Robert Hansen

Robert Christian Boes Hansen (February 15, 1939 – August 21, 2014), also known as the Butcher Baker, was an American serial killer active in Anchorage, Alaska, between 1972 and 1983, abducting, raping and murdering at least seventeen women. Many of his victims were released by Hansen into the wilderness and hunted with a Ruger Mini-14 and hunting knives. Hansen was captured in 1983 and sentenced to 461 years' imprisonment without the possibility of parole. He died in 2014 of natural causes at age 75.

While serving a prison sentence for arson in the early 1960s, Hansen was diagnosed with manic depression with periodic schizophrenic episodes. The psychiatrist who made the diagnosis noted that Hansen had an "infantile personality" and that he was obsessed with getting back at people whom he felt had wronged him.

Early life

Robert Hansen was born in Estherville, Iowa, on February 15, 1939, the elder of two children to an American mother, Edna Margret Hansen (née Petersen; October 27, 1916 – April 24, 2005) and a Danish father, local baker Christian "Chris" Hansen (September 16, 1907 – August 12, 1983). Robert was employed at his father's bakery. The family moved to Richmond, California, in 1942, but returned to Iowa in 1949 and settled in the city of Pocahontas.