Episode 5

Tune in soon for more information!

**Episode 5** is the fifth episode of the first season and the 5th overall episode of **Mindhunter**.

## Short Summary

Holden and Bill return to a perplexing case in Pennsylvania where a set of clues leading in multiple directions leaves no shortage of suspects.

## Full Summary

**Park City, Kansas**

The ADT serviceman mails something from a public box.

**Altoona, Pennsylvania**

Mark Ocasek tells them about Benjamin Barnwright as they drive to talk to him now that he's back in town. His alibi is that he was at home watching television the night Beverly Jean was killed. He let them search his car and they found nothing except some of her hair, in the passenger seat like you'd expect. Mark doesn't think Benjamin is a viable suspect at all. They arrive to find Benjamin waiting for them.

Benjamin offers them coffee and donuts. They start to talk to him about his relationship with Beverly. He says he got the house for Beverly Jean so they could have some privacy. He previously lived with his mother. He and his sister actually now Mark from church, though he admits he doesn't go much anymore. His dad left when he was ten and his mom was a disciplinarian. He says he and Beverly fought sometimes, but only about stupid stuff. She was planning to make the house prettier when she moved in after the wedding. She was his first sexual experience. He starts sobbing and says it was awful what was done to her. Bill realizes he knows details.

In the car, Mark says Benjamin only knows about the breasts and that another officer told him. Bill says he wants to talk to the mother as well. He thinks Benjamin was faking the tears. Bill thinks his whole presentation was an act, though Mark doesn't believe it.

They talk to Ruth Barnwright about her son. She tells them about his relationship with Beverly. She says they were normal together. She teased him a lot, but he liked it. She asks if her son is in trouble when she learns they talked to him. She never heard them argue. He was a sensitive child and after his father left, he started wetting the bed and refusing to leave the house. She had to leave the kid on their own a lot. They were hard years. Then Rose met Frank and he moved in with them. Now they have a baby. People talked about Frank, but she never listened. She loves Frank. Benjamin also became friends with Frank and Frank protected him. He got Benjamin a job so he could help his mother. He first moved in when Rose was 15 or 16. She says she doesn't remember exactly why Frank moved in, but knows he had trouble with his father. She starts crying talking about Benjamin losing his love.

Bill says he has no idea why Beverly was with Benjamin in the first place. Holden suggests that she might have liked that he was older and easy to talk to. Bill thinks Benjamin was under Beverly's thumb. Holden says maybe Beverly just wanted a nice guy who loved her. Bill's not convinced. Mark comes back to the car and says he told Ruth that it was a formality, but Bill says that's not true. Bill asks where that leaves them and Mark says they still have Alvin. Bill says that neither of them wants it to be someone in the community. He says someone hunting girls would have much easier places to look. And a drifter wouldn't know where the dump is.

Wendy shows Bill and Holden the list of questions she's working on for them to ask their subjects. She wants their notes on it. Holden asks if they shouldn't tailor the interviews to the subjects' personalities, which Wendy says is winging it. She wants a data set that's consistent across all their subjects. She's packing her things to go back to Boston, saying there's nothing more for her to do until they interview more subjects. Holden tells her about talking to Benjamin, but she says she has a cab waiting. Holden tells her to cancel it and he'll drive her.

On the drive, Holden tells her about talking to Benjamin. She challenges him to think about how he felt during the interview in response to Benjamin's actions. He says it felt wrong. He was crying like a baby, but he didn't seem vulnerable. It felt hostile. She says psychopaths are skilled at imitating human emotions to manipulate others and gain power. He asks how they find psychopaths and she says it sounds like he just did and should trust his instincts. He says the whole town sees Benjamin as a puppy who needs protecting, so maybe his instincts are wrong. She tells him to use their methodology. As they arrive at the airport, Wendy gives her assessment of Beverly's killer based on what was done to her. She also talks about Beverly and Benjamin's relationship and how that may have led to him killing her. They talk about it right up until she gets on the plane, saying she'll grab a cab in Boston.

Holden goes to Debbie's apartment. She's studying and has to write a paper about the people who really run the country. When he says she's acting oddly, she admits she's using speed to help her concentrate. He questions the legality of the pills.

Holden talks to Debbie about talking to Benjamin. She talks about fake crying to a professor. She says that when she was lying, she actually started to believe what she was saying. And it worked. He raised her grade. Holden says it worked because she was a woman crying to a man, but a man crying to another man is different. She says she drank and partied to fit in and it made it easier to sleep with people. Holden asks how many people she slept with and she doesn't want to get into it.

Holden finds Bill on the phone. When he hangs up, he says Ocasek looked into Benjamin's brother-in-law, Frank, and found that he spent time in a mental institution for taking a monkey wrench to a girl. Holden grabs the recording equipment.

Mark explains that he looked into Frank because he remembered Ruth mentioning that people talked about him back when he first moved in with them. They have the files from Frank's hearing and time in the facility. Frank's in a room waiting, but Bill says to let him wait longer. If he's a hothead, waiting will set him off.

They talk to Frank about his past. When Holden mentions that Beverly was close to their family, Frank denies it, saying that they hadn't even set a wedding date yet. He also denies being close with Benjamin. They ask about his time in the psychiatric hospital. He says the girl came at him with a wrench and he tried to get it away from her and she ended up getting hit in the face. Then he got in trouble for it. He took a plea deal because his lawyer told him he wouldn't win if he went to trial. He says there were other infractions because he was a jackass then. But now he's married with a kid. He says he wasn't angry then, just misunderstood. They ask him about the night Beverly Jean disappeared. He says it was a typical night for him and Rose. He went out and got them dinner. He asks them if he's under suspicion. He also admits when pressed that he wasn't sure Benjamin and Beverly were really engaged. Benjamin thought they were. Frank's not sure Beverly enjoyed the relationship as much as Benjamin did. They ask if he thinks Beverly had been around and Frank said he was would say she was hoping.

