Robert Hansen

February 14, 2003 - by Paul Sutherland

Alaska is one of the last great frontiers - greater than France, Germany and Britain combined, but with a population smaller than Luxembourg. Anchorage is one such city within these thousands of square miles of wilderness that has a notorious Red Light district. Ever since the late 1970’s police had been receiving steady reports about missing prostitutes and topless dancers. Initially these disappearances caused little concern, as such girls were notorious for leaving at a moments notice, usually without telling anyone where they were going. However, police had grown concerned by the sheer number who had left high earning jobs mysteriously without a trace.

On 13 June 1983 a 19 yr old Anchorage prostitute called Cindy Paulson was touting for business on a street corner when she was approached by a pock marked, nervous looking small man who had a terrible stammer. When she agreed on a price with him, he asked for oral sex and she got into his pick up truck. As she was in the process of satisfying her client, she looked up and saw the barrel of a .357 magnum looking down at her. The man then produced a pair of handcuffs from underneath his seat and snapped them on to Cindy’s wrists. He then drove off through the leafy suburbs of Anchorage.

The truck eventually pulled up outside a large, blue-grey ranch style house, and the girl was forced inside. She was dragged down to a basement, and once down there, was confronted with a menagerie of icy stares. The basement walls were covered with sporting trophies. The man was a hunter. Cindy was handcuffed naked to a pillar in the centre of the room, and was repeatedly raped and sodomised for hours. The hunter then lay back on the sofa and fell asleep. When he finally awoke Cindy was made to dress, was re handcuffed and driven to the Merrill Field airport, where the truck pulled up alongside a small blue and white aircraft. On the way the hunter had told Cindy that they were going to fly up to the hunters cabin in the Alaskan wilderness. He boasted that he had taken lots of girls up there, “for fun”. Cindy saw her chance to escape as they arrived at the plane, and the hunter got out. She pushed through the driver’s door and ran towards the lights of Fifth Avenue. As she ran she could hear her captor shouting, “ Stop you bitch! Stop or I’ll kill you”. Cindy never looked back. As she reached the road she saw a truck’s headlights approaching her, and waved it down with her manacled hands. The driver, 36 yr old Robert Yount, slammed on his brakes, and Cindy clambered to safety.

Upon informing the Anchorage police, Cindy was taken to the Anchorage Humana hospital for an examination. The examination revealed vaginal bruising and shackle marks around her neck and wrists, corroborating her story of being abducted. She was then taken to Anchorage police headquarters to be interviewed. Cindy managed to give the police detailed descriptions of her assailant’s house, car, plane and looks. It did not take the police long to identify the man as 40 yr old Robert Hansen, a married baker who owned a thriving business in Anchorage.

Less than 2 hours after Cindy had made her escape, police arrived at Hansen’s home, and were confronted by a man who matched Cindy’s description exactly. The police informed Hansen of the nature of the allegations that had been made against him. He looked astonished and readily agreed to accompany the police to the station. Hansen was interviewed there by Officer William Dennis of the Anchorage PD Sexual Assault Unit.

He was co-operative, polite and did not demonstrate any characteristics that suggested his guilt, although he was strangely calm for someone falsely accused. Hansen gave a detailed account of his movements, claiming that his wife and family were away in Europe and that he had been with two friends, John Sumrall and John Henning, at the time he was accused of raping Cindy. Both men, when interviewed, backed up his story. Hansen readily agreed to police searching his house, car and aeroplane, and signed waivers agreeing to this.

When police searched these, it became clear from Cindy’s detailed descriptions that she had been inside the house and car at some time. However, it came down to the word of a respected local businessman with an alibi against that of a prostitute with a police record. It was Cindy’s refusal to take a lie detector test that convinced William Dennis that she was lying, and he closed the case. Officer Greg Baker, the policeman who had taken Cindy’s complaint though, was sure that Cindy had been telling the truth. However, it was not long before police took a more serious look at the Cindy Paulson case.

