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I just need to dump my client list and start over.
Hodges to his son

William "Bill" Hodges was a one-time abductor, con artist, and later spree killer who appeared in the Season Five episode of Criminal Minds, "Parasite".

Background[]

Not much is revealed about Hodges (William Hodges might not even be his real name), other than he seemed to be a con artist for his whole life. His first known criminal activity was in Seattle, where he scammed an unspecified amount of people involved in church. He then proceeded to scam numerous people around the country, especially the West Coast, until he, during another scam in San Diego, met Rebecca, presumably one of his clients. The two later married and had a son named John Davison, or "J.D." Because of Hodges's status as a con man, the family had to constantly keep moving around the country; his family was unaware of what he did for a living. This eventually displeased J.D., who despised going through another process of adapting to his new hometown and making friends.

Sometime prior to the episode, Hodges, going as Grant Dale in Miami was threatened by one of his clients, Carla Marshall, who found out his true identity, adding insult to injury by threatening his manhood since she was one woman he slept with for her trust. Snapping from the degradation, and in an effort to keep his secret from being exposed, Hodges murdered Marshall. He then found a spreadsheet from her laptop, which contained a list of names of people who received money from selling their properties and decided to use it to find potential victims. However, he became haunted by Marshall's death, presumably forcing him to move his family and operations to Fort Lauderdale. By this time, the FBI agent tracking his crimes, Russell Goldman, requested the BAU's assistance when not understanding why Hodges resorted to murder. As time progressed and his actions left a more visible trail, Hodges began finding it harder to maintain all of his fake identities.

Parasite[]

Right after settling into the town, Hodges, going by Henry Moffet, goes to con another woman, Lorraine Horton, out of money, and she gets suspicious when she sees cuts on Hodges' skin where Marshall fought back. Hodges later meets up with another man, going by Randy Summerland. However, when he accidentally asks him to write the check out to Henry Moffet, he tries to excuse himself before grabbing a bottle and bludgeoning the man to death. Hodges flees back to his home, where he has a cheerful reunion with his wife and J.D. His reunion is short-lived, after he decides they have to move away. He then goes to meet client Brooke Sanchez, going by the alias Hunter Portland, and she reveals she is pregnant with Hodges' child, which leads Hodges to panic since he can't financially and legally afford a child with her. As soon as he is informed, Horton calls, asking for her money back. He promptly leaves Sanchez and goes to Horton, apologizing for his behavior and luring her out into a parking lot, putting her in the trunk of his car.

Hodges then picks up J.D., promising him that they won't move again like they did numerous times before. When Horton begins banging in the trunk, Hodges distracts J.D. with a movie, and bludgeons her to death. He later dumps her body near a body of water. He later goes back to Sanchez, and then leaves after a while, at this point slowly spiraling out of control as his lies collapse. Hodges's wife follows him and talks to Sanchez about what is happening, and they both realize that Hodges is living two separate lives. Meanwhile, Hodges, posing as Henry Moffet, picks up J.D. and goes to find Rebecca so they can leave for Boston, much to J.D.'s distress. Hodges then goes to Sanchez's house, again as Hunter Portland, where he finds Rebecca. They both begin questioning him, and J.D. runs into the room. Hodges grabs J.D. and runs out the front door, but is surrounded by the BAU, and he tells J.D. to go to his mother. He then reaches for his phone, fooling Agent Russell Goldman, who shoots and kills him.

Modus Operandi[]

"I'm Randy. Randy. Randy. I'm Randy Summerland. I'm Randy Summerland."

Hodges spent an average of fourteen to eighteen months in a city (with the exception of San Diego, California, where he spent about three years due to him meeting his future wife Rebecca), conning his victims with a Ponzi hedge fund scheme, setting up a basic website to make himself look more credible and usually seducing his female victims. To avoid detection by the authorities, Hodges took a variety of forensic countermeasures, such as using fake IDs and multiple foreign bank accounts. Naturally, he also used aliases. During his early cons, he used simple variations of "William", such as "Will", "Bill" or "Billy", but later began using full names. At first, he targeted people within certain affinity groups, people with shared interests, such as church and entertainment. After meeting Carla Marshall, a successful real estate agent, Hodges began using her client list to help make tracking down new victims easier.

Almost all of Hodges's murder victims were bludgeoned repeatedly with an incidental object, with the exception of Marshall, who was manually strangled and had her head bashed into a mirror due to the spontaneous nature of his attack on her. He initially left the victims' bodies in their homes but evolved to dumping his final victim's body on the side of a road.

