 42:35
  Speaker 1: years after discovered on May ninth, nineteen eighty four. And
• 42:39
  Speaker 1: by this point, Robert was killing multiple women per year
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: and remaining completely off the radar of law enforcement, and
• 42:46
  Speaker 1: Robert's methods were evolving because instead of disposing of bodies
• 42:50
  Speaker 1: on roadsides, Robert was bringing victims to more remote locations
• 42:55
  Speaker 1: the cabin and the hunting grounds, places where nature would
• 42:59
  Speaker 1: do the work of sealing them. So the next victim
• 43:01
  Speaker 1: would be Malai Larson, who was approximately twenty eight years
• 43:05
  Speaker 1: old at the time of her disappearance, which investigators believe
• 43:08
  Speaker 1: happened sometime in July of nineteen eighty one. But beyond
• 43:12
  Speaker 1: that almost nothing is known. And Malia's body was found
• 43:15
  Speaker 1: on April twenty fourth, nineteen eighty four, in a parking
• 43:18
  Speaker 1: area near the old Kinnik Bridge. So Robert was now
• 43:22
  Speaker 1: approaching a full decade of murders without anyone catching on,
• 43:26
  Speaker 1: hiding the whole time behind the bakery counter, serving coffee
• 43:29
  Speaker 1: and pastries to police officers, and more often than not,
• 43:33
  Speaker 1: the cause of death was not known to these women
• 43:36
  Speaker 1: because by the time that they were found, the Alaskan
• 43:38
  Speaker 1: wilderness had taken over. So what was left of these
• 43:43
  Speaker 1: poor women's bodies didn't leave a lot for investigators to
• 43:47
  Speaker 1: go on. And that brings us to our next victim, Sherymorrow,
• 43:51
  Speaker 1: a twenty three year old exotic dancer working the same
• 43:54
  Speaker 1: transient night life scene that Robert had been quietly exploiting
• 43:57
  Speaker 1: for years. Now, Sherry was known for wearing a distinctive
• 44:01
  Speaker 1: arrowhead necklace, a piece of jewelry that would matter a
• 44:05
  Speaker 1: great deal to investigators later on. Now, Sherry disappeared on
• 44:09
  Speaker 1: November seventeenth, nineteen eighty one, and Cherry had told friends
• 44:12
  Speaker 1: she was meeting a photographer who was interested in taking
• 44:15
  Speaker 1: her pictures, offering Sherry three hundred dollars for some nude photos,
• 44:19
  Speaker 1: and Cherry was excited about it, but that excitement didn't
• 44:22
  Speaker 1: last long once Sherry was in Robert's car, because Robert
• 44:26
  Speaker 1: had lured Sherry out to a remote area near the
• 44:29
  Speaker 1: Kinnick River, and at some point during what became a hunt,
• 44:33
  Speaker 1: Robert unclothed Sherry and then shot her three times in
• 44:37
  Speaker 1: the back with his Ruger Mini fourteen, and then he
• 44:40
  Speaker 1: would dress her body before burying her in a shallow grave.
• 44:45
  Speaker 1: And Cherry's body wouldn't be discovered until September twelfth, nineteen
• 44:48
  Speaker 1: eighty two, when hunters walking along the banks of the
• 44:51
  Speaker 1: river came across it and near Cherry's body, investigators found
• 44:55
  Speaker 1: a two two three caliber shell casing, and the ballistic
• 44:59
  Speaker 1: evidence would eventually link this murder to the same weapon
• 45:02
  Speaker 1: used in other killings, so that's how they would find
• 45:05
  Speaker 1: out how he killed the other women. So police were
• 45:08
  Speaker 1: now starting to believe there was a serial killer operating
• 45:11
  Speaker 1: in the Anchorage area, but with no leads, Robert just
• 45:15
  Speaker 1: kept going and his next victim would be Andrea fish Altery,
• 45:20
  Speaker 1: a twenty two to twenty four year old woman known
• 45:23
  Speaker 1: by her nickname Fish and that nickname came from her
• 45:26
  Speaker 1: signature piece of jewelry, a fish necklace that was as
• 45:30
  Speaker 1: recognizable as Andrea's face to those who knew her. And
• 45:33
  Speaker 1: Andrea was last seen on Deer sever second, nineteen eighty one,
• 45:36
  Speaker 1: and when she got into a taxi headed to the
• 45:38
  Speaker 1: Boniface Mall in Anchorage. She had told people she was
• 45:42
  Speaker 1: meeting an unknown man for a photoshoot where she'd been
• 45:45
  Speaker 1: paid to perform exotic dances, the same lua Robert always used.
• 45:49
  Speaker 1: But Robert would abduct Andrea like the other women and
• 45:53
  Speaker 1: kill her with a twenty two caliber Browning automatic pistol,
• 45:56
  Speaker 1: and then he would proceed to throw Andrea's body off
• 46:00
  Speaker 1: of a bridge, and she would, unfortunately never be found,
• 46:04
  Speaker 1: and investigators would later find out that he absolutely abducted
• 46:08
  Speaker 1: her because they would find that fish necklace somewhere in
• 46:11
  Speaker 1: his possession. But we will get to that soon. I've
• 46:14
  Speaker 1: been using surf shark lately and I genuinely can't believe
• 46:18
  Speaker 1: I went without this for so long. For those of
• 46:20
  Speaker 1: you who don't know, surf shark is basically a VPN,
• 46:24
  Speaker 1: but it does weigh more than just that. I'm talking
• 46:27
  Speaker 1: an email scam checker that tells you if something in
• 46:30
  Speaker 1: your inbox is a phishing attempt, which honestly I needed
• 46:34
  Speaker 1: like yesterday, so it's extremely helpful. And there's also a
• 46:38
  Speaker 1: web content blocker, which is great if you've got kids
• 46:41
  Speaker 1: and just want peace of mind. But what I love
• 46:43
  Speaker 1: most is that there's one subscription with unlimited devices, so
• 46:48
  Speaker 1: my phone, my laptop, my TV all covered, no extra charge.
• 46:52
  Speaker 1: And surf Shark now covers over one hundred countries and
• 46:55
  Speaker 1: they're literally the only VPN to hit that milestone. So
• 46:59
  Speaker 1: whether you're traveling, streaming, or just want your data to
• 47:02
  Speaker 1: stay your data, they've got you. And they've also got
• 47:05
  Speaker 1: a thirty day money back guarantee, so there's zero risk
• 47:08
  Speaker 1: trying it out. So go to surfshark dot com slash
• 47:11
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  Speaker 1: checkout to get four extra months off surf Shark VPN.
• 47:17
  Speaker 1: The link and code are on screen right now, so
• 47:20
  Speaker 1: go check it out. Thank you so much to surf
• 47:22
  Speaker 1: Shark for sponsoring this video and supporting the channel, and
• 47:24
  Speaker 1: let's get back to it. But Sue Luna would be next,
• 47:27
  Speaker 1: and she was a twenty three year old and described
• 47:30
  Speaker 1: by those who knew Sue as too tenderhearted to housebreak
• 47:34
  Speaker 1: her puppy, but Sue would disappear in May of nineteen
• 47:37
  Speaker 1: eighty two, and the specifics of what happened are largely
• 47:41
  Speaker 1: lost in time, but as far as we know, Sue
• 47:44
  Speaker 1: was one of the victims that Robert actually hunted as well,
• 47:47
  Speaker 1: and he would take her to a remote location, release her,
• 47:50
  Speaker 1: and then pursue her through the forest and ultimately kill her,
• 47:55
  Speaker 1: something Robert found just thoroughly and sickly enjoyable, and Sue's
• 48:01
  Speaker 1: body would be found almost two years later on April
• 48:04
  Speaker 1: twenty fourth, nineteen eighty four, near the Kinnick River, and
• 48:08
  Speaker 1: the next victim would be twenty year old Tamara or
• 48:11
  Speaker 1: Tammy Peterson, a dancer in Anchorage now. Tammy vanished in
• 48:15
  Speaker 1: August of nineteen eighty two, and her last known contact
• 48:18
  Speaker 1: with anyone was a phone call in which Tammy mentioned
• 48:21
  Speaker 1: she was meeting someone for again a photoshoot. That Robert
• 48:25
  Speaker 1: abducted Tammy and he would kill her, and her body
• 48:28
  Speaker 1: would be found on April twenty ninth, nineteen eighty four,
• 48:31
  Speaker 1: about one and a half miles from the Kanik Bridge.
