Bill Tench

**Bill Tench** is an FBI agent who co-founded the Behavioral Science Unit.

## History

### Barbecue

The Tenches hosted a barbecue at their house. At the barbecue, Bill attracted a bit of a crowd from the men talking about his work with the BSU, to Nancy's discomfort.

### Change of Leadership and End of OPR Investigation

Bill reported to work one morning to find that Shepard wanted to speak with him. When they met, Shepard revealed that he was retiring and his replacement, Ted Gunn, was very enthusiastic about their work. Bill met with Gunn and Gunn asked him about the missing time on the Devier tape. They also talked about Holden's unusual tactics. He asked Bill to keep a tight leash on Holden. Bill agreed and covered for Holden when Gunn asked to speak with him. He later learned from Wendy that Gunn also asked Wendy to keep Holden in check. He then got a call from Holden and flew out to California to get him. The learned of Holden's tendency to get panic attacks.

### Shepard's Retirement Party

Bill, Holden, and Wendy all attended Shepard's retirement party. During the party, after Shepard himself gave a speech, Holden stepped up to thank Shepard for his support. However, Shepard walked out before Holden could finish talking. Holden followed him outside only to learn that Shepard despised him for forcing him into retirement. Shepard continued to yell at Holden until Bill walked out with his wife, saying he'd forgotten his date, at which point Holden hid behind a car because he was having a panic attack.

### BTK

Bill was given the files of the BTK killer by an old friend, Donald Graham. They reviewed the case files together.

With this information, Bill went to Kansas to work with Bernie Drowatzky, a detective who was there when the murders first started. Bernie updated him on the case and took him to the Otero crime scene to look around. He also told Bill that the brother of one victim, who was also attacked but survived was still in the area. They set up a meeting and talked to Kevin Bright. Through this conversation, Bill was able to deduce that BTK had taken the Otero father's watch and wore it when he attacked Kevin and his sister.

When he returned to Virginia, he shared what he had learned with Holden and they discussed his case in the context of others he seemed to be emulating, particularly David Berkowitz. They then decided that they needed to interview Berkowitz immediately, hoping he would help them understand BTK. Before they left, Wendy took Bill to the bar and told him he needed to get an eye on Holden and watch for signs of a panic attack and get him out if he started to have one. During the interview, they were shocked to hear him admit that he made up the story about the dog telling him to kill. He also revealed that he hunted every night and waited for things to fall together. He said he returned to the scene to relieve the crime, but didn't take any trophies. He suspected that BTK also hunted every night and said he wouldn't be able to resist going back to the crime scenes. When discussing the interview with Wendy, they decided they needed to create a new category that considers not only if they follow their cases in the media, but how they manipulate the media themselves.

### Brian's Struggles and Atlanta Child Murders

Bill and Nancy were home one night when Art Spencer came to their door and told them that a body was found in the garage of a house Nancy was showing. He asked for her shoes to eliminate her prints from the house and some information about who had access to the house.

After learning about the murder, Nancy was unable to sleep. She asked Bill to get their number off the for sale sign in the yard. Because Nancy was struggling, Bill called in sick to work, leaving Holden to go do an interview himself. Bill visited the crime scene to turn over Nancy's shoes and went over the case with Spencer and learned that the victim was just a toddler. When he told Nancy about it, she revealed that they knew the family from church. Later, Art Spencer came to their church to talk about the case and when he struggled to reassure people, Bill stepped in and assured everyone that the murder had nothing to do with cult behavior.

After his meeting with Tanya and the mothers, Holden approached the rest of the team about the case. Bill didn't want to get involved because they weren't invited. Gunn came in and mentioned he'd heard about the case and joined the team for Holden's presentation. Holden believed a serial killer was at work in Atlanta and had taken and kill the children. He also believed that he was a black male in his mid- to late-twenties. Bill and Wendy didn't believe Holden had enough to work with and Gunn agreed, but told Holden to keep current with the case. Holden and Bill planned to go interview Elmer Wayne Henley, Jr. at Wendy's request, but Gunn called them into his office and told them they needed to go back to Atlanta as another child had gone missing and a ransom call came in saying the child was in another state, making it a federal case.

