"You think he'll come to visit me in jail? D'you think he'll visit?"
"Who?"
"My father. He'll hear about this, right? I'm gonna be pretty famous..."
Professor Hollis Walker, Jr. is a serial killer who appeared in Season Six of Criminal Minds.
Background
Hollis's father, Hollis Walker, Sr., was an expert on indigenous African religions and wrote ten books about the subject. He was also highly physically abusive towards his son. When Hollis was twelve years old, his prep school did a psychological evaluation of him, which came back with worrying results. His mother committed suicide when he was sent to boarding school. After that, Hollis stayed at school all of the time, even during the holidays and vacations. Because his father didn't care about him, he didn't bring him back into the house. In adulthood, Hollis got a job as a college professor and wrote a book about Palo Mayombe, a secretive, death-related Afro-Caribbean religion; the book received a negative review written by his father, which was shown in a newspaper article. When he became eligible for tenure at the college where he taught, Hollis began a plan to commit a series of murders to kill people using the religions he researched in order for his academic work to gain fame and for him to be noticed by his father. In order to prevent himself from being caught, he planned to frame a delinquent teenage boy named Elian Morales by leaving evidence behind at the crime scenes and at Elian's home to make it appear that he was responsible. On January 11, 2011, the day after Elian was released from jail, Hollis killed a vagrant named Eduardo Guzman. Within the next week, he killed two more victims, leading to the BAU being called in.
Corazón
Hollis is first seen following Jimmy Mercado and his pet dog home. When Mercado is about to approach his home, Hollis subdues him with a metal pipe. He then tortures and kills him as well as his dog. The next day, he is interviewed about lesser-known religions by Reid and Morgan, who are unaware he is actually the unsub. They show him some crime scene photos and detail the mutilations the unsub carried out on the bodies, such as cutting the victim's tongue out and putting it in a dish, and cutting off the head, extracting the brain and leaving the rest of it behind. Morgan then receives a call detailing the murder of Mercado, who coincidentally had been interrogated by the BAU about the death of Hollis's third victim, who was, in another coincidence, Mercado's good friend. When the BAU bring Julio Ruiz, a suspect in the case, in for interrogation, it becomes clear to them that he is not the unsub. They show him the same crime scene photos that Hollis was shown earlier and he points out that some things don't fit in with the religions the unsub is using as a basis for his crimes; the head wouldn't have been left behind by a practitioner who knew what he was doing and the tongue in the dish has no significance whatsoever.
Hollis later decides to execute an endgame, tracking down Elian Morales at a soup kitchen and holding him captive, with the intention of murdering him via heroine overdose in order to trick the authorities into believing he committed suicide to escape incarceration. However, his plan is ruined when Julio, who had just been let off the hook by the BAU, arrives in search of Elian and he is forced to take Julio captive as well, taking the both of them to the abandoned house next to the building. When the BAU realize that Julio and Elian are missing, Reid realizes they are in the abandoned house and gains entry, only to be held at gunpoint by Hollis. The rest of the team realize that Hollis is the unsub as he, a leading expert in the religions used by the unsub, didn't remark that some of the mutilations didn't fit in. At the house, Reid tries to talk Hollis down, remarking that, in order for his plan to work, he needs to get caught or his involvement will never be known. Suddenly, Reid starts suffering from a headache, and that, plus Julio's incessant moaning towards Hollis, distracts him long enough for Reid to knock him out, just as the rest of the team arrives and arrests Hollis, who asks if his father will find out about what he has done. Reid later lies to Hotch that he pretended to have a headache.
Modus Operandi
Hollis killed his first three victims, who were middle-aged men and women from the lower classes of society, inside their homes. He started out performing a ritual with them which involved drawing a circle-like symbol on the floor, decapitating a pigeon and scattering its blood and feathers. He also turned any crosses in the room upside-down. He then killed the victims from behind during a vulnerable moment in various ways, cut off their fingers or their whole hands post-mortem and took them with him, posed the bodies face-up on the floor and placed seashells in their mouths and eyes. His fourth victim was subdued with a metal pipe, tied up and his hands and tongue were removed to torture him, and then killed by decapitation, his brain was removed and taken and his tongue was placed in a dish. During the third and fourth murders, he also decapitated the victims' house pets, a cat and a dog respectively, and placed their heads near the victims. His killings were meant to look like ritualistic killings so that he could frame Elian Morales for the murders; in order to make Elian look responsible, Hollis wore his shoes at the crime scenes, and placed body parts, chalk drawings, and drugs among his belongings.
Profile
The unsub is a male who is working alone, as there is no evidence to suggest the presence of more than one offender at each of the crime scenes. Though he is behaviorally 17 to 22 years old, he may be much older. He has most likely served time in some kind of prison or institution, which stunts emotional growth. He is now part of the community, most likely Hispanic or African-American. He has most likely been abused as a child and has been in the juvenile system or in foster care, and the age of his victims suggests that he may be taking some sort of revenge against parental figures. The religions that played a part in his killings were Santeria or Palo Mayombe, and because of this, he may have a religious connection to the victims and may be a practitioner who people trust and rely on for healing. Because he targets people who are fragile and vulnerable, building relationships with them, he also has close access to his victims and may therefore work at a government-issued aid office or a community center. His coworkers would describe him as being moody and having flashes of temper. He is highly organized in his planning, but lets his urges take over when he kills. This suggests that, even though he thinks he has an objective goal, he is being driven by a compulsion to kill. This has sparked a rapid escalation in his M.O. and his time-frame. As a result, this has made him much more efficient and violent, making him increasingly unpredictable and dangerous.
Real-Life Comparison
Hollis's murders may have been inspired by the murders committed by Adolfo Constanzo, an American serial killer, drug dealer, and cult leader who ritually killed over 25 people using Voodoo, Santeria, and Palo Mayombe, the same religions that Hollis based his murders on. It is believed that Constanzo performed the torture and murders of his victims to ensure his success as a drug dealer. Hollis's various methods of killing are also similar to serial killer Richard Ramirez, who even used the same weapons (a revolver, a pipe, and a machete).
Known Victims
- 2011:
- January 11: Eduardo Guzman (a vagrant; shot with a revolver; cut one of his fingers off post-mortem)
- January 15: Yanira Espinal (a prostitute; bludgeoned with a pipe; cut one of her fingers off post-mortem like the previous victim)
- January 17: Victor Cabrera (an unemployed janitor; slashed with a machete; cut both of his hands off post-mortem; his cat was also killed)
- January 18: Jimmy Mercado (a soup kitchen worker; subdued with a pipe, then tortured, decapitated, and mutilated; his dog was also killed)
- January 19:
- Elian Morales (subdued, tied up, and intended to kill with a heroin overdose to frame him)
- Julio Ruiz (incidental; knocked him out with a pipe, abducted, and intended to kill him; was rescued)
- Spencer Reid (incidental; briefly held at gunpoint and intended to kill)
Notes
- Chris Butler, the actor who portrays Hollis, previously appeared on Criminal Minds, playing a different role in the Season One episode The Popular Kids; in the episode, he starred as Deputy Harris, one of the investigators assisting the BAU during the prominent case, which also involved a series of ritualistic murders.
Appearances
- Season Six
- "Corazón"
- Season Eight
- "God Complex" (indirectly referenced)