Connor O'Brien

"She's dead! There's no possible way she could've survived!"

Connor O'Brien is a spree killer (originally mission-based serial killer) who appeared in the Season Five of Criminal Minds.

Background
Connor's father, William, a serial arsonist, often abused him when he was a child and set a fire in 1993 and killed his wife and made it look like an accident in order to cash out her life insurance. Connor testified against him and got him put in prison. Sometime in his life, Connor got a job as a frycook at the Quality Cafe diner in Providence, Rhode Island.

Public Enemy
One month prior to Public Enemy, William O'Brien got a reduced sentence, getting the possibility of parole in 2015. This caused Connor to start killing. In a month, he killed two: one at a local laundromat and the other at a local restaurant. At the beginning of the episode, Connor is seen entering a local church during Mass. He takes a seat behind Marine Captain Paul Collins and his family and begins to pull on a pair of leather gloves. As Paul's wife and daughter argue, Connor quietly reaches forward, slashes Paul's throat, and casually walks out of the church. Later, a young woman is standing at a bus stop when Connor approaches. He pulls on the same pair of gloves and draws his switch blade. Fortunately, the bus arrives and the woman boards it. Connor casually waves at the woman as the bus leaves.

When he later kills a flower salesman, he decides to become part of the crime scene. The BAU arrives and blocks off the area, telling police to detain all of the witnesses. Connor tries to slip away. When Officer John Liddy attempted to detain Connor, he stabbed him and fled. When another officer insulted the killer the next day, O'Brien left to go to find a new victim, eventually killing a woman at the local library in front of her child. The BAU decide to falsely claim that the mother survived in order to lure Connor out into the open, knowing that he will verify the claims. The ruse, added with Collins's wife's broadcasted statement for a candlelight vigil at the latest crime scene, worked; Connor arrived at the library with the intention of killing a member of the vigil and, after attempting to flee from Morgan, was caught by the BAU and local police.

Connor is then shown standing in line in prison. A fellow inmate strolls by and hands Connor a shiv. Connor approaches a man who is farther up in line. He identifies the man as his father and stabs him to death.

Profile
Connor is a Sociopath who craves attention. Like most unsubs of this type, Connor's arrogance leads him to taunt authorities. Unlike other unsubs from the show, however, Connor performs his murders in public places where everyone can see his handiwork immediately after. This characteristic classifies him as a mass murderer-type spree killer. He killed his victims to feed off of their grief, like an arsonist would do after his fires. The BAU reasons that Connor is seeking revenge on the community of Providence. His reasons may lie within the murder of his mother by his father, against whom he testified.

Modus Operandi
Connor sought his victims out during the day, in crowded public places that held some significance in a person's daily life. Approaching a random pedestrian, Connor would put on a pair of gloves (so as not to leave fingerprints), sneak up behind them, slit their throat with a switchblade, and flee the scene when panic set in, leaving his weapon behind. As his need for attention grew, Connor began lingering at the crime scenes, even pretending to be a panicking bystander after murdering the marketplace florist.

Known Victims

 * Mike O'Donnell
 * Karen Lagrassa
 * Captain Paul Collins
 * Unnamed woman
 * The attack at the market:
 * Unnamed florist
 * Officer Joseph Liddy
 * Julia Vecchia
 * William O'Brien

Appearances

 * Season Five
 * Public Enemy