Director: Glenn Kershaw
Oklahoma City
PROFILE/ VICTIMOLOGY
UNSUB - Earl Bulford
- 27-35 year old white male
- enucleator (removes eyes) -> Usually enucleators are males with a diagnosed mental disorder, lack social skills, disorganized, sloppy, repeat offenders. They don't usually take the eyes. It's usually not about the eyes, but about what the unsub sees in them (delusional!)
- This unsub however is quite organized and strategic, and does take the eyes with him. (Possibility: trophy/consumption)
- Apart from the first victim he's very precise with taking the eyes -> might have some medical training (but will not have made a career out of it)
- Blitz attack - he lacks the social skills to charm his victims.
- Very likely to have been institutionalized/ halfway house/ treatment facility.
- Less than 48 hours between kills (he is escalating) No cooling off period will make it hard to get ahead of him.
- Area of 22miles between locations (usually the kill area is smaller)
- Leaves body in somewhat public area where he could have easily hidden it there - he is not afraid to get caught
- Used a trip wire -> game hunter. He may have applied for a hunting license.
- He waits until he is alone with his victims -> patient
- Killers usually get more sloppy when they escalate, this unsub only gets better.
- Drives a van or pickup that's easy to clean (his dad's)
VICTIMOLOGY
- severed coroted artery
- missing eyes, but different color of eyes
- different ages
Victim 1 - John O'Hare
- 61
- Known for drunken behavior
- Blunt force trauma to the head
- Disposed of body in secluded area -> unsub familiar with area.
- Bludgeoned, personal ->unsub knew vic?
- eyes missing, but gouged out (not precise)
- -- Told Earl he couldn't do eyes (taxidermy) which set him off.
Victims 2 - Megan / Venus
- 17 / 17
- Opportunistic, less personal
- eyes removed with surgical precision
- parking garage, blitz attack
Victim 3 - Tracy Copper
- 32
- jogger, unsub used a trip wire
- attack at night, cut wired in electrical boxed - unsub used night-vision goggles
- Male victim fought back and his left eye got lacerated, the unsub didn't take either eye. -> eyes need to be intact and flawless. -> Taxidermist
CATCHING THE UNSUB
Morgan and Tamara went to a hearing(?), Tamara hands Morgan a silver necklace with a cross that belonged to her brother William. She asks him out for drinks when things have calmed down - Morgan agrees.
SC Strauss is keeping a close eye on Morgan, offers him Hotchner's office, but Morgan declines. He spends the rest of the day trying to ignore Strauss, but in the end does answer her call.
Like Rossi tells Hotchner, Morgan is a natural leader, and he is excelling at the job.
But Rossi also warns Hotchner - what do you think is going to happen when you take your old position again, and Morgan has to step down?
The whole situation is slightly uncomfortable when in the plane Morgan is the one dividing the tasks.
They visit Venus' family at their house, they hope the team can find the eyes so that Venus will not be cursed and wandering for eternity. (Buddhist - 3 days of mourning, and the full body needs to be cremated).
Garcia runs a search on doctors in the area, narrows it down to doctors with malpractice suits, then to eye specialists.
JJ has to deal with the local news who us running the story (they even came up with a nickname "the eye snatcher") Meanwhile the unsub is machining a spoon into a sophisticated eye-cutting tool.
Because of the short time between murders (but instead of getting sloppier, getting more precise), the team think the unsub might work on a self imposed timeline. Or as local PD puts it: Crazy with a mission.
After the 4th murder Garcia runs taxidermists through her system and comes up with Lloyd Bulford, he died 4 weeks ago of emphysema (stressor), his son Earl lived with him. He's 28, has 3 counts of animal cruelty on his record as well as petty crime. His mother died in a car crash when he was 8, and has retinitis pigmentosa (which eventually leads to blindness). The taxidermy shop is in foreclosure.
When the first victim angrily told Earl that the eyes on his taxidermy work were wrong, he killed him.
Apart from a driver's license he's not in the system. They put out an APB on the dad's car, and go to the taxidermy shop. There the team find out he's been using his victims eyes in his taxidermy animals.
He's been hunting since a kid. Since he got expelled from school he was very socially isolated (which lead to mental issues). His dad was the one who kept him in control. His killing locations are all very close to addresses of clients where he drops off his work.
They track him down just as he is about to take victim 5's eyes out (but she blasts him with pepper spray and Hotch is just in time).
Morgan goes to tell Venus' family that they found her eyes.
Garcia and JJ have executed a special ops mission behind the teams back - they've cleared out the office of an agent who is retiring in a month (and who will finish his work at home), and furnished and decorated Morgan his very own office. While Hotchner is working on the Foyet case, Garcia shows Morgan the FUN drawer in his desk. Morgan thanks Garcia (because she rocks) and then calls Tamara to set up drinks.
REFERENCES TO REAL CASES
Herbert Mullin. Paranoid schizophrenic from Ca. who thought that by killing people he could hold off a big impending earthquake. He killed 13 people in 4 months.
Memorable Moments
Garcia (about Morgan):
I know he's fine, but how's he holding up as head honcho?
When the possibility of the unsub consuming the eyes was discussed, and the unsib was eating a boiled egg, I decided to hold off on eating my lunch for a while...
