| “ | You called me impotent... I am not impotent. | ” |
— Poole responds to Rossi
| ||
Max Poole, dubbed "The Have-You-Seen-Me Murderer" by the press, was a budding serial killer, budding serial rapist, stalker, and abductor who appeared in the Season Three episode of Criminal Minds, "About Face".
Background[]
Very little is known about Poole's past, other than that he worked in an office building located in Techco, an advanced communications technology company. In 2007, he snapped for some reason (most likely because he had felt neglected by other people, according to elements of his profile) and started killing, targeting women who were connected to his workplace in some way.
About Face[]
"You just signed Enid White's death warrant."
Poole is shot while holding his revolver.
Poole's first target, Michelle Colucci (an architect who had drawn blueprints from the Techco building), finds a poster with her photo and the words "Have You Seen Me?" attached to her front door in Carrolton by Max. A police officer, the husband of a friend, dismisses it as a prank for the upcoming Halloween and promises to come check on her later. When he does so, he finds that she has been abducted and a room of her house covered in the same wanted posters. Three days later, her body is found in a stream. The day after that, another woman, Enid White (who was employed by Techco for two months), finds a collection of wanted posters put up in a row outside by Poole. Driven by fear, she purchases a Mossberg 590 to defend herself. Then, she leaves her home and travels to a motel in Dallas. She calls the police department, but the call is bugged by Poole, who abducts her and scatters posters around the room.
After the rest of the BAU delivers the profile, Rossi tells the media that the masks Poole left behind signify impotence in order to play on his anger and get him to call them. Poole does so, instructing Rossi to take what he said back. Rossi then lies about his face being taped by a security camera and claiming that, when captured, he will simply be considered a loser, like he always had. After claiming that, he declares that he will kill White in response to this insult and then hangs up, then throws a tantrum in his office space. The call is quickly and successfully traced back at Techco. The BAU rushes there, and after locating Poole in the building's lobby, Rossi and Hotch try to talk him into surrendering. When Morgan steps out of the elevator, Poole draws a revolver and tries to shoot him as he walks into his crosshairs, but is shot and killed by Rossi. White is then found alive in Poole's residence.
Poole would go on to be mentioned by Reid years later as an example of killers who warn their victims of their impending murders before actually killing them, comparing him to another unsub with such an M.O.
Modus Operandi[]
One of Poole's 'Have You Seen Me?' posters.
Poole targeted Caucasian women connected to his workplace at Techco in some way. Since Poole only killed one victim, the term "M.O." is somewhat misused. When he Michelle Colucci, Poole abducted her, kept her captive in his home, sexually assaulted her, and killed her by cutting her face off. Afterward, he dumped her body by weighing it down in a body of water. Prior to both abductions, Poole would stalk his victims and place one or more wanted posters with a portrait photo of the victim and the phrase "Have You Seen Me?" on them and place them on the victims' houses (hence his nickname). After the abductions, he would cover the interior of one of the rooms with more missing person posters along with a mask with a number of how many victims had been abducted at the time. With Michelle Colucci, he covered the interior of her dining room with the papers, but with Enid White, he left the papers on the bed of the motel room she was staying in to hide from him. When he tried to ambush and kill Morgan, Poole tried to shoot him with a .357 Magnum Smith & Wesson Model 28 revolver as the agent was stepping out of an elevator.
Profile[]
The unsub is an "exceedingly average" white male in his mid-30s to 40s and about 5'11 in height and 165 pounds in weight based on his shoe-print size. There is a sophistication and patience in what he does that suggests a level of maturity. He would have access to some kind of house where he could keep his victims and be fairly competent when handling computer technology, being able to make the wanted posters with a computer and bug Enid White's phone. The fact that there is nothing remarkable about him would also be reflected in his work life, where he wouldn't stand out at all or make a mark, and it is this lack of distinction that plays a part of his psychopathy. Most people don't care about being ignored, but each oversight is intentional to him, especially when it comes from his object of sexual desire. He began to obsess over this object until she was all he could think about, and his rage at being ignored by her built up gradually until he attacked her. Being ignored daily is one of the things that drove the unsub to kill. The masks with the numbers 1 and 2 were about the women, while the "Have You Seen Me" text on the posters referred to him, not the victims. Removing the faces of the victims transferred his feelings of being ignored into a mission and it gave him a sense of power, which could make him arrogant, but it did not make him noticeable. The crimes scenes showed that he wants to deliver his message to the police and he isn't going public. The organized presentation of the first scene shows he was well ahead of the police, having planned ahead a full timeline in which to have kidnapped Michelle Colucci, yet the messier second scene at the motel where Enid White was hiding shows a rush to escape so the police wouldn't find him, as his window of time shortened the more public his crimes became.
Real-Life Comparison[]
Poole appears to be partly based on Richard Farley - Both are killers of Caucasian women connected to their workplace whom they stalked, specifcally a colleague, worked in technology positions in office buildings of major companies, were older than their primary focuses of obsession, continuously harassed their primary targets before killing them, and attempted a workplace shooting inside their own office of employment (though only Farley succeeded, and it was Farley's previous office of employment in his case).
Known Victims[]
- 2007, Texas:
- October 26-29, Carrollton: Michelle Colucci
- October 31, Dallas:
- Enid White (abducted; was rescued)
- Derek Morgan (attempted to shoot with a revolver)
Appearances[]
- Season Three
- Season Nine
- "Fatal" (mentioned)