Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit

He has hunted some of the most notorious and sadistic criminals of our time: TheTrailside Killer in San Francisco, the Atlanta Child murderer. He has contronted,interviewed and researched dozens of serial killers and assassins -- includingCharles Manson, Richard Speck, John Wayne Gacy, and James Earl Ray -- for alandmark study to understand their motives. To get inside their minds.He is Special Agent John Douglas, the model for law enforcement legend JackCrawford in Thomas Harris's thrillers Red Dragon and The Silence of theLambs, and the man who ushered in a new age in bahavorial science andcriminal profiling. Recently retired after twenty-five years of service, JohnDouglas can finally tell his unique and compelling story. With journalist MarkOlshaker, he gives us a behind the scenes look at his fascinating career,revisiting his journeys into the dark recesses and calculated madness presentonly in our worst nightmares. This is the true-crime work everyone has...

Publishers Weekly

One of the first to develop the specialty of "criminal-personality profiling," Douglas has written a readable, popular version of his earlier Sexual Homicide (Lexington, 1988). He discusses how FBI profilers, working from crime scene evidence, predict the type of personality who committed a serial murder. Accurate profiles-such as that of Wayne Williams, the Atlanta child killer-can help focus on likely suspects. Profiling can also suggest proactive steps for luring the culprit into contacting the police. Unfortunately, a profile is apt to "fit a lot of people." As the unsolved Green River Killer case attests, it cannot substitute for hard evidence. Although profiling has limitations not emphasized in this semiautobiographical account, Douglas is justifiably proud of its success. Recommended for true crime collections. [Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 6/15/95.]-Gregor A. Preston, formerly with Univ. of California Lib., Davis

John Douglas During his twenty-five years with the FBI, John Douglas became the leading expert on criminal personality profiling and the pioneer of modern criminal investigative analysis. He conducted the first organized study into the methods and motivations of serial criminals and has aided police departments and prosecutors throughout the world on some of their most puzzling cases. A veteran of the Air Force, Douglas holds a Doctor of Education degree and is the author of numerous articles on criminology and co-author of the landmark books Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives and Crime Classification Manual. With Mark Olshaker he wrote Unabomber: On the Trail of America's Most-Wanted Serial Killer. John Douglas lives in the Washington, D.C. area.