Four or Five Murders a Year
Glenn Flothe was deep into Robert Hansen’s “garbage” by the time the man confessed to seventeen murders. For many of us, that confession let him off easy, his arrogant air undiminished. That’s because Flothe himself estimates Hansen was responsible for as many as 32 murders. He based that number on a calculation the man had killed “four to five women a year since the mid 1970s.” See: Anchorage Daily News, February 29, 1984.
Starting at 1975, that works out to eight years, with 8 x 4 = 32. So, yeah, there could be more. I’m staying with the low-side estimate, however, because — though it was Hansen’s obsession — he had other duties to balance. Hansen’s Bakery, for one, dominated his time, if only because the bakery was the facade for his respectable image.
His family? Yes, somewhat. Because that too was part of his front. And, then, there was time with his hunting buddies. You know, the ones who provided an alibi at his 1983 arrest. Each and every one of these time-sinks helped sustain his arrogant mien.
Why 1975? Hansen was in either in jail and/or on parole during the first half of the 70s. Not a perfect accounting, though. Megan Emerick went missing from Seward, AK on July 7, 1973. While Robert Hansen was there, on parole, for the Fourth of July weekend.
Arrogant? Really? Hell Yes.
The human instinct is to posit that anyone capable of tens of cold-blooded murders must be, of necessity, an arrogant human being. Arrogant in his disregard for others. Arrogant in his heedless quest, no matter the consequences. What Sgt. Glenn Flothe observed, however, was a dramatic shift in Hansen’s arrogance.
HALE: By the time you got him -- was he [still] arrogant about it?
FLOTHE: He was arrogant about it until he decided to ‘clear the decks,’ as he said… Then he truly started to become arrogant…
I think the interview Darel [Galyan] and I did when we arrested him prior to making his confession – his arrogance was there, but it was more along the lines of ‘you’ve got the wrong guy. I don’t know what you’re talking about,’ sort of – he was telling us the same story he told everybody else – except this time he’s got a little problem because he doesn’t even want – you see before he could say, ‘Well, yeah, I was with that prostitute – but that fuckin’ shit, she wanted more money and I threw her ass outta the camper.’ Now what is she doing? She’s putting some heat on me – that’s bullshit – she got what she deserved - and the cops would buy that.
But how he’s got a problem because we got a dead prostitute out there that’s been shot and he can’t simply say, ‘yeah, I was with her that night and the last time I saw her I dropped her off and 4th and B – ‘cause he’s smart enough to realize that now he can’t say that – ‘cause now you’re talking murder, you’re talking heavy duty stuff. “You dropped her off at 4th and B? Bullshit. You killed her.” So he’s not gonna associate himself at all with any of the dead ones, not at all. He’s smart enough to realize that.
Two-Headed Monster
Robert Hansen’s arrogance was like a faucet he could turn off and on, almost at will. He was, in most circumstances, cognizant of his audience. With his so-called “superiors” — the insurance execs, the lawyers, the doctors — he was the epitome of meek and mild. Ditto for his church acquaintances (especially when in tow with his wife, Darla). Here’s Glenn Flothe again on Hansen’s “other side.”
FLOTHE: Talking to his employees, 18-19 year old guys, he was a gross motherfucker… Three or four o’clock in the morning he’s telling ‘em lurid stories… He told one guy [while addressing the Missing Dancer murders], if I had done something like that, I would have taken ‘em up in a plane and buried them where nobody would have ever found them… He was being himself to them, it was what he was. But around these other people he couldn’t do that, because he would be revealing himself…
He liked to talk about sex around the female employees… He’d get carried away decorating cakes for special occasions… Get carried away with making the breasts… He’d talk about the women he’d seen in the bars… He’d fantasize to these younger guys… He was the great lover.
But to all his other friends, he was Mr. Morality.
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You can order my latest book, “What Happened In Craig,” HERE and HERE. True crime on Epicenter Press about Alaska’s Worst Unsolved Mass Murder. Coming soon from Epicenter Press: part three of my Alaska Trilogy.
Copyright Leland E. Hale (2025)