Jimmy Hall

"So I'm a punching bag, huh?!"

Jimmy Hall is a boxer-turned-spree killer who appeared in The Bittersweet Science.

Background
Jimmy was born in Philadelphia and grew up in foster care. He displayed a violent streak early, being kicked out of three middle schools for violent behavior. One of those times, he beat a fellow student so badly he went into a coma. As an adult, he wanted to have an occupation where he could legally take out his rage at someone, so Jimmy took up boxing, receiving Tony Cole, a former boxer who retired after being badly injured in a lawn-mowing accident, as his trainer. However, Jimmy's career as a boxer was unsuccessful, as he constantly kept losing matches. Eventually, he gained a reputation from his losses, being called a "punching bag". Several years prior to "The Bittersweet Science", Jimmy met and married a woman named Pam; the two later had a son they named Ryan. Jimmy and Pam later divorced, presumably because of Jimmy's devotion to boxing and/or his violent streak. At some point in his childhood, Ryan began suffering from leukemia, but it eventually disappeared, apparently from remission. However, when it returned, just prior to The Bittersweet Science, Jimmy flew into a rage and, after dropping Ryan off at the hospital, took it out on two men, Sam Eets and Bruce Thomas, bludgeoning them both to death with a metal pipe.

The Bittersweet Science
Immediately after killing Sam and Bruce, Jimmy, undergoing a slight psychotic episode, calls Tony and begins ranting to him about the possibility of Ryan's leukemia returning. The next day, he learns from the official doctor's report that Ryan's leukemia has returned. Jimmy demands for a bone-marrow transplant done, but the doctor tells him that they have to run some tests before they attempt anything. Jimmy thinks he is lying to him and Pam because he thinks they can't afford it. In order to pay for the transplant, Jimmy asks Tony to bet $1500 he has saved up on him winning his next match so he can pay for the transplant with the winnings. Tony agrees for Ryan's sake, but then two nearby bar patrons make cracks about Jimmy being a punching bag. The same night, he beats the same men to death with his bare hands. The next morning, before the match, Jimmy becomes troubled by hallucinations of Ryan. Tony suggests that he drop out, but Jimmy is determined to win the fight. In the ring, he sees his opponent's nose bleeding, triggering the blood lust he acquired from the killings, and beats him into submission, winning the match. Afterwards, Jimmy asks for his winnings, but Tony claims to have forgotten to place the wager. Jimmy realizes that Tony bet against him, counting on him losing, and when he questions him about it, Tony insists that it was the first and only time it happened.

Later, an unconvinced Jimmy goes to Lou Manzoni, Tony's bookie, and asks him how many other times Tony has bet against him. When Lou tells him that he has been doing it during his whole career, Jimmy beats both him and his bodyguard to death before robbing his safe. When he brings a bundle of cash to the hospital to pay for the transplant, the doctor and Pam inform him that Ryan isn't physically strong enough to undergo the chemotherapy needed to perform the transplant and will die soon. Angered, Jimmy goes to Tony's house and abducts him. He takes him to an abandoned warehouse and then kills him despite his pleas that he has a family too. His blood lust active again, Jimmy signs up for an MMA match. During the fight, he has a hallucination of Ryan cheering him on and is distracted while his opponent takes him down. When he sees the BAU, who are wearing FBI vests, in the crowd, he allows himself to be pinned down and beaten so he can be taken to the hospital to see his son. There, Hotch approaches him and makes it clear to him that Ryan is dying, telling him to go and comfort him. Jimmy does so and tells Ryan that he and Pam love him, after which Ryan responds that he loves them too before flat-lining and passing away. Jimmy's fate after that is unknown, but it is likely that he was incarcerated or even institutionalized due to the psychosis that is triggered by his blood lust.

Modus Operandi
Jimmy's victims, except for the first two, were all men with whom he was somehow acquainted with. The victims were usually grouped in pairs. He would beat them to death with his bare fists, but his first two victims were bludgeoned with a metal pipe instead. After killing Sam Eets and Bruce Thomas, he sat the bodies up on crates (not unlike the way boxers sit in the corners of the ring), wiped the blood away from them, and covered the faces with a piece of cloth as a sign of remorse, but didn't do so with his later victims. Also, with his later victims, the overkill was much more extensive to the point where his victim's skulls were completely cracked open and had their eye sockets shattered.

Profile
The unsub is a physically-fit white male aged in his 20s to early 30s. He kills his victims, but he does not rob them or even sexually assault them. During his first killings, he displayed anxiety, cleaning up the scene and covering the victims' faces out of remorse, but now, that remorse is fading away and he has started to develop blood lust, i.e. he becomes aroused by the sight of blood, which triggers a release of adrenaline and dopamines for him. This is causing the violence to escalate and driving him to attack his victims with violent overkill. The urge to become violent is so overwhelming that he is pulverizing his victims to a point beyond the need to kill them; the force with which he is doing this suggests he is in shape. After the killings, the unsub most likely goes dormant, either recuperating from physical exertion or developing aphasia and convulsive attacks. The rage in the killings suggest that he is suffering from depression and feeling that life is working against him. Because of this, he will try to put himself in violent situations where he can feel the high from drawing blood again, which he views as having power and control over his life.

Known Victims

 * Unspecified date: Unnamed student
 * 2011:
 * December 13: The alleyway killings :
 * Sam Eets
 * Bruce Thomas
 * December 14: The parking lot killings :
 * Frank
 * Jack Messmer
 * December 15: The attack at Lou Manzoni's office :
 * Lou Manzoni
 * Manzoni's unnamed bodyguard
 * December 16: Tony Cole

Appearances

 * Season Seven
 * The Bittersweet Science