Vincent Perotta

"Its pretty remarkable, really. Nature's got her own clean up crew. Flies, larvae, maggots, beetles. And there's the big guys, of course. Rats, squirrels, crows, buzzards. I learned a long time ago never to kill anybody above 5,000 feet. It's cold up there, the evidence tends to linger... they'll be along soon, they like the scent of blood."

Vincent Perotta is a serial killer (and part-time hitman) who appeared in Season One of Criminal Minds.

Background
On the outside, the Perotta home (situated in a small suburb in Baltimore, Maryland) appeared normal and happy, but Vincent's father Frank, an active and well-liked member of the community, was secretly abusive, beating Vincent and his wife, Katherine, every chance he got. Over time, Vincent began acting out, becoming an alcoholic at the age of fourteen and being arrested for several crimes (such as burglary and assault) in his teenage years. The most prominent offences on Vincent's long rap sheet were throwing a Molotov cocktail at a random motorist and scheduling a visit to an infirmary, in order attack a boy who "looked at him for too long"; at the age of seventeen, while out on a hunting trip, Vincent killed his father, making the murder look like an unfortunate accident.

After his mother's death, Vincent, never leaving his childhood home, began killing random people and came into contact with the mob sometime in the late eighties or early nineties, becoming a hitman. Vincent went on to kill possibly hundreds of people in Maryland, Virginia and DC. While most of these murders were for the mob, some of them were random, committed only for pleasure.

Natural Born Killer
In 2005, Vincent is hired by mob boss Michael Russo to kill Freddy Condore and Jimmy Baker, who Russo had become suspicious of. While Vincent easily torture-murders Freddy and his uncle William, he (having never killed a woman before) is disturbed at how difficult murdering Freddy's aunt Helen (who was not tortured) was for him. Unnerved and distracted, Vincent, after dismembering Freddy's body, merely dumps the pieces two blocks away, instead of properly disposing of them. The next night, Vincent tracks down Jimmy and takes him home, where he tortures him for several hours, eventually getting a call from Russo, who tells him that he brought a lot of heat down on them killing Freddy and the DeMarcos the way he did, as now the FBI (who have tapped the call) are in town. Having arranged a meeting with Russo, Vincent heads to Michael's scrap yard, where the BAU have set up an ambush. Managing to attack Hotch, Vincent nearly strangles him to death with a garrote, but is incapacitated with a taser by Gideon.

Arrested, Vincent is held for questioning, since Jimmy is still missing and may still be alive. Trying to get Vincent off-balance, Gideon insinuates he is impotent, but is interrupted during questioning by Agent Josh Cramer, who demands Vincent tell him where Jimmy is, letting slip Jimmy is a federal agent before being forced out of the room. Deciding to continue where Gideon left off, Hotch questions Vincent, correctly surmising his childhood was abusive and that the reason he had trouble killing Helen DeMarco was because she, as a woman, reminded him of his mother, the only person he has ever felt anything even close to affection for. Growing agitated, Vincent blurts out his father's name, which, along with objects found in Vincent's van, helps the BAU track down Vincent's home, where Jimmy is found alive.

After Jimmy is rescued, officers come to take Vincent away and, as he is being led out, Hotch states "You were just responding to what you learned Vincent. When you grow up in an environment like that, an extremely abusive and violent household... it's not surprising that some people grow up to become killers"; when Vincent questions what he means by only some people growing up to be killers, Hotch replies with "And some people grow up to catch them."

Profile
While the Freddy Condore and DiMarco murders were excessively brutal, the crime scene showed method, order and control, indicating an organized killer. The torture inflicted on William DeMarco was varied, which is unusual, as those who cut normally do not burn, and vice versa. Since the murders lacked any kind of sexual component, showed absolutely no signs of hesitation or wasted effort and had connections to the mob, it indicated an unsub who was a professional hitman (despite most hitmen not needing to torture to get the job done) and a pure psychopath, who would be a white male in his forties or fifties who was methodical and confident in his abilities, having started killing at a young age, allowing him to perfect his craft over the years. Hotch and Gideon stated that Vincent had both antisocial and paranoid personality disorders, which develop in childhood due to heavy abuse, and leaves someone completely unable to feel compassion or empathy for others (though Vincent himself had trouble killing women, appearing somewhat disturbed by his murder of Helen DeMarco).

Modus Operandi
Vincent would watch his intended victims from his van for unknown amount of time (possibly days, judging by the amount of old food containers and trash found in it). When he attacked, Vincent would torture his victims for hours (either at the scene or at home) through various means, which included beating, cutting and burning, before either finishing them with one swift, final stroke or by leaving them bound and barely alive, to be devoured by the vermin living in his basement, a process he recorded. Most of the victims would be dismembered post-mortem (though the possibility exists that some may have been alive during the process) and the body parts disposed of.

Real-Life Comparison
Vincent was seemingly based off serial killer and mob affiliate Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski, having a similarly abusive childhood, and admitted discomfort at the prospect of murdering women. Kuklinski also claimed to have killed some of his victims by wounding them and leaving them to be eaten by rats, a process he stated he videotaped, like Vincent.

Known Victims

 * Unnamed motorist
 * Unnamed teenage boy
 * Franklin V. Perotta
 * Numerous unnamed victims killed prior to Natural Born Killer, ranging in the hundreds
 * Helen and William DiMarco
 * Frederick Condore
 * James Baker
 * Aaron Hotchner

Appearances

 * Season One
 * "Natural Born Killer"