September 26, 2025 • 9 mins
Serial killers use all sorts of techniques to carry out their deranged fantasies. Robert Hansen, who owned a bakeshop in Anchorage, Alaska, was also a methodical hunter of women. He’d kidnap them, fly them in his small plane into the Alaskan wilderness, where he’d release them and then hunt them down.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
Well, there have been a lot of horror flicks about
killers who hunt their victims, sort of like the classic
Most Dangerous Game and Ready or Not. But in the
real life case of Robert Hansen, this was his regular mo.
So put yourself there. Imagine running for your life through
the Alaskan wilderness at night. You're being chased by a
(00:21):
guy who people in town only know as a shy, polite,
church going family man. But to him you are his prey.
I'm Patty Steele Baker by day, hunting humans by night.
That's next on the backstory. We're back with the backstory.
(00:43):
Robert Hanson is believed to have raped and murdered at
least seventeen women between nineteen seventy two and nineteen eighty three.
What's terrifying about his mo is that he'd kidnap his victims, frequently,
fly them in his small plane into the wilderness, release them,
and then hunt them down. Don't you get chills imagining
(01:03):
what that must have felt like for his victims. To
understand how somebody evolves into a deranged killer, he got
to look at their past. Robert Hansen, born in Iowa
in nineteen thirty nine, is a quiet kid with a
stutter and painful acne. He's uncomfortable around people and prefers
to spend his time in the woods. He learns to
(01:25):
hunt early on, but the woods aren't in answer to
his growing disconnect and upset with other people, particularly women.
At twenty one, he does time after setting fire to
a school bus garage. He gets involved in other petty crime.
He marries and divorces, then gets married again. Now it's
nineteen sixty seven, he's twenty eight years old and Robert
(01:48):
moves to Anchorage, Alaska with his second wife. There he
opens a small bakery. The neighbors like him. He's shy,
but friendly and polite, like the rest of the married
guys in town. He goes to church and spends a
lot of his free time hunting. Now at the time,
Anchorage is just beginning to explode. It's a small city
(02:08):
supercharged by pipeline money and the swarm of workers it
brings in. It also attracts young women looking to make
a buck as dancers and sex workers, but these are
also women's society doesn't pay a lot of attention to. Usually,
they don't have much in the way of family ties.
If someone makes them uncomfortable, nobody's going to listen to him.
(02:29):
If they disappear, it's pretty unlikely anybody will look for them,
And as a hunter, Robert knows how to choose his prey.
So this shy, friendly guy develops a rap sheet. In
nineteen seventy one, he's arrested twice. In one case, he
kidnaps and attempts to rape a young housewife. In another,
(02:50):
he rapes a sex worker, but plea bargains on lesser
charges keep him from getting long term jail sentences. In
nineteen seventy six, he's convicted of stealing a chainsaw, and
that sentence is later reduced on appeal, and he walks
with time served. So on paper, it all looks like
somewhat minor trouble compared to what authorities don't know. In practice,
(03:14):
he's testing the boundaries of what he can get away with.
Hansen's method is chilling in its routine. He approaches a
vulnerable woman, often a teenager or a young adult working
the anchorage strip. He pulls a gun and forces her
into his car. When his family isn't home, he assaults
some in his basement. Not unlike Long Island's Gilgo beach killer.
(03:36):
He's a control freak, so not every attack involves a chase,
but many do. He just wants to control them. After
the initial assault, he drives her to the local airfield,
loads his small plane, and flies her into remote stretches,
now out beyond civilization. He releases her into the woods.
(03:57):
He lets her get a head start to make it more.
Then he pursues her with a Ruger Many fourteen rifle
or a hunting knife. It doesn't end with the killing.
