Robert Hansen
I rarely see Robert Hansen mentioned in posts about serial killers. I even took a college course that covered serial offenders, and surprisingly, very few people were familiar with him. I wouldn’t necessarily call him my “favorite” serial killer, but I do think he is one of the more underrated and lesser-known offenders.
I wrote a paper on Hansen and found some particularly interesting information about his case. Here are a few facts and details that stood out to me:
Hansen was born in Estherville, Iowa, on February 15, 1939; he was the eldest of two children. His mother is American, and his father is Danish. His father owned a bakery.
He graduated in a class of 31 students; they misspelled his name in the yearbook. In 1957, he enlisted in the United States Army Reserve. Hansen's basic training was in Fort Dix, New Jersey.
A lot of women went missing before the police force put it all together. Most of these women were low-priority victims, meaning they were most likely not reported missing. In 1980, the remains of murdered women began appearing in remote wilderness areas around Anchorage, Alaska. All the women had been shot with a high-powered rifle, and ballistics matched the bullets to a single weapon, indicating a serial killer was at large
He was also convicted of the abduction and rape of Cindy Paulson. In total, he confessed to killing 17 women, though some sources suggest the number could be higher.