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“ | Now it's my turn. | „ |
~ James Thomas' signature line to his victims. |
James Thomas is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Compromising Positions". He is a serial killer who forces couples to have sex in front of him before killing them.
He was portrayed by Craig Sheffer.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Thomas worked as a locksmith. He and his wife Mary-Ann were avid swingers, frequently having threesomes in which he selected another "husband" for her to have sex with before having sex with both of them.
After Thomas was diagnosed with prostatic hyperplasia, he underwent a routine surgery that went wrong. As a result, his prostate was removed, rendering him impotent. He and Mary-Ann kept going to swingers parties, but all he could do was watch while Mary-Ann had sex with other men. One of these men, Richard Johnson, got her pregnant, and an enraged Thomas shot him dead. His first murder unleashed the envious, humiliated rage he had felt ever since becoming impotent, and he became a serial killer.
Thomas' signature was to abduct make-female couples he had previously met at swingers parties, force-feed the men Viagra, and force them at gunpoint to have sex in their homes and cars while he watched, after which he would shoot them dead. He chose couples in which the man was a dominant, "alpha male", as he took special pleasure in humiliating them and making them feel as small and powerless as he did.
"Compromising Positions"[]
Thomas kills two couples, Robert and Alison Keppler and Scott and Kathy Hartway, within a week. Unsatisfied, he attacks another couple, Paul and Debra Wilson, but Paul unexpectedly puts up a fight, ruining Thomas' fantasy. After killing Paul, Thomas forces Debra to say she wants him before killing her, as well.
The following night, Thomas goes to another swingers party, this time without Mary-Ann. When he sees a married couple having a threesome, he flies into a jealous rage and opens fire with two previously concealed pistols, killing every other man in the room before fleeing.
The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), who have been called in by the local police to profile the "Couples Killer", arrive at the scene of the mass shooting, where Agents David Rossi and Spencer Reid notice that the killer had gotten away by picking the deadbolt lock of the back door, and deduce that the killer is a locksmith. They and their fellow agents profile him as an active, married member of the local swinger community who has recently lost his sense of masculinity, probably due to impotence and a cheating spouse. Technical analyst Penelope Garcia researches men in the area involved in the swinger lifestyle, cross-referenced with medical records of men who have sought treatment for impotence, and finds Thomas.
The BAU and the local police raid Thomas' home, but find only a heavily pregnant Mary-Ann. After they tell her what Thomas has done, she bursts into tears and admits that the baby is not his. They then ask her about their roleplaying rituals, reasoning that a devolving killer such as Thomas would seek reassurance in repeating old patterns, and she replies that they used to pick up men for threesomes at a bar called Dunleavy's.
Sure enough, they find a highly agitated Thomas at the bar, and Agent Emily Prentiss approaches him, pretending to be a fellow swinger in order to distract him while the other agents move in to arrest him. He realizes that she is on to him, however, when she mistakenly says he is seeking "boyfriends", not "husbands" for his wife. He reaches for his gun to shoot Prentiss, but her reflexes are faster and she shoots him first, mortally wounding him. As he dies, he says to Prentiss, "Tell my wife I love...", succumbing to his wounds before he can finish his sentence. Prentiss replies, "I will.".
Trivia[]
- Thomas is inspired by multiple real-life criminals:
- Milton Johnson, a.k.a. “The Weekend Murderer”, a serial killer, mass murderer, and budding serial rapist responsible for killing couples in homes and cars before eventually escalating to mass murderer at an intersection.
- The Phantom Killer, an unidentified American serial murderer and assailant of couples in lover's lanes and their own homes and the eventual inspiration for the loosely derived horror film The Town That Dreaded Sundown.
- The Monster of Florence, an unidentified Italian serial killer profiled as impotent and with an M.O. of shooting to murder and stabbing women when targeting couples.
- The Carr brothers, two American brothers and recidivist criminals responsible for a massacre of a group of young adults, which included raping the women and forcing the victims to rape each other.
- Gerald Gallego, one of two killers along with his ex-wife Charlene with a history of threesomes and got angry and violent when his wife didn’t let him dominate her and had other sexual partners.
- Kyle Aaron Huff, a mass murderer responsible for the Capitol Hill massacre a Washington state deadly mass shooting of a party venue out of a paranoid resentment over party culture.
- Marc Lépine, a misogynistic mass murderer also responsible for a mass murder, the École Polytechnique massacre, targeting one gender out of an outrageous sense of vengeance, but targeting women instead of men.
- Thana, the main antagonist of Ms .45, a serial killer of men after she was raped twice in one night, including at a Halloween house party.
External Links[]
- James Thomas on the Criminal Minds Wiki