He keeps trophies from his victims, rings, necklaces, small trinkets,
and so the killings might have gone on longer except
for one fortunate victim who managed to escape. It's June thirteenth,
(04:22):
nineteen eighty three. Cindy Paulson, just seventeen years old, has
been snatched by Hanson, but as he's loading his plane
at the airfield, she sees an opportunity to escape. She
bolts from Hanson's car. She's barefoot and handcuffed, but she
leaves her blue sneakers in the car as proof she's
been there. She then flags down a passing driver, so
(04:46):
Paulsen lives to tell investigators details about the house. The
basement the airport and the plane. Strangely, her story is
at first dismissed by some because she's a teenage prostitute
and Hannah is a somewhat respected business owner and father
despite his rap sheet. But soon her story becomes the
(05:07):
hinge of the case. One sergeant with the Alaska State
Troopers is already trying to connect bodies found along rivers
and in the woods out in the Alaskan wilderness. He
asks the FBI for a profile. The likely suspect, they
say would be an avid hunter, shy with a stutter,
a need to keep souvenirs, and access to a small plane.
(05:30):
Makes you wonder how profilers figure all that out right. Well,
of course, it does make the suspect list really short,
and Hansen rises to the top. With Cindy Paulson's detailed statement,
the very specific profile and his past, troopers are able
to get warrants to search Hansen's home, vehicles, and plane.
(05:51):
What they find is a nightmare. Firearms hidden in the attic,
including a Ruger Many fourteen, and boxes of women's jewelry
that don't belong to his wife. They also find an
aeronautical chart hidden away, marked with handwritten exes. Investigators plot
those marks against recovery sites, and while some click into
(06:12):
place immediately, others lead them to new horrifying discoveries. They
nab Hansen, and at first he denies all blaming the women.
He tells them he's the wronged party, that he was
forced to extremes. So close your eyes, picture the interrogation,
the table, the picture of water in the center. Officers
(06:34):
clustered around the murderer. They put the map on the table,
and they point to his exes. They point out the
trophies and the gun. Investigators keep hammering away, and finally
hands and sighs, and bit by bit gives them the details.
He talks about the women, describing them as a problem.
(06:55):
He admits to the killings but calls them accidents. Eventually,
he flo with troopers by helicopter and points out grave
sites seventeen in all ballistics match bullet fragments to his rifle.
But at the end of the day, prosecutors offer him
a plea deal that will save taxpayer money for further
(07:15):
trials and keep him off the streets forever. In February
of nineteen eighty four, Hanson pleads guilty to four murders,
plus kidnapping and other felonies. His sentence life in prison
plus four hundred and sixty one years with no possibility
of parole. In addition to the seventeen murders and many
(07:36):
more rapes he admitted to. It's thought he could have
killed in excess of thirty women. His story is a
reminder that ordinary folks can have a scary backstory. Hanson
was liked. He wrapped up pastries for cops and other locals.
He piled up hunting trophies and bragged about his skills.
He went to church regularly. He was a dad who
(07:58):
wore a cardigan sweater, a baker's apron at work, and
hunting camo when he was going after pray. He looked
like a hundred other guys in Anchorage who liked to
hunt and fish and complain about the snow. The press
called him the butcher Baker. His wife and kids left
him behind eventually and moved to Arkansas to be with family.
(08:20):
The story was made into a movie in twenty thirteen
while Hanson was still alive. The Frozen Ground stars Nicholas Cage,
John Cusack, Vanessa Hudgens, and fittycent Although it didn't do
too well at the box office, it's done much better
on Netflix. Meantime, Hanson never left prison. He served time
at Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward, Alaska, and he
(08:44):
died in twenty fourteen at a hospital in Anchorage at
the age of seventy five. I hope you like The
Backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave a review and I'd
love it if you'd subscribe or follow for free to
get new episodes delivered automatically. Also feel free to DM
me if you have a story you'd like me to cover.
On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.
(09:13):
I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,
the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer
is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new
episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out
to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram
at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
(09:35):
Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The
pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know
Well, there have been a lot of horror flicks about
killers who hunt their victims, sort of like the classic
Most Dangerous Game and Ready or Not. But in the
real life case of Robert Hansen, this was his regular mo.
