Top 10 Criminal Minds Unsubs with the Most Tragic Backstories
#10: William Taylor “Awake”
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Fresh off a double shift, salvage yard owner William Taylor picked up his 5-year-old daughter Tatiana after a dance recital and drove home. Because he was so sleep-deprived from working long hours, he pulled over for a quick nap. But, he underestimated his exhaustion, and ended up sleeping for hours instead of minutes. When he awoke, Tatiana was gone. He later recalled a mysterious man approaching him that night but people thought he’d imagined the encounter due to his sleep-deprived state. When her body was discovered a week later, William began abducting men, torturing them for days before ultimately killing them. Losing a child and not knowing what happened would make anyone snap. Unfortunately, the result of this was only more horrific tragedy.
#9: Jonny McHale “True Night”
This season 3 episode follows the BAU as they investigate a case of vigilante justice in Los Angeles. It ultimately leads them to Jonny McHale, a local comic book artist suffering from severe Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder, who blacks out during his vengeful killing spree. Six months prior, one of the best nights of his life turned into the worst. A gang attacked him and his pregnant fiancée Vickie, who’d he just proposed to minutes before. Jonny was forced to witness the torturous death and barely survived the incident himself. Even the team acknowledges that he’s one of the rare unsubs that only became a killer due to an awful, traumatic experience.
#8: Desi Gutierrez “Dust and Bones”
Growing up, Desi Gutierrez endured emotional and psychological abuse as well as severe neglect from her young mother Lara. She’d cruelly tell her daughter she was ugly and unwanted, locking her in a small shed full of snakes for hours on end. When Desi was 10, a “changed” Lara had her sister Tina, who, unlike Desi, was loved and cared for. As an adult, Desi became obsessed with snake-like body modification, even going as far as to split her tongue. She inflicts similar mods on unwitting women after they’re bitten by one of her venomous snakes. In the end, Desi kidnaps her sister and mother, the true objects of her hate. She dies before enacting her full revenge but we’d say she made her point.
#7: Vincent Rowlings “The Big Wheel”
After witnessing and videotaping his mother die at the hands of his father, young Vincent Rowlings grew up to be a killer himself. He stayed with his mom for almost a day and grew up rewatching the footage of her murder over and over, which was only bound to cause severe psychological distress. Vincent also has obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD), so he can’t keep himself from acting on the compulsion to kill. He shows remorse by sending messages to the police at the crime scenes, wanting someone to finally stop him. When he unintentionally kills one of his victims in front of her young son, Vincent feels a connection to him since they now share a rare thing in common.
#6: Tobias Hankel “The Big Game” & “Revelations”
Season 2 introduced one of “Criminal Minds’s” most memorable unsubs. After his mother left, Tobias Hankel was raised by his father who had become violent and used religion as a means of abuse. As Tobias got older, he became reliant on Dilaudid to cope. Things only worsened when his father got sick and, in order to put a merciful end to his suffering, he had his son assist him in dying. Tobias then developed a dissociative identity disorder with two alternate personalities – his father and an Archangel named Raphael. When the BAU catches up with him, he’s a serial killer who finds his victims through hacking, choosing people he deems sinners. What Tobias does to Reid is unforgivable but we can’t help sympathizing with him after knowing his past.
#5: Paul Westin “Broken”
Paul Westin realized he was attracted to boys at a young age, and when he came out to his father John, he was sent to a conversion camp. In addition to the camp’s deplorable techniques, John hired a female sex worker in a deranged attempt to force his son to attempt to change his sexual orientation. Years later, he’s still haunted by what was done to him and the religious rhetoric condemning gayness. He kills the men he sleeps with because he’s ashamed. And he kills the women he tries to be attracted to who remind him of the sex worker. Given his trauma and deep-seated self-hate, it’s hard not to feel sorry for Paul as well as the other young victims of the camp.
#4: James & Marcus Wells “Twenty Seven”
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James and Marcus Wells go on a killing spree in Washington, D.C., murdering random people with machetes every twenty-seven minutes. This series of attacks begins a day after the funeral of their younger brother Tom, who was shot and killed outside of a nightclub. Three victims into the spree, Marcus is caught by the team and they discover what happened to trigger their violent rage. After Tom was shot, James and Marcus called 9-1-1 several times but by the time the ambulance arrived twenty-seven minutes later, he’d already passed away. Tom had a bright future ahead of him. His untimely death is heartbreaking and we sympathize with the Wells brothers. But causing more senseless deaths is unjustifiable.
#3: Charles Johnson “Strange Fruit”
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After a drainage pipe explosion unearths skeletal remains in a backyard, the BAU interviews the homeowners, an African-American family of three. As Rossi interrogates the Johnson family patriarch, he uncovers a dark history rooted in racism. When he was in high school, Charles was attacked and castrated by a group of teenage Klan members. One of their sisters falsely accused him of sexual assault and didn’t reveal the truth until decades later. Considering the extensive physical and mental damage that was done, Charles didn’t accept her deathbed confession and eventually killed some of the men who attacked him, or their relatives. The lie scarred Charles in every way imaginable, taking away his dreams of leading a healthy life with a big family.
#2: Shelley Chamberlain “Hanley Waters”
On her son’s sixth birthday, Shelley Chamberlain was driving when fleeing robber, Hanley Waters, crashed into her vehicle. She watched her son die in the backseat, assuring him in vain that help would come soon. After his death, Shelley and her husband, Don, divorced, leaving her to grieve on her own. On the anniversary of the accident, the news mentions a police officer who also died that day, but Shelley’s son’s death is forgotten. Her anger and pain lead her to steal a gun and go around the area killing and injuring anyone in her way. This devastating episode ends with her and Don at their son’s favorite restaurant, expressing their regrets and reliving the awful day that destroyed their lives. Before we unveil our top pick, here are a few honorable mentions. Darlene Beckett, “The Pact” A Grieving Mother Whose Daughter Was Assaulted & Murdered by a Group of Men Rodney Harris, “Restoration” A Victim of Carl Buford Who Goes on a Spree Killing Men He Thinks Abuse Young Boys Sarah Jean Mason, “Riding the Lightning” Married a Sadistic Serial Killer, Forced to Give Up Her Son, Then Executed on Death Row Nathan Harris, “Sex, Birth, Death” A Teenager Seeking Help to Stop His Violent Urges Sarah Danlin, “Jones” The Men Who Sexually Assaulted Her Were Let Off & Only One Person Believed Her
#1: Samantha Malcolm “The Uncanny Valley”
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Many unsubs on “Criminal Minds” have suffered traumatic childhoods and poor Samantha Malcolm is one of them. Her mother died when she was young, and her father, Dr. Arthur Malcolm, had her undergo electroshock therapy to treat her depression. However, the depression stemmed from the sexual abuse she was suffering at his hands, and the extreme treatment was to keep Samantha from telling anyone. He would apologize with gifts including a set of special dolls and, as an adult, Samantha’s devastated when he gives them away. She replaces the dolls with real-life women who ultimately die under the horrific conditions she keeps them in. Experiencing trauma isn’t an excuse for murder. But with the severe psychological effects of ECT and years of antipsychotic medication…well, Garcia said it best.
