By all appearances, Robert Hansen seemed like
a model citizen: He was a business owner,
husband, and father.
But lying below the surface was a vicious
serial killer who hunted women for sport in
the Alaskan wilderness.
Hansen’s crimes seem so horrendous as to
be fiction, especially when compared alongside
Richard Connell’s The Most Dangerous Game,
the famous story about a Russian aristocrat
who hunts humans on a remote island.
But Hansen’s life and crimes were not works
of fiction.
He led a secret, deprived existence that friends,
neighbors, and family members didn’t know
about, and that resulted in the deaths of
many women.
Robert Hansen was born in 1939, grew up in
Iowa, and eventually became a baker like his
father.
He was bullied as a youngster because he was
skinny, shy, had a face marked by acne scars,
and had a severe stutter.
As a teenager, Hansen found comfort hunting
in the woods.
In 1960, Hansen was arrested in Iowa for burning
down a Board of Education school bus garage,
and he served almost two years in jail.
After his stint in custody, he was arrested
several more times for petty theft.
In 1967, Hansen decided to relocate to Alaska
with his second wife, where he opened a bakery
in Anchorage.
Hansen prospered in Alaska.
He received his pilot’s license, bought
a plane…and he set hunting records.
Hansen projected an image of respectability
as a business owner and family man in the
community, but, unbeknownst to those close
to him, in 1971 he began murdæring and raping
women in and around Anchorage.
Hansen targeted exotic dancers and prostitutes,
often abducting them, taking them to his remote
cabin in the Alaskan wilderness, and then
setting them loose so he could hunt them down
like wild animals.
In June 1983, Hansen’s reign of terror came
very close to ending.
A 17-year-old prostitute named Cindy Paulson
escaped, handcuffed, from Hansen as he was
preparing to put her on his private plane.
Paulson recounted to police how Hansen had
pulled a gun on her, kidnapped her, tortured
her in his house, and almost got her on his
private plane.
Only when Hansen became distracted loading
the plane’s cockpit was Paulson able to
run and flag down a passing truck.
Hansen told police that Paulson was simply
trying to extort him for money.
The police believed Hansen and let him go.
Though they released Hansen, the police were
actively investigating the many women who
had gone missing from Anchorage by 1983.
Believing they had a serial killer on their
hands, the police turned to the FBI for help.
The FBI compiled a criminal profile of the
unknown killer, and the results, plus the
incident with Cindy Paulson, led the police
to return their focus to Robert Hansen.
The FBI profile stated that the killer would
be a hunter with low self-esteem, that the
killer would most likely keep souvenirs, or
“trophies,” from his victims, and that
he might have a stutter.
When the police searched Hansen’s house,
plane, and cars, they discovered jewelry belonging
to some of the missing women.
They also discovered a map of the area with
Xs marked all over it hidden in Hansen’s
house.
Faced with the evidence, Hansen decided his
dangerous game was over.
He admitted to murdæring 17 women and raping
dozens more over the course of 12 years.
Police believe Hansen may have had many more
victims than the ones he admitted to attacking.
Hansen was sentenced to life in prison, where
he died in 2014 at the age of 75.