• 48:35
  Speaker 1: Again assumed to be kidnapped, let go and pursued and killed.
• 48:40
  Speaker 1: And around this time investigators were starting to connect some
• 48:44
  Speaker 1: dots and Cherry Morrow's body had been found in September
• 48:48
  Speaker 1: of nineteen eighty two and the shell casings that both
• 48:51
  Speaker 1: crime scenes were matching, so a task force was being discussed,
• 48:55
  Speaker 1: but they still at this point had no suspects, so
• 48:58
  Speaker 1: Robert continued. Angela Fettern would be twenty four years old
• 49:02
  Speaker 1: and worked as a dancer on Fourth Avenue, near the
• 49:05
  Speaker 1: heart of Anchorage's nightlife district, which was also Robert's primary
• 49:09
  Speaker 1: hunting ground as we know, and Angela would disappear around
• 49:13
  Speaker 1: February of nineteen eighty three and wasn't reported missing for months,
• 49:17
  Speaker 1: a tragically common outcome for women in that line of work,
• 49:21
  Speaker 1: but her body would be found on April twenty sixth,
• 49:23
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four at Figure eight Lake. So by nineteen
• 49:26
  Speaker 1: eighty three, Robert had been killing for over a decade
• 49:30
  Speaker 1: and was forty three years old, But nineteen eighty three
• 49:33
  Speaker 1: was going to be a special gear because even as
• 49:37
  Speaker 1: Robert was still getting away with more murders, Robert's time
• 49:41
  Speaker 1: was running out, thankfully, so Delenn Frey, known by her
• 49:44
  Speaker 1: nickname Sugar, was twenty two years old, and de Lynn
• 49:48
  Speaker 1: was last seen sometime in March of nineteen eighty three
• 49:51
  Speaker 1: and wasn't reported missing right away, similar to some of
• 49:54
  Speaker 1: the other girls. And Dylnn's body was found on August twentieth,
• 49:57
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty five on a kinik her sandbar by a
• 50:01
  Speaker 1: pilot who was out practicing landings with new tires. And
• 50:04
  Speaker 1: Delynn was buried as a Jane Doe in Anchorage Cemetery,
• 50:08
  Speaker 1: and it wasn't until nineteen eighty nine, four years after
• 50:12
  Speaker 1: day Lynn was found, that day Lynn was finally identified,
• 50:15
  Speaker 1: and only because of jewelry visible in a case file photograph.
• 50:19
  Speaker 1: Now Teresa Watson was twenty two years old, last seen
• 50:23
  Speaker 1: in Anchorage on March twenty fifth, nineteen eighty three, and
• 50:26
  Speaker 1: just before Teresa disappeared, she told her roommates she was
• 50:29
  Speaker 1: going to meet a man that was going to pay
• 50:31
  Speaker 1: her three hundred dollars for an hour or two of company.
• 50:34
  Speaker 1: And Robert then took Teresa to the Kenai Peninsula and
• 50:37
  Speaker 1: murdered her there, But this time Robert was sloppy and
• 50:41
  Speaker 1: the ground was too frozen to dig properly, so Robert
• 50:45
  Speaker 1: just left Teresa's body there to freeze and disappear into
• 50:49
  Speaker 1: the snow, but Teresa's body would be found April twenty sixth,
• 50:52
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four. So Robert was killing at an accelerated pace. Angela,
• 50:57
  Speaker 1: Feedtern daylyn Frey, and Teresa wats In all within just
• 51:01
  Speaker 1: a few months. And this is what we see with
• 51:03
  Speaker 1: a lot of serial killers. They just keep escalating and
• 51:06
  Speaker 1: the cool down period gets shorter and shorter as time
• 51:09
  Speaker 1: goes on, more often than not. But Robert was driven
• 51:12
  Speaker 1: by it, almost addicted to it at this point. But
• 51:16
  Speaker 1: he was now on borrowed time, and in June nineteen
• 51:19
  Speaker 1: eighty three things were about to change. So Paula Golding
• 51:22
  Speaker 1: was thirty years old and she was a dancer working
• 51:25
  Speaker 1: clubs on Fourth Avenue, just like many of Robert's victims.
• 51:29
  Speaker 1: And Robert lured Paula on April twenty fifth, nineteen eighty three,
• 51:32
  Speaker 1: and drove her to Merrill Field, where Robert kept his
• 51:36
  Speaker 1: plane parked. And Robert then flew Paula out to a
• 51:39
  Speaker 1: remote location in the wilderness. And that's where things went
• 51:43
  Speaker 1: wrong for him, because Paula fought back, and Paula broke
• 51:47
  Speaker 1: free and ran trying to disappear into the wilderness and Robert,
• 51:52
  Speaker 1: who was experienced with fleeing victims, would unfortunately shoot Paula
• 51:56
  Speaker 1: in the back with his two two three rifle. And
• 51:58
  Speaker 1: here's a detail. Investigators noted when Paula's body was found,
• 52:03
  Speaker 1: her clothes were undamaged, meaning Paula had fled well nude
• 52:08
  Speaker 1: and Robert had again dressed her body afterward. But her
• 52:12
  Speaker 1: body wouldn't be discovered until September two, nineteen eighty three,
• 52:16
  Speaker 1: buried in a shallow grave on the banks of the
• 52:18
  Speaker 1: Kanik River, almost exactly one year after Sherry Morrow's body
• 52:23
  Speaker 1: had been found in the same area. And when ballistics
• 52:26
  Speaker 1: tested the shell casings near Paula, they matched Sherry Morrow's,
• 52:30
  Speaker 1: the same gun, the same killer, the same hunting grounds.
• 52:34
  Speaker 1: So the discovery of Paula's body shifted everything, and investigators
• 52:38
  Speaker 1: now understood they weren't dealing with a random string of murders.
