You’re Under Arrest
There is a moment during Flothe and Galyan’s interrogation of Robert Hansen that I call “the squirm.” There are several, actually, but this is the first one. And it’s notable. After admitting that he’d gone shooting along the Knik, after agreeing that he’d flown — and landed — his Cessna on various spots on that river, Sgt. Flothe knew it was time to pull out the maps. Midway along their path to bringing Robert Hansen face-to-face with justice, the transcript records a telling detail. Just a short sentence. “Shuffle of papers.” What, you might ask? That’s the sound of a maps rustling. Among them, topographical maps of the Knik River. Show me, Bob, Flothe says. Show me where you’ve been, you and your .223 rifle.
Maps On Shuffle
It’s a genius move, that map thing. One that Flothe had been building from the start. I say this because, you know, one can’t suddenly produce topographical maps on command. They have to be there, in the room, ready for their moment. All of the talk about Hansen’s past, about his relationships with the women of the night? It all pointed toward this moment. Show me, Bob. Show me. You’re the big hunter, right? Show me on the maps.
Hansen’s Knik River Litany
It was as if Robert Hansen got sucked into a whirlpool of incriminating utterances. He couldn’t keep himself from bragging. “I’ve put, uh, uh, canoe in here,” he said, pointing to the map. “And gone up here in Jim Creek and gone back in here and… and hunted ducks, uh, this year [stammers] co… nnecting swamps back in here…
I suddenly find myself shouting: STOP BOB, you’re digging yourself a hole. But of course, there’s a sense of glee on my part, too. He just keeps ticking.
Found in his headboard, w/ X-marks for burial sites
Answer The Questions
HANSEN: Many, many times. Uh, there’s an old road here… this one going back in through here. This, uh, let’s see… Plum… Plumley.
FLOTHE: Uh, Plumley’s road… Yeah, it takes out…
HANSEN: … no, no, no it ‘s back up in here some place and you can drive back in through here and hit an old, uh, uh, more or less like a logging road and that goes down through… in here and, uh, uh, I’ve been, you know. I used to have an old Volkswagen that I could drive back through here and get back in quite a…
FLOTHE: See, I don’t realize you can go back that far.
HANSEN: There’s an old, uh, uh, gold mine back up in here that you can get into, okay? Been back in there many, many, many times. Uh, as far as fir… fixing my 2,2, uh…
FLOTHE: That’s the one that I am concerned about.
Points To Map
HANSEN: [Pointing to the map] In this territory… right in through here. Uh, there’s a big flat territory… Uh, lake back… back in through here, uh, where you can… it… hundreds of people used that for a spot to run ta… touch and goes on, you know.
Hansen goes on and on about his exploits — at one point claiming to throw balloons into the river and shooting them from his Cessna. Flothe laughs at the ridiculousness of this “feat” when he talks about it later — imagine flying an airplane a low altitude while sticking a rifle out the window, trying to hit balloons — but in the moment he kept his cool.
FLOTHE: This is from the aircraft flying over?
HANSEN: Yes… Down here there’s a spot (long pause) any place where the river is wide… The water flows very, very slowly. And it’s good to shoot balloons in it, okay? And the winter time here, I’ve gone out here in the inlet and… shot ice chunks.
Bit By Bit
After a half hour or so on the maps — with Hansen systematically placing himself near several bodies they’d ultimately find — the troopers seamlessly dove into Hansen’s friendships. John Sumrall figures prominently. He and John Henning. Of course they do. Galyan and Flothe already knew — based on Anchorage Police transcripts — that it was Sumrall and Henning who provided Hansen with a crucial alibi in the days and hours after a seventeen year old prostitute — Cindy Paulson — escaped Hansen’s basement lair, bringing sordid tales about the man.
