John David Bidwell

"You'll never find him."

John David "Johnny" Bidwell is an abductor and vigilante who appeared in Season Ten of Criminal Minds.

Background
Bidwell and his sister Sandra were frequently abused by their father Sam, who was a religious, fanatical alcoholic who would never allow them to go trick-or-treating on Halloween. Their mother Mary tried to stop the abuse, but always wound up being dominated by Sam, whom she couldn't leave because she was frightened of him. On the Halloween of 2002, Bidwell threw eggs at another house and was caught for it, enraging Sam, who stuffed him inside a trunk and threatened to not let him out until next Halloween. Mary came home from work and found Sam yelling at the trunk. Realizing what he had done, she tried to let Bidwell out, but Sam attacked her, forcing her to bludgeon him to death with a fireplace poker. Mary then let Bidwell out of the trunk, and he spotted his father's body, which he had to help his mother bury at a property belonging to his paternal grandfather. As a result of the event, his mind became warped and he began torturing Sandra by smothering her repeatedly and locking her inside the closet. He also began killing animals and stuffing them inside boxes.

As an adult, he became a driver for a courier company. On May 9, 2011, he was engaged to a wealthy woman named Charlotte Taylor, but the wedding was called off after she suddenly married another man, which caused him to snap. Wanting to feel the same power and domination his father felt during the abuse, Bidwell cut himself off from society and built a small underground box on his grandfather's property. On the Halloween night of 2012, Bidwell abducted a boy named Tommy Wilcox, who was vandalizing a house by throwing toilet paper all over it. Taking him over to his grandfather's property, he locked Tommy in the box and left him inside for almost a year, as a reference to Sam's threat that Bidwell would be kept locked in the trunk until next Halloween. Bidwell then released Tommy on October 30, 2013, the day preceding Halloween, but the boy died of malnutrition after being discovered. On that Halloween, he abducted another boy, Joshua Parker, who had behavioral issues, and locked him inside the same box.

Modus Operandi
Bidwell targeted Caucasian boys between the ages of 10 and 12 who committed some sort of trouble during Halloween night. Donning a skull mask so he wouldn't be noticeable and instead mistaken as another trick-or-treater, he would grab the boy and take him to his grandfather's property. There, he would force the boy inside the handmade box at knife-point and keep them there for almost a year. During that time, the boys would be starved, restrained, and punctured by nails protruding from the box's walls. He would also occasionally beat them with a pipe. Every October 30 of the year following the abduction, Bidwell would release the boy after dressing him in a skeleton costume. On the day after, Halloween, he would then move on to another boy.

Profile
Based on the details of the abduction, the unsub is a white male aged in his mid-20s to early 30s. He is fixated on Halloween, probably due to a traumatic event from his childhood. He is punishing his victims for vandalizing homes because it is that aspect of Halloween that agitates him. He is classified as a "fundamentalist vigilante", meaning because Halloween traditions are rooted in Christianity, he may be some kind of religious zealot. He releases his victims on a consistent timeline, suggesting that he is mission-oriented. For him, it is all about the punishment itself, which is why he releases them; the point of the punishment is for them to learn from their mistakes. He may be from a broken home, likely involving violence or abuse, which may have also been exceedingly strict. Interpersonal relationships would still be a problem for him and he would snap when being rejected by someone. He needs some sort of space to hold his victims, but less than one might think. He has to work to eat and to subsidize that space, so he most likely has a blue-collar job, specifically one where he can work alone, such as a truck driver, a night watchman, a plumber, or possibly even an electrician.

Known Victims

 * Unspecified dates, San Diego, California: Sandra Bidwell
 * October 31, 2012, Los Angeles, California: Tommy Wilcox
 * October 31, 2013, San Diego, California: Joshua Parker
 * October 31, 2014, San Diego, California: Hunter Olson

Appearances

 * Season Ten
 * Boxed In