| “ | You're gonna break every bone in your body! | ” |
— Danny
| ||
Daniel Allen "Danny" White, dubbed "The Bone Crusher" by the media, was a serial killer and abductor who appeared in Assistance Is Futile.
Background
Danny was initially a normal and kind boy, but when he was eleven, his father left him and his mother Miranda for their next-door neighbor and was never seen again. This caused Danny to become irritable and socially awkward, and he would often get in trouble at school. When he was thirteen, he pushed his mother off a ladder while she was repainting his bedroom; she broke her arm in a way where the bone ripped through the skin. When she cried out to him for help, he merely stood still and smiled eerily at her. The two later moved out of their apartment and into a house. By the time he turned 21, he was still living with Miranda, but found work as a demolition contractor, which gave him access to abandoned buildings and sublimated his desires. She tried to help him by giving him ecstasy and MDMA, drugs that decrease inhibition; she had seen an article about ecstasy being able to help improve social skills and thought it would help her son.
Though his ability to socialize improved, as well as his sexuality, the drugs also unlocked severe psychopathic feelings from within Danny. In 2016, Danny attended a rave in the city, where he drugged and raped another attendant, Nancy Santiago, on the rooftop of the club. He also tortured her by breaking her limbs. Afterwards, he threw her off a rooftop, killing her. Danny returned home soaked with Nancy's blood, which Miranda noticed but decided to ignore. Nancy's murder, combined with the impotence that was being induced by continued usage of the MDMA, caused Danny to spiral into a murderous rage. As a result, he started abducting, torturing, and killing women at his old apartment to relive his first kill over and over again. Because of the highly gruesome nature of the murders, the media dubbed him "The Bone Crusher".
Assistance Is Futile
After killing three women, Danny is finally kicked out of the house by Miranda after he came home again soaked with the blood of this third victim, Gigi Stevens. Immediately afterwards, he abducts and tortures another woman, Serena Adams. However, while he is gone, she is rescued by Alvez and Stephen, who were pointed to her location by Miranda. Later, Danny goes to a bar, takes a tablet of ecstasy, and drinks some alcohol, preparing to abduct another victim. However, before he could approach two women, Lisa Jackson and her friend Sadie, he sees a news report that identifies him as the prime suspect wanted for the Bone Crusher murders. Alarmed, he leaves the bar and gets into his car, but instead of leaving, he decides to wait for Lisa and Sadie to come out. Once they do, Danny attacks them, abducts Lisa, and takes her to the nightclub where he first killed Nancy. There, he bludgeons her with a hammer and prepares to kill her when Rossi, Alvez, and Stephen arrive and hold him at gunpoint. They demand him to drop the hammer, but he refuses. Alvez, who had connected with Miranda, tells him that she wants to see him. Refusing to go to jail, Danny jumps off the rooftop and dies, telling Alvez beforehand to tell Miranda that he said he was sorry.
Modus Operandi
Danny targeted random women in their early 20s, found them in bars and nightclubs in all five boroughs of New York City, and lured them in by charming them after taking a pill of ecstasy to embolden him. He would then abduct them and take them to his abandoned apartment, where he would torture them by breaking their fingers, toes, and limbs, usually with a hammer. The victims would all eventually die from exsanguination from their wounds. Afterwards, Danny would dump the bodies in alleyways in other locations in the city. His murder of Nancy Santiago was markedly different from the others; the victim was raped and killed by being thrown off a rooftop. After the BAU freed Serena Adams from his old apartment, Danny relocated to the rooftop where he killed Nancy.
Profile
Danny is a demolition contractor, which has not only helped with sublimating his desires, but also with giving him a familiarity with condemned and abandoned buildings. He has a very wide geographic area of activity, and has abducted and dumped his victims in all five boroughs of New York City. It took a concerted effort for him to return to his old apartment and use it to carry out his crimes, so the location is important to him. If he sticks to his pattern, Danny's next victim will be in her early 20s. He blends in and appears nonthreatening and attractive, perfect physical traits to lower the guard of most people. Along with that, he has great physical strength built up from his years of experience as a demolition contractor, which allows him to easily overpower his victims. In addition, he is using MDMA, a popular drug that lowers inhibition, as part of his ruse.
Known Victims
- Unspecified date in 2007: Miranda White (his mother; assaulted; pushed off a ladder and caused her to break her arm)
- March 6, 2016: Nancy Santiago (drugged, raped, tortured by breaking her limbs with an unknown instrument, and thrown off a rooftop)
- 2017:
- January 22: Renee Zafner (killed two days after her abduction)
- February 19: Lela Vipond (killed two days after her abduction)
- March 1: Gigi Stevens (killed a week after her abduction)
- March 8: Serena Adams (drugged, abducted, tortured by breaking her fingers with a hammer, and intended to kill; was rescued the next day)
- March 9:
- Sadie (incidental; assaulted; beaten with a hammer)
- Lisa Jackson (beaten with a hammer, abducted, tortured by bludgeoning with the same hammer, and intended to kill; was rescued the next day)
Notes
- Danny has many similarities to John David Bidwell, a vigilante from Season Ten. Both had a very particular victimology, abducted and tortured their victims at an abandoned location holding some significance to them (Danny's old apartment; a piece of property belonging to Bidwell's paternal grandfather where he and his mother buried his father), had turbulent relationships with their mothers, assaulted a close relative as a child (Danny assaulted his mother, while Bidwell assaulted his sister), and were reported to the BAU by said close relative.
- In an unrelated note, Virgil Williams, the writer of Assistance Is Futile, also wrote the episode Bidwell appeared in, Boxed In.