Top 10 Criminal Minds Unsubs with the Most Tragic Backstories
These "Criminal Minds" unsubs will break your heart with these backstories. For this list, we’ll be looking at the BAU’s unknown subjects who have the saddest origins.
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00:00 "I got rules. So, you gonna be a good boy?"
00:06 Welcome to Ms. Mojo,
00:07 and today we're counting down our picks for the top 10 criminal minds unsubs
00:11 with the most tragic backstories.
00:13 "What she made you watch, what she let men do to you, and it makes me so...
00:20 It's just... not fair."
00:24 For this list, we're looking at the BAU's unknown subjects who have the saddest origins.
00:29 Since some of these backstories reveal key plot points,
00:32 a spoiler warning is now in effect.
00:34 Which unsub did you sympathize with the most?
00:37 Let us know in the comments.
00:39 Number 10. William Taylor.
00:41 Fresh off a double shift,
00:43 Salvage Yard owner William Taylor picked up his 5-year-old daughter Tatiana
00:46 after a dance recital and drove home.
00:49 "You'll never know, dear, how much I love you.
00:56 Please don't take my sunshine away."
01:00 Because he was so sleep-deprived from working long hours,
01:03 he pulled over for a quick nap.
01:05 But he underestimated his exhaustion,
01:08 and ended up sleeping for hours instead of minutes.
01:10 When he awoke, Tatiana was gone.
01:13 "I can't imagine a parent's worst nightmare. There's your trigger."
01:16 "He's torturing them for answers about his daughter's abduction."
01:19 "In his mind, he believes his victims were involved."
01:22 He later recalled a mysterious man approaching him that night,
01:25 but people thought he had imagined the encounter due to his sleep-deprived state.
01:29 When her body was discovered a week later,
01:31 William began abducting men,
01:33 torturing them for days before ultimately killing them.
01:36 Losing a child and not knowing what happened would make anyone snap.
01:40 Unfortunately, the result of this was only more horrific tragedy.
01:44 "I mean, up until the very end,
01:45 he was adamant that a guy with a skull tattoo abducted his daughter."
01:48 "Well, the unsub with a ghost in his mind is always dangerous."
01:53 "Unless it wasn't all in his mind."
01:55 Number 9. Johnny McHale
01:56 "He made me watch."
01:58 "It can help you if we can tell the court that you told us where Glen Hill is."
02:04 "He made me watch."
02:05 This season 3 episode follows the BAU as they investigate a case of vigilante justice in Los Angeles.
02:11 It ultimately leads them to Johnny McHale,
02:13 a local comic book artist suffering from severe post-traumatic stress disorder,
02:17 who blacks out during his vengeful killing spree.
02:20 Six months prior, one of the best nights of his life turned into the worst.
02:24 "Vicky?"
02:25 "Johnny."
02:28 "Answer him, baby. A man asked you a question."
02:32 "We don't want any trouble, guys."
02:34 "Don't much matter what you want."
02:35 A gang attacked him and his pregnant fiancé, Vicky,
02:38 who he had just proposed to minutes before.
02:41 Johnny was forced to witness the torturous death,
02:43 and barely survived the incident himself.
02:46 Even the team acknowledges that he's one of the rare unsubs
02:49 that only became a killer due to an awful traumatic experience.
02:52 "He's the first unsub I've worked who wasn't a bad guy, you know?"
02:56 "Six months ago, Johnny McHale was just a regular person."
03:01 Number 8. Desi Gutierrez
03:04 Growing up, Desi Gutierrez endured emotional and psychological abuse,
03:08 as well as severe neglect from her young mother, Laura.
03:11 She would cruelly tell her daughter that she was ugly and unwanted,
03:14 locking her in a small shed full of snakes for hours on end.
03:18 When Desi was 10, a "changed" Laura had her sister, Tina,
03:22 who, unlike Desi, was loved and cared for.
03:25 "Laura talks about her rise to the top,
03:27 and how proud she is of her daughter, Tina.
03:29 Desi is not mentioned in the article at all."
03:32 As an adult, Desi became obsessed with snake-like body modification,
03:36 even going as far as to split her tongue.
03:38 She inflicts similar mods on unwitting women
03:41 after they're bitten by one of her venomous snakes.
03:43 "You said you wish I was never born!
03:48 And I was an ugly little girl, inside and out."
03:53 In the end, Desi kidnaps her sister and mother,
03:57 the true objects of her hate.
03:59 She dies before enacting her full revenge,
04:01 but we'd say she made her point.
04:03 "They think she's perfect.
04:05 The perfect woman, the perfect mother!
04:07 They don't know what she's capable of."
04:11 Number 7. Vincent Rowlings
04:14 After witnessing and videotaping his mother die at the hands of his father,
04:18 young Vincent Rowlings grew up to be a killer himself.
04:20 "I saw my mom die too.
04:22 And like my father, I did some bad things."
04:28 He stayed with his mom for almost a day,
04:30 and grew up re-watching the footage of her murder over and over,
04:34 which was only bound to cause severe psychological distress.
