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“ | You don't have to suffer anymore. | „ |
~ Mike Janeczko to his victims before killing them. |
Mike Janeczko is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Closing Time". He is a vigilante serial killer who murders people he thinks have nothing to live for in order to "put them out of their misery".
He was portrayed by Geoffrey Blake.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Janeczko's wife, Andrea, cheated on him behind his back for years with his best friend, Doug Summers. Finally, Andrea divorces Janeczko to be with Doug, and tells him that their son, Hunter, is actually Doug' child. Devastated and enraged, Janeczko begins murdering people who, like him, have been wronged by their friends and loved ones, deluding himself into believing that he was ending their suffering. He quits his job as a construction worker and gets a new one as a bartender, supplying him with a bevy of down-on-their-luck victims who readily tell him their troubles, which usually involve cheating partners. Meanwhile, he makes several failed attempts to persuade Andrea to take him back and keep Hunter in his life.
"Closing Time"[]
Janeczko is first seen with his latest victim, Joseph Kraus, whom he castrates post-mortem as an expression of how "castrated" he feels as a result of Andrea's infidelity. He hides the body under a lifeguard tower at the local beach. He then makes an unannounced visit to Hunter, who does not know that Doug is his real father, and not wanting to upset his mother, he asks Janeczko to leave. Later that night, Doug tries to apologize to Janeczko, who coldly replies "You can kill yourself."
In response to these blows to his ego, Janeczko murders another bar patron, Gus Harrington. When he encounters a female customer, Kelsey Ashwood, who admits to cheating on her husband, he drugs and tortures her before gutting her as painfully as possible.
Meanwhile, the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) is called in the by the local police to profile Janeczko's murders. They profile the killer as an unassuming man who is adept at getting people to talk about their troubles, and so probably works in the service industry. Because he kills men with failing marriages, they think he, too, is recently divorced, and believes he is putting them out of their misery, before he castrates them post-mortem because his ex-wife's infidelity left him feeling impotent and powerless. Technical analyst Penelope Garcia cross-references men in the area who work in the service industry with ones who have undergone messy divorces involving a partner's infidelity, and eventually finds Janeczko.
Janeczko confronts Doug at his construction job and, in the ensuing fistfight, knocks him over a railing into a car compacter, breaking his back. Janeczko turns the compacter on, crushing Doug to death. He then goes to Hunter's school to pick him up and learns that Hunter knows that Doug is his real father. Janeczko angrily tells Hunter that he killed Doug. When Hunter yells at him, he knocks the boy unconscious, takes him to his basement, where he kills his victims, and ties him up.
When he arrives there, however, he finds the BAU waiting for him, having learned of his location after interviewing Andrea. Agent Jennifer Jareau engages Janeczko in hand-to-hand combat to create a distraction so Hunter can escape his bindings. Jareau kicks Janeczko in the groin, causing him to drop his weapon, as Hunter takes it and threatens to kill him as revenge for killing his father. Jareau manages to talk him down, however, and he lowers the weapon, allowing Jareau to take Janeczko into custody.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Janeczko is inspired by multiple real-life serial killers:
- The Castration serial murders, where several men were similarly shot execution-style and violently emasculated after they were dead.
- Carroll Cole, a serial killer of women who were strangled when Cole believed they were cheating on their partners. Cole also killed a peer when he was a boy and terrorized his wives when he assumed they were unfaithful, including burning a hotel he believed an affair was taking place at.
- Angus Sinclair, a.k.a. The “World’s End Killer”, a Scottish serial killer/rapist of girls who were all last seen leaving a celebrated pub.
- Randy Kraft, a.k.a. “The Score Card Killer”, a serial killer/rapist of men and boys with jobs both as a bartender and in construction worth, with a violent M.O. involving castration, before and after killing the people he targeted.
- Wayne Adam Ford, a serial killer of women he's responsible for butchering to take aggression towards his ex-wife out of them, all for taking custody of their child.
- Janeczko’s M.O. and the assumption he was targeting gay men appears to be inspired by multiple real-life serial killers:
- Daniel Conahan, a.k.a. “The Hog Trail Murderer”, a murderer and suspected serial killer of transient and gay men who were also last seen at pubs and castrated after they were killed.
- Jeffrey Dahmer, a.k.a. “The Milwaukee Cannibal”, a serial killer/rapist of gay men and men of color with an M.O. of intoxicating them before murdering them and butchering their remains at his home while the scene is covered in plastic.
- John Wayne Gary, a.k.a. “The Killer Clown”, a serial killer/rapist of men and boys also motivated by divorce and with an M.O. of drugging and murdering men and boys before burying them on his property or dropping their remains into a nearby river.
External Links[]
- Mike Janeczko on the Criminal Minds Wiki