| “ | I'm beginning to think Mother was right about you. | ” |
— Randy
| ||
Randy Jacobs (né Martin) is a delusional serial killer and abductor who appears in the Season Eleven episode of Criminal Minds, "The Bond".
Background[]
Randy was born on November 25, 1985 to Flora Martin and an unnamed man who raped Flora. When he was a child, Flora became a serial killer and murdered six truckers in search of her rapist. Finally, she managed to track him down. After abducting him and holding him prisoner inside an abandoned barn, Flora forced Randy to cut off his father's ear. Then, she killed him and forced Randy to help her bury his body. Afterwards, Flora was arrested for the murders and institutionalized in a prison asylum while Randy was placed in foster care. He was eventually adopted by the Jacobs family, took on their surname, and began living a normal life, even starting a relationship with a woman named Chloe Andrews in 2012 or 2013. Roughly twenty-four years later, Randy, now an adult, tracked down Flora and attempted to reconnect with her. However, Flora manipulated Randy and convinced him to take revenge on the people who took him away from her. Randy, having repressed the memory of him cutting off his father's ear, agreed to do so, seeing this as a way to reconnect with Flora. He killed Claire Westchester, his former elementary school teacher who reported Flora; then Frank Myers, the public defender in the case.
The Bond[]
Randy is first seen visiting Flora in the asylum, showing her the engagement ring for Chloe. He asks her what she thinks of the ring, and she replies that it is beautiful. Afterwards, Randy tells his mother that he is still having his nightmares, and she consoles him. The next day, Randy visits Flora again and plays a game with her. Afterwards, Randy tells her about the wedding that he is planning with Chloe and asks if he can invite his biological father as well. Flora says no and tells him that his father is the reason Randy was taken away from her. Later, he gets a call from Chloe, who is unaware that he is targeting his next victim, a realtor named Linda Cavalry who testified against Flora. After ending the conversation, Randy approaches Linda and asks her to take a quick peek at the house she is showing, and she agrees. When he steps inside with Linda, he closes the door on her and abducts her. The following night, Randy takes Linda to a truck stop restroom and waits for a truck to leave. He then takes Linda out of the trunk, drags her body to the restroom, and kills her.
The next day, Randy visits Flora in the asylum, and tries to give her flowers. However, an unsatisfied Flora asks Randy where he has been the night before, and he replies that he took Chloe out to dinner to talk about the wedding. Flora claims to Randy that Chloe wants to be the only woman in his life. Though he denies it, she orders him to leave. Later, Randy has a nightmare of his past, but Chloe wakes him up and tells him that he has not been taking his medication as he didn't fill his prescription in months. Randy tells her that he has been working and adds that Flora told him to stop taking the pills. Chloe is shocked and tells him that he has only known Flora for three months. When she tries to tell Randy that his mother is a bad influence on him, Randy becomes enraged. He knocks out the lamp and begins to strangle her. As he does, Randy says that his mother was right about Chloe, then lets go of her and storms out. He visits Flora again and apologizes to her. Then, he shows her the pictures of Linda Cavalry's dead body on his phone. Randy asks Flora what she thinks, and she replies that it is perfect. Overjoyed, he promises not to miss another visit. Then, Randy tells Flora that she was right about Chloe and he didn't see it, at which his mother instructs him to kill Chloe.
After Chloe packs her things and walks out of the house, Randy knocks her out and abducts her. He drives to the barn where Flora had held his father captive, gets out, and opens the trunk. When he does, a conscious Chloe kicks him and tries to escape, but Randy overpowers her. He then drags Chloe to the barn, ranting that she will never understand him. She kicks Randy's leg and pushes him away, then runs to the barn and locks herself inside. Randy goes around the barn, enters it from the back, and holds Chloe at knifepoint as the BAU arrive. Morgan and Lewis confront Randy and begin to talk him down from killing Chloe. They both tell Randy the truth: Flora has been using Randy since he was a boy, that she is the reason why he was taken away from her, that she needed Randy to continue her dirty work, and that she forced Randy to participate in the murder of his father and bury his body in the barn. Morgan tells Randy that he doesn't have to be defined by the sins of his father or his mother. This prompts him to release Chloe and surrender. As Randy is being handcuffed, he cries and apologizes to Chloe, but she looks at him scornfully. At the end of the episode, Randy is institutionalized in the same asylum his mother is in. He looks at himself in the mirror, and moments later, when a guard walks past Randy's cell, he sees that Randy has cut off his ear.