• 52:42
  Speaker 1: There was a serial killer methodically hunting young women, and
• 52:46
  Speaker 1: the FBI was contacted and a formal task force was created. Finally,
• 52:51
  Speaker 1: but investigators also had another piece of evidence sitting in
• 52:54
  Speaker 1: their files they didn't yet realize was connected. The testimony
• 52:59
  Speaker 1: of a seventeen year old girl named Cindy Paulson. But
• 53:03
  Speaker 1: before we get to Cindy, we need to talk about
• 53:05
  Speaker 1: the last known victim, who was only known as Horseshoe
• 53:09
  Speaker 1: Harriet for over thirty seven years, named after the area
• 53:14
  Speaker 1: near Horseshoe Lake where Robin's body was eventually found. But luckily,
• 53:18
  Speaker 1: in October of twenty twenty one, genetic genealogy finally gave
• 53:21
  Speaker 1: Robin a real name. Robin Pelke now Robin Pelke was
• 53:25
  Speaker 1: nineteen years old, born in Colorado in nineteen sixty three,
• 53:29
  Speaker 1: and Robin had moved to Arkansas as a teenager and
• 53:32
  Speaker 1: then relocated to Alaska in nineteen eighty one, drawn in
• 53:35
  Speaker 1: by the opportunities of the Last Frontier, and Robin was
• 53:38
  Speaker 1: living in Anchorage during the period when Robert was on
• 53:41
  Speaker 1: his worst murder spree, and no missing persons report was
• 53:45
  Speaker 1: ever filed for Robin. Another tragically common detail among Robert's
• 53:49
  Speaker 1: victims that Robin was a young woman just starting to
• 53:53
  Speaker 1: build a life with no deep roots in the community yet,
• 53:56
  Speaker 1: and she would disappear at some point in nineteen eighty three,
• 54:00
  Speaker 1: would kidnap Robin from downtown Anchorage, and then he would
• 54:04
  Speaker 1: fly Robin in the Piper super cub out to Horseshoe
• 54:07
  Speaker 1: Lake and he would then murder Robin's stabbing and shooting
• 54:11
  Speaker 1: her before discarding of her body near the lake. And
• 54:14
  Speaker 1: Robin's body would be found April twenty fifth, nineteen eighty four,
• 54:18
  Speaker 1: and her remains would be buried as Jane Doe at
• 54:21
  Speaker 1: the Anchorage Memorial Park Cemetery. And in twenty fourteen, Robin's
• 54:24
  Speaker 1: DNA was run through the FBI's CODs database with no results.
• 54:29
  Speaker 1: But finally, like I said, in twenty twenty one, genetic
• 54:32
  Speaker 1: genealogy cracked it and Robin Pelke finally got her name back,
• 54:35
  Speaker 1: and the Alaska Department of Public Safety then purchased a
• 54:38
  Speaker 1: new grave marker for Robin, replacing Jane Doe with Robin's
• 54:41
  Speaker 1: actual name. So Robert's killing spree was getting worse and
• 54:44
  Speaker 1: more frequent, and investigators were starting to piece things together now.
• 54:48
  Speaker 1: But on June thirteenth, nineteen eighty three, Robert would finally
• 54:52
  Speaker 1: make a mistake. Robert picked up a girl named Cindy Paulson.
• 54:56
  Speaker 1: Now Cindy Paulson was seventeen years old in the summer
• 55:00
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three, living in Anchorage with her mother and
• 55:03
  Speaker 1: trying to survive in a city that was unforgiving for
• 55:06
  Speaker 1: young girls on their own, and Cindy had turned to
• 55:09
  Speaker 1: six work to get by, dancing and working the Fourth
• 55:12
  Speaker 1: Avenue Strip, the same stretch where Robert Hanson, as we know,
• 55:16
  Speaker 1: had been quietly hunting his victims for years. And on
• 55:19
  Speaker 1: the night of June thirteenth, nineteen eighty three, Cindy crossed
• 55:22
  Speaker 1: paths with Robert Hanson, and it was late in the
• 55:25
  Speaker 1: evening when Robert pulled his car up to where Cindy
• 55:28
  Speaker 1: was standing. And Robert himself was a small, unimposing man
• 55:31
  Speaker 1: with glasses and a stutter who didn't immediately scream danger,
• 55:35
  Speaker 1: and he would offer Cindy two hundred dollars for fillatio,
• 55:39
  Speaker 1: just straightforward to the point, and nothing Cindy hadn't heard before,
• 55:44
  Speaker 1: so she agreed and got into his car. But as
• 55:47
  Speaker 1: they pulled away, Robert reached for a large revolver and
• 55:50
  Speaker 1: pointed the long barrel directly at Cindy's face, and before
• 55:54
  Speaker 1: Cindy could react, handcuffs snapped around her wrists and she
• 55:59
  Speaker 1: immediately started to fight back, trying to pull away, but
• 56:02
  Speaker 1: Cindy didn't struggle too hard, terrified Robert would discharge the
• 56:06
  Speaker 1: weapon by accident, potentially or on purpose. So Robert told
• 56:10
  Speaker 1: Cindy that if she cooperated and didn't cause any problems,
• 56:14
  Speaker 1: he wouldn't hurt her. It was an obvious lie, the
• 56:17
  Speaker 1: same lie that Robert had told the other women who
• 56:19
  Speaker 1: were now in shallow graves throughout the Alaskan wilderness. So
• 56:23
  Speaker 1: Robert would drive Cindy to his home on Old Harbor
• 56:25
  Speaker 1: Road in Muldoon, and Darla and the kids were away
• 56:28
  Speaker 1: on a trip to Europe, so the house was completely empty,
• 56:32
  Speaker 1: just Robert and Cindy, and once inside, Cindy took in
• 56:35
  Speaker 1: every detail around her despite what she was experiencing mounted
• 56:39
  Speaker 1: animal heads everywhere, antlers, stuffed caribou and goat heads, wolfskins,
• 56:44
  Speaker 1: fish trophies, a hunter's den, and Cidy also noted a
• 56:48
  Speaker 1: dead end sign visible from the street, bars on some windows,
• 56:52
  Speaker 1: and a station wagon in the driveway. So Robert then
• 56:55
  Speaker 1: took Cindy to the basement, handcuffed her to a support
• 56:58
  Speaker 1: beam and tied a rope around on Cindy's neck secured
• 57:01
  Speaker 1: to a coffee table, making sure she was completely immobilized.
• 57:06
  Speaker 1: And that is when Robert would unfortunatelys and torture Cindy
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: four hours alternating between violence and telling Cindy that if
• 57:14
  Speaker 1: she cooperated, everything would be fine, And at some point
• 57:18
  Speaker 1: Robert fell asleep on a nearby mattress because Robert knew
• 57:22
  Speaker 1: Cindy wasn't going anywhere, and he planned to finish the
• 57:25
  Speaker 1: job in the morning, flying Cindy out to the wilderness,
• 57:28
  Speaker 1: just like Robert had done with so many others. So
• 57:31
  Speaker 1: in the early morning hours of June fourteenth, nineteen eighty three,
• 57:35
  Speaker 1: Robert woke up and loaded Cindy into the car, and
• 57:38
  Speaker 1: she was still cuffed, and she had no shoes because
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: Cindy had deliberately left her shoes on the floor of
• 57:44
  Speaker 1: the car earlier, hoping they might serve as evidence if
• 57:48
  Speaker 1: she didn't survive what was coming. Just an extremely strong, brave,
• 57:53
  Speaker 1: smart woman. I just ah man. I can't even imagine
• 57:57
  Speaker 1: what she was thinking during these moments. But Robert would
• 57:59
  Speaker 1: drive so to Merrillfield, the small airport on Anchorage's east
• 58:03
  Speaker 1: side where he kept his Piper Supercup, because this was
• 58:06
  Speaker 1: his routine done multiple times before. He didn't really have
• 58:10
  Speaker 1: a worry in the world. And they arrived around five
• 58:12
  Speaker 1: a m. And Robert parked the car and told Cindy
• 58:16
  Speaker 1: to stay put and threatened that if she ran, he
• 58:19
