Every Town - The BUTCHER BAKER: Alaska's DEADLIEST Predator

Episode Date: June 21, 2025

Between the early '1970s and mid-’80s ,women started disappearing without a trace at an alarming clip in Alaska. Some were later found buried in shallow graves. Others were never found at all…. 👀 Watch This Episode On Youtube: https://youtu.be/NLYymRGY9Gw  👁 Check out our movie AN ANGRY BOY for FREE! ⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BvtlOlODQ8g&t=5238s⁠⁠ ⁠⁠https://tubitv.com/movies/100029672/an-angry-boy⁠⁠ International & Other Ways To Watch: ⁠⁠https://www.anangryboy.com/⁠⁠ 💀 MERCH: ⁠⁠https://scary-mysteries.teemill.com/⁠⁠ 💀 Free 7 Day Trail on Exclusive Episodes, Podcasts & Perks! ⁠⁠https://www.patreon.com/scarymysteries⁠⁠    🎧 Our Other Podcast, Every Town: ⁠⁠https://open.spotify.com/show/4K2gvVKzxlEx636qMFSooj⁠⁠ 👁 X: ⁠⁠https://x.com/ScaryMysteries1⁠⁠ 👁 Instagram: ⁠⁠https://www.instagram.com/andrew.fitzg⁠⁠ 👁 TikTok: ⁠⁠https://www.tiktok.com/@andrewfitzgerald⁠⁠ 👁Facebook: ⁠⁠https://www.facebook.com/scarymysteriesofficial⁠⁠   🗣 Business Inquiries, questions and comments hit us up at [e-mail] Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Are you ready to dive into the unknown? Join me, Peyton Moreland, on Into the Dark, the true crime podcast from Ono Media with a hint of horror and mystery. Each week, I dive into a different case, breaking down the facts, and pondering the age-old question, why do people do what they do? Now, sometimes the answer isn't so clear, and that's why I'll also explore conspiracy theories, hauntings, and all things spooky. From the Green River Killer to the Mothman incident, we will unravel all of the questions that keep us up at night. So don't miss out. Subscribe now on your favorite podcast platform. New episodes drop every Wednesday.

Into the dark, where true crime meets the eerie unknown. Every town has a dark side. Between the early 1970s and mid-80s, women started disappearing without a trace at an alarming clip in Alaska. and some were later found buried in shallow graves, others were never found at all, and what tied them all together was something straight out of a nightmare. Before their deaths, many were brought into the Alaskan wilderness and set free to run, only to be hunted down like prey. And their killer was just your average guy, a soft-spoken husband, father of two small business owner,

someone who baked bread for your breakfast and smiled while handing cookies to kill. kids. He seemed harmless, but when that apron came off, Robert Hanson became something else entirely. Hey, guys, it's Andrew, and thanks for tuning in to this week's episode of Everytown. But today, we are absolutely going to be digging in to one of the most disturbing and surreal true crime stories out there. Because Robert had somewhere between 17 and 37 victims when all was said and done, but let's head north all the way up to the icy wilderness of a lot of and learn about Alaska's deadliest predator, the butcher baker. When you think about Alaska, you probably picture big mountains, untamed wilderness,

you know, the last true American frontier, as they call it. But in the 1970s and early 80s, Anchorage was changing into something beyond that. The Alaska pipeline construction brought waves of workers, money, and opportunity to this far corner of America. an 800-mile-long project that would dump crude oil from Prudo Bay in the north and send it down south to Valdez, just outside Anchorage, the northernmost ice-free port in North America, where from there it could be distributed anywhere in the world.