In July 1980, building workers discovered a shallow grave on Eklutna Lake Rd. It contained the half eaten body of a young woman, and police suspected that it may be one of the missing girls, but due to the appalling conditions of her decomposed body, positive identification proved impossible. Police made a facial reconstruction and it was widely publicised, but the victim was never identified. She became known to investigators as “Eklutna Annie”.

On 12 September 1982 hunters found a second shallow grave on the banks of the Knik River, which borders Anchorage. The remains were identified as that of 23 yr old topless dancer Sherry Morrow, who had been reported missing a year earlier. She had been shot in the back 3 times, and cartridges found near the body suggested that she had been shot with a .223 Ruger Mini-14 hunting rifle. An odd feature was that although the body was found fully clothed, there were no bullet holes in the clothing, suggesting that Sherry had been naked when shot, and had been redressed after death.

A year later, 2^nd September 1983, 3 months after the rape and kidnap of Cindy Paulson, a third grave was found on the banks of the Knik River. The victim was identified as another of the missing topless dancers, 17 yr old Paula Goulding. She had been murdered in exactly the same way as Sherry Morrow, and had also been redressed after death. Anchorage police now had to face the fact that they had a serial killer in their midst.

Officer Greg Baker, the policeman who had investigated the Cindy Paulson case, had always harboured suspicions about Robert Hansen, and began a detailed search into Hansen’s background and personal life. At first, nothing was to be found. Eventually, it surfaced that Hansen had served sentences twelve years earlier, in 1971, for kidnap rape and assault with a deadly weapon.

A report detailing Baker’s suspicions and a copy of Hansen’s criminal record was sent to Sgt Glenn Flothe of the Alaska State Troopers, who was heading the “topless dancers” taskforce. Flothe agreed that Hansen should be considered a suspect, and he began his own investigation into Hansen’s background. The more he learnt, the more he became convinced he had found his killer, and Flothe decided to reopen the Cindy Paulson case, in an attempt to obtain evidence against Hansen.

Flothe reinterviewed Hansen’s friends Henning and Sumrall about Hansen’s alibi and informed them that he was threatening to charge them with perjury. The threat worked and both men admitted they had lied to help Hansen out of what they thought was an embarrassing domestic situation. When both men had retracted their statements, an order was issued for Hansen’s arrest.

At 8am on the 27 October 1983, Robert Hansen was arrested at his bakery and was taken to the Anchorage trooper station. There, Flothe had stage-managed an interview room following pointers from the FBI. Hansen was placed in an interview room that had been carefully set out. There were maps of the Knik River along the walls, pictures of the grave sites, the victims, on the desk. There were files and folders with the names of Hansen’s family, friends and acquaintances on them. He was left to sit in here alone for a while, in an attempt to make him stew, and was watched by Flothe through a two-way mirror. Hansen appeared more intrigued than concerned. A few minutes later Flothe and Sgt Darryl Galyan entered the room, and began an interview with Hansen that was to last 5 hours.

Whilst Hansen was being interviewed, a team of officers was searching his house. Behind wooden panelling in his trophy room police found items of cheap jewellery that was later traced back to the dead girls. Police also found a Ruger Mini-14 hunting rifle hidden under floorboards, which was later matched by ballistics as being the weapon that had killed Sherry Morrow and Paula Goulding. The most telling item found was an aviation map of the Anchorage region, which was dotted with 20 drawn on asterisks. Two of these corresponded with sites where bodies had been found, and a third indicated the spot where the body of Joanne Messina, a 24 yr old prostitute, was found in July 1980. Investigators later discovered that she had last been seen with a small, stammering man, with a pockmarked face.