  Speaker 1: would kill her immediately, and then walked away from the
• 58:23
  Speaker 1: car to begin prepping the plane to take off, and
• 58:26
  Speaker 1: Cindy watched methodically as Robert moved away, and seeing Robert
• 58:30
  Speaker 1: only from the waisted down as he circled the plane,
• 58:34
  Speaker 1: so she would calculate the odds, and she noticed the
• 58:37
  Speaker 1: driver's side door was open, so Cindy would crawl from
• 58:41
  Speaker 1: the back seat into the front seat and open the
• 58:44
  Speaker 1: driver's side door and start to run, and Robert would
• 58:48
  Speaker 1: spot Cindy almost immediately and yelled for her to stop,
• 58:52
  Speaker 1: gun in hand, but Cindy was fast, running like her
• 58:57
  Speaker 1: life depended on it, because it did, and Cindy didn't
• 59:00
  Speaker 1: slow down, and she didn't look back. She just ran
• 59:04
  Speaker 1: and she made it onto sixth Avenue, a main road
• 59:07
  Speaker 1: near the airfield, and then, as if by sheer fate
• 59:11
  Speaker 1: by miracle, a pickup truck appeared and the driver saw
• 59:15
  Speaker 1: a teenage girl running barefoot down the road at five
• 59:18
  Speaker 1: am with handcuffs on her wrists and immediately knew something
• 59:22
  Speaker 1: was terribly wrong. So the driver pulled over and Cindy
• 59:25
  Speaker 1: jumped in and told the driver to go, and Robert
• 59:28
  Speaker 1: saw the witness and stopped pursuing Cindy walking back to
• 59:32
  Speaker 1: the plane, and the driver wanted to take her straight
• 59:34
  Speaker 1: to the police station, but Cindy wasn't ready for that
• 59:37
  Speaker 1: because she was traumatized and exhausted and terrified, so she
• 59:42
  Speaker 1: begged the driver to take her to the mush In,
• 59:45
  Speaker 1: a motel on Gamble Street where she knew some people
• 59:48
  Speaker 1: staying there. So the driver dropped her off and then
• 59:51
  Speaker 1: went directly to the police station himself to report what
• 59:54
  Speaker 1: he had seen. And meanwhile, a security guard at Meryllfield
• 59:57
  Speaker 1: had noticed the suspicious activity and noted down the car's
• 1:00:01
  Speaker 1: license tag, and when police eventually got to Cindy, she
• 1:00:05
  Speaker 1: herself would be the one to identify the plane it's make,
• 1:00:08
  Speaker 1: its color, and its tail number, all from memory, despite
• 1:00:12
  Speaker 1: everything she had been through. So Cindy made her way
• 1:00:16
  Speaker 1: from the mush Inn to the nearby Big Timber motel
• 1:00:19
  Speaker 1: where Cindy had originally been staying. Still handcuffed by the
• 1:00:22
  Speaker 1: way and still barefoot that she called her boyfriend to
• 1:00:26
  Speaker 1: try to calm down, and it wasn't long before Anchorage
• 1:00:28
  Speaker 1: police officer Greg Baker tracked Cindy down and found her
• 1:00:32
  Speaker 1: in room one ten of the Big Timber Motel, still
• 1:00:35
  Speaker 1: in handcuffs, still without shoes, and Cindy then told off
• 1:00:39
  Speaker 1: of Sir Baker everything and she described a small man
• 1:00:43
  Speaker 1: with glasses in a stutter, and she described the car,
• 1:00:46
  Speaker 1: the house, the animal trophies everywhere, the plane and the airport.
• 1:00:50
  Speaker 1: And Cindy mentioned the shoes because she had left them
• 1:00:53
  Speaker 1: deliberately so that when investigators looked they would find them.
• 1:00:57
  Speaker 1: And when investigators ran the plane's registration and the car description,
• 1:01:01
  Speaker 1: everything pointed to the same man, Robert Hanson. So Robert
• 1:01:06
  Speaker 1: Hanson was brought in for questioning, and the allocations were
• 1:01:10
  Speaker 1: naturally serious, kidnapping, an attempted murder, and Robert sat across
• 1:01:15
  Speaker 1: from Anchorage police detectives and denied everything. Sure. Robert admitted
• 1:01:20
  Speaker 1: he had been at Merrillfield that morning and he was
• 1:01:24
  Speaker 1: a pilot going about his business. But that girl. Robert
• 1:01:28
  Speaker 1: had never seen Cindy Paulson before in his life, and
• 1:01:31
  Speaker 1: Robert suggested Cindy was probably trying to shake Robert down
• 1:01:34
  Speaker 1: for money or something, a lady of the night looking
• 1:01:38
  Speaker 1: for a payday, and Robert had an alibi. Two friends,
• 1:01:43
  Speaker 1: John Henning and John Sumrell came forward and backed Robert
• 1:01:47
  Speaker 1: up completely equally as evil was Robert, by the way,
• 1:01:51
  Speaker 1: claiming Robert had been with them on the night in question,
• 1:01:54
  Speaker 1: so there was no way that Robert could have been
• 1:01:56
  Speaker 1: picking up anyone on Fourth Avenue. But as we know,
• 1:01:59
  Speaker 1: the Salaba I was completely fabricated. But investigators had to
• 1:02:03
  Speaker 1: make a choice. On one side, a seventeen year old
• 1:02:05
  Speaker 1: lady of the night with a horrifying story but a
• 1:02:07
  Speaker 1: background that to many people at the time meant her
• 1:02:10
  Speaker 1: word counted for less. And on the other side, a
• 1:02:14
  Speaker 1: respected baker, a now forty four year old man who
• 1:02:17
  Speaker 1: loved his community and was known by the officers who
• 1:02:20
  Speaker 1: came in for coffee. So investigators chose Robert's sighed had
• 1:02:25
  Speaker 1: no charges were filed, and Robert was released and the
• 1:02:29
  Speaker 1: case was essentially thrown out and Cindy Paulsen was sent
• 1:02:34
  Speaker 1: back to the streets. And despite everything Cindy had survived,
• 1:02:38
  Speaker 1: no one believed her and nothing was done. So Robert
• 1:02:41
  Speaker 1: returned to his life as if absolutely nothing happened. Because
• 1:02:45
  Speaker 1: for Robert nothing had changed. He was still a killer
• 1:02:49
  Speaker 1: and he wasn't done. So Robert would go on to
• 1:02:51
  Speaker 1: murder at least two or three more women in the
• 1:02:54
  Speaker 1: weeks and months following Cindy's escape, including Robin Pelke, who
• 1:02:59
  Speaker 1: Robert killed just a few weeks later. But Cindy's story
• 1:03:03
  Speaker 1: wasn't over because someone else had read the report and
• 1:03:06
  Speaker 1: felt deep in his gut that there was a pattern here,
• 1:03:10
  Speaker 1: that someone was a man, and that someone was a
• 1:03:13
  Speaker 1: man named Glenn Floth. Now Glenn was a sergeant with
• 1:03:17
  Speaker 1: the Alaskan State Troopers, and by September of nineteen eighty three,
• 1:03:20
  Speaker 1: Glenn kept finding bodies and he was assigned to a
• 1:03:24
  Speaker 1: task force investigating a series of murders in and around Anchorage,
• 1:03:28
  Speaker 1: Seward and the Matanuskas a sit in a valley. Every
• 1:03:31
  Speaker 1: single victim was a woman, and most of them were
• 1:03:34
  Speaker 1: dancers or ladies of the night from Anchorage's Fourth Avenue scene.
• 1:03:38
  Speaker 1: The patterns were just undeniable, and the majority of these
• 1:03:41
  Speaker 1: victims had been killed in or transported to the remote
• 1:03:44
  Speaker 1: wilderness and Etklutna. Annie had been found in July of
• 1:03:48
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty and then Joanna Messina, then Cherry Morrow in
• 1:03:52
  Speaker 1: September of nineteen eighty two, then Paula Golding on September second,
• 1:03:56
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty three near the Kanik River, and the ballistics
• 1:03:59
  Speaker 1: were clear. Sherry Morrow and Paula Golding had been killed
• 1:04:03
  Speaker 1: with the same weapon, a two two three caliber rifle.
