Chains, Post & Couch

There was at least one thing Hansen and Paulson could agree upon: He put her in chains and tied her to a post in his den. The indignity was more than that. After she was settled, if that was the word for it, Robert Hansen crashed on the couch and slept for about five hours. In the meantime, the clock seemed to be ticking Cindy’s life away, second by second, tic by toc.

Here for the first time are the tape recordings that document Bob Hansen’s rendezvous with Cindy Paulson. First, we hear from Robert Hansen’s confession. And then we hear Cindy Paulson’s perspective, documented in her trooper interview with Sgt. Glenn Flothe.

Robert Hansen Confession (Feb 22, 1984)

ROBERT HANSEN (RH): Uh, and it is also true, which she said about after uh, sex act there uh, I took her back to uh, uh, uh… My basement is kind of divided into two sections, there’s a front section that’s carpeted, uh, couch is on the side of it, uh, another section back here where there is a pool table, uh, and then bathroom back over here, another book storage room and so forth, laundry facilities in here.

couch
Robert Hansen’s basement
(courtesy Alaska State Troopers)

RH: Uh, over there there is a couch… couch on the other end of my basement. Uh, I took her over and I had her lay down on the couch and then I sat down on my couch, then she got up, I said “no, no, no, I want you to stay where you’re at…

Hansen talks about chaining Cindy to basement post

And there is some pillars in my basement… And uh, I had uh, uh, on the pillar there, uh, I had an eye bolt stuck into the pillar. First I had one down on the floor I put in, but it would wrap around so that it would get tangled. So I moved it up higher and uh, so it sort of halfway solved the problem.

Well, anyway, uh, when Cindy moved around I slid the couch over by that and uh, uh, the eye bolt there. I went out in the garage there and uh got a (inaudible) chain and uh, put to her, uh, to that eye bolt so she couldn’t move. Uh, it wasn’t tight or nothing, it was just loose, you know, (inaudible).


Cindy Paulson Interview with Sgt. Flothe (Sep 27, 1983)

CINDY: Um, he had me chained around my neck for a time. There was a bullet hole in the pillar. Way down on the floor. Only reason I know was ‘cause I was layin’ there. It’s way down on the bottom.

Cindy Paulson talks about being chained to a post in Hansen’s basement

FLOTHE: Let me get this sequence right, now. You come into the house. You take off your shirt. He takes off the rest of your clothes. And then he ties you up?

CINDY: Yes ‘cause that’s when he said he wanted to have sex with me. 

FLOTHE: Did he, at that point?

CINDY: (soft voice) Yes, he did.

FLOTHE: When does the bear rug come in?

CINDY: He had, um… I believe… The bear rug was there. It wasn’t laying in the middle like that, it was near the couch.

FLOTHE: Were you on the bear rug when he had sexual relations with you?

CINDY: Yes, um hmm.

FLOTHE: And this is the same time you’re tied with your neck to the coffee table?

CINDY: Yes, that’s when he had tied me up. And it was tight. So if I moved too far it would choke me. 

FLOTHE: When did you go to the bathroom in relation to all this?

CINDY: After he had sexual activities with me. 

FLOTHE: Ok. And then you went to the bathroom…

CINDY: And he had followed behind me with a rope. I went in the bathroom and I used the restroom. And I heard… And I went, ‘what’s that’, and I started to come out and I heard chains rattling. And he said, ‘go back in,’ and I came out anyway. And that’s where he came to the part where he chained me up to the pillar.

couch
Robert Hansen’s basement, with chair, post and pool table
(courtesy Alaska State Troopers)

[NOTE: During this part of the interview, Flothe is directing Cindy to make drawings of Hansen’s basement.]

FLOTHE: You got two posts drawn here… Which pillar?

CINDY: Two posts.

FLOTHE: Which pillar?

CINDY: The second one.

FLOTHE: Put the one where he tied you up… Put ‘tied up’ next to it.


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