04:37 Vincent also has obsessive-compulsive disorder,
04:40 so he can't keep himself from acting on the compulsion to kill.
04:43 "He sent us this film as his way of reaching out.
04:45 He may be ambivalent, but his OCD won't let him stop.
04:48 If he sees a heavy police presence and he's not done, he'll run."
04:52 He shows remorse by sending messages to the police at the crime scenes,
04:56 wanting someone to finally stop him.
04:58 When he unintentionally kills one of his victims in front of her young son,
05:01 Vincent feels a connection to him,
05:03 since they now share a rare thing in common.
05:06 "You're gonna hear bad things about me.
05:08 But you can never, ever wish to die, Stan.
05:13 Because you're special."
05:18 Number 6. Tobias Hankel
05:21 Season 2 introduced one of Criminal Mind's most memorable unsubs.
05:25 "We may have one unsub suffering from a delusion that he's actually an archangel.
05:29 Maybe that first phone call was not two people, but one."
05:33 After his mother left, Tobias Hankel was raised by his father,
05:36 who had become violent and used religion as a means of abuse.
05:40 As Tobias got older, he became reliant on Dilaudid to cope.
05:43 Things only worsened when his father got sick,
05:46 and in order to put a merciful end to his suffering,
05:49 he had his son assist him in dying.
05:51 Tobias then developed a dissociative identity disorder
05:54 with two alternate personalities,
05:56 his father and an archangel named Raphael.
05:59 "I tried to warn everyone.
06:00 Just relax, Mr. Hankel, all right?"
06:02 "Shoot him."
06:02 "I don't want to."
06:04 "I said, shoot him, you weakling.
06:09 He's a Satan."
06:10 When the BAU catches up with him,
06:11 he's a serial killer who finds his victims through hacking,
06:15 choosing people he deems sinners.
06:17 What Tobias does to Reed is unforgivable,
06:19 but we can't help sympathizing with him after knowing his past.
06:22 "Tobias."
06:24 "There he is."
06:24 "You didn't look good to see my mom again."
06:30 "I'm sorry."
06:32 Number 5.
06:34 Paul Weston.
06:35 "Tell her she's beautiful."
06:36 "I am, aren't I?"
06:39 "You're an abomination!"
06:41 "I'm a great teacher."
06:42 "You're doing it wrong!"
06:44 "I'm gonna make you a real man."
06:46 Paul Weston realized he was attracted to boys at a young age,
06:49 and when he came out to his father John,
06:51 he was sent to a conversion camp.
06:53 In addition to the camp's deplorable techniques,
06:56 John hired a female sex worker in a deranged attempt
06:59 to force his son to try to change his sexual orientation.
07:03 "Who is suffering from an identity crisis."
07:05 "This man can accept his same-sex desires,
07:07 but he can't fight them either.
07:09 He's most likely been repressing all sexual urges for quite some time."
07:14 Years later, he's still haunted by what was done to him
07:17 and the religious rhetoric condemning gayness.
07:19 He kills the men he sleeps with because he's ashamed,
07:22 and he kills the women he tries to be attracted to
07:25 who remind him of the sex worker.
07:26 Given his trauma and deep-seated self-hate,
07:29 it's hard not to feel sorry for Paul,
07:31 as well as the other young victims of the camp.
07:34 "He's the one that got us into that camp.
07:36 Commits to your parents to let that woman do this to us."
07:39 "Then you want to make him pay."
07:40 Number 4. James and Marcus Wells.
07:43 "You have no idea who James is.
07:44 He raised us.
07:46 He worked two jobs just to put Tom through school.
07:50 You don't know him.
07:51 You don't know me."
07:53 James and Marcus Wells go on a killing spree in Washington, D.C.,
07:58 murdering random people with machetes every 27 minutes.
08:02 This series of attacks begins a day after the funeral of their younger brother Tom,
08:06 who was shot and killed outside of a nightclub.
08:08 Three victims into the spree, Marcus is caught by the team,
08:12 and they discover what happened to trigger their violent rage.
08:15 "Oh, geez, this is awful.
08:16 They called 911 nine times,
08:19 and for whatever reason, it took the ambulance 27 minutes to get there.
08:23 Tom was pronounced dead at the scene."
08:25 After Tom was shot, James and Marcus called 911 several times,
08:29 but by the time the ambulance arrived 27 minutes later, he had already passed away.
08:34 Tom had a bright future ahead of him.
08:36 His untimely death is heartbreaking, and we sympathize with the Wells brothers.
08:40 "We waited 27 minutes, and no one came.
08:44 No one.
08:46 Do you know what that's like?
08:48 Huh?
08:49 To be powerless?"
08:52 But causing more senseless deaths is unjustifiable.
08:55 Number three, Charles Johnson.
08:57 "What did they do to you that night?"
08:59 After a drainage pipe explosion unearths skeletal remains in a backyard,
09:04 the BAU interviews the homeowners, an African-American family of three.
09:09 As Rossi interrogates the Johnson family patriarch,
09:11 he uncovers a dark history rooted in racism.
09:14 When he was in high school,
09:15 Charles was attacked and castrated by a group of teenage Klan members.
