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| “ | What's my name? My name's Francis Goehring. | „ |
| ~ Henry Frost subsuming his own identity. |
Henry Frost, later known as Francis Goehring, was the titular antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Identity". He was originally the submissive partner to the sadistic serial killer Francis Goehring, who served as both his "master" and emotional crutch. Following Goehring's death (at the start of the episode), Henry took on Francis' identity, attempting to continue his killing spree and criminal activity. His short-lived activity came to an end following a stand off with the local police department and agents from the F.B.I's behavioural analysis unit.
He was portrayed by Kaj-Erik Eriksen.
Appearance[]
Henry Frost was described as being 5.8 ft tall. He orignally had medium to short length blonde hair and a thin blonde moustache. After taking on Goehring's identity, Frost gave himself a makeover in order to look like his late partner. He dyed his hair brown and changed the style to match Goehring's. He also cut the left side of his face in order to recreate a scar Goehring had, carving a scar into his flesh, which ran from just below his left eye almost to his ear. This injury failed to heal before Henry's death.
Personality[]
| “ | He has no identity. He burned his face off his pictures ... A submissive depends upon a dominant partner not only for instruction but for purpose and meaning. | „ |
| ~ Special Agent Spencer Read describes Henry Frost's loss of identity. |
Henry Frost's life was deeply tied to Francis Goehring's. As a submissive and troubled man who sought purpose in life, Henry Frost naturally gravitated towards Francis' domineering personality. He freely embraced Goehring's extremist views, developing a deep hatred for both the government and the authorities. He also found his servitude quite satisfying, since following Goehring's instructions gave his life the meaning he sought. Although Henry never objected to any of the deplorable things that Francis Goehring did, he secretly resented the fact that Francis never looked at him the same way he did the girls.
Once Goehring was gone, however, Henry's life quickly fell apart. Without his partner to lead him, Henry lost his sense of identity. Brainwashed by all of Francis' insults and instructions Henry Frost found himself unable to cope with the loss of his partner. In desperation, Henry took on Francis Goehring's identity, burying his true self deep down as he tried to morph himself into his deceased mentor. This attempt was only partially successful, however, because whilst Frost managed to recreate Francis' appearance, he lacked Goehring's sadism and ruthlessness. For example, it is implied that he only killed their fourth victim, Angela Miller, because she could identify him and would have spared her if given the choice. He also later hesitated to fire upon Agent Aaron Hotchner despite being given plenty of opportunity to do so. In spite of this, Henry nevertheless remained defiant until the very end.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Henry Frost had a very troubled upbringing. He grew up in an unstable environment and was regularly abused by his alcoholic father. When Henry was 15, his dad threw him out onto the streets and abandoned him. Henry would spend the rest of his adolescence altering between various jails or psychiatric institutions. At some point during his life, Henry realised that he was homosexual.
Eventually, Henry managed to either by or rent a new home, a trailer in Great Falls, Montana. He also got a job as a clerk at a local flower shop. It was during this time that he met Francis Goehring, an extremist militia member and a serial killer with an extreme messiah complex. Through means unspecified, Henry became Goehring's accomplice.
Goehring lived in a private residence on a piece of land that he had forcefully taken from his ex-wife. He brought Frost to his residence or as he called it, his kingdom. There, Goehring molded Frost into something more akin to a servant than an equal. Aside from instilling his own extremist views into the younger man, Francis made Henry do everything he wanted. This included keeping the house clean and organised (obsessively), mantaining the garden and generally doing anything he ordered. Throughout this time, he insulted Henry, constantly belittling him and telling him how worthless he was without him.
Once Frost had been molded into the perfect serf, their criminal streak began. Between 2006 and 2007, over a fourteen month period, the two men kidnapped three local women, who were brought back to the compound to satisfy Goehring's insidious desires. Over the course of several weeks, Goehring would torture his victim, with Frost videotaping each "session". This continued until the woman expired, either as a result of the torture or Francis growing bored and killing them. Following their deaths, Goehring had Henry bury the body in his backyard, planting a rose bush over their remains as a marker. After that, the two men would search for a fresh victim and start the process all over again.
Henry Frost never knowingly objected to any of these activities. On the contrary, he was extremely grateful to Goehring, as his actions gave Henry something he had long sought; a purpose in life. Henry secretly developed romantic feelings for his partner and was actually jealous that Francis never looked at him the way Goehring looked at the girls he tortured.