For his part, Hansen admits to being on the Knik with Sumrall “many times.” John Henning, on the other hand… Barely registers. “I don’t go out a tremendous amount with John Henning,” Hansen asserts. Which is somewhat… Unbelievable? For his alibi, mind you, Hansen has the two of them going out for beers and pizza which, you know, is a friend kind of thing. A friend in need?
Hammer Down Redux
In the Hammer Down installment, we discussed the relentless closing of the circle of lies that Hansen wanted the cops to believe. They imply that he’s a “cold, malicious, hardened criminal type that just doesn’t care.” Daryl Galyan takes the lead here — bad cop to a tee. What Galyan wonders is whether Hansen is a person “whose basic personality is to be a hardened criminal.”
[And] so far, you know, we’ve yet to find anything really worked on, rehabilitation doesn’t work, simple incarceration is the only answer, warehouse him, just put him away and forget it. I personally don’t believe you’re that type of a person, and I was hoping that you would convince me that you’re not that type of person, but you’re trying awful hard to lead me to believe that you are, and I just, I don’t understand where you’re comin’ from Bob…
Sgt. Daryl Galyan, October 27, 1983, Hansen interrogation
It gets worse. Galyan edges into more confrontational territory as the interview stretches across the hours. At one point, he turns incredulous at Hansen’s evasions. “Are you trying to tell me that all these different girls, over a period of like 12 or 13 years, have all independently came up with the same story to get you in trouble because you wouldn’t pay their inflated prices for sex?” Galyan asks. “Bob, you can’t get anybody to believe that. You don’t even believe that. And hopefully you don’t think we’re stupid enough to believe it.”
From that point forward, the cop things start rolling in. Would we find hair from these girls in your vehicles, in your aircraft? Would we learn that Sherry Morrow and Paula Goulding — two known victims found on the Knik — had been in your car? How about your house? How often do you pick up girls? And then…
Singles Ads?
Why do you put articles in the newspaper? They had him there. An advertisement in Sunday Singles, a regular feature of the Anchorage Daily News. It was a proposition coming from a married man, with kids, inviting a “new partner” to join him. Yeah. His wife and kids had gone to the Lower 48 for Summer Vacation. He did find one woman. She came to his house but wouldn’t bite. He claimed there were others. “I’d just like to have someone go do some things with me, and I seen several of the ladies that answered the ad and had coffee with them or something like this here, and ah, that’s as far as it went.” Innocent, right?
March 15, 1983
Cindy Paulson was his next visitor. He had his ways, this Bob Hansen. A pistol in the face always worked. Didn’t need maps for that one. Or a newspaper ad.
About All Those Girls
After five hours of this, Galyan and Flothe were tired of Hansen’s dissembling, his evasions, his outright lies. Once more, Galyan confronted the man with all the reports, going back to 1971. The one in 1974. Another in 1975. One more in 1979.
GALYAN: It is all the same report, just different times and different girl’s names on there, is what it all boils down to. You’re treating me like I’m some of kind of a… a moron sitting here…
HANSEN: Are you…
GALYAN: And I’d like to think that I’m smarter than that.
HANSEN: I’m not saying you’re not. I… you’re saying that…
GALYAN: That I believe what those girls said.
HANSEN: Yeah. Do you want to convict me on that?
Bob Finally Gets It
There it was. Bob finally understood — or finally accepted — that this was where everything was going. “I want to get this clarified in my mind,” Hansen ultimately declared. “Because this is serious as hell.” Galyan agreed.
HANSEN: I’m going to… I think I would like to talk to an attorney and get him to tell me it’s alright to talk to you about some back passing.
GALYAN: Sure.
HANSEN: Ah… (pause) the matter about that, I didn’t do that.
GALYAN: We shall see. Okay. The time is now 1:56. We’ll discontinue the tape portion of the interview, Mr. HANSEN has asked for an attorney.
END OF INTERVIEW
Robert Christopher Hansen was arrested immediately afterwards. He would never again walk the streets as a free man. Not that it was an overnight occurrence. Five months. He sweated them five long months.
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