Clark Preston

CRIMINAL
Name	Clark Preston
Gender	Male
Occupation	Real-estate businessman (former) Mayoral candidate (at the time of arrest)
Pathology	Proxy Killer Proxy Rapist (once) Criminal Accomplice
Modus Operandi	Varied proxy murder
No. of Victims	19 killed by proxy 1 attempted by proxy 1 raped by proxy
Status	Incarcerated
Portrayed By	Paul Johansson
First Appearance	"A Thin Line"

“	These vicious home invasions are a sign of the times. As demographics change, so do crime rates. Now we may not be able to slow the browning in America, but we can sure as hell take our city back. And if you elect me, I'll lead that charge.	”
	— Preston

Clark Preston is a psychopathic mayoral candidate and proxy killer, and one-time proxy rapist who appears in the Season Seven episode of Criminal Minds "A Thin Line," in which he manipulates Trevor Mills in his serial killings.

Background

Nothing is known about Preston's background, other than he is a closet psychopath and at some point became a candidate for Mayor. A businessman dealing with real-estate, Preston was greedy for money, which culminated in him formulating a scheme to create a crime wave he would gain money from when property values went down as a result, during 2002. He started by hiring Ronnie Green and Carlos Jackson to invade the home of Trevor Mills and his family. Green and Jackson did, and in the end, Mills' father and sister were killed and his mother Pamela was raped and critically wounded to a near-vegetative state. Mills escaped by hiding in a closet. Preston's scheme apparently failed when Green and Jackson were eventually caught and sentenced to life in prison for the attack. They had claimed that they had been paid to commit the attack, but it couldn't be proven. In order to receive some sort of benefit from the attack, he started supporting Mills and Pamela, and also gained money from the latter, who used her disability check to donate money. Meanwhile, Mills began idolizing Preston to a point where he adopted what he believed to be his racist beliefs as his own. Ten years after the Mills tragedy, Preston devised a new scheme to gain money and became a politician. However, his attempt to become a member of the local city council a year prior to the episode failed.

A Thin Line

In 2012, Preston started a mayoral campaign. He convinced Mills to commit a string of home invasions and murders that seemed to be the work of gangs whose members were of ethnic minorities, to which he would then use the crimes as arguments for his campaign. When the BAU is called in to investigate, they interrogate Preston after seeing one of his speeches to get rid of gangs if Mills' murders are to be stopped. Told to stop promoting his arguments in order to stop the unsub from getting more inspiration, Preston turns them down and leaves, to which the BAU began to suspect him of some sort of involvement. Preston later visits Mills and Pamela, giving the latter flowers, and then instructs Mills that they need to "time their moves". Instead, an impatient Mills kills another family the following night but leaves behind a witness. Beginning to feel the heat, Preston tells Mills to stay away from him. Meanwhile, Garcia finds out about Preston's involvement in the attack of the Mills family. When Mills is killed by Morgan after he tries to kill Preston's rival candidate, Rossi and Hotch arrest Preston in front of his campaign staff as he constantly denies any involvement. He is presumably incarcerated afterwards.

Modus Operandi

Preston targeted upper middle class homes with Caucasian families who would fall under the demographics of his targeted consumers and constituent pool. He initially hired two men of marginalized races to attack the Mills family, not caring whether they lived or died, in the hopes of chasing residents out of the neighborhood, buying their properties, and leaving the area open for a higher-income gentrification. When that was a failure once the two perpetrators were caught, Preston turned to politics for wider attention and cash flow that would reach more sponsors and donors he desired. Preston used racism as a weaponized campaign, particularly to try and stoke Trevor Mills' anger over the loss of his family, in the hopes of using him as his primary force for creating a crisis matching his campaign. Preston would order Mills to kill entire households of Caucasian, upper-middle class families, then a man of color who was kidnapped and forced to the scene to try and set him up as a patsy. Presto attempted to try and quell Mills' actions when one man he abducted ended up escaping, and when the FBI was watching their moves more. It would fail, as Mills tried to kill his political opponent, which resulted in Mills being shot dead and Preston's arrest once enough evidence of his guilty was found, likely in Mills' possession.

