Criminal Minds (TV Series)

Lucky Strikes (2017)

Joe Mantegna: David Rossi

Quotes 

• Dr. Lode Barren : We can't give you back the last decade, however, we offer our official apology for wrongfully detaining you here.

  Floyd Feylinn Ferell : I appreciate that, ma'am.

  Dr. Lode Barren : You're free to go, Mr. Ferell.

  David Rossi : Ms. Chairwoman, I apologize for the interruption, but I have an issue that I need to discuss with the board.

  Dr. Lode Barren : If it is absolutely necessary.

  David Rossi : Well, my colleague has just handed me Marcus Manning's autopsy report. The M.E. discovered five of the last victim's fingers in his stomach.

  Dr. Lode Barren : What relevance does that have to the matter before this board?

  David Rossi : Well, the remaining fingers were never found. And so I have here a search warrant to serve Mr. Ferell.

  Billie Williams : I object to this obvious attempt to punish my client.

  Floyd Feylinn Ferell : You can search my room, my sister's house, even my old place. You won't find anything.

  David Rossi : Oh, did I neglect to say the warrant isn't to search a location. It's for an x-ray of Floyd Feylinn Ferell's digestive tract. You see, we're gonna find Rebecca's other five fingers in your stomach... Floyd.

  Floyd Feylinn Ferell : [realizing he's been caught]  No!

  [Prentiss and Luke restrain him] 

  Floyd Feylinn Ferell : I'll kill you! No! No!

  David Rossi : And since this board has just given you a clean bill of mental health, we can now try you for these recent murders as an accessory, as well as for first-degree murder for all the murders you committed ten years ago.

• David Rossi : [closing quotation]  "People like to say that the conflict is between good and evil. The real conflict is between truth and lies." - Don Miguel Ruiz.

• David Rossi : Any lead on the manipulator killer theory?

  Jennifer Jareau : Well, I found a bunch of references to Satan in Ferell's writing, and I'm sending a video from the archive to your monitor now.

  Floyd Feylinn Ferell : [on the video file]  I'm not smart, but I have a smart friend who tells me things.

  Derek Morgan : What's your smart friend's name?

  Floyd Feylinn Ferell : He says you know his name.

  Jennifer Jareau : So it's possible he did have a partner.

  David Rossi : Just enough in the interview to make it seem plausible, but no definitive proof either way.

• Dr. Lode Barren : We have no further questions, Agent Rossi. You may be excused.

  David Rossi : I would like to be heard. We believe that Manning's dying declaration was a false confession.

  Dr. Lode Barren : Agent Rossi, this is an administrative hearing, not a criminal trial. You've answered our questions, now you are excused.

• Penelope Garcia : We got a call from Bridgewater, Florida PD. The body of Rebecca Strong was found last night in a rest stop women's room with and without things.

  Luke Alvez : Whoa.

  Penelope Garcia : Yeah. And then it gets worse.

  Jennifer Jareau : All the tell-tale signs are here.

  David Rossi : Pentagram, legs and fingers gone.

  Emily Prentiss : There's even one neat aspect. Her earrings and jewelry are laid out equidistant on the floor.

  David Rossi : Sure as hell looks like him.

  Matt Simmons : Looks like who?

  Jennifer Jareau : Floyd Feylinn Ferell.

  Dr. Spencer Reid : A psychotic cannibal who'd been killing under the radar for years.

  Emily Prentiss : He killed ten prostitutes, then moved up to low-risk victims.

  Jennifer Jareau : He kept slipping through the cracks and avoiding justice, so people referred to him as "Lucky".

  David Rossi : The worst of it was he owned a barbecue joint. And he fed one of the victims to the search party.

• Dr. Tara Lewis : Projected cannibalism. The act of inducing others to consume human flesh unknowingly. You do not see that very often.

  Emily Prentiss : Well, projection seems to be a thing for Ferell. He fed the fingers of ten previous victims to a later one.

  David Rossi : His way of telling us he was ten victims deep before we even knew he existed.

  Luke Alvez : You think he's back?

  Emily Prentiss : Not unless he really lives up to his nickname. He's been locked up in the Hazelwood Psychiatric Hospital for the past ten years.

  Matt Simmons : Well, then it's a copycat wanting to ride the wave of horror left in Ferell's wake.

  Dr. Spencer Reid : Statistically, copycat killers tend to be vulnerable narcissists. Though overtly boastful, they harbor deep-seated feelings of inadequacy. Emulating notorious crimes makes them feel powerful.

  David Rossi : Ferell was found to be mentally incapable of assisting in his own defense, so he skated without a trial.

  Emily Prentiss : If this unsub is anything like Ferell, he's got a taste for it. And copycats typically don't stop after one victim. Wheels up in twenty.

• Luke Alvez : What was Rebecca like as a person?

  Dr. Tara Lewis : She's described as strong-willed, determined. Working to support her two kids.

  Matt Simmons : When was Rebecca last seen?