Mark tells Holden and Bill that everyone described her as nice, a decent person. Holden says no one's going to say the dead girl was easy. Bill points to his description of the high school incident and says he could have been making it up. Holden says maybe feeling sexually powerless in his relationship with Beverly made him lash out in anger. Bill and Holden ask to talk to Benjamin again.

Bill explains to Benjamin that he's not under arrest and is free to leave at any time, which he says he understands. He says he doesn't know any more about the case than he told them. They tell him about what Frank said about his relationship with Beverly. He says he didn't have a ring yet, but he'd asked her and she said yes. Holden says it sounded like she wanted to keep her options open. Benjamin asks if Frank said that. He says Frank was jealous. Frank always talked to Beverly like she was his girlfriend. They ask if he thinks he satisfied Beverly and he starts crying. A bell starts ringing, so Bill gets up and shuts the door. They ask him again about the night she disappeared. He continues to sob.

Holden, Bill, and Mark gets beers and talk about the case. Holden asks if Beverly was sleeping around and they remember that Alvin tried to pick her up at a bar. Holden wonders how she ended up in the bar, if she was there alone or with friends and what she was looking for. Bill says her history with other men is only relevant if they're suspects. Mark suggests a few of Beverly's friends they could question again. Holden also remembers that she'd just gotten her hair done.

Holden wonders if the case is worth their involvement if it's just a person who freaked out on her. They can't rule out a sequence killer, but if they can't rule out a townie, the crime is random and there's no expectation of repetition. Bill just asks if their funding shouldn't cover separate rooms for the two of them. Bill looks over the crime scene photos and Holden sits beside him and says the mutilation alone merits their involvement. Bill asks him to back up, so he takes some photos with him to his own bed.

They come out of the hairdresser's with no new information. Next is a family she babysat for. Mark asks if they can take a detour because something has been bothering him.

They're at the home of Rose and Frank to talk to Rose . She just got the baby to sleep. Mark says for the first three months of his kids' lives, he and his wife both walked around like zombies. He suggests a local program that give her information. She says Frank helps when he can. Her mother is excited to have a grandchild. She says Benjamin doesn't help at all. When asked if they're close, she just says he's her brother. They're fourteen months apart. As kids, they walked home after school. Rose took care of the house for her mother. She met Frank when she was sixteen. She's aware of the incident with the wrench, but it was before they met. Holden asks about Beverly Jean and what she was like. Rose says she was sweet and good for Benjamin. When asks if she wanted to marry Benjamin, Rose says he was working on her. Benjamin suspected she might be seeing other men. He thought she was getting herself dolled up, getting her hair done, for other men. Rose confirms Frank's alibi, saying he went out to get them food. The baby starts crying, so Rose goes to get him and Holden and Bill step outside. Mark tells Rose that if she's hiding something and the FBI finds out, it won't be good for her or her son.

Bill, Mark, and Holden talk about the bruises on Rose's arm. They think Frank did it. They wonder if they should search his car, so they need to get a warrant. An officer comes to tell Mark there's a woman there to see him.

They find Rose waiting with her son. She asks Mark to promise her baby will be okay if she tells them what happened. He promises her that and she starts to cry.

In an interview room, Rose says Frank wasn't home the night Beverly disappeared. He was with Benjamin, who had called him over. He was gone for a few hours before he called Rose over there. She said she was tired, because she was more than 8 months pregnant, but he still wanted her to come and bring cleaning supplies. She says she forgot them. She went over and found Frank, who told her not to get upset. Something bad had happened. She was worried something had happened to Benjamin. Frank said he was fine, but he'd done something. She asked what he did and Frank said he got mad at Beverly Jean.

The police arrest Benjamin.

Rose continues to tell the story of what happened to Beverly, including Frank having her help cover it up. She went to the bathroom and saw Benjamin in there with Beverly. There was blood everywhere, splashing. Beverly was in the bathtub, dead. She was naked from the waist down. Benjamin wouldn't look at her. Then Frank had her go get cleaning supplies. They took the body away and left Rose to clean up the bathroom. There was a knife in the bathroom, which she washed and put away. Then she went home. She didn't see Frank or Benjamin that night. Frank came home in the morning. Mark asks why she helped them and she says that's what she's always done. They ask her who killed Beverly and she says she doesn't know.

## Cast

* Holden Ford
* Bill Tench
* Debbie Mitford
* Wendy Carr
* Mark Ocasek
* Benjamin Barnwright
* Ruth Barnwright
* Frank Janderman
* Rose Barnwright-Janderman
* ADT Serviceman Dennis Rader
* Female Officer
1/11
### Main Cast

* Jonathan Groff as Holden Ford
* Holt McCallany as Bill Tench
* Hannah Gross as Debbie Mitford
* Anna Torv as Wendy Carr

### Also Starring

* Alex Morf as Detective Ocasek
* Joseph Cross as Benjamin Barnwright
* Catherine Curtin as Mrs. Ruth Barnwright
* Jesse C. Boyd as Frank Janderman
* Jackie Renee Robinson as Rose Barnwright-Janderman

### Other Cast

* Sonny Valicenti as ADT Serviceman
* Cindy Jackson as Female Officer

## Music

 "Baker Street"
 "I Never Cry"
 "Rose Confession"
 "I Don't Like Mondays"

## Quotes

"You know, psychopaths are extremely skilled at imitating human emotions. It's how they manipulate other people or how they gain power over their environment." —Wendy Carr