Real-Life Comparisons

According to a Q&A chat by Virgil Williams, Preston was inspired by neo-Nazi Matthew F. Hale - Both are supremacists who attempted business and political schemes which ended up failing, had a young, racist follower who went on a shooting spree in support of their political endeavors, were arrested in connection with the attempted murder of a government official, and their cases were under the jurisdiction of the FBI.

Preston also appears to be inspired by T. Cullen Davis - Both are proxy murders (suspected in Davis' case) who were formerly successful businessmen, ordered home invasion murders where there were survivors, and there were attempts on the lives of people involved in their cases meant for their own benefits, which ultimately failed (Preston's hired gun, Trevor Mills went after Preston's political opponent against his orders, Davis ordered hits on officials presiding over his trials).

Known Victims

All of the following were victims by proxy

• February 6, 2002: The Mills family (attacked by Ronnie Green and Carlos Jackson)
  • Robert Mills (father; beaten and stabbed)
  • Pamela Mills (mother; assaulted and raped so severely that she was left in a vegetative state; survived)
  • Julie Mills (daughter; beaten and stabbed)
• The 2012 shootings committed by Trevor Mills:
  • February 16: The first home invasion:
    • The Mitchell family
      • Brian Mitchell (father)
      • The unnamed mother
      • Two unnamed sons
    • Alex Collison (a gang member; set up as the attacker; shot repeatedly in the head and abdomen with the family's weapon)
  • February 20: The second home invasion:
    • The Lewis family (all were shot with a .357 handgun)
      • Matt Lewis (father; shot once in the head at near-point-blank range)
      • Trisha Lewis (mother)
      • Mackenzie Lewis (eldest daughter; shot in the neck)
      • Blake Lewis (youngest daughter)
    • Ronald Underwood (a struggling college student; set up as the attacker; shot eleven times in the head and abdomen with the family's weapon)
  • February 22: The third home invasion:
    • Charles and Karen Nelson:
      • Charles Nelson
      • Karen Nelson (was eight months pregnant)
    • Pedro Mendez (an illegal immigrant; set up as the attacker; shot six times in the head and abdomen with the couple's .38 snub-nosed revolver)
  • February 23: The fourth home invasion:
    • The Wilson family
      • The unnamed parents
      • Billy Wilson (son; forced him into a closet, then shot in the chest)
      • Kelly Wilson (daughter)
    • Ramon Gomez (an illegal immigrant; drugged, abducted, assaulted, and intended to kill to frame him for the familicide; he escaped)

Notes

• Preston seems to have been inspired by Ray Campion ("The Performer") - Both are psychopathic proxy killers with an emotionally unstable proxy (Trevor Mills in Preston's case, Gina King in Campion's), whom they manipulated into becoming serial killers, both of which were used by them as promotion of some kind (Preston wanted to promote his Mayor campaign, Campion wanted to promote his music album), and were both apprehended by the BAU and (presumably) incarcerated.
• Preston also bears similarities to James Stanworth ("25 to Life") - Both are psychopathic proxy killers (though Stanworth also killed some of his victims personally) who were involved in murders that occurred decades prior to the events of their episodes, led successful lives as wealthy businessmen, had a patsy who they intended to blame their precursor crimes on, and launched a campaign for public office shortly before their arrests (Preston was running for Mayor while Stanworth was running for Congress.) Furthermore, the scene in which Preston is led away by the BAU in front of his campaign staff mirrors Stanworth's arrest, which occurred at a dinner party to benefit his campaign.
• Preston is similar to another character portrayed by Paul Johansson, Dan Scott, of "One Tree Hill" which ran from 2003 to 2012. Dan successfully ran for mayor in his hometown of Tree Hill North Carolina and shot his older brother in cold blood for allegedly burning down his car dealership.

Appearances

• Season Seven
  • "A Thin Line"