FULL NAME: Robert Christian Hansen

KNOWN ALIASES:

“Bob the Baker”, “The Butcher Baker”

DOB:

February 15, 1939 – Estherville, Iowa, USA

DOD:

August 21, 2014 – Anchorage, Alaska, USA

PRIMARY RESIDENCE:

Anchorage, Alaska, United States

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION:

Male, Caucasian, approximately 5’8”–5’10”, medium build, thinning brown hair, brown eyes. Hansen suffered severe acne as a youth, leaving pitted scars on his face, and spoke with a stutter. These physical features, combined with his shy demeanor, contributed to a lifelong sense of alienation and resentment toward women.

CRIMINAL TYPE:

Organized Lust Killer / Power-Control Killer. Hansen meticulously planned his crimes, blending his skills as a hunter and pilot with an obsessive desire to dominate, humiliate, and destroy his victims. His behavior exhibits psychopathic organization, sadistic sexual violence, trophy collection, and geographical mobility—a hallmark of an organized sexual predator.

ACTIVITY RANGE:

Anchorage, Alaska, and the surrounding wilderness including Knik River, Matanuska-Susitna Valley, and Eklutna area, from approximately 1971 to 1983.

CURRENT STATUS:

Deceased (died in 2014 while serving a 461-year sentence at Spring Creek Correctional Center).

BACKGROUND

Robert Hansen’s early life in Iowa was defined by isolation and humiliation. Born to Danish immigrants, his father was a domineering baker who expected perfection from his son. Hansen’s severe acne, stutter, and awkwardness made him a target for relentless bullying. Rejection by girls he admired fueled deep resentment that later manifested in violent misogyny.

After high school, Hansen enlisted in the U.S. Army Reserve and later trained as a marksman and small game hunter. His proficiency with firearms, combined with Alaska’s vast isolation, created an ideal environment for his future crimes. He was known among peers as a skilled outdoorsman, often flying his small plane into remote areas for hunting trips.

Hansen moved to Anchorage in 1967 and opened a small bakery that became popular in the local community. To outsiders, he was a quiet, hardworking businessman, a devoted husband, and father of two. In reality, he led a dual life: a family man by day, and a predatory sexual sadist by night. His unassuming image made him nearly invisible to law enforcement for over a decade.

His early offenses foreshadowed his later violence. In 1960, Hansen was convicted of arson in Iowa and served nearly two years. Later, he was caught shoplifting hunting equipment, for which he served brief jail time. Psychologists who evaluated him noted antisocial and bipolar tendencies, yet he was still released into the community.

INCIDENT(S)

From 1971 to 1983, Robert Hansen abducted, raped, and murdered dozens of women in Alaska. His victims were primarily sex workers, exotic dancers, or transient women who frequented Anchorage’s red-light district along Fourth Avenue. Hansen’s victims often vanished without a trace, their disappearances unnoticed due to their marginalized lifestyles.

Hansen’s method was chillingly systematic. He would offer a woman money for sex or a photo shoot, earning her trust before pulling a gun. Once overpowered, he bound and assaulted his victim, sometimes keeping her captive for days. He then loaded her into his private Piper Super Cub airplane and flew deep into Alaska’s wilderness.

There, in remote areas along the Knik River and Matanuska Valley, Hansen would release the woman into the forest, giving her a head start. Armed with his Ruger Mini-14 rifle or hunting bow, he stalked her as prey. The victims, terrified and disoriented in freezing terrain, rarely escaped.

He later buried the bodies in shallow graves, often marking each site on a topographic aviation map later discovered during the investigation. The map contained over two dozen “X” marks—most later matched to recovered remains.

At least 17 women have been officially linked to Hansen. Known victims include “Eklutna Annie” (unidentified for decades), Paula Goulding, Sherry Morrow, Joanna Messina, and others. Investigators believe the true number could exceed 30.

Cindy Paulson, a 17-year-old Anchorage sex worker, became the key to Hansen’s capture. In June 1983, she escaped from his house in handcuffs after he left momentarily to prepare his plane. She ran barefoot down the street until a passing truck driver stopped to help. Her detailed account—describing Hansen’s house, plane, and basement—matched suspicions held by Alaska State Troopers.

Initially, detectives doubted Paulson’s story due to Hansen’s reputation as a “pillar of the community.” However, FBI profiler John Douglas of the Behavioral Science Unit reviewed the case and predicted the suspect would be a middle-aged, married, socially awkward man with a stutter, low self-esteem, and a hunting background. This perfectly described Robert Hansen.

