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Minor Character: Las Vegas
Arthur
Name Arthur Blisterman
Gender Male
City Las Vegas
Occupation Plumbing contractor
Artist
Serial killer
Status Institutionalized
Portrayed By Ritchie Coster
First Appearance Art Imitates Life

"I have been alone my entire life. I have tried and tried to acheive some recognition for my work, and I have been repeatedly and cruelly ignored, and this has made me feel very... bad about myself."

Arthur Blisterman was a serial killer also known as "The Mannekiller" who appeared in season nine of CSI:Crime Scene Investigation

History

Little about Blisterman's early life is known, but he attempted to become a famous artist, only for his works to be turned down by professionals. Some time prior to Art Imitates Life, he tried to take part in a sculpture contest for which he made a series of sketches, but he was apparently rejected.

Art Imitates Life

This gradually drove him to snap and kill Carla Peretti, later posing her corpse next to a street pole, where her body is discovered by a jogger, who initially assumes she is still alive as she was still standing. After killing a drug addict and a homeless man and posing their corpses to make them look as if they were still alive, the CSI team realizes that a serial killer is on the loose. Blisterman later kills a couple, whose corpses are discovered by a birdwatcher. It is then discovered that he posted sketches of his victims, as well as potential ones, on an online blog, which is discovered by Riley, who spots the only sketch of a potential victim: a young boy riding on a bicycle. Through information given down by another artist, Jerzy Skaggs, the team finds Blisterman, but not before a young bicyclist goes missing, forcing Grissom to question him. Blisterman calmly tells the location of the boy before asking the team to let him die, as he feels his "art" will go unappreciated if they do otherwise. The team refuses to accept the offer and rescues the boy from death.

Modus Operandi

Blisterman targeted mostly random people and used a home-made gas chamber filled with carbon monoxide to kill them, drugging them with zolpidem beforehand to knock them out and suspending them to keep them in position. After the gas had killed them and frozen them in full rigor, Blisterman would place them in public locations. He based their poses on a series of sketches he drew sometime earlier.

Known Victims

  • October 2008:
    • Carla Peretti
    • Harley Soon
    • Unnamed homeless man
    • An unnamed elderly couple
    • Charlie (attempted; was rescued)

Appearances

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