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Robert Hansen, notorious Alaska serial killer, dead at 75

Alaska serial killer Robert Hansen, dead at 75, was the subject of the 2013 movie "The Frozen Ground."

By Frances Burns
Robert Hansen
Robert Hansen

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Robert Hansen, an Anchorage baker who admitted killing 17 women and raping 30 more, died Thursday, corrections officials said.

Hansen, 75, was transferred Wednesday to the Alaska Regional Medical Center from a medical unit at the Anchorage Correctional Complex. A spokeswoman for the Alaska Department of Corrections said his health had been failing for about a year.

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In 1983, Hansen pleaded guilty to the murder of four women, although he said he had killed 17, and was sentenced to 461 years in prison. He agreed to help authorities locate the bodies of his victims and about 12 were found.

Hansen targeted exotic dancers and prostitutes in Anchorage. He would bind them and then load them on his small plane for a one-way trip into the wilderness.

In 1983, a handcuffed teenager appeared at a motel. She told investigators Hansen had held her captive at his home.

A 2013 movie, The Frozen Ground, starred John Cusack as Hansen and Nicolas Cage as the state trooper investigating the case. Hansen, who had a successful business before his arrest, was also the subject of a 1991 book, Butcher, Baker.

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