| “ | You gonna burn. | ” |
— Kaman
| ||
Kaman Scott is a disfigured robber and later "wound collector"-type serial killer, stalker, abductor, and arsonist who appeared in the Season Six episode of Criminal Minds, "Devil's Night".
Background[]
Born on February 6, 1976, Kaman was a hoodlum with a criminal record of vandalism, robbery, destruction of private property, and shoplifting, Kaman changed his ways when he met Tracy Anderson in 2004. The two frequented a diner owned by her father, James "Jay-Mo" Morris.
On January 22, 2005, a one-time partner-in-crime, Tommy Proctor, crashed into him in a car accident, causing Kaman's car to explode. While Tommy was unharmed, Kaman suffered third-degree burns to his face and upper torso, permanently disfiguring him and putting him in a coma for months. During that time, Tracy, afraid that he was going to die, left him without letting him know that she was pregnant with their child, a boy she would later name Daniel. When Kaman woke up, he had also been evicted from his apartment.
On October 29, the first day of Devil's Night, a pre-Halloween celebration, in 2008, he abducted and burned Tommy alive numerously in an act of revenge and buried him deep in the building he was burned at. Over the course of the following two days, he abducted and killed two more people whom he felt wronged him in some way. The following year, he committed three more murders on the same days, targeting people whom he felt wronged him as well.
Devil's Night[]
On October 29, 2010, Kaman abducts and kills Tony Torell, his former landlord who evicted him while he was in a coma, leading to the BAU being called in. The next day, he is seen putting his supplies into his van and then slamming his fists into the cage wall inside the vehicle in frustration. The following night, Kaman abducts Christopher Edwards, a general contractor who used to employ the company for which Kaman worked but then fired the workers, in front of his daughter. Upon finding a roadblock that was set outside his intended kill house, Kaman improvises, driving to an underpass, where he beats Edwards with a truncheon and then sets him on fire, causing him to run into traffic and get killed by an incoming car. Realizing that the authorities are now on to him, Kaman initiates an endgame, going to Jay-Mo's diner, where he confronts James and asks for Tracy. When he adamantly refuses to tell him where she is and reaches for a gun, Kaman beats him with his truncheon, pours out cooking oil, and activates the restaurant's ovens, slowly setting it on fire. He flees from the scene; Hotch is able to run inside and save James just before the place explodes.
In the meantime, Kaman goes to the house of Tracy's aunt Susan, who had adopted Tracy, and her husband Tom. There, he incapacitates Tom with his truncheon, ties both up at a table, and douses them with some chemicals before asking for Tracy's whereabouts. They claim she is going to medical school in Ohio and then try to reason with him. Tracy then enters the room and apologizes to him for leaving him alone, but Kaman is not satisfied because she left him when he needed her the most. They are interrupted when Daniel walks in. Kaman notes that he calls her "mommy", to which the Andersons claim that he is the son of Tracy's other aunt in defense. Hotch walks in and holds him at gunpoint. Kaman pours out the rest of the chemical onto the table and turns on his blowtorch, threatening that he will drop it if he is shot. Tracy reveals that Daniel is Kaman's son, causing him to turn off the blowtorch and give up, but not before he learns Daniel's full name: Daniel Kaman Anderson. He lovingly puts his hand on Kaman's burned face. He subsequently surrenders and is arrested, being last seen placed into a police car; Daniel then walks up to it and places his hand on the window.
Modus Operandi[]
Kaman targeted people who in some way had wronged him in the past, whether or not the incident was major. He struck during Devil's Night, when his burns would be passed off as a Halloween mask, and abducted his victims from the company of one of their loved ones. He would subdue them with a blitz attack, restrain their arms with chains, and put them in a cage in his van. He would then take them to a pre-selected abandoned building in the Warehouse District, suspend them from the ceiling with chains above some flammable rubble, place a sack over the victim’s head, douse it and the rubble with gasoline, and ignite it using a small blowtorch, burning them alive. In the case of his first victim, Tommy Proctor, he was burned more severely than the later victims, being the cause of Kaman's disfigurement and therefore the true source of his rage. After watching them burn and scream for a few minutes, Kaman would flee the scene before the fire department showed up. He would sometimes use an expandable baton to control and subdue them.
In the case of Christopher Edwards, he had to set him on fire on the side of a street since the higher presence of authorities prevented him from entering his comfort zone. However, Edwards was killed by an oncoming car after he ran into the street before the fire could do much damage. When he tried to kill James Morris, he used the same baton to beat him, poured an unknown accelerant on an oven and a counter next to it, turned on the oven, used it to set an unknown object on fire, dropped it on the counter, causing a fire, and left Morris to die. An interesting pattern during his initial killings was that Kaman would always kill men on the first two days of Devil's Night, then a woman on the last day, for unknown reasons.
Profile[]
The unsub is an African-American male in his 20s or 30s who attacks his victims at Devil's Night, the most vulnerable time of the year for the city of Detroit, but for the rest of the year, he is dormant. He burns his victims alive and is a serial arsonst and serial killer that uses fire as a weapon. This act says that he is aggressive, driven, and destructive, just like fire itself. Devil's Night gives him the perfect cover for killing his victims since arson fires occur frequently around that time. His last victim, Tony Torrell, was athletic and would not have been easy to subdue, so the unsub may be just as strong or may have an upper hand at being younger than him. It is believed that he gets off on feeling his victims' pain and watching them burn, which gives him power and control. He may be a first responder, firefighter, arson investigator, officer, or paramedic.
He is angry towards the people he kills; extreme anger usually manifests itself from a quick temper, but he is patient enough to wait for an entire year to kill again. During this period of dormancy, he plans, targets his victims, and chooses which buildings to burn them in, and it is also possible that he will be watching the investigation. He uses blitz attacks by attacking from behind to subdue his victims. By covering his victims' faces, he doesn't want them to look at him, even though he wants to watch them die; this may be a sign of guilt or inadequacy. However, it is odd that someone like him would want to see the terror in the victims' eyes, so his covering of his victims' faces and then burning them alive is a form of execution.
Known Victims[]
- Unspecified dates:
- 1997: An unspecified, victimless vandalism
- 1998: An unspecified, victimless vandalism
- 2002: A victimless robbery
- 2003: A victimless robbery
- 2008:
- October 29: Tommy Proctor (his former partner-in-crime; burned more severely than the other victims)
- October 30: Drake Alcott
- October 31: Josephine Davis (abducted from her husband)
- 2009:
- October 29: Robert Shandon
- October 30: Curt Dunwitt
- October 31: Julia Reston
- 2010:
- October 29: Tony Torell (his former landlord; abducted from his wife)
- October 30: Christopher Edwards (his former employer; abducted from his daughter and attempted to kill; was set on fire, but instead killed by an oncoming car)
- October 30-31:
- The arson and explosion at Jay-Mo's Diner:
- James "Jay-Mo" Morris (Tracy's father; attempted, but barely survived; beaten with a baton and left for dead; also stole his car)
- Aaron Hotchner (indirectly attempted)
- Tom and Susan Anderson (Tracy's uncle and aunt, respectively; both tied up and threatened to set on fire; were rescued):
- Tom Anderson (also assaulted)
- Susan Anderson
- The arson and explosion at Jay-Mo's Diner: