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How's it feel? ...I just wish they were all here to see it. ...Maybe we should just shake hands and forget about it. That's what you used to say, right?!
Underwood to Harold Ramsey

Ronald James Underwood is an "injustice collector"-type stalker, one-time abductor, and serial-turned-spree killer who appears in the Season Nine episode of Criminal Minds, "Bully".

Background[]

Little is known about Underwood's personal life, other than he was born in 1991, lived with his alcoholic, divorced mother, and spent his time online, usually at pornography or mixed-martial-arts sites. Underwood was a student at Jefferson High School in Kansas City during his teenage years, where his peers likely excessively bullied him because of his weight and appearance and he would be told by the teachers to shake their hands as a way of negotiating with each other. He only had one best friend at school named Riley Wilson, who had a 4.0 GPA and was also bullied for being "a nerd". One day, on May 2009, Wilson was ambushed by several jocks in the gym lockers, being forced to wear nothing but women's underwear and wander around the school in it. Dozens of students had been texted by the jocks and told them to come outside of the gym locker, and there, they all laughed at Wilson as he made his way past them. Underwood was among the students, but he was unable to intervene, likely out of fear of being humiliated himself. Several teachers were also present at the scene, but their response to the incident was inadequate and the jocks were let off the hook.

Later on that same month, in response to the excessive prank, Wilson committed suicide by crashing his vehicle into a utility pole. Devastated and enraged by the loss of his only friend and blaming himself for not being able to save him from the Jocks, Underwood left Jefferson High and formulated a retribution plot against those instrumental to the bullying in the gym locker and those who didn't stop it. On December 18-19, 2012, he snapped and attacked two random students currently attending Jefferson High, Tommy Barnes and Melissa Hawthorne, blitz-attacking them in an alleyway and killing both before putting Barnes in Hawthorne's underwear. To his surprise however, they fought back before being killed, which intimidated Underwood and prompted him to spend the following year shaping his physique and taking steroids to ensure that his future victims wouldn't fight back. In 2013, Underwood put in motion his plot of seeking retribution against those involved in the bullying at the gym locker and those who didn't put an end to the bullying, by killing David Morrison, a substitute english teacher who was there at the time of the gym locker incident but failed to respond appropriately to the situation.

Bully[]

Underwood sets his sight on Laurie Patterson, the ex-girlfriend of Lance Tate, a jock who was responsible for both Wilson's humiliation and for mass texting the other students outside the gym locker, whom he couldn’t go after since he was serving his third tour in Afghanistan. He also thought about going after his parents as retribution towards him, only to find out that they had moved away to Arizona. However, he finds out that she is out of the state, attending the University of Missouri, so he breaks into the old Patterson home and kills her parents, Gil and Renee to maximize her punishment for her involvement, despite not having anything to with Wilson's humiliation and was also disgusted with what Tate did to Wilson and considered him a jerk (which resulted her to break up with him because of it). Then, he targets another jock named Charles Gates (who was also involved in the locker incident), entering his home, only to find him being interviewed by Detective Scott Miller. Upon hearing Gates describe himself as a friend of Wilson's, an enraged Underwood bursts inside the living room and calls Gates a liar before beating Miller unconscious and killing Gates. He then flees the house, taking Miller's pistol with him and leaving him alive. Then, he sets his sight on Harold Ramsey, a history teacher who failed to respond to the locker incident, attacking him in his car while he is being contacted by Blake. Underwood takes Ramsey to Jefferson High, where he continues beating him inside the gym locker, then places him in women's underwear. Then, he forces Ramsey to retrace Wilson's steps while holding him at gunpoint with the pistol. When the two make their way up a staircase, they are confronted by the BAU and SWAT, who held Underwood at gunpoint. Blake reasons with him, telling him that he has to let go of the past, and she mentions that they know his motivations: Wilson. Underwood replies that Wilson was his only friend before releasing Ramsey. Morgan and Several SWAT agents then tackle him to the ground and arrest him as he screams out that they are hurting him.

Modus Operandi[]

Underwood usually targeted the students responsible for Riley Wilson's death as well as the teachers who failed to stop the bullying, but he also attacked other victims, such as current students of Jefferson High and the parents of victims he couldn't get to. He would stalk his victims (except for Tommy Barnes and Melissa Hawthorne, whom he attacked randomly), blitz-attack them, beat them with his bare fists, and choke them. His first three victims were killed outside of their homes, but after the murder of David Morrison, Underwood began entering their homes to kill them. His signature was undressing the victims completely and putting women's underwear on the male victims to reflect the aspect of Wilson being put in women's underwear during the bullying at the gym locker. The male victims would have ladies' underwear put on them (if they were alone, he would bring the underwear, but if a woman was killed alongside him, her underwear would be used).

