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“ | Stupid, incompetent sons of bitches! I don't make mistakes! I am Death! You hear me? I am Death! You'll see now, tomorrow. Mark my words, you will see. And while I'm taking her, I'm gonna be thinking of you. | „ |
~ An enraged Franklin calling the BAU after they arrest the wrong person. |
Franklin Graney, also known as the Tommy Killer, is a major antagonist in the crime-drama TV series Criminal Minds. He is a serial killer-rapist who appears as the main antagonist of the Season One episode "Plain Sight."
He was portrayed by Kirk B.R. Woller.
Biography[]
Backstory[]
Franklin lived in San Diego, California, with a domineering elderly woman implied to be his mother. He worked as a telephone repairman, which he used to stalk women in the higher class neighborhoods. Because he was middle class, he felt invisible to wealthy women, and despised them for it.
He would stalk them while climbing on the telephone poles to learn their routine, break into their houses, subduing them with duct tape, and glue her eyes open. Her would then rape them, strangle them with wire, trash their house, and leave them in a position so that their bodies could see him up on the telephone pole. He went on to claim five victims and earned the nickname "The Tommy Killer", after The Who's 1969 album Tommy, a rock opera about a "blind, deaf, and dumb boy".
However, the police didn't know it was the same killer, so after the fourth murder, he started leaving verses from a 16th century poem about death written on the mirror at the crime scenes.
In "Plain Sight"[]
On October 8, 2005, Graney rapes and kills his sixth victim, Brenda Samms. With a rapid increase in time frame between kills, the police call in the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) for help.
The police arrest a young Black man for Graney's crimes, which enrages Graney; he calls the BAU, berates them for giving someone else "the credit" for what he has done, and vows to claim another victim the next day. He makes sure his call cannot be traced by routing it through 25 different substations.
The following day, Graney breaks into Shelly Hart's house, getting her to obey his orders by threatening her infant son. Just as he is about to kill her, however, the BAU arrives at the house, having deduced Graney's identity from the case evidence.
Panicked, Graney threatens to kill Hart. BAU Supervisory Agent Jason Gideon manages to talk him down, however, by appealing to Graney's desire to be famous; he tells Graney that, if he surrenders, he will become an overnight media sensation, and his name will live forever alongside such "celebrity killers" as Charles Manson and Jeffrey Dahmer. Gideon then explains that, if Graney kills Hart, he will be forced to return fire, and that he will tell the media that he had merely interrupted a burglary, thus denying Graney the infamy he craves. Graney thinks it over for a moment, and surrenders to the BAU. He is then imprisoned for life.
Trivia[]
- Graney is primarily inspired by the late Albert DeSalvo, the main suspect in the Boston Strangler case.
External Links[]
- Franklin Graney at the Criminal Minds Wiki