And so the state's capital was quickly becoming a boom town, filled with construction workers, oil guys, and more. And with that, to satisfy their cravings was the growth of an underground world of drugs and sex workers. In the 70s, Anchorage went from 60,000 people to about 200,000 in just that short length of time. A lot of strip joints sprung up, a lot of bars, all to capture that almighty dollar from the pipeline. When the pipeline started to build up, there was an influx of criminals and prostitutes. As frontier town was now full of people who left everything behind,

individuals without roots or community ties. Many were just passing through, making quick money before moving on. And if these people were to say, disappear perhaps, well, they might barely be missed. That means it was the perfect hunting ground for a killer to move through undetected. And wouldn't you know it, in the late 1970s, women who had moved there to make a quick buck in the back seat of a truck or at a CD motel began to disappear. In a city where people came and went all the time, no one really noticed these disappearances.

That is, until September 2nd of 1983, when certain events transpired that couldn't be ignored anymore. With all the new industry hitting Alaska, people needed new roads built, so trucks and everyone could get around more easily. And buildings were going up where there had never been any. So forests were mowed down, dirt dug up, and that's when a road construction crew unearthed something that likely would have stayed buried forever had not new industry come to town.

It was the body of 30-year-old dancer Paula Goulding found clothes to the banks of the Nick River. She'd been buried in a shallow grave and been missing for five months by then. She had been shot in the back, but the shirt she was wearing had no holes in it. An interesting fact to note, as it would lead authorities to believe she had been running away naked when she was gunned down. And the clothes placed back on her, and then she was buried. Now, who would hunt down a nude woman in the cold wilderness like that? Well, maybe this was some sort of twisted, one-off murder, but then just 12 days later, hunters in the exact same area right along that river, found the body of another woman.

another exotic dancer, this time 23-year-old Sherry Morrow. She had been missing for almost 10 months, having last been seen by friends whom she informed that she was going to go do a photo shoot. A nude photo shoot with a man who was going to pay 300 bucks, which back in 1981 was pretty serious cash that could go far in Alaskan towns. Sherry also had been shot in the back three times, and she was a very serious cash. was found in a shallow grave that had worn away revealing her body, and she too was fully clothed, though no holes. So she had been naked when she was shot and then dressed post-mortem. The authorities found shell casings from a 223 rifle close to her body, which matched the same ones found near Paula, and tests showed they had been fired from the exact same gun.

These women have been hunted down like animals, and so the land of the midnight sun had a killer on their hands, and he had many other victims under his belt. The police just didn't know that yet, and they definitely didn't know who he was either. That's in part because he wasn't someone you might suspect, at least not on the surface. Robert Hanson was a man of average height, and he was thin, almost scrawny. He had a bit of a stutter that he developed in childhood, and he spent most of his days at his bakery, cooking bread, and other baked good. Bob was a baker.

His wife, Darla, was a teacher at a Christian school. They eventually had two children. Hansen had been in the state for a long time, too. Moved to Alaska from Iowa in the 1960s, well before the pipeline boom. He had become a normal community member that everybody knew. He didn't hide out in some hand-built cabin. He wasn't withdrawn from society. Hansen was married with two kids, known to successful bakery, right in downtown Anchorage,

a place where cops regularly stopped by for coffee and donuts. So like I said, he wasn't suspect number one. That right there is one of the creepiest aspects of this whole case. Hansen was so broken and deprave that he knew the only way to conceal the truth of who he really was deep down inside was to appear as normal as he possibly could on the outside, and it fooled everyone. But underneath it all, there were deep scars no one could see. The scars created from a lifetime of anger and rejection, and Hansen only found one way to let his anger out by killing women.

Born in Nesterville, Iowa on February 15th of 1939, Hansen was the oldest of two children. His father Christian was a Danish immigrant who worked as a baker. a strict controlling man who made young Robert work long hours in the family bakery. Hanson's childhood was full of pain and loneliness, as early on he developed a bad stutter and had terrible acne that left permanent scars. He felt like he couldn't show his face to anyone out of fear of ridicule and couldn't speak to anyone for the same reason.

