“ | Sweetie, tonight...is all about you... | ” |
— Alan
|
Alan Anderson, a.k.a. "The Crestview Rapist", is a prolific serial rapist, thrill killer, and serial-turned-spree killer who appears in the Season Nine episode of Criminal Minds, "Mr. & Mrs. Anderson".
Background[]
Little is known about Alan's background, including why he became a sexual sadist. What is known is that he worked as a tow-truck driver and first started killing women in 1989. He also alternatively raped several women in the early 1990s, becoming known as "The Crestview Rapist". Sometime in or prior to 1994, he met his future wife Judith. The two married in 1994 and then began killing for reasons unknown together, murdering a total of ten women by 2010. However, during the latter years of that sixteen-year span, Alan felt emasculated by Judith, who was demanding, and this prompted him to rape and kill other victims outside of Pennsylvania. In 2008, Alan raped a woman named Hannah Franklin alone and apparently tried to kill her, but she survived the attack. In 2010, Alan tested positive for a sexually-transmitted disease (contracted from one of the victims he killed alone), which caused him and Judith to stop killing together, but he continued to kill without her. Their marriage became even more strained, and they eventually started seeing multiple marriage counselors; by 2014, they were seeing Doctor Kathleen Benedict, who specialized in insight therapy. These methods caused them to rediscover their love of killing together, thus motivating them to start killing again. However, Alan secretly disapproved of Benedict, feeling further emasculated from taking advice from a woman.
Mr. & Mrs. Anderson[]
See section on The Andersons article
Modus Operandi[]
When he killed with Judith, Alan would usually pick up Caucasian female hitchhikers or drifters from rest stops or gas stations and alike. He would then take them to a motel he and Judith were staying at, where the two of them would shelter them and get them to take a shower. Once they emerged from the shower, Alan would then blitz-attack them by strangling them from behind with his own belt. He would allow them to breathe intermittently before finally killing them. Afterwards, he and Judith would have sex. The victims' bodies would then be wrapped in a shower curtain from the motels by Judith, to which they would then be dumped off the side of a highway. In the case of James Crayton, his sole male victim, he allowed Judith to pick the victim. Whenever he killed alone, Alan would operate in multiple states to prevent authorities from connecting his crimes. He raped the victims (who were targeted randomly) and also stabbed them. His first victim was stabbed to death, without any indication of being strangled beforehand. No details were revealed about the rapes he committed during his time as the Crestview Rapist.
Real-Life Comparisons[]
Alan is similar to Altemio Sanchez - Both are serial rapists-turned-serial killers with blue-collar industrial jobs, married early on in their crime sprees, killed by strangulation, had nicknames with the word "rapist" in them associated with the locations of their crimes, were tracked by a specialized task force, left DNA evidence that linked their crimes, murdered at last one high-risk victim, and killed at least one victim without raping them.
Alan is also similar to Daniel Camargo - Both were prolific serial rapists-turned-serial killers who had female partners for accomplices, targeted high-risk female victims (though Alan also killed a male victim and attempted to kill a low-risk female victim), lured their victims with ruses, killed by strangulation and stabbing (though Camargo killed by other means), left their bodies in isolated areas, had years-long breaks during their crimes, and had at least one surviving victim.
Alan is also similar to Rodney Alcala - Both were serial rapists-turned-serial killers who primarily targeted young women, operated in multiple states, lured them into their cars (sometimes in Alcala's case), either stabbed or repeatedly strangled them with a belt (though both also used other means), significantly changed their murders after an interaction with another woman (Alcala was rejected by a game show contestant, Alan married a woman named Judith who became his accomplice), were investigated by the FBI, and had at least one surviving victim.
Alan is extremely similar to Gary Ridgway - Both are prolific serial killers who usually targeted high-risk women, killed them by strangulation (though Anderson also killed by stabbing), and had some sexual component in their crimes (Anderson raped some of his victims or would kill for a sexual thrill, while Ridgway engaged in necrophilia with his). Also, Alan giving his wife his last victim's necklace may be an allusion to how Ridgway gave his victim's jewelry to his female coworkers.
He may have also been based on Charles Davis - Both are serial killers and rapists who had jobs as truck drivers, also had jobs involving a rescue vehicle (an ambulance in Davis' case, a tow-truck in Anderson's), had strained relationships with their wives, felt emasculated by women which prompted them to target them, lured their victims by feigning to help them, and killed them by strangling or stabbing them (though Davis also shot some).
Known Victims[]
- Dates further unspecified:
- 1989, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Unnamed woman (raped and fatally stabbed her without Judith)
- 1994, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Cheryl Donnellon
- 1995, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Unnamed woman
- 1997, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:
- Unnamed woman
- Unnamed woman
- 1998, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Unnamed woman
- 2000, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Unnamed woman
- 2001:
- Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Unnamed woman
- Clifford, Delaware: Unnamed woman (raped and killed her without Judith)
- 2003, Clifford, Delaware: Unnamed woman (raped and killed her without Judith like the previous victim)
- 2006, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Unnamed woman
- 2008, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Hannah Franklin (raped and attempted to kill without Judith)
- 2009, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Unnamed woman
- 2010, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania: Unnamed woman
- 2013, Scottsdale, Maryland: Unnamed woman (raped and killed her without Judith)
- 2014, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania:
- February 9: Tatiana
- February 11: Maya Taylor
- February 12: James Cantor (was picked by Judith instead of him)
- February 13: Gloria Walters (raped and killed her without Judith; stole a necklace from her)
- February 14: Doctor Kathleen Benedict (his and Judith's marriage counselor; assaulted, strapped a belt around her neck, and attempted to rape and kill)
- Note: In addition to these victims, Alan raped an unspecified number of women as the Crestview Rapist in the early 1990s.
Notes[]
- Alan is similar to Tim Vogel ("Extreme Aggressor") - Both were serial killers, rapists, and sexual sadists who had accomplices that adied them in their crimes, targeted women, killed their victims either by stabbing them or strangling them with a belt, and were given names by the media for their crimes.