Floyd Feylinn Ferell

"I'm not smart. But I have a smart friend who tells me things..."

Floyd Feylinn Ferell is a cannibalistic serial killer who appears in Lucky.

Background
Most of Floyd's past is not revealed in detail. It is, however, revealed from a psychiatrist's notes that he was admitted to the Hazelwood Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Florida at the age of 7 after biting a large piece of flesh from his 9 month old sister and believes himself to be possessed by a flesh-eating demon. He was put on medication, subjected to art therapy using Fransisco Goya's Black Paintings, and allowed to read books about Satanism.

Despite still being a threat to others, when Ferell reached the age of 18 the law required the hospital to release him. Soon after that, he stopped taking his delusion-inhibiting medications since they caused him to gain a lot of weight. At some point, he opened a BBQ restaurant in Bridgewater, Florida and started killing.

Lucky
The BAU were called in after Abbey Kelton's murder. After her stomach contents were analyzed they found a number of fingers among them. When they checked the fingerprints of them, they found that they all belonged to missing prostitutes. Later, Tracey Lambert was also abducted from a public restroom. A search party was formed. During the search, one of the searchers, Sheryl Timmons, was also abducted by Floyd. By then, the BAU had tracked down the Hazelwood institution and found what remained of Floyd's records (the rest having been destroyed in a random fire that also killed his personal doctor).

When they raided his house, they found a collection of cooking equipment, a walk-in freezer containing his victims and Sheryl Timmons in captivity. Floyd was found in a basement room with walls covered in writing and pentagrams containing books about Satanism and images of the Black Paintings, apparently in the middle of some sort of prayer. The BAU also found a homemade cookbook containing cannibalistic recipes like "Skewered She" and "Kobe Girl Steak". When they questioned him, he refused to talk to anyone but a local priest, Father Marks. When he arrived, Floyd said like he felt abandoned by God, to which Father Marks replied "God is in all of us". Rossi, who looked at the list of search party volunteers, which had Floyd's name on it, rushed in to stop the interview. Floyd did however, have the time to reply "So is Tracey Lambert"; he had served stew containing her flesh to searchers. Floyd then started laughing, and was attacked by Father Marks, who was restrained and dragged out of the room by Morgan, while Ferrell continued laughing, relishing in the priest's rage and despair. Floyd was presumably incarcerated or, much more likely, institutionalized after this and his BBQ restaurant was seen being sealed off in order to be searched.

Profile
There are two types of violent Satanic offenders, teenagers who assume the Satanic identity to rebel, and adaptive serial killers who rationalize their fantasies and urges by blaming outside forces, and use Satanic imagery as a means of causing fear and panic; they do not kill because they believe in Satan, they believe in Satan because they kill. There was no evidence suggesting Abbey Kelton's killer was a teenager or group of them, so the unsub was a serial killer, whose ritualizing of Abbey's murder means he will kill again soon, if he has not already.

The killer was not a sadist, because his victims lacked any sign of torture or mutilation. Abbey being force fed human fingers was simply a message ("she's not my first"). Geographical profiling indicated the unsub's safety zone (his home and where he avoided killing to escape detection) was Bridgewater, and he has started killing inside it, not because he wants to get caught, but because he wants to draw attention to himself, and thus give himself a sense of power over the police, which also means he will likely try to inject himself into the investigation.

Organizing the books Tracey Lambert dropped while being attacked indicated the unsub may have been institutionalized at some point in his past. The severely mentally ill have chaos all around them, but once they are put into an institution, they are given order, and taught to keep their rooms and possessions clean and tidy. When discharged, they stop taking their medication, and their minds revert to a chaotic state, but due to their conditioning, they can compulsively try to keep some semblance of order, hence Abbey's books being arranged according to size.

Maria Lopez's body being frozen, the victims not being sexually assaulted, and the unsub keeping portions of them indicated cannibalism, as did the fingers Abbey was force fed (it was a dual message - "she's not my first" and "I'm eating them"). The greatest taboo, cannibalism (and apparent vorarephilia) explained the unsub's drive to blame things on outside forces. The unsub did not take too many precautions, as he believed Satan will protect him. He targeted athletic women because he was attracted to them, and because they were meatier than the emaciated prostitutes he started out killing. Blaming the devil for his urges and cannibalism was not enough to lessen his guilt, so he tricked others into participating to make them as guilty as he was.

According to Doctor Jim Lorenz's old notes, Floyd's "symptoms go far beyond normal psychosexual oral biting fixation of a typical seven year-old boy" and he "believes he is possessed by a flesh-eating demon".

Modus Operandi
Floyd started out killing prostitutes since he had easy access to them. Since some of them were regular drug-users, which according to Floyd makes them "taste funny" and skinny, he switched to athletic women, both because he was attracted to them and he needed the healthy flesh of their legs as ingredients in various cannibalistic dishes. The way he killed the prostitutes is not specified, but Abby Kelton had her throat slashed following a blitz attack, as did the women found in Floyd's freezer. He also took fingers from his victims and kept them. He later force-fed them to Abbey Kelton in order to send the authorities a message: he had killed before. He would abduct the women he killed before and after killing Abbey Kelton and later use their flesh for cooking.

Real-Life Comparison
Floyd butchering his victims and serving some of the meat to unknowing people may be an obscure reference to serial killers such as Fritz Haarmann, Robert Pickton and Karl Denke, who were all alleged to have done the same. Also, Floyd's belief that he is protected by a demon is somewhat similar to Richard Ramirez, who, according to forensic psychologist Rex Beaber, believed himself to be in the service of Satan, as indicated by the pentagrams he left behind on some crime scenes. The scene where he is pulled over while having a victim, yet getting released, alludes to Jeffrey Dahmer, a cannibal who having the remains of one of his victims in the car, was able to convince a police officer who pulled him over to let him go.

Known Victims

 * His unnamed sister
 * Eleven prostitutes, all abducted, killed, and used for cooking prior to Lucky. They are:
 * Keira Eckman
 * Jill Quader
 * Megan Gettler
 * Samantha Naris
 * April Yorkers
 * Cecilla Baquerizo
 * Flora Marcias
 * Delia Gamarra
 * Jada de Aguirre
 * Rita Tayamo
 * Maria Lopez
 * Abbey Kelton
 * Tracey Lambert
 * Sheryl Timmons

Appearance

 * Season Three
 * Lucky

Trivia

 * F is the sixth letter of the alphabet. Floyds first-, middle- and surname all begin with F, meaning his name forms the number 666, regarded "The Number of the Beast". Also, his three names contain an average of six letters each.
 * The song Floyd frequently listens to is "Sittin' in the Dark" by Louis Armstrong.