So put yourself there. Imagine running for your life through
the Alaskan wilderness at night. You're being chased by a
(00:21):
guy who people in town only know as a shy, polite,
church going family man. But to him you are his prey.
I'm Patty Steele Baker by day, hunting humans by night.
That's next on the backstory. We're back with the backstory.
(00:43):
Robert Hanson is believed to have raped and murdered at
least seventeen women between nineteen seventy two and nineteen eighty three.
What's terrifying about his mo is that he'd kidnap his victims, frequently,
fly them in his small plane into the wilderness, release them,
and then hunt them down. Don't you get chills imagining
(01:03):
what that must have felt like for his victims. To
understand how somebody evolves into a deranged killer, he got
to look at their past. Robert Hansen, born in Iowa
in nineteen thirty nine, is a quiet kid with a
stutter and painful acne. He's uncomfortable around people and prefers
to spend his time in the woods. He learns to
(01:25):
hunt early on, but the woods aren't in answer to
his growing disconnect and upset with other people, particularly women.
At twenty one, he does time after setting fire to
a school bus garage. He gets involved in other petty crime.
He marries and divorces, then gets married again. Now it's
nineteen sixty seven, he's twenty eight years old and Robert
(01:48):
moves to Anchorage, Alaska with his second wife. There he
opens a small bakery. The neighbors like him. He's shy,
but friendly and polite, like the rest of the married
guys in town. He goes to church and spends a
lot of his free time hunting. Now at the time,
Anchorage is just beginning to explode. It's a small city
(02:08):
supercharged by pipeline money and the swarm of workers it
brings in. It also attracts young women looking to make
a buck as dancers and sex workers, but these are
also women's society doesn't pay a lot of attention to. Usually,
they don't have much in the way of family ties.
If someone makes them uncomfortable, nobody's going to listen to him.
(02:29):
If they disappear, it's pretty unlikely anybody will look for them,
And as a hunter, Robert knows how to choose his prey.
So this shy, friendly guy develops a rap sheet. In
nineteen seventy one, he's arrested twice. In one case, he
kidnaps and attempts to rape a young housewife. In another,
(02:50):
he rapes a sex worker, but plea bargains on lesser
charges keep him from getting long term jail sentences. In
nineteen seventy six, he's convicted of stealing a chainsaw, and
that sentence is later reduced on appeal, and he walks
with time served. So on paper, it all looks like
somewhat minor trouble compared to what authorities don't know. In practice,
(03:14):
he's testing the boundaries of what he can get away with.
Hansen's method is chilling in its routine. He approaches a
vulnerable woman, often a teenager or a young adult working
the anchorage strip. He pulls a gun and forces her
into his car. When his family isn't home, he assaults
some in his basement. Not unlike Long Island's Gilgo beach killer.
(03:36):
He's a control freak, so not every attack involves a chase,
but many do. He just wants to control them. After
the initial assault, he drives her to the local airfield,
loads his small plane, and flies her into remote stretches,
now out beyond civilization. He releases her into the woods.
(03:57):
He lets her get a head start to make it more.
Then he pursues her with a Ruger Many fourteen rifle
or a hunting knife. It doesn't end with the killing.
He keeps trophies from his victims, rings, necklaces, small trinkets,
and so the killings might have gone on longer except
for one fortunate victim who managed to escape. It's June thirteenth,
(04:22):
nineteen eighty three. Cindy Paulson, just seventeen years old, has
been snatched by Hanson, but as he's loading his plane
at the airfield, she sees an opportunity to escape. She
bolts from Hanson's car. She's barefoot and handcuffed, but she
leaves her blue sneakers in the car as proof she's
been there. She then flags down a passing driver, so
(04:46):
Paulsen lives to tell investigators details about the house. The
basement the airport and the plane. Strangely, her story is
at first dismissed by some because she's a teenage prostitute
and Hannah is a somewhat respected business owner and father
despite his rap sheet. But soon her story becomes the
(05:07):
hinge of the case. One sergeant with the Alaska State
Troopers is already trying to connect bodies found along rivers
and in the woods out in the Alaskan wilderness. He
asks the FBI for a profile. The likely suspect, they
say would be an avid hunter, shy with a stutter,
a need to keep souvenirs, and access to a small plane.
