I know you've enjoyed this ride as much as I have, Max... We are inseparable, you and me.Walter Kern to Max Ryan.
Walter Kern, also known as "The Keystone Killer", is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Unfinished Business". He is a serial killer who starts murdering again after several years of inactivity in order to re-engage with his nemesis, retired FBI criminal profiler Max Ryan.
He was portrayed by Aaron Lustig.
Biography
Early life
Kern began killing women in their 20s with long brown hair in 1986 in his native Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. While he earned a degree in criminology and spent four years in the U.S. Air Force, he chose to work a series of menial jobs so he could have more time to focus on his true passion - torturing and killing women. His longest-term job was as a security alarm installer, which, ironically, granted him access to a few of his victims' homes. His signature was to tie his victims up using intricate knots, and then strangle them to death. He committed a few of the murders with help from fetish burglar Scott Harbin.
Kern and the lead investigator on his case, criminal profiler Max Ryan of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), became obsessed with each other; Ryan devoted much of his career and all of his free time to finding the Keystone Killer, while Kern followed Ryan's career and read all of his books. He also wrote Ryan and the other police on the case a series of taunting letters, bragging about his crimes and challenging Ryan to solve ciphers that supposedly contained clues to his identity.
In 1988, at the height of his killing spree, Kern was in a car accident that left him with permanent spinal damage, rendering him too weak to continue killing. He married and started his own business installing security systems, but remained obsessed with killing, and particularly with playing the "game" he imagined that he shared with Ryan, who had since retired. He kept a series of mementos of the murders, such as pictures of his victims and newspaper articles about the case.
In 2006, after seeing a news story about Ryan's latest book about the Keystone Killer case, Kern, who had regained much of his former strength over the years, decided to start killing again.
"Unfinished Business"
Kern restarts his killing spree by murdering Carla Bromwell, the woman he had been on his way to kill when he had his accident, and with whom he has been obsessed ever since. He then sends Kern an anonymous note, complete with a cipher puzzle and the driver's licenses of his last two victims. He also sends a note boasting about the murder to a TV news station.
As intended, this gets Ryan's attention, and he consults with the BAU, now led by Kern's friend and protégé, Jason Gideon. The BAU's involvement excites Kern, who leaves a note for Gideon and Ryan in Harbin's house, knowing that Harbin would be their first suspect. Sure enough, the BAU arrest and interrogate Harbin, in the process saving a woman he had been about to murder. Ryan finds the note, and realizes that Harbin, while guilty of kidnapping and attempted murder, is not the Keystone Killer.
The BAU realizes that the killer has changed his preferred victim type to older women because he has lost the physical strength and control needed to subdue younger ones, likely because he suffered a debilitating injury that forced him to stop killing for so long. Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia researches hospital records for people who were in serious accidents in Philadelphia in 1988, and finds that Kern had his near Bromwell's house. Realizing that Kern fits the profile, the BAU goes to his house, where Gideon and Ryan question his wife and find the souvenirs of his murders in his dark room. Agent Spencer Reid realizes that Kern intends to kill the women he had _targeted before his accident.
Meanwhile, emboldened by the renewed press attention, Kern goes to his acquaintance Sylvia Gooden's house and takes her hostage, having fantasized for years about killing her. Just as he is about to murder her, however, the BAU bursts in and arrests him. As he is led away, Kern tells Ryan that he knows they both enjoyed "the ride" of the murders, and that they are "inseparable". He is then imprisoned for life.
Trivia
- Kern is based on multiple real-life serial killers:
- The Zodiac Killer, an unidentified serial killer who taunted the police and the media with letters containing ciphers.
- Dennis Rader, a.k.a. "The BTK Killer", a serial killer with a similar background and skill set who was arrested after going dormant for several years.
- The late Albert DeSalvo, who raped and strangled several women in their homes.
- The late William Heirens, a.k.a. "The Lipstick Killer", who escalated from burglary to murdering women and girls.
- The late Ted Bundy, who preyed almost exclusively on women in their 20s with long brown hair.
External Links
- Walter Kern on the Criminal Minds Wiki