Bill and Holden joined the Atlanta task force and learned Jim was the liaison for the case. They got up to speed on the newest kidnapping and the ransom demands. When the commissioner came to talk to them, Holden shared the rudimentary profile he'd developed with him. The commissioner was upset to hear Holden suggest the killer is black.

Bill got a call from Nancy asking him to come home immediately, so he had to leave Atlanta. The police came to their house asking to talk to Brian. Bill got home to find that Brian had told the police he was there when the boy died. He took the older kids there and they accidentally killed the little boy. They admitted it to the police and then Brian confirmed that it was his idea to put the little boy on the cross.

Because Brian wasn't involved in the murder himself and because of his young age, the DA decided not to pursue charges against him. However, his case was turned over to the department of family services and he was assigned a social worker and a psychiatrist. The social worker, Mavis Leland, came to his house, observed his environment, took notes and said she'd be back.

They later visited the psychiatrist and talked about what he would be doing with Brian. He said that both parents would have to be at every appointment, which would be every Friday. Despite his work, Bill immediately agreed.

### Manson Interview and Consulting Kemper

Gunn came in and told the team he secured an interview with Charles Manson in two weeks. To prepare for the interview, they talked about how the Family dynamic came together and said that was their primary interest, as Manson never actually killed anyone himself. They needed to know how he was able to persuade middle-class young people to join his Family and kill for him.

When they went for the interview, Manson initially refuse to leave his cell to come talk to them, so they went to talk to Kemper instead, while they waited, hoping it would help draw him out. Kemper said if they really wanted to know about the murders, they should talk to Tex Watson instead, because Manson never killed anyone and doesn't know what it's like. They asked Kemper about why he returned to the crime scenes and he said revisiting the scenes let him re-live the crimes for sexual satisfaction. Being able to re-live the crimes helped him delay having to kill again, because it had become a compulsion. When he couldn't go to scenes, he had souvenirs he'd kept that helped him.

When Manson was ready, they moved to another room and he was brought in. He propped himself up on a chair and they talked about his relationship with the family. He denied having told anyone to kill anyone else and said he just took in people who had been cast aside by society. He also denied trying to start a race war. He said that the members of the family told the story that worked best for themselves. Bill started to argue with Manson, which culminated in Bill abruptly ending the interview and leaving.

With Bill forced to return to Virginia, Holden went alone to interview Tex Watson, who had become Christian in prison. He talked about Manson's influence over them, teaching them how to kill people and giving them drugs so they weren't afraid to do it.

### AD Wyman's Party

Gunn invited Bill, Wendy, and Holden to a party with George Wyman. At the party, Bill easily charmed the crowd with stories of interviewing serial killers. When he went outside to get some air, he talked with Wendy for a moment and opened up to her about what was happening with Brian. She offered her help and support to him. Back inside, Gunn said Bill had been invited to a retreat at the Director's and Gunn had accepted on his behalf.

### Brian's Therapy

In a therapy session, the therapist asked questions about why Brian did what he did, but Brian just kicked the table in front of him softly and refused to answer. After talking to Brian, Dr. Moritz talked to Bill and Nancy about the changes in Brian's behavior and prescribed medication and advised them to set limits for the bedwetting. Nancy objected, saying she thought it was better if Brian were just allowed to forget what happened, though Moritz said children don't just forget trauma. Later that day, Brian left the house and walked to a park, where he stared at a girl. When the girl's mother saw Brian and Nancy, she quickly ushered her daughter away.

Brian continued his therapy and it started to wear on Nancy, who suggested selling their house and moving. Bill said he wanted to wait to talk about it until he was done in Atlanta, but they didn't know when that would be. Later, she told him he'd have to pick up Brian and feed him dinner, because she was going out. He did so and admitted to Brian that the whole situation scared him. He asked Brian to tell him what he was feeling, but Brian stayed silent.

### Director's Retreat

At the director's retreat, Bill kept everyone's attention by talking about his work, specifically Ed Kemper.

