| “ | Not tonight. I'm already full. | ” |
— Ferell in "Lucky Strikes"
| ||
Floyd Feylinn Ferell, a.k.a. "Lucky", is a psychotic, prolific, and cannibalistic serial killer, abductor, one-time projected cannibal, and later proxy killer who first appears in the Season Three episode of Criminal Minds, "Lucky". He later reappears in the Season Thirteen episode of the series, "Lucky Strikes" as the mastermind behind a series of copycat murders.
Background[]
Much of Ferell's past is not revealed in great detail other than being born in 1970. However, according to a psychiatrist's notes, at the age of seven, Ferell was admitted to the Hazelwood Hospital for the Criminally Insane in Florida after biting a large piece of flesh from his nine-month-old sister, Lori. He also believes himself to be possessed by a flesh-eating demon. He was put on medication, subjected to art therapy using Francisco Goya's Black Paintings (or at least one of the collection's works, Saturn Devouring His Son), and allowed to read books about Satanism. He also enjoyed listening to jazz music and particularly Louis Armstrong's "Sittin in the Dark".
Though the doctors (including Doctor Jim Lorenz, Ferell's psychiatrist, and Doctor Nash, the hospital's director) still considered him a threat to others, when Ferell reached the age of eighteen, the local law required the hospital to release him. This led to one guard at the facility sarcastically refer to him as "Lucky". Soon after that, as Doctor Lorenz predicted, he stopped taking his delusion-inhibiting medications since they apparently caused him to gain a large amount of weight. At some point, he dropped "Ferell" from his name, opened a BBQ restaurant called "Feylinn's Fine Bar-B-Q" in Bridgewater, Florida, and began killing prostitutes to cook cannibalistic meals.
Lucky[]
"I'm not smart. But I have a smart friend who tells me things"
- Ferell in Lucky
The BAU is called in to investigate Ferell's killings after the body of Abby Kelton, a student, is discovered. Kelton's mutilated body was discovered near the so-called "Alligator Alley", i.e. I-75, near Bridgewater, Florida, but her sewered throat and the reversed pentacle carved on her chest indicated that someone murdered her. The entire lower part of the body is missing, which prevents the coroner to establish if Kelton was raped.
The BAU start investigating and, given the religious implications of the case, they go straight to the local church where they meet Father Marks. In the meantime, Kelton's stomach contents are analyzed and a number of fingers is found among them: these fingers belong to at least six different people, and thanks to the fingerprints, Garcia is able to link them to a number of missing prostitutes.
Later, Ferell abducts Tracey Lambert from a public restroom. A search party is formed to find her, but during the search, one of the participants, Sheryl Timmons, is also abducted by Ferell. Sometime later, he dumps the body of Maria Lopez, another prostitute he killed, inside a local church; the body is discovered by Morgan when the agent goes there to apologize to the local priest, Father Marks, having gotten into an argument with him earlier that day. By then, the BAU has tracked down the Hazelwood institution and find what remains of Ferell's records, the rest having been destroyed in a random fire that also killed his personal doctor. Reading Dr. Lorenz's notes, Reid finds about Ferell's past, his cannibalistic fantasies, his belief of being possessed by a flesh-eating demon and their quick degeneration, and also learns his full name: Floyd Feylinn Ferell. Answering to detective Jordan's awe—Jordan knows the killer by the name of Floyd Feylinn and considers him unoffensive—, Rossi explains that Ferell is not really smart, and that his delirium leads him to think that Satan is going to protect him. When the police and the BAU raid his house, they find a collection of cooking equipment, a walk-in freezer containing his victims and Sheryl in captivity, but no trace of Tracey Lambert.
Ferell in "Lucky".
