Crime procedurals are a beloved part of TV, with several notable examples popping up over the years. One of the most beloved crime procedural shows is Criminal Minds. Having aired for over a decade, by the time it ended, Criminal Minds amassed a large fanbase with its relatively unique take on the classic cop show. Instead of spotlighting the crime, the show focuses on the victims and the twisted minds who made them such.
Criminal Minds’ central characters are a part of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit or BAU, who solve crimes by profiling the perpetrators, blending psychology and behavioral sciences. The suspects are called the Unknown Subject, or unsub for short, and they often have the spotlight. Some are memorable, while others fade into the show’s hundreds of cases, and the most memorable are also the scariest.
Updated on September 20, 2024, by Florencia Aberastury: Criminal Minds introduced some of the most disturbing and scary unsubs, criminals who’ve committed heinous and atrocious crimes. This article has been updated to include more Criminal Minds unsubs that left a mark on viewers due to their scary and disturbing nature, as well as to bring the article up to current CBR standards.
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Cat Adams Left Deep Scratches in Criminal Minds
Criminal Minds first introduces hitwoman Cat Adams during an undercover sting operation at a restaurant where Reid poses as a potential client. Even though Reid is a genuine genius, he doesn’t completely outsmart Cat. She’s a master manipulator and highly perceptive. While the BAU does lock her up, her reign of terror doesn’t end for several seasons.
Aside from her undeniable talents in the manipulation game, she’s definitely best at murder. She preferred to get her victims into a compromised position, learning everything physical and psychological about a target before shooting them with a .45-caliber handgun. Her favorite targets were family men, especially those who hired her to kill their wives. She didn’t stop killing after her arrest, though; she simply transferred the dirty work to proxies. Her exact body count is unclear, but she has over 200 kills, and according to the Criminal Minds wiki, over 2000 attempts by proxy. If not for her slight weaknesses regarding her abusive childhood and father issues, nothing would’ve likely taken her down, which makes her one of the most threatening unsubs of the show.
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Peter Lewis Made People Kill For Him
There are many interesting Criminal Minds unsubs, and Peter Lewis, a.k.a. “Mr. Scratch,” is one of them. Just looking at the monster that Peter Lewis made his victims imagine is enough to realize why he’s one of the scariest Criminal Minds unsubs, but his MO was extremely disturbing as well. Peter Lewis didn’t kill people himself. Instead, he used different drugs to make others kill for him, turning innocent people into criminals.
Peter Lewis made his victims hallucinate horrifying scenarios before making them kill their loved ones. The fact that he was able to influence people so easily is disturbing and scary enough. Anyone could be a victim and become a killer due to Peter Lewis’ actions, which makes an unsub like Mr. Scratch one of the scariest Criminal Minds unsubs.
3
Thomas Yates Played With Rossi Even While In Prison
Thomas Yates is a Criminal Minds unsub who was first introduced in flashbacks during the episode “Profiling 101.” Easily one of the most prolific serial killers introduced in Criminal Minds, Yates’ MO is extremely disturbing and scary. He would not only kill his victims, Yates would remove his victim’s reproductive organs first, earning him the disturbing moniker of “The Womb Raider.”
Yates was caught and sent to prison before he was introduced in Criminal Minds. Audiences learn about his actions and crimes in flashback scenes as Rossi and the rest of the BAU give a lecture on Yates’ crimes and how they were able to capture him. Still, even though Yates was imprisoned, he was able to inflict pain and play with David Rossi by making Rossi visit him in prison once a year to give Rossi another name and location for one of Yates’ victims. Thomas Yates was a scary and prolific unsub who was able to escape prison and began killing again, taunting Rossi in the process.
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George Foyet Strikes Fear in Criminal Minds Fans
Once a person reaches Season 4 of Criminal Minds, the name George Foyet likely rings every alarm bell in their mind. To say he left an impression would be a serious understatement. Criminal Minds first introduced Foyet when the BAU went to Boston following the resurgence of one of the first serial killers Hotch investigated, The Boston Reaper. Foyet wasn’t automatically suspected, as the police believed he was just a victim.
Foyet managed to avoid suspicion for years, bouncing between secret identities and his homicidal urges flying under the radar. By the time Hotch signed onto the case in the mid-to-late ’90s, Foyet already had 20 kills and manipulated the police into shutting down the investigation. During his murder hiatus, Foyet took great pleasure in stalking and tormenting the lead detective, who went to his grave feeling guilty because of the case growing cold. If that, combined with his brutal murders, including mass murder, wasn’t scary enough, Foyet made BAU lead Aaron Hotchner, his greatest enemy, as Hotch refused to stop investigating. As a result, Foyet physically and emotionally torments him for a while before ultimately murdering Hotch’s wife, Haley. Luckily, he can’t directly cause any more harm in Criminal Minds, though he’ll always haunt fans.
1
Billy Flynn Lurks in the Darkness
Even though some might consider George Foyet the scariest unsub in Criminal Minds, Billy Flynn outranks him for a few reasons. For starters, not much is known about Foyet’s character before the killings. Flynn’s first appearance in Criminal Minds Season 5 revealed that his childhood ranks among the worst in the show. Like Frank, Flynn’s mother was involved in sex work, but she put her child in the bedroom closet with the door open to watch the rendezvous, and she also unfortunately sold her son’s body to clients. As such, it’s unsurprising that, when he was 13, he shot his mother and a client, making the man beg for his life and leaving him with a lasting craving for power and bloodshed. His later crime spree started in 1984 when he started with burglaries.
Criminal Minds fans who know true crime might recognize the year 1984 with the real-life monster Billy Flynn’s based upon: Richard Ramirez. Like The Night Stalker, Flynn’s Prince of Darkness escalated to breaking into a home, sexually assaulting and then killing the residents. Flynn intentionally left at least one survivor with psychological trauma, taking pleasure in the intense scars left on others. Tim Curry only added to the already-present horror factor when he brought the character to Criminal Minds.