George Washington King was a Character in DEXTER. He was born as Jorge Orozco in Nicaragua, until he came to the states to become George King. King would develop into a Serial Killer known as The Skinner, a man that became the prime target in Season Three for Miami Metro Homicide.
Unlike other Main Antagonists, he had no personal affiliation with Dexter Morgan and only interacted with him near the end. Rather, Dexter's sister Debra Morgan was the Protagonist in this situation and the main focus of the storyline (while Dexter paid little to no attention to the case). In contrast, the Main Antagonist for Dexter was Miguel Prado, who ended up enlisting King's services before he passed on, thus forcing King to go after Dexter.
In general, The Skinner Case was virtually disregarded in later seasons, while the Bay Harbor Butcher and Ice Truck Killer Investigations received various mention (especially in Season Six), as well as the later Trinity Case...though there was never any further mention of the incident. This shares a common relation with the Santa Muerte Case and the Barrel Girls Case. Oddly, despite Debra Morgan's impressive work on this case, it is never included to her credit either. With Miguel Prado's murder (for which Dexter copied the M.O. of the Skinner), the case was said by Sergeant Angel Batista to be "Officially HUGE", but it seemed to be treated as minor, even compared to The Santa Muerte Case.
Personality
King had a bit of an ego, as he took it as a major sign of disrespect when he thought that Freebo had cheated him. He makes it clear that it's more about respect than money. He was willing to skin people alive to get information on Freebo's whereabouts so he could get him to pay him due respect. He was also very violent given that even before he became a serial killer, he worked as a torturer in the army. While he does have his flimsy justifications, Dexter implies that King may simply have liked skinning people. The time he spent torturing people while serving in the army supports this.
Early life
Jorge Orozco was born on October 20, 1962 in Nicaragua. He was conscripted into his country's army, where he rose to the rank of Captain in the Resistencia Nicaraguense; heading an interrogation unit. He tortured and killed people for a living, to the point he was affectionately referred to in his homeland as "The Blade." It is implied that his army experiences caused him to be a control freak who strongly valued respect.
Orozco left the army and moved to the United States and settled in Miami; founding and becoming boss of his own tree-trimming company. Orozco was driven to become a Serial Killer; nicknamed "The Skinner" named after his MO of removing the skin from his victims as a method of torture.
Plot
When one of his criminal associates, Freebo, disappeared while owing him a large amount of money (he was actually killed by Dexter), Orozco began hunting for him throughout Miami, feeling that he had been disrespected. Knowing the police were also looking for Freebo, Orozco trailed Detective Debra Morgan around town as she met with Freebo's old associates in an attempt to find him, covertly watching their homes under the cover of trimming their trees. He would later return and kidnap, torture and kill them one-by-one.
When Orozco was first suspected, he was held for questioning, but deflected attention to one of his violent employees, though suspicion centered on him entirely when the employee had a near-panic attack when he learned that "King" was involved. Orozco was ultimately exposed when he kidnapped and tortured Anton Briggs, a former-confidential informant the police had set up to appear to know where Freebo is, but was stopped from finishing him off and forced to flee when Debra and Detective Joey Quinn arrived at their location.
Orozco was then contacted by Assistant District Attorney Miguel Prado, who had used his influence to have him released from custody. Orozco watched Dexter Morgan and Miguel having an argument, after which Miguel called him and told him that Dexter knows where Freebo is.
The Skinner before and after realizing that Dexter has killed Freebo.
The man-hunt resumes when Dexter frames Orozco for Miguel Prado's death (in reality he was killed by Dexter himself), but before the police can locate Orozco, he abducts Dexter and takes him to an abandoned tobacco warehouse. He intends to torture and skin Dexter for information, but Dexter effectively strips him of his control by revealing the truth that he already killed Freebo and dumped his body parts in the Gulf Stream. Though Oro
The Skinner, stunned as Dexter mentions his 'need' to kill, seeing right through him as a Monster.
zco is visibly thrown off by the information, Dexter correctly guesses that Orozco simply enjoys torturing and killing people and would convince himself that he needs to skin Dexter anyway. His search for Freebo was just how he selected his victims. Orozco goes to get his torture tools, but before he can return, Dexter su
Dexter breaks the Skinner's neck, perhaps his greatest display of skill as he kills an armed and trained captain, despite having a broken hand.
ccessfully breaks free of his bindings, though succumbing to a broken hand in the process. The two engage in a brutal fist-fight that ends when Dexter snaps Orozco's neck, killing him.
The police arrive, having tracked down Orozco's hideout, but Dexter is able to avoid detection by dropping Orozco's body off the upper level of the warehouse, just as a police car drives through, making it look as though the collision caused his death. His body is dragged several feet, ironically causing his face to be skinned. After seeing his body, Debra states that "what goes around comes around."
Victims
Attempted Victims
Appearances
- Our Father (killing spree starts)
- The Lion Sleeps Tonight
- Turning Biminese (concealed in shadow)
- Sì Se Puede (killing spree only)
- The Damage a Man Can Do
- About Last Night
- Go Your Own Way
- I Had a Dream
- Do You Take Dexter Morgan?
Trivia
- The Skinner is based on a villain from Dearly Devoted Dexter, Dr. Danco. They have both the same past as torturers and turned into serial killers, and one of their victims is Deb's lover. Yet, in the novel, Danco does worse than skinning his victims: he cuts their limbs off one by one. Still in the book, it isn't Dexter who kills him but Debra.
- Despite being based on Dr. Danco, there are several differences. For one, Danco only kills one person, the rest he turns into "stubs", which drives them insane.
- King is the first main antagonist to have virtually no emotional connection to Dexter, Brian Moser being his long lost brother, Lila West being his lover and Miguel Prado being his first true friend.
- Interestingly, one of the cases being worked on in Season Two is called "The Orozco case".