• 1:04:06
  Speaker 1: Someone was doing this methodically and deliberately. This was the
• 1:04:10
  Speaker 1: work of a serial killer, but Floff had no suspects
• 1:04:13
  Speaker 1: until he read the file on a young girl, until
• 1:04:16
  Speaker 1: she had escaped from a man who handcuffed raved and
• 1:04:19
  Speaker 1: tried to load her into a bush plane in the
• 1:04:21
  Speaker 1: early hours of the morning. Everything Cindy Paulsen described the house,
• 1:04:26
  Speaker 1: the hunting trophies, the soundproof basement, to the plane. It
• 1:04:29
  Speaker 1: was just too specific, too detailed, and too consistent to dismiss.
• 1:04:34
  Speaker 1: So Flowth pulled Robert Hanson's background first guy yet swear
• 1:04:38
  Speaker 1: to God and actually looked at his criminal records. The
• 1:04:41
  Speaker 1: nineteen seventy one arrest for assault and the psychiatric diagnosis,
• 1:04:46
  Speaker 1: the petty theft arrests, the instability, the diagnoses. Robert Hanson
• 1:04:51
  Speaker 1: was not the respectable citizen he pretended to be, and
• 1:04:54
  Speaker 1: Floth was determined to prove it. So Glenn Floth knew
• 1:04:58
  Speaker 1: he needed more help. What was happening in Anchorage was
• 1:05:01
  Speaker 1: bigger than a small task force could handle alone, so
• 1:05:04
  Speaker 1: he reached out to the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, Virginia,
• 1:05:08
  Speaker 1: a unit known for pioneering the field of criminal profiling,
• 1:05:11
  Speaker 1: and the FBI sent special Agent John E. Douglas, one
• 1:05:14
  Speaker 1: of the founding fathers of criminal profiling and a man
• 1:05:17
  Speaker 1: who would go on to expire characters in countless books
• 1:05:20
  Speaker 1: and films about serial killers. Now, John Douglas and his
• 1:05:24
  Speaker 1: team reviewed everything. Glenn provided crime scene evidence, autopsy reports,
• 1:05:28
  Speaker 1: shell casings, burial locations, and victim profiles, and then they
• 1:05:32
  Speaker 1: built a psychological portrait of the killer. The profile described
• 1:05:36
  Speaker 1: someone with low self esteem and a history of being
• 1:05:39
  Speaker 1: rejected by women, someone who was an experienced hunter with
• 1:05:42
  Speaker 1: access to a bush plane, and specifically and unusually, someone
• 1:05:47
  Speaker 1: with a stutter or speech impediment. I shit you not,
• 1:05:51
  Speaker 1: they profiled that a little girl that watched criminal lines
• 1:05:53
  Speaker 1: in me is just it's crazy that that is actually real. This,
• 1:05:57
  Speaker 1: like the profiling thing is actually real and it really works.
• 1:05:59
  Speaker 1: It's blowing and I respect the shit out of it.
• 1:06:01
  Speaker 1: So Glenn then compared the profile to everything he knew
• 1:06:05
  Speaker 1: about Robert Hanson, and the match was nearly perfect. Hanson
• 1:06:11
  Speaker 1: was all these things and his documented stutter alone was
• 1:06:14
  Speaker 1: remarkably specific, as I just said, but fitting a profile
• 1:06:17
  Speaker 1: wasn't enough to get a search warrant, as we know,
• 1:06:19
  Speaker 1: and Glenn needed to dismantle Robert's alibi first. So Glenn
• 1:06:23
  Speaker 1: knew he had his man, but he couldn't just point
• 1:06:26
  Speaker 1: and say guilty. Glenn needed the evidence to back it up.
• 1:06:30
  Speaker 1: So in late September of nineteen eighty three, he conducted
• 1:06:33
  Speaker 1: a detailed interview with Cindy Poulson, And unlike the Anchorage
• 1:06:37
  Speaker 1: police detectives who had dismissed Cindy before, Glenn approached Cindy
• 1:06:41
  Speaker 1: as a credible witness whose testimony actually mattered. And the
• 1:06:45
  Speaker 1: interview was extensive, and Cindy walked through every single detail,
• 1:06:49
  Speaker 1: the car, the handcuffs, the gun, the house, the basement,
• 1:06:51
  Speaker 1: the trophies, the plane, and Cindy's account was so precise
• 1:06:54
  Speaker 1: and so consistent and so thorough that Glenn had absolutely
• 1:06:58
  Speaker 1: zero doubt Cindy was telling the truth. And Glenn then
• 1:07:01
  Speaker 1: turned to John Henning and John Sumral, the two men
• 1:07:05
  Speaker 1: who had provided Robert's alibi, and Glenn didn't approach gently.
• 1:07:08
  Speaker 1: Let's just say that he made it clear that providing
• 1:07:11
  Speaker 1: a false alibi in a murder investigation was a serious crime,
• 1:07:15
  Speaker 1: and that both men could be charged with perjury, and
• 1:07:18
  Speaker 1: that got there to endin pretty fast, and both men
• 1:07:20
  Speaker 1: immediately dropped the act and admitted they had lied, and
• 1:07:24
  Speaker 1: both said Robert had asked them to cover for him,
• 1:07:27
  Speaker 1: and both said they thought they were just helping a
• 1:07:29
  Speaker 1: friend avoid an awkward situation with a lady of the
• 1:07:32
  Speaker 1: night and they had no idea Robert might be connected
• 1:07:35
  Speaker 1: to actual murders, you know, Okay, whatever, dude. So with
• 1:07:38
  Speaker 1: the alibi recanted, Robert's story completely collapsed. And on top
• 1:07:43
  Speaker 1: of that, the forensic evidence the two two three shell
• 1:07:46
  Speaker 1: casings near Sherrymorrow and Paula pointed to a specific weapon,
• 1:07:49
  Speaker 1: likely a Ruger Many fourteen. So if investigators could find
• 1:07:53
  Speaker 1: that rifle inside Robert's home, they'd have a direct physical
• 1:07:56
  Speaker 1: link to the murders, but they needed to warrant. And
• 1:07:59
  Speaker 1: the application Glenn put together was extraordinary, running over forty
• 1:08:04
  Speaker 1: eight pages. So Glenn included Robert's full criminal history, going
• 1:08:08
  Speaker 1: all the way back to the nineteen sixty arson and forward,
• 1:08:12
  Speaker 1: just building the most comprehensive possible picture of one man's
• 1:08:15
  Speaker 1: entire dangerous history, and the judge reviewed it and approved
• 1:08:19
  Speaker 1: the warrant immediately, and on October twenty seventh, nineteen eighty three,
• 1:08:23
  Speaker 1: the hunt for the hunter was about to end. So
• 1:08:25
  Speaker 1: at eight am on October twenty seventh, nineteen eighty three,
• 1:08:28
  Speaker 1: Robert Hansen was arrested at his bakery, transporting him to
• 1:08:32
  Speaker 1: the Alaska State Trooper station for questioning. And while that
• 1:08:36
  Speaker 1: was happening, a separate team of investigators entered Robert's home
• 1:08:39
  Speaker 1: on Old Harbor Road and began to search. And the
• 1:08:43
  Speaker 1: team had a warrant to search for weapons, jewelry, and
• 1:08:46
  Speaker 1: anything that would connect Robert to the murdered women, and
• 1:08:49
  Speaker 1: they found exactly what they were looking for. The hunting
• 1:08:52
  Speaker 1: trophies were immediately obvious. It's consistent with Cindy Poulsen's descriptions,
• 1:08:57
  Speaker 1: but the investigators weren't looking for taxis. They searched methodically,
• 1:09:02
  Speaker 1: checking under floorboards, looking inside hidden compartments, examining every possible
• 1:09:07
  Speaker 1: space where evidence could be concealed, and in the attic
• 1:09:10
  Speaker 1: hidden under the insulation, they found jewelry, cheaper jewelry, the
• 1:09:15
  Speaker 1: kind that women working the nightclub scene might wear to
• 1:09:18
  Speaker 1: dress up. And as investigators examined the pieces, the descriptions
• 1:09:22
  Speaker 1: started matching an arrowhead necklace matching the description of Sherry Morrow,
• 1:09:27
  Speaker 1: a fish shaped necklace matching the description of Andrea pish Altary.
