Psychological portrait of the killer John Douglas.

"When employees law enforcement cannot determine the motives for the murder, they investigate its behavioral aspects. In developing methods to analyze the personality profile of killers, FBI agents found they needed to understand the killer's mindset in a way that would make sense of crime scene evidence and victim testimony. Characteristics evidence and victims can tell a lot about the planning, preparation of the killer for the crime, about his subsequent actions. Based on these considerations, agents begin to look for the killer's motivation, determining how much motivation is related to the criminal's dominant thought pattern. In many cases, hidden sexual motives appear, motives born of fantasy.”

Regrettably, the motive of uncontrollable anger and the need for sexual violence does not always manifest itself in relation to strangers. In the mid-1980s, I was approached from Toronto about a college student, a Malay girl named Deliana Heng, who was found dead, face down on the bathroom floor in her apartment. Her head was turned towards the toilet, her legs were tied with a strap at the ankles. There were signs of beatings on his face and head, and death was caused by strangulation with a strap from a camera case. The dead woman was naked below the waist, blood was caked on her stomach and left leg. She was sexually abused and the cross pendant she wore around her neck was gone. There were no signs of a break-in in the apartment, and based on the victimology and evidence at the crime scene, I concluded that the murder was committed by a man she knew and trusted. The Toronto police were of the same opinion. While looking for people Heng had contact with, they identified the prime suspect as a friend named Tien Po Soo, a bodybuilding fan who works out at a nearby sports center. The problem was to gather evidence that would convince the accuser and then the jury.

First of all, the police wanted a sample of his blood, but at the same time they did not want to show this guy that he was being held under suspicion. And if he refuses to take the test, then without substantial evidence it will be impossible to force him to do so. Canadian laws are extremely strict in matters such as publicizing a lawsuit, but the police have much more powers to investigate and collect information than in the United States. For example, we have no right to install a listening device in a cell or plant a disguised policeman next to a prisoner. But, despite such ample opportunity, investigators from Toronto showed real ingenuity.

They tracked down the former weightlifter among the police officers, and he frequented the gym where the suspect worked out. The policeman came there at the same time as Su and chose the exercise machines in the neighborhood. Soon they began to look at each other, and then - to exchange friendly greetings, discuss the merits of training methods. Obviously, the suspect admired the form of an elderly friend and the fact that he surpasses him in every exercise. Su began to question the policeman about how he managed to build such muscles.

The policeman explained that he was following a special diet designed specifically for him based on the individual metabolic processes of various nutrients. Su also wanted to try the diet, but the policeman warned him to go to a special doctor who would take a blood test and check which nutrients he lacked. Su expressed a desire to see this doctor, but the policeman said it was new method, not yet tested, so it is used with caution.

“Let’s do this,” the policeman suggested. “If you remind me, I will ask the doctor for instruments, take a blood sample from you and give it to him. And then I'll tell you how you should eat and what supplements to take.

This idea pleased the suspect, and he repeatedly reminded his new friend about the analysis. Some time later, a police officer brought tools to the gym and took a blood sample from Su's finger. Because the blood matched that found at the crime scene, the police obtained a search warrant, found more evidence, and charged Su with murder. Among other things, during the search, a book was found, published in the United States and entitled "Dossier of rapists" - in fact, a collection of true stories of rapists about their crimes. In one case, the perpetrator described how he took the victim to the bathroom, where he beat and raped her. Then, placing it in front of a mirror, he tied a tourniquet around her neck and squeezed it until the victim suffocated. But the perpetrator immediately released her, and then repeated everything from the beginning, each time tightening the tourniquet more and more - as a result, the victim literally saw how she was being killed. The killer hatched this plan long before he carried it out.

I expected more from the book. But there is no disappointment. I thought that the author would tell not only about his work experience and real cases, but also put everything on the shelves as scientifically as possible. In fact, there is little scientific content in the book. But there is not only the author's real experience, but also a large block devoted to the protection of children from encroachments on their life and health (let's call it that). I just didn't expect the latter. But the advice from the book turned out to be so simple to perceive and implement, so ...

