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“ | So I'm the punching bag, huh? | „ |
~ Hall to his victims as he kills them |
Jimmy Hall is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode “The Bittersweet Science”. Hall is an unsuccessful boxer who becomes a serial killer when his son is diagnosed with terminal cancer.
He was portrayed by Shawn Hatosy, who also portrayed Chester Manning in Law & Order and Boyd Fowler in Dexter.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Hall was born and raised in Philadelphia, spending his entire childhood in foster care. With his short temper and fragile ego, he he was kicked out of three schools for fighting; he once beat a classmate into a coma.
Hall grew up to become a boxer, trained by former middleweight Tony Cole, but he lost fights so frequently that he gained a reputation in the boxing world as a "punching bag". Hall lost so often that even Cole bet against him.
Despite his professional struggles, however, Hall was a family man, marrying a woman named Pam and having a son, Ryan. Hall and Pam divorced, but they maintained contact, and Hall wasn’t barred from Ryan’s life when Pam got primary custody. Hall loved his son fiercely, and so he was devastated when the boy was diagnosed with leukemia. Ryan's cancer briefly went into remission, but when his disease returned, Hall's fragile hold on sanity begin to slip.
In "The Bittersweet Science"[]
Hall drops Ryan off at the hospital, where one of Ryan's doctors tells him that the boy's prognosis is not looking good. Hall leaves the hospital and takes his pain and anger out on two pedestrians, Sam Eets and Bruce Thomas, bludgeoning them to death with a lead pipe. He immediately feels remorse for what he has done, so he seats them on crates like boxers in their orders and covers their faces with fabrics. He then makes an unhinged call to Cole about Ryan’s cancer returning.
Hall returns to the hospital the following day and offers to give Ryan his bone marrow, but the doctor says that he needs to perform more tests before deciding whether a transplant is feasible. Hall interprets that as a subtle way of saying that the hospital doesn't think that he has enough money to pay for Ryan's treatment, so he decides to have Cole bet $1,500 on his next fight to pay for a transplant. Two bar patrons, Jack Messner and his friend Frank, remark Hall's still a "punching bag"; enraged, Hall follows them as they leave the bar and attacks them, daring them to insult him again while he beats them to death with his fists.
Hall begins to hallucinate vision of Ryan, but he is only more determined to win the match and save his son. Cole tells Hall to back out, but Hall gets in the ring, sees his opponent have a nosebleed, and has the energy he needs to pull off the match, winning without issue. When Cole says that he "forgot" to place the bet, Hall realizes that he bet against him. Cole lies that he only bet against him the one time, but Hall confronts Cole's bookie and finds out the truth. Hall beats the bookie and his bodyguard to death, then raids their safe and runs.
As Hall’s rage grows increasingly out of control, he starts breaking the skulls and eye sockets of the men he kills. When the doctor and Pam tell Hall that Ryan's cancer is terminal, Hall loses whatever grip on sanity he has left and kidnaps Cole from his home and takes him to an abandoned warehouse, where he brutally murders him.
Hall has one final fight in an MMA duel, but hallucinations of Ryan catch him off guard and cause his opponent to be the winner. As the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), who have been investigating Hall's murders, arrive at the fight to arrest him, he lets himself get badly beaten enough to go back to the hospital and see Ryan. The team allows him to say goodbye to his son, telling him to make the best of their last moments together. Hall tells Ryan that he and Pam love him, just before Ryan dies.
Hall is arrested for his crimes and incarcerated for life.
Trivia[]
- Hall is inspired by multiple real-life professional fighters and murderers:
- Steve Hearon, a boxer and serial killer guilty of several gay bashing murders.
- Chris Benoit, a WWE fighter who murdered his own wife and son before committing suicide.
- Richars Blass, a.k.a. "The Cat", a Canadian gangster, serial killer, mass murderer, and fugitive with a history as a boxer, attacked an opponent when Blass was a sore loser, and grew to kill multiple rival mafia figures, including a loan shark.
External links[]
- Jimmy Hall on the Criminal Minds Wiki