• 1:09:32
  Speaker 1: These weren't random stolen items, these were trophies from victims,
• 1:09:36
  Speaker 1: and along with the jewelry, they found firearms hidden in
• 1:09:39
  Speaker 1: the attic, and at the center of the collection was
• 1:09:42
  Speaker 1: the Ruger Mini fourteen chambered in two two three matt.
• 1:09:47
  Speaker 1: Rifle was sent immediately to the ballistics lab and the
• 1:09:49
  Speaker 1: results came back quickly, the same gun that killed Cherry
• 1:09:53
  Speaker 1: Morrow and Paula Golding. But the most chilling discovery was
• 1:09:57
  Speaker 1: still to come because hidden behind them headboard of the
• 1:10:01
  Speaker 1: bed Robert shared with Darla was an aviation map of
• 1:10:05
  Speaker 1: the Anchorage area and a first glance it looked completely normal,
• 1:10:09
  Speaker 1: but at a closer look revealed something horrifying. Thirty seven
• 1:10:14
  Speaker 1: X marks dotted all across the map near Horseshoe Lake
• 1:10:19
  Speaker 1: near Kinnick River and scattered out into the wilderness in
• 1:10:22
  Speaker 1: every single direction, and two of the marks lined up
• 1:10:26
  Speaker 1: perfectly with where Sherry Morrow and Paula Goulding had been found,
• 1:10:30
  Speaker 1: and a third match where Joanna Messina's body had been
• 1:10:33
  Speaker 1: discovered in nineteen eighty. So the evidence was just overwhelming,
• 1:10:37
  Speaker 1: and the jewelry, the map, the rifle of the ballistics,
• 1:10:39
  Speaker 1: Robert's mask was gone, and now investigators had to make
• 1:10:43
  Speaker 1: Robert talk. So while a search of Robert's home was underway,
• 1:10:47
  Speaker 1: he was sitting in an interview room at the Alaska
• 1:10:49
  Speaker 1: State Trooper Station waiting for questioning. And Glenn had been
• 1:10:53
  Speaker 1: preparing for this moment four months at this point, and
• 1:10:56
  Speaker 1: the room was carefully staged following guidance from the FBI's
• 1:10:59
  Speaker 1: behavior experts, and maps of the Kinnick River areas were
• 1:11:03
  Speaker 1: hung up on the walls, and photographs of grave sites
• 1:11:06
  Speaker 1: were displayed alongside pictures of the actual victims, and files
• 1:11:10
  Speaker 1: and folders stacked at the desk visibly labeled with names,
• 1:11:15
  Speaker 1: victims' names, friends' names, families names. They were playing a
• 1:11:20
  Speaker 1: crazy psychological game with Robert, all right, So Robert was
• 1:11:23
  Speaker 1: placed alone in the room and left to sit in silence,
• 1:11:27
  Speaker 1: to think, to get uncomfortable. And Robert's reaction was not
• 1:11:31
  Speaker 1: that of an innocent man surrounded by evidence of murders
• 1:11:34
  Speaker 1: he didn't commit. He wasn't panicked or confused. He studied
• 1:11:39
  Speaker 1: the information around the room with what appeared to be
• 1:11:42
  Speaker 1: a genuine interest, and then Glenn and Sergeant Darryl Gallion
• 1:11:46
  Speaker 1: entered and began the interrogation, and for four hours, Robert
• 1:11:50
  Speaker 1: maintained innocence. He was just a humble baker or a
• 1:11:54
  Speaker 1: kind family man, a respected businessman. He couldn't possibly have
• 1:11:58
  Speaker 1: hurt anyone. Hours was still denying everything, stuttering through denial,
• 1:12:04
  Speaker 1: and meanwhile, across town, the ballistics lab had confirmed what
• 1:12:07
  Speaker 1: investigators already suspected Roberts Ruger Many fourteen was the murder weapon,
• 1:12:13
  Speaker 1: and prosecutors Frank Rothschilds and Victor Crumb then joined the
• 1:12:17
  Speaker 1: interrogation and laid everything on the table, the matching bullets,
• 1:12:21
  Speaker 1: the trophy jewelry, the map with the X marks. They
• 1:12:24
  Speaker 1: told Robert they could do this the easy way or
• 1:12:27
  Speaker 1: the hard way. Come spring, when the snow melted, they'd
• 1:12:30
  Speaker 1: bring the dogs out to every single mark on the map,
• 1:12:34
  Speaker 1: build case after case, and drag Robert through potentially seventeen
• 1:12:39
  Speaker 1: separate murder trials, each one more humiliating in public than
• 1:12:43
  Speaker 1: the last. And Darla, Robert's children, and Robert's friends, every
• 1:12:47
  Speaker 1: member of the Anchorage community, all of them would know
• 1:12:50
  Speaker 1: exactly what Robert Hansen had done. And then something happened,
• 1:12:55
  Speaker 1: and Frank Rothschild would later describe it, Robert's neck turned red,
• 1:12:59
  Speaker 1: the harold the back of his neck stood up, and
• 1:13:01
  Speaker 1: the mild manner baker disappeared, and for a moment, the
• 1:13:05
  Speaker 1: real Robert Hanson was visible, boiling over with anger. And
• 1:13:09
  Speaker 1: then Robert broke and he admitted to killing seventeen women,
• 1:13:14
  Speaker 1: and he admitted to at least thirty others without killing them.
• 1:13:19
  Speaker 1: And Robert described the methods, the lure, the handcuffs, the plane,
• 1:13:23
  Speaker 1: the remote locations, the hunting, and he spoke about these
• 1:13:27
  Speaker 1: killings with a disturbing emotional detachment, at one point telling
• 1:13:31
  Speaker 1: investigators his plan had been to make that year's summertime
• 1:13:35
  Speaker 1: project kidnapping and killing women, describing murdering human beings as
• 1:13:42
  Speaker 1: a seasonal hobby, and his reasoning for some of the
• 1:13:45
  Speaker 1: killings was that the victims fought back and their panic
• 1:13:49
  Speaker 1: just set them off, and if they tried to escape,
• 1:13:51
  Speaker 1: he had to kill them. It was their fault and
• 1:13:55
  Speaker 1: Robert's twisted logic. If they cooperated, they were good girls
• 1:13:59
  Speaker 1: and he would return them alive. But the ones who
• 1:14:01
  Speaker 1: fought back got what they deserved according to Robert, and
• 1:14:05
  Speaker 1: what investigators couldn't reconcile were the ex marks because there
• 1:14:08
  Speaker 1: were thirty seven on the map and Robert had only
• 1:14:12
  Speaker 1: confessed to seventeen murders, but he wouldn't speak to the
• 1:14:15
  Speaker 1: additional marx and those marks remain unexplained to this day,
• 1:14:20
  Speaker 1: and it's widely believed they represent more victims than Robert
• 1:14:24
  Speaker 1: ever confessed to. The true number may never be known.