09:19 One of their sisters falsely accused him of sexual assault,
09:23 and didn't reveal the truth until decades later.
09:25 "Audrey Collins changed.
09:27 Dear Charles, this is Audrey Collins.
09:31 Years ago I told a lie and destroyed you."
09:34 Considering the extensive physical and mental damage that was done,
09:38 Charles didn't accept her deathbed confession,
09:40 and eventually killed some of the men who attacked him, or their relatives.
09:44 "For revenge?
09:45 No, I killed out of hate.
09:46 Hate grew in me that night.
09:51 And hate vowed to pay them all back."
09:55 The lie scarred Charles in every way imaginable,
09:59 taking away his dreams of leading a healthy life with a big family.
10:02 "Have you told Lyle that he's not your biological son?"
10:06 "No.
10:06 You better not.
10:08 Please."
10:12 Number 2.
10:13 Shelly Chamberlain.
10:14 On her son's sixth birthday,
10:16 Shelly Chamberlain was driving when fleeing robber Hanley Waters
10:19 crashed into her vehicle.
10:21 "No, honey, honey, I'm driving.
10:23 No, I'm not kidding, Damien."
10:24 "You're being mean, mama."
10:26 "I'm driving.
10:27 Don't kick my seat when I'm driving."
10:28 She watched her son die in the backseat,
10:34 assuring him in vain that help would come soon.
10:37 After his death, Shelly and her husband Don divorced,
10:40 leaving her to grieve on her own.
10:42 On the anniversary of the accident,
10:43 the news mentions a police officer who also died that day,
10:47 but Shelly's son's death is forgotten.
10:49 "Explains why she went on her spree today.
10:51 All the good and bad memories are hitting her at once."
10:53 "And to add salt to it all,
10:55 the fallen policeman was the only one who got any attention.
10:57 Damien was like a footnote."
11:00 Her anger and pain lead her to steal a gun
11:02 and go around the area killing and injuring anyone in her way.
11:06 This devastating episode ends with her and Don
11:09 at their son's favorite restaurant,
11:10 expressing their regrets and reliving the awful day that destroyed their lives.
11:15 "And it was, it was the last thing he heard."
11:19 "That's your regret.
11:22 That's not what he remembers."
11:25 Before we unveil our top pick,
11:27 here are some honorable mentions.
11:29 Darlene Beckett, a grieving mother whose daughter
11:31 was assaulted and murdered by a group of men.
11:34 "You cut my baby."
11:35 "That was my idea too."
11:39 "Oh my God!"
11:41 "Oh my God!"
11:42 "Oh my God! Oh my God! Oh my God!"
11:45 Rodney Harris, a victim of Carl Buford who goes on a spree
11:51 killing men he thinks abuse young boys.
11:53 "But it brought you back to what Buford did to you, didn't it?
11:56 Look, I know exactly what you're feeling because I've been there."
12:01 "How I'm feeling?"
12:02 Sarah Jean Mason, married a sadistic serial killer,
12:06 forced to give up her son, then executed on death row.
12:09 "I am standing here because of choices I made.
12:12 Don't let my son be Jacob's last victim."
12:18 Nathan Harris, a teenager seeking help to stop his violent urges.
12:23 "I know I'm crazy."
12:24 "Did I say that?"
12:27 "No, but what do you call pictures in your head that you can't make go away?"
12:34 Sarah Damlin, the men who sexually assaulted her were let off,
12:39 and only one person believed her.
12:40 "What are you waiting for?"
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12:58 Number 1.
13:01 Samantha Malcolm
13:02 Many unsubs on Criminal Minds have suffered traumatic childhoods,
13:05 and poor Samantha Malcolm is one of them.
13:07 "He's a good father, he loves me."
13:09 "I know that he probably forced you to say those things,
13:13 and he punished you if you got it wrong, sent you to the room with the lightning."
13:17 "Yeah."
13:19 Her mother died when she was young, and her father, Dr. Arthur Malcolm,
13:23 had her undergo electroshock therapy to treat her depression.
13:27 However, the depression stemmed from the sexual abuse she was suffering at his hands,
13:31 and the extreme treatment was to keep Samantha from telling anyone.
13:35 He would apologize with gifts, including a set of special dolls,
13:39 and as an adult, Samantha is devastated when he gives them away.
13:43 "You submitted her to electroshock treatment to make sure she stayed quiet."
13:45 "This is outrageous."
13:47 "And then, out of guilt, you bought her toys,
13:49 more specifically, you bought her a line of dolls."
13:52 She replaces the dolls with real-life women who ultimately die
13:55 under the horrific conditions she keeps them in.
13:57 Experiencing trauma isn't an excuse for murder,
14:00 but with the severe psychological effects of ECT and years of anti-psychotic medication,
14:05 well, Garcia said it best.
14:07 "Okay guys, I just got Samantha Malcolm's medical records in.
14:10 Oh my god, she was doomed.
14:13 Like, Emily Bronte doomed.
14:15 Like, Shakespeare doomed.
14:16 Like, Red Shirted Ensign in Star Trek doomed."
14:19 [Music]