Robert Hanson seemed like a quiet, hard-working man, a baker running a successful business in Anchorage, Alaska.

To neighbors, he was the friendly guy who kept to himself, a soft-spoken family man with a stutter and a love for hunting.

But beneath that calm surface was one of the most sadistic serial killers in American history,

a man who hunted human beings like

wild game across the vast Alaskan wilderness. Over more than a decade Hanson abducted, raped,

and murdered at least 17 women, possibly many more, using the remoteness of Alaska as his

personal hunting ground. This episode starts in the frigid, isolated backdrop of Anchorage in the late 1970s and early 1980s,

a time when Alaska was booming from oil and attracting a transient population of workers, dreamers, and drifters.

It was also a place where many women, especially sex workers and dancers,

could vanish without much attention from law enforcement. Hansen knew this. He exploited it,

and he used it to create a horrifying pattern of abuse that would go undetected for years.

Listeners are taken into Hansen's early life in Iowa.

Born in 1939, he grew up bullied shy, with a stutter and a domineering father.

His resentment toward women began early.

He was awkward, rejected, and angry.

That rage simmered through his youth until at age 21 he committed his first known crime,

burning down a school bus garage and revenge for perceived slights.

He was sent to prison but released early.

His behavior escalated.

After moving to Alaska in the late 1960s, Hansen appeared to find a second chance,

a family, a business, a new life,

but the violence never left him. Hansen would troll anchorages, strip clubs, and bars,

...