• 1:14:28
  Speaker 1: But with Robert's confession in hand and overwhelming physical evidence,
• 1:14:32
  Speaker 1: prosecutors had a decision to make. They could take him
• 1:14:35
  Speaker 1: to trial. They had strong cases on at least four murders,
• 1:14:38
  Speaker 1: Sherry Morrow, Paula Goulding, Joanna Messina and Eklutna Annie, because
• 1:14:43
  Speaker 1: they had jewelry, they had the ballistics, and they had
• 1:14:45
  Speaker 1: Robert's confession on tape. But trial or possibly seventeen separate
• 1:14:50
  Speaker 1: trials would be lengthy, expensive, and deeply traumatic, with each
• 1:14:54
  Speaker 1: family having to testify, and Cindy Poulsen, who had survived,
• 1:14:59
  Speaker 1: would have to take the stand and relive everything all
• 1:15:02
  Speaker 1: over again. And there was also the problem of the bodies,
• 1:15:05
  Speaker 1: because Robert had confessed to seventeen murders but only a
• 1:15:08
  Speaker 1: handful of victims had actually been found, and the families
• 1:15:11
  Speaker 1: of women like Sue and Teresa and Angela and others
• 1:15:15
  Speaker 1: had no idea where their loved ones were even buried,
• 1:15:19
  Speaker 1: and only Robert knew where those women were and if
• 1:15:22
  Speaker 1: prosecutors wanted that information, if those families were ever going
• 1:15:25
  Speaker 1: to have any sort of closure, they would have to
• 1:15:28
  Speaker 1: make a deal. So District Attorney Victor Crumb offered Robert
• 1:15:31
  Speaker 1: a plea bargain in exchange for a full confession in
• 1:15:34
  Speaker 1: Robert's cooperation and locating the remaining victims remains, he would
• 1:15:38
  Speaker 1: face formal charges on only four murders of Sherry, Johanna Paula,
• 1:15:43
  Speaker 1: and Eklutna, plus the kidnapping and of Cindy Paulson, and
• 1:15:48
  Speaker 1: all other charges would be dismissed, and Robert would also
• 1:15:52
  Speaker 1: be allowed to serve his sentence in a federal prison
• 1:15:55
  Speaker 1: outside of Alaska, away from the state prison population where
• 1:15:59
  Speaker 1: Robert feared for his safety shut up, and there would
• 1:16:03
  Speaker 1: be limited publicity, no press conferences, no purp walks, no
• 1:16:07
  Speaker 1: media circus, so he would be spared the public humiliation,
• 1:16:11
  Speaker 1: and Robert took the plea deal as part of the agreement,
• 1:16:14
  Speaker 1: he was taken out to the wilderness to help locate
• 1:16:16
  Speaker 1: burial sites, and on a winter day following his confession,
• 1:16:20
  Speaker 1: Robert was escorted to the Anchorage International Airport, loaded to
• 1:16:24
  Speaker 1: a military helicopter and flown out to sites marked on
• 1:16:28
  Speaker 1: his map, and at each location, Robert pointed out the
• 1:16:31
  Speaker 1: spot from memory, now buried under the snow, and investigators
• 1:16:36
  Speaker 1: marked every site for further excavation, and by the end
• 1:16:39
  Speaker 1: of that day, Robert had revealed the locations of twenty
• 1:16:43
  Speaker 1: previously unknown grave sites, and over the following months, investigators
• 1:16:47
  Speaker 1: returned to those sites and recovered seven bodies. Sue Luna
• 1:16:51
  Speaker 1: at the Kanik River on April twenty fourth, nineteen eighty four.
• 1:16:55
  Speaker 1: Malai Larsen at the parking area near the Old Kinik
• 1:16:58
  Speaker 1: Bridge also April to twenty fourth. Robin Pelke, still known
• 1:17:02
  Speaker 1: as Horseshoe Harriot at the time, near Horseshoe Lake on
• 1:17:06
  Speaker 1: April twenty fifth. Terry Watson on the Canai Peninsula on
• 1:17:09
  Speaker 1: April twenty sixth, Angela Fettern on Figure eight Lake on
• 1:17:13
  Speaker 1: April twenty sixth. Tammy Peterson one and a half miles
• 1:17:16
  Speaker 1: from the Old Kinnick Bridge on April twenty ninth, and
• 1:17:19
  Speaker 1: Lisa Foutrel south of the Old Kinnick Bridge on May ninth,
• 1:17:24
  Speaker 1: but not every body was recovered. Megan emeriic Mary phil
• 1:17:29
  Speaker 1: Roxanne Eastland, and Andrea fish Alteri were never found and
• 1:17:33
  Speaker 1: they still have not been found. So on February eighteenth,
• 1:17:36
  Speaker 1: nineteen eighty four, Robert Hanson stood in front of the
• 1:17:39
  Speaker 1: Anchorage courtroom and pleaded guilty four counts of first degree
• 1:17:43
  Speaker 1: murder with Sherry Morrow, Joanna Messina, Paula Goulding and Etlutna Annie,
• 1:17:48
  Speaker 1: plus the kidnapping n s Cindy Poulson, and all other
• 1:17:52
  Speaker 1: charges were dismissed per the plea Agreement, and a couple
• 1:17:55
  Speaker 1: of weeks later, on February twenty seventh, nineteen eighty four,
• 1:17:58
  Speaker 1: attorney's law enforcement to the press and the friends and
• 1:18:01
  Speaker 1: family of the victims packed into the courtroom as Superior
• 1:18:04
  Speaker 1: Court Judge Ralph E. Moody took his place at the
• 1:18:06
  Speaker 1: head of the room and Prosecutor Victor Crumb announced that
• 1:18:10
  Speaker 1: Robert Hansen had admitted to a string of serial murders
• 1:18:13
  Speaker 1: and people were brought to tears and Cindy Paulsen, the
• 1:18:17
  Speaker 1: young woman who escaped, was the reason any of this
• 1:18:20
  Speaker 1: had happened, ran out of the courtroom sobbing, and District
• 1:18:24
  Speaker 1: Attorney Frank Rothschild addressed the judge directly, and his words
• 1:18:28
  Speaker 1: have become one of the most memorable statements from any
• 1:18:31
  Speaker 1: serial killer case in Alaskan history, saying, quote your honor
• 1:18:36
  Speaker 1: before you sits a monster, an extreme aberration of a
• 1:18:40
  Speaker 1: human being, A man who has walked among us for
• 1:18:43
  Speaker 1: seventeen years, serving us doughnuts, Danish, and hot coffee, all
• 1:18:48
  Speaker 1: with a pleasant smile, mellow, mild, mannered, bespectacled Bob the Baker,
• 1:18:53
  Speaker 1: a family man, a man so cunning, so clever, that
• 1:18:57
  Speaker 1: his friends and acquaintances are in shock at what he
• 1:19:00
  Speaker 1: now admits before this court. Not even his wife of
• 1:19:02
  Speaker 1: twenty years had any idea of his dark, evil side.
• 1:19:06
  Speaker 1: His crimes numbed the mind. Hearing him tell of his crimes,
• 1:19:10
  Speaker 1: which we did last week for ten to twelve hours,
• 1:19:13
  Speaker 1: sapped the body of energy. It sapped the spirit unquote.
