"Its pretty remarkable, really. Nature's got her own clean up crew. Flies, larvae, maggots, beetles. And there's the big guys, of course. Rats, squirrels, crows, buzzards. I learned a long time ago never to kill anybody above 5,000 feet. It's cold up there, the evidence tends to linger... They'll be along soon, they like the scent of blood."
Vincent "Vinny" Perotta is a misandristic prolific serial killer and abductor (and part-time hitman and cop killer) who appeared in Season One of Criminal Minds.
Background
On the outside, the Perotta home, situated in a small suburb in Baltimore, Maryland, appeared normal and happy, but Vincent's father Frank, an active and well-liked member of the community, was secretly abusive, beating Vincent and his wife, Katherine, every chance he got. Over time, Vincent began acting out, becoming an alcoholic at the age of fourteen and being arrested for several crimes such as burglary and assault in his teenage years. The most prominent offenses on Vincent's long rap sheet were throwing a Molotov cocktail at a random motorist and scheduling a visit to an infirmary, in order to attack a boy who "looked at him for too long". At the age of seventeen, while out on a hunting trip, Vincent killed his father, making the murder look like an unfortunate accident. After his mother's death, Vincent, never leaving his childhood home, began killing random people and came into contact with the mob sometime in the late eighties or early nineties, becoming a hitman. Vincent went on to kill hundreds of people in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C. While most of these murders were commited at the mob's request, some of them were random, committed only for pleasure.
Natural Born Killer
In 2005, Vincent is hired by mob boss Michael Russo to kill Freddy Condore and Jimmy Baker, who Russo had become suspicious of. While Vincent easily torture-murders Freddy and his uncle William, he had never killed a woman before, and is disturbed at how difficult murdering Freddy's aunt Helen, who was not tortured, was for him. Unnerved and distracted, Vincent, after dismembering Freddy's body, merely dumps the pieces two blocks away, instead of properly disposing them. The next night, Vincent tracks down Jimmy and takes him to his home, where he tortures him for several hours, eventually getting a call from Russo, who tells him that he brought a lot of heat down on them by killing Freddy and the DeMarcos the way he did, and now the FBI, who have tapped the call, are in town. Having arranged a meeting with Russo, Vincent heads to Michael's scrap-yard, where the BAU have set up an ambush. Managing to attack Hotch, Vincent nearly strangles him to death with a garrote, but is incapacitated with a taser by Gideon. Arrested, Vincent is held for questioning, since Jimmy is still missing and may still be alive.
Trying to get Vincent off-balance, Gideon insinuates he is impotent, but is interrupted during questioning by Agent Josh Cramer, who demands Vincent to tell him where Jimmy is, but letting it slip that Jimmy is a federal agent before being forced out of the room. Deciding to continue where Gideon left off, Hotch questions Vincent, correctly surmising his childhood was abusive and that the reason he had trouble killing Helen DeMarco was because she, as a woman, reminded him of his mother, the only person he has ever felt anything even close to affection for. Growing agitated, Vincent blurts out his father's name, which, along with objects found in Vincent's van, helps the BAU track down Vincent's home, where Jimmy is found alive. After Jimmy is rescued, officers came to take Vincent away and, as he is being led out, Hotch states "You were just responding to what you learned Vincent. When you grow up in an environment like that, an extremely abusive and violent household... it's not surprising that some people grow up to become killers"; when Vincent questions what he means by only some people growing up to be killers, Hotch replies with "And some people grow up to catch them."
Profile
While the Freddy Condore and DiMarco murders were excessively brutal, the crime scene shows method, order, and control, indicating an organized killer. The torture inflicted on William DeMarco was varied, which is unusual, as those who cut normally do not burn, and vice-versa. Since the murders lacked any kind of sexual component, showed absolutely no signs of hesitation or wasted effort, and had connections to the mob, it indicated an unsub who is a professional hitman (despite most hitmen not needing to rely on torture in order to get the job done) and a pure psychopath, who would be a white male in his forties or fifties who is intelligent, methodical, and confident in his abilities, having started killing at a young age, allowing him to perfect his craft over the years. It was stated that the unsub had both antisocial and paranoid personality disorders, which developed in childhood due to heavy abuse, and leaves someone completely unable to feel compassion or empathy for others (though Vincent himself had trouble killing women, appearing somewhat disturbed when he killed Helen DeMarco, his sole female victim), whose murder was initially meant to be a form of psychological torture on her husband and nephew.
Modus Operandi
Vincent mainly targeted males of various ages and races. He would watch his intended victims from his van for an unknown amount of time (possibly days, judging by the amount of old food containers and trash found inside the vehicle). When he attacked, Vincent would restrain his victims to the chairs and torture them for hours (either at the scene or at home) through various means, which included beating, cutting, and burning, before either finishing them with one swift, final stroke or by leaving them bound and barely alive, to be devoured by the vermin living in the basement of his father's home, a process he would record. Most of the victims would be dismembered post-mortem (though the possibility exists that some may have been alive during the process) and the body parts disposed of. When he killed Helen DiMarco, his sole female victim, he quickly slashed her throat and didn't do anything else to her, having been very uncomfortable with killing a woman, even though her death was meant to be psychological torture on her husband and nephew. When he tried to kill Hotch, he strangled him with a cord.
Real-Life Comparison
Vincent was seemingly based off serial killer and mob affiliate Richard "The Iceman" Kuklinski, who had a similarly abusive childhood, admitted discomfort at the prospect of murdering women, killed his first victims in his adolescence, and had a varying M.O. Kuklinski also claimed to have killed some of his victims by wounding them and leaving them to be eaten by rats, a process he stated he videotaped, like Vincent. Also, Vincent killing his father is an allusion to how Kuklinski fantasized about killing his father.
Known Victims
- Unspecified dates and locations:
- Unnamed motorist (attempted, but survived; attacked with a Molotov cocktail)
- Unnamed teenage boy (intended)
- October 12, 1975, unspecified location: Franklin V. Perotta (his father; killed, presumably by shooting; his death was ruled as a hunting accident until 2005)
- Unspecified dates and locations in 1989: Numerous victimless robberies and assaults
- Unspecified dates from 1990 to 2005: Numerous unnamed victims, ranging in the hundreds (all killed at locations in Washington, D.C., Virginia, and Maryland)
- 2005, Baltimore, Maryland:
- November 14: Frederick Condore and his family:
- Helen and William DiMarco (Frederick's aunt and uncle, respectively)
- Helen DiMarco (throat was slashed; was not tortured)
- William DiMarco (was tortured, then disemboweled)
- Frederick Condore (target victim; abducted, tortured, and fatally dismembered)
- Helen and William DiMarco (Frederick's aunt and uncle, respectively)
- November 15: James Baker (target victim; abducted, tortured, and left for dead; was rescued the next day)
- November 16: Aaron Hotchner (attempted, but survived; strangled him to near-death with a cord)
- November 14: Frederick Condore and his family:
Notes
- With his total body count in the hundreds (exact number unknown), Vincent is one of only five unsubs in the show's history who are confirmed to have claimed hundreds of lives. The next four killers are Frank Breitkopf (a serial killer who killed at least 176 people), Billy Flynn, a.k.a. "The Prince of Darkness" (a serial killer who killed over 200 people), Thomas Yates, a.k.a. "The Womb Raider" (a serial killer who killed at least 101 people), and Hayman Vasher (a mass murderer who killed 151 people).