Hansen initially denied any connection with the murders, but when confronted with the wealth of evidence against him, decided to confess. He admitted that the asterisks on the map were grave sites of prostitutes that he had murdered. Hansen claimed that he had not killed every girl he had taken up into the wilderness. He claimed that he only wanted oral sex, and if the girls complied, they were flown home. If they resisted, he would force them to strip at gunpoint, and then make them run. They would usually be given a head start, and then Hansen would stalk them like an animal. Chillingly, he would sometimes allow the victim to think she had escaped, but would then track her down and make her run again. This would continue until the victim was too cold and exhausted to continue running, when the victims would be shot. The redressing, Hansen claimed, was to satisfy his need for control and he likened it to a trophy.

On 27 February 1984 Robert Hansen was brought before Superior Court Judge Ralph Moody at the Anchorage State Court House. Hansen had pleaded guilty to four murders, and 13 others that he had not been formally charged with. Judge Moody sentenced Hansen, who had not shown a flicker of remorse, to 461 years plus life, without the possibility of parole. Hansen was then taken down. In less than 3 hours Hansen had been convicted and sentenced for his years of horrific crimes.

Writers of the Robert Hansen case have all commented on the trait he shares with many serial killers; an appallingly low level of self-esteem. He was born in the rural community of Ponahontas, Iowa, on February 15, 1939, and was an ugly and unpopular child. His peers targeted his stammer and running acne sores and he was bullied relentlessly. After leaving school, Hansen did marry, but his wife left him, and he became convinced that it was due to his ugliness. He married again, moved to Alaska and started his bakery business, and on the surface, had a happy marriage and successful business. Hansen and his wife were regular churchgoers, and were active members of the Lutheran church. Through this Hansen built up a great number of friends amongst the local prominent community.

He also began to indulge his passion for hunting, like his father had been, and became well known in Alaskan hunting circles, where he held a record for killing a big horned Dall sheep with a bow and arrow. When his father died Hansen inherited his gun collection, some 17 hunting rifles. Owning his own plane, which he was able to afford due to the success of his business, meant that he could get right into the heart of the wilderness, where the best game was to be found. He had a double life however, and had a craving for oral sex to be performed upon him by a docile woman.

Thus, his murderous fantasies began. Hansen claimed that his first victim was Joanne Messina, who he murdered in July 1980. He claimed he was violently sick after the killing. A few weeks following the Messina murder, he picked up an unidentified prostitute in Anchorage. When she refused his demand for oral sex, he chased her down Eklutna Rd and stabbed her to death. This victim was the unidentified woman known as “Eklutna Annie”. Hansen claimed he got an enjoyable pleasure from this killing, and from then on had a powerful fantasy about hunting down and killing a woman like an animal.

Although Hansen had refused to confirm whether or not he was responsible for the many disappearances, this is not to say he was uncooperative. He helped detectives to uncover where he had buried many of his victims. This was a task Hansen took to with a sickening relish. During a helicopter tour of the grave sites, he would frequently become excited and exhilarated, reliving the murders over and over in his head. Handcuffed, Hansen would plough through chest high snow drifts and triumphantly point out the grave of one of his victims. Sometimes, he would drop to his knees and dig furiously with his bare hands, wild eyed with a broad grin on his face. By the end of the summer of 1984, 11 bodies had been found, 10 of which had been formally identified.

Robert Hansen remains incarcerated to this day, as he has been denied the possibility of parole. Occasionally, a hunter in the Alaskan wilderness will find a corpse, and Hansen will be questioned over it, in an attempt to determine if it is another of his victims. His wife has remarried and moved away, and Hansen’s surviving family has no contact with him. Hansen is left to replay every sickening detail of his hunts over and over in his head, a pastime he thoroughly enjoys.

HUNTING HUMANS

By David Lohr

Unexpected Discovery

The state motto for Alaska is "North to the Future," but if you ask anyone who has ever been there, they will probably describe it as the last American frontier. Even though it is the biggest state in the country (2.3 times the size of Texas) the population consists of only 634,892 residents, ranking it 47 among all other U.S. territories. Nonetheless, there is no other place like it on earth. The terrain consists of beautiful ocean coasts, rushing rivers, magnificent mountain peaks, famous glaciers, temperate rain forests, and an abundance of wildlife. A piece of America that continues to offer residents and visitors alike a pure wilderness experience.

