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| “ | They said they'd clean 'em off the streets. They lied. What was I supposed to do?! I had to do something! | „ |
| ~ Weems rationalizing his crimes. |
Ronald Weems is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Sex, Birth, Death". He is a vigilante serial killer who murders prostitutes because he believes he has been tasked by God with "cleansing the world" of "low women".
He was portrayed by Thomas Crawford.
Overview[]
Weems is a religious fanatic who believes that God put him on Earth to "cleanse the world" of sinners, particularly prostitutes, whom he despises as "low women". While he rails against "sexual perversions" to anyone who will listen, however, he has perversions of his own; he regularly forces his wife, Linda, to submit to violent sex games that revolve around humiliating and physically harming her. It is also implied that he is impotent.
"Sex, Birth, Death"[]
Weems begins murdering prostitutes in his neighborhood; he stalks them until he learns their routines, then approaches them pretending to pay for sex and then stabbing them to death. He then cuts off a strand of their hair but does not take it with him. By the time of the episode, he has already murdered one prostitute.
He carves the word "Help" into his second victim's abdomen, which the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), which is investigating the case, misinterprets as the killer wanting someone to stop him from killing again. Weems had in fact meant that he wanted the authorities to help him eliminate prostitutes.
The BAU begins to suspect Nathan Harris, an emotionally disturbed teenager who had reached out to Agent Spencer Reid for help in controlling his violent impulses, may be the killer. Harris is later arrested and institutionalized for assaulting a prostitute, but the BAU realizes that he is not the killer when another prostitute is found murdered and mutilated after Harris is locked up.
By now, Weems has developed a taste for killing, and commits his most brutal murder yet, stabbing his victim so hard he breaks several bones and carving the word "Failure" into her abdomen. The BAU once again misinterprets the message, believing that the killer is taunting them - Weems in fact means to say that politicians have failed to crack down on prostitution.
Reid reaches out to prostitutes in the area to warn them about the killer and shows them a police sketch of an unidentified subject ("unsub"). Later, Weems approaches one of the prostitutes and tries to kill her, but she manages to get away and call Reid via panic whistle. The BAU arrives moments later and apprehends Weems, who rants about his "mission" as he is taken into custody. He is then presumably imprisoned for life.
Trivia[]
- Weems is inspired by multiple real-life killers:
- "Jack the Ripper", an unidentified British, misogynistic serial killer of women with a similar M.O. of dress, murder, and changes of violence.
- Gary Ridgway, a.k.a. "The Green River Killer", an American, misogynistic serial killer and necrophile of women in prostitution and runaway girls, with similar campaigning against prostitution in his hometown and sexual battery against his wife.
- Peter Sutcliffe, a.k.a. "The Yorkshire Ripper", a British, misogynistic serial killer of women in prostitution with a similar M.O., psychology, and sidestepping in being tracked and caught because of another suspect.
- Moses Sithole, a.k.a. "The ABC Killer", a South African, misogynistic serial killer and serial rapist of women across several cities similarly carving into women after they're murdered and not being tracked due to investigation into another suspect.
- Judge Charles Lomax, the main antagonist of Night After Night After Night, an unhinged judge in a worsening marriage and a misogynistic serial killer of women in prostitution who leaves suspicions to be placed on convicted rapist Peter Laver.
External links[]
- Ronald Weems at the Criminal Minds Wiki
