Edward Hill

"It [the company] took everything from me; fruits of my labor, best years of my life. They took my family. And when there was nothing left to take, they took two-thirds of my salary and my health insurance."

Edward Hill was an attempted mass murderer who poisoned a number of people, including himself, in Poison.

Background
Edward worked as a chemist for Palmay Cosmetics, a cosmetics company in New Jersey. His work resulted in his family breaking up. At some point, he developed a groundbreaking anti-aging technology which he applied a patent for. When the company was bought by the larger Hichcock Pharmaceuticals, they took over the patent, demoted him, cut his salary by two-thirds, and took away his health insurance. Over time, he grew increasingly resentful over this and plotted revenge. He got romantically involved with Lynn Dempsey, a female Hichcock Pharmaceuticals executive assistant with low self-esteem, and manipulated her into aiding him. He had her plant poisoned candies and poisoned envelopes at the New Jersey Federal Bank as a trial run for his real attack. After it was successful, though it had only one casualty, Edward poisoned Lynn with botulin toxin and Rohypnol.

Poison
The BAU were called in to assist local investigators after being contacted by the Center for Disease Control. They figured that what had happened was a mere test run for a bigger attack. They went to a café which all eight infected people had visited previously and were led to Danny Wallace, a busboy there who had called in sick. Elle went to talk to his girlfriend Samantha who had also been affected. She suspected that Danny had drugged and raped her as she had some bruises. When Elle caught Danny, he explained that they'd had consensual sex after which she'd had a frenzy and attacked him, forcing him to hold her down. Realizing that he was telling the truth, they deduced that a mass poisoner of the Avenger type was responsible. After giving the profile, the BAU learned that the story had been leaked to a news channel, which didn't name the affected restaurant and created city-wide panic as a result.

Reid and JJ checked local hospitals for similar poisonings and found a hospitalized Lynn Dempsey who then died after muttering "the en-...". Meanwhile, Elle and Morgan looked into the possibility that the victims may have been poisoned elsewhere. They learned that all victims had visited the New Jersey Federal Bank. Going through the surveillance footage, they saw Lynn dropping candies in a large candy jar among normal ones and figured that was the source of the poison. After looking into her background, they learned that the company she worked for, Hichcock Pharmaceuticals, had recently fired or demoted several of its employees. They tracked down Edward and arrested him. When they interrogated him, he explained his motive for the attack and refused to help them, no longer having any concern for the lives of his targets. Hotch eventually talked him into fighting Hichcock Pharmaceuticals in court and give up his next target. He revealed that he had poisoned the punch bowl at the company party. The authorities stopped the party and treated those who had been poisoned.

At the interrogation room, Hotch became suspicious over the fact that Edward had targeted the Hichcock Pharmaceuticals employees instead of the management, as they were responsible for his demotion. Reid then pointed out that one of the trial run victims was a severe diabetic and couldn't therefore have ingested the poison from the candy. Going through the bank's surveillance footage of Lynn again, they notice that she also applied poison to a stack of envelopes, which is what she had tried to tell them before she died. Realizing that Edward's motive for the trial was to test delivery systems, not the actual poison, they turned around and noticed that he was choking to death after ingesting his own poison earlier. Despite his death, they were able to deduce that he had targeted the Hichcock Pharmaceuticals management, which was on a company retreat to do some bonding exercises, one of which was selecting a leader of the group by voting. The votes were placed in envelopes, which Edward had already poisoned. The authorities were able to treat them in time, saving all of them.

Modus Operandi
Edward's first poison blend, which was made primarily to test possible delivery methods, consisted of LSD to create hallucinations and rohypnol to make the victims forget how they could have been poisoned. When he killed Lynn, he used Rohypnol and botulin toxin. When he attacked the employees and management of Hichcock Pharmaceuticals, he only used botulin toxin.

Profile
According to the BAU, there are four types of offenders who commit mass poisonings: True Believers who are political terrorists or religious cult members, Extortionists who hold companies hostage for ransom, Pranksters who are teenagers who do it as a practical joke and usually don't mean any harm, and Avengers who seek to exact revenge using poison as their weapon. They believed Edward to be the last-mentioned, a local resident motivated by revenge who typically acts alone, although he may have manipulated someone close to him to assist him. Avengers typically dispose of this accomplice when he or she is of no further use to him. The suspect is a cautious, deliberate, and highly functioning 35- to 50-year old male who, while not having a criminal record, may have filed criminal charges or civil suits against his perceived adversaries. He had loss his empathy and his moral compass. He is profiled as being in his 40s.

He chose LSD, a perception-altering drug, because he seeks to alter the, in his opinion, wrongful perception of him by the community he lives in or, at least, a subset of it. He believes that the attack will alter the reality that he lives in and perceives as unjust. He is so self-centered that he believes his victims will know who attacked them and why. He no longer has any concern for human life and will kill whomever necessary to proceed with his plan. He used Rohypnol to make the victims forget how they were dosed because the first attack was simply a trial run for his true plan. He will be watching the results and, since they, in this case, were successful, unleash all of his bottled-up rage in the form of a larger attack. If he realizes that he's about to get caught before he can set his real plan into motion, he will most likely kill himself. If he is caught alive, however, he will want to brag about his brilliant plan and recount every detail of it.

Known Victims

 * Eight people poisoned by the first blend:
 * Jack Fisher
 * Gail Norman
 * Britney Cannon
 * Samantha DiFornio
 * Four other unnamed people
 * Lynn Dempsey
 * About a dozen unnamed attendants of the Hichcock Pharmaceutical party
 * Poisoned the entire Hichcock Pharmaceutical management, but all received treatment and survived. Named victims are:
 * Brian Devons
 * Fred
 * Bob

Appearances

 * Season One
 * "Poison"