Robert Hansen

Robert Christian Boes Hansen (February 15, 1939 – August 21, 2014), known in the media as the Butcher Baker, was an American serial killer. Between 1971 and 1983, Hansen abducted, raped, and murdered at least seventeen women in and around Anchorage, Alaska; he hunted many of them down in the wilderness with a Ruger Mini-14 and a knife. He was arrested and convicted in 1983 and was sentenced to 461 years without the possibility of parole. He died in 2014 of natural causes due to lingering health conditions at age 75. Early life Hansen was born in Estherville, Iowa, at Coleman Hospital on February 15, 1939, the elder of two children to an American mother and a Danish father. His mother was Edna Margret Hansen née Petersen (October 27, 1916 – April 24, 2005) and his father was Christian "Chris" Hansen (September 16, 1907 – August 12, 1983) who owned a bakery in the town. Robert was employed at the bakery. The family moved to Richmond, California in 1942, but returned to Iowa in 1949, settling in Pocahontas. In his youth, he was painfully shy, had a stutter and severe acne that left him permanently scarred. Throughout childhood and adolescence, Hansen was described as being quiet and a loner and he had a difficult relationship with his domineering father. He started to practice both hunting and archery and often found refuge in these pastimes. In 1957, Hansen enlisted in the United States Army Reserve and served for one year before being discharged. He later worked as an assistant drill instructor at a police academy in Pocahontas, Iowa. There, he began a relationship with a younger woman. He married her in the summer of 1960. First crimes On December 7, 1960, Hansen was arrested for burning down a Pocahontas County Board of Education school bus garage, revenge for his unpopularity in high school. He served twenty months of a three-year prison sentence in Anamosa State Penitentiary. During his incarceration, he was diagnosed with manic depression with periodic schizophrenic episodes. The psychiatrist who made the diagnosis noted that Hansen had an "infantile personality" who was obsessed with getting back at people he felt had wronged him. Hansen's wife filed for divorce while he was incarcerated.