James Heathridge

James Heathridge was a serial killer who was under a delusion that he was fighting the "Devil's Wives" in Season Seven of Criminal Minds.

Background
James' mother, textile heiress Catherine Heathridge, also known by her stage name "Cate Harris", was a psychotic who stopped taking her medication when she became pregnant with his sister, Lara. An aspiring actress, she had a minor part in a 1996 production of the Shakespeare play The Merry Wives of Windsor, during which she suffered a psychotic reaction and became convinced that the lead actresses were "the Devil's Wives", prompting her to stab one of them. Afterwards, she went home and chopped off the infant Lara's left arm with a meat cleaver "to make her less appealing to the devil". She was institutionalized at St. Baldwin's Psychiatric Hospital, where she died in a fire in 1998; it was suspected that she was the one who started the fire. Since James and Lara's father had died in a speed boat accident, they were raised by their maternal grandfather, Winston Harris, who died in 2011. James spent some time living at a seminary, but was kicked out in 2009 for unspecified reasons, after which he moved into the family home, Heathridge Manor, with Lara, who had gotten a prostethic arm. He isolated her from her friends and apparently developed a kind of incestuous fondness for her.

Modus Operandi
James targeted women who resembled the Devil's Wives, images of whom he would paint himself during trance-like states, and abducted them on dates related to sacrifices in the Satanc calendar. After bringing them to his house, he would place them at the bottom of a well with a lockable grate and gradually fill it with water. When the well was full and the victim passed out from drowning, he would pull them up. If they woke up on their own, James would consider them one of the Wives, bind their wrists and ankles with rope and sow them into a Renaissance-style, home-made dress made by Lara soaked in a nicotine-based pesticide, leading to them dying from nicotine poisoning within a short time. James then applied white make-up and red lepstick on their faces and placed the bodies on their back in symbolic locations as messages to the devil.

Profile
The Unsub, who is probably in his 20s-30s, is living in an elaborate fantasy world, as shown by the elaborate make-up and dresses found on the bodies. He believes he is special, possibly acting on behalf of the devil. His crimes aren't driven by sex or greed but by his delusional belief system. The fact that he holds his victims submerged in water for days before killing them indicates that he is patient and deliberate. He has a vivid imagination and is either knowledgable about history or a fan of Shakespeare, as shown by the clothes he puts on his victims. Since killing by using nicotine as poison isn't common, he is either well-read or under the guidance of someone else. His interest and delusions have driven him into social isolation and cannot appear normal in front of his potential targets. Since he is willing to travel great distances to abduct his victims, he has very specific criteria for whom to target. He has a female accomplice who sowed the dresses, but she may be coerced into helping him or even a victim herself.

Known Victims

 * Christine Torres
 * Emma Baker
 * Alice Pritchard
 * Sarah Gammon
 * Lara Heathridge
 * Aaron Hotchner