  Penelope Garcia : Uh... well, her boyfriend, and by "boyfriend" I mean "pimp", Jason Carlsbad, reported her missing when she didn't show up and donate to his college fund. I'm sending you deets right now.

  David Rossi : Normally, I would want to look at him. Pimps hurt women they exploit to gain control, but an M.O. this complex doesn't add up.

  Luke Alvez : Yeah, the cannibalism angle wouldn't make sense, either.

  Dr. Spencer Reid : Eroticizing the consumption of human flesh is a pretty specific fetish. Are we sure that he's copying that from Ferell?

  Emily Prentiss : We need to nail that down. Dave, Tara, go to the M.E.'s office. Matt and Spencer, head to Hazelwood State. Notorious criminals have fans who might want to copy their work. Luke, you and I will head to the PD and set up a base of operations with Detective Russ.

• Dr. Warren Spitz : I was deputy coroner in 2007. Didn't think I'd ever see this again. Legs and fingers removed antemortem. Inverted pentagram postmortem.

  David Rossi : Cause of death exsanguination?

  Dr. Warren Spitz : Mm-hmm. Due to bisection of the carotid when her throat was slashed. Just like before.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Looks like blunt force trauma to the head, as well.

  Dr. Warren Spitz : Again, just like the historic cases. Whoever is doing this has Ferell down to a "T".

  David Rossi : That doesn't make sense. Ferell's been locked up for years. Why would someone be copying him now?

  Dr. Warren Spitz : Can't tell you, but this copycat seems to be an exact copy.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : How so?

  Dr. Warren Spitz : I x-rayed the stomach contents before I removed them. Five fingers in the stomach, fed to the victim just prior to her death, none of them hers.

  David Rossi : Only Ferell knew that signature aspect. We never released it to the public.

• David Rossi : All of the fingers found in Rebecca's stomach are from the same person, but they aren't hers. So we have one other unknown victim.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Well, JJ and Garcia are searching for other missing women who fit his victimology.

  Luke Alvez : You know, the fact that the... the killer forced Rebecca to swallow the fingers of a prior victim means that he must have had inside knowlede of the old cases.

• Dr. Spencer Reid : Ferell's been out on weekend home visits, so it is possible he's killing again.

  Emily Prentiss : I can't believe they'd be that reckless. How did this happen?

  David Rossi : Well, it happened with Hinkley and Vince Li, the cannibal who killed and beheaded a guy on a bus.

  Matt Simmons : And what's worse, 'cause this is a mental health issue, not a criminal case, they had no duty to tell us or the public.

  Detective Alex Russ : [entering]  Sorry to interrupt, but Ferell's lawyer, Billie Williams, is here. You're gonna want to hear what she has to say.

• Billie Williams : It's fortunate that you're here, Agents. I was just telling Detective Russ about our lawsuit against the FBI.

  Emily Prentiss : Don't waste our time with threats. We have work to do.

  Billie Williams : As a courtesy, I wanted to let you know that I just filed a motion to drop all charges against my client. I'm petitioning for his unconditional release.

  David Rossi : On what grounds?

  Billie Williams : It's clear from the current murder that Ferell is actually innocent. He was set up by the real killer ten years ago, and that guy's killing again.

  Emily Prentiss : The murders stopped as soon as Ferell was locked up, and they've started again now that he's on home release.

  Billie Williams : Supervised home release. And it's further proof that the killer is setting my client up. He only kills when he can blame it on Ferell.

  Detective Alex Russ : They caught him red-handed with one of the victims.

  Billie Williams : All that proves is that my client was under the influence of the real killer. He was clearly suffering from mental illness at the time.

  David Rossi : I'll say. He had human recipies, said he ate the victims, and had a satanic shrine.

  Billie Williams : He was manipulated by the real killer to say those things. There was never any actual evidence tying him to these murders.

  Emily Prentiss : Okay, well, we're confident that the facts speak for themselves. Now, if you'll excuse us.

• Emily Prentiss : Well, we've got our work cut out for us now. We need to attack this on two fronts. One, find out if Ferell is killing; two, look into his lawyer's "he was set up" theory.

  Matt Simmons : Are we really buying that Ferell had an accomplice and the team missed it before?

  David Rossi : No matter how confident we are in our past work, we need to look at all possibilities. Let the profile decide.

  Emily Prentiss : And let's find out if some phantom manipulative killer exists.

• David Rossi : Anything on that victim who got away in 2007?

  Penelope Garcia : No. Uh, but... with what happened to Sheryl Timmons, anybody who knew how to take care of themselves would have receded into the vapors like she did, so...

  David Rossi : Okay. Well, she may be good at hiding, but she's no match for you. Let us know when you find her.

  Penelope Garcia : [irritably]  Okay, I'll let you know when I find her, because there's just me and I'm supposed to get all of the answers for all of you all the time, and it's not... it's not fair. It's...

  [calming down upon seeing JJ, she then stands up] 

  Penelope Garcia : I...

  [flustered, she leaves] 

  David Rossi : I guess I should have seen that coming.

  Jennifer Jareau : She's not doing well.

