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| “ | That bastard! That wasn't the deal we made! It was my concept! [...] All he had to do was push the damn button! | „ |
| ~ Farnell's confession |
Spencer Farnell is the main antagonist of the Law & Order: Criminal Intent episode "The Posthumous Collection". Farnell is a serial killer of women whose corpses he photographs to show an exhibit of his childhood abuse. When he reveals his secret to his artistic mentor, Gerhardt Heltman, Farnell kills him too.
He was portrayed by Glenn Fitzgerald.
Biography[]
Farnell hated the women in his, his grandmother and sisters specifically for bullying, battering, and terrorizing, and his mother for enabling. When his alcoholic father died in a car crash, he blamed everyone else in his family. While they all descended into recidivist criminal records, fatal addictions, and disappearing from the face of the earth, Farnell studied artistic photography under Heltman, a controversial artistic figure who focused on emotional depth. Farnell found women he lured for photoshoots, specifically when they resembled his loathed female relatives, and he suffocated them with plastic bags. He then had an unaware Heltman take photos of each of the victims as Farnell staged the sets, then Farnell disposed of the women's remains.
When Farnell came to notice Heltman wasn't showing the pain and fury Farnell wanted in the photographs, instead emphasizing the beauty and femininity of the murdered women, Farnell snapped and told Heltman the truth, ordering him to edit the photos in Farnell's image. Heltman was horrified and planned to report him, so Farnell knocked him out with rebar. hoping to eliminate a witness, but seeing Heltman as a ticket to Farnell's own success, he handcuffed Heltman to the wheel of his car and caused a crash that killed Heltman. The studio Farnell set up was burned to cover up his crimes.
Heltman was originally the suspect once the dead women's photos were found, but profiling the details revealed Farnell was the mastermind, that Heltman was the obstacle to his motives. Another woman was prepared to be killed by Farnell, but he was arrested before he got the chance. In interrogation, Detective Robert Goren incited Farnell's rage over his family and Heltman's rejection of his project to secure a confession. Farnell was at risk of the death penalty, so in exchange for his cooperation, A.D.A. Ron Carver agreed to convict him of multiple life sentences without parole in exchange for revealing where the murdered women were located. Farnell agreed to the deal, and he was subsequently imprisoned.
Trivia[]
- Farnell is inspired by the late serial killer Harvey Glatman, a.k.a. "The Glamour Girl Killer".
External links[]
- Spencer Farnell on the Law & Order Wiki