Ferell is found in a basement room with walls covered in writing and pentagrams containing books about Satanism and images of the Black Paintings, apparently in the middle of some sort of prayer. The BAU also find a homemade cookbook containing cannibalistic recipes like "Skewered She" and "Kobe Girl Steak". When they question him, he first tries to intimidate Morgan by telling him that his clock stopped; then, Ferell refuses to talk to anyone but Father Marks. in the meantime, Rossi is baffled: as they profiled, Ferell tried to infiltrate the investigation and apparently joined the search of Tracey Lambert, but he did not sign the volunteers' list. When the priest arrives, Ferell says he felt he was abandoned by God, to which Father Marks replies, "God is in all of us." At that moment, Rossi rushes in to stop the interview. Ferell does, however, have the time to reply, "So is Tracey Lambert", and the BAU and Marks realize that they couldn't find Tracey Lambert because he killed her and served stew containing her flesh to the searchers, thereby destroying all of the evidence: Ferell had in fact joined the search group, but to offer his BBQ to feed the searchers, not as one of them. Ferell then starts laughing maniacally and is attacked by an outraged Marks, who is restrained and dragged out of the room by Morgan, Rossi, and Hotch as Ferell continues laughing, relishing the priest's rage and despair. Ferell is institutionalized a second time after this, and his restaurant is last seen being sealed off in order to be searched.
Lucky Strikes[]
"You think you can have God without the Devil. You can't."
- Ferell in Lucky Strikes
Ferell in "Lucky Strikes".
Ten years after they arrested him, the BAU are called in to investigate a murder identical to those committed by Ferell. Recognizing all the "tell-tale signs" of his M.O., they believe he has somehow started killing again. Rossi reveals that Ferell was deemed mentally incapable of assisting in his own defense after they arrested him so he was never brought to trial and Prentiss mentioned that he was instead re-institutionalized in the Hazelwood facility, where he received medication and treatment under the supervision of Dr. Lode Barren. Ferell himself is first seen in his room at the hospital where an orderly brings him his dinner, which happens to be Ferell's favorite meal. When the orderly encourages him to eat, saying that he must have "worked up an appetite over the weekend", Ferell eerily replies "Not tonight. I'm already full". The autopsy of the victim, Rebecca Strong, reveals that, in addition to the signs of Ferell's M.O. (such as an inverted pentagram and the removal of her legs and fingers), she was also force-fed five fingers from a previous victim, a signature aspect known only by Ferell as it was never released to the public. Speaking with Dr. Barren at the hospital, the BAU also learn that Ferell was granted supervised home release on weekends several weeks prior to the episode and had been living with Lori and her nine-year-old son, Jody. His lawyer, Billie Williams, informs the BAU that she is filing for all charges against Ferell to be dropped and petitioning for his unconditional release from the Hazelwood facility, claiming that he was manipulated and framed by the real killer.
That night, Reid, Simmons and Alvez stake out Lori's home and Alvez sees Ferell watching them through a window. When Lori comments that they're still outside, Ferell apologizes and says that he doesn't know why they're here. Lori tells Ferell she loves having him around but couldn't let her son go outside because of the surveillance. Ferell mentions that he has to go back to Hazelwood the next day and sadly says that he may not come around anymore to spare Lori having to deal with being watched before walking away. Going up to his room, Ferell finds Jody trying to open the closet, which Ferell has padlocked. When he asks him what he is doing, Jody replies that he was looking for something to play with and his late father kept baseball mitts in the closet. Ferell warns Jody about touching his stuff and sends him away. After Jody leaves the room, Ferell then takes off his clothes and opens the closet to reveal a Satanic shrine much like the one he kept before he was arrested. He then sits down in front of it.
The next morning, the agents knock on Lori's door and ask to speak with her and Ferell. As Lori confronts them about surveying them all night, Ferell appears at the door and says he will have no problem talking with them but they must wait until he returns from church. When Simmons says that he can't leave as he is on a monitored home visit, Lori informs them that Ferell only has to stay within a thousand yards of the monitoring station in the house and the church is within that limit. She also mentions he has been attending a bible study group. Ferell then recognizes Reid and asks about Morgan (who had since left the BAU). When Alvez asks Ferell if they can search the house while he's gone, he permits them to do so. He then states that he can't be late and "Jesus Christ awaits" before leaving, followed by Simmons. Meanwhile, Reid and Alvez search Ferell's room and discover his shrine. At the church, while Simmons is on the phone with Reid, Ferell is confronted by Abby Kelton's mother, Lee-Ann, who calls him "the Devil". After defusing the situation with Lee-Ann, Simmons and Alvez escort Ferell out of the church. Bringing Ferell to the station for an interview, they lead him through the precinct as Sheryl is herself interviewed by Rossi and Lewis.