The Knik River valley is a preferred hunting ground for veteran trophy hunters. Just twenty-five miles from the city of Anchorage, the winding gorge—carved by prehistoric glacial ice—makes it a perfect place to find mountain goats, Dall sheep, black bears, and moose. On September 12, 1982, John Daily and Audi Holloway, two off-duty Anchorage police officers, spent an afternoon hunting along the Knik River.

According to Butcher Baker by Walter Gilmour and Leland E. Hale, the two men had little luck and as darkness began to fall they decided to call it a day. The trek was not necessarily easy, but both men were familiar with the area and cut across a wide sandbar. However, as they progressed up the river, they noticed a boot sticking out of the sand. Normally a find like this would not be cause for concern, but for any police officer, curiosity denotes investigation. Upon closer inspection, the two men were taken aback. Sticking out of the sand was a partially decomposed bone joint. Once their minds registered what they were looking at, both men backed up from the scene. The last thing they wanted to do was disturb or contaminate any evidence. After making note of the location, both men made their way out of the gorge and back to their camp.

Gilmour and Hale wrote that Sergeant Rollie Port was assigned to cover the investigation. A decorated Vietnam veteran, Port was considered one of the top investigators on the force. He was meticulous with every crime scene and was known to spend hours going over the smallest area. Before disturbing the body, Port had photographs taken from every angle and carefully examined the body itself for trace evidence before having it bagged. Afterwards, he pulled out a large screen and began sifting through the sand around the body. It took several hours for him to finish sifting, but in the end it paid off. Lying on the screen before him was a single shell casing from a .223-caliber bullet. Port was familiar with this type of ammunition and knew that it was used in high-powered rifles like M-16s, Mini-14s, or AR-15s.

Back in Anchorage, a preliminary autopsy revealed that the victim was a female, of undetermined age, and had been dead for approximately six months. The cause of death was three gunshot wounds from .223-caliber bullets. Ace bandages were found mingled in with the remains, causing investigators to suspect that the victim had been blindfolded at the time of death. It took a little over two weeks to finally identify the body as that of 24-year-old Sherry Morrow, a dancer from the Wild Cherry Bar in downtown Anchorage. She was last seen on November 17, 1981. According to friends, she was going to see a man that had offered her $300 to pose for some pictures.

"Eklutna Annie"

Anchorage police had a sneaking suspicion that Sherry Morrow's murder was not an isolated incident. Over the last two years, there was a sudden increase in the number of missing persons reports being filed, many of which were topless dancers and prostitutes. Prior to this latest discovery, the reports had not prompted much attention. Prostitutes tend to be loners and often travel from city to city, only to reappear years later. If there was a link, investigators did not want to tip the killer off. Any concerns they had were kept private.

When discussing Morrow's murder with The Anchorage Daily News, investigators said they doubted that it was related to the disappearance of at least three other women since 1980. "We don't believe we have a mass murderer out there, some psycho knocking off girls," said Anchorage police detective Maxine Farrell.

Alaska State Trooper sergeant Lyle Haugsven was assigned to determine whether or not Sherry Morrow's murder was an isolated incident. Working with the Anchorage Police Department, the two agencies began sharing files and comparing notes. According to Bernard DuClos in Fair Game, the first indication of a possible link appeared to be with two unsolved cases from 1980. In the first case, construction workers digging near Eklutna Road discovered the partial remains of a woman buried in a shallow grave. Animals had taken off with a majority of the remains and there was very little evidence at the scene. The victim had never been identified and was dubbed "Eklutna Annie" by police assigned to the case. Later that same year, another body was found in a nearby gravel pit. The victim was later identified as Joanne Messina, a local topless dancer. Unfortunately, her body was badly decomposed and, as with "Eklutna Annie", there was little evidence to be found. In the end, Haugsven had few leads to follow and very little evidence at his disposal.

