Robert Hansen

Case overview

Robert Hansen was a serial killer who abducted women and hunted them down in the Alaskan wilderness in the 1970s and early 1980s.

He was convicted in 1984 after confessing to killing 17 women during a 12-year span. He was convicted of four of the murders in a deal that spared him having to go to trial 17 times. He also confessed to raping an additional 30 women during that time.

He died in prison on August 21, 2014. He was 75.

Timeline

• February 15, 1939 — Robert Christian Hansen was born in Estherville, Iowa.
• December 7, 1960 — He was arrested for burning down a local school bus garage.
• 1961 — He was married.
• 1963 — He married his second wife; he later moved to Anchorage with her.
• 1967 — He moved to Anchorage, Alaska with his second wife.
• 1971 — He served time for kidnap rape and assault with a deadly weapon.
• 1972 — He was arrested twice more, charged with the abduction and attempted rape of a housewife and the rape of a prostitute.
• 1976 — He was picked up for shoplifting a chain saw.
• 1977 — He was imprisoned for theft of a chainsaw and was diagnosed with bipolar disorder; he was prescribed lithium.
• 1980 — Construction workers unearthed a woman’s remains near Eklutna Road; a task force was organized after later discoveries.
• June 13, 1983 — A 17-year-old captive escaped from Hansen en route to his airplane hangar.
• September 1983 — Paula Golding was found by hunters.
• October 27, 1983 — Police searched Hansen’s house after obtaining warrants and uncovered items including firearms, jewelry, and an aviation map.
• November 3, 1983 — An Anchorage grand jury returned four indictments against Hansen.
• February 18, 1984 — Hansen pled guilty on four counts of first-degree murder in the cases of “Eklutna Annie,” Joanna Messina, Sherry Morrow, and Paula Golding.
• February 28, 1984 — He was sentenced to a term of life imprisonment plus 461 years.
• May (year not specified) — He was moved to receive medical attention.
• August 21, 2014 — Hansen died in prison.

Background

Robert Christian Hansen was born on February 15, 1939, in Estherville, Iowa, and was described as having been skinny and painfully shy as a young man, with a stammer and severe acne. He was married in 1961 and divorced within the year following his first arrest, on charges of arson. Six years later, he married another Pocahontas native, and she followed him to Anchorage, Alaska, where he opened his own bakery and prospered.

He became known as an outdoors man and hunter, and he held records in Pope & Young’s book of world hunting records, which were later vacated after his conviction. His wife and children lived with him and knew nothing of his other life.

The offence

Hansen abducted women and took them to remote places outside the city. He sometimes drove and sometimes flew his private plane; he told investigators that one of his favorite spots to take his victims was the Knik River northeast of Anchorage.

He raped women. In some instances, he returned victims to Anchorage, warning them not to contact authorities. Other times, he let women go free in the wilderness and then hunted them with his rifle. He forced victims to act out his fantasies and made the kill with a hunting knife or his favorite big-game rifle. He also stripped victims and allowed them to set out into the wild on foot, then pursued them until they were killed.

Hansen confessed to killing 17 women during a 12-year span. Only 12 bodies of the 17 women he confessed to killing were found. Victims he identified included “Eklutna Annie,” Joanna Messina, Sherry Morrow, and Paula Golding. Investigators and accounts also listed other identified missing women including Rox Easland, Lisa Futrell, Andera Altiery, Angela Fetter, Tersa Watson, and Delynn Frey.

Investigation

Authorities organized a task force when bodies began appearing in remote areas around Anchorage. In 1980, construction workers unearthed a woman's remains near Eklutna Road. The victim was not identified and was dubbed “Eklutna Annie” by police assigned to the case.

Later that year, the corpse of Joanna Messina was found in a gravel pit near Seward. A special task force was organized to probe the killings.

Topless dancer Sherry Morrow had been dead ten months when hunters found her body in a shallow grave beside the Knik River. In 1983, Hansen decided to save time and energy by bringing victims home; he ran ads in a local singles newspaper seeking women to “join me in finding what's around the next bend, over the next hill.”

A captive escaped from Hansen en route to his airplane hangar on June 13, 1983. Her charges brought Hansen to the attention of task force detectives, and he ultimately confessed to a series of 17 murders. On a flying tour of the wilderness, Hansen began pointing out graves to state troopers, and investigators recovered eleven bodies over the next eight months. Several victims remained anonymous, their names unknown even to Hansen, but others were identified as Rox Easland, Lisa Futrell, Andera Altiery, Angela Fetter, Tersa Watson, and Delynn Frey.