And throughout school he was bullied constantly for this. He had no close friends. His only escape was hunting and archery. solo activities where he could be good at something without facing social rejection. And for him, the seeds of violence were planted early. His stutter made it hard to talk to girls during his teen years. He found an outlet for his feelings of sexual rejection and frustration through increasingly serious crimes. It started with petty theft, but, for example, in 1960 when he was 21,

while Hansen burned down a garage with a bunch of school buses in his hometown, revenge, essentially, for how he felt he was treated in high school. This crime landed him a 20-month prison sentence, during which his first wife divorced him, while on the inside doctors diagnosed him with manic depression and periodic, schizophrenic episodes. One psychiatrist noted Hansen had an infantile personality and was obsessed with getting back at people he felt had wronged him,

which really was pretty much everyone he came across. After getting out Hanson remarried in 1963 and had two children. Getting a woman like Darlett to love him, although that's an achievement that he might have thought would never have happened, she's not the type of woman he was after. He tried to keep up an air of normalcy, but his criminal behavior was always right there, and he got caught a bunch of times for stealing.

So he was in and out of jail on short stints for the next several years. And by 1967, while he was looking for a fresh start, a place no one knew who he was, and he could create a full facade of normalcy. He moved his family to Anchorage, Alaska. And here, beyond the dedicated family man in Baker, he became well known as a skilled hunter. He even broke several hunting records with both rifles and a bow and arrow. It was the one real thing he was good at. Bob was very excitable.

If you're talking about something he really loves, like hunting, you could get him going. Sometime if he got real excited, a little saliva would come out the edge of his mouth. But Hansen, like many serial killers, struggle with his impulses. In 1971, he was arrested twice that year. He had smacked around the lady of the night a little too much, through a plea deal, served only six months in prison before being released to a halfway house. The justice system repeatedly failed to see how dangerous this man was becoming. In 1976, he was caught stealing a chainsaw from a store and then sentenced to five years in prison,

where doctors diagnosed him with bipolar disorder and prescribed him lithium. But the Alaska Supreme Court reduced his sentence, and he was released with time. served with no legal requirement to take his medication. And so now, the stage was set for Hansen's most violent chapter. He had been to jail and didn't want to go back again, but Hansen most definitely wanted to continue doing some very bad things, so what's a guy to do? Well, he figured that all those girls who have been rolling into town since the pipeline's creation and were working in the Red Light District couldn't be missed all that much. And it's hard. It's hard to Hard to be missed when no one even knows you're there, after all.

I mean, this is the red-light district of Anchorage, Alaska. The people out here don't want to be known and come from all over with their own sets of problems they're trying to escape themselves. His pattern was calculating, and somewhat simple and definitely sadistic. When he was done baking for the day, he would spend a spare time down on the streets, alleyways, and docks looking for a victim that called out to him. Many of these girls were teenagers or in their early 20s, and he tracked their movements, know their routine, and then, when they were alone and vulnerable, he'd approach them,

acting like a customer. Me'd offer them $100 or $200 to get them into his car, and once that door closed, he pulled out his gun and it was on. He liked to take women to his home when his family wasn't around and bring them down to the basement and chain them up to a post. He also had a small hunting shack right near the Nick River, a shack that was only accessible by boat or plane, and that was also a spot he'd take them to if his family were going to get in the way. Harkening back to all the torment he endured as a kid and teen and wanted to get a revenge that was impossible to get.

Hanson liked to be in control and inflict pain. This is what gave him pleasure. Now, because he had so many victims, some he killed, others were killed, others who were. survived, it's impossible to know exactly what the extent of his crimes were. He never fully told anybody. And there's speculations about a lot of bodies that were found that have never been conclusively tied to this man. But to give you an idea, between 1973 and 83, Hansing killed anywhere between 17 and 37 women. The most disturbing part of his ritual was when he would fly his victims in his bush plane to remote areas. Many of those areas being near his hunting shack.