Most of the beatings were induced post-mortem, due to the fact that Underwood's excessive rage, coupled with his brute strength, quickly killed the victims. One victim, David Morrison, was attacked so brutally that he died from asphyxiation induced by a chokehold before Underwood could even beat him. The exception to that is the attack on Tommy Barnes and Melissa Hawthorne; both were killed by quick blows to the head because Underwood was unable to simultaneously attack two victims at the time. During his attack on Harold Ramsey (apparently the major focus of his rage), he abducted him, took him to Jefferson High School, forced him to undress, put on women's underwear, and retrace Riley's steps while at gunpoint with a stolen Glock 19 pistol. For reasons unknown, he was always active during the month of December.

Profile[]

Based on the unsub's victims and local demographics, he is likely a Caucasian male aged in his teens-to-early 20s, who is a sadist with anger issues, which accounts for the high level of violence in his murders. All of his victims are in some way connected to Jefferson High School, meaning that he is either a former student or employee, having been kicked out because he has a drug problem. This addiction, plus his anger issues, indicates that he possibly lacks the social skills required to stay in school or hold down a steady job. Because brute force and humiliation are the hallmarks of his M.O., the killings are somehow rooted in revenge, possibly stemming from a traumatic humiliation of some degree that occurred in the recent past. This event likely happened to him when he was an adolescent, which makes this very personal to him. In addition, he is possibly a violent offender or an ex-convict. The murders of Tommy Barnes and Melissa Hawthorne were experiments of sorts, where he was getting the taste for it, but since it is difficult to blitz-attack two people at once (as Tommy and Melissa both had many defensive wounds), the unsub likely took a year off (through incarceration or other means) to perfect his M.O. to make sure that his future victims wouldn't fight back as Tommy and Melissa did. He is also physically fit and probably works out a lot, so he may frequent inexpensive gyms or health clubs. He uses his bare hands to kill his victims, so he will not be easily deterred, and as his grip on reality continues to fade, he will become more dangerous.

Known Victims[]

  • December 18-19, 2012: Tommy Barnes and Melissa Hawthorne (two Jefferson High students; both killed by blunt-force trauma in an alleyway; dressed Barnes in Hawthorne's underwear post-mortem)
  • 2013:
    • December 9:
      • David Morrison (the substitute english teacher who failed to stop the locker incident; beaten and killed by asphyxiation while on a jogging trail; dressed him in ladies' underwear post-mortem)
      • Lance Tate (the jock responsible for the incident; intended to kill; abandoned the plot when he learned he was serving in Afghanistan)
      • Mr and Mrs Tate (Lance Tate's parents; intended to kill both; abandoned the plot when he learned they were living in Arizona)
      • Laurie Patterson (Lance Tate's ex-girlfriend; intended to kill; abandoned the idea when he learned she was at the University of Missouri)
      • Gil and Renee Patterson (Laurie Patterson's parents; both beaten to death in their house with his bare fists; dressed Gil in Renee's underwear post-mortem)
    • December 10: The attack at Charles Gates's house:
      • Detective Scott Miller (incidental; beaten to unconsciousness with his bare fists, but left alive; also stole his gun)
      • Charles Gates (one of the jocks responsible for the incident; beaten to death in his home with his bare fists; dressed in ladies' underwear post-mortem)
    • December 10-11: Harold Ramsey (the history teacher who failed to stop the incident; abducted from his car, dressed in Ladies' underwear, beaten, intended to kill, and held at gunpoint; was rescued)

Notes[]

  • Underwood seems to have been inspired by at least four unsubs from the show's past:
    • Season Seven
      • Robert Adams ("Painless") - Both were mission-oriented "injustice collector"-type serial killers who devolved, had M.O.'s that involved beating their victims and killing them through other means, targeted people that went to the same high schools as them, killed their victims out of revenge, and performed overkill.
      • Chris Shelton ("Self-Fulfilling Prophecy") - Both were "injustice collector"-type killers who targeted and killed their victims to avenge the deaths of someone who committed suicide after being bullied (Underwood's friend and Shelton's son).
      • Jimmy Hall ("The Bittersweet Science") - Both are spree killers (Underwood was later) who had occupations related to bodybuilding (Underwood was a bodybuilder while Hall was a boxer), dropped out of high school sometime prior to their murders, had stressors involving the death of someone close to them (Underwood's friend and Hall's son) and killed victims they knew personally by beating them with their bare hands (though Hall bludgeoned his first two victims with a metal pipe.) Coincidentally, both killed at least four of their victims in pairs, and both were active during the month of December.
    • Season Eight
      • Rodney Harris ("Restoration") - Both are mission-oriented spree killers who beat their victims to death, had stressors that involved them and someone close to them being victimized, killed at least one victim for revenge, and had signatures that revolved around undergarments (Underwood put women's underwear on his victims, while Harris pulled his victims' boxers down to their legs).
  • Interestingly, a murder victim in the Season Seven episode "A Thin Line" is named Ronald Underwood.

Appearances[]

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