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| “ | They need to feel my pain! | „ |
| ~ Crawford about the women he wants to disfigure and kill. |
Alan "Al" Crawford is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Alpha Male". He is a self-proclaimed "incel" ("involuntary celibate") who plans to disfigure and kill as many women as he can because he hates them for not giving him the sexual companionship he feels he is "owed".
He was portrayed by Erich Lane.
Early life[]
When Crawford was 10, his parents went through a bitter divorce, with his mother giving up custody of him. Soon afterward, his father married Alan's nanny, who abused and neglected him until she and his father finally sent him away to boarding school, where he was severely bullied. He blamed his pain and loneliness on women in general and grew up to hate them; he has never had a girlfriend, and it is implied that he is still a virgin.
As an adult, he moved to Philadelphia and joined a website called "No Means Yes", part of an online network known as the "Manosphere", on which self-proclaimed "incels" like him posted misogynistic and anti-feminist messages. Crawford came to think of the site's users as his only friends, and the incel movement as his identity.
When one of the site's contributors, George Cunningham, announced that he had finally found a girlfriend, however, Crawford's sense of identity was threatened to the core, serving as the trigger for his rage and resentment to explode into violence. He decided to kill as many attractive women and their male partners as he could to get back at the female sex for "denying him" the love and happiness he felt he was "owed".
He stole nitric acid from Tyrell Chemical, where he was employed as a clerk. He then created a homemade spray gun that he planned to use to spray his victims in the face with the acid. He also wrote a manifesto condemning women as "sluts" and "whores" and outlining his plan for the "Day of Reckoning", a final rampage in which he would disfigure and kill as many women as possible before killing himself in a "blaze of glory".
In "Alpha Male"[]
Crawford starts his rampage by committing four attacks in two weeks, blinding and disfiguring three couples and killing one. While he typically stalks his victims before attacking them, he at one point attacks a couple at random after seeing them kissing in a park. Now in a state of frenzy, Crawford goes after Cunningham's girlfriend, Melinda Carroll, and disfigures her with acid as revenge for taking his friend away. He then decides to make his local bar's singles night the site of the "Reckoning"'s final act - where he will blind and kill as many women as he can.
Meanwhile, the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) investigates the attacks, profiling the perpetrator as a narcissistic, socially inept white man in his late 20s or early 30s who sees himself as an "alpha male" who has been unfairly denied the sexual gratification he believes he is entitled to. They theorize that he disfigures his victims with acid because their physical attractiveness makes him feel threatened and inadequate, and he wants to make them feel as ugly and powerless as he does.
Reasoning that the killer would seek out likeminded men online to share his rage and sexual frustration, BAU Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia scours the Internet for incel networks, and finds "No Means Yes", which happens to be connected to victim Melinda Carroll. BAU Agents Jennifer Jareau and Luke Alvez question Cunningham, who gives them contact information for the site's other contributors, as well as chat logs. They discover that every site contributor was happy for Cunningham except for Crawford, whose messages became increasingly bitter and violent, culminating in his threat to attack the bar's singles night.
BAU Agent Stephen Walker goes to the bar and sits down next to Crawford, who appears visibly nervous. Walker strikes up a conversation with Crawford about how hard it is to meet women in the city, appealing to his loneliness and misogyny to distract him from his plan. Crawford starts to reach for his homemade weapon, but Crawford stops him by slapping a friendly hand on his shoulder. He then remarks to Crawford that some men have all the luck in attracting women, prompting Crawford to complain that such men do not deserve their success with the opposite sex. Walker then calls Crawford by name and identifies himself as an FBI agent, warning Crawford that Agents Jareau, Alvez, and David Rossi have their weapons drawn on him, and will shoot to kill if he tries to hurt anyone. Crawford protests that the world needs to "feel his pain", but Crawford pacifies him by promising to have his manifesto published if he surrenders peacefully. Excited by the idea of being noticed for once, Crawford allows Walker to take him into custody. He is then presumably imprisoned for life.
Trivia[]
- Crawford is inspired by multiple real-life criminals:
- The late Elliot Rodger, who, on May 23, 2014, committed a mass shooting in Isla Vista, California, killing six people and wounding 22 before taking his own life. He left behind a video diary claiming that he was going to kill as many women and their male partners as he could as revenge for women "denying him" sex.
- John Ausonius, a.k.a. "The Laser Man", a Swedish far-right spree killer/assailant responsible for a series of fatal and nonfatal shootings of immigrants.
- Tiago Henrique Gomas de Rocha, a Brazilian serial killer responsible for drive-by shootings of various groups of people he hated, including women, gay people, and the homeless.
- The late Omar Mateen, the perpetrator of the Pulse nightclub shooting, who shot and killed.
- The late Marc Lepine, a Canadian mass murderer responsible for the Ecole Polytechnique massacre motivated by violent misogyny, which stemmed from childhood abuse in his family.
- Walter Seifert, the perpetrator of the Cologne school massacre who was motivated by paranoia and committed the massacre with custom-modified weapons, including a flamethrower, a crossbow, and an unused mace, all fashioned from his hardware tools.
- Marc Sobiesky, the main antagonist of The Iguana with the Tongue of Fire, a serial killer with a signature of disfiguring his victims with acid because he envies their good looks and happiness.
External links[]
- Alan Crawford on the Criminal Minds Wiki
