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Crime Scene Investigator Discusses Mindhunter

Hi, this is Stacie Frobenius with my next BookByte in the It’s A Mystery To Me series. This selection is titled, “Mindhunter” by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker.

It’s a fascinating true story about the inception of the criminal profile unit of the FBI and the detectives who often took unorthodox and dangerous routes to gather data.

I selected this book because I enjoyed the Mindhunter series on Netflix and wanted to know more about the real-life detectives depicted in the adapted screenplay. Although the Netflix series admits to taking Hollywood liberties with the content, the lead character Special Agent Holden Ford is based on real-life detective and book co-author, John Douglas.

The series debuted with critical acclaim in October 2017. A second season was immediately approved but as of this recording, has not yet been announced. I admit I’m very excited for season 2 and I’ll have my popcorn ready when it returns.

For true crime fans, Mindhunter is intriguing because of the up-close and often dangerous access that early profilers had to some of the most dangerous men on earth. While touring the U.S. teaching behavioral science classes to groups of police officers and detectives, Douglas and his partner Bob Ressler became bored with their downtime.

Since they were often in each city for up to a week, the pair wondered what it might be like to sit down with criminals who would be willing to talk about their crimes. They didn’t ask permission from headquarters, they just quietly showed up at local prisons where they knew notorious criminals were being held and asked to meet with them. Douglas said, “Let’s see if we can talk to them; ask them why they did it, find out what it was like through their eyes. All we can do is try. If it doesn’t work out, it doesn’t work out.”

Their methodology may not have been sanctioned by the FBI but it gave them a wealth of information which made the risk of getting in trouble worth the reward. As Douglas explained, If you want to understand the artist, look at his work. That’s what I always tell my people. You can’t claim to understand or appreciate Picasso without studying his paintings. The successful serial killers plan their work as carefully as a painter.”

For their first inmate interview, they picked a doozy, Ed Kemper. As a teenager, Kemper killed his grandparents, spent six years in a hospital for the criminally insane, and was then released to the custody of his mother. He targeted young females, killing then playing with their corpses.  He then killed his mother in a psychotic rage.  

Then he drove to Colorado and called police from a pay phone to admit to his crimes. His crimes were incredibly gruesome and morbid.  He was eventually convicted on eight counts of first-degree murder and given a life sentence to be served at the California Medical Facility. When John Douglas and Bill Ressler encountered Kemper for the first time, they were surprised to discover that the man who admitted to horrendous atrocities was soft-spoken, smart, and even charming.

In my career, most of the homicides I work are crimes committed in the moment and are not well planned premeditated murders.  However, even a simple homicide investigation includes attempting to dissect the motives behind the killing.  While I enjoyed Mindhunter immensely, there were times when it read like a John Douglas memoir full of boastful prose. In all departments, there are definitely some big egos, so I was willing to look past that and still enjoy the book. 

I believe that deep down everyone wants to know why people do what they do.  “Mindhunter” gives us a glimpse into one of the most morbidly fascinating aspects of humanity. It will answer the questions of why serial killers do what they do, even if it doesn’t make sense to most of us.