### Return to Atlanta

After the retreat, Bill returned to Atlanta, where Holden had already been sent to rejoin the cases. Gunn told them they were budgeted through the end of the case and should prepare for that. Bill arrived just as they were preparing to return to previous dump sites to look out for the killer returning. Bill joined Jim Barney to go interview people related to Earl's disappearance while Holden joined the search. Bill and Jim were surprised to find out that none of the potential witnesses had been interviewed by police before. They were called back to the scene when a body was found near where a previous body was dumped. A second body was also found there along with some porn mags. They got prints off the magazines and matched them to a white plumber who worked in the area. Holden didn't believe it was him because he was white and the magazines depicted white women, not black boys. Despite this, Redding wanted to bring him in for questioning, so they went to DA Slaton and he gave his reluctant approval, though he said it had to be kept quiet so it wouldn't make him look bad to his constituents. Despite their efforts to keep it quiet, the press quickly found out and swarmed the police station.

Five hours later, they still hadn't found anything definitive in the plumber's truck that they could use to pressure him into confession. They finally found some tape, a large amount. Though Holden protested that there was no evidence tape was used on any of the victims, Bill was eager to get started with questioning before the plumber called a lawyer. They started asking him about his work. In order to see if he was racist, Jim brought in some coffee and purposely dropped a sugar packet in it to see how the plumber reacted to him sticking his fingers into the coffee. The plumber didn't react. They asked him about the KKK and he said he wasn't raised to treat people differently. They showed him the tape they'd found and he said he uses it as a plumber. When they asked him about the area where they found the body and showed him the magazines, he said that his wife was pregnant with their first and he used the magazines in the woods to get some release. Jim then interrupted their interview to tell the another body was found, a boy taken after they picked up the plumber. Holden was frustrated by this. Jim apologized to the plumber and led him out the back of the building. Later that morning, Holden saw a news report and put together that the killer was messing with them, as he'd dumped a body in the same location where they'd searched after the call came in.

They went back to Redding and talked to him about what they'd learned. They knew the killer was inserting himself into the investigation, so they wanted to manufacture an opportunity for him to insert himself in a way they could control. He suggested setting up crosses for a few of the victims and tie their erection to a STOP march. The killer wouldn't be able to stay away. Holden went to Camille Bell and asked her about the crosses. She said she'd talk to the other mothers about it and if they agreed, they'd put up the crosses. They ran into red tape over how to get the crosses, so Holden went to Gunn to try to fast-track it. Jim showed them a case file from the convicted child molesters he was going through, a man who lived in the brick house a few of the victims were known to have gone too. He had polaroids of young boys in his house when he was arrested, though all the kids were white. Holden said it wasn't their guy, because he was white. Jim went to talk to the mother of one of the boys, who said that her son loved music and wrote many songs of his own. She confirmed that he knew several of the others boys, more than the two Jim knew about. One even lived nearby.

After an explosion in Atlanta killed three black children at a daycare, local parents became convinced it was related to the murders and the mayor decided to go to a baptist church to address people's concerns about the case. When the crowd started to turn against him and declare their certainty that the Klan was involved, Jackson and Brown were forced out of the church. Once they were gone, Camille Bell stood up and spoke, saying they would make sure no stone was left unturned.

Redding said they were being forced to look into potential Klan involvement. Bill agreed to liaise between the GBI and APD during that investigation. When Holden asked him about that choice, he said that Holden was too busy trying to make the case match the profile rather than the other way around. Their fight was ended when the crosses finally arrived, less than an hour before the march was due to start. They put the crosses together with difficulty and then raced to the church to get them there, but Holden found he was too late. He confided in Bill his frustration at all the delays and lack of progress.

Bill went on a stakeout with Garland Periwinkle and watched the house of a known Klan member. They heard him on the phone with his brother talking about getting another kid and specially the murdered children. They brought him in for an interview, but it got them no new information and while he was there, another body was found.

Holden had the idea to use the benefit concert Sammy Davis, Jr. and Frank Sinatra were throwing to catch the subject. He asked for flyers to be passed out asking for additional security for the concert, knowing the killer would be unable to resist. He ran into lots of red tape along the way and ultimately, they ran out of time for that operation. With that out, the next operation was to stake out the bridges for anyone dropping what looks like a body into the river. After five weeks, they were told they got one more night and then they had to end the search. A deputy heard a splash in the middle of the night and they pulled over Wayne Williams. When he was asked if he knew why they pulled him over, he said he believed it was because of the boys.

