Yahoo News 6 TV characters who are *definitely* serial killers
It's become a staple of the gritty crime procedural that the 'hero' of the piece is every bit as twisted as the villains he or she is pursuing – in fact, it's what allows him/her to get inside the mind of a killer and guess the quarry's next move.
So it's perhaps no surprise that fans of the Netflix series Mindhunter started to suspect that Jonathan Groff's rather chilly FBI special agent Holden Ford might be a secret sociopath. "So many of my friends texted me, saying, 'OK, so when are you gonna start killing people?'," Groff admitted.
But it's not just morally murky shows like Mindhunter that generate these kinds of wild fan theories about a character's night life. TV audiences are seeing potential serial killers everywhere. Maybe lay off the true-crime documentaries, people...
1. Jessica Fletcher – Murder, She Wrote
Just ask yourself this: what's more likely, that wherever crime author Jessica Fletcher lands on the long-running crime series Murder, She Wrote, a dead body just also happens to materialise...
... or that Jessica is a secret serial killer, bumping off unwitting innocents wherever she goes? We all know that killers like to insert themselves into the investigation. She gets to relive her crime, avert suspicion and even point the finger at innocents! Psycho!
268 TV outings with at least one victim per episode actually makes Fletcher the most prolific serial killer in human history.
2. Dennis Reynolds – It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia
It's Always Sunny has always been pretty unorthodox as sitcoms go, but would it really go so far as to expose one of its main characters as a murderer?
YouTube Ryan Hollinger has posited just that, making a very convincing argument that Dennis Reynolds, as portrayed by Glenn Howerton, is a classic example of an 'organised' serial killer.
Dennis is charismatic but needy and aggressive. "I swear you would be of more use to me if I skinned you, and turned your skin into a lampshade," he once told his twin sister Dee, played by Kaitlin Olson.
He often demands that even those closest to to him sign "creepy documents" to give up their own sense of power and control. ("Then no-one can do anything to stop me.")
Dennis even tapes all of his sexual encounters and calls himelf a "golden God" who deserves to be worshipped by the opposite sex. Then there's the season three episode 'Mac is a Serial Killer', in which the gang suspect that Mac (Rob McElhenney), who's grown distant from the group, might be responsible for a string of slayers in the area.
Dennis asserts that Mac isn't smart enough to have committed the crimes and later takes rather too much pleasure in explaining to Dee how a killer might carry out their grisly misdeeds.
Seriously, this one's pretty much a slam-dunk.
3. Zack Morris – Saved by the Bell
Zack? Squeaky-clean teen heartthrob Zack? Surely not?
As Cracked points out, there are a frightening number of characters on Wikipedia's list of Saved by the Bell characters who were "never seen again" after their initial appearances, including a few of Zack's one-off love interests.
Whatever happened to Tori Scott (Leanna Creel), who arrived at Bayside High during senior year? She and Zack briefly dated, but after their break-up, Tori vanished and was never seen or mentioned again.
Why were fellow Bayside students Ginger Baldwin (Bridgette Wilson) and Danielle (last name unknown, played by Julie St Claire) likewise never referred to again after their dalliances with Zack?
And remember Jessie's wicked-cool stepbrother Eric Tramer (Josh Hoffman)? Eric visited from New York in the two-part season three episode 'The Wicked Stepbrother', opting to stick around and enrol at Bayside at the story's conclusion.
Except (you guessed it) Eric was never seen again. He'd already proven himself a bit of a ladies' man, so was big-man-on-campus Zack jealous? Did he fly into a murderous rage and off Eric? We wouldn't bet against it.
4. Toby Flenderson – The Office (US)
The later seasons of The Office introduced a sub-plot involving serial killer the Scranton Strangler, with the multi-season arc apparently resolved when a man named George Howard Skub is convicted.
Paul Lieberstein's character Toby, though, argues that Skub is innocent, despite having served on the jury that sent him down. One fan theory has it that Toby himself is the Strangler – lashing out after years of being belittled by his co-workers and frustrated in his affections for Pam (Jenna Fischer).
Fast forward some more to “The Viewing” episode. This is when the chase down between the police and the Scranton Strangler happened. Everyone was there watching. That is, except Toby... pic.twitter.com/VwOTNX7go6
- Spencer McClure (@spencermcclure_) March 11, 2018
But what about the scene in season nine's 'Moving On' which sees Toby apparently attacked off-screen by Skub, 'proving' his doubts about the conviction to be misplaced?
One possible theory is that Toby revealed himself to be the real Strangler, causing Skub to lash out at the man who'd framed him. After years of being overlooked, he couldn't bear to have someone else take the credit for his crimes and had to confess to someone...
Don't know about you, but we buy it.
5. Winston – New Girl
But loveable oddball Winston is a police officer! Surely he can't be a serial murderer?
Pah! That's the perfect cover for his crimes, at least according to Myles McNutt (@Memles) on Twitter, who's been pushing the 'Winston as killer' theory since 2013.
I think if you were to add up all of Winston's character traits, laypeople would likely consider him a serial killer. #NewGirl
- Myles McNutt (@Memles) September 18, 2013
Let's consider the evidence: Winston (Lamorne Morris) is hopeless around women and maintains an uncomfortably close relationship with his cat. (Neither of which are 100% verifiers of psychopathy, of course.) Most damning of all, though, he spends a worrisome amount of time hatching complicated so-called "pranks" – actually horrific acts of violence he intends to inflict on those around him.
Across the show's run, he threatens to throw acid in Schmidt's (Max Greenfield) face, to stab and kill Jess (Zooey Deschanel), and to kidnap Cece's fiancé Shivrang (Satya Bhabha) and "drop him off the the desert 'till he don't breathe no more".
Even as a child, in flashback, we see him plotting to hit a young girl "in the throat with a ski". Seriously, these are all genuine examples. Google them, if you don't believe us. Winston is one sick puppy.
6. Wilson – Home Improvement
Tim 'The Tool Man' Taylor's neighbour and confidante Wilson (Earl Hindman) might appear affable enough, but he remains an enigmatic figure throughout Home Improvement's 200+ episodes.
Who is Wilson, really? Why is his face, in the show's famous visual gag, always kept partially obscured? And can the full name he gives, "Wilson W Wilson", really be anything but an alias?
(Sidebar... was Adeel Aktar's character in Utopia, also called Wilson Wilson, named in reference to him?)
A clue as to his true sinister nature lurks in the season one episode 'Baby It's Cold Outside', in which Tim (Tim Allen) and wife Jill (Patricia Richardson) are looking for suggestions for a romantic getaway and Wilson recommends Crystal Lake... famously the hunting ground of Friday the 13th's hockey mask-sporting killer Jason Voorhees.
The Taylors later run into Wilson at Crystal Lake, which he claims to visit every year. One fan theory has it that he's Jason's father, a character who's only briefly touched upon in the horror film series.
Like father, like son?
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