Alaska 'Butcher Baker' Serial Killer Dies

The "world is better" now that the worst serial killer in Alaskan history has died, says a state trooper who helped track down Robert Hansen. The 75-year-old had been in prison since 1984 after he admitted murdering at least 17 women and raping 30 more over a 12-year period, the AP reports. Hansen—who had a wife and children and owned a bakery in Anchorage—was nicknamed the "Butcher Baker" after his crimes emerged. He kidnapped his victims, most of whom were strippers or prostitutes, and flew them in his private plane to remote locations, sometimes letting them go in the wilderness and hunting them down.

Hansen was caught after a victim escaped and investigators discovered a map in his home marked with the locations of 17 bodies. "Good riddance to him," the assistant district attorney who tried the case tells the Anchorage Daily News. "He's one of those kind of guys that you kind of hope every breath he takes in his life, there’s some pain associated with it, because he caused such pain." Hansen was played by John Cusack in the 2013 movie The Frozen Ground, which also starred Nicolas Cage as an Alaska state trooper. (More Alaska stories.)