The Hunting Party: Is Serial Killer Richard Harris Based on a Real Killer?

Tobias Jelinek as Richard Harris on The Hunting Party-compressed

The Hunting Party, JJ Bailey‘s new procedural crime drama on NBC, has captivated viewers with its captivating premise and complex characters. The show is about Rebecca “Bex” Henderson played by Melissa Roxburgh, a former FBI profiler who is forced to go back to work to find serial killers who got out of a secret prison called “The Pit.” People are wondering if the scary killer Richard Harris, who was introduced in the pilot episode, is based on a real-life serial killer. The show has a mix of psychological intrigue, moral dilemmas, and suspenseful stories.

Today, we’re going to talk about the show, the character Richard Harris, and whether his story has any connections to real life.

The Hunting Party Episode 1 Plot

The Hunting Party isn’t like other crime shows. The show, which premiered on NBC, is about serial killers who were thought to be dead but were actually being held in a secret government facility. The Pit, as it’s known, was where these dangerous criminals were kept so that researchers could study them. After an explosion at the facility lets these killers get away, the FBI and CIA put together a special task force called the “Hunting Party” to catch them again. Bex is the main person behind this plan. She is a profiler who is dragged out of her quiet life at a Virginia casino job.

In the first episode of the series, Bex teams up with CIA agent Jacob Hassani (Patrick Sabongui) and former Pit guard Shane Florence (Josh McKenzie) to find Richard Harris, a cruel killer who tortured and killed seven women. When the team learns that Harris’s last victim may still be in danger—the stakes go up.

Who is Richard Harris?

Tobias Jelinek plays the part of Richard Harris, a serial killer who caused a lot of fear before he was caught. His usual way of doing things (MO) was to torture and blind his victims before killing them. In the first episode, Harris gets out of The Pit and goes on another killing spree. Bex and her team are in a race against time to stop him before he kills someone else. Harris is killed after a tense standoff, but not before a shocking turn of events shows that his “surviving victim” had lied to him to turn him into a killer in the first place.

People are wondering if Harris’s character gets ideas from real criminals because of how scary he is, how well he plans and how brutally he acts.

Is Richard Harris Based on a Real Serial Killer?

No, there is no one real-life serial killer that ‘Richard Harris’ is based on. However, the character’s traits and crimes are a mix of actions seen in some of history’s most notorious killers. The showrunners, JJ Bailey and Jake Coburn, say that the writers wanted to make killers who feel real but aren’t exact copies of real people. This creative approach lets the show explore moral and psychological issues without being limited by real-life cases.

Bailey said to NBC Insider, We always had an ‘OG MO’ in the writers’ room—the original MO of the killer—and then there was the Pit. What happened to these killers during their time in the Pit changed their behavior, making them even more unpredictable.” The killers are getting smarter so the Hunting Party has to stay one step ahead of them.

Similarities between real life and Richard Harris

Dennis Rader,

Even though Harris is a fictional, his methods and personality are a lot like those of a few real-life serial killers. Dennis Rader, also known as BTK, like Harris, was a well-planned killer who did a lot of damage. Rader scared people in Wichita, Kansas, for decades. He was known as the BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) Killer. His ability to act normally while doing horrible things is similar to Harris’s ability to plan and organize things.

People who are like Harris are like Ted Bundy, who is one of America’s most famous serial killers. Bundy was known for being smart and charming, which he used to trick people into giving him their money. Harris is also said to be very manipulative and to use his intelligence to get around police and psychological profiling methods.

David Parker Ray—who was known as the “Toy-Box Killer” was cruel and used torment to hurt his victims. The horrible way Harris hurt his victims, even blinding them—reminds us of how horrible Ray’s crimes were. Edmund Kemper, who was known as the “Co-Ed Killer” has the same creepy psychological depth as Harris. Kemper’s creepy self-awareness and ability to stay out of sight make him a likely inspiration for Harris’ character.

Designing the Killers of The Hunting Party

The people who made The Hunting Party used both creativity and real-life crime research to come up with their killers. Bailey, who says he loves true crime, used what he learned to make villains that feel real but hard to predict. “Can you think of the craziest killer?” “The strangest thing?” he asked about how they did it.

Using traits from different real-life killers and adding psychological experiments from The Pit, the writers have made a group of bad guys that keep viewers on edge.

What is The Pit?

The Pit serves as more than just a prison. It’s a dark metaphor for humanity’s attempts to understand and control evil. The mythology behind the show says that the experiments done on prisoners were meant to improve criminal psychology and stop people from committing crimes in the future. But while some killers got worse, others got “cured” in some ways. This duality makes me wonder about the morality of these kinds of experiments and what it costs to be God.

When Bex found out that Harris was used for drug experiments at The Pit—it made the story even more complicated. It means that his actions after he escaped may have been affected by how he was treated, making it hard to tell who was the victim and who was the perpetrator.

By making up killers like Richard Harris, The Hunting Party stays away from making real tragedies seem more exciting than they are. This choice allows the show to explore the psychology of crime without exploiting the pain of victims and their families. It also gives the writers the freedom to craft unpredictable storylines, ensuring that viewers are kept guessing.

Richard Harris is not based on a specific real-life killer but his character is a scary mix of traits seen in some of the most notorious criminals in history. The way Harris is a mix of fact and fiction makes him a compelling bad guy and sets the tone for The Hunting Party as a whole. The show’s deep looks into morality, psychology and the effects of testing on humans make the story even more exciting. As the show goes on, viewers can look forward to more turns, more complicated killers, and more dark secrets about The Pit.

The Hunting Party: Is The Pit Based on a Real-Life Prison?