After all, though he was no stranger to trouble with the law, the local baker was well-liked in the community. But police were still reluctant to bring him in. Paulson even described his stutter and identified his plane. Robert Hansen fit the description of the kidnapper perfectly. As the man prepared the plane for takeoff, Paulson managed to escape, leaving her shoes behind as evidence. The man raped and tortured her repeatedly, before attempting to load her onto a plane and take her to his cabin in the Matanuska-Susitna Valley about 35 miles north of Anchorage. She described being held hostage by a man who’d handcuffed her to his car, held her at gunpoint, and took her to his house where he chained her by the neck.
THE BIG GAME HUNTER DRIVER
In 1983, more than a decade after Hansen moved to Anchorage, a 17-year-old girl named Cindy Paulson was found running frantically down Sixth Avenue, barefoot and handcuffed.Īfter being picked up by a driver and returned to safety, Paulson, a prostitute, told her story to police. Army Corps of Engineers Digital Visual Library/Wikimedia An eerial view of Anchorage, Alaska, where Robert Hansen lived during his 12-year killing spree. However, he appealed that sentence and was released - while he continued to prey on strippers and sex workers who he forced to act out his twisted fantasies. The year of 1976 saw Hansen arrested again and sentenced to five years for shoplifting a chainsaw.
THE BIG GAME HUNTER FREE
Unknown to authorities, his killing spree began in 1973, likely emboldened by his ability to walk free after his early crimes. In 1972, he was arrested twice: once for the abduction and attempted rape of a housewife, and again for raping a prostitute. He was well-liked and opened up a small bakery.īut while the townspeople mostly bought into the facade of the happy baker with a family and a knack for hunting, some cracks showed through Hansen’s squeaky-clean exterior.
He moved into a small community, had two children with his wife, and settled into a quiet routine. In 1967, he moved to Anchorage, Alaska, which was about as far from his life in Iowa as he could get. Still, he managed to remarry to another local woman.įinally, Hansen decided he’d had enough of the contiguous United States. Though he was released just 20 months into his three-year sentence for arson, he was jailed a few more times afterward for petty theft.
His wife divorced him, leaving him alone and incarcerated. When the boy later confessed, Hansen was arrested. In 1960, at age 21, he convinced a young bakery employee to help him burn down a school bus garage. After serving a year in the reserves, he became an assistant drill instructor in Pocahontas, Iowa, and even married a young woman he met there.īut Hansen still felt mistreated by the community and sought retaliation. In 1957, when he was 18 years old, Robert Hansen joined the United States Army Reserve, hoping to leave behind his troubled youth and make something of himself.įor a while, he did. Alaskan Police Department/Wikimedia Mugshot of the Butcher Baker.
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