As months passed, hope of catching the killer began to diminish. Then, on the night of June 13, 1983, everything seemed to turn around. Earlier that evening, a trucker was passing through town when he noticed a frantic young female waving her arms and calling out to him. The girl had a pair of handcuffs dangling from one of her wrists and her clothing was disheveled. She told the trucker that a man was after her and asked him to take her to the Big Timber Motel. Once inside, she had the front desk clerk place a call for her. As she waited outside for her pimp, the truck driver drove straight to the Anchorage Police Department and reported the incident.

When Anchorage Police Officer Gregg Baker arrived at the Big Timber Motel, he found the girl alone and still in handcuffs. Once he removed her cuffs, she began telling him an extraordinary story. According to reports she gave to investigators, she had been approached on the street by a 40ish, red-haired man, and offered $200 for oral sex. She agreed to the price, but midway through the act the man locked a handcuff around her wrist and pulled out a gun. He told her if she cooperated he would not kill her. He then drove to his house in Muldoon, an upper class area not far from town. Once inside, the man brutally raped her, bit her nipples, and at one point shoved a hammer into her vagina. After a brief rest, the man said that he was going to fly her to his cabin in the mountains and told her he would let her go if she cooperated. Upon their arrival at the airport, her kidnapper shoved her inside a small plane and began loading supplies. The young prostitute knew she was in serious trouble and that the man would probably kill her once they got to his cabin. Waiting until his back was turned, she shoved open the door and ran for her life. According to her, he chased after her at first, but then relented when he saw her wave down the truck driver.

A Suspect Emerges

After making a formal statement at police headquarters, investigators drove the young prostitute to Merrill Field, the airport where she had been taken. They were hoping she could identify her abductor's plane. As they drove through the small airport, she spotted a blue-and-white Piper Super Cub, tail number N3089Z and identified the plane. A check with the flight tower revealed that the plane belonged to Robert C. Hansen, who lived on Old Harbor Road.

Gilmour and Hale wrote that after dropping the woman off at the hospital, Baker and a group of fellow officers went directly to Hansen's house. Hansen became outraged when confronted with the young woman's charges. He claimed to have never met the girl and stated that she was probably trying to shake him down for money. To him, the entire story was absurd. "You can't rape a prostitute can you?" he said. Hansen went on to state that his wife and two children were vacationing in Europe and said that he had spent the entire evening with two friends. His alibi checked out and no formal charges were filed.

Just as things seemed to be calming down again, investigators were called to the scene of another grisly discovery. According to reports in The Anchorage Daily News on September 2, 1983, just 10 days shy of the one-year anniversary of discovering Sherry Morrow, another body was found along Knik River. The remains were partially decomposed and buried in a shallow grave. The victim, later identified as 17-year-old Paula Golding, was a topless dancer and prostitute from Anchorage. She'd gone missing some five months earlier. An autopsy revealed that she had been shot with a .223-caliber bullet.

Investigators were now convinced they had a serial killer on their hands and contacted the FBI for assistance. This was not the first time Alaska authorities had dealt with a serial killer, but their last attempt was not successful. Between 1979 and 1981, serial killer Thomas Richard Bunday murdered at least five Fairbanks-area women. When police finally discovered who their killer was, he was already on the run. Just one hour after his arrest warrant was issued, he committed suicide by plowing his motorcycle head-on into a truck.

The FBI was known for its dogged determination in serial murder investigations and everyone seemed to agree on asking for their assistance. In response to Anchorage's request for help, the FBI's Investigative Support Unit sent Special Agent John Douglas, a legendary figure in law enforcement, to help profile Alaska's latest serial killer. Many local investigators felt that Robert Hansen was still a viable suspect and were anxious to share their suspicions with Douglas.