"Identity"[]
After successfully kidnapping and murdering three innocent women, Francis Goehring's luck finally ran out. Following the death of their most recent victim, Frost took Goehring out to find a new target for his desires. They eventually kidnapped a woman named Angela Miller from a local store and brought her back to the residence. Goehring then drove Angela's car out into the desert in order to dump the vehicle. It is not known what Frost did during this period, but he most likely took a different route, in order to avoid suspicion before picking up Goehring from an undisclosed location. Unfortunately for the two criminals, Angela Miller had not been alone. Her husband and son were at the same store. Upon seeing his wife and vehicle gone, Mr. Miller contacted the authorities and less than a hour after the kidnapping, state troopers spotted Goehring driving the stolen vehicle along the highway. Forced to pull over, Goehring found himself outnumbered and outgunned. Rather than submit to the people he hated, Francis Goehring chose to blow himself up with a grenade.
Henry Frost presumably found out about his partner's death through the police radio Goehring kept as part of his militia supplies. Although devestated and distraught by the loss of his partner, Henry realised that it was only a matter of time before the police and the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), whom the local sheriff had asked for help found the compound. Before leaving the house, Henry destroyed Goehring's torture tapes and took all of Francis Goehring's weaponary. He then grabbed Angela from the cell Goehring kept her in, marched her out into the garden and shot her dead, so that she could not identify him.
Returning to his trailer, Henry Frost suffered a mental breakdown which resulted in a total lose of identity. Having grown completely dependent upon Goehring and the support his actions gave him, the submissive Henry quickly realised that he could not live without Goehring. To get around this the young man eventually decided to erase all traces of Henry Frost and take on Francis Goehring's identity. Using a picture as a reference, Henry changed his clothes, then dyed his blonde hair brown before cutting/gelling it to match Goehring's style. Last but not least, Henry smashed a glass bottle and cut his face to recreate the distinctive scar Goehring had across his left cheek. With that Henry Frost became a younger incarnation of Francis Goehring.
With his makeover complete, Frost drove out to a local gs station. After buying a beer and some pumpkin seeds, he did what his late partner would have done in the event of his death and started their operation all over again. Waiting patiently, Frost eventually spotted a young woman called Becky, who fitted Goehring's preferences. Approaching the woman. Henry offered to help her with her shopping. When she politely turned him down, Henry pulled out a gun, forced her to get into the trunk of her car, before climbing into the drivers seat and driving off. His abduction was witnessed by the station cashier. She tried to get him to stop by threatening him with a shotgun but, afraid of hitting Becky, stood down and called the police instead.
Henry then drove Becky up to Black Eagle Peak, an old training ground for militia members. There he tied Becky up and despite her desperate pleas, attached a spiked necktie to her, which cut both her chin and neck every time she struggled. When Becky asked for his name, Henry identified himself as Francis Goehring. After that, Henry proceeded to torture Becky like Goehring would have done. Unlike his partner, however, Henry did not derive any real pleasure from the act due to both his lack of sadism and his homosexuality.
Last Stand and Death[]
| “ | Hotchner: Henry just let the girl go. And I'll clear everybody out, and you and I can just talk. That's a promise. It doesn't have to end like this!
Henry: YES IT DOES! YES IT DOES! AND IT WILL! |
„ |
| ~ Henry Frost's last words, as he refuses Aaron Hotchner's offer to surrender. |
Fortunately for Becky, her captivity would not last for long. After finding Angela Miller's body, BAU Agents Derek Morgan and Jennifer Jarau (JJ) visited the local militia bar, to see if they knew who Goehring's accomplice. The group, leader, Harris Townsend told them that the group did not know anything about Goehring's partner, except that he was about 5.8 ft tall. Penelope Garcia, who studied Henry's recordings of Goehring was also unable to identify the second unsub because Henry never turned the camera lense towards himself. With no alternative, BAU Agents Spencer Read and Emily Read studied one of the recordings, alongside the sheriff, to see if they could unearth any clues as to their unsubs idenitiy.
Reid, who was an expert on human behaviour quickly noticed that the cameraman focused exclusively on Goehring. These records were meant to serve as trophies but the accomplice never focused on the woman for more than a few seconds. From this, Prentiss that the second man wasn't just devoted to Goehring, he was in love with him and that he had destroyed the tapes out of jealousy. Then whilst discussing the various jobs that Goehring made his partner do, Reid mentioned that this would have included planting roses over the victims bodies. Prentiss then realised that the unsub would have had to either purchase or pickup the roses personally, meaning that someone would have seen him!