Alvez and Simmons interview Ferell and he tells them that he had never murdered anyone and that he "didn't have a good life," which made him easy to manipulate but asserts that he is different now due to taking his medication. When asked about the shrine, he states that Dr. Barren knows about the shrine and even suggested that Ferell use it to "keep himself in check," and that everyone has a "dark side". Ferell then offers to tell the agents anything they want to know and agrees to submit to a cognitive interview. Alvez questions Ferell as to why he chose Sheryl, however, Ferell insists that he didn't, rather his "friend" did, and all he did was pick her up from a warehouse on Shelby Lane and took her back to his house as instructed. He admits to rubbing oil on Sheryl' legs but claims that was the extent of his actions and that he didn't even want to do so. When asked his friend's name, Ferell answers that he wasn't told his name but that Ferell knew he "needed to do what he wanted him to", when he first met his accomplice. Then Williams enters the room and declares that the interview is over, much to the chagrin of Simmons and Alvez. Based on this information, Garcia locates the warehouse Ferell was referring to. However, in her own interview, Sheryl confirmed what Floyd had said, leaving the BAU to consider the possibility that Ferell was indeed set up as the scapegoat for another unsub. Reid and Simmons search the warehouse and discover the body of Evonne Westfield, again showing signs of Ferell's M.O.
After finding Westfield's body, the BAU realize she disappeared on a weekday, when Ferell would have been in the Hazelwood facility, confirming the existence of another killer. Despite their doubts that a second unsub was manipulating Ferell all along, they are forced to admit that the evidence seems to support that theory. They learn from the medical examiner that Westfield also shows signs of Ferell's M.O. However, unlike Strong, her legs weren't removed post-mortem; her killer bit her leg instead. The bite marks also do not matching impressions from Ferell, further proving another killer is responsible for the current murders. She also wasn't force-fed a previous victim's fingers, leading them to conclude that Westfield was the killer's first victim. They deduce that if the killer was also responsible for all of Ferell's murders, he would be experienced and wouldn't have displayed the tentative behavior seen in Westfield's murder or hidden her body so poorly, making it unlikely the current unsub was active ten years ago. Then Prentiss theorizes that Ferell is not the patsy, but the one who has a patsy in a plan to be permanently released from the Hazelwood institution by making authorities believe the new killer was responsible for his murders ten years prior. Believing the new unsub knew Westfield personally, the BAU interview her fiancée, Johanna, and later identify her brother, Marcus Manning, as the most recent killer when Garcia confirms he would be easily vulnerable to manipulation by Ferell, based on his history. Recognizing Manning from the church, Simmons remembers that there was a paper bag on the floor between him and Ferell where they were sitting beside each other and that the only time Ferell was unsupervised was when he briefly used the restroom. Simmons then realizes that in the commotion with Lee-Ann, the bag went missing and Strong's fingers could have been inside.
After he abducts Lee-Ann as retaliation for the incident at the church, the BAU confront Manning in the basement of Ferell's old house. During the standoff, Manning confesses to having committed Ferell's murders before committing suicide, giving Ferell what he needs to be released. Although they know Manning was lying, the BAU are obligated to turn his dying declaration over to Williams, giving her grounds to move for his release. Despite their apparent defeat, Rossi goes to speak to the hospital board about Ferell's role in the murders. Back at Quantico, JJ reviews the case files in hopes of finding anything to tie him to the crimes when Garcia arrives with Manning's autopsy report. Reading it, Garcia learns that five of Rebecca's fingers were found in his stomach but remembers that she was missing all of her fingers, prompting the pair to call Prentiss.
The BAU finally arrest Ferell.
