David Rossi quotes from Criminal Minds

Hotchner

Sheriff, someone around here must know who Goehring's partner is.

Rossi

We should try Goehring's pals, the militia. Maybe they can help.

Militia leader is Harris Townsend, he owns a bar called the Horse Post.

Rossi

I'd suggest sending Morgan.

Morgan

What? All due respect, Rossi, but you've got an entire team to pick from. You're choosing me? Are you serious?

No offense, but, do you really want to do that?

Hotchner

Take J.J with you.

Rossi

They know we're here. But you're the last face they expect.

JJ

So killer satanic cults don't exist, but satanic serial killers do?

Rossi

Lasciate ogne speranza voi ch'intrate.

JJ

Huh, thanks for clearing that up.

Reid

Eh, it's from Dante's Inferno: "Abandon hope, all ye who enter here."

JJ

So that was a "yes"?

Hotchner

A big "yes".

Rossi

Father Marks looked pretty shaken up when he left.

Morgan

Yeah, well he had enough reason to be.

Rossi

You're still pissed I threw you under the bus with him yesterday.

Morgan

Am I?

Rossi

You know, in my day, if your partner made a request like that- Well, I was just giving you a chance at personal growth.

Morgan

[Chuckles] I get you, Dave. You're not a mystery to me, man. They said you couldn't interview serial killers. You did. They said you couldn't put together a profiling team. You did. They said there was no way in hell you would ever come back here. You did. It's in your nature Rossi. It's who you are.

Rossi

Well, if you knew all that, why would you tell me you didn't want to talk to the priest?

Morgan

I was giving you an opportunity for personal growth.

Morgan

Floyd, I had to pull some serious strings to get him here. My bosses didn't like the idea at all of sendin' him in. Now, they're gonna allow him to sit right here and listen, But you're gonna talk to me, all right?

Okay. [To Father Marks] I've done some really bad things.

Everybody's done things they're not proud of, Floyd. The only thing that helps is to talk about 'em, Tell other people. Things are always better after you talk about 'em.

Not everything.

Rossi

This is strange. When he entered the park, Feylinn signed the volunteer sign-in sheet, but his name's not on the list of searchers.

Morgan

Come on, Floyd. I got him here like you asked. Now it's your turn. Tell us. Where is Tracey Lambert?

Rossi

Something's wrong.

Father, I feel so alone. I feel like God has abandoned me. Why?

You are not alone, my son. God is in all of us.

Rossi

We need to stop the interview!

[To Father Marks] So is Tracey Lambert.

Son of a bitch.

[Charges at Ferrell] You son of a bitch! YOU SON OF A BITCH!

Morgan

[Restraining Father Marks] Father Marks! No! Help!

YOU SON OF A BITCH!

He was feeding the volunteers.

Rossi

[about Feylinn] Blaming the devil for his cannibalism wasn't enough to lessen his guilt, so he tricked others into participating. He made them all as guilty as he was.

Morgan

He caught every break possible, Rossi. Gets released from the hospital. His records get destroyed. Gets pulled over with a victim in the trunk of his car, and they let him go. I've never seen anyone that lucky.

Rossi

What's your point?

Morgan

You've been doin' this a long time. You've seen a lot of things. You think it's possible Feylinn would... I don't know. That he was getting some kind of help from something else?

Rossi

It's irrelevant. The job is to find evil, to stop it, not to know where it came from. Let somebody else take that job. This one's tough enough.

Rossi

All right, let's cut the crap! You need to be straight with us. Right now. Look at me, not them!

Garcia

I am not hiding anything...

Rossi

You got shot! Most people get shot for a reason!

Rossi

Eyes here!

Morgan

Ease up Rossi!

Rossi

You got a room full of people here, willing to believe that an FBI agent is trying to kill you! We need to know everything you do on company time that we don't know about!

Morgan

Come on, man!

Garcia

It's nothing bad...

Rossi

What? Spit it out!

Garcia

It's nothing bad! It's just... I counsel victim's families and they know where I work, so sometimes they ask to look into their cases for them.

Rossi

What does that mean?

Garcia

Just means that the cases, the unsolved ones, I tag them, so whoever investigates them knows that the FBI considers them a priority.

Hotchner

You're not authorized to do that.

Garcia

I know! I was just trying to help.

Rossi

Something wrong?

Prentiss

He's the first unsub I've worked who wasn't a bad guy. You know? Six months ago, Johnny McHale was just a regular person.

Rossi

Every unsub is ill on some level. Most can't help what they do any more than Johnny could.

