The entire Criminal Minds franchise is such a recurrent offender of Ripped from the Headlines, the trope now has their own pages for each series produced. At least, the show has a better excuse than Law & Order: Since the show's gimmick is profiling, the characters can only solve crimes by literally comparing them to previous, real cases they have studied in their career. Even when these real cases aren't explicitly mentioned, many a true crime afficionado will have little trouble spotting the similarities.
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Season 1
- 1x01 "Extreme Aggressor" features two serial killers, one based on the early murders of Ted Bundy
and another (called "The Footpath Killer") based on David Carpenter, "The Trailside Killer". The first killer also reproduces the message left by the Lipstick Killer in his second murder (and is identified as such) - though he does it on a computer rather than a wall. - 1x03 "Won't Get Fooled Again" — Based on Mark Hofmann, with one bomb (the collar bomb forcibly put on a victim) lifted from the then recent strange death of Brian Douglas Wells.
- 1x06 "L.D.S.K." — The UnSub is basically Richard Angelo using the MO of the Beltway Snipers (complete with shooting his victims from the trunk of a car) to injure his patients before saving them.
- 1x08 "Natural Born Killer" — The UnSub is an Expy of Richard Kuklinski.
- 1x11 "Blood Hungry" — The UnSub'S methodology and delusions evoke Richard Chase.
- 1x14 "Riding the Lightning" — Fred and Rosemary West, if Rosemary West was oblivious to Fred's murders instead of an active participant.
- 1x15 "Unfinished Business" — The long period of inactivity from the UnSub is similar to that of BTK.
- 1x16 "The Tribe" — Charles Manson. Red herrings include expies of the American Indian Movement and the Minuteman Project.
- 1x18 "Somebody's Watching" — The episode draws from many celebrity stalker cases, including the crimes of Mark David Chapman, Robert John Bardo, and John Hinckley, Jr.
- 1x19 "Machismo" — Juana Barraza, José Antonio Rodríguez Vega and Andrei Chikatilo all rolled into one. Note that the episode aired only two months after Barraza was arrested, and was probably written before that.
Season 2
- 2x03 "The Perfect Storm" — The serial-killing couple are reminiscent of Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka, though the woman being the ringleader speaks more to certain interpretations of the Wests' dynamic.
- 2x08 "Empty Planet" — The UnSub in this episode is more or less an Expy of Ted Kaczynski, with the same methods and motivations, but with a different backstory.
- 2x09 "The Last Word" — The idea of two competing serial killers acting in the same area is taken from the case of Sean Vincent Gillis and Derrick Todd Lee. The more pathetic of the episode's murderers is very much Gillis under another name, but the other is more similar to (yet again) Ted Bundy.
- 2x10 "Lessons Learned" is all about The War on Terror, complete with a setting in Guantanamo Bay.
- 2x11 "Sex, Birth, Death" — Gary Ridgway (the "killing prostitutes because you want them out of the neighborhood" part).
- Frank Breitkopf (2x13 "No Way Out" and 2x23 "No Way Out II: The Evilution of Frank") combines David Parker Ray and the Cleveland Torso Murderer, and takes a school bus hostage like the Zodiac Killer threatened to do.
- 2x18 "Jones" — combines by way of Gender Flip the crimes of Jack the Ripper and Aileen Wuornos
- 2x19 "Ashes and Dust" — Features expies of Paul Kenneth Keller and the Earth Liberation Front
- 2x21 "Open Season" — Robert Hansen also kidnapped victims to hunt in the woods.
- 2x22 "Legacy" — H. H. Holmes is also alleged to have used his wealth to build a "murder castle," with traps to kill his victims.
Season 3
- 3x02 "In Name and Blood" — Gary Ridgway (the "using your young son to lure women" part) and Charlie Brandt (the "carving women's hearts out" part)
- 3x05 "Seven Seconds" — Richard Allen Davis is mentioned in the episode and has some similarities to the UnSub.
- 3x08 "Lucky" —
- Ferell has elements of Richard Ramírez, Jeffrey Dahmer and Nathaniel Bar-Jonah. The serving of his victims to the public puts him in the realm of Joe Metheny.