  David Rossi : I was just trying to encourage her.

  Jennifer Jareau : And you know, don't worry about Penelope, okay? I'll take care of her. We'll let you know when we find Sheryl Timmons.

• David Rossi : We appreciate you coming in, Sheryl.

  Sheryl Timmons : I don't like being back here. I moved away ten years ago, took my name off of everything, just to avoid having to deal with this again.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Because there was no trial, you were never fully debriefed. We need to go over the details of your interactions with Ferell.

  Sheryl Timmons : I've been doing everything I can to try to forget. It's been a living hell. I'm not sure I can be of much help.

  [behind her, out in the bullpen, Luke and Matt lead Ferell in] 

  Sheryl Timmons : All of a sudden, I got the chills.

• Sheryl Timmons : He did say "we" a lot, and talked about a special friend, but I never saw anyone else.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Did you ever hear anything that might have indicated someone else was actually involved?

  Sheryl Timmons : I remember once I heard footsteps upstairs. He dropped everything and left in a hurry.

  David Rossi : Can you think back to when you were taken in the woods? Did you get a chance to see who grabbed you?

  Sheryl Timmons : No. I'm sorry. I was blindsided. All I remember is waking up in the trunk of a car. There was a police siren and the car pulled over. I was banging on the inside of the trunk.

  David Rossi : You were abducted in the afternoon, but that cop pulled you over at night. Where were you in between?

  Sheryl Timmons : When I first woke up in the trunk, we weren't moving. We were inside a building. I was unconscious when we got there. But I remember a train passing by woke me up. It seems like it took forever for that train to go by.

• Dr. Warren Spitz : This woman has been dead over a month, but same C.O.D. Exsanguination due to a severed carotid, inverted pentagram carved postmortem, and all ten fingers removed.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Now, there are hestitation marks on that neck wound.

  David Rossi : And he didn't remove her legs.

  Dr. Warren Spitz : No. Curiously, though, there are postmortem human bite marks on the right leg.

  David Rossi : Yeah, looks like he actually took a bite out of her calf.

  Dr. Warren Spitz : I acquired Ferell's bite impressions from the old case. These bite marks don't match his.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Well, that's definitive proof there's another killer.

  David Rossi : But you can't teach someone to be turned on by cannibalism. So whoever this unsub is, he must have had that desire all along.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : What about her stomach contents?

  Dr. Warren Spitz : Nothing in her stomach at all.

  David Rossi : So she's probably his first victim.

• Emily Prentiss : Go ahead, Dave.

  David Rossi : Well, it looks like Yvonne Westfield is this unsub's first kill. He's new at it, experimenting with the taste of human flesh. And behaviorally, we know that it's not Ferell.

  Emily Prentiss : Okay, let's play this out. If this killer's responsible for all the kills attributed to Ferell, he'd be experienced. He wouldn't be starting from scratch.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Yeah, and there'd be no reason for tentative bite or hestiation marks.

  Emily Prentiss : He also wouldn't have done such a poor job hiding Yvonne's body. I mean, that feels like a newbie mistake.

  David Rossi : You know, I agree. All of that rules out the theory that the current unsub was operating ten years ago.

  Emily Prentiss : Let's look at this from the other way around. What if Ferell isn't the patsy? What if Ferell has a patsy? Meaning he's had a plan all along to get out of Hazelwood State.

  David Rossi : So he trains a new unsub to kill using his exact same signature so we think that this new guy was killing ten years ago.

  Dr. Tara Lewis : Then it stands to reason this new unsub is gonna make more boneheaded mistakes.

  Emily Prentiss : First-timers hunt where they live, work, and play. He probably knew the first victim. I'll have Detective Russ bring in her family.

• Marcus Manning : I did it. I killed all those women in 2007.

  Lee Ann Kelton : What?

  Marcus Manning : I tried to be good, but these last few weeks, I couldn't help myself. I had to kill again.

  Luke Alvez : No!

  [letting Lee Ann go, Marcus cuts his own throat] 

  David Rossi : He's gone.

  Luke Alvez : [comforting Lee Ann]  It's okay.

  David Rossi : That confession is all that Ferell needs to get off scot-free.

• Dr. Tara Lewis : We know, behaviorally, that Marcus was lying.

  David Rossi : Regardless, we have to turn over his dying declaration to Ferell's defense counsel.

  Luke Alvez : She'll use it to get him out.

  Matt Simmons : That's what Ferell wanted all along.

  Dr. Spencer Reid : He manipulated the mental health system to get out again by coercing Marcus into taking credit for his crimes.

  Detective Alex Russ : And I'm left with a cannibal about to be released back into my community. How do I protect them?

  Emily Prentiss : None of us wants to risk waiting for Ferell to kill again, and we all know believe he will, but there's simply nothing we can do legally at this time.

  David Rossi : Well, I can't leave here doing nothing. I'll try to get the hospital board to understand Ferell's hand in all this.

  Detective Alex Russ : I appreciate that, and everything you've done for us. Thank you.