| “ | You think these women are so in love with me, they'd go out and kill? Do you know how ridiculous that sounds? I mean, what kind of a loser would cut up a man just because I told her to? | ” |
— Graham
| ||
Marcus Lee Graham is a now incarcerated serial-turned-proxy killer who appears in the Criminal Minds: Suspect Behavior episode "Lonely Heart".
History[]
Graham's background is not specified, although it is possible that he was a sadistic and manipulative person his entire life. At some point in his life, he began killing younger, teenage girls, eventually murdering three. Sometime after killing his third victim, he approached a girl named Jill Mandon and began hanging out with her. At first, Jill enjoyed the relationship, but eventually noticed his sadistic personality when he tried to get her to bring a friend so he could torture her and tried to call off the affair, only to be stabbed by him. Surviving, Jill was sheltered by her mother. Meanwhile, he was arrested when a mailman saw blood on his driveway and the police found the bodies of his three victims buried behind his cabin. Sometime prior to Lonely Heart, he met Rachel Lancroft at an online dating website and manipulated her into killing single businessmen as a means of satisfying his psychopathic tendencies. When the Red Cell team interrogated him after discovering how similar Rachel's crimes were to his, he brought in Rachel as his lawyer. Later, the Red Cell team discerned Rachel as the serial killer and Simms and LaSalle managed to track her down to Jill's home, where she was about to kill her. Rachel committed suicide by cop, and Graham was uninformed of her death.
Modus Operandi[]
Graham would approach his victims and presumably use a ruse, and when they fell for it, he would stab them in places where they would bleed out very slowly, making their deaths long and very painful. He would then sit by their sides and watch them die. While the first three victims were buried behind Marcus' cabin, Jill, who survived by pretending to be dead, was left at the scene; it is possible that her surviving is what made him dispose of his victims' bodies the former way.
Real-Life Comparisons[]
Graham appears to be inspired by Ted Bundy - Both were psychopathic serial killers who targeted Caucasian women, used their charisma as ruses, buried their victims' remains, were arrested after a failed attempt to kill another victim, and had numerous obsessive followers in prison who they seduced and manipulated.
Graham may have been partially based on Kenneth Bianchi, one of the two Hillside Stranglers - Both were psychopathic serial killers who targeted women, lured them with ruses, and both became the object of affection of a woman they became acquainted with while incarcerated, and both manipulated said women into copycatting their crimes by attempting to kill a woman, and both women failed to kill their intended target (although Lancroft did kill some victims while Compton failed to kill any).
Graham also appears to be inspired by Dean Corll - Both are serial killers targeting teenage children of a certain gender (Corll targeted boys, Graham targeted girls), manipulated accomplices to assist them, at least one of the being underage, abused and assaulted their accomplices, buried the childrens' remains on their properties (though Corll also had other burial grounds), and their accomplices were also suspected of serial murder (though this was only true in Graham's case. Also, Graham's interrogation in prison reflects the questioning of Corll's accomplices to find other murders tied to each respective killer (though Corll was directly suspected, while Graham was suspected of using a proxy).
Known Victims[]
Personal Victims[]
- 2008:
- February 17: Jill Mandon (attempted; stabbed her in the chest with a knife, but missed her heart by a centimeter)
- September-November: Three unnamed girls
Victims by Proxy[]
Killed on his instructions by Rachel Lancroft
- 2011:
- February 10: Unnamed man (stabbed once in the heart)
- February 14: Unnamed man (stabbed once in the neck)
- February 18: Rich Rayon (stabbed repeatedly in the torso; Rachel cleaned his body afterwards)
- February 22: Jason (stabbed repeatedly; killed in a nightclub)
- February 23: Jill Mandon (attempted; was rescued)
Notes[]
- Graham is similar to Cortland Bryce Ryan ("The Angel Maker") - Both were serial killers who targeted women, both were captured and tried for their crimes, both manipulated women to kill for them while in custody and their proxy killer was shot while attempting to kill their final female victim.