| “ | You weren't like the others, even back then. Ah, come on, I knew you were special. To be honest, you were my favorite. | „ |
| ~ Westbrook manipulating his former victim Brian Stiller |
Jack Westbrook is the main antagonist of the Criminal Minds episode "The Boys of Sudworth Place". He is a pedophile who is held captive by three men whom he sexually abused as children.
He is portrayed by Jeffrey Nordling.
Overview[]
Westbrook is a successful defense attorney and pillar of his community, with a dark secret: he is a pedophile who preys on young boys. He chooses his victims from Sudworth Place, a halfway house for troubled youth where he volunteers his time as a "mentor". He particularly enjoys coaching their hockey games, and later raping them in the shower room.
In the early 2000s, his favorite victims were Brian Stiller, Matthew Jones, Chad Griffith, and Andrew Ford; he reserved the most severe abuse for Stiller, warping his mind to the point that he grew up to be a child molester, as well.
Westbrook's wife, Linda, has no idea what he has done, and is seven months pregnant with his child at the beginning of the episode. They move frequently; Westbrook tells Linda that it is because he fears for their safety, but it is in fact because he is trying to avoid getting caught.
Jones commits suicide a week before the episode takes place, inspiring Griffith and Ford to hatch a plan to kidnap him and force him to confess to his crimes.
In "The Boys of Sudworth Place"[]
After successfully defending a young gang member from breaking and entering charges, Westbrook heads back to his office to do paperwork. There, he sees Griffith, whom he does not recognize, vandalizing his car with a baseball bat. He calls the police, but Ford sneaks up on him and knocks him unconscious.
He regains consciousness in a pit in an abandoned warehouse once owned by Sudworth Place, where Griffith and Ford are holding him prisoner. When they accuse him of molesting them, he pleads innocence, but realizes who they are when Ford mentions Jones by name and shows him a picture of the four of them as boys. He feigns remorse for abusing them and claims to have changed; when that doesn't work, he says that he helped them avoid a life of crime, implying that, without him, they would be in prison.
Griffith and Ford call Stiller, who is unaware of the kidnapping plot, over to the warehouse, and tell him what they plan to do. Stiller is horrified, and a fight ensues in which Stiller accidentally knocks Griffith into the pit, killing him. Westbrook starts manipulating Stiller by telling him that if he goes to the police, they will blame him for Griffith's death.
Meanwhile, the FBI's Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) investigates the kidnapping, and eventually discovers Westbrook's cache of Polaroids of his victims. Deducing that his kidnappers were likely also his victims, the BAU investigates his history with Sudworth Place, learning of the abuse he inflicted upon Stiller, Griffith, Jones and Ford; they also discover that Stiller is a child molester as well. Technical analyst Penelope Garcia locates the warehouse by searching through Sudworth Place's tax records, and the agents head there to arrest Westbrook and Stiller.
Westbrook persuades Stiller to let him out of the pit, and then tells him to kill Ford while he goes to the police. He then tells Stiller to destroy the "keepsakes" of his own victims; when Stiller claims not to know what he is talking about, Westbrook says that he can tell that he is a pedophile. Frightened and enraged, Stiller shoots Westbrook dead. The BAU arrives moments later and arrests Stiller and Ford.
Trivia[]
- Westbrook is loosely based on Jerry Sandusky, an assistant football coach at Pennsylvania State University who used his children's charity, the Second Mile, to sexually abuse dozens of young boys.
External links[]
- Jack Westbrook on the Criminal Minds Wiki
- Jack Westbrook on the Villains Wiki