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| “ | It'll be the best decision of your life. | „ |
| ~ Bill Hodges conning his latest victim. |
Bill Hodges is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Parasite". He is a con artist who begins killing his victims as he gets closer to getting caught.
He was portrayed by Victor Webster.
Biography[]
Early Life[]
Hodges is a career con artist who preys on wealthy people, pretending to be a financial manager and promising them huge returns on their money, which he then steals before disappearing. He has multiple identities and pulls cons all over the country, but his one source of stability is his family - his wife, Rebecca, and young son, J.D., with whom he lives in Fort Lauderdale, Florida. He leads them to believe that they move frequently because of his job as a real estate agent; in reality, he moves them so he can stay one step ahead of the police.
He also cheats on Rebecca as part of his con, seducing his female clients so they will be too emotionally involved with him to suspect what he is doing. One of his lovers, Brooke Sanchez, believes his name is "Hunter Portland", and that he wants her to leave her husband and marry him "when the time is right".
The strain of maintaining so many identities and keeping his family in the dark begins to tell as Hodges starts making mistakes. He becomes so sloppy in his work that his latest victim, Carla Marshall, finds out that he is stealing from her, not investing her money as he claimed. When she confronts him, he flies into a rage and strangles her to death. After Carla's murder, FBI Agent Russell Goldman, who has been investigating Hodges' crimes for five years, alerts the Bureau's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), to help him profile and capture Hodges.
"Parasite"[]
Hodges, posing as real estate speculator "Henry Moffett", cons Lorraine Horton, another wealthy, married woman, out of millions of dollars of her husband's money by making believe that he will make her independently wealthy so she can leave her husband and be with him.
Hodges becomes increasingly erratic as he is haunted by killing Carla, and his already suffering con artistry goes into an even greater decline. While trying to swindle another client out of his fortune, Hodges carelessly asks him to sign the check to one of his previous identities, immediately arousing the man's suspicion. Hodges panics and beats the man to death with a champagne bottle.
Hodges returns home, having told Rebecca and J.D. that he was away on business. He tells Rebecca that they have to move to Boston because the real estate market in Florida is terrible; he really just needs to hide from the increased police and FBI presence he feels at his back. Later that day, he meets with Brooke, who tells him she is pregnant with his child. At that moment, he gets incoming calls from Rebecca and Lorraine, the former asking him to pick up J.D. and the latter telling him she is taking back her money.
Hodges excuses himself from Brooke, promising to work things out later. He then meets with Lorraine, sweet-talks her into signing over more money, and knocks her unconscious and puts her in the trunk of his car as he goes to pick up J.D. He then tells J.D. they have a flat tire and puts on a DVD to distract the boy while he beats Lorraine to death with a tire iron and dumps the body.
The next day, Rebecca follows Hodges as he goes to visit Brooke, and confronts her after he leaves. When Brooke says that she did not know he had a family or even his real name, both women realize that Hodges has been living two separate lives. Meanwhile, Hodges, sensing that the police are perilously close, picks up J.D. at school and takes him home, intent on taking them with him to Boston, only to find Rebecca and Brooke in his living room, demanding answers.
As Hodges fumbles for an explanation, the BAU, with Goldman in tow, suddenly appear on his lawn to arrest him. Knowing he has finally been caught, Hodges briefly considers taking J.D. as a hostage, but ultimately lets him go to Rebecca in an uncharacteristic show of humanity. He then commits suicide by cop by reaching into his pocket as if he has a gun, forcing Goldman to shoot him dead.
Personality[]
BAU Agents David Rossi, Emily Prentiss, Derek Morgan, and Spencer Reid profile Hodges as a psychopath with the "dark triad" of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism, and aberrant self-promotion. They theorize that he is incapable of having sincere emotional attachments to others and sees the people he supposedly loves only as extensions of himself. They come to believe that even Hodges' own wife and child are merely a part of his act as a con artist, allowing him to blend in and appear normal so as to deflect suspicion.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Hodges is inspired by multiple real-life criminals:
- Frank Abagnale, an American con artist with an international record who was the subject of a massive federal manhunt and used numerous aliases and scams.
- Matthew Cox, an American fraudster and fugitive with a history of similar cons, operation in Florida, several aliases, and even relationships during his time on the run.
- Harry T. Hayward, an American serial killer and con artist and socialite who originally killed for robberies and over violent arguments, but eventually killed his romantic partner when she was near reporting him for conning her.
- Robert Henry-Freegard, a British con artist, typically pretending to be a federal agent or federal agency target, arrested for isolating, seducing, beating, and robbing his numerous victims.
- Jean-Claude Romand, a French con artist and embezzler, who decompensated when his cons were failing to the point of trying to strangle his mistress to death, then killing his entire family and attempting on his own life.
- Patrick Bateman, the main antagonist of American Psycho, a serial killer yuppie who decompensates once his murders become more violent and he grows angrier and more unhinged.
- Goldman at one point compares Hodges to the late Bernard Madoff, who was also a con artist who swindled his clients out of fortunes.
- It is left ambiguous whether "Bill Hodges" is even his real name.
External link[]
- Bill Hodges at the Criminal Minds Wiki