and where some of his victims were discovered, as I mentioned earlier. There, he would release them naked, give them a brief head start, and then hunt them with his hunting rifle, or sometimes just to spice up the game a little, with only a knife. It was a twisted version of the hunting skills he'd been perfecting since childhood. Instead of tracking animals, he was now hunting human prey. Because as the Zodiac Killer once said, and quoting his favorite story, the most dangerous game,

game. Man is the most dangerous animal of all. And Hansen's eyes, it was actually women, because they rejected him and broke his little heart and already troubled brain. And for essentially a decade, he just kept this game going. Hansen ran his bakery, participated in community life, and kept up appearances as a family man. Meanwhile, bodies were occasionally found in remote areas, but with little evidence connecting them, authorities didn't imagine. immediately see the pattern of a serial killer at work. I mean, Hansen's hunting grounds were so vast and remote that many of his victims were never even found. Another reason, we don't know the actual number. And since the women he targeted

were transient or marginalized, the disappearances were rarely followed up with a serious investigation. But ultimately, like many serial killers, Hanson's confidence grew over time with each successful murder. And eventually, he made a crucial mistake. On June 13th of 1983, 17-year-old Cindy Paulson was offered $200 by Hanson, and like so many before her, she jumped at the opportunity and got right in his car. He then pulled out his 357 magnum, held it to her head and cocked it, and then he drove her to his home in Muldoon. And what followed was hours of brutal torture down in his basement. He chained Paulson by the neck to a post, and went on for so long that at one point he even took a nap on a nearby couch, tuckered out by the day's events. And when he woke up, Hansen decided it was time to take

the game up a notch. He then drove Cindy to Merrill Field, an airport where he kept his Piper PA-18 Super Cub bush plane. Hansen told her directly what was coming, that he planned to take her to his remote cabin near the Nick River where no one would hear her scream. But Paulson, despite being handcuffed and traumatized, saw her one chance to live in a brief moment. And while Hansen was loading supplies into his plane, she escaped from the back seat of his car and ran toward nearby 6th Avenue in handcuffs. A passing truck driver saw the girl who clearly was in trouble. He picked her up and drove her to a nearby motel where she called for help. When Anchorage Police Officer Greg Baker interviewed her, Paulson gave up all of her.

all the details about her attacker. She identified Hansen's car and even remembered the tail number of his plane. And Baker, thought it sounded a lot like the same man that he got his coffee from every single morning. When questioned, Hansen had a clean explanation for what actually happened. And he claimed Paulson was trying to get money from him. When he refused to pay, she made up the kidnapping story, plain and simple. And interestingly, despite Paulson's detail,

detailed accusations, Hansen's meek demeanor and his status as a local businessman, along with false alibis provided by two friends, will convince police not to file formal charges. It was a devastating failure of justice that could have ended the investigation, but it would take that discovery of Paula Goulding from the beginning of our story on September 2nd. It would make authorities take a second look at Hansen. Now, at this point in time, Alaska State Troopers had been investigating several, several bodies from around Anchorage in the area of Seward. The first victim there, who was never identified and nicknamed Eklutna Annie by investigators,

have been found near Eklutna Road. And shortly after that, the body of Joanne Messina was discovered in a gravel pit near Seward, and in 1982, the remains of Golding and 23-year-old Sherry Morrow were found in shallow graves near the Nick River. Suspecting the murders were connected, they brought them. in FBI special agent John Douglas for help who created a profile of the killer. And Douglas said the murderer would be an experienced hunter with low self-esteem and a history of rejection by women. So that was Hansen to a T. But more important than that, Douglas said the

killer would keep souvenirs from each victim. On October 27, 1983, armed with that information, Investigators got a warrant to search Hanson's home, vehicles, and plane, looking for any evidence and or souvenirs. And what they found confirmed their worst fears. Hidden inside his home was jewelry belonging to multiple missing women and an arsenal of weapons, including the 223 Ruger mini rifle that matched the shell casings found near victims. But the most damning evidence was hidden behind his headboard, It was an aeronautical chart marked with 37 small X symbols. Many of these marks matched exactly where bodies have been found.