- He may have even more in common with Daniel Rakowitz, a Swiss man who confessed to dismembering and boiling the body of a woman he believed to be his girlfriend, fed some of her to the homeless, ate some himself, and was confined to a mental hospital after being found not guilty by reason of insanity.
- Jason Clark Battle, who first appears in this episode before becoming the villain of the following episode "Penelope", has similarities with Gerard Schaefer and Tiago Gomes da Rocha.
- Ferell has elements of Richard Ramírez
- 3x10 "True Night" —
- The UnSub bears a similarity to Pedro Rodrigues Filho, both turning to vigilantism after losing their fiancées to gang attacks.
- The 23rd Street Killers resemble the 18th Street Gang in name, and their attack on the UnSub and his fiancée resemble the Death Angels' attack on Richard and Quita Hague.
- The UnSub bears a similarity to Pedro Rodrigues Filho
- 3x14 "Damaged" — Dramatizes an anecdote taken from Edmund Kemper's time in prison
- 3x20/4x01 "Lo-Fi"/"Mayhem" — The Unsubs have similarities to the Death Angels and share a calling card with John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo, the Beltway snipers. They're also compared to David Berkowitz in the episode itself.
Season 4
- 4x03 "Minimal Loss" — The Waco siege, set on a Texas compound reminiscent of Warren Jeffs's. This is referenced in the episode by the sheriff, Rossi, and Morgan, discussing Waco and other FBI/cult hostage situations. Rossi was also apparently at Ruby Ridge, another standoff, as part of the FBI's Hostage Response Team.
- 4x04 "Paradise" — Transplants the crimes of the Original Night Stalker into motels instead of the victims' homes.
- 4x05 "Catching Out" — Ángel Maturino Reséndiz, aka the Railroad Killer, also hopped on and off trains to travel across the USA and Mexico, committing at least fifteen home-invasion murders and staying in the homes of his victims. The Setagaya family murder also involved a killer staying in their victims' home for an extended period of time.
- 4x09 "52 Pickup" — The UnSub slits prostitutes' throats and dismembers them like Jack the Ripper.
- 4x10 "Brothers in Arms" — The ending is exactly how Jack Ruby killed Lee Harvey Oswald.
- 4x13 "Bloodline" — Brian David Mitchell with a healthy dose of ol' time anti-Roma prejudice
- 4x15 "Zoe's Reprise" — Gilles de Rais (kissed their victims after killing them), Harvey Glatman (kept photos of the crime scenes), Edmund Kemper (committed crimes before the murders, and a quote by the UnSub resembles a quote by Kemper), Arthur Shawcross (brought their significant others to the crime scenes), David Berkowitz (returned to old crime scenes to perform a sexual activity)
- 4x17 "Demonology" — About a priest performing lethal exorcisms, may be based on a Portuguese nun that died in the same situation in 2005.
- Hotch's Arch-Enemy the Boston Reaper (introduced in 4x18 "Omnivore") is based on the Zodiac Killer, with elements of BTK and Son of Sam, and the Monster of Florence thrown in for good measure.
- 4x21 "A Shade of Gray" — The JonBenét Ramsey casenote
- 4x22 "The Big Wheel" — Begins with a crime loosely similar to the murder of Lindsay Buziak and then has the killer leave a request of help on a wall like the Lipstick Killer.
- 4x25 "To Hell..." and 4x26 "...And Back" — Robert Pickton also fed his victims to his pigs.
Season 5
- 5x04 "Hopeless" — The Dnepropetrovsk Maniacs were also a group of young adults who beat victims to death for entertainment. They also filmed some of their attacks, one of them being the infamous shock video "Three Guys, One Hammer."
- 5x05 "Cradle to Grave" — John Jamelske and Gary Heidnik. Creepily, the resulting episode ended up being even more reminiscent of the kidnappings of Ariel Castro, which had not been discovered when it was produced.
- 5x12 "The Uncanny Valley" —
- According to Word of God, the UnSub was inspired by Homer and Langley Collyer, though unlike her they weren't murderers. She also has shades of Pedro López.
