| “ | Adam doesn't need you anymore. | ” |
— "Amanda"
| ||
Adam Jackson is a delusional serial killer and serial rapist who appeared in the Season Four episode of Criminal Minds, "Conflicted".
Background[]
"I could take it. I was stronger than he [Adam] was."
Amanda, being interrogated by Reid.
Born in Corpus Christi, Texas, Adam's mother, Rosemary, died when he was five, causing Adam's stepfather, Mark Harrison, who had been abusive toward Rosemary, to channel his aggression toward Adam. Mark would beat Adam, forcing him to wear girls' clothes and possibly even molest and sexually assault him. To cope with the abuse, Adam developed Dissociative Identity Disorder, forming Amanda, who took the abuse for Adam. In and out of the emergency room throughout his childhood, Adam was eventually put into a foster facility in Dallas and shunted from home. Adam was emancipated at the age of sixteen and was at some point expelled from school due to bad grades, drug possession, and petty theft. While he was in foster care, Adam met Julie Riley, a university student who volunteered at the foster care facility. Julie befriended Adam and got him a job and a home at the Hudson Street Hotel in South Padre Island, Texas when she became manager of it. When Adam was jailed on two occasions, Julie bailed him out and possibly helped acquire drugs to help counteract his severe migraines. On April 10, 2009, Adam tried to intervene when William Browder made inappropriate advances on another hotel employee, Madison Cooke. When Browder shoved him down, the act provoked Amanda, causing her to surface and tackle Browder into the swimming pool. Along with the enforcement of the drugs he took, the incident drove her to kill Browder at the hotel in Adam's body the next night.
Conflicted[]
"Adam was special."
"Well if he's so special, why don't you tell me how to find him?"
"Because he's in a better place now."
Amanda is first seen meeting Daniel Keller in an elevator at the hotel, and Daniel takes him to his room, where Amanda kills him. The following morning, Adam, himself, finds Daniel's corpse inside a closet, which leads to the BAU being called in. After Amanda murders Carl Cade at a different hotel, the BAU deduces that the unsub could be one of the employees at Hudson Street. Adam is initially interviewed by Reid and Morgan. He does appear to fit the profile the team puts together, as he is a submissive male. The team theorizes that the unsub is a killing team, comprising a dominant male and a submissive female. It is thought that the female lured the young men into the hotel rooms, tied them up (with consent), and then the male would rape them and killed them. The team, being prompted by info from Garcia, begin to suspect Julie and Adam as the killers, but with roles reversed; Adam was submissive. After the two of them pass a polygraph, Reid realizes that Adam suffers from a dissociative identity disorder. He comes to this conclusion after Adam stares him down confidently upon his release; an uncharacteristic act for a submissive.
Julie searches for Adam later on in his hotel room and finds several items belonging to the previous victims. She confronts him, but Amanda takes over again, waylays her, and escapes. The team now knows that Amanda is the sole dominant and confident killer; a definite, stark contrast to Adam's personality. Amanda travels to nearby Corpus Christi to find her stepfather. The team confronts Amanda as she holds her stepfather at knifepoint and tied up with a plastic bag over his face. Reid, who wants them alive, talks her into allowing Morgan to arrest her, but beforehand, Amanda, in an act to protect Adam from the consequences of her actions, takes away his control of their body permanently, much to Reid's dismay. Amanda, clothed in a full wig and makeup, is then interviewed by Reid in a mental institution who tells her that he will be waiting for a long time to see Adam return (although she doesn't look at him confidently, implying that Adam is already in control). Reid, who had a past encounter with a serial killer named Tobias Hankel who also had dissociative identity disorder like Adam and Amanda had, believes that Adam can be saved if only he could reach him.
Profile[]
"My name...is Amanda."
The unsub was initially profiled to be a two-person killing team comprised of one man and one woman, both in their twenties. The man would probably be a heterosexual who is very submissive in his everyday life and with everyone except for his partner, with whom he becomes dominant. The female would probably be socially awkward, of average intelligence, emotionally unstable, reclusive, has a problem with authority, and can't interact with dominant personalities. At least one of them is either a guest or an employee of the Hudson Street Hotel. Raping the victims is about having power and dominance over them, not sexual orientation. When Julie Riley was declared a suspect, the profile changed the roles of the killing team according to gender. However, it is revealed that there is only one unsub, who is suffering from Dissociative Identity Disorder due to numerous childhood cases of abuse: his default personality is submissive and meek; his dominant personality is confident, violent, and vengeful. The dominant personality chooses victims that heavily resembled someone in the submissive personality's life: abusive alpha males who feel that women are their property. The unsub is highly intelligent and was able to slightly thwart the team's investigation by changing venues and passing a polygraph test.