Modus Operandi[]
Randy targeted the people responsible for separating him from his mother as a child, having acquired the names of the people from Flora. He would lure them in with a ruse, then blitz-attack them by strangling them with rope from behind until they were rendered unconscious. Afterwards, he would tie them up, gag them, and put them in the trunk of his car. He would then drive to a secluded location, where he would stab them repeatedly with a switchblade. Their bodies would be posed in truck stop restrooms (the same type of location his mother was raped in) by tying rope around their wrists to urinals.
His signature was cutting off their left ears post-mortem using the same switchblade (as a reference to both how his father did the same thing to Flora and how he and Flora did the same thing to his father). His first two victims were stabbed through a burlap sack he placed over their torsos (likely to prevent him from seeing the direct wounds due to his inexperience), but as he evolved, he did not do so with his third victim. In the case of Linda Calvary, he killed her in a truck stop restroom, posed her in a toilet stall by tying her wrists to a safety bar instead of a urinal, and took pictures of the crime scene with his phone so he could show them to Flora later.
Profile[]
The unsub is a Caucasian male in his 30s or 40s; and a rectification killer, a type of serial killer who targets people he holds responsible for a major trauma in his childhood. These feelings have been festering in his mind for decades, as evidenced by the degree of rage in his killings. The victims had all interacted with the unsub as a child when they worked in the family court system, so it is possible he was removed from his family for his own safety, but was too young at the time to know the severity of the situation. As an adult, he thinks it is his mission to seek revenge on those he believes broke up his family. It is likely the event that first triggered the murders was the separation or death of one or both of his parents. He is exhibiting an irresistible compulsion by posing his victims in truck stop restrooms, despite the escalating risks of getting caught. This action indicates that his childhood trauma may have some direct link to this type of location. He may have a parent or guardian connected to the trucking industry or spent long periods of time traveling on the open road.
It is difficult to determine whether Randy should be classified as a serial or spree killer. While he targeted specific victims, planned his murders beforehand, and had a specific M.O., it should be noted that he attacked his victims in a three-day span.
Real-Life Comparison[]
Randy appears to partly be based on Kenneth Kimes, Jr. - Both are serial killers and sons of female serial killers, who they were estranged from and later acted as accomplices for, targeted victims of both genders at the behests of their mothers, and were arrested along with their mothers (although Randy was arrested years separate from Flora).
Known Victims[]
- Pre-1992, unspecified location in Georgia: His unnamed father (assaulted; cut off his left ear under Flora's orders)
- 2016:
- January 24, Birmingham, Alabama: Claire Westchester (his former elementary school teacher who reported Flora's abuse)
- January 25, Chattanooga, Tennessee: Frank Myers (the public defender in Flora's case)
- January 26, Atlanta, Georgia: Linda Calvary (testified against Flora)
- January 27, Atlanta, Georgia: Chloe Andrews (his fiancée; assaulted by non-fatally manually strangling her; later non-fatally strangled with rope, abducted, held at knifepoint, and attempted to kill; was released)
Notes[]
- Randy appears to have been based on at least three unsubs from the show's past:
- Season Five
- Darrin Call ("Haunted") - Both are psychotic killers and abductors who had a parent moonlighting as a serial killer, were forced to participate in at least one of their parents' crimes (Randy was forced by his mother to cut off his father's ear; Darrin was forced to dispose of the clothes belonging to his father's victims and then bury their bodies), were put into the adoption system when they were children (albeit for different reasons), assaulted their fathers while they were young, killed their victims by stabbing them (though Darrin also killed his victims by shooting them), and would later be institutionalized for their crimes.
- Season Six
- Colby Bachner ("Remembrance of Things Past") - Both are serial killers and abductors who had a parent who was also a serial killer, killed their victims by stabbing them, and were arrested after they abducted and attempted to kill a woman they knew.
- Season Seven
- Thomas Yates - Both were serial killers and abductors who were born as a result of their mothers being raped, killed their victims by stabbing them repeatedly, operated in multiple states, utilized a signature in which they removed a body part from their victims post-mortem and committed their crimes as a result of a female relative's actions (Randy was manipulated by his mother to kill the people responsible for taking him away from her; Thomas's grandmother abused him as a child). Yates also appeared in Season Twelve.
- Season Five