Profile[]

"It'll be the best decision of your life."

The unsub is a male white-collar con artist whose pathology involves the so-called "dark triad": narcissism, Machiavellianism[2], and aberrant self-promotion (or psychopathy). Everything revolves around him. He uses dishonest tactics to manipulate and exploit those around him and has become a menace to society. He is also a Casanova-type con man, meaning that he charms women to get to their money. As part of this behavior, he engages in casual sex with a number of his female con victims and then uses that as leverage in order to accomplish his goals. He frequently visits wealthy communities, like hotel bars, country clubs, and membership-only establishments. He constantly moves money, opening, and closing bank accounts. He is active in Miami and Fort Lauderdale, but he could also be in other wealthy communities such as Boca Raton or Coral Gables. He has created too many aliases and identities for himself to keep track of and this is causing him to fracture mentally. It is this loss of control that, in turn, drives him to violence and makes him a danger to everyone around him. Any additional stress will make him more likely to attack.

Real-Life Comparisons[]

Hodges seems to have been inspired by Frank Abagnale - Both were con artists who were tracked by the FBI, used numerous fake names and addresses, abandoned cons when they couldn't adapt enough to pull them off, and married and had children.

He may have also been inspired by Jean-Claude Romand - Both were con artists-turned-spree killers who married and had children, lied to their own families for many years about their jobs, resorted to embezzlement for their funds, devolved into killing their con victims as their lies unraveled, attempted to kill their mistresses by strangulation (though only Hodges succeeded), and both their killing sprees ended with some form of suicide (Hodges committed suicide by cop, while Romand seemingly tried to kill himself, but survived).

Hodges is very similar to Ted Bundy - Both were murderous abductors who were married and had a child, had stressors involving women (Bundy's girlfriend left him and he was lied to about his family, while Hodges was emasculated by a woman who also threatened to expose him), were regarded as very charming towards women, primarily targeted women but also killed one different type of victim (a 12 year-old girl in Bundy's case, a man in Hodges'), abducted victims by placing them in the trunks of their cars (though Hodges did this once), they bludgeoned or strangled their victims, used numerous fake aliases, were active in several states (including the city of Seattle in Washington, Colorado, and Florida; the latter being where both they and their last three victims died, though Hodges killed exclusively there), and devolved overtime. Also, one of Hodge's fake identities was "Daniel Brady", which sounds very similar to Ted Bundy.

Hodges is also similar to Andrew Cunanan - Both were spree killers who used various fake identities for their own ends, slept with many of their victims, devolved when they found out their victims were interacting with each other, killed at least one victim by bludgeoning, reportedly operated in Fort Lauderdale, Florida and also San Diego, and both their killing sprees ended with suicide by gunshot in some way (Hodges committed suicide by cop, while Cunanan shot himself directly).

Known Victims[]

  • Numerous unnamed victims of his cons going back at least 1999 (further specific dates unknown), including:
    • Unspecified year, Seattle, Washington: Some people involved in church
    • Unspecified year and location in southern Florida: Some unspecified people
    • 1999-2000, San Francisco, California: The following were involved in charity:
      • One married couple
      • One elderly couple
    • 2000-2001, Los Angeles, California: At least one couple involved in entertainment
    • 2001-2004, San Diego, California:
      • Rebecca (his future wife; presumably)
      • Two couples
      • Two additional sets of people
    • 2004-2005, Denver, Colorado:
      • One couple
      • Three men
    • 2006-2007, Dallas, Texas:
      • One woman
      • One man
    • 2007-2008, Houston, Texas: Three women
    • 2008-2009, New Orleans, Louisiana: Two women
  • 2010, Florida:
    • January 30, Miami: Carla Marshall (bashed her head against a mirror, then manually strangled)
    • Fort Lauderdale:
      • February 1: Frank McKelson (bludgeoned four times with a glass bottle)
      • February 2: Lorraine Horton (abducted and bludgeoned five times with a tire iron; dumped her body in a different location)
      • February 3: Brooke Sanchez (attempted to scam; was pregnant with his child)

Appearances[]

References[]

  1. William Hodges may have simply been another alias, as suggested by dialogue between Prentiss and Agent Russell Goldman at the end of the episode, in which the latter states, "I never even found out his real name..."
  2. A term that is defined as "the employment of cunning and duplicity in statecraft or in general conduct". In its classification in the dark triad, it is characterized by the manipulation and exploitation of others, a cynical disregard of morality, self-interest, and deception.
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