Chester Hardwick

Chester Hardwick was an incarcerated Serial Killer who appears in Season Three of Criminal Minds.

Background
Born in East Bridgeport, Connecticut into poverty Chester moved in and out of various housing projects as a boy, each residence being worse than the last. Due to both of his parents being mentally ill, his mother suffering bi-polar disorder while his father was afflicted with posttraumatic stress disorder, Chester grew up in a violent household, with his parents abusing each other and him. In his teenage years Chester began to spy on his female neighbors, steal their underwear and start random fires (claiming to be responsible for over a hundred). For these petty crimes Chester spent two years in a juvenile detention facility.

Upon reaching adulthood Chester began murdering young women, slaying twenty-three before being caught and sentenced to death. While awaiting execution Chester barely talked to or interacted with anyone.

Damaged
A week from his execution date Chester agrees to be interviewed by the BAU as apart of the Criminal Personality Research Project. After being escorted to a small room to be interviewed Chester (his shackles removed at Hotch's request) told Hotch and Reid that he would only talk to them if they let him slide open one of the barred windows in the room, terms the agents agree to. When the interview begins Chester is uncooperative and, when Hotch begins to grow frustrated and asks him why he requested to participate in the program in the first place, Chester gestures to the open window and flatly states he simply wanted to smell the fresh air, having been isolated on death for so long. Angry at this reveal Hotch signals the guards to let him and Reid out, only for Chester to smugly state that no guards will be able to respond to them for thirteen minutes, as it is 5:17 and the evening hours, when the guards will be out in the yard with the other inmates, began at 5:00 and end at 5:30.

Chester reveals he intends to kill both Hotch and Reid to delay his execution and he and Hotch begin to stare each other down, when Reid suddenly interrupts by saying he can tell Chester why he killed all those women. Intrigued, Chester listens to Reid, who, at a rambling pace, begins describing Chester's mental condition in-depth, completely engrossing Chester and distracting him long enough for the guards to come back. As his shackles are put back on Chester asks Reid if he ever had a chance to live a normal life. Reid responds by giving a quick "I dunno, maybe" before darting out of the room. It is assumed Chester's execution went ahead as planned.

Profile
Due to the abuse he suffered in his childhood Chester came to equate aggression and pain with love, becoming what Reid referred to as a sexual sadist. Chester claimed that his victims meant nothing to him and that he felt no emotion while killing them, even as they begged and pleaded for their lives. Despite obviously reveling in what he had done Chester revealed to Hotch and Reid that sometimes he wished he could have had a normal life.

Modus Operandi
Chester targeted young women, who he would stab to death with quick and brutal efficiency.

Known Victims

 * Sheila O'Neal


 * Twenty-two unnamed women

Appearances

 * Season Three


 * "Damaged"