Bone-Chilling Facts About The Butcher Baker AKA Robert Hansen, The Serial Killer Who Hunted Women For Sport
He's a monster.
YouTube Serial Killer Week is well underway on Investigation Discovery, and the crime-focused network is showing new documentaries about some of the country’s most prolific serial killers of all time. One of those serial killers is the Butcher Baker, and his horrific crimes are still some of the most gruesome in American history.
Who is the Butcher Baker, Robert Hanson?
The Butcher Baker is Alaska’s most prolific serial killer and his real name is Robert Hansen. He was born on February 15, 1939 in Estherville, Iowa and growing up, he suffered from severe acne and was a shy, scrawny kid with a stutter, which didn’t get him much attention from the girls in his school.
Because of this, he reportedly developed a severe hate for women and spent most of his time alone. While the Butcher Baker kept mostly to himself, he honed his archery and hunting skills, which became part of his signature in future murders he'd commit.
Why is Robert Hansen called the Butcher Baker?
The media referred to Robert Hansen as the Butcher Baker because he owned a bakery. After abducting and raping women — who were mostly prositutes and topless dancers — he would fly them up to his cabin in his plane, take them into the woods, and hunt them for sport.
Is the Butcher Baker married?
Robert Hansen got married to a woman he met while working at a police academy as a drill sergeant in Pocahontas, Iowa in 1960. Shortly after, he was arrested for arson and while serving his three-year sentence, Robert Hansen was diagnosed as bipolar.
The psychiatrist who diagnosed him also said Hansen had an “infantile personality” and was obsessed with getting revenge on people. Hansen’s wife filed for divorce while he was incarcerated — a decision that most likely ended up saving her life.
Hansen remarried a few years later in 1963 to another woman and moved to Anchorage, Alaska — where his killing spree started — and had two children with her.
How many murders did the Butcher Baker commit?
In total, the Butcher Baker confessed to raping, torturing, and killing at least seventeen women; however, he may have raped more than thirty women during the course of his lifetime. The Butcher Baker's most notable victim was a 17-year-old prostitute named Cindy Paulson, who ultimately led authorities to him after she escaped from captivity in 1983, almost a decade after his murder spree started.
With the information Cindy Paulson gave the police — like the description of Robert Hansen's plane, the location of his cabin, and his telltale stutter — authorities immediately questioned him in her kidnapping, but did not arrest him. However, when the bodies of three women who had gone missing were found, investigators put together a psychological profile that ended up matching Hansen's description.
When authorities were able to obtain a search warrant for Hansen's properties, they found jewelry from the missing women that he kept as trophies and also discovered a map that indicated where the bodies of the women he killed were buried.
The Butcher Baker was only charged with four of the seventeen murders he committed: Sherry Morrow, Joanna Messina, "Eklutna Annie," and Paula Goulding. He was also charged with kidnapping and raping Cindy Paulson.
He was sentenced to 461 years in prison.
Is there a movie based on the Butcher Baker?
The 2013 movie The Frozen Ground, both written and directed by Scott Walker, is based on the true story of the Butcher Baker. John Cusack stars as Alaska serial killer Robert Hansen alongside Nicolas Cage, who plays Srgt. Jack Halcombe, and former Disney Channel star Vanessa Hudgens, who plays Cindy Paulson.
Is the Butcher Baker still alive?
The Butcher Baker died on August 21, 2014 of natural causes.
"He will not be missed. Good riddance to him,” an assistant district attorney who helped to prosecute the case said. “He’s one of those guys that you kind of hope every breath that he takes in his life, there’s some pain associated with it, because he caused such pain.”
The Butcher Baker: Mind of a Monster airs on Wednesday, September 2 at 9/8c on Investigation Discovery.
Olivia Jakiel is an editor and writer who covers celebrity and entertainment news. Follow her on Instagram and keep up with her zingers on Twitter.