Karl Arnold

CRIMINAL
Name	Karl Arnold, Sr.
Alias	The Fox
Gender	Male
Family	Unnamed mother (status unknown) Unnamed father (status unknown) Fay Arnold (ex-wife) Karl Arnold, Jr. (son) Sarah Arnold (daughter)
Occupation	Family therapist
Pathology	Serial Killer Family Annihilator Pedophile
Signature	Two distinct signatures: Forcing fathers to watch their families being killed Taking victims' wedding rings
Modus Operandi	Stabbing (mothers and children) Shooting (fathers)
No. of Victims	17+ killed 5 attempted
Status	Incarcerated
Portrayed By	Neal Jones
First Appearance	"The Fox"
Last Appearance	"Outfoxed"

“	Wives wither... children perish... but me? I'm an excellent father.	”
	— Arnold during his interrogation with Morgan in "The Fox"

Karl Arnold, Sr., a.k.a. "The Fox", is a prolific and pedophilic serial killer and family annihilator who appears in Seasons One and Five of Criminal Minds.

Background

Arnold's father physically and sexually abused him as a child, something which caused him to develop a strong sense of self-hatred. He later got married to a woman named Fay, with whom he fathered a son and daughter named Karl Jr. and Sarah. He was very controlling, bordering on obsessive-compulsive, which resulted in a divorce about five years before the episode in which Fay won full custody of their children. After that, Arnold took some time off from his job as a family psychologist, became unfocused, and started drinking heavily. He began infiltrating the homes of families he was treating, took them hostage, and pretended to be their father before killing them.

The Fox

After killing eight families, the BAU is called in to investigate, but they only believed they were investigating the deaths of two families, the Millers, and the Crawfords, as the rest of the families' deaths were apparently unconnected. After tracking him down, Morgan and Gideon followed him into the basement of the Dunken's house, where he used the Dunken's baby as leverage. Arnold eventually handed over the baby before making an attempt to escape, but Morgan, an expert in martial arts and a judo black-belt got the better of him and threatened to break his neck if he even moved. Back at the BAU headquarters, the team tricked him into confessing by switching the places of two crime scene photos on a board. Since Arnold couldn't stand anything being out of place, he had an outburst, accidentally confessing to having detailed knowledge of the murders. When Hotch searched his office, he found a box containing eight wedding rings, including those of the Miller and Crawford families.

Outfoxed

"Once I killed the children, it always amazed me how little the father fought the inevitable."
"Which was what?"
"Dying."

According to Arnold, after his murders became public knowledge, he gained a number of fans, some of which even made a website dedicated to him. In the episode, a spree killer targeting entire families becomes active in Hampton, Virginia. Hotch and Prentiss interview Arnold at the Red Onion State Prison, where he assists in their investigation after receiving envelopes containing newspaper clippings about the murders which appear to have been mailed by the killer. During this, he comments on Prentiss in inappropriate ways, causing Hotch to agree to have Prentiss interrogate him alone, where she begins "flirting" with Arnold to get info. Despite Prentiss discovering that the unsub is a female, Arnold continues to refer to his admirer as "he", and when Hotch tells him that he is done with him, Arnold reveals the admirer said the same thing. Hotch then takes the journal where Arnold kept all of the newspaper clippings he received. Inside, he finds a newspaper clipping about himself, signed with the Eye of Providence, revealing that it was George Foyet who was sending the clippings to Arnold, a fact Arnold was aware of, and that Foyet was using him to get a message to Hotch. As Hotch left, Arnold laughed in delight at his despair.

Arnold in prison, assisting Hotch and Prentiss in "Outfoxed".

A year later, while investigating another spree killer specifically targeting families, Prentiss brings up Arnold as an example of a family annihilator.

Profile

The unsub is a white male in his 40s. Organized killers like this unsub are typically skilled workers with above-average intelligence, a high birth status, and are often male. He is socially confident in his workplace and sexually confident with women. He is also meticulous with his crimes, and everything has to be in its proper place. Every one of his familicides is pre-planned; to him, targeting the victims is almost as pleasurable as it is actually killing them. He also does extensive research about his victims, such as when the kids come home from school when the father comes home from work, and when dinner is ready. He keeps all of the acquired information in a book or journal to ensure that nothing is left to chance, and he takes a lot of time to make up a good strategy plan before killing them. He specifically targets families because he has lost his own.

According to Hotch and Prentiss in his last appearance, Arnold was also sexually motivated, as a result of the sexual and physical abuse he suffered at the hands of his father. This abuse caused him to suffer from extreme self-hatred, which evolved into his willingness to kill fathers as surrogates for his own father and himself.

Modus Operandi

"... And I watched them, for a number of days, always at night. Saw how they lived, how they loved. I would keep them apart, until the last night, until the last supper. Then I would bring them, one by one, down to the basement, the youngest first, father last."

