Eric Olson

"I always knew I'd end up back in prison; just a matter of when. You can come interview me if you want. I read in one of your books that's how you build your behavioral database, right? Maybe you can learn something from me. I got a lot of questions myself. I'll be honest with you if you're honest with me. 'Cause the one thing that you always ask is the one I don't understand: why. I've no idea why. I see a guy walking down the street with a stupid look on his face and I want to bash him over the head with a bottle. To me that's normal. It's weird to me that no one else feels that way. It's all I think about. I can't stop."

Eric Ryan Olson is a serial-turned-spree killer, serial rapist, and former copycat who appeared in Season Four of Criminal Minds.

Background
Eric was born in Cleveland, Ohio on March 28, 1985, and, by his own account, was a sickly child, regularly suffering from illnesses such as strep throat. Following his arrest for attempted sexual assault in 2005, he spent two and a half years in prison, where he took up independent correspondent classes in forensic science and criminology with Gladman University. After being paroled, Eric, using his extensive knowledge of serial killers, began committing a series of copycat murders, his randomly chosen victims and alternating M.O.'s causing the crimes to go unconnected by the authorities. To relive his kills, Eric took pictures of the murder sites, framed them and decorated the walls of his apartment with them. Eric eventually met a bar waitress named Linda Jones through the internet, and the two began dating, Linda being unaware of Eric's status as a serial killer. The two had a mostly normal relationship, except for the fact that Eric would regularly have Linda play the victim in his sexual fantasy, which involved him pretending to choke and rape her at his murder sites, this being the only way he could achieve a fulfilling sexual experience.

Zoe's Reprise
While walking home from the liquor store one night, Eric passed by the house of one of his victims, spotting criminology student Zoe Hawkes snooping around the property. Approaching Zoe, Eric convinces her he is not a threat and the two begin talking, with Zoe eventually mentioning the deaths, which she theorizes are the work of one killer, that have plagued the area over the last few weeks. Thinking Zoe is onto to him, Eric locks the yard gate and advances on her, bashing her with a bottle when she panics and tries to run. When Zoe falls, Eric garrotes her with her own scarf, feeling compelled to kiss her forehead while doing so. His murder of Zoe having helped him discover his preferred method of killing, Eric, after skimming through one of Rossi's books, goes to a hardware store and buys some wire, which he uses later that night to murder a jogger, dumping the corpse in a body of water near a bridge. The BAU initially believes the latest murder to be another copycat kill, copied from Altemio Sanchez, the Bike Path Rapist. Whipped into a frenzy, Eric, after augmenting and practicing with his garrote, kills a homeless woman in the morning, leading to the BAU to believe that he has "found his own style".

Eric spends the rest of the day in the bar where Linda works. When Linda gets off work, Eric meets her in the park and the two go into the bushes to have sex, Eric pretending to choke her, as usual. As Eric unfastens his pants, the BAU, having found Eric's DNA on Zoe's body and, thinking he is in the midst of committing another murder, appear and arrest him, surprised to learn Linda is his girlfriend. While in custody, Eric, against the advice of his lawyer, asks to speak with Rossi, claiming to be a big fan. Implicating that he had committed more than just the eight murders he is being charged with, Eric makes it clear he wants a deal, and he and Rossi get into a lengthy discussion, in which Rossi gives a brief profile of Eric, explaining why he has been kissing his latest victims. After talking to Linda and inspecting Eric's apartment, discovering his picture collection, the BAU discerns where the bodies of his other four victims are, leaving Eric without a bargaining chip. Conceding, Eric admits to Rossi that he does not know why he feels compelled to kill people and claims he just cannot stop himself, also asking Rossi if he would be willing to visit and interview him in prison.

Profile
"My lawyer here explains that I'm being charged with eight murders and that I'm probably looking at the death penalty. I've one very important question for you...are you sure it's just eight?"

An anger-excitation offender, the unsub copied other killers because he was inexperienced and essentially trying to find himself and discern which method of killing he preferred, hence why the crime scenes seemed disorganized (the cuts on Lily Nicks's neck were shallow, the unsub seemed unable to decide what to kill Kayla James with, etc.). This meant he was young and impressionable, likely a student studying criminology whose computer would be filled with research on serial killers and images and films of violent crimes, which he would treat like pornography. The unsub would be socially immature, of average intelligence, psychopathic and antisocial, meaning he probably lived alone. His small kill zone means he is a geographically stable offender and, because his first act was to mimic the somewhat obscure Butcher of Kingsbury Run (who he did not copy fully, being "frightened" of the crime and wanting to get it over with as soon as possible) he was likely a lifelong resident of the area, who grew up hearing stories of The Butcher. He would keep up with the investigation, had probably committed more murders than the ones that were accounted for and, like most young people, his mind was always very active and, if caught, it was likely he would be curious and ask a variety of questions about himself and his condition.

When the unsub's murders began showing consistency, the team realized he had found himself, likely due to his murder of Zoe. That crime was unplanned, with the unsub acting quickly and on instinct, liking what came natural to him and wanting to feel it again. Finally defining himself as a serial strangler drove him into a frenzy, causing him to commit a string of practice murders to perfect his style. Eric's signature, the action he needed to perform during his murders that gave him psychological release, was kissing the forehead of his victims, to feel the heat leave them. Rossi theorized, judging by Eric's slight, pale and sickly appearance, that his parents kissed his forehead to check his temperature when he was sick and that, at some point in his development, he warped that caring gesture into something perverted.

Modus Operandi
Eric initially copied the M.O.'s of infamous killers he researched, primarily through Rossi's books. As such, he killed people through a variety of means, which included shooting, throat slashing, and asphyxiation, with two of his victims also being raped even though the original killers didn't do so to their victims. After strangling Zoe with her scarf, Eric found he enjoyed this method of killing, and began using a length of wire to garrote his victims from the front, kissing their foreheads as they died to feel the life drain out of them. As a forensic countermeasure, Eric did something to remove his saliva from his victims, such as throwing the jogger's body in water and wiping the homeless woman's forehead with an alcohol swab. It is unknown if the basis of the murders of Eric's first four victims were based on the M.O.'s of other infamous killers.

Real-Life Comparison
Other than his copycat killings, Eric's habit of having sex at his old crime scenes may be also based on David Berkowitz, the Son of Sam, who would return to his crime scenes and masturbate there. The habit also seems to be an allusion of Arthur Shawcross's tendency to bring his unknowing wife to the scenes of his own murders. Also, his habit of framing photos of his murder sites and hanging them on his walls may have been somewhat based on Harvey Glatman, a.k.a. The Lonely Hearts Killer, who would take photos of his victims both before and after he killed them, frame them and hang them on his apartment walls as well. Additionally, a segment of the above quote he gives to Rossi seems to be similar to one stated by Edmund Kemper, the Co-Ed Killer.

Known Victims

 * January 28, 2005: Unnamed woman
 * July-December 2008:
 * An unidentified victim
 * An unidentified victim
 * An unidentified victim
 * An unidentified victim
 * 2009:
 * January 9: Travis Bartlett
 * January 22: Lily Nicks
 * February 8: June Appleby and Troy Wersteler
 * February 16: Kayla James
 * February 19: Zoe Hawkes
 * February 20: Unnamed male jogger
 * February 21: Unnamed homeless woman

Appearances

 * Season Four
 * "Zoe's Reprise"