Closing In

In his 1996 book Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit, John Douglas describes his initial profile of Alaska's suspected serial murderer. According to Douglas, the perpetrator specifically chose prostitutes and topless dancers, because the majority were transients and usually went unnoticed. Upon the urging of local investigators, Douglas began looking into Robert Hansen's background. He took note of the fact that Hansen was of small stature, heavily pockmarked and suffered from a severe speech impediment. Due to Hansen's unsightly looks, Douglas surmised that he suffered from severe skin problems as an adolescent and was probably teased by his peers. In turn, he would have low self-esteem, which would have prompted him to live in an isolated area. Douglas considered the abuse of prostitutes a way for perpetrators to get back at women. If Hansen was the killer, he was probably using them as a way to get his revenge. Several investigators were familiar with Hansen and said that he was known around the area as a proficient hunter. He earned this reputation after taking down a wild Dall sheep with a crossbow. Perhaps, Douglas surmised, Robert Hansen tired of elk, bear and Dall sheep, and had instead turned his attention to more interesting prey. As the profile progressed, Douglas told investigators that if Hansen was the killer, he was probably a "saver" and would be keeping small souvenirs from his victims.

The only way to rule Hansen out as a suspect would be for investigators to find a hole in his alibi. Douglas suspected that his friends were lying for him and encouraged investigators to threaten them with charges if they were found to be lying. State Police sergeant Glenn Flothe decided to bring the men in for questioning. As it turned out, the strategy worked and both men confessed and said that they had not been with Robert Hansen on the night the young prostitute was abducted and brought to the airport. Investigators also learned from Hansen's friends that he was committing insurance fraud. Apparently, a burglary he reported to police in which several items were stolen from his home never occurred and Hansen was hiding the items in his basement. After learning of Hansen's deceit, Flothe went before Judge Victor Carlson with a 48-page affidavit and secured eight search warrants to be executed against Robert Hanson and his property.

On October 27, 1983, investigators followed Hansen to work and asked him to come with them to the police station for questioning. Hansen never bothered to ask why they wanted to talk to him and agreed to go along. Simultaneously, two groups of investigators served warrants on Hansen's house and plane. According to the book Hunting Humans by Michael Newton, investigators found weapons throughout the house, but nothing to implicate Hansen in any of the murders. Then, just as they were about to call it a day, one of the officers discovered a hidden space tucked away in the attic rafters. Within it, they discovered a Remington 552 rifle; a Thompson contender 7-mm single-shot pistol; an aviation map, with specific locations marked off; various pieces of jewelry; newspaper clippings; a Winchester 12-gauge shotgun; a driver's license, and various ID cards, some of which belonged to the dead women. As incriminating as these items were, the most important piece of evidence was found last -- a .223-caliber Mini-14 rifle.

A Killer's Past

Robert Christian Hansen was born on February 15, 1939, in Esterville, Iowa to Christian Hansen, a Danish immigrant baker and his wife Edna. DuClos wrote that Hansen had a difficult upbringing. His father was very strict and insisted that his son work long hours in the family's bakery. Adding to this ever-present strain, he was always considered small for his age and his face bore severe acne sores all throughout his adolescence. In later years, he would recall his face as "one big pimple." Although he was naturally left-handed, his parents forced him to use his right hand. In later years, he would claim that the resulting stress made his slight stuttering problem even worse. He had very few friends in school and those he did have never got close to him. In 1957, Hansen graduated high school and shortly thereafter enlisted in the Army Reserves. Following basic training, he was required to devote one weekend a month to the military. He spent the rest of his time working in his father's bakery and sometimes volunteering as a Pocahontas Junior Police drill instructor. During 1960, he fell in love with and married a local girl.

The first major event in Robert Hansen's life occurred on December 7, 1960. As retribution for perceived abuses by the people of Pocahantas, Iowa, he burned down the school bus garage. Unfortunately for Hansen, a friend turned him in and he was sentenced to three years in prison. His wife was ashamed of her husband's actions and immediately filed for divorce. After serving only 20 months, Hansen was paroled, despite being assessed as having an "infantile personality."

