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| “ | The world is beyond repair. | „ |
| ~ Coleman brainwashing his captives. |
Lawrence Coleman is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "The Bunker". He is a messianic serial kidnapper who, along with his accomplice (and former victim) Irene Jacobs, leads an underground cult of young women whom he has brainwashed to believe that the world has ended.
He was portrayed by Darrell Hammond, who also portrayed Captain Jack Swallows in Epic Movie and Master Little in the 1999 animated version of The King and I.
Early life[]
Coleman was originally a civil engineer, but he quit his job to pursue his lifelong obsession with the Doomsday Clock, creating a website called "Prepper Coleman's Blog" dedicated to it and contributing to multiple apocalypse-themed chat rooms, writing rambling screeds about preparing for the "End Times". He met Irene Jacobs, a substance abuse counselor with identical views, through these online communities, and the two decided to create a "new world" together.
Coleman convinced Jacobs to give him control of acres of land she owned in Culpepper, Virginia, that was also the site of an abandoned underground bunker once used by the government as a strategic command center. They then began kidnapping pregnant, drug-addicted teenage girls whom Jacobs had treated, believing that the girls' children would grow up to create a new, better world in the bunker, with Coleman as their leader. They also kidnapped Dr. Roberta Childs, an obstetrician, so they would have someone on hand to care for the girls and their babies. Childs attempted suicide twice, but Coleman revived her both times, and slowly wore down her resistance until she became a semi-willing participant.
Over the next five years, Coleman and Jacobs kidnapped several of Jacobs' former patients after grooming them on chat rooms about the apocalypse. Coleman brainwashed all of them into believing that the apocalypse had come and that their families were dead, and that they and their children would begin the new world. To ensure that their prisoners would not find out the truth, they blocked off all exits to the outside world, and forbid the use of phones and computers.
In "The Bunker"[]
Coleman and Jacobs kidnap Allie Leighton and imprison her in the bunker. When she tries to escape, Coleman, who is wearing a Hazmat suit, traps her by sealing her in a room, while Childs drugs her into unconsciousness. Leighton later condemns Childs for helping Coleman and Jacobs, which makes Childs feel so guilty that she kills herself. Coleman finds Childs' body, and tells Jacobs to dispose of it, while cursing Childs for "betraying" them. Coleman kidnaps pediatrician Paige Burrell as Childs' replacement. He then orders the women and children to gather around him, and introduces Burrell to her "new patients".
Meanwhile, the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) investigates Childs' murder and Leighton and Burrell's kidnappings, believing them to be connected. Agent Jennifer Jareau speaks with Joanna Miller, the older sister of one of the kidnapped girls, who says that her sister Chrissy would often visit websites about the apocalypse when she was high, but had gotten clean a month before her disappearance after finding out she was pregnant. Jareau and her fellow agents then profile the killer as the leader of a doomsday cult who kidnaps pregnant teenage girls and brainwashes them into believing the world has ended and that they and their children must follow him as he makes a "new world". He also kidnaps medical professionals to care for his victims so they will be healthy enough to build the society he envisions.
The BAU team reasons that the cult leader would need a great deal of space underground to keep his victims isolated and ignorant of the outside world and a submissive, seemingly nurturing partner to help mold the girls' minds by gaining their trust - such as a doctor or counselor whom they already knew. Technical Analyst Penelope Garcia cross-references landowners in the area with health care professionals specializing in the care of pregnant teenage girls with drug problems. She finds Jacobs, as well as records of her living with Coleman, whom the rest of the team identify as the cult leader.
Leighton and Burrell gets the better of Jacobs and hold her at knifepoint in front of Coleman, threatening to kill her unless he lets them go; Coleman refuses, however, heartlessly abandoning Jacobs and telling Leighton and Burrell to "do what you want with her". He goes to the bunker's control room, where he sees on the surveillance feed that Jareau and her fellow BAU Agent Spencer Reid have accessed the escape hatch and are now inside. He seals them inside a room, and laughs at Reid as he orders him at gunpoint to release his prisoners.
Jareau recognizes Chrissy from a picture Joanna showed her, and tells her that her sister misses her. When Chrissy replies that Joanna and everyone else on Earth is dead, Jareau and Reid tell her and the other girls that Coleman and Jaocbs lied to them, showing them a video feed of the outside world on their phones. Coleman bellows that Jareau and Reid are lying and orders the girls not to listen, but they finally realize that he has been deceiving them for five years, and turn against him. A vengeful Jacobs shouts, "Do what you want with him!", and Chrissy hits Coleman over the head with a flashlight and releases Jareau and Reid, who then arrest Coleman and Jacobs and set the girls and their children free. Coleman is then imprisoned for life.
Trivia[]
- Coleman is inspired by multiple real-life criminals:
- The late Gary Heidnik, an American serial kidnapper/rapist and eventual murderer responsible for raping and torturing six black-American women and girls all in captivity, killing two of them, reportedly for the purpose of breaking them and getting them pregnant.
- Aleksandr Komin, a.k.a. "The Slaveholder", a serial killer/kidnapper with his accomplice, who constructed a bunker under his basement and falsely imprisoned multiple people, killing four in and out of the bunker during his felony ventures.
External links[]
- Lawrence Coleman on the Criminal Minds Wiki
