In the frozen wilderness of Alaska, where the sun sets early and the chill of the night seeps into the bones, lies a story of terror and tragedy. A story of a man who once roamed the land with his hunting rifle, taking the lives of innocent women in a twisted pursuit of pleasure. The man in question is Robert Hansen, born in 1939 in Estherville, Iowa, to a Danish immigrant father and a mother named Edna Hansen. Hansen’s childhood was plagued by bullying and hardship, marked by a difficult relationship with his strict father, who made him work long hours at the family bakery, and a stutter that set him apart from his peers.

Despite his struggles, Hansen’s skills as a marksman were honed during his time in the U.S. Army Reserve, where he served one weekend a month and honed his skills. But even then, he was unable to escape his troubled past, as he was incarcerated for a period of time for burning down a local high school bus garage.

It was in Alaska, however, where Hansen’s dark desires truly took hold. In the 1960s and 1970s, he committed several crimes, including theft, rape, and attempted rape, leading to several stints in prison. But despite his criminal past, Hansen was able to establish himself as a well-liked family man, owning a bakery and even purchasing a Piper Super Cub bush plane, which he used to carry out his horrific acts.

Starting in 1973, Hansen claimed that he became a serial rapist, abducting prostitutes from Anchorage’s tenderloin district and taking them to the wilderness, where he would rape and torture them. Those who complied, he would return to Anchorage alive, while those who didn’t, he would kill. From 1973 to 1983, he kidnapped and raped at least 30 women, leaving a trail of death and terror in his wake.

It wasn’t until the summer of 1983 that the truth about Hansen’s crimes began to unravel. The police were tipped off by a young prostitute named Cindy Paulson, who managed to escape from Hansen’s clutches and identify him as her attacker. Despite a lack of concrete evidence, the authorities continued to investigate Hansen, who by this point was on their radar.

Their persistence paid off when they discovered a collection of weapons, including the .223 Ruger Mini-14 he used to commit his murders, IDs and jewelry taken from his victims, and an aviation map with several marked locations. The final nail in Hansen’s coffin came when the FBI forensic lab matched the shell casings found near several of Hansen’s victims to the rifle found in his home.

In February 1984, Robert Hansen was arrested and charged with four counts of murder, later pleading guilty to four counts of murder and receiving a 461-year sentence. But the dark legacy of Hansen’s hunting ground lived on, as the families of his victims and the people of Alaska were left to grapple with the horrors he inflicted upon them. To this day, the shadow of Robert Hansen looms over the wilds of Alaska, a reminder of the darkness that can lurk in even the most seemingly ordinary of men.