They questioned him as they looked for the body he dumped. He said he was in the music business and was on his way to pick up a check. Then he said he was going to see a woman who said she was a singer worth hearing. He had only a number, so they tried calling it and got nowhere. In the car, they found a pair of gloves and a rope with knots and both ends, as well as a lot of dog fir. Holden asked a recruit to log them, but the recruit failed to obtain the items and simply wrote down that they were there. They were forced to let him go because they didn't find the body. Once he was released, Holden was upset to learn that he took all their potential evidence with him.

They went to see Wayne at his house and learned that there was a dog there, which he said was not his but his father's. He went over his day, but contracted his prior story. He then showed them the flyers he handed out to try to recruit talent. His flyers specifically looked for children who wanted to perform. He hadn't yet discovered anyone, but wanted to find the next Jackson 5. They looked into this and found that while Wayne rented studio time, he never recorded demos with kids. He just sat and talked to them, kids the same ages as the victims.

They found another body in the river, half a mile from where Wayne was pulled over. Jim also told Holden about the timeline of Wayne being seen with scratches on his arm matching up with the disappearance of Terry Pue, who was known to be a fighter. He also looked the the composite sketch of someone who was seen with one of the kids. They talked to the DA about what they knew that connected Wayne to the crimes and asked for warrants. He initially refused, later approved their warrants. They placed a bug in his car to track where he went and followed him, though he quickly figured out what they were doing.

They got approval to search Wayne's house. They found green carpet that matched fibers on the victims and a book on how to beat a lie detector. They interviewed Wayne, but he wouldn't admit to any wrongdoing or any knowledge of the victims. He also passed a polygraph, so they were forced to let him go. His name and address were leaked and published in the newspaper, raising the ire of the black community, who still didn't believe a black man could be responsible. With the media camped out in front of his house, he offered them a tour and an interview in exchange for not showing his face. The press continued to follow him, which he used to lead them to the mayor's house, where he yelled publicly about being harassed. While they were distracted, Wayne's father went an enquired about chartered flights to South America.

Wayne was later arrested when samples from his house were matched to the bodies. They charged him with just two victims, both adults, but Gunn said they'd probably file charges on other cases later. They believed the case was over, but then Jim showed the case of another pedophile in the area who had photos of only white boys. A recruit said that the photos pulled from the scene included young black boys and there were thousands, though not all were logged into evidence. They wanted to look into it deeper, but they were told the case was settled and to let it go instead. They announced that they were suspending the investigation as their primary suspect was arrested.

After the case was declared over, Bill went home to find that Nancy had moved out of the house with Brian.

## Relationships

### Familial

He and his wife have one son, Brian Tench, who is adopted by them when he was 3 years old.

In the season 2, because of his persistent travel, it puts an immense stress on his relationship with Nancy.

### Friendships

Unlike Holden, Bill has many friendships with other FBI Agents from a range of differing departments.

## Career

He is a special agent and the leader of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit.

## Notes and Trivia

* He is an avid golfer.
* He smokes because it makes him less fidgety.

## Gallery

### Episodic

* Episode 1
* Episode 2
* Episode 3
* Episode 4
* Episode 5
* Episode 6
* Episode 7
* Episode 8
* Episode 9
* Episode 10
* Episode 2.1
* Episode 2.2
* Episode 2.3
* Episode 2.4
* Episode 2.5
* Episode 2.6
* Episode 2.7
* Episode 2.8
* Episode 2.9
1/19
## Appearances

 **#02** | "Episode 2.2"
 **#03** | "Episode 2.3"

## References

1. ↑ Episode 2.1
2. ↑ Episode 2.1
3. ↑ Episode 2.1
4. ↑ Episode 2.1
5. ↑ Episode 2.2
6. ↑ Episode 2.2
7. ↑ Episode 2.3
8. ↑ Episode 2.4
9. ↑ Episode 2.5
10. ↑ Episode 2.5
11. ↑ Episode 2.5
12. ↑ Episode 2.6
13. ↑ Episode 2.8
14. ↑ Episode 2.6
15. ↑ Episode 2.6
16. ↑ Episode 2.7
17. ↑ Episode 2.8
18. ↑ Episode 2.9