TIMELINE OF EVENTS

• 1960: Convicted of arson in Iowa, served 20 months in prison.

• 1967: Moved to Anchorage, Alaska, opened Hansen’s Bakery.

• 1971: First suspected homicide; victims begin disappearing near Anchorage.

• 1972–1983: Active killing period, during which numerous women vanish.

• 1980: Remains of “Eklutna Annie” discovered near Eklutna Road.

• 1981–1983: Bodies of multiple women found along the Knik River and Horseshoe Lake.

• June 13, 1983: Cindy Paulson escapes and reports her abduction.

• October 27, 1983: Search warrant executed on Hansen’s home, plane, and bakery. Police recover weapons, jewelry belonging to victims, and a map with marked burial sites.

• February 28, 1984: Hansen confesses to at least 17 murders, pleads guilty to four to avoid additional charges, and is sentenced to 461 years plus life without parole.

• 2014: Dies in prison of natural causes at age 75.

POSSIBLE SUSPECTS

None. Hansen was conclusively identified and convicted. His own confession, supported by physical evidence and mapped burial sites, confirmed him as the sole perpetrator. Alaska State Troopers have since used DNA to identify long-missing victims from his known hunting grounds, but no additional suspects have ever emerged.

CULTURAL IMPACT

Robert Hansen’s crimes shocked the nation and remain among the most disturbing in U.S. history. His ability to merge the skills of a trophy hunter with psychosexual violence turned Alaska’s wilderness into a human hunting ground. His story exposed how vulnerable women, particularly sex workers, were often dismissed by both society and law enforcement.

Books such as Butcher, Baker: The True Account of an Alaskan Serial Murder by Walter Gilmour and Leland E. Hale chronicled the investigation in detail. In 2013, The Frozen Ground dramatized the events, with Nicolas Cage portraying Detective Glenn Flothe and John Cusack as Hansen.

The case remains an essential study in criminal profiling. FBI analysts used it to refine behavioral typologies of organized offenders—those who plan meticulously, hide evidence, and blend seamlessly into society. Hansen’s crimes demonstrated how geographic isolation and social bias could enable serial predators to operate undetected for years.

Even decades later, forensic teams continue identifying his victims through modern techniques. In 2021, “Eklutna Annie,” long known only as a Jane Doe, was finally identified through DNA testing as Robin Pelkey, an Alaska resident originally from Colorado. Her identification closed one of the state’s longest-running mysteries tied to Hansen.

KILLER THEORY

Robert Hansen’s psychology reveals the dark convergence of humiliation, control, and fantasy. His early life experiences—mockery for his stutter, rejection by women, and resentment toward authority—created a personality driven by anger and inferiority. Hunting provided him a realm where he felt powerful and capable, while his victims represented the humiliation he sought to erase.

His crimes were not acts of impulse but ritualized domination. Each abduction, flight, and chase symbolized the reversal of his adolescent helplessness. By forcing his victims into the wilderness, Hansen re-enacted his own trauma in a setting where he was the master. His need to physically pursue them suggests an eroticized form of control, blurring sexual gratification with sadistic satisfaction.

Unlike disorganized killers, Hansen was methodical. He kept trophies—jewelry, clothing, and the marked map—as tokens of his conquests. He compartmentalized his life, maintaining a stable business and family life to conceal his predatory behavior. Psychologists later classified him as a “controlled, non-impulsive sexual sadist,” a category characterized by precise planning, calculated cruelty, and emotional detachment.

Hansen’s “Butcher Baker” persona embodies a unique criminal paradox: a man who lived an outwardly ordinary existence while orchestrating one of the most calculated murder sprees in American history. His use of Alaska’s geography transformed the landscape into both weapon and accomplice, demonstrating how environment can serve as an extension of a killer’s pathology.

SOURCES:

– “Robert Hansen,” Wikipedia

– Butcher, Baker: The True Account of an Alaskan Serial Murder by Walter Gilmour & Leland E. Hale

– A&E Real Crime: “Robert Hansen, the ‘Butcher Baker’ Serial Killer Who Hunted His Victims Like Animals in the Wild”

– Alaska Department of Public Safety press release (2021): “Victim of Serial Killer Robert Hansen Identified”

– Alaska Public Media: “Robert Hansen, Alaska Serial Killer, Dies at 75”

– Washington Post: “Robert Hansen, convicted serial killer in Alaska, dies at 75”