Ansel Packer in Notes on an Execution: Character Analysis

Overview

Ansel Packer is the condemned serial killer whose scheduled execution structures the novel's countdown. He wakes on the morning of his death at Polunsky Unit in Texas with roughly eleven hours and twenty-three minutes remaining, and the narrative follows his final day in alternating chapters that also give voice to the women whose lives he touched: his mother Lavender, Jenny's twin sister Hazel, and detective Saffy Singh.

The novel deliberately refuses to make Ansel the hero of his own story. Though his consciousness anchors the countdown chapters, the author's note (chapter 27) makes explicit that the story belongs to the women changed by his actions. Ansel is described as a recognizable type—the charming, self-justifying killer—but the narrative architecture ensures the reader sees him through the eyes of those who survived him. The ending explained page traces how his final hours resolve.

Plot Role

Ansel's execution is the structural spine of the novel. The countdown chapters (12 Hours, 10 Hours, 8 Hours, 7 Hours, 6 Hours, 4 Hours, 2 Hours, 1 Hour, 18 Minutes) are told in second person, placing the reader inside his consciousness on his final day. These are interleaved with chapters from Lavender, Saffy, and Hazel that span from 1973 to 2019.

His role is paradoxical: he is the center of the plot but not the center of the story. The women's chapters reveal the ripple effects of his violence across decades—Saffy's career is shaped by pursuing him, Hazel's life is defined by her sister's murder, Lavender's grief is reopened by learning of his fate. The novel's critique of true crime culture (chapter 27) suggests this structure is deliberate: the killer's story is told, but the women's stories are given equal weight.

Motivations and Traits Shown Through Actions

Ansel's defining trait is his capacity for manipulation. The text shows him studying people and adjusting his behavior accordingly. He knows how to handle women and certain types of men (chapter 8). He stays seated to keep the warden taller than him, maintains his status as the warden's favorite prisoner, and uses pet names like my love with Shawna. His manipulation of Shawna is explicit: he recognizes she is the most malleable type of woman, one who likes to be told exactly who she is.

His Theory is central to his self-conception. He has spent seven years writing notebooks exploring the idea that morality is fluid, that no one is all good or all bad, and that alternate versions of himself exist in other universes. The warden dismisses it as a manifesto, and when the warden asks where the Girls would be in an alternate world where Ansel hadn't killed them, the question stuns him—a rare moment of genuine disruption.

He hears the screaming—a baby's cry only he can hear, connected to his brother Baby Packer who died in childhood. The Blue House restaurant in Tupper Lake, New York, is the only place that quiets it. This suggests (interpretation) that his violence is entangled with childhood trauma, though the novel never offers this as an excuse.

Chronological Arc

Ansel's life is traced through the women's chapters:

1973: Born to seventeen-year-old Lavender in a barn, assisted by Johnny Packer, the controlling older man who becomes his stepfather figure. Johnny locks food, bruises Lavender, and slams Ansel's head into a doorframe. Lavender escapes, and the boys enter foster care.
~1984: At Miss Gemma's foster home, eleven-year-old Ansel wins Saffy's crush, plays Nina Simone for her, and arranges dead animals in the grass. When Saffy finds a fox's remains in her bed, she is transferred away. Ansel apologizes, explaining he doesn't like being laughed at.
~1987: He first hurts someone at age eleven (mentioned in chapter 4).
~1990: At seventeen, emancipated and living alone in a trailer near Plattsburgh, working at a Dairy Queen, he kills three girls: Izzy Sanchez, Angela Meyer, and Lila Maroney. He takes trinkets from them—a pearl bracelet, a beaded barrette, Lila's purple ring.
October, freshman year: He meets Jenny at Northern Vermont University and resolves to become normal.
December 1990: He gives Jenny the amethyst ring (Lila's ring) at Christmas. Hazel sees him digging a hole in the backyard—he is burying the other trinkets.
1999: Saffy reopens the case, finds Jenny wearing Lila's ring, but Ansel is not arrested.
2011: Jenny leaves him. Hazel helps her escape.
2012: He drives to Texas, kicks in Jenny's door, and kills her with a kitchen knife. He is arrested and confesses to Saffy during interrogation.
2012–2019: Seven years on death row at Polunsky Unit.
2019: Execution day.

Relationships

Lavender (mother): Ansel's memories of his mother are fragmentary—she is tall, and she is mostly hair. He remembers her in gardens and claw-foot tubs, but also that in most of his memories, she is gone. Lavender's chapter shows she tried to save him from Johnny Packer, but the separation was permanent.

