Convicted Alaska serial killer Robert Hansen, who hunted down women in the Alaska wilderness in the 1970s as Anchorage boomed with construction of the trans-Alaska oil pipeline, died Thursday. He was 75.
Alaska Department of Corrections spokeswoman Sherrie Daigle said Hansen died at Alaska Regional Hospital after being in declining health for the past year.
Hansen was convicted in 1984 after confessing to killing 17 women, mostly dancers and prostitutes, during a 12-year span. He was convicted of four of the murders in a deal that spared him having to go to trial 17 times.
The Anchorage baker also confessed to raping another 30 women in that time.
Hansen was the subject of a 2013 film titled, “The Frozen Ground,” which starred Nicolas Cage as an Alaska State Trooper investigating the slayings. Actor John Cusack portrayed Hansen.
Hansen was serving a 461-year sentence in Alaska.