At the hospital, Ferell and his lawyer are present at a hearing to judge his fitness to be released. Rossi testifies to the hospital board the BAU's suspicions about Manning's confession but he is dismissed by Dr. Barren, who states that the hearing is not a criminal trial. As Rossi returns to his seat, Ferell briefly smiles at him eerily before being asked to stand. Dr. Barren then presents his psychiatric assessments, which Ferell meekly thanks her for. To Rossi's frustration, she praises Ferell for participation in therapy and adherence to medication schedules. During Dr. Barren's presentation, Prentiss arrives with Alvez and hands Rossi an envelope. Just as Dr. Barren offers the hospital's official apology for detaining him and informs Ferell that he is free to leave, Rossi interrupts, asking to speak before the board again, which she hesitantly permits. Rossi states that he was just given Manning's autopsy report and relays the findings about Rebecca's fingers being found in his stomach. When Dr. Barren questions its relevance to the matter at hand, Rossi informs her that they never found the remaining fingers and presents a search warrant to serve Ferell. Despite objections from Williams, Ferell invites the agents to search his room at the hospital, Lori's house and even his old residence, stating they won't find anything. However, Rossi then reveals that the warrant is not to search a location. He reveals it is for an x-ray of Ferell's digestive tract, confidently stating that they will find Rebecca's remaining fingers in his stomach, moving to face Ferell as he does and calling him by name. After a moment of realization that this could mean he will be incarcerated again, Ferell attempts to attack Rossi in a fit of rage, threatening to kill the agent but is restrained by Prentiss and Alvez, who pin him to the table and handcuff him. Rossi continues to say since the hospital board has deemed him mentally fit, they can finally try Ferell, not only as an accessory to Manning's crimes, but also for his own murders, further enraging Ferell. He is then dragged out of the room screaming by Prentiss and Alvez.
Dust and Bones[]
Ferell is briefly mentioned in this episode when Prentiss states that Lewis will be helping in his criminal trial to ensure he does not slip through the cracks again while the team investigate an unsub abducting and disfiguring women in Texas.
Profile[]
There are two types of violent Satanic offenders: teenagers who assume the Satanic identity to rebel and who rarely cause fatalities; and adaptive serial killers who rationalize their fantasies and urges by blaming outside forces, and use Satanic imagery as a means of causing fear and panic. Those of the latter do not kill because they truly believe in Satan; they only believe in Satan because it gives them an opportunity to kill. There is no evidence suggesting Abby Kelton's killer is a teenager, or that there were multiple attackers, so the unsub is of the latter kind, whose ritualizing of Abby's murder means he will kill again soon, if he has not already. The killer is not a sadist, because his victims lacked any sign of torture or mutilation. Abby being force-fed human fingers was simply a message ("she's not my first"). Geographical profiling indicates the unsub's safety zone (his home and where he avoided killing to escape detection) is Bridgewater, and he has started killing inside it, not because he wants to get caught, but because he wants to draw attention to himself, and thus give himself a sense of power over the police, which also means he will likely try to insert himself into the investigation.
Organizing the books Tracey Lambert dropped while being attacked indicates the unsub may have been institutionalized at some point in his past. The severely mentally ill have chaos all around them, but once they are put into an institution, they are given order and taught to keep their rooms and possessions clean and tidy. When discharged, they stop taking their medication, and their minds revert to a chaotic state, but due to their conditioning, they can compulsively try to keep some semblance of order, hence Abby's books being arranged according to size.
Maria Lopez's body being frozen, the victims not being sexually assaulted, and the unsub keeping portions of them indicated cannibalism, as did the fingers Abby was force fed (it was a dual message: "She's not my first" and "I'm eating them"). The greatest taboo, cannibalism (and apparent vorarephilia) explains the unsub's drive to blame things on outside forces. The unsub does not take too many precautions, as he believes Satan will protect him. He targets athletic women because he is attracted to them, and because they were meatier than the emaciated prostitutes he killed initially. Blaming the devil for his urges and cannibalism was not enough to lessen his guilt, so he tricked others into participating to make them as guilty as he was.
According to Doctor Jim Lorenz's old notes, Ferell's "symptoms go far beyond normal psycho-sexual oral biting fixation of a typical seven-year-old boy" and he "believes he is possessed by a flesh-eating demon".
In "Lucky Strikes", the BAU expanded their profile on Ferell slightly, with Lewis remarking that projected cannibalism and the act of forcing others to unknowingly consume human flesh is extremely rare. Believing Ferell to be the unsub responsible for the latest murders, they theorized that he could have easily defeated the ankle monitor provided by the hospital as it was an outdated model that wasn't GPS-enabled and only tracked an individual's distance from the bay station so Ferell could have plugged it into a mobile power source and took it with him while committing the murders. However, this theory was ultimately disproved. JJ later commented that Ferell was much smarter than they first thought, having been able to devise a plan to get released from the mental hospital a decade in advance by manipulating the mental health system, deceiving his doctors into believing that his cannibalistic fantasies were under control and getting Manning to take credit for his crimes, even leaving just enough evidence in his interview with Morgan years earlier to make the possibility of another unsub connected to the original murders seem plausible.
