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spookedonbooks's review against another edition
4.0
The book isn't what I expected, I found it an incredibly slow read and was more based on his career than the actual cases so wasn't what I was expecting. But it amazes me how he can stay so calm and collected in the face of some horrific crimes in order to continue with his job. I can't wait to watch the tv series to see the other side of this
wavalauria's review against another edition
dark
informative
mysterious
reflective
tense
medium-paced
4.25
cayleigh's review against another edition
Really interesting topic but some aspects were glaringly outdated…I’ll stick with watching Criminal Minds.
nicjmorrow's review against another edition
dark
funny
informative
medium-paced
4.0
There I a lot in this book that I was surprised to find out. Very informative. Dark and also gross at times. Not a light read but very interesting also a great reader.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Rape, Domestic abuse, Stalking, Hate crime, Racism, Murder, Kidnapping, Blood, and Vomit
lrbarca9206's review against another edition
5.0
Absolutely loved this book, expected to read about multiple different killers and their crimes but reading about John's career from the beginning to end was so interesting. A couple of things I found interesting was, insanity is a legal concept, not medical or psychiatric, its not about whether someone it's sick, it's to do with whether the person is or is not responsible for their actions, and another that women tend to internalize their stressor and take it out of themselves, whereas men lash out...honestly if you haven't read it. Go do that now.
angus_mckeogh's review against another edition
3.0
Halfway interesting psychic drivel. It was fascinating to see into the investigations of many of the major serial murder cases in the United States and the story of how Douglas put this FBI unit together was fairly interesting. However, I did get the feeling that it was questionable how useful this whole endeavor was. Were any of these cases only solvable with the input of the Behavioral Sciences unit of the FBI? And sadly I got the feeling the answer was no. In no way am I discounting these guys’ efforts to solve crimes, but a good portion of their work ends up reading like the “hits and misses” that a psychic throws out during a cold reading. Douglas and his team would throw out a profile and then add the qualification, well, this profile could actually match a bunch of people. Is that really helpful? And then some crazy predictions like the color of the car the UNSUB is driving based on his personality instead of evidence. Again, guesswork.
Then the most interesting part of the whole thing turns out to be the cases which at the time of the writing of the book were unsolved. Namely the Green River Killer and the BTK Killer. Sadly for Douglas his profiles on both guys sitting in prison is off by a good margin. Douglas’s profile states Ridgway would be physically imposing (he’s 5’10” and meek), average to above average intelligence (Ridgway seems nearly retarded), underemployed (not sure what this means but Ridgway held a detailed truck painting position for a long time - so guessing that’s incorrect), and he’d be a loner who’s inadequate with women (Ridgway was married twice and from his spouse’s reports had frequent, regular sex). This whole profile doesn’t seem remotely close. Douglas goes on to say the best suspect is a taxi driver who inserted himself in the case...uh...not Ridgway. And then moreover after many years of unsuccessfully trying to catch the Green River Killer, Douglas states he’s convinced it’s not one guy. There’s just too many victims and it’s likely two or three killers working the same area and he doesn’t see the connection in some of the victims. Unfortunately all wrong. Ridgway was convicted of killing 49 women and who knows how many others they couldn’t connect him with. Thereafter, Douglas talks a bit about the BTK Killer and doesn’t really put together too much of a profile there, but does state that the killings stopped and it’s likely because the cops interviewed the guy and he got wise and stopped killing before being caught. (Buzzer sound!) Incorrect! Dennis Rader stopped killing because he was married and raising children. And when he got more free time later started killing again and was then caught. Unfortunately he wasn’t even on the cops’ radar at that point and certainly wasn’t interviewed. So while the book was entertaining it left me questioning the value of the profiling process. Much like the literary criminology book I recently finished, I was given the impression that trying to “read and understand the mind of a psychopath who kills people” is still not all that probable with either of these approaches.
Then the most interesting part of the whole thing turns out to be the cases which at the time of the writing of the book were unsolved. Namely the Green River Killer and the BTK Killer. Sadly for Douglas his profiles on both guys sitting in prison is off by a good margin. Douglas’s profile states Ridgway would be physically imposing (he’s 5’10” and meek), average to above average intelligence (Ridgway seems nearly retarded), underemployed (not sure what this means but Ridgway held a detailed truck painting position for a long time - so guessing that’s incorrect), and he’d be a loner who’s inadequate with women (Ridgway was married twice and from his spouse’s reports had frequent, regular sex). This whole profile doesn’t seem remotely close. Douglas goes on to say the best suspect is a taxi driver who inserted himself in the case...uh...not Ridgway. And then moreover after many years of unsuccessfully trying to catch the Green River Killer, Douglas states he’s convinced it’s not one guy. There’s just too many victims and it’s likely two or three killers working the same area and he doesn’t see the connection in some of the victims. Unfortunately all wrong. Ridgway was convicted of killing 49 women and who knows how many others they couldn’t connect him with. Thereafter, Douglas talks a bit about the BTK Killer and doesn’t really put together too much of a profile there, but does state that the killings stopped and it’s likely because the cops interviewed the guy and he got wise and stopped killing before being caught. (Buzzer sound!) Incorrect! Dennis Rader stopped killing because he was married and raising children. And when he got more free time later started killing again and was then caught. Unfortunately he wasn’t even on the cops’ radar at that point and certainly wasn’t interviewed. So while the book was entertaining it left me questioning the value of the profiling process. Much like the literary criminology book I recently finished, I was given the impression that trying to “read and understand the mind of a psychopath who kills people” is still not all that probable with either of these approaches.