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Benjamin "Benji" Barnwright is one of the secondary antagonists of the first season of the Netflix original series Mindhunter, serving as one of the two main antagonists (alongside Frank Janderman) of the fourth, fifth and sixth episodes.
He is the fiancée of Beverly Shaw who savagely murders and mutilates her with help from his brother-in-law, Frank Janderman.
He was portrayed by Joseph Cross.
Biography[]
Benji's father ran out on him when he was a child, which took a toll on him. He began wetting the bed and refusing to leave the house. His mother tried her best, but she had to leave him and his younger sister Rose home alone a lot while she went out to make the money to support them. Things only started to turn around for Benji when Rose began dating her future husband Frank Janderman, who moved in with the family. Benji befriended Frank and started leaving the house again, beginning to view Frank as a protector, and got a job bagging groceries at A&P.
When Benji was 26 he began dating Beverly Jean Shaw, his first ever girlfriend. He began making plans to marry her, but she wasn't as enthusiastic about it and they had yet to set a date for the wedding. Their relationship was strained by Benji's jealousy and sexual insecurity; when Beverly Jean got her hair done, Benji became convinced that she was flirting with other men to make him jealous. This was not helped by Frank's persistent sexual harassment of Beverly Jean, which he did mostly to antagonize Benji.
One day, Benji tried to initiate sex with Beverly Jean but she turned him down. Benji's jealously finally reached boiling point and he beat her to a pulp before panicking, tying her up and calling Frank over to help him. Seeing his chance, Frank took the opportunity to rape Beverly Jean while she was tied up on the floor; Benji saw but didn't intervene because he wanted to see her hurt and degraded. Frank then goaded Benji about what a slut she was, riling him up until he stabbed her repeatedly in the torso. The two of them moved her into the bathtub and called Rose over to clean up the scene, but when Rose arrived she realized Beverly Jean was still alive, so Benji and Frank stabbed her again; overall, the two of them stabbed her 14 times. Benji and Frank then moved Beverly Jean's body to the dump while Rose cleaned up the house. However, a few days later Benji came back to the dump and vented his rage by mutilating her body further, severing her breasts, mutilating her anus and vagina, and cutting off part of her scalp before posing it near the body as a kind of trophy. He buried the breasts in his backyard.
In Mindhunter[]
Beverly Jean's body is found four days after her murder. Benji is interviewed by the local police as a matter of course, but is overlooked as a suspect because the police refuse to believe that a local could be responsible. The investigation consequently goes nowhere until lead detective Mark Ocasek asks Special Agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench of the FBI's Behavioural Analysis Unit to consult on the case. Holden and Bill interview Benji themselves, becoming concerned when they find out that Ocasek told Benji ahead of time he was going to be interviewed, giving him time to prepare. Benji tells them about his relationship with Beverly Jean, painting a picture of a happy relationship, but when the questioning grows too invasive he breaks down crying until Holden and Bill have to end the interview. Bill is suspicious, suggesting his outburst was deliberately calculated to get them out of there, but Holden and Ocasek doubt if he was strong enough to move the body himself.
Holden and BSU consultant Wendy Carr later discuss their suspicions of Benji. Noting Benji's feelings of sexual inadequacy, Carr suggests that his insecurity could have acted as a stressor that pushed him to degrade Beverly Jean's body in such a way, and suggests that the person who raped her was likely not the same person who mutilated her. Holden and Bill later become suspicious of Frank and interview him, finding out that Benji and Beverly Jean's relationship was not as close as Benji claimed. When they interview Benji about it, he betrays his paranoia and fears that Beverly Jean was seeing other men, bolstering Carr's theory and leaving them increasingly suspicious of him.
Holden, Bill and Ocasek go on to interview Rose, who reveals Benji's obsessive jealousy and the argument about Beverly Jean getting her hair done up. Rose initially denies knowledge of the case, but after Ocasek implies that her children could be taken away if she lies to them, she admits that Benji and Frank called her over to clean up the scene after they killed Beverly Jean, although she does not mention that Beverly Jean was still alive when she arrived. Benji and Frank are both arrested and blame each other for the crime, with Benji claiming that Beverly Jean was a slut who had sex with Frank of her own free will; he also claims that he only stabbed her after she died. Holden and Bill are left uncertain as to which of them actually killed her, particularly when an inconsistency in Rose's statement leads them to realize she was there when Beverly Jean was killed; all three are ultimately charged with the murder.
After reviewing the case, Carr decides that Benji was likely the actual killer and the one who mutilated the corpse, but that Frank raped Beverly Jean and pushed him into stabbing her, and that both of them were equally responsible. However, the Blair County district attorney is not convinced and feels that Benji is primarily responsible. Unable to prove the case as presented by the BSU, he offers Frank a plea bargain for his testimony and Frank shifts all the blame for the crime onto Benji, claiming that Benji raped and killed Beverly Jean and he only helped move the body; he also directs the police to where Benji buried her breasts. Benji is ultimately convicted of Beverly Jean's murder and sent to death row while Frank goes to a mental institution.