Crime Doesn’t Always Pay In Port Charles: Paul Goes To Prison

In Port Charles, it seems killers and mobsters run free, even when the law does catch up with them. Murderers are arrested, but rarely serve time on General Hospital. However, that’s about to change as serial-killing Paul goes to prison.

End of the Road
Thankfully, actor Richard Burgi harbors no ill-will towards the soap that let him bring Paul Hornsby to insane life over the last year.

“I don’t take it personally,” Burgi said in the October 17 issue of Soap Opera Digest. “[Executive Producer Frank Valentini] was very up front with me. I was relieved on one level because it frees me up to do other things. A contract on a soap, for some people, it’s really wonderful, but for me it was like golden handcuffs.”

Crystal Clear
Of course, Burgi admits he knew it was coming when he learned Paul was the serial killer who had been murdering patients at General Hospital for months. However, he tried rationalizing his character’s actions. “When I found out Paul was a killer…I just went with it and said, ‘Well, maybe he’s just having a mental breakdown and it was substantiated by the difficulty of trying to help his daughter through something that only she could get herself out of.”

Roughest Scene
Burgi also admits the most difficult scene to play in this story was when Paul brutally killed Sabrina (Teresa Castillo), a beloved character whose death has had a ripple effect through town. Admittedly, that part also affected fans the most, and there are still petitions out there to bring the character back.

Ultimately, Burgi would have liked a better ending for Paul than an anti-climactic send-off to prison. He told Digest his dream scenario was if Paul ended up catatonic like Susan. Now, maybe that would have been more interesting. Hmmmm….