The investigators visited the local nurserys, asking if anybody knew an anti-sociable young man in his early to mid twenties, who had purchased a large number of rose plants over the last several months. JJ ultimately managed to get a lead when the man she questioned said her description matched his co-worker Henry Frost to a tee. Obtaining both a photo and an address, the group quickly made their way to Henry's trailer, only to find it deserted and ransacked. Upon seeing that Frost had destroyed all of his possessions, including his photographs, the group realised that Frost was undergoing some form of crisis, but what kind they couldn't say yet.
Not long afterwards, they were notified of Becky's abduction. Heading down to the station, they questioned the cashier. Realising that Frost was getting sloppy without his partner, JJ asked the witness if she could identify the kidnapper from the photograph provided. To their suprise, however, the woman said "no" and showed the surveliance footage of the man in question. Seeing Frosts makeover, Agents David Rossi and Aaron Hotchner tried to figure out why Frost would alter his appearance like that. Adopting the mindset of the two criminals, they quickly realised that Frost was suffering from depersonalization disorder and was so attached to his partner that he had erased his own identity to become Francis Goehring.
Realising that they needed to think like Francis Goehring rather than Henry Frost, the FBI agents quickly deduced Frost's location from Goehring's obsession with ideal land, high ground and a photograph they had recovered from both Goehring's fridge and Henry Frosts trailer. Heading to Black Eagle Peak, a police survellance officer spoted Henry with Becky at the top of the peak. Knowing that Henry would not willingly surrender, the FBI agents asked for the departments best sharp shooter. To their great displeasure, however, the Sheriff called upon a deputised Townsend (who was an ex-special forces sniper) to help them. With that the group broke into teams: Hotchner and the sheriif would move to the base of the peak in an attempt to negotiate with and distract Frost, Meanwhile, Morgan would take Prentiss and a local officer to the base of the ridge to rescue Becky and subdue/neutralise Frost once the shot was fired. Lastly, Rossi and Townsend would take up position on the ridge behind Frost, ready to take him out if he did not surrender.
Henry did not realise that he was surrounded until Hotchner called out to him using a megaphone, telling him to turn his police radio to the appropriate channel. Grabbing his rifle and Becky, Frost took up a defensive stance. Keeping his gun levelled at both Hotch and Becky, Henry warned the FBI agent that if they did not leave or took one step closer he would kill Becky. Unaware that there were agents all around him, Henry despite having ample opportunity, did not open fire on Hotch or kill Becky in defiance like Francis Goehring would have done. This made Hotchner think that he might be able to talk Frost into surrendering but Rossi and the Sheriff did not share this optimism. The Sheriff pointed out that Henry had already killed the unarmed Angela Miller, whilst Rossi, who had experience with criminals like this, knew full that Henry would not allow himself to be taken alive.
In a bid to keep Henry distracted and release/move away from Becky, Hotchner brought up Henry's past, reminding him about his father, abandonment and imprisonment. Although he expressed sympathy, these declarations only made Frost even more unstable. Not wanting to be reminded about who he really was, Frost raised his gun even higher, whilst repeating Goehrings motto of no surrender. When Hotchner once again offered to negotiate with him, Henry, abidding by the principles instilled into him refused to let Becky go, vowing to go out fighting. Adjusting his position in order to get a better angle, Henry Frost made the fatal mistake of knocking Becky out of harms way. Realising that Townsend now had his perfect shot, Hotch, whilst moving into the cover of the rocks, made one last desperate plea for Henry to surrender, which was ignored.
A moment later, Harris Townsend took his shot, his bullet tearing through the kidnappers back. As Becky screamed in horror, Henry Frost dropped his gun, let out a cry of pain and slumped over. With Frost down, Morgan's team leapt out from their cover and rushed towards the pair. They found Henry lying motionless in the dirt next to a crying Becky. Emily and the officers quickly freed the young woman and took her away for treatment, her terrifying ordeal finally over. Morgan meanwhile went over to Frost, turning the now limp and unreponsive man onto his back. Townsend's bullet, however, had found its mark and following a quick examination, Morgan declared him dead.
Henry Frost would be last victim of Francis Goehring's villainy. Thanks to the principles which Goehring had instilled into him, his loyal partner remained defiant until the very end.
Trivia[]
- Frost is primarily inspired by serial killer Charles Ng.
External Links[]
- Henry Frost on the Criminal Minds Wiki
