QUICK REVIEW by Christine Trzyna
MIND HUNTER by JOHN DOUGLAS and MARK OLSHAKER
Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
From the Special Agent Who Pioneered Criminal Profiling
by John Douglas (the Special Agent) and Mark Olshaker
A Lisa Drew Book - Scribner Publisher
John Douglas was a pioneer of "profiling" serial killers and he's been on a number of important cases anyone in range of the news has heard about. Besides experience, statistical analysis, and luck, he also seems to have the instinct for an important detail that makes all the difference. He practically diagnoses a crime scene, getting into the mind and habits of a serial killer. Page 69: "Eventually I would come up with the term signature to describe this unique element and personal compulsion, which remained static. And I would use it as distinguishable from the traditional concept of modus operandi, which is fluid and can change. This became the core of what we do in the Investigative Support Unit."
Trivia question of the week: What is the most common vehicle owned by a serial killer (see answer below!)
What this Master Profiler wants you to know is that criminals are experts at profiling their victims and often think out every last step or detail of the crime before they commit it.
page 63
..."Just as they had in school, people felt comfortable opening to me. The more I questioned these guys, the more I came to understand that the successful criminals were good profilers. They each had a carefully thought through and well-research profile of the type of bank they preferred. Some like banks near major thoroughfares or interstates so that getaways would be easier and they could be many miles away before a pursuit could be organized..... page 64... But if you started profiling the cases - you could begin seeing patterns. And once you began seeing patterns, you could start taking proactive measures to catch the bad guys... in effect you could force the robber to select the bank of your choosing and be ready for him when he did."
page 111
"The desire to work with the police was another interesting revelation, which was to come up over and over again in our serial killer studies. The three most common motives of serial rapists and murderers turns out to be domination, manipulation, and control. When you consider that most of these guys are angry, ineffectual losers who feel they've been given the shaft by life, and that most of them have experienced some sort of physical or emotional abuse...it isn't surprising that one of their main fantasy occupations is police officer."
Ed Kemper of Santa Cruz was one killer who had even gone past university security with two bodies in the car, one wrapped up in a blanket and sitting in front, the other in back. He said the girls were drunk and he was taking them home.
Page 113: "He told us that when he stopped his car for a pretty girl, he'd ask her where she was going, then glance at his watch as if trying to decide if he had enough time. Thinking that she was dealing with a busy man who had other more important priorities than stopping for hitchhikers would immediately put her at ease and erase any hesitations. Aside from giving us a look into a killer's modus operandi, this type of information would start suggestions, verbal cues, body language, and so on that we use to size up other people and make instant judgements about them often don't apply to sociopath. With Ed Kemper, for instance, stopping for a pretty hitchhiker was his most important priority, and he had thought long, hard, and analytically about how best to accomplish his objective; much longer, harder, and more analytically than a young woman encountering him casually would have done from her perspective..."
Page 114
"Manipulation Domination Control. These are the three watchwords of violent serial offenders. Everything they do and think about is directed toward assisting them in filling their otherwise inadequate lives....Probably the most crucial single factor in the development of a serial rapist or killer is the role of fantasy...with most sexually based killers, it is a several-step escalation from the fantasy to the reality, often fueled by pornography, morbid experimentation on animals, and cruelty to peers."
John Douglas interviewed Charlie Manson and is of the opinion that the murders of Sharon Tate and her friends were not planned or intended by Manson but this was a point where he lost control over his followers and the situation.
Page 120
"He had been forced to live by his wits his entire life and so had become extremely adept at sizing up the people he met and quickly determining what they could do for him. He would have been excellent in my unit assessing an individuals psychological strengths and weaknesses and strategizing how to get to a killer we were hunting."
The Volkswagon Beetle!
