Jacob Dawes

"Are you ready, Sarah Jean? Gonna ride the lightning, baby!"

Jacob Dawes was a prolific serial killer and abductor who appeared in Riding the Lightning.

Background
An only child, Jacob was abused emotionally and sexually by his mother throughout his childhood. Later in life, Jacob became a carpenter, married Sarah Jean Mason, and began torturing and murdering teenage girls around 1985. After claiming at least eighteen victims, with twelve of them being buried underneath his workshop, Jacob was interviewed by police in 1990 after Sarah Jean, overcome by guilt, made an anonymous call to the authorities. Realizing the police were likely to come back, and wanting to flee before that happened, Jacob, thinking his and Sarah Jean's two-year-old son Riley was merely a liability, ordered Sarah Jean to kill him and dispose of the body. Though Sarah Jean told Jacob she murdered Riley, she had actually given him to the Sheffields, a family she cleaned for. When the police came back with a search warrant, they arrested Jacob and Sarah Jean, after discovering the twelve bodies under the workshop. Jacob confessed to the murders, while Sarah Jean confessed to killing Riley, and both of them were imprisoned in the Florida State Penitentiary, being sentenced to death.

Riding the Lightning
In the episode, Jacob was interviewed by Hotch, who was hoping to find out if he was responsible of any more murders, but he would not confess to any of them; instead he wanted to play card games. When JJ walked into the interrogation room, Jacob agreed to confess to one more murder for each time that Hotch and JJ won, but if he won, he would get to smell JJ's hair. Hotch declined at the same time that JJ agreed to the deal. When Hotch won, Jacob told them there were no more girls. Then, Hotch claimed that the State granted a delay of execution for Sarah Jean. Believing it to be true, Jacob became enraged and told them where she had buried Riley, only to be discovered that the body was not Riley, but another victim, Ashley Farley. Hotch went back to question Jacob, but he was denied any more information. When Jacob was being walked to the chair, he began yelling about how he and Sarah Jean were meant to be and die together and that they were "gonna ride the lightning". As Jacob was about to die, Hotch held up the picture of the teenage Riley, proving Sarah Jean's innocence, which ruined Jacob's plan to take Sarah Jean with him. Hotch told him he lost and Jacob for the first time became angry, growling out, "No." Jacob was then executed.

Profile
A psychiatric evaluation of Jacob done during his imprisonment diagnosed him as a sexual psychopath who craved power, manipulation, and control, was incapable of guilt or remorse, and who saw Sarah Jean as merely a possession he could dominate, like his victims. Human sexuality is a complex dynamic consisting of three components: biological, physiological and emotional. Jacob's emotional needs were formed by his mother's long-term emotional and sexual abuse, which formed the template of his love map, and resulted in his disorder. As Jacob was alone during the abuse he suffered, he would logically need to be alone with his victims while torturing them to properly fulfill his fantasies.

Modus Operandi
"I made my peace with him eighteen times, and each one was prettier than the last."

Jacob targeted blonde teenage girls, and told police Sarah Jean (whose stated involvements in the abductions were undoubtedly a lie) would lure them from mall parking lots and into his truck by promising them marijuana. After abducting them, Jacob took the girls to his workshop, where he tortured them to death with his tools and dismembered the bodies with a bench saw. The remains were originally buried under the workshop, but, after running out of room, Jacob began burying them under structures he was hired to build, like his mother-in-law's living room and another client's gazebo.

Real-Life Comparison
With some obvious differences, Jacob has some similarities to real-life serial killer John Wayne Gacy. Both targeted teenagers, though Jacob's victims were female while Gacy's were male, both lured them to their houses using a ruse and tortured them and both disposed of the bodies by burying them under the floor in their house. Another possible source of inspiration may have been Fred West, who also tortured and killed young girls and buried them on his property. He was also aided by his wife, which Jacob was incorrectly believed to have been.

Known Victims

 * Unspecified dates from 1985 to 1990:
 * Ashley Farley
 * At least sixteen other unnamed girls
 * Hilary Dickson
 * September 1990: Riley Dawes

Appearances

 * Season One
 * "Riding the Lightning"