Shortly after his release, he met a young woman. The two hit it off and were wed in the fall of 1963. For the next few years, Hansen bounced from job to job and was arrested several times for petty thefts. In 1967, he decided it was time for a new start and left for Alaska.

Anchorage appeared to be the perfect getaway for Robert Hansen. Gilmour and Hale wrote that he was treated well by the residents and soon earned a reputation as a great outdoorsman and hunter. He would stalk Dahl sheep, wolves, and bear with a rifle or bow and arrow. In 1969, 1970 and 1971, he had four animals entered into Pope & Young's trophy hunting world-record books. Hansen's den was soon loaded with animal mounts.

Nonetheless, all his good fortune was short lived. In 1977 he was arrested for stealing a chainsaw and sentenced to five years in prison. After a customary mental evaluation, a prison psychiatrist concluded that Hansen suffered from "bipolar-effective disorder" and requested that the courts order him to take lithium to control his mood swings. Regardless, the order was never enforced and Hansen was released after serving just one year.

During the early 1980s Hansen reported a burglary to his home, which in the end netted him $13,000 from the insurance company. Shortly after receiving his settlement, Hansen opened his own bakery at the corner of 9th and Ingra. By this time, Hansen and his wife had two children and his problems with the law were all but forgotten. His business prospered and he was considered a successful and respected member of the community.

The Deal

Back at State Police Headquarters, Hansen denied any involvement in the murders. After a brief game of cat and mouse, he grew tired of the allegations and requested an attorney. Hansen was then placed under arrest and charged with assault, kidnapping, weapons offenses, theft and insurance fraud.

On November 3, 1983, an Anchorage grand jury returned four indictments against Hansen: first-degree assault and kidnapping, five counts of misconduct in possession of a handgun, theft in the second-degree, and theft by deception in insurance fraud. Investigators were still awaiting the ballistic test results on Hansen's rifle, so the state decided to hold off on charging him with murder. Hansen pleaded not guilty to all charges. Bail was set at a half-million dollars.

Newton wrote that the ballistic test results finally came in on November 20, 1983. The FBI crime lab in Washington, D.C., determined that the shell casings found at the gravesites had all been fired from Hansen's rifle. The firing pin and the extractor markings were identical.

Given the mass of evidence building against him, Hansen realized that the chances of him winning in court were slim. So, on February 22, 1984, Hansen had his defense attorney, Fred Dewey, arranged a meeting with Anchorage D. A. Victor Krumm. During the meeting, Krumm offered Hansen a deal. In exchange for a full confession, the D.A. guaranteed him that he would only be charged with the four cases that they knew of, and he would be able to serve his time in a federal facility, rather than a maximum-security institution. Hansen reluctantly agreed to the conditions.

After both sides signed off on the agreement, Hansen began describing one of his typical abductions. The following transcript, which has been edited for space, was originally published in Gilmour and Hale's book: "I pull out the gun—I think the standard speech was, 'Look you're a professional. You don't get excited, you know there is some risk to what you've been doing. If you do exactly what I tell you you're not going to get hurt. You're just going to count this off as a bad experience and be a little more careful next time who you are gonna proposition or go out with,' you know. I tried to act as tough as I could, to get them as scared as possible. Give that right away, even before I started talking at all. Reach over, you know, and hold that head back and put a gun in her face and get 'em to feel helpless, scared, right there I'm sure--maybe it's not the same procedure for you--you always try to get control of the situation, so some things don't start going bad maybe I've seen some cop shows on TV, I don't know, OK?"

Whenever Hansen got a victim under his control, he would normally take her to his plane and fly them out to his remote cabin. According to Newton, he would brutally rape and torture the women. Afterwards, he would strip them naked, sometimes going so far as blindfolding them, and set them free in the woods. Hansen would give his victim a brief head start and then hunt them down with a hunting knife or a high-powered rifle. In describing his hunts to investigators, Hansen said that it was like "going after a trophy Dall sheep or a grizzly bear."