It is obvious to Rossi, however, that the unsub, when in his default personality, has no idea what he does when the dominant personality takes over. This is the reason why Adam was able to pass the polygraph test.
Modus Operandi[]
Amanda targeted Caucasian college students with alpha male personalities and aged in their early 20s, all of whom were surrogates for Adam's abusive stepfather. She would lure them into a hotel room where, while dressed fully feminine, she would convince them to let her tie their arms and legs to the corners of the bed. She would then rape them (presumably as a reference to the alleged abuse Adam suffered at the hands of his stepfather) and then fatally suffocate them with a plastic bag. She would then pose the bodies in fetal-like positions and stuffed them inside the closets to make the maids believe that the rooms were vacant so they would be cleaned since the maids never check the closets.
Her first two victims were killed at the Hudson Street Hotel, where Adam worked, but after the BAU turned up to assist the investigation, the third victim, Carl Cade, was lured to and killed inside a different hotel to prevent herself from being spotted. When she tried to kill Julie Riley, she threw her off the roof of the Hudson Street Hotel. In the case of Mark Harrison, Adam's stepfather, she presumably forced him into his bedroom at knifepoint, where she then tried to kill him by suffocating him with a plastic bag.
Real-Life Comparisons[]
Adam's background seems to be loosely based on that of Henry Lee Lucas - Both were serial killers who grew up with one deceased parent (Lucas' father died when he was a teen, and Jackson's mother died when he was a child) and one abusive parent (Lucas' mother and Jackson's stepfather), abuse which involved both beatings and cross-dressing. Both targeted the opposite gender in some way (Lucas targeted women, while Jackson's alter-ego, Amanda, killed men), had some sexual element in their crimes (Lucas engaged in Necrophilia, while Jackson raped his victims), and both attempted to kill their abusive parent with a knife (though only Lucas succeeded). Coincidentally, two of Lucas's alleged victims, Estella Montoya and Katherin L. Robinson, were killed in Corpus Christi, Texas, the town Jackson was from.
Adam is also similar to both John Wayne Gacy - Both were serial killers and serial rapists who were abused by father figures (Gacy's biological father and Jackson's stepfather), had almost identical victimologies and M.O.s (teenage boys and young men who were lured, raped, and then asphyxiated), and Gacy even claimed to have DID, in which a murderous alter-ego was responsible for his crimes (though this was false, and seems to have been the basis of Jackson's DID and murderous alter-ego).
Adam is also similar to Colin Ireland - Both were serial killers who lost a parent early (Jackson's mother died, while Ireland's father abandoned him), were put in foster care, committed theft and other petty crimes as teenagers, met women who seemed to have turned their lives around before their killings but failed, and as serial killers, they targeted men, met them in a public building, lured them away to a secondary location with the ruse of sex, and consensually bound their victims before torturing and suffocating them to death. Also, the way Jackson used his "Amanda" identity to lure his victims with the promise of sex is somewhat similar to how Ireland pretended to be homosexual to lure his victims.
Known Victims[]
- Unspecified dates or locations:
- An unspecified petty theft
- At least two unspecified crimes
- 2009, Texas:
- South Padre Island:
- April 11: William Browder
- April 13: Daniel Keller
- April 14: Carl Cade (killed at a different hotel)
- April 16:
- South Padre Island: Julie Riley (his boss; attempted, but barely survived; threw her off a roof)
- Corpus Christi: Mark Harrison (his stepfather; attempted, but survived; was non-fatally suffocated and held at knifepoint)
- South Padre Island:
Notes[]
- Adam seems to have been inspired by a few unsubs from previous seasons:
- Pablo Vargas ("Machismo") - Both were serial killers and rapists who had jobs in which they had female bosses, would dress up as women as part of their ruse, committed offences before their killings, and were triggered to commit their murders after experiencing some form of humiliation by one of their victims (Adam's first victim assaulted him in front of a co-worker; Pablo's attempted rape victim mocked him after realizing he was a man who wore dresses while raping his victims).
- Mark Gregory ("Charm and Harm") - Both were serial killers and rapists who had stressors involving one of their parental figures (Adam's stepfather abused him; Mark was aware of his mother's adultery), committed offences before their killings, and killed their victims in hotel rooms through some form of asphyxiation.
- Tobias Hankel ("The Big Game" and ("Revelations) - Both were serial killers who suffered at the hands of abusive father figures, had DID and a murderous split personality as a result of said abuse, and used knives at some point (Hankel killed with them, while Jackson only attempted to kill with one), both victimized their abusive father figures (Hanekl killed his, while Jackson attempted to kill his) and Reid was personally involved in both cases.
- In a deleted scene of the episode, Adam shoots Morgan in the shoulder. This scene, excised for unknown reasons, can be seen in the Special Features on the Season Four DVD release.