Carl Finster

"I'm your biggest success story."

Carl Finster is a psychotic serial killer, abductor, and attempted spree killer who has synesthesia. He appeared in Season Eight of Criminal Minds.

Background
A Seattle local, Finster was born with synesthesia, a condition that allowed him to visually "see" the words being spoken by a person who is addressing him. These words were colored in certain colors, which helped him determine the credibility of the speaker. For his entire life, he maintained a system of colors that he associated with certain emotions: white determined the speaker was being honest and sincere, yellow determined that the speaker was lying, and red determined that the speaker was truly "evil". As an adult, Finster got a job at a credit-card workplace, in which he responded to phone calls made by customers. However, he was eventually fired by his boss, David Cooper, after becoming increasingly violent towards customers and coworkers. This distressed him and he was contemplating suicide when he came across a popular motivational speaker named Barry Flynn, whose teachings restored and strengthened his self-confidence to the point where he developed a fantasy world in which he was a superhero, using his condition to single out liars and "evil ones" and brutally kill them. This delusion was further enforced by an occurrence where Finster overheard a man whom he described as "evil" and tried to call the police on him, but after he was shot down, a mother and daughter were killed by a carjacker; Finster was fully convinced that it was the same man. Also in this fantasy, Flynn was his sidekick. Finster eventually initiated his "mission", killing a man named Lincoln Bell, who resembled Cooper. He then left a message meant for Flynn behind, reading "Hear your evil, see your evil".

Magnificent Light
When Flynn came to Seattle for a conference, Finster felt that it was his opportunity to gain his "sidekick". He attended the conference and was one of several attendants to stay behind as part of a bonus one-on-one talk with Flynn himself. However, Flynn is unable to attend, and Fisher, determined to prove his loyalty, followed another attendant, Cynthia Strobl, home and stabbed her to death, leaving the same message behind as he did with Lincoln Bell. Later deducing Flynn's location at a bar, he convinces another man, Ricky Lopez, to lure him out. Lopez does, and when Flynn is outside, Finster knocks him out and abducts him, with Lopez unable to witness the whole thing as he went back into the bar immediately afterwards. Flynn later wakes up at Finster's house, where Finster introduces himself and states that he won't let him go until he "understands". Later, Finster purchases some food for himself and Flynn, whom he explains his condition and his mission to. When Flynn makes a comment on Fisher's "mission", asking when it stops, Finster responds that it won't. He then arrives at his workplace and gathers all of the names of the customers that called him, intending to kill those he saw as liars and evil. David Cooper spots him and, fearing that Finster was intending to commit a workplace shooting, approaches him and talks to him. Finster asks why he was fired, but as Cooper responds, he instead looks at the visual words, which upsets Cooper, who tells him to leave, and he does.

Finster later takes Flynn to the house of Janet Dodd, one of the customers that he singled out as evil, and waits for her husband to leave. Flynn tries to talk him down, but it fails to work and the two break into the Dodd house, with Finster killing Janet in front of Flynn's eyes. He then leaves a new message behind: "Hear your red, see your red." In an effort to stop Finster, Flynn pretends to understand the mission and wishes to participate in it, only asking Finster to let him loose from his bonds in return. He agrees to do so only after he kills Howard Jeffson, another target. The two arrive at Jeffson's house, only to find Jeffson not home and instead occupied by Joseph Caldwell and his family, who rented it. Finster is initially unconvinced until he sees Joseph's words, which are in white. But when Joseph lies to him, saying that the family won't call the police, Finster finds out and decides to kill him anyway, ordering Flynn to take out his ceremonial knife. When Flynn tries to talk Finster down again, Finster is horrified to see that Flynn's words are in red. Angered, he injures Flynn with the knife and tries to kill him, but the BAU burst in, rescue the family, and hold him at gunpoint, ordering Finster to drop the knife and a handgun that he had also been using. Finster refuses to comply until Morgan tells him of the carjacker, who wasn't the man Fisher overheard. Finster believes Morgan, as his words are in white, and drops his weapons, allowing the BAU to arrest him.

Modus Operandi
Finster's victims were targeted for various reasons: Lincoln Bell resembled his former employer David Cooper, Cynthia Strobl was killed to prove his devotion to Flynn, and Janet Dodd was a customer whom Finster determined as being "evil". All three were killed by being stabbed repeatedly, even after death, with a ceremonial knife as means to make their deaths look sacrificial. During his latter killings, Finster targeted the customers he talked to, specifically those he deduced to be liars and pure evil. After killing his victims, Finster would leave a message reading "Hear your evil, see your evil" written on a nearby wall in red paint. In the case of Janet Dodd's murder, the message was "Hear your red, see your red" as a reference to the red visual words that signifies one's true evil. During the attack on the Caldwell family, Finster also used a handgun to keep the victims compliant.

Profile
While it was originally thought that Barry Flynn was a suspect, it soon became clear that the unsub is one of his followers, who suffers from erotomania. He is obsessed with Flynn, his latest captive, and he may believe that Flynn is also in love with him. It should be noted that erotomania has very little to do with sex. It involves more of a romantic or spiritual connection that erotomanics crave. Victims of this delusion tend to come from a higher social status and have done very little to stimulate or encourage such a delusional belief, so it is likely that Flynn and the unsub have had no previous contact. His infatuation probably began from afar, considering Flynn's celebrity status as a motivational speaker.

The patience required to commit his crimes describes him as a male in his late 30s to 40s, who is single and socially immature, therefore a typical loner. Although he is capable of holding down a job, he most likely neglects his duties, instead focusing more on his obsession. This is a man who spends much of his time living in his delusional fantasy world, and he may have been tracking Flynn for quite some time. With erotomania, the most likely recipient of violence is the person standing in the way of the desired object. So, it is possible the unsub witnessed an interaction between his first two victims and Flynn, killing them in a jealous rage. Another possibility is that the unsub killed them to prove his devotion.

The weapon he used has a ceremonial quality to it, which means the unsub views his victims as sacrifices, and the messages he is leaving at the crime scenes may be meant for Flynn. When Flynn came under his control, the situation became especially precarious. If the unsub is under the delusion that Flynn also cares about him, then any misstep by Flynn that contradicts the belief that the two are in a relationship could lead to more victims or even Flynn's own murder to prove they have a special bond.

Known Victims

 * 2012:
 * November 23: Lincoln Bell
 * November 24: Cynthia Strobl
 * November 25-27: Barry Flynn
 * November 26: Janet Dodd
 * November 27: The Jeffson house standoff:
 * Howard Jeffson
 * The Caldwell family
 * Stephen Caldwell
 * The unnamed mother
 * The unnamed daughter

Appearances

 * Season Eight
 * "Magnificent Light"