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| “ | I'm the one with the bomb. | „ |
| ~ James Burke threatening the BAU. |
James Burke is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Hero Worship". He is a narcissistic terrorist who bombs an elementary school as revenge for getting fired.
He was portrayed by Grinnell Morris.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Burke was a businessman based in Indianapolis, Indiana, a member of the Indianapolis School Board, and a prominent member of the community. However, he was also a malignant narcissist with a God complex, and believed that he was entitled to do whatever he wanted, including having sex with a female student. While no charges were filed against him because the girl was 18, he was fired and his reputation was destroyed. Enraged by what he believed to be an affront to his natural superiority, Burke decided to get revenge against the school.
He first set a fire at the ethanol plant where he had sex with the girl, and then began building a bomb that he would detonate in the school to create a panic and damage the reputations of the other board members who fired him. While he did not intend to kill anyone, the bomb did claim one casualty, a janitor who was working a graveyard shift. Burke felt no remorse for taking a life, however, rationalizing that it was the custodian's own fault for getting in the way.
"Hero Worship"[]
A few weeks after the school bombing, Allen Archer detonates a bomb crudely modeled after Burke's design at a local coffee shop, killing seven people. Burke is enraged by the new bombing taking the media's attention away from him, and decides to find and kill the bomber. Using his computer hacking skills, Burke discovers Archer's identity and puts a bomb in his car, set to go off when Archer releases the brake pedal. However, Agents Derek Morgan and Spencer Reid of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), who are investigating the coffee shop bombing, show up in time to defuse the bomb, saving Archer's life.
After the BAU discovers Archer's guilt and arrests him, they realize that he copied the school bomber's design. After theorizing that the school bomber is likely a former employee who is getting revenge for being fired, technical analyst Penelope Garcia researches ex-employees and finds records of Burke's firing, establishing him as the main suspect.
Profiling Burke as a narcissist, the BAU hatches a plan to provoke him by setting up a fake, public award ceremony for Archer. Sure enough, Burke is furious that Archer is taking attention away from him and decides to kill him with the bomb. He constructs a fake bomb and pays a man to put it in his van and drive to the ceremony to distract the BAU while he plants the real bomb in the electrical room of the building hosting the ceremony.
Reid and Agent Jennifer Jareau corner Burke in the electrical room and order him to stand down, but he refuses. Reid and Jareau try to talk him down by appealing to his ego, telling him that if he dies, he will not be able to enjoy the credit he deserves for masterminding the school bombing. Burke decides that he wants the notoriety more than his own freedom, and surrenders. He is then imprisoned for life.
Trivia[]
- Burke is inspired by three real-life serial bombers:
- Andrew Kehoe, a.k.a. "The Bath School Bomber", a serial bomber responsible for a school bombing that killed dozens of people, as well as bombings across the village he was in, as revenge for his loss of an administrative position on the school board. Kehoe started with killing his life and setting an arson fire at his home, before he set his bombs off and killed himself and other bystanders by exploding his car with a shotgun blast at the engine.
- Richard Dean White, a serial bomber and murderer responsible for the Vermilion County, Illinois bombings, where he bombed two churches across the jurisdiction, killing one man who disturbed the first bomb, before committing suicide in a home bombing that killed White and his dog.
- Eric Rudolph, a.k.a. "The Centennial Park Bomber", a serial bomber originally leaving security guard Richard Jewell to take the fall for his bombing of the American Olympics when Jewell found the bomb and saved lives; Rudolph later detonated more bombs out of political agendas and rage from a lack of attention.
External links[]
- James Burke on the Criminal Minds Wiki
