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| "The Frozen Ground" - based on a true story. |
I generally like to blog about happy things and fun things, but this topic was just too creepy to pass up. I work part-time at a bookstore in Arkansas, and, on Halloween, a lady asked me to help her find a book about a serial killer in Alaska. "I used to live there," she said, referring to Anchorage, Alaska, where she and her husband both worked in the 80's. The real-life serial killer, Robert Hansen, had also lived there.
"He had a building away from his house where he tortured and raped girls," said Kay Houser, the nice lady at the bookstore. "He told his wife and kids it was for taxidermy and to never go out there," said Houser.
Robert Hansen had previously been thought of as a "community-minded person" who was involved with the local Boy Scouts and who ran a local bakery in Anchorage. "I ate at his bakery every day," said Houser, who, like everyone else, had no clue what this man was doing in his spare time.
"That was a shock," she said. "I could not believe it."
Lionsgate just released a movie about Hansen earlier this year called "The Frozen Ground." It stars Nicholas Cage as the chief investigator and John Cusack as the killer.
For more than a decade, Hansen preyed on young women who were prostitutes. Houser said everyone knew women were disappearing in Anchorage, and they were told to stick together in groups. She had no idea that the culprit was the owner of her favorite bakery.
Hansen eventually got caught because one of his victims ran away as he was trying to get her into his private airplane. According to the movie, Hansen would take the girls up in his plane and fly to a remote area of Alaska, then shoot the girl as she tried to run away. 11 bodies have been found, although Hansen has confessed to murdering 17 women. He also confessed to kidnapping and raping 30 more women, although authorities believe there were many more.
Hansen is currently in prison, serving out his 461-years-plus-life sentence. He is not eligible for parole.
There are more details about the story here: Robert Hansen_Alaska Serial Killer
