The Butcher Baker – Robert Christian Hansen –2.Honing the Hunter

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Honing the Hunter
Robert Hansen's career as a baker started in his childhood. Christian Hansen was a Danish immigrant who had his own bakery with his wife, Edna, in Pocahontas, Iowa. On February 15, 1939, Edna gave birth to Robert Christian Hansen, their only child. Christian was a strict family man. He and Edna insisted that Robert work in the family bakery for the majority of the time that he wasn't in school. They also insisted that their left-handed child use his right hand as the dominant hand. Although there is no indication of actual abuse, his parents' controlling tendencies seem to have added a lot of stress to an already anxious child.

Hansen had issues with both a bad stutter and severe acne. He would tell interviewers that his face was "one big pimple" as a teenager and that the forced use of his right hand amplified his stuttering problem. Friends were few and far between, and none were very close to the skinny, shy, awkward child.

As Hansen got older, he experienced even more difficulty with children at school. He was often teased and picked on by the other students. His biggest problem was with the girls. The most attractive girls, to Hansen, were the meanest to him. It was at that time that a slow hatred for females began to bubble up inside of Hansen. The more abuse he received from his fellow classmates, the more withdrawn he became.

When he reached his teen years, Hansen began spending his scant free time out in the woods, hunting. He quickly became a rather adept hunter, and he found peace in the hobby. It was an escape from his life at home with strict, religious, overbearing parents, as well as the hardships he dealt with at school.

In high school, Hansen wasn't much for social activities. He had little money for such things and hardly any friends, and his parents were not fond of recreational events. Hansen did join a few school groups and sports teams so that he would be able to spend less time with his parents at the bakery and more time trying to socialize with students his age. He played basketball, ran track, sang in the school chorus, and was a member of the chess club. He took both driver's education and typing classes. Notwithstanding his attempts to fit in with his fellow classmates, he continued to be shy and withdrawn. His favorite activity was still hunting. Whether he was using a fishing rod, a bow and arrow, or a gun, Hansen preferred the solace of being out in the wilderness killing animals to interacting with other people.

In 1957, Hansen graduated high school and joined the United States Army Reserve. He trained at Fort Dix, New Jersey, and was then sent to Fort Knox, Kentucky. It was there, at age 18, that Hansen met with a prostitute and had his first sexual encounter. It wouldn't be the last, even for his short time at Fort Knox. In 1959, he went back to Iowa as an Army reservist. As a reservist, Hansen had to spend one weekend a month drilling; the remainder of the time, he worked in the family's bakery and volunteered at the Pocahontas County police academy as a drill instructor.

In between the Army, the bakery, and the police academy, Hansen met a local girl. They fell in love and were married in 1960. Six months later, Hansen committed his first crime. Hansen somehow induced a 16-year-old boy to help him set fire to the large Pocahontas County school bus garage. Later, Hansen claimed that he did it because he was angry at how the students and staff had treated him when he was in school. When the teenager went to the authorities and turned himself in, Hansen received a three-year sentence for the arson and his wife filed for divorce. He served 20 months of the sentence before being granted parole. During his incarceration, a psychological evaluation stated that he had an "infantile" personality. Hansen had just taken his first solid step into a lifetime of criminality.

Shortly after his release, Hansen met someone else. Within a short period of time, he was married to his second wife, Darla, who would remain with him until his arrest for murder. The couple moved to Anchorage, Alaska, during the oil boom of the early 1970s. Not only was it a chance for Hansen to start over with his new wife—it was also a place of great opportunity for an avid hunter.