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| “ | Hey, Rossi. I do remember you. In the end, you're the reason I stopped. | „ |
| ~ Mullens to Agent Rossi. |
Lee Mullens, also known as "The Butcher", is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Remembrance of Things Past". He is an elderly serial killer who preys on young, blonde women with the assistance of his son Colby Bachner, whom he has raised to be his accomplice.
He was portrayed by Daniel J. Travanti.
Biography[]
Early Life and First Murders[]
Mullens is a sadistic psychopath who takes pleasure in torturing and murdering young, blonde women. He has a son, Colby Bachner, whom he has raised to be his accomplice. Mullens "initiated" Colby by forcing the boy to help him kill his wife, Colby's own mother. He then brainwashed Colby into believing that his mother abandoned them, and that "the woman in the hallway" was a stranger. FBI profiler David Rossi interviewed Mullens about his wife's murder, but ruled him out as a suspect because Mullens faked grief so well that it appeared real.
His modus operandi is to kidnap a woman, cut and sodomize her, and torture her with electrical equipment before making her call her loved ones and say that she are going to die and that she enjoys what Mullens is doing to her. After she does this, Mullens stabs her to death. From 1983 to 1993, Mullens murdered 20 women, although his true body count is thought to be much higher. He stops killing in 1993 after Rossi publicizes the case so much that the public becomes too vigilant for Mullens to operate safely.
In old age, Mullens develops Alzheimer's Disease, and his memory deteriorates so badly that Colby is forced to become his full-time caretaker. When Mullens' bloodlust resurfaces, he forces Colby to help him commit a new series of murders that reference his earlier ones, particularly that of his last known victim, Susan Cole, with whom Mullens is still obsessed.
"Remembrance of Things Past"[]
Mullens kidnaps Heather Langley by asking for her help calling medics for his caretaker, whom he says has had a heart attack; Colby then knocks her out, and they drive away with her. They take her to their house, where they torture and kill her after making her call her parents. After killing her, they dump her corpse in the same location that Mullens had put Cole's body years earlier.
The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit, led by Rossi, investigates Langley's murder and theorize that the killer is a copycat of The Butcher, assuming that the actual Butcher would be too old to still be active. Rossi, however, comes to believe that the original Butcher is somehow involved, as the similarities to Cole's murder are too many and specific to be the work of a lone copycat. Finally, they realize that there are two killers: the original Butcher, and his son.
Meanwhile, Mullens' mental decay worsens to the point where he cannot remember if he last murdered someone weeks before or the previous day. They kidnap and torture a woman named Shelly, but she refuses to repeat the words Mullens tells her to say; Mullens berates and hits Colby for "ruining" the murder, and stabs Shelly to death in a fit of frustrated rage.
To please his father, Colby reluctantly kidnaps his neighbor Anna, whom he has a crush on, intending to make her their next victim. Meanwhile, Rossi and his fellow BAU agents, having deduced the killer's identity with help from technical analyst Penelope Garcia, storm into Mullens' house and arrest him; Mullens, who does not know where he is, wets his pants in fear and confusion.
Rossi interviews Mullens, and deduces (once again, with Garcia's help) that Colby has taken their latest victim to a nearby abandoned mental institution, the same place where he murdered his wife. There, they find Colby about to kill Anna, but Rossi talks him down by revealing the truth abut his mother. Meanwhile, Mullens attempts suicide in his prison cell by slashing his wrists, but medics save his life, leaving him to spend the rest of his life in prison in a mental fog. Colby is also arrested and presumably imprisoned for life.
Trivia[]
- Mullens is inspired by multiple real-life and fictional serial killers:
- David Parker Ray, a.k.a. "The Toy Box Killer", a serial rapist with the assistance of family members, knowing for violent torturing and disfiguring the women he held captive. Ray us suspectsd of killing dozens of women, but was only convicted of murdering one woman through an accomplice he ordered to strangle her.
- Daniel Camargo Barbosa, a Colombian serial rapist and later serial killer of girls across the country, ranging in the dozens, also with an M.O. of taunting and harassing their families with phone calls.
- Lonnie Franklin Jr., a.k.a. "The Grim Sleeper", a serial killer/rapist of woman fo color in prostitution, with a period of inactivity after a women who lives through an ttack gave a description released to the press. Frankled killed again in the 2000s and was arrestes in 2010.
- Albert Fish, a.k.a. “The Gray Man”, an elderly serial killer/rapist of children, one child’s family who was harassed in a confession letter written by Fish.
- Edward Edwards, a.k.a. "The Hook Man", a nationwide serial killer and career criminal caught decades after his crimes when his daughter discovered them and turned him in.
External Links[]
- Lee Mullens on the Criminal Minds Wiki
