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“ | I never did anything to you that you didn't want. | „ |
~ Bartholomew to Regina Lampert. |
Hamilton Bartholomew, also known as The Piano Man, is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Unknown Subject".
He is a serial rapist who appears to be targeting his former victims to remind them he still has power over them. He is also mentioned in the Season Eight episode "The Fallen".
He was portrayed by Jay Karnes, who also played Tyler Brennen in Burn Notice.
Biography[]
Past[]
Hamilton was a skilled piano player and appeared to do this for a living. However, he had applied for at least one other job which ran a background check, including fingerprints. According to Hamilton, he proposed to his wife while playing Pat Benatar's "Total Eclipse of the Heart".
Crime spree[]
While attending a bar that he frequented, Bartholomew saw a woman named Regina Lampert picking up a man. She picked up another man the next night, and then the next. Eventually, Bartholomew approached Regina and offered her a cigarette. Regina accepted, not realising the cigarette was drugged, and passed out. Bartholomew then kidnapped her, tied her up with piano wire and raped her while wearing a mask and playing a tape of "Total Eclipse of the Heart". Regina regained consciousness during the rape, but could not fight Hamilton off.
Eventually, Hamilton got bored with Regina and let her go, not realizing he had left a fingerprint on her glasses. The piano wire left such horrible scars that her fiancé left her. Refina became obsessed with finding and killing her rapist. Bartholomew later went on to rape a number of other women, some of whom did not come forward. He always made sure to play a different piano ballad and tie his victim with wire, earning him the moniker "the Piano Man".
At some point, Bartholomew discovered that a man named Herman Scobie was using his modus operandi in order to rape his old victims. Seeing this as the perfect way to prevent any further investigation, Bartholomew decided to attack a previous victim using his original MO and plant evidence incriminating Scobie to make it appear Scobie was the Piano Man all along.
In "Unknown Subject"[]
Bartholomew attacks one of his former victims, Vanessa Campbell, in her home. Bartholomew makes sure to play the same song he played during the previous assault before kidnapping and strangling her. He then plants evidence to show that the killer was the same person committing the new rapes, which the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) are investigating.
Later, Bartholomew plays "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in a bar when Regina recognizes the song and asks him to stop. She then tricks him into escorting her to her car before tazing and abducting him. She ties him up with piano wire and accuses him of raping her. He denies it was him and claims he wasn't playing "Total Eclipse". She ignores this and shoots him in the hand.
After seeing on the news that Scobie has been arrested as the Piano Man, Bartholomew mocks Regina and admits to having sex with her, but claims it was consensual. Meanwhile, the BAU finally work out that Scobie is not the Piano Man and discover that Bartholomew has been reported missing. They connect Regina to his disappearance and get his fingerprints from the background check at his old job to compare to the one he left on Regina's glasses.
BAU Agents Aaron Hotchner and Emily Prentiss go to rescue Bartholomew. He escapes his restraints and calls 911. When the agents arrive, Regina is seconds away from executing Bartholomew until Prentiss tells her that his fingerprints do not match the ones left at the crime scene, so he must be innocent. Regina releases Bartholomew, but Hotchner then reveals that this was a lie to prevent her from killing him before arresting Bartholomew.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Bartholomew is inspired by multiple real-life serial rapists:
- Giles Warrick, a.k.a. "The Potomac River Rapist", a serial rapist of women in the D.C. area, as well as the killer of one woman during a home invasion.
- The unidentified "Batman Rapist", a British serial rapist of women in thights, who were kidnapped in carjackings before being raped. The rapist is one of the prome suspects in the murder of Melanie Hall.
- David Parker Ray, a.k.a. “The Toy Box Killer”, a violent serial kidnapper and rapist of women leaving them with irreparable physical and emotional scars. One woman Ray raped and tortured was killed by strangulation, but by an accomplice instead of him.
- "Hamilton Bartholomew" is the alias of Carson Dyle, the main antagonist of Charades.
External links[]
- Hamilton Bartholomew on the Criminal Minds Wiki