• 1:19:18
  Speaker 1: Rothschild's wanted the maximum possible sentence because Alaska had no
• 1:19:23
  Speaker 1: death penalty. Rothschild asked for life without parole on the
• 1:19:26
  Speaker 1: first murder count ninety nine years. On each of the
• 1:19:29
  Speaker 1: remaining three murder counts and thirty years for the ess,
• 1:19:33
  Speaker 1: which totaled to a sentence of life plus four hundred
• 1:19:36
  Speaker 1: and sixty one years it deserved. Robert's defense attorney Dewey,
• 1:19:41
  Speaker 1: had the simplest job in the room, saying, quote, your honor,
• 1:19:44
  Speaker 1: it's my client's wish and desire that nothing further be
• 1:19:47
  Speaker 1: said on his behalf at this proceeding by his counsel,
• 1:19:51
  Speaker 1: and that concludes my remarks unquote. And Judge Ralph Moody
• 1:19:55
  Speaker 1: then asked Robert directly if there was anything Robert wanted
• 1:19:58
  Speaker 1: to say. Rober had nothing to say, no apology, no remorse,
• 1:20:03
  Speaker 1: no plea for mercy, and Judge Moody was visibly horrified, standing, quote,
• 1:20:08
  Speaker 1: I cannot think of a bigger indictment of society than
• 1:20:12
  Speaker 1: we have here unquote, and specifically noting that Robert had
• 1:20:15
  Speaker 1: been arrested multiple times over the past twelve years on
• 1:20:18
  Speaker 1: chargers that should have kept Robert locked up for decades,
• 1:20:21
  Speaker 1: but instead Robert had walked free again and again, and
• 1:20:24
  Speaker 1: the systemic failure was a direct reason so many women
• 1:20:28
  Speaker 1: were dead, and Judge Moody sentenced Robert Hanson accordingly. So
• 1:20:33
  Speaker 1: as part of the plea agreement, Robert had requested to
• 1:20:35
  Speaker 1: serve his sentence in federal prison outside of Alaska, worried
• 1:20:39
  Speaker 1: about what would happen to him in a state prison
• 1:20:42
  Speaker 1: where inmates would know who Robert was and what he
• 1:20:45
  Speaker 1: had done, and his request was granted and he was
• 1:20:48
  Speaker 1: sent first to the United States Penitentiary in Louisbourg, Pennsylvania.
• 1:20:52
  Speaker 1: But Robert had trouble fitting in there, not because of
• 1:20:55
  Speaker 1: his stutter this time, but because the inmates knew what
• 1:20:58
  Speaker 1: Robert had done, because apparently he just didn't think that
• 1:21:01
  Speaker 1: news could travel at all, because he's an idiot. So
• 1:21:04
  Speaker 1: he would be transferred to Minnesota, where he would spend
• 1:21:07
  Speaker 1: the next several years, and eventually, in May of nineteen
• 1:21:10
  Speaker 1: eighty eight, Robert was transferred back to Alaska and he
• 1:21:13
  Speaker 1: went first to Lemon Creek Correctional Center in Juneo, where,
• 1:21:17
  Speaker 1: in a grim footnote, escape materials were later discovered in
• 1:21:21
  Speaker 1: Robert's cell, and then to the newly opened Spring Creek
• 1:21:24
  Speaker 1: Correctional Center in Seward, a maximum security facility that would
• 1:21:28
  Speaker 1: be Robert's home for the next two and a half decades.
• 1:21:32
  Speaker 1: And inside Spring Creek, Robert kept an extremely low profile
• 1:21:36
  Speaker 1: and he was compliant with staff, avoided disciplinary issues, participated
• 1:21:40
  Speaker 1: in various jobs and educational programs within the facility, and
• 1:21:43
  Speaker 1: rarely spoke about his crimes. And he also never apologized
• 1:21:48
  Speaker 1: because he still believed the women deserved what had happened
• 1:21:52
  Speaker 1: to them. By twenty fourteen, Robert's health was failing rapidly,
• 1:21:56
  Speaker 1: and he was seventy five years old at this point
• 1:21:58
  Speaker 1: in the decades were starting to catch and in May
• 1:22:01
  Speaker 1: of twenty fourteen, Robert was transferred from Spring Creek to
• 1:22:04
  Speaker 1: Anchorage Correctional Complex for medical care, and then the day
• 1:22:08
  Speaker 1: before Robert died, he was transferred once more, and this
• 1:22:11
  Speaker 1: time to the Alaska Regional Hospital, where Robert Christian Hanson
• 1:22:16
  Speaker 1: died on August twenty first, twenty fourteen, at approximately one
• 1:22:20
  Speaker 1: thirty a m of natural causes, and he had served
• 1:22:24
  Speaker 1: only thirty years of a sentence of life plus four
• 1:22:28
  Speaker 1: hundred and sixty one years. And Glenn, the man who
• 1:22:31
  Speaker 1: had finally caught Robert, issued a statement saying quote, on
• 1:22:35
  Speaker 1: this day, we should only remember his many victims and
• 1:22:38
  Speaker 1: all of their families, and my heart goes out to
• 1:22:41
  Speaker 1: all of them. As far as Hanson is concerned, this
• 1:22:44
  Speaker 1: world is better without him unquote, and Frank Rothschilds, the
• 1:22:48
  Speaker 1: prosecutor said nothing at all, and I don't blame him.
• 1:22:51
  Speaker 1: But Robert Hanson died quietly, without drama and without remorse.
• 1:22:55
  Speaker 1: But this isn't a story of a man who murdered this.
• 1:23:00
  Speaker 1: These were real people with families and long lives ahead
• 1:23:04
  Speaker 1: of them. Celia, Beth Vanzette, Megan Emrik, Mary phil the
• 1:23:08
  Speaker 1: women we still know only as a Klutna Annie, Joanna Messina,
• 1:23:12
  Speaker 1: Roxanne Eastland, Lisa, Betty Foutrel, Malaia Larson, Erry Morrow, Andrea Fish, Alteries,
• 1:23:18
  Speaker 1: Zue Luna, Tammy Peterson, Angela Fettern, Dylann Sugar Frey, Teresa Watson,
• 1:23:24
  Speaker 1: Paula Golding, Robin Pelke, and possibly others whose names we
• 1:23:29
  Speaker 1: will never know. But the Robert Hanson case shows what
• 1:23:33
  Speaker 1: can happen when society measures the credibility of a victim
• 1:23:37
  Speaker 1: based on how their life looks compared to someone else's,
• 1:23:41
  Speaker 1: which is so incredibly heartbreaking and unfortunate, because all human
• 1:23:47
  Speaker 1: beings matter. Different backgrounds may exist, but those backgrounds shouldn't
• 1:23:52
  Speaker 1: push aside a victim just because they weren't dealt a
• 1:23:55
  Speaker 1: better hand. Everyone who makes a claim deserves to be
• 1:23:58
  Speaker 1: taken seriously and heard, because the alternative we saw play
• 1:24:03
  Speaker 1: out in Alaska for over a decade is seventeen women
• 1:24:07
  Speaker 1: in shallow graves and a killer who kept baking bread
• 1:24:10
  Speaker 1: in the morning like nothing happened. Serial Killers aren't going away,
• 1:24:14
  Speaker 1: but neither is the truth. And sometimes the truth is
• 1:24:18
  Speaker 1: a girl running down sixth Avenue at five in the morning,
• 1:24:21
  Speaker 1: barefoot and handcuffed. And sometimes it just takes one person
• 1:24:26
  Speaker 1: willing to actually listen. But that is that. For the
• 1:24:31
  Speaker 1: Robert Hanson case, I say good riddance. He's dead and
• 1:24:37
  Speaker 1: I hope he's living life in hell somewhere because he
• 1:24:43
  Speaker 1: deserves it. But that is it for this episode. Let
• 1:24:46
  Speaker 1: me know what other cases you have and a deep
• 1:24:48
  Speaker 1: dive into I always read the comments, and until next time,
• 1:24:50
  Speaker 1: I will see you, beautiful face. Please stay safe out there,
• 1:24:52
  Speaker 1: all right bye.