Albert Beck (alias The Pattern 17 Rapist) is a serial rapist (later a spree rapist) and pedophile who sexually assaulted dozens of women, some of them underage, in several states.
Background[]
In his adult life, Beck worked as an EMT in several cities, including Atlanta, Las Vegas, and Milwaukee, and also participated in the church choir. He used his job as a cover so he could seek out unsuspecting victims to rape. He targeted both adult women and young, petite girls, whom he assaulted, choked until they blacked out, and hummed church hymns to, namely Leaning on the Everlasting Arms. His victims were always drowsy from the attacks and never got a look at his face. He evaded detection because the police barely believed victims.
In 2010, while he was working in Milwaukee, Beck met and began dating Lauren Burns. He moved with her and her daughter Beth to New York City in 2011, where he worked as a red-alert EMT there. He received several decorations for his work during the 2013 Metro-North Railroad derailment. During his four years with Lauren and Beth, Beck stopped raping and started a consensual relationship with the underage Beth, who sexted him. Lauren eventually found out and kicked him out, driving him to start seeking out women to rape again.
Pattern Seventeen[]
The SVU team began investigating his attacks when the first New York victim, Annie Lin, reports her rape. Their investigation becomes complicated due to the underfunded police departments who had jurisdiction over the locations of Beck's attacks and the high number of untested rape kits, ranging in the thousands per precinct. As the investigation progresses, Beck continues raping women, who are getting younger with each attack, until he assaults a 12-year-old girl named Ryann Catalano, whose puppy attacks and injures him in retaliation. As a result, he was forced to escape but unknown to him, Ryann left her purse in the car so there will be incriminating evidence against him.
The SVU initially suspect Beck's colleague at Mercy Hospital, Dr. Joseph Conklin, whose car Beck used during Ryann's assault. Though Conklin sold prescription drugs to women in exchange for sex, he is exonerated for the rapes when the detectives realize other employees at the hospital had access to his car keys. Using security footage, they identify Beck, interrogate Lauren and Beth, and find out about the relationship between Beth and Beck.
Beck is lured out by Beth, who is being used by the SVU, but Beth tells him to run. When he tries to flee, he is subdued by Detective Tutuola and arrested. However, because of the untested rape kits in the police departments out of state, the team has only the Atlanta and New York City rapes to charge him with. As a result, Beck is interrogated by Fin and Carisi, who tell him that they will be charging him with Ryann's attempted rape only, which will be known to the other inmates in prison. Knowing he will never be safe in prison with a pedophile tag, Beck agrees to write a confession to all of his rapes. In total, he discloses 28 out-of-state rapes, though Sergeant Benson assumes there may be more. During a CompStat meeting, Benson addresses the problem of underfunded departments and the backlog of untested rape kits, which would have prevented the New York attacks had it been addressed earlier. Beck is in prison for all of his crimes of kidnapping, rape, and child molestation. (SVU: "Pattern Seventeen")
Known Victims[]
- 1992-2010: At least 28 rape victims, including:
- Unknown dates:
- Birmingham, Alabama: Two unnamed victims
- Tulsa, Oklahoma: Three unnamed victims
- 2008, Atlanta, Georgia:
- Madeline Morrison
- Rachel Cates
- Ashley Miller
- 2010:
- Milwaukee, Wisconsin: Four unnamed victims
- Birmingham, Alabama: Two unnamed victims
- Tulsa, Oklahoma: Three unnamed victims
- Las Vegas, Nevada: Three unnamed victims
- Unknown dates:
- 2014, New York City, New York:
- Unknown dates: Beth Burns (committed consensual statutory rape with)
- November 30: Annie Lin
- December 1: Nina Carr
- December 2: Ryann Catalano (attempted to rape)