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| “ | Before tonight, they didn't know my name! But now... no one will forget it. | „ |
| ~ Robert Adams declaring his own infamy. |
Robert "Bob" Adams is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "Painless". He is a survivor of a school massacre who seeks to recreate it in order to get the fame and recognition he feels he is owed.
He was portrayed by Eric Jungmann.
Biography[]
Early life[]
Adams went to North Valley High School in Boise, Idaho, where he was unpopular and frequently bullied. On October 12, 2001, his classmate Randy Slade stormed into the cafeteria armed with a gun and a homemade bomb, forced everyone there to lie facedown on the floor, and killed anyone who refused to look him in the eye. Adams did look him in the eye, so Slade spared him, declaring him "not worth a bullet". Slade then detonated his bomb, killing himself and 10 other students, and knocking Adams unconscious. When he regained consciousness, he found that another survivor of the massacre, Jerry Holtz, was lying and telling Adam's story as if he was the one to stare down Slade instead causing Adams to be forgotten and excluded as a survivor of Slade.
Adams' resentment, coupled with his inability to feel physical pain as a result of brain damage he suffered from the bombing, drove him over the edge, and he began planning revenge the 10 survivors who stole his story and excluded him as well as Doug Givens who picked only the 10 popular students to be the on the news and story's.
"Painless"[]
On the tenth anniversary of the massacre, Adams murders Doug Givens, North Valley's principal, by putting a homemade bomb inside his alarm clock. Givens' murder attracts the attention of the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), who theorize that the killer is someone connected to the massacre,
Adams begins targeting the other survivors, first killing Chelsea Grant by breaking into her house and beating her to death. He attacks Holtz after the latter interviews with BAU Agent Emily Prentiss, angered that Adams claimed to have been the one to look Slade in the eye. During the assault, Adams demands that Holtz look at him; when Holtz is unable to do so, Adams beats him to death. During the assault, Adams smashes a nearby trophy case with his bare hand in a fit of rage.
Adams meets with another survivor, Tiffany Gleason, in the school's parking lot, and learns from her the location of the survivors' next meeting - the Seven Stars Restaurant. He sets off a bomb in the restaurant and holds everyone in the building hostage, all while ranting about having never gotten recognition for being the only one who could look Slade in the eye. Prentiss and her fellow agent Aaron Hotchner try to talk him down, saying that he now has the chance to "set the record straight". Adams lets the hostages go and runs, with Hotchner and Prentiss in pursuit. They finally corner him in the restaurant's boiler room, and he tries to shoot Hotchner, who shoots him dead in self-defense.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- Adams is partly inspired by the criminals and wannabees responsible for the Columbine effect, a long timeline of copycat crimes and attempts modelled off the shootings and bombings of Columbine High School, typically on the anniversaries of the massacre, which puts law enforcement nationwide on high alert.
- Adams is also partly inspired by the controversy of Columbine murderer Eric Harris asking Valeen Schnurr if she believed in God, before she lived tell the experience. This was inaccurately attributed to Cassie Bernall, a student who was killed in the massacre and repeatedly publicized as the "actual" victim who had that confrontation. She and other students, including Rachel Scott, who was the first person killed in the massacre, were heavily publicized in the aftermath of the massacre, Cassie and Rachel specifically as martyrs to Christianity.
External Links[]
- Robert Adams on the Criminal Minds Wiki