Baby Packer (brother): The brother who died in childhood. Ansel hears his crying as the screaming throughout his life. The social worker told him his brother was in a better place now. However, Blue Harrison's adopted father may be Ansel's brother (chapter 14), suggesting the brother may have survived—the novel leaves this ambiguous.

Saffy Singh: The detective who pursued him for decades. She interrogates him in Houston, playing Nina Simone's I Put a Spell on You and presenting the trinkets. He breaks down and confesses. When he asks about an alternate universe, she responds that only this world exists.

Jenny Fisk: His wife. He gave her Lila's ring, which Saffy recognized. Jenny left him in 2011 after years of emotional distance. He killed her in 2012. In his final hours, he insists he never planned or wanted to kill her.

Shawna: The prison guard he manipulated into an escape plan. She planted her husband's pistol in the transfer van, drew a map, prepared supplies. But she betrayed him—the pistol was replaced with broken jumper cables. She also returned his Theory notebooks instead of distributing them.

Blue Harrison: A teenage girl at the Blue House restaurant in Tupper Lake. Ansel spent weeks there, finding comfort. He asked her to witness his execution; she agreed but refused to see him when the time came.

Key Decisions and Consequences

Killing the three girls (age 17): The foundational act of violence. He took trinkets from each—the pearl bracelet, beaded barrette, and Lila's ring.
Giving Jenny Lila's ring: A decision that would eventually link Jenny to the murders when Saffy recognized the ring.
Killing Jenny (2012): The act that finally led to his arrest and conviction.
Confessing to Saffy: He cannot believe he made it aloud, describing it as a physical force expelled.
Manipulating Shawna: His escape plan fails because Shawna betrays him, and his Theory notebooks are returned rather than published.
Asking Blue to witness: She agrees but refuses to see him, denying him the witness he wanted.

Themes and Symbols

Ansel embodies the novel's critique of the serial killer as cultural figure. His Theory is a symbol of self-justification—the attempt to frame violence as moral complexity rather than accountability. The warden's dismissal (there is no justification for what you've done) cuts through Ansel's intellectualizing.

The amethyst ring connects the themes of victim erasure and women's voices—it passes from Lila to Jenny, linking the victims. The Blue House symbolizes the comfort Ansel craves but cannot sustain. His belief in the multiverse connects to the fluidity of morality and the nature of evil—he imagines alternate selves who made different choices.

His relationship with Shawna and the failed escape connect to the critique of the justice system and capital punishment—the novel shows the machinery of execution while also refusing to romanticize the condemned man. The moral weight of witnessing is embodied in Blue's refusal to see him.

The ripple effects of violence across generations are visible in how Ansel's actions shape Saffy's career, Hazel's grief, and Lavender's final years.

Questions and Answers

1. Why does Ansel write the Theory?

Ansel writes the Theory to justify himself. He believes morality is fluid and that alternate versions of himself exist in other universes. The warden dismisses it as a manifesto, and Shawna's question about where the Girls would be in an alternate world stuns him. His final realization is that the Theory will vanish after his death—Shawna returns the notebooks rather than distributing them.

2. What is the screaming Ansel hears?

The screaming is a baby's cry only Ansel can hear, connected to his brother Baby Packer who died in childhood. The Blue House restaurant in Tupper Lake is the only place that quiets it. When Blue Harrison resembles his mother, the crying finally stops.

3. Why does Ansel kill Jenny?

The novel does not offer a simple motive. Ansel insists he never planned or wanted to kill her. The text shows him driving to Texas after the Harrisons sent him away, watching Jenny leave with another man, following her home, and kicking in her door. Jenny grabbed a kitchen knife, and he lunged. The novel leaves the motive ambiguous, refusing to provide the tidy psychological explanation true crime narratives often offer.

4. Why does Shawna betray Ansel?

Shawna's betrayal is implied rather than explained. She had agreed to help him escape and to distribute his Theory. Instead, she replaced the pistol with broken jumper cables and returned the notebooks. The night before, Ansel asked if she'd still love him if he'd done what they say—she was disturbed and promised an answer by morning. Her betrayal suggests she ultimately could not participate in his escape or his legacy.

5. What does Ansel's confession to Saffy reveal?

Ansel confesses after Saffy plays Nina Simone's I Put a Spell on You and presents the trinkets taken from the murdered girls. He initially denies involvement but breaks down. He describes the confession as a physical force expelled. His lawyer argued coercion, but Ansel himself felt it was something that came out of him against his will. The confession connects him to all four murders—Jenny and the three girls.

For more discussion, see the questions and answers page or return to the book overview.