Charlie Wilkinson

"You know better than to bother me here."

Charles "Charlie" Wilkinson was a serial rapist and budding serial killer who copied his father in Birthright.

Background
Charlie's father, Robert Wilkinson, was a serial killer active in Fredericksburg, Virginia in the 1980s. When his wife and Charlie's mother, Mary, realized what he had done, she placed him in his combine harvester, turned it on, and killed him, making it look like an accident in order to protect Charlie. When time passed, however, it became evident that Charlie had inherited his father's murderous instincts. When he was fifteen, he took a cat, placed it in a bag that was hung on a tree branch, and began hitting the bag, beating the cat to death.

Birthright
In 2007, Charlie, who had figured out his father's connection to the 1980 killings, felt a bond with him and started killing in the same way his father did, even using the same areas to confine and torture his victims. The BAU was called in after a third woman, Molly McCarthy, went missing. During the search for similar crimes in the area around the same time as the 1980 killings, they found a story of Karen Foley, who had similar experiences with the victims. When the BAU went to ask her, however, she claimed to have lied to cover up her cocaine addiction. After finding out that she moved after what happened to her, she then moved back when Robert Wilkinson died, they figured out, with help from the investigator of the original crimes, John Caulfield, that Robert was the one responsible. They then went to question Mary, who obviously wasn't surprised to hear about Robert's murders. When trying again with Karen Foley, her son, Stephen, who was conceived when Robert raped her, briefly becomes a suspect. This changed when he told her that he had figured out the way he was conceived.

Meanwhile, Morgan and JJ went looking for Charlie, who hadn't gone to work that day and found that he had used a barn near the house when he and his wife, Chrissy, lived to torture his victims. When they brought Karen to the scene to trace her memories to the confinement area, she accused Mary of not doing anything to stop Robert. Mary then confessed to killing him. With Karen's help, they found the confinement area, a small barred cave, and were able to save the two girls held captive there. In the meantime, Chrissy confronts Charlie at a nearby Civil War memorial where he had been drinking. She then reminds him that they were starting a family, but Charlie states he never wanted one. When she brought up Robert, saying "you're a sick son of a bitch, just like your daddy", Charlie rose up. In the next scene, a gunshot was heard off-screen. It was revealed that Chrissy killed him. She claims it was self-defense, although Mary realizes slowly that history only repeated itself with Chrissy and Charlie. Chrissy is then taken into custody and appeared to be arrested as she was put in the back of the police car, handcuffed.

Profile
No official profile of Charlie was made, since it was initially assumed the 2007 killings were being perpetrated by his father, and therefore, the profile was focused on the latter. However, it seemed that Charlie's killings were possibly triggered by his wife's pregnancy, in addition to his connection with Robert.

Modus Operandi
Charlie copied his father's murders almost to the letter. He abducted his victims and took them to his barn to rape and torture them using cigarette burns, usually keeping two at a time. After a few hours, he brought them to a small cave to keep them captive. When transporting them between the locations, he made them wear a bag on their heads. During the torture, he would play music and force them to dance. Whenever they refused to obey him or simply weren't capable of doing so, he would decapitate them with an ax, chop the bodies up and then dump the remains on the site of the Battle of Chancellorsville. The difference between Robert's and Charlie's murders was that Robert targeted junkies and runaways while Charlie targeted college students. According to the BAU, this was because of the transformation the area underwent in two decades.

Real-Life Comparison
Charlie's habit of attacking two victims at once might have been inspired by Gerard Schaefer, a double-murderer and suspected serial killer who usually abducted two women at a time before raping, torturing, and killing them and then writing about it in a journal.

Known Victims
Note: The dates denote when the victims were abducted.


 * 2007:
 * October 30: Unnamed victim
 * November 19: Julie Stanton
 * December 10: Molly McCarthy
 * December 11: Tara Ricker

Appearances

 * Season Three
 * Birthright