Closure

When investigators first heard Hansen's confession, they couldn't help but think of the popular fictional story "The Most Dangerous Game" by writer Richard Connell. The story is about a shipwrecked trio that find themselves stranded on an uncharted island, where they meet a Russian Count, known only as General Zaroff. The group is initially delighted to find someone else on the island, but their happiness turns to sorrow when they realize that the shipwreck was no accident and the good general had lured them there so he could hunt them down. Up until the early 1980s, Richard Connell's story was a work of fiction, the product of one man's imagination. Robert Hansen was conducting a real life version of "The Most Dangerous Game."

As the interview neared its end, Hansen was provided with a large aerial map of the region. He identified 15 gravesites, 12 of which were unknown to investigators. Since it would have been nearly impossible to locate any of the graves going by Hansen's checkmarks on the map, investigators decided to fly him to each location. The following day, Hansen accompanied the men to the Anchorage International Airport, where they boarded a large military helicopter. Their first stop was along the Knick River, not far from where Paula Goulding was found. Afterwards, they flew east to Jim Creek, and then west toward Susitna. Their final stops were due south, at Horseshoe Lake and Figure Eight Lake. At every stop, Hansen led investigators to the site, now heavily covered in snow, and they would mark the trees with orange paint. By the end of the day Hansen had revealed the gravesites of 12 unknown women.

According to articles published by The Anchorage Daily News, Robert Hansen pled guilty on February18, 1984, to four counts of first-degree murder in the cases of Paula Golding, Joanna Messina, Sherry Morrow, and "Eklutna Annie." One week later, on February 27, Superior Court Judge Ralph E. Moody sentenced Hansen to 461 years plus life, without chance of parole. He was then remanded to Lewisburg Federal Penitentiary in
Pennsylvania.

By May 1984, investigators had found seven bodies at the gravesites Robert Hansen pointed out to them. No other bodies were ever recovered. The summary went as follows:

On April 24, Sue Luna - Knik River.

On April 24, Malai Larsen - parking area by old Knik bridge.

On April 25, DeLynn Frey - Horseshoe Lake.

On April 26, Teresa Watson - Kenai Peninsula.

On April 26, Angela Feddern - Figure Eight Lake.

On April 29, Tamara Pederson - one and a half miles from old Knik Bridge.

On May 9, Lisa Futrell's - south of old Knik Bridge.

In 1988, Hansen was returned to Alaska and became one of the first inmates in the new Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward, where he remains today. Shortly after his conviction, the record keepers for Pope & Young removed Hansen's name from their record books. Hansen's wife and two children tried to remain in Alaska, but after two years of harassment, his second wife filed for divorce and left Alaska for good.

Conservationist Gareth Patterson recently published an article on his website entitled "The Killing Fields." In the piece, Patterson compared the similarities between trophy animal hunters and serial killers. "Certainly one could state that, like the serial killer, the trophy hunter plans his killing with considerable care and deliberation. Like the serial killer, he decides well in advance the type of victim--that is, which species he intends to target. Also like the serial killer, the trophy hunter plans with great care where and how the killing will take place--in what area, with what weapon. What the serial killer and trophy hunter also share is a compulsion to collect trophies or souvenirs of their killings. The serial killer retains certain body parts and/or other trophies for much the same reason as the big game hunter mounts the head and antlers taken from his prey...as trophies of the chase," he said.

On February 21, 2003, more than 20 years after her decomposed body was found, Alaska State Troopers asked for the public's help in identifying "Eklutna Annie." In an effort to help solve her identity, state police released information regarding her clothing and jewelry.

According to the report, which was published by Kenai Peninsula News, an Alaska newspaper, the victim was a white brunette in her 20s. When found, Annie was wearing knee-high, reddish-brown, high-heeled boots, jeans, a sleeveless knit top and a brown leather jacket. Troopers were also hoping that someone might recognize her jewelry; a silver cuff bracelet with polished stones, possibly handmade.

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