It was Hansen's trophy map, a complete record of his kills. When faced with all this, Hansen first denied everything. But as each piece of evidence was presented, his denials fell apart. His friends who had given him an alibi for the night Cindy was taken, admitted that they just straight up lied. Eventually, he began to blame his victims, trying to justify his actions by claiming they had provoked him, as if what he had done to them was some sort of justified revenge.

Eventually, Hansen confessed to everything, though only a total of 17 women and not the 37, as indicated on his map. In a plea deal to avoid media attention in getting to a federal prison, Hansen agreed to help authorities find his victim's remains. He led investigators to 17 burial sites, though only the remains of 12 were recovered and returned to their families. Others remain missing in the vast Alaskan wilderness in their final resting places known only to him.

On February 18th of 84, Robert was then sentenced to 461 years in prison plus life without parole. The number so large it made sure. he would never be free again. He was first sent to the United States penitentiary in Lewisburg, Pennsylvania, before being moved back to Alaska. He spent most of his sentence

at Spring Creek Correctional Center in Seward until health problems required his transfer to the Anchorage Correctional Complex in May of 2014. And then not long after, on August 21st of that year, at the age of 75, Robert Hansen died of natural causes

at the Alaska Regional Hospital. And his victims, though, were more than just names in a case file. They were women trying to make their way through the world and the best way they knew how. All their lives brutally cut short, the known victims were vulnerable in many different ways, too. While many were outselling themselves, others were simply young women who crossed paths with a predator.

Eklutna Annie, a victim whose identity remains unknown decades later, a Hansen claimed she was his first murder victim. A dancer he stabbed in the back when she tried to escape from his car. Joanna Messina, who was 24, went to dinner with Hansen before he kidnapped, shot, and killed her along with her dog in May of 1980. Lisa Futrell, Andrea Altieri, Sue Luna, Robin Pelke, Dalyne Faye, Larson, Teresa Watson, Angela Federn, Tammy Pedersen, and Roxene Eastland, all murdered by Hansen, and that's just between 1980 and 83.

Prosecutors also believe Hansen was responsible for the debts of Megan Emmerich, a 17-year-old who vanished in July of 73, and Mary Thill, who disappeared in July of 75, though he denied killing them. And there's Cindy Paulson, the survivor whose courage and detailed testimony, helped bring Hansen to justice, likely saving countless other women from becoming his victims. And for decades after Hansen's arrest, dedicated investigators continued searching for additional victims. As recently as 2021, forensic genealogy was used to identify Robin Pelke, previously known only as Horseshoe Harriet, who was killed in 1983. And she had been shot and stabbed by Hansen. I was watching national news, and there was Bob Hanson. I thought, what the hell is Bob Hansen doing on national news?

And I turned it up, and it said, this is the greatest mass murder in the history of Alaska. Well, you couldn't have knocked me over with a feather. I had no idea. That guy was in my house at my dinner table. Just sends a chill at my back. I think why I couldn't read him. and that's the only guy I ever know that I couldn't read. Had I been able to read him, maybe I could have stopped him a lot earlier than he finally got stopped

and maybe save some of those girls such a waste of young lives. And so Robert Hansen, aka the butcher baker, is gone now, but the damage he left behind will never disappear, no matter how hard anyone tries. He did far too much damage to too many people. For more than a decade, he blended in as a quiet family man and small business owner, while secretly luring women into the Alaskan wilderness and hunting them like animals. It's a story that sounds too disturbing to be real, except it is. And if you take anything away from this episode today,

let it truly be the fact that monsters don't always look like monsters, at least not what you'd expect. And sometimes they wear aprons and sell pastries, all while hiding the darkest secrets imaginable. And so that's going to do it for this week's episode of Everytown. I hope you all enjoyed it. If you like the type of work we do and you want more, we'll check out some of the links down in the description.

We have more podcasts and videos, a whole ton of stuff for you guys to check out. I appreciate you all very much for tuning in. Remember to come on back next week for another. episode filled with scary, strange, and mysterious stories, because you never know. Maybe your town will be next.