Prentiss

But he went from successful writer and artist to brutal killer in six months.

Rossi

He suffered an unbelievable tragedy.

Prentiss

I know. I get it.

Rossi

So what's bugging you?

Prentiss

It just makes me wonder... are we all capable of becoming something like that?

Rossi

Life is a hell of a thing to happen to a person.

Rossi

I wanna show you something. I carry this wherever I go.

Your kids?

Rossi

Indianapolis, Christmas Eve. One of my first cases on the job. Three kids watched their parents get beaten to death. Every year, I call to tell them I haven't forgotten, I'm still looking.

Rossi

Last year, not one of them bothered to return my call.

Rossi

I have interviewed hundreds of killers. All types of crazy motives for doing what they did. They all share one thing in common, all of them: it's in their eyes!

Hotchner

'Till what they hold most precious is gone... and then they're lost. Just like the rest of us.

Rossi

When I interviewed Bundy, he had a theory about pornography. He said "If you wanna stop people from becoming like me, don't burn Catcher in the Rye."

Hotchner

"Burn 'Hustler'." I read your books, too, Dave.

Hotchner

With four known victims, we should start by re-interviewing friends and family. We're looking for a white male in his thirties to forties. And with his knowledge of circuitry and wiring, we think that he's either an electrician or an electrical engineer.

Rossi

It's a job that may give him access to a victim's home or workplace, the opportunity to observe his targets.

Prentiss

They're attractive, professional women. He sees them as strong, righteous, unobtainable. So he seeks to tear them down, to reduce them to base sexual creatures and punish them.

Hotchner

He's a true sexual sadist. A typology we refer to as anger-excitation, meaning he becomes sexually aroused by the suffering of his victims.

Rossi

Killing these women is an afterthought. Their pain is what he's after. And he takes his time, to exact maximum stimulation.

What about his trophies? He keeps their clothes, right?

Prentiss

Yes. We believe he's using them for rehearsal fantasies. By dressing as his victims, he can relive the torture. It's during this time that he most likely pleasures himself in order to reinforce his association between suffering and gratification.

Hotchner

And when he becomes dissatisfied with this, he seeks out a new victim.

Rossi

Keep in mind he's been this for a long time, and he's been thinking about doing it most of his life. He'll continue to evolve, finding new ways of challenging himself, increasing his stimulation threshold. There are no boundaries for this man.

Hotchner

It's unacceptable behavior. Why do you keep defending her?

Rossi

Because I know what she is. She is me, twenty years ago.

Hotchner

She is nothing like you, Dave.

Rossi

Come on Hotch, I know what people think. I took serial killer's mass market. Now everyone knows their names, but not the victims, right? Somewhere along the line, I put myself first. I admit it. I can't go back and change it. But it's not too late for her.

Rossi

Hi, Connie. I brought the team with...

You need to stop this.

Rossi

Excuse me?

We thought that if we didn't call you back the last couple times, you would just give up and leave us alone.

Rossi

I know that it hurts, but I'm only trying to make sure someone pays for your parents' deaths.

We don't care anymore. It's been twenty years! We need to be able to move past it. Please!

Rossi

I won't bother you kids again.

And you'll stop it with the gifts, too?

Rossi

Gifts?

What are we suppose to do with... a bunch of toys that remind us of the worst day of our lives?

Rossi

I never sent you any gifts.

Rossi

Morgan, obsessional crimes are your specialty.

Morgan

Well, there's two kinds of obsessional offenders that would send gifts to survivors. Sadists, who want to make the families keep reliving the crime, or guilt-laden offenders, desperately trying to find some type of way to apologize.

Rossi

Sadists usually use something they know will remind the family of the person or the crime. Jewelry, newspaper clippings.

Prentiss

These don't look like the kind of things you would send to inflict pain on someone.

Rossi

So, guilt-laden.

Prentiss

You know, they actually look like the kind of thing a child would send.

Morgan

Okay. Well, it's rare, but an unsub who feels this much guilt sometimes commits the crime unintentionally. They tend to be developmentally disabled, extremely low IQ offender, and generally, well, they're physically large and they're very strong. Strong enough to hurt somebody accidentally.

Prentiss

Like Lennie in Of Mice and Men.

Hotchner

I need a favor.

Rossi

Of course.

Hotchner

I need some personal time, no more than a day.

Rossi

Take all the time you need.

Hotchner

[about his divorce from Haley] I need to talk to Jack. I've lost her, but I'm not gonna lose him. I need to try to... tell him what's going on. I don't know how much he's going to understand, but...

Rossi

All he needs to understand is that you love him.