Based on his M.O. and mental illness, Ferell can be considered a disorganized visionary-type serial killer.
Modus Operandi[]
Ferell initially killed prostitutes since he had easy access to them. Because some of them were regular drug-users, they were very skinny (which made them "taste funny"), he switched to athletic Caucasian women, both because he was attracted to them and he needed the healthy flesh of their legs as ingredients in various cannibalistic dishes. He would subdue his victims with blunt-force trauma to the head before transporting and keeping them at an abandoned warehouse for a time as part of a fail-safe in case he was ever captured. This helped make it seem as if someone else had abducted the victims before handing them off to him. He would then take them to his house and restrain them to a mattress in the basement where he would hold them for several days. During this time, he would rub their legs with oil to make the meat tender. Ferell would then kill them by slashing their throats. In the case of Tracey Lambert, he painted an inverted pentagram at the location of where he abducted her and apparently killed her by butchering and flaying her, so her flesh could be served to the very people who were searching for her.
After killing his victims, he carved inverted pentagrams on their bodies, severed their fingers (and occasionally their legs) before he wrapped them in plastic (with the exception of Lambert). He also force-fed fingers to Abby Kelton taken from previous victims in order to send the authorities two messages: he had killed before, and he was eating his victims. With the exception of Abby Kelton and Tracey Lambert, Ferell kept the bodies in an industrial freezer in his basement so he could cook using their flesh. It also served as a forensic countermeasure as it kept law enforcement from finding the bodies and becoming aware of his murders. However, Ferell did not cook using the bodies of Abby Kelton and Maria Lopez, who were both disposed of in order to send messages to the authorities.
Real-Life Comparisons[]
Ferell seems heavily based on real-life suspected serial killer and cannibal Nathaniel Bar-Jonah - Both were abductors who held a deep fascination in cannibalism since childhood (which culminated in them both attacking a younger girl at the age of seven) and were institutionalized as a result (and had their records covered after they were released). Both began their crimes after being released and later opened up restaurants. They also went to church despite not being Christians. They both wrote cookbooks with cannibalistic recipes and had their restaurants shutdown after their arrests.
Ferell may have also been based on Karl Denke - Both were prolific and cannibalistic serial killers who had behavioral problems as children, were church-goers, dismembered their victims post-mortem, sold them as meat to unsuspecting customers (though Denke is only suspected of doing this), and had one survivor.
Ferell is similar to Fritz Haarmann - Both were prolific and cannibalistic serial killers who committed crimes against minors before their murders (Haarmann molested numerous children, while Ferell attacked his younger sister), were also institutionalized prior to their murders, targeted both prostitutes of a certain gender (males in Haarmann's case, females in Ferell's) and others, killed them by ripping open their throats in some way (Haarmann bit open his in what he called "love bites", while Ferell simply slashed with a blade), dismembered their victims post-mortem and (possibly in Haarmann's case) fed them as meat to unwitting customers. Also Ferell having Manning as a patsy is somewhat similar to Haarmann having Hans Grans as an accomplice.
He is also similar to Carl Großmann - Both were cannibalistic serial killers who attacked at least one young girl prior to their murders, ran small food businesses (Großmann owned a hot dog stand, while Ferell owned a barbecue restaurant), targeted prostitutes, dismembered their victims post-mortem and (possibly in Großmann's case) sold them as meat to unsuspecting customers, and were both apprehended in their homes with victims inside.
Ferell has a resemblance to Nikolai Dzhumagaliev - Both are mentally ill cannibalistic serial killers who were institutionalized before (at least the last few in Dzhumagaliev's case) their murders, mainly targeted women (though Dzhumagaliev once killed a man), killed them by slashing their throats (once in Dzhumagaliev's case), dismembered their victims' bodies and kept them (or at least portions in Dzhumagaliev's case) in their homes, and (possibly in Dzhumagaliev's case) served their remains to people.
