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Not surprisingly, Hansen’s classmates at Pocahontas High School also had insights. While generally noting that they didn’t see anything particularly “disturbing” in his behavior, some did witness something strange. What was his thing about killing house cats? This takes us to the “deeper shit.” As Hall et al<\/em> point out, many writers and psychological profiles link the combination of fire setting, enuresis<\/a> and cruelty to animals as key characteristics of a potential serial killer. Now there’s some deep doo-doo!… And, no, I don’t have evidence that Hansen was a bedwetter.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I do have evidence from Sigmund Freud. <\/p>\n\n\n\n For his part, Freud saw arson as interconnected with sexual drive. (With Freud, what wasn’t.) Ivan Fras, M.D., building on Freud, notes the strong similarity between arson and sexual offending, especially in its compulsive nature. Other researchers see arson as a “displaced form of sadism.” That said, not all investigators find sexual motives among arsonists. Hall et al note that arsonists in institutional settings often present as model clients<\/em>, with no urge toward aggression by other means. There are other, more damning, critiques [1].<\/p>\n\n\n\n My takeaway? Maybe we should look elsewhere. <\/p>\n\n\n Which takes us to an expert of another type: Alaska State Trooper homicide investigator Sgt. Glenn Flothe. Flothe was among a handful of people who studied Robert Hansen in depth. Studied Hansen, in fact, when his crimes were in full flower. There was, he thought, something more sinister at work. Something that had transformed arson into serial murder.<\/p>\n\n\n\n “I think he felt he wanted to take what he couldn\u2019t have when he was younger and he wanted to take what he felt he had a right to \u2013 and that was women.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sgt. Glenn Flothe, May 11, 1985, interview by Leland E. Hale<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Flothe continues: <\/p>\n\n\n\n Flothe’s theorizing is based on his observation that Hansen’s crimes against women evolved over time<\/em>. Again, this from a man who dug deep into Hansen’s consciousness. Flothe would be the first to admit he got lots of help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In early 1972, Hansen’s lawyer had him examined by Dr. J. Ray Langdon, a psychiatrist at the Alaska Clinic in Anchorage. The precipitating incident was Hansen’s attempted kidnapping of a young woman at gunpoint<\/em>. Serious stuff. Hansen told Langdon that, as a teenager, \u201che fantasized about doing all sorts of harmful things to girls who rejected him.\u201d The woman in question had, it turned out, told Hansen “no” when he asked for a date. No surprise. She had a boyfriend. And Hansen was a total stranger who’d followed her home and presented himself at her door unbidden. So he left — and came back with a handgun. Creepy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n By 1983, however, Hansen had slipped from fantasy into the utmost extremes of his reality. Notes Sgt. Glenn Flothe:<\/p>\n\n\n\n The Paula Goulding incident — she went missing in April of 1983 — is telling. In his 1984 confession, Robert Hansen talks about a frightened Goulding attacking him at a remote spot along the Knik River. She had reason to: a persistent pilot was flying overhead, dipping his wings in a gesture of recognition. Fearing the worst — the pilot coming down to interrupt his up-to-then successful kidnapping — Hansen hurried her into a nearby meat shack with a sinister warning.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When the pilot eventually flew off, Hansen finally released Goulding from the meat shack. She was beyond fright. She was unconsolable, fearing her imminent demise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In Bob Hansen’s lexicon, “completely bad” meant murder — strange how he couldn’t make himself say the actual word for the act. He buried her in a hastily dug grave and escaped the scene. With Paula Goulding in the rearview mirror, however, things started to get… Really. Interesting.<\/em> Hansen went to the next extreme, determined never to be stopped, never to be confronted, never to face the specter of live witnesses. As Flothe notes in a 1984 interview, over time Hansen’s victims were found farther and farther from his landing sites. In a February 1984 statement to the Anchorage Daily Times<\/em>, Flothe described the full scope of Hansen’s metastasizing madness:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Capturing and convicting Robert Hansen required Glenn Flothe to go spelunking into his chief suspect’s motives and methods. It’s no surprise that his insights go deep. Of course they do. By the end of his murderous career, Flothe discovered, Robert Hansen was living a single-minded existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt became his life,” Flothe notes. “Say before it was every couple weeks or months he\u2019d get the urge and go out and snatch some prostitute, right? Knock her around a little bit, rape her then throw her out of his camper — but every time that happened \u2013 or it happened enough — he\u2019d end up in jail — or under investigation or hassle with the police. He didn\u2019t want no more hassle. Enough of this hassle bullshit. I wanna go out and have a good time, don\u2019t wanna be hassled by the cops\u2026 \u2018cause sooner or later the stupid cops are gonna put it together \u2013 and he was probably right \u2013 so I best start killing \u2018em and leaving less evidence.” <\/p>\n\n\n\n Sgt. Flothe’s takeaway is all too true: \u201cI think he felt the cops were stupid \u2013 and deservedly so, I guess probably.”<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n Every sweeping analysis deserves — begs for — an exception. It doesn’t take long for Flothe to find one. Her name was Cindy Paulson. Knowing Cindy as I do, this won’t make her happy. But… We’re talking obsessive-compulsive behavior here. We’re talking about a man who wasn’t entirely in touch with his inner being, much less in control of his impulses. His diminishing sexual impulses took a left turn when he met Cindy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd I think she (Cindy) just happened to be one among this series that he felt sexual desire again. I don\u2019t think it was a pattern \u2013 that everyone he wanted to have sex with \u2013 I think it just happens that out of the latter group of victims, she was one that the sexual desire came back.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sgt. Glenn Flothe, May 11, 1985, interview by Leland E. Hale<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n Flothe adds<\/strong>: “[Hansen] had fantasies of relationships that really didn\u2019t exist \u2013 like when he kidnapped that gal, he thought she liked him type thing and “if you\u2019ll only come with me I\u2019ll make love to you.” That\u2019s the type of thinking that went through his head. “If I could just prove my greatness, she\u2019ll like me” \u2013- but the trouble is he\u2019s gotta snatch them and hold them and secure them and chain them in order to attract \u2013- to gain their attention.