From the Crime Writer’s Library: Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit

Previously in “From the Crime Writer’s Library,” we discussed Journey into Darkness by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker. Today, we are going to explore another book by the original FBI “Profiler.”  In my previous entry I raised the question of what are the effects of staring into the abyss of humanity. Mindhunter answers that question and more. Mindhunter is not only an exploration of profiling of some of the most dangerous killers in the modern age, but it is also the personal and professional journey of John Douglas and what his pioneering cost him—including almost his life.

Mindhunter explores Special Agent John Douglas’ twenty-five year career with the Investigative Support Unit. He pursued some of the most notorious and sadistic serial killers of our time:

* The killer who hunted prostitutes in Alaska;
* The Atlanta Child Murdered who almost set Georgia ablaze with race riots; and
* The Seattle's Green River killer—a case that almost cost Douglas his life.

Douglas was the model for Thomas Harris’ Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs.  Douglas has confronted, interviewed, and studied scores of serial killers and assassins, including Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, and Ed Gein, who was the inspiration for Hitchcock’s movie Psycho and who dressed himself in his victims' peeled skin. By getting into the mind of both predator and prey, Douglas examines each crime scene, reliving both the killer's and the victim's actions, creating both sets of  profiles, describing their habits, and predicting their next moves based on the behavior of the killer.

If you are writing about serial killers or about any murderer, you will want to read and understand the work of John Douglas. You can learn more about him, follow his and Mark Olshaker’s work at this website: http://mindhuntersinc.com

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com and www.thewriterslens.com. You can also follow me on twitter @Owlkenpowriter and the Writer’s Lens @TheWritersLens. Fiction is the world where the philosopher is the most free in our society to explore the human condition as he chooses.

From the Crime Writer’s Library: Obsession: The FBI's Legendary Profiler Probes the Psyches of Killers, Rapists, and Stalkers and Their Victims and Tells How to Fight Back

Over the past few months, “From the Crime Writer’s Library” has focused on the work of John Douglas, the founder of and once head of the FBI's Investigative Support Unit. For a crime writing—be  it true crime or fictional crime—the works of John Douglas are a must read into the behavioral science and understanding of the dark side of humanity.

In Obsession: The FBI's Legendary Profiler Probes the Psyches of Killers, Rapists, and Stalkers and Their Victims and Tells How to Fight Back by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker, Douglas gives an unsugar coated account and profile of the crimes and case histories of serial killers, serial rapists, child molesters, stalkers and others. “Douglas shows how he and his colleagues can assess the different temperaments and motivations at work behind grisly acts. Rapists tend to fall into four basic categories, for example, the "power-reassurance rapist" (driven by feelings of inadequacy), the "exploitive" rapist (impulsive and overtly macho), the "anger" rapist (who uses sex to displace his rage) and, cruelest of all, the "sadistic" rapist, who "simply gets off on hurting people." What stands out in this eye-opening book is how Douglas's compassion for the survivors of violent crimes seems to equal his understanding of the criminals themselves. His description of the work of the countless people who counsel, comfort and fight for the rights of victims serves as a welcome reminder that horrific and isolated acts of darkness and coldness are counterbalanced by a warmhearted and, one hopes, more natural human determination to help.” (Publisher’s Weekly)

Douglas and Olshaker do even more as they also give in this book many resources for victims, also a valuable resource for writers of these crimes.  While we, crime writers, walk in the shadows of the darkness that investigators like John Douglas and Mark Safarik found themselves immersed in. Speaking for myself only, the writing of crime stories is not to glorify the crime but to tear it apart, understand it, and help society in general and the victims of the crimes face what has and is happening. Sometimes the only way to shed light on the horrific side of man is to walk into the scary places of his mind and soul.

The next edition of “From the Crime Writer’s Library” will go into another work on profiling. This work is the compellation of the unit Douglas started and provides the tools to dig deeper into crime.

Thank you for reading and please visit www.davidalanlucas.com and www.thewriterslens.com. You can also follow me on twitter @Owlkenpowriter and the Writer’s Lens @TheWritersLens. Fiction is the world where the philosopher is the most free in our society to explore the human condition as he chooses.