Arnold targeted families he viewed as dysfunctional; the named victims he first encountered in his work as a therapist (with the exception of the Dunken family, who were seeing another therapist). The named families consisted of a father (or stepfather, as in the case of the Miller family), a mother, an older son, and a younger daughter, which was meant to be a resemblance to his own family (with the exception of the Dunken family, which had an older daughter and an infant son). He would stalk them for weeks and watch them at night while they were inside their homes. He would strike his victims when they were supposed to be on vacation, ensuring that nobody was surprised to not see them. He bypassed the alarm systems at night and killed the family's dog if they had one. He would separate the family members under death threats and keep them apart for days. During those days, he would wear an outfit belonging to the father to assume the role as head of the household, as well as gloves to avoid leaving behind fingerprints. He would also terrorize the family members and make the children draw paintings (a technique used by family therapists to assess the family's situation).

On the last day of the family's captivity (which was always three), he would take them to the house basement and kill them by stabbing to death the children and wife (starting with the youngest child) before subduing the father and then staging his suicide by gunshot. Prior to doing so, he would bring them together for one final dinner. After killing them, he would take the fathers' wedding rings as trophies, keeping them in a jewelry box in a secret compartment in his office. It was revealed in his last appearance that he also physically abused the children and engaged in sexual acts with the girls as a reference to the physical and sexual abuse he suffered from as a child by his father, even though that wasn't said in his debut. It is likely that when he did sexually abuse the girls, he would wear a condom or use an object of some kind.

Real-Life Comparison

Arnold appears to have been primarily based on Tommy Lynn Sells - Both were prolific serial killers and family annihilators who were victims of sexual abuse at a young age by a male pedophile with involvement of a parent (Sells was molested by a male offender with his mother as an accomplice, Arnold's father sexually and physically assaulted him repeatedly), had drinking problems, abused their families in some ways (Sells tried to get close to his elder female relatives while naked, Arnold was abusing and domineering to his wife and children), operated in multiple states, killed by stabbing and shooting (though Sells murdered by other means as well), emulated their childhood traumas in the murders (Sells reportedly killed a father sexually assaulting a boy and later raped other victims, mostly children, while Arnold beat the children and molested the daughters), and gave full confessions to their crimes once arrested.

Arnold appears to have been partly based on Dennis Rader - Both are prolific serial killers and family annihilators with jobs where they had authority over kids (Rader was a boy scout leader, Arnold was a child psychologist), took accessories from homes they broke into as trophies (Rader stole women's lingerie, Arnold stole rings), got married and had children, and each left a father alive in a family killing when the father fought back.

Arnold seems to have also been inspired by Anatoly Onoprienko - Both were prolific serial killers and family annihilators who had stressors involving their fathers (Onoprienko's put him in an orphanage, while Arnold's abused him), were married and had children, targeted families, broke into their homes to kill them, killed by various means, had some twisted concept of mercy in their killings (Arnold viewed the families he slaughtered as dysfunctional, while Onoprienko killed the children of the families so they wouldn't become orphans), murdered the families in sequential orders in reverse of each other (Arnold killed the children and mother before the father, Onoprienko killed the father and mother before the children), murdered additional witnesses (Arnold killed pets, Onoprienko killed family friends and bystanders), others were blamed and interrogated for their crimes, and both were given nicknames.

Known Victims

• Unspecified dates and locations from 2000(?) to 2005:
  • Three unnamed men or families killed prior to The Fox
  • The Kegan family
    • At least one unnamed parent
    • At least one unnamed child
  • The Ness family
    • At least one unnamed parent
    • At least one unnamed child
  • The Linford family
    • At least one unnamed parent
    • At least one unnamed child
• 2005:
  • October, unspecified location in Maryland: The Miller family (held hostage for three days before being killed)
    • The unnamed stepfather (also stole his wedding ring and framed him for the murders of his family)
    • Reese Miller (mother)
    • Ty Miller (son; also physically abused before being killed)
    • Reese's unnamed daughter (also physically abused and molested before being killed)
  • November 1, Arlington, Virginia: The Crawford family (held hostage on October 29 before being killed three days later)
    • Christopher Crawford (father; also stole his wedding ring and framed him for the murders of his family)
    • Allison Crawford (mother)
    • Sam Crawford (son; also physically abused before being killed)
    • Emily Crawford (daughter; also physically abused and molested before being killed)
  • November 8, unspecified location in Virginia: The Dunken family (held hostage and intended to kill; all were rescued the next day)
    • Harry Dunken (father)
    • Robin Dunken (mother)
    • Jackie Dunken (daughter; presumably physically abused and molested)
    • The unnamed baby son (briefly held hostage, then thrown violently at Gideon, but he was safely caught)
  • November 9, unspecified location in Virginia: Derek Morgan (attempted; tried to stab him)

Appearances

• Season One
  • "The Fox"
  • "What Fresh Hell?" (indirectly referenced)
• Season Five
  • "Outfoxed"
  • "100" (flashbacks)
• Season Six
  • "Safe Haven" (mentioned)