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n And that was a recipe for disaster. A disaster that had only one outcome. Murder was not only inevitable, it was a necessity. Dead women don’t talk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cHe knew that we knew he was \u2018the great hunter,’ Flothe notes of Hansen, “and a great outdoorsman. I think that in his own mind he thought he could convince us that he was truly out and about so much as to leave a shell casing from his gun at each grave site, particularly at one gravesite where the shell casing was in the gravesite with the body. It was the ultimate arrogance.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n “But look how many times the police had screwed up, look at how many times they bought the story. I mean, there\u2019s questions that I want to ask Robert Hansen \u2013 at what point did you think that these weren\u2019t dummies? Was it the first interview or when we were doing the search warrant or two weeks later after he sat in the slammer or at what point did he realize these guys had their shit together and they weren\u2019t gonna fuckin\u2019 gonna\u2026 “<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd in order for me to ask that question, I think it\u2019s obvious that I wasn\u2019t sure myself<\/em> at what point he was willing to give it all up. I just knew, though, from his past experience that if I kept dumping on him, dumping on him more pressure, file more charges \u2013 I mean, I had \u2018em file burglary charges on him, rape charges, I was gonna charge murder charges on him, and I was gonna dump\u2026 and we told him that \u2013 every time we find a body, Mr. Robert Hansen, we\u2019re gonna bring your ass back up here and we\u2019re gonna go through another trial. I don\u2019t care if it\u2019s 22 trials. We\u2019re gonna go through 22. Every time we find a victim, every time we find a bullet that matches your gun, we\u2019re coming back. <\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cAnd so, in my own mind, I\u2019m very curious to know at what point did he realize these guys \u2013 for once \u2013 had their shit together?”<\/p>\n\n\n\n [1] See: Not the Sum of Its Parts: A Critical Review of the MacDonald Triad<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n As you no doubt know by now, it’s sales of Butcher, Baker<\/a> that keep this enterprise humming. I am very fortunate to have Open Road Media fulfill that role. That’s because, in addition to offering Butcher, Baker in multiple formats, they also periodically offer my work on discount. That’s an “everybody wins” proposition. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Their latest offering swings across Canada and the U.S. As the proud grandson of a Victoria, B.C. native, I can always get behind that a deal like that. <\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"insights\"](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/butcherbaker\/images\/glenn-flothe-on-couch-Anchorage_Daily_News_1984-02-29_16.png\")
A Man Who Knew Him Well<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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So I don\u2019t think his initial exploits were simply to take them out and kill them. He wanted to dominate them, he wanted to use them, he wanted to feel power around them \u2013 so in a way, I think it was getting back at women. I think it\u2019s a general hate for women \u2013 but back then, initially, it was hate coupled with sexual desire. I think, as he went on, I think his sexual desire lessened and in fact disappeared. And it was simply the hate and the thrill of the chase, the hunt and the capture and the kill. Simple as that. And he was like an animal that\u2019s tasted blood. He couldn\u2019t stop.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
Insights Into a Killer<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Apple Maps illustration by Leland E. Hale<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\nNo More Fantasies<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
[I]t got to the point where he was not just shooting them once \u2013 like Morrow or Goulding \u2013 he was shooting them multiple times with multiple weapons. He\u2019d empty one gun, empty another gun, then he\u2019d take out a knife and just savagely stab the bodies. Their clothes were totally intact. They hadn\u2019t been raped, hadn\u2019t been molested, hadn\u2019t been chained up, you know, for long periods of time.<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\"Don't say a goddamn word to him, I don't want to have to - if you raise hell and he starts for me I'm going to have to shoot the son-of-a-bitch and if I've got to shoot him I'm going to shoot you and you don't want to die do ya?\"<\/pre>\n\n\n\n
\"She just slapped at me and she started running you know, she started running - the river's out this way - and she started running this way. I caught up to her and ah, I got her stopped. I said now look, it's over. There is no real problem the guy is gone. It's all cool now, you know. But she had got hysterical and I couldn't get her calmed down. She just ah, the more I tried to talk to her, maybe it was because I was getting excited, but she just got more and more hysterical and she broke away from me again and ah, started to run you know. I just reached back you know, the rifle was laying there and ah - or leaned up against the building, I grabbed - reached back - I took a couple steps back and grabbed that, I ran and caught - and I caught her again and I said now look - I said don't make a bad thing worse. Don't - stop - it's okay.
But then I had a gun in my hand and [she said] 'you're going to kill me right now.' Then she - it just went completely, things just went completely bad again.\"<\/pre>\n\n\n\nLet ‘Em Run<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"insights\"](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/butcherbaker\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/Flothe-airplane-not-knik-running-Anchorage_Daily_Times_1984-02-29_10.png\")
A Man’s Obsessions<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Cindy](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/butcherbaker\/images\/cindy_paulson-bw-autotone.png\")
<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\nThe Cindy Paulson Insights<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Flothe Wonders About Hansen’s Insights<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Now A Word From Our Sponsor<\/h3>\n\n\n\n
![\"Kill](\"https:\/\/lelandhale.com\/butcherbaker\/images\/kill-brother-kill-sister.png\")
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