Robert Hansen, Anchorage Courthouse, 1972. (by permission Anchorage Times)
He was there to answer Assault with a Deadly Weapon charges in the attempted kidnapping of a real estate secretary.
QUESTION: Is it only weak people who want control? If you’re needier than most, do you desire not only control, but domination? And if you’re so sad you’re pathetic, do you crave total control and total domination? We’ll let Robert Hansen answer for himself.
“I didn’t start to hate all women. As a matter of fact, I would venture to say I started to fall in love with every one of them. Every one of them become so precious to me ‘cause I wanted their friendship. I wanted them to like me so much.
“On top of the things that have happened, I’m not saying that I hate all women. I don’t. Quite to the contrary. I guess in my own mind what I’m classifying is a good woman, not a prostitute. I’d do everything in my power, any way, shape or form, to do anything for her and to see that no harm ever came to her.”
“But I guess prostitutes are women I’m putting down as lower than myself. I don’t know if I’m making sense or not. And you know, when this started to happen—when it happened the first time at Eklutna I went home and was literally sick to my stomach. As a matter of fact, I was sick out there to my stomach. I can remember I sat and cried. I knew what I did was totally, totally wrong. It had come so close to happening before with Patty Roberts…”
“The daughter of the trooper?” Frank Rothschild asked.
“Right. There were other girls there, ah, it come so close to happening, but it hadn’t.”
“Because they hadn’t tried to run?” Vic Krumm asked.
“Right. As long as they didn’t run away, things went as I controlled it. I guess I wanted to control things. It made me feel masculine or powerful or in control of my life. And as long as things went fine, you know, that was it. But this time it went too far. My gosh, I can remember I never even drove downtown, I think, for six months. I can remember driving downtown and seeing a prostitute down there and my gosh, my whole body just tightened up. I didn’t even want to go close to one.”
Excerpt From: Walter Gilmour & Leland E. Hale. “Butcher, Baker.”
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