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Armando Ruis Salinas is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Catching Out". He is a serial killer who murders wealthy homeowners so he can live in their houses for free.
He was portrayed by Andre Royo.
Biography[]
Early life[]
| “ | When he was a kid, he slept on the floor.
In jail, he slept on the floor. All he ever talked about was having a house of his own. A bed to sleep on. |
„ |
| ~ Armando’s half-brother describing the former’s desire to have his own home and bed. |
Salinas and his half-brother Ruben Garcia grew up in Mexico in extreme poverty, forced to sleep on the floor because their parents could not afford beds. Salinas desired above all else to live in a luxurious house.
As an adult, he worked alongside Garcia in Los Angeles as a day laborer, and they formed a cuadrilla, a worker's collective. He was also arrested several times for burglary and assault, and developed an addiction to huffing household cleansers, ultimately costing the cuadrilla a major contract and leaving Garcia no choice but to kick him out.
Shortly afterward, Salinas broke into wealthy philanthropist Mildred Younce's house and murdered her, and spent the night in the luxury home he had always dreamed of. He left the next day and started riding the railways, killing wealthy home owners throughout the state of California and living in their houses. He beats them to death with objects he finds around their houses, and then dresses them in his clothes to mock them and flaunt the fact that he has stolen their houses. He also steals and sells his victims' valuables, leaving the money in migrant worker camps for Garcia, the one person in the world he cares about, to find.
"Catching Out"[]
Salinas murders two wealthy couples, the Sullivans and the Ortizes, in a single day. While squatting in the latter's house, he finds a newspaper with an article about the murders, nicknaming him the "Highway 99 Killer" based on the incorrect assumption that he travels between kill sites on interstate highways. He takes a picture of the Ortizes with the newspaper to taunt the authorities. After leaving more money for Garcia at a work camp, he hops a train to Lockewood, California in search of another victim.
The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) investigates the murders, and profiles the killer as a homeless, Hispanic male in his 20s or 30s who kills wealthy people and squats in their houses both to punish his victims for having the wealth and comfort he believes should be his, and to live out a fantasy of having a luxurious lifestyle. From his ability to move from town to town while being too poor to own a car, they theorize that he travels by hopping freight trains; from the ferocity of the beatings and the empty household cleaners discovered in the victims' houses, they deduce that he is addicted to huffing solvents.
In Lockewood, Salinas prepares to break into another house, but this time the occupant is watching the BAU's press conference about the killer, and calls 9-11 when she sees Salinas lurking in her backyard. Salinas panics and tries to flee, but runs into a responding police officer and kills him with a railroad spike he had taken from the train yard. The BAU, who had also responded to the 9-11 call, catch Salinas in the act of killing the police officer, and give chase. Salinas runs to the train yard and hops onto a departing train, but BAU Agent Derek Morgan makes it onto the train as well. They fight, and Salinas nearly throws Morgan from the train, but his BAU colleague Aaron Hotchner saves his life by shooting Salinas dead from his moving car.
Trivia[]
- Salinas is based on multiple real-life serial killers:
- Ángel Maturino Reséndiz, a.k.a. "The Railroad Killer", a Mexican serial killer/rapist of homeowners who he murdered while hoping the trains of the United States, raping the women and murdering the occupants with various weapons in the houses.
- Richard Ramirez, a.k.a. "The Night Stalker", a serial killer/rapist of couples in their beds, with a history of household inhalant abuse.
- Joseph DeAngelo, a.k.a. "The Golden State Killer", an American serial killer/rapist across California with an M.O. of, after long sprees of burglaries and rapes, tying up couples in homes, raping the women, and bludgeoning the victims to death with items in the house. Instead of taunting the authorities, DeAngelo would place obscene calls to living victims and their loved ones.
- Lloyd Gomez, a.k.a. "The Phantom Hobo Killer", a serial killer of fellow transients for the purpose of robbery, riding railcars for transportation, and having a previous record of assault.
External Links[]
- Armando Ruis Salinas on the Criminal Minds Wiki