(05:30):
Makes you wonder how profilers figure all that out right. Well,
of course, it does make the suspect list really short,
and Hansen rises to the top. With Cindy Paulson's detailed statement,
the very specific profile and his past, troopers are able
to get warrants to search Hansen's home, vehicles, and plane.
(05:51):
What they find is a nightmare. Firearms hidden in the attic,
including a Ruger Many fourteen, and boxes of women's jewelry
that don't belong to his wife. They also find an
aeronautical chart hidden away, marked with handwritten exes. Investigators plot
those marks against recovery sites, and while some click into
(06:12):
place immediately, others lead them to new horrifying discoveries. They
nab Hansen, and at first he denies all blaming the women.
He tells them he's the wronged party, that he was
forced to extremes. So close your eyes, picture the interrogation,
the table, the picture of water in the center. Officers
(06:34):
clustered around the murderer. They put the map on the table,
and they point to his exes. They point out the
trophies and the gun. Investigators keep hammering away, and finally
hands and sighs, and bit by bit gives them the details.
He talks about the women, describing them as a problem.
(06:55):
He admits to the killings but calls them accidents. Eventually,
he flo with troopers by helicopter and points out grave
sites seventeen in all ballistics match bullet fragments to his rifle.
But at the end of the day, prosecutors offer him
a plea deal that will save taxpayer money for further
(07:15):
trials and keep him off the streets forever. In February
of nineteen eighty four, Hanson pleads guilty to four murders,
plus kidnapping and other felonies. His sentence life in prison
plus four hundred and sixty one years with no possibility
of parole. In addition to the seventeen murders and many
(07:36):
more rapes he admitted to. It's thought he could have
killed in excess of thirty women. His story is a
reminder that ordinary folks can have a scary backstory. Hanson
was liked. He wrapped up pastries for cops and other locals.
He piled up hunting trophies and bragged about his skills.
He went to church regularly. He was a dad who
(07:58):
wore a cardigan sweater, a baker's apron at work, and
hunting camo when he was going after pray. He looked
like a hundred other guys in Anchorage who liked to
hunt and fish and complain about the snow. The press
called him the butcher Baker. His wife and kids left
him behind eventually and moved to Arkansas to be with family.
(08:20):
The story was made into a movie in twenty thirteen
while Hanson was still alive. The Frozen Ground stars Nicholas Cage,
John Cusack, Vanessa Hudgens, and fittycent Although it didn't do
too well at the box office, it's done much better
on Netflix. Meantime, Hanson never left prison. He served time
at Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward, Alaska, and he
(08:44):
died in twenty fourteen at a hospital in Anchorage at
the age of seventy five. I hope you like The
Backstory with Patty Steele. Please leave a review and I'd
love it if you'd subscribe or follow for free to
get new episodes delivered automatically. Also feel free to DM
me if you have a story you'd like me to cover.
On Facebook, It's Patty Steele and on Instagram Real Patty Steele.
(09:13):
I'm Patty Steele. The Backstories a production of iHeartMedia, Premiere Networks,
the Elvis Durand Group, and Steel Trap Productions. Our producer
is Doug Fraser. Our writer Jake Kushner. We have new
episodes every Tuesday and Friday. Feel free to reach out
to me with comments and even story suggestions on Instagram
at Real Patty Steele and on Facebook at Patty Steele.
(09:35):
Thanks for listening to the Backstory with Patty Steele. The
pieces of history you didn't know you needed to know
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