Monday, January 23, 2017

Butcher, Baker: The True Account of an Alaskan Serial Killer



I picked up this book because, although Hansen went on his serial killing spree in Alaska, he is from my home state and I felt a need to find out if it was something in his early up-bringing in the Hawkeye State that set him on the path to such atrocity. The writing is clear and straight forward, taken from official records, interviews, etc. The book is especially good if you appreciate accurate timelines and sequences in your true crime.

From the Publisher . . .

The horrific true story of serial kidnapper, rapist, and killer Robert Hansen’s reign of terror in Anchorage, Alaska.

As oil boom money poured into Anchorage, the city quickly became a prime destination for the seedier elements of society: prostitutes, pimps, con men, and criminals of all breeds looking to cash in. However, something even worse lurked in their midst.

To all who knew him, Robert Hansen was a typical hardworking businessman, husband, and father. But hidden beneath the veneer of mild respectability was a monster whose depraved appetites could not be sated. From 1971 to 1983, Hansen was a human predator, stalking women on the edges of Anchorage society—women whose disappearances would cause scant outcry, but whose gruesome fates would shock the nation. After his arrest, Hansen confessed to seventeen brutal murders, though authorities suspect there were more than thirty victims.

Alaska State Trooper Walter Gilmour and writer Leland E. Hale tell the story of Hansen’s twisted depredations—from the dark urges that drove his madness to the women who died at his hand and finally to the authorities who captured and convicted the killer who came to be known as the “Butcher Baker.”

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