Thomas Yates

"Agent Rossi...Nice to meet you after all these years..."

Thomas "Tommy" Yates, a.k.a. "The Womb Raider", is one of the most prolific serial killers in the BAU's history, who is currently incarcerated. He appeared in Season Seven in Criminal Minds, mostly in flashbacks.

Background
In 1966, Yates's mother, then-16-year-old Georgina Yates, was raped by an unidentified man who was apparently never caught, and this resulted in her pregnancy with him. Eventually, Georgina gave birth to Yates, during which she had to have an emergency hysterectomy, and while the birth was successful, she died from hemorrhaging. As a result, Yates was put under the care of his maternal grandparents, Trudy and Roy. This didn't turn out well for Yates, as he was physically and psychologically abused by Trudy, who viewed him as a demonic bastard; a flashback shows her forcing him to put on a dress and locking him outside the house. She also starved him and made him sleep in a doghouse.

In school, Yates was heavily bullied and he began setting fires, making eligible for one of the signs of the Macdonald triad and getting him expelled from two schools. When he was fifteen, he snapped while being bullied and stabbed his tormentor to death. He was tried as a juvenile and forced to spend three years in juvie hall, plus an additional seven years in prison, before being released on parole. As an adult, Yates acquired an unspecified day-laborer job and began serial killing throughout the West Coast, traveling down the area starting with Seattle. He targeted women who lived either high-risk or low-risk lifestyles, alternating between the two types for unknown reasons.

Profiling 101
After killing for at least seventeen years, during which he claimed a minimum of forty victims, Yates returned to Seattle in 2009 after Trudy contracted lung cancer and was placed in hospital care. There, he murdered a prostitute named Rochelle Jenkins. The BAU, who had been devotedly following his case, were resultantly called in. Meanwhile, Yates abducted a soccer mom named Grace Powell. However, after Garcia found Georgina's hospital records and Prentiss and JJ interviewed Trudy at the hospital, the BAU were able to find Yates holding Grace captive in the storage container holding Trudy's old belongings. Grace is rescued by paramedics and Rossi arrest Yates, but not before he taunts the agent, as Rossi was the first BAU agent following his case.

During interrogation, Yates constantly refused to answer questions given to him by the BAU, staying silent the entire time. Eventually, he was found guilty of his crimes and put on death-row. The following year, however, he spoke up for the first time to the BAU, specifically to Rossi, when he gave him a list of forty of his victims, those who haven't been found, and offered a deal to give the name of an undiscovered victim of his annually, on a day of his choosing, in exchange for the upturning of his death penalty as well as his relocation to the East Coast. Rossi accepts the deal after the BAU is able to find all forty victims.

By the end of the episode, in the present day, Rossi visits Yates, who had been conveniently relocated near Quantico. Yates gives him the name of another victim and the location of the corpse before Rossi leaves. The "special day" he has chosen to disclose another victim is revealed to be Rossi's birthday. As a parting gift, Yates sings the 'Happy Birthday' song eerily.

Modus Operandi
Yates held his victims for days, starving them endlessly in order to keep them weak. They were then killed by stabbing directed at the genital area. He held and killed them in the storage facility he stored his grandmother's belongings in. He would alternate between killing high-risk victims (prostitutes, drug addicts, etc.) and low-risk victims (college students, soccer moms, etc.). When he disposed of the victims, Yates would dump the bodies of his high-risk victims as if they were trash, while he took some time to bury the bodies of his low-risk victims. Initially, he would repeatedly stab his victims' reproductive organs, but as he evolved, he began removing said organs completely. He also escalated into removing his victims' vocal chords.

Profile
The unsub was a white male in his early- to mid-30s. He was antisocial and had low self-esteem, so he probably kept to himself. He needed money, so he was most likely a day laborer, with a menial and temporary job, such as a janitor or a handyman. He was personal enough to get a job wherever he went, but unassuming enough not to stick out. He held and restrained his victims for days, so he would need a contained space to do that. But he was also mobile, which meant he had his own transport, most likely a truck or van. When he was on the move and not settled, he would most likely live outside the vehicle. The fact that he buried the bodies of his low-risk victims, compared to how he dumped the bodies of his high-risk victims, suggests he felt more connected towards them and expressed pity and remorse when it came to their deaths. The removal of the victims' reproductive organs may indicate that he feels a great deal of self-loathing and wishes that he was never born.

Real-Life Comparison
According to Virgil Williams, Yates was based on real-life serial killer Henry Lee Lucas. This is a correct revelation, as both killers were physically and psychologically abused by their mother figures (Lucas by his own mother, Yates his maternal grandmother), in which one of the punishments inflicted upon them was forced dressing into girls' clothing. Both also continuously gave confessions to hundreds of unsolved murders, though Yates was (apparently) sincere and truthful while almost all of Lucas' confessions, for various reasons, were found to be false; some called it a hoax by law enforcement to clear up a number of unsolved crimes, though Lucas may have lied simply for the fame or some other personal reason.

Known Victims
"It's actually 101 names. And I remember all of them."
 * 1981: Unnamed school bully
 * 1992?-2009: 40-101+ victims, all killed within at least 17 years all over the West Coast. Named victims are:
 * Alyssa Grassian
 * Uma Kegolman
 * Violet Makanui
 * Mitry Moyer
 * Piper Shuster
 * Chloe Cheswitt
 * Bianca Carmody
 * Inez Mortimer
 * Macey Wannamaker
 * Bristol Evatt
 * Nina Grisdale
 * Heidi Navone
 * Alison Bayfield
 * Laura Fairwick
 * Sally Gilford
 * Natasha Hillbridge
 * Joy Lampshire
 * Pargrave
 * Fiona Stallworth
 * Elaine Trangen
 * Holly Vaughner
 * Tania Miller
 * Jessica Tifford
 * Scarlet Sprouse
 * Donne Millworth
 * Teresa Kensington
 * Paige Howfield
 * Sarah Thomas
 * Gina Riverton
 * Marlowe Aldermann
 * Courtney Shandon
 * Karen Toluca
 * Victoria Cosale
 * Kate Corningham
 * Lily Traymore
 * Carmen Campecho
 * Ivy Sunderman
 * Lola Winemiller
 * ?, Eureka, California: Charlotte Davis
 * 1992, Seattle, Washington :
 * Rachel Moore
 * Tina Dyson
 * California:
 * 1997, San Francisco :
 * Unnamed victim
 * Unnamed victim
 * 2005, Los Angeles: Lana Cooper
 * 2009, Seattle, Washington:
 * Rochelle Jenkins
 * Grace Powell

Appearances

 * Season Seven
 * "Profiling 101"