He also has a slight resemblance to Robert Pickton - Both are serial killers and projected cannibals (possibly in Pickton's case) who owned a business where they killed their victims, targeted prostitutes, and dismembered them post-mortem, before serving their remains as food (possibly in Pickton's case).
Ferell is also similar to Richard Ramirez - Both were serial killers who had involvements in Satanism (Ramirez believed he served Satan, while Ferell worshiped him and believed he was guided and protected by a demon), committed crimes against females prior to their murders, primarily targeted women (though Ramirez also killed men), and killed victims by slashing them with bladed weaponry (though this was only one of Ramirez's methods).
Ferell may have been inspired by David Berkowitz - Both are serial killers who primarily targeted women (though Berkowitz also killed a man), and claimed to be Satanists who killed their victims to appease a demonic entity (though this turned out to be a lie for Berkowitz, while Ferell simply held psychotic delusions).
He may have also been inspired by Jeffrey Dahmer - Both were cannibalistic serial killers who committed crimes against minors before their murders, targeted sex workers of a certain gender (males in Dahmer's case, females in Ferell's, though Dahmer also killed others), killed them in their places of residents (though Dahmer killed in three places: his childhood home, his grandmother's house, and his apartment), killed them by slashing their throats (though Dahmer only did this once), dismembered their bodies post-mortem, used a basement at least briefly for their crimes (Ferell held all of his victims in his house's basement, while Dahmer briefly operated at his grandmother's house and used her basement), preserved them in similar ways for consumption and other purposes (Ferell kept his victims' bodies in an industrial freezer for eating and using for cannibalistic meals, while Dahmer kept both corpses and body parts, some in his refrigerator, for both cannibalism and sexual purposes). Also both at one point were pulled over while carrying victims' remains in their cars and were let off without issue.
Ferell is also similar to Francisco de Assis Pereira - Both are cannibalistic serial killers who believed they had to satisfy a flesh-eating demonic entity, targeted women, bit them, had a forensic countermeasure involving damaging their victims' bodies in some way (Pereira burned his victims post-mortem, while Ferell froze his in a freezer and kept them there), and were said to be very 'lucky' in some 'supernatural' way.
Ferell is also similar to Dorángel Vargas - Both are cannibalistic serial killers who committed cannibalistic crimes prior to their murders that sent them to psychiatric facilities, targeted healthy victims with the belief that their flesh would taste better (although Ferell's initial victims were drug users), dismembered their victims post-mortem and kept body parts they would later use for cannibalistic meals, killed over a dozen victims, and briefly began committing crimes in the late 2010's after their apprehensions (though Ferrel's were committed by proxy). Also, Ferell's murders involving Satanism is a possible allusion to the Venezuelan police suspecting Vargas' victims were killed as part of Satanic cult rituals. Furthermore, Vargas' parents believing him to be possessed by evil spirits is somewhat similar to Ferral's notion of being possessed by a flesh-eating demon. Even Ferell's physical appearance in his debut is very similar to Vargas'.
Ferell is also similar to Peter Sutcliffe - Both were serial killers who mainly targeted prostitutes but also killed a handful of low-risk victims (albeit for different reasons), killed a total of thirteen women, killed them by slashing and attacking their necks (though this was just one of Sutcliffe's methods), and evaded justice for years. Both also legally changed their names (although Sutcliffe did so after his arrest, while Ferell changed his name before he was caught), believed they were operating under the instructions of a deity (a demon in Ferell's case, while Sutcliffe claimed he was "on a mission from God"), and were both initially institutionalized after their arrests (although Sutcliffe was convicted at trial while Ferell was not). Later they both claimed that they were no longer threats to society because of the treatments they received and asked to be released. Finally, during their bids to be released, both were ultimately found mentally fit and were subsequently incarcerated. And lastly both inspired a copycat killer who studied their murders before starting their own series of murders.
