Mark Tolson

"This is all your fault. You broke the rules."

Mark Tolson is a psychopathic, homosexual serial killer and abductor who appeared in A Good Husband.

Background
Mark's parents divorced while he was still young. Whenever he was in his father's custody, Mark was forced to work in his butcher shop while his father sat elsewhere idly and drank. This caused him to develop a fascination with dismemberment and cutting meat. Later, his mother successfully petitioned for full custody over Mark, with his father never fighting against it. This paternal neglect warped Mark's mind and caused him to develop severe abandonment issues. As an adult, he became gay and married another gay man named Bill Seavers. However, Mark was extremely manipulative, possessive, and domineering over Bill, eventually causing him to file for divorce and attempt to leave the house. Enraged by this loss of control, Mark attacked a man named Paul Mastriano, who resembled Bill, stabbed him to death, and dismembered his body. The torso was later conveniently discovered by a stranded female motorist, prompting the BAU to be called in.

Modus Operandi
Mark initially targeted blond, thin, healthy men who resembled Bill and were at bars drinking alcohol at the time. However, as he became more focused in his killings, he started targeting people connected to him and Bill. The victims were all mentally incapacitated by date-rape drugs placed in their drinks, then dismembered in Mark's van and the pieces disposed of, with the torsos always being the easiest to find.

For his first two murders, which were committed out of rage, Mark stabbed the victims repeatedly with a butcher knife and dismembered them with the same weapon. The first victim, Paul Mastriano, was stabbed to death and dismembered post-mortem, with the torso being hidden away in a dumpster. The second victim, Brent Miller, was also stabbed repeatedly, but the dismemberment occurred ante-mortem; the torso was not hidden away and instead left in plain view. In both cases, the victims were straight and had relationship problems, just like Mark. Starting with his third murder, however, Mark became more focused in his victimology. The third victim was gay, and was fatally dismembered without being stabbed; the torso was then left in a public place frequented by the gay community as shock value.

During his fourth murder, Mark targeted a gay man who was a friend of Bill's and an acquaintance of his. Much like the previous victim, he was fatally dismembered without being stabbed, and the torso dumped in a public place frequented by the gay community in order to frighten Bill into staying with Mark. When Mark tried to kill Bill, he first manually strangled him, but when Bill escaped, Mark bludgeoned him into unconsciousness with a horse figurine. Then, he restrained his limbs with duct tape and attempted to dismember him with the butcher knife.

Real-Life Comparison
Mark has some similarities with Robert Berdella, a.k.a. "The Kansas City Butcher". Both were homosexual serial killers who had troubled childhoods involving their fathers, and targeted fellow gay men (including acquaintances of theirs), who they would mentally incapacitate with drugs and alcohol. After killing their victims, both Mark and Berdella dismembered the bodies and disposed of the body parts, with the dismemberment being learned beforehand in their occupations (Mark worked in his father's butcher shop as a child, while Berdella once worked as a successful full-time chef).

Mark also has some similarities with an uncaught serial killer, the Mad Butcher of Kingsbury Run. Both Mark and the Butcher dismembered their victims completely (although the Butcher dismembered all of his victims post-mortem while Mark did it ante-mortem with his later victims), with the torsos always being found first. In addition, the Butcher's first identified victim, Edward W. Andrassy, was an alleged bisexual and had several homosexual friends, while police searched for suspects in gay bars; these could have been used as references for Mark's sexual orientation and selection of later victims.

Known Victims

 * Paul Mastriano
 * Brent Miller
 * Dale Ericsson
 * Wesley Parham
 * Bill Seavers

Appearances

 * Season Twelve
 * A Good Husband