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John Stark (real name unknown in the novels) is the main hidden antagonist of the Rizzoli & Isles novel "The Apprentice" and the pilot episode "See One, Do One, Teach One" of the subsequent TV series of the same name. Stark is a serial killer and rapist favoring couples in their homes, as well as a fan of incarcerated serial killer "The Surgeon" (Warren Hoyt in the novel series, Charles Hoyt in the TV series), who he later collaborates with to target Detective Jane Rizzoli.
In the TV series, he's portrayed by Brendan McCarthy.
Biography[]
In the Novel[]
The killer posing as John Stark stole the identity of a peacekeeping officer serving in the recovery efforts in the aftermath of the Bosnian ethnic cleansing massacres. Under the cover of the casualties in the war zone, he butchered three couples in Kosovo to hone his M.O. What Stark enjoyed was restraining the men and raping the women while the men were forced to watch. If they broke free, a teacup on their thighs would alert Stark to stop them. The men were killed from cutting their throats, while the women were kidnapped, raped again, and strangled by Stark's bare hands. Stark would hide the women in isolated locations to come back and rape their corpses for as long as they weren't too decayed.
Once returning to the U.S., Stark found work in limousine chauffeuring, where he stalked couples reserving escorts and kidnapped them to hold them captive in their homes. After killing a couple in North Carolina and another one in Maine, Stark relocated to Boston to catch Rizzoli's and Hoyt's attention, killing a couple there. Rizzoli was shaken to see Stark folded the women's nightdresses like Hoyt did. Once Hoyt broke out of prison, killing two hospital nurses and a security guard, he teamed up with Stark for the next couple. Hoyt watched Stark rape the woman and immobilized the man for Stark, but while Stark killed the man, Hoyt took the woman to a cemetery and killed her, with his M.O. of cutting her womb out while she was still alive. To break in, they killed the security guard at the cemetery, and to escape, they nearly killed Detective Vince Korsak, but he was saved in time.
After Rizzoli went to D.C. to hear about Stark's war crimes, the duo broke into her apartment to lure her back. Once she was at the airport, Stark kidnapped her with his limo, which she realizes when she saw the carpets were the sources of fibers at the crime scenes. Stark tased Rizzoli unconscious and restrained her, working with Hoyt to prepare where they were to kill her. She broke free, shot Stark dead, and left Hoyt quadriplegic.
In the TV Series[]
Stark was a retired Green Beret and CIA agent who did tours in Afghanistan, where he raped and killed three women to imitate Hoyt's M.O. He later got into contact with Hoyt to plan on breaking him out, so they could kill together and finish the murder of Detective Rizzoli Hoyt never finished after Detective Korsak shot him.
Stark was first seen having toyed with a husband and wife, shaking a scalpel while watching the couple quiver. As the husband was duct taped to the couch, Stark tore off the wife's outfit and proceeded to rape her. Stark then cut the husband's throat and kidnapped the wife, strangling her and later placing her in the woods to rape her corpse. The scene was bad enough Detective Barry Frost vomited outside. The team instantly knew it was a Hoyt copycat crime from the same M.O.
Hoyt was uncooperative in prison and toyed with Rizzoli. After he broke out of prison and killed staff there by faking a medical emergency, Hoyt killed the next couple with Stark's assistance. The second wife was left where she was found to lure Stark out, but he stabbed Korsak in his neck and nearly killed him before fleeing. Appearing outside Rizzoli's apartment in a coroner's van, Stark lied Dr. Maura Isles was killed and inside. Hoyt was instead in the body bag, tasing Rizzoli and kidnapping her with Stark's help. She broke free before Hoyt could kill her, burning his face with a road flare. She then shot Stark dead and shot Hoyt's hands to scar him like he scarred her.
Trivia[]
- Stark is inspired by multiple real-life and fictional serial killers:
- Richard Ramirez, a.k.a. "The Night Stalker", an American serial killer/rapist targeting couples in their homes in Los Angeles, after having learned how to kill from his cousin, military veteran and war criminal Miguel Ramirez.
- Ted Bundy, one of America's worst serial killers/rapists, guilty of kidnapping, murdering, and raping the corpses of women at the college where he worked security, leaving their remains in the woods for him to rape overtime.
- Joseph DeAngelo, a.k.a. "The Golden State Killer", a serial killer/rapist in California, targeting couples in their homes by tying the men and placing dishes on their backs, raping the women, and then bludgeoning the couples to death with weapons in the house. DeAngelo was identified decades after the productions' releases.
- Veronica Compton, an American copycat of Kenneth Bianchi, one of the "Hillside Stranglers", in an attempted murder on Bianchi's instruction meant to cast doubt on Bianchi's guilt.
- Roy Norris, one of the two "Toolbox Killers", two American serial killers guilty of kidnapping, raping, and torturing to death teenage girls across California.
- "The Bone Collector", the titular hidden antagonist of the Jeffrey Deaver novel and subsequent film and miniseries of the same name, a vengeful serial killer posing as a gypsy cab driver to torture victims to death and challenge the paralyzed detective he targeted to capture him.
- William Randolph, a.k.a. "The Gentleman Caller", a serial killer/rapist of women in collusion with Nick Ruskin, another serial killer/rapist of women, with different M.O.s but a shared partnership. They target the save detective, Alex Cross, who kills the both of them on separate occasions.