Hollis Walker

Professor Hollis Walker, Jr. is a Serial Killer who appeared in Season Six of Criminal Minds.

Background
Hollis' father was an expert on African religions and wrote ten books about the subject. He was also highly physically abusive. When Hollis was 12, his prep school did a psychological evaluation of him, which came back with worrying results. His mother committed suicide when he went to boarding school. After that, Hollis stayed at school all the time, even during the holidays and vacations. Because his father didn't care, he didn't bring him back. In adulthood, Hollis wrote a book about Palo Mayumbe, a secretive, death-related Afro-Caribbean religion, which his father, in a newspaper article, did not approve of. When he became eligible for tenure at the college where he taught (Corazón), Hollis began a plan to commit a series of murders to kill people using the religions he researched in order for his academic work to gain fame and him to be noticed by his father. After he killed three people, the BAU were called in.

Modus Operandi
Hollis killed his first three victims, who were middle-aged men and women from the lower classes of society, inside their homes. He started out performing a ritual with them which involved drawing a circle-like symbol on the floor, decapitating a pigeon and scattering its blood and feathers. He also turned any crosses in the room upside-down. He then killed the victims from behind during a vulnerable moment in various ways, cut off their fingers or their whole hands post-mortem and took them with him, posed the bodies face-up on the floor and placed seashells in their mouths and eyes. His fourth victim was subdued with a metal pipe, tied up and his hands and tongue were removed to torture him. The victim was then killed by decapitation, his brain was removed and taken and his tongue was placed in a dish. During the third and fourth murders, he also decapitated the victims' house pets, a cat and a dog respectively, and placed their heads near the victims. His killings were meant to look like ritualistic killings so he could frame Elian Morales for the murders.

Profile
The UnSub is a young male. Though he is behaviorally 17-21 years old, he may be much older; he has most likely served time in some kind of prison, which stunts emotional growth. He has most likely been abused as a child and has been in the juvenile system or in foster care. The age of his victims suggests that he may be taking revenge on parental figures. The religions that played a part in his killings were Santeria or Palo Mayumbe. Because of this, he may have a religous connection to the victims and may be a practitioner. Because he targets people who are vulnerable and then builds relationships with them, he also has close access to his victims and may therefore work at a government aid office or a community center. He is highly organized in his planning, but lets his urges take over when he kills. This suggests that, though he thinks he has an objective goal, he is driven by a compulsion to kill. This has caused a rapid escalation in his M.O. and his time frame, making him unpredictable and even more dangerous.

Known Victims

 * Eduardo Guzman
 * Yanira Espinal
 * Victor Cabrera
 * Jimmy Mercado
 * Attempted to kill three people. They are:
 * Elian Morales
 * Julio Ruiz
 * Spencer Reid

Real-Life Comparison
Hollis' murders may have been inspired by the murders committed by Adolfo Constanzo, an American serial killer, drug dealer and cult leader who ritually killed over 25 people using voodoo, Santeria and Palo Mayombe, the same religions that Hollis based his murders on. It is believed that Constanzo performed the torture and murders of his victims to ensure his success as a drug dealer.