  |
This article's content is marked as Mature The page contains mature content that may include coarse language, sexual references, and/or graphic violent images which may be disturbing to some. Mature pages are recommended for those who are 18 years of age and older. If you are 18 years or older or are comfortable with graphic material, you are free to view this page. Otherwise, you should close this page and view another page. |
| “ | You don't understand. I've perfected this. This is my last test. Then I can fix you. | „ |
| ~ John Nelson explaining his "hobby" to his wife. |
John Nelson is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "God Complex". He is a narcissist who kidnaps people and forcibly amputates their legs so he can find a replacement for his wife's missing limb and make her "perfect".
He was portrayed by Ray Wise, who also portrayed Leon Nash in RoboCop.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Nelson worked as a mortician, and was married to a woman named Linda, who suffered from hypoplasia, a disease that caused her to be born with only one leg. She wore a prosthetic, but her "imperfection" always bothered Nelson, whose narcissism would not allow him to "settle" for a "flawed" woman.
Two months before the events of the episode, he got the idea to "correct" Linda's condition by amputating a person's leg and grafting it onto Linda's body. He quit his job, and started a biomedical research company as a front to kidnap people and amputate their legs. He found his victims by posing as a doctor in a portable medical center, offering free vaccinations to his victims before drugging them. His first attempt at transplantation was a failure, causing his victim, Richard Hubbel, to die of gangrene.
"God Complex"[]
Nelson kidnaps college student Tony Anders and begins surgically removing his leg. Before succumbing to the anesthesia, Anders gets a good look at Nelson's face. After amputating Anders' leg, Nelson leaves him in a cheap motel. He then kidnaps Carl Timmons, amputates his leg, and replaces it with Anders' limb. He then drops Timmons off at a hospital, where he dies of gangrene.
The FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) is brought in to investigate, and agents David Rossi and Derek Morgan question Anders, who remembers that he was drugged by a man in a medical van when he went to donate blood. The BAU profile the assailant as a narcissist who is amputating his victims' legs and replacing them with other limbs to prove that he can do what conventional medical science deems impossible. Agent Spencer Reid later realizes that the killer is not a doctor, but a mortician, as the stitching of the victims' wounds lacks the precision one would need to graduate from medical school, but would be considered acceptable in the mortuary sciences.
Nelson, meanwhile, begins feeling the pressure from his investors, who want to see his research from his medical trials. As he goes over his research from his first three victims, he believes he has hit a breakthrough, as he decides to choose female victims. He kidnaps Donna Sullivan and Maria Rodriguez and amputates both their right legs, causing the latter to bleed to death. After dumping Rodriguez's body, he successfully attaches her leg to Sullivan, and brings Linda to the basement to witness his achievement. When they get there, however, Sullivan, who has escaped her binds, holds Linda at knifepoint, demanding to be released. Nelson manages to overpower her, but Linda is horrified by what he has done.
After the BAU finds Rodriguez's body, Reid theorizes that the killer amputated a woman's leg to create a replacement for a loved one who had lost or had been born without the limb. Technical analyst Penelope Garcia cross-references mortuary workers in the area with marriage records and medical records of women born without right legs, and finds Nelson. The BAU arrives at Nelson's house just as he is about to kill Sullivan, and agent Jennifer Jareau asks Linda to convince him to stop. Linda tells Nelson that she will let the BAU shoot him unless he lets Sullivan go. Shocked and heartbroken, Nelson releases Sullivan, and the BAU takes him into custody.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Nelson is inspired by John Ronald Brown, a surgeon responsible for killing a man after amputating his leg.
- Nelson is one of the serial killers portrayed in Criminal Minds whose M.O. and signature is copied by John Curtis, a villain the BAU faces later on in the eighth season.
External Links[]
- John Nelson on the Criminal Minds Wiki