Investigators said he sometimes raped women and returned them to Anchorage, warning them not to contact authorities; other times he let the women go free in the wilderness and then hunted them down with a rifle.

Arrest and charging

Hansen was arrested at his bakery on October 27, 1983.

Police secured a warrant and searched Hansen's house, uncovering jewelry belonging to victims, newspaper clippings about the murders, and an array of firearms, including a .223-caliber Mini-14 rifle. An aviation map was also found with locations marked, and investigators recovered bodies by having him point out graves.

He was arrested and charged with assault, kidnapping, multiple weapons offenses, theft and insurance fraud. His bail was set at a half-million dollars. An Anchorage grand jury returned four indictments against Hansen: first-degree assault and kidnapping, five counts of misconduct in possession of a handgun, theft in the second-degree, and theft by deception in insurance fraud.

At the time, the state decided to hold off on charging him with murder while awaiting ballistic test results.

Trial and plea

Hansen entered into a plea bargain after ballistics tests matched bullets found at the crime scenes to his rifle. He pled guilty to four homicides the police knew about and provided details about his other victims in return for serving his sentence in a federal prison.

On February 18, 1984, Hansen pled guilty on four counts of first-degree murder in the cases of “Eklutna Annie,” Joanna Messina, Sherry Morrow, and Paula Golding. Charges were dismissed in the other cases.

The “transcript” material in the record includes edited transcript text in which Hansen discussed threatening victims and abducting them, including the statement:

"I pull out the gun—I think the standard speech was, 'Look you're a professional. You don't get excited, you know there is some risk to what you've been doing. If you do exactly what I tell you you're not going to get hurt. You're just going to count this off as a bad experience and be a little more careful next time who you are gonna proposition or go out with,' you know. I tried to act as tough as I could, to get them as scared as possible. Give that right away, even before I started talking at all. Reach over, you know, and hold that head back and put a gun in her face and get 'em to feel helpless, scared, right there I'm sure--maybe it's not the same procedure for you--you always try to get control of the situation, so some things don't start going bad maybe I've seen some cop shows on TV, I don't know, OK?"

In describing his hunts to investigators, Hansen said it was like:

"going after a trophy Dall sheep or a grizzly bear."

Sentencing

He was sentenced to a term of life imprisonment plus 461 years on February 28, 1984.

One account also stated that on February 27, Superior Court Judge Ralph E. Moody sentenced Hansen to 461 years plus life, without the possibility of parole. Another account stated he was sentenced to life imprisonment plus 461 years.

Appeals

No appeals were stated in the provided material after the 1984 conviction and sentencing.

Outcome

Hansen served a 461-year sentence in Alaska at the time of his death.

He died in prison on August 21, 2014 at a hospital in Anchorage. Alaska Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sherrie Daigle confirmed his death and said the state medical examiner would determine the cause. At his death, he was 75.

Aftermath

He had been incarcerated at a state prison in Seward and was moved in May to the Anchorage Correctional Center to receive medical attention.

Other details

Hansen was nicknamed “the Butcher Baker.” He owned a bakery in a downtown mini-mall in the 1970s and 1980s and lived across town with his wife and children.

The record included additional described firearm and evidence details: a .223-caliber Mini-14 rifle was found and matched by ballistics to the murders; police also found a Remington 552 rifle, a Thompson contender 7-mm single-shot pistol, a Winchester 12-gauge shotgun, a driver's license, various ID cards, and various pieces of jewelry.

Accounts described involvement by investigators including Detective Glenn Flothe and Sgt Darryl Galyan, and noted that Roy Hazelwood was brought in to assist the investigation and that John E. Douglas was brought in for profiling.

The record also contained discussion of prior criminal history, including arson of a school-bus garage and later jailings for petty theft and for stealing a chain saw, along with a diagnosis of bipolar disorder and a lithium prescription.

In popular culture, a 2013 film titled “The Frozen Ground” starred Nicolas Cage as an Alaska State Trooper investigating the slayings, with actor John Cusack portraying Hansen. Other cultural references included Naked Fear (2007) and an episode of “The FBI Files” titled “Hunter's Game.”