Ferell is also similar to Edmund Kemper - Both are cannibalistic serial killers who had a younger sister, were institutionalized as minors for committing a violent crime against a family member (Kemper murdered his grandparents, while Ferell tried to eat his sister), read frequently while in their facilities, and were released after reaching adulthood (to the objections of their doctors). Both targeted women, brought them to a secondary location to be killed before bringing them to their homes to be dismembered post-mortem, kept at least some of their remains and cooked their flesh to make cannibalistic meals (particularly their legs), and at one point they were pulled over by a cop with a victim's remains in their car and were let off without issue. Both taunted FBI profilers while being interviewed, they both pleaded insanity and were ultimately found guilty (though Ferell was initially deemed insane), and both interacted with another killer who was initially mistaken for them (Kemper performed "behavior modification treatment" on Herbert Mullin, while Ferell convinced Marcus Manning to emulate his murders). Their appearances are also similar.
Ferell is also similar to Robert Napper - Both are serial killers with grandiose delusions, made their sisters their earliest victims (Napper peeped on his sister, Ferell bit a piece of skin out of his sister), targeted low-risk women in their killings (though Ferell did this later on), attacked at least one victim in an open natural area, killed and posthumously mutilated the women they targeted with bladed weapons, were repeatedly placed in correctional facilities and then released despite the threats they posed, and escaped being arrested after one of their later murders (Napper left another man to be briefly framed and nearly convicted for one murder, Ferell was pulled over by a patrol cop and then released with a living victim in the trunk of the car).
Known Victims[]
Personal Victims[]
- Unspecified date in 1977 or 1978: Lori Ferell (his sister; attempted but survived; tried to eat her)
- Unspecified year (after 1988)-c. February 2007: Ten prostitutes, all of them abducted, killed, and used for his cooking prior to "Lucky". They are:
- Keira Eckman
- Jill Quader
- Megan Gettler
- Samantha Naris
- April Yorkers
- Cecilla Baquerizo
- Flora Marcias
- Delia Gamarra
- Jada de Aguirre
- Rita Tayamo
- 2007:
- February: Maria Lopez (another prostitute; her body was later taken out of Floyd's freezer and placed in a local church on November 12)
- November 9: Abby Kelton (abducted, cut off all of her fingers, force-fed her some of his previous victims' fingers, killed two days later, and dumped her body in a park)
- November 11-12: Tracey Lambert (abducted and fatally butchered; flayed and removed her flesh post-mortem, and served both as stew to her own search party)
- November 12: Sheryl Timmons (abducted from Tracey Lambert's search party and intended to kill; was rescued)
- October 23, 2017: David Rossi (attempted to assault him)
Victims by Proxy[]
- 2017:
- The following were killed by Marcus Manning:
- September 11-15: Evonne Westfield (Marcus' sister's fiance; her legs were not severed; Marcus also bit her legs post-mortem)
- October 21: Rebecca Strong (a prostitute; was force-fed five of Evonne's fingers and severed her legs; also ate five of her own severed fingers; Marcus ate the remaining five)
- The following were killed by Marcus Manning:
Notes[]
- F is the sixth letter of the alphabet. Ferell's first, middle, and surname all begin with "F", meaning his name forms the number 666, regarded "The Number of the Beast". Also, his three names contain an average of six letters each.
- The song Ferell frequently listened to is "Sittin' in the Dark" by Louis Armstrong.
- Ferell currently holds the record for the longest gap between appearances for a recurring unsub, with a total of 230 episodes between "Lucky" and "Lucky Strikes".
- Ferell's reappearance in Season Thirteen seems to commemorate ten years since his first appearance in Season Three. His reappearing in the sixth episode also seems to be a nod to the aforementioned "Number of the Beast", 666.
- Ferell is the first unsub apprehended by the BAU throughout the course of the series to have been released from prison at one point.
- Ferell was likely inspired by an unnamed real-life killer mentioned in the book The Evil That Men Do, by Stephen Michaud and Roy Hazelwood (whose name seemingly inspired the institute Ferall was held at) - The unnamed killer extracted five green peas from his victim's eviscerated stomach and lined them up precisely on a plate. From that particular, Hazelwood correctly deduced the killer had been institutionalized in the past, since, he explained, institutionalized people feel the need to bring order in their lives, even though their minds are chaotic. Hazelwood also added a mental patient may manifest this need by aligning books on a ledge (which Ferall does in the show, prompting David Rossi to correctly deduce that the unsub has been institutionalized).
Appearances[]
- Season Three
- "Lucky"
- Season Thirteen
- "Lucky Strikes"
- "Dust and Bones" (mentioned)
- "Neon Terror" (mentioned)