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Minor Character: New York
3652
Name Hollis Eckhart
Gender Male
Birth Date December 5, 19XX
Family Calliope Eckhart (wife, deceased)
City New York
Occupation Architect (formerly)
Serial killer
Status Institutionalized
Portrayed By Skeet Ulrich
First Appearance Lat/Long


"That bastard killed you (Calliope)! Just like the bastard who sold him the gun! Like the shrink who should've warned his wife! The guard who should have stopped him from coming in! But I'm just as much to blame as them."

Hollis Eckhart, aka "The Compass Killer", was a delusional serial killer who appeared throughout season 6 of CSI: NY.

History

Hollis worked as an architect and divisions manager at the New York City city surveyor's office and was in a happy marriage. On his birthday, December 5, in 2007, Hollis was due to meet his wife, Calliope, for dinner, but as he was running late at work, he asked her to come. Upon arriving, she gave him his birthday present, an engraved compass. Outside the office, a man and his girlfriend had an argument which resulted in him producing a shotgun, killing her and shooting random people on the floor. Hollis and Calliope hid in his office, where he blocked the door best he could and Calliope called 911. The shooter shot him through the door, injuring him, and then killed Calliope in front of his eyes before killing himself. Hollis survived the incident, but was left severely scarred, both physically and emotionally, with bullet fragments lodged in his temporal lobe. He suffered post-traumatic stress disorder, which led to delusional schizophrenia. He was later arrested for assault, but was declared not guilty due to insanity and sentenced to psychiatric help. While institutionalized, he grew obsessed with taking revenge on the people he felt were responsible for his wife's death, including himself, and would blame the staff for a lot of things they hadn't done. He created a detailed fantasy world surrounding the event, complete with some people he never even met and whom he believed were partially to blame, such as the man who sold the shooter the gun and the security guard who was asleep when the shooter entered. At some point, he was able to escape, simply by walking out the front door, and move into an apartment where he still kept hallucinating about Calliope.

In Lat/Long, he killed Dario Gonzales, a night custodian, believing him to be the man who had sold the office shooter the gun. In the same episode, he killed Caroline Hillcroft, believing her to be the psychiatrist who didn't recognize the shooter's violent behavior. After that, he went to the Crime Lab's morgue, claiming to be Hillcroft's husband even though she was a widow, and placed a compass with a crazily spinning needle next to her body. Hollis then remained inactive until Cuckoo's Nest, when he killed Richard Caldrone, a bouncer, believing him to be the security guard who let the shooter in. In the end, Hollis was tracked down, just before he was going to kill himself the same way he killed his victims and ran. Held at gunpoint by NYPD, Hollis put a gun to his head, intending to kill himself for asking Calliope to join him at the office, but was talked down by Mac and arrested. Given his mental illness, he was most likely institutionalized.

Modus Operandi

Hollis targeted people who resembled his imagination of certain people who were partially responsible for the office shooting, believing them to be the actual persons involved. He would kill them by strangling them with a garrote and then hang them with rope in order to stage a suicide. Hollis apparently only intended to kill his third victim, Richard Caldrone, by hanging, having sedated him in advance, but had to shoot him in the chest instead when the sedative wore off and he broke free from his bonds. He would then leave behind a compass whose needle was stuck to a certain direction and a fake suicide note expressing remorse for some action related to the office shooting and ending with "I'm Sorry". The notes were all handwritten on vintage paper and ink from the 1964 Worlds Fair, which Hollis visited when he was a child.

Victims

  • An unspecified charge of assault
  • 2009
    • October 6: Dario Gonzales (suicide note read "I Shouldn't Have Tried to Make a Fast Buck"; compass needle pointed north)
    • October 7-8: Carole Hillcroft (suicide note read "I Should Have Written the Letter When I Had the Chance"; compass needle pointed south)
    • November 18: Richard Caldrone (sedated with cloneizapam and shot; suicide note read "I Should Have Stayed Awake"; compass needle pointed east)
    • November 19: Himself (intended to hang; suicide note read "I Shouldn't Have Asked Her to Come"; compass needle pointed west)

Trivia

  • Skeet Ulrich had previously portrayed another serial killer, Billy Loomis, in cult horror movie Scream.

Appearance

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