- Inverted. Claude E. Foulk, a sanitarium chief, was accused of molesting his son and at least four others. The episode was made before this news story.
- According to Word of God, the UnSub was inspired by Homer and Langley Collyer
- 5x14 "Parasite" — In the words of a secondary character: "Basically, [the UnSub is smaller Bernie Madoff." Madoff was arrested the year before the episode aired for the first time.
- 5x16 "Mosley Lane" — The woman that claims to have seen her son years after he was kidnapped and everyone thinks crazy is reminiscent of the Johnny Gosh case, and the villain's exit is almost like the death of Dean Corll. There are also some similarities to the Fred and Rosemary West case, including the crime scene address named after an English historical figure and the male killer committing suicide by hanging.
- 5x19 "A Rite of Passage" has references to the Mexican Drug War, illegal immigration, and Santa Muerte. The UnSub, a Serial Killer sheriff deputy, is rather inspired by Gerard Schaefer.
- 5x23 "Our Darkest Hour" and 6x01 "The Longest Night" — Billy Flynn is based on Gordon Cummins, who killed people under the cover of nightly blackouts during the London Blitz. He also has shades of Richard Ramirez - they even share a moniker, "the Prince of Darkness." The scene where one of his victims escapes and warns the neighbours is similar to the way Ramirez was caught.
Season 6
- 6x04 "Compromising Positions" — The UnSub is compared to David Berkowitz in the episode.
- 6x05 "Safe Haven" — Has elements in common with Jesse Pomeroy and Craig Price, and the UnSub's Start of Darkness was being abandoned by use of a famous loophole in Nebraska's 2008 safe-haven law.
- 6x08 "Reflection of Desire" — The UnSub's obsession with his mother evokes Ed Gein (a-Gein).
- 6x12 "Corazon" — The UnSub uses a perverted version of Palo Mayombe, just like Adolfo Constanzo.
- 6x21 "Out of the Light" — Morgan outright compares this case to Elizabeth Smart, as does Rossi while also referencing Jaycee Dugard.
Season 7
- 7x17 "I Love You, Tommy Brown" is about a teacher who has an affair with and gets pregnant by one of her students, goes to jail, and after her release kills the foster parents of the child, based on the Mary Kay LeTourneau case (minus the murder spree).
Season 8
- 8x03 "Through the Looking Glass" — Joseph Duncan III, and the UnSub is compared to Matthew Hoffman in the episode itself
- 8x08 "The Wheels on the Bus..." The brothers who kidnap a school bus full of high school students are compared to the 1976 Chowchilla kidnapping by Reid in this episode.
Season 9
- 9x15 "Mr. & Mrs. Anderson" — Ray and Faye Copeland (if Ray was a rapist and targeted young, sexy women)
- 9x23/24 "Angels"/"Demons" — The killer bears similarities to Gerard Schaefer and Robert Lee Yates, and the reveal that he's the leader of a group resembles the Jeff Davis 8 case.
Season 10
- 10x5 "A Thousand Suns" — The UnSub is compared in-episode to Ted Kaczynski. The remote hijacking of an airplane may also be based on one hypothesis about the disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight 370.
- 10x7 "Hashtag" — The UnSub's murders seem to be based on a series of unrelated attacks allegedly inspired by Slender Man, with the most infamous one being name dropped by the show. The criminal posting a picture of his victim online is eerily similar to David Kalac AKA "the 4Chan Killer", even thought Kalac was arrested a week prior to the airing of the episode.
Season 11
- 11x11 "Entropy" — Cat Adams, a reoccurring hitwoman introduced in this episode, has similarities to Joanna Dennehy
Season 12
- 12x01 "The Crimson King" — According to a tweet by Word of God, the UnSub was partially inspired by David Parker Ray
- 12x08 "The Crimson King" — The UnSub is compared to Gary Ridgway in the episode, and a tweet by Word of God states that the inspirations were the Gilgo Beach Killer and the Eastbound Strangler
Season 13
Season 14
Evolution