I expected more from the book. But there is no disappointment. I thought that the author would tell not only about his work experience and real cases, but also put everything on the shelves as scientifically as possible. In fact, there is little scientific content in the book. But there is not only the author's real experience, but also a large block devoted to the protection of children from encroachments on their life and health (let's call it that). I just didn't expect the latter. But the advice from the book turned out to be so simple to perceive and implement, so practically oriented, that it is difficult to overestimate their usefulness. I, like all parents, was and am in constant fear for my children, but now I know how to save the life of a child in situations where I may not be around. Just for the sake of these tips, the book is worth buying even for those who are not a fan of such literature, but are a parent. Probably, you can write better on this topic, probably there are more sensible books, but this one helped me. And this is her unexpected and pleasant plus.

The book of the publishing house "Algorithm" from the series "Clinical stories".
Gray paper, no illustrations.
I am attaching photos of the cover and pages from which you can get an idea of ​​the content of the book and another book published in this series.

This book is by no means intended as a clinical or legal psychology. Her style is aimed at a wide range of readers. The plot is a description of cases from the author's practice of investigating serial murders. The case follows from the case in a chain. The author describes the course of his thoughts leading to the creation of a psychological profile of the killer. He pays special attention to the "modus operandi" (mode of action) and the handwriting of the criminal. The plot is diluted with biographical moments ...

This book is by no means a manual on clinical or legal psychology. Her style is aimed at a wide range of readers. The plot is a description of cases from the author's practice of investigating serial murders. The case follows from the case in a chain. The author describes the course of his thoughts leading to the creation of a psychological profile of the killer. He pays special attention to the "modus operandi" (mode of action) and the handwriting of the criminal. The plot is diluted with biographical moments - unobtrusive and appropriate.
In addition, the book maintains a line, a kind of setting, for educating the younger generations in such a way that children can independently identify a person who is potentially dangerous to them and know how to behave so as not to become victims. This is the message and call of the author: "Let's protect our children! It's real to do! You just need to abandon the disastrous ostrich position" Trouble can happen to anyone, but not to me and not to my family "and open your eyes."
While reading the book, I caught myself thinking that it is really useful to society, it arms with awareness, exposes reality - not always soft, kind and fluffy ... It would be very, very good if each parent read it and made timely adjustments to the system of educating their child. And for any adult, it will be a useful lesson.

As for the quality of the print. The photo shows that the binding is hard. The pages are dense, just for those who like to make notes with a pencil)

Well, the book may also be of interest to fans of the work of Thomas Harris)

We express our deepest gratitude to all those who helped make this work a reality. The first team formed when we were preparing the first joint book (it was published in Russia under the following titles: Mindhunters, How to identify a serial killer. From the experience of an FBI officer. - Note. ed.), consisted of our editor, Lisa Drew, and our agent, Jay Acton, two people who share the same views, who can cheer us up and support us every step of the way. Like them, we were assisted by Carolyn Olshaker, our project coordinator, manager, general counsel, editorial consultant, our mainstay, and for Mark, close person. Ann Hennigan, our Academic Supervisor, has become an indispensable member of the team and made a huge contribution to the work. And it also became clear to us that it was only because of the way Mary Sue Rucci helped us in publishing, with an amazing art of combining the qualities of a competent specialist and cheerfulness, that everything went so smoothly and did not get out of control. If not for these five...

We would like to express our deep gratitude to Trudy, Jack and Stephen Collins, Susan Hand Martin and Jeff Freeman for sharing Susanna's story with us. We hope that by telling her story, we have strengthened their faith in us. In addition, we are indebted to Jim Harrington of Michigan and Tennessee District Attorney Henry Williams for sharing their memories and reflections with us, as well as to our resident David Altshuler, Peter Banks and all the staff of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children - for their kindness, for devoting their research, experience and Good work. We are all better thanks to them. Finally, as always, we would like to thank all of John's colleagues at Quantico, especially Roy Hazelwood, Steve Mardigian, Gregg McCrary, Jude Ray, and Jim Wright. They will always be invaluable trailblazers, explorers, and trusted companions on the journey to and from darkness.

John Douglas and Mark Olshaker

October 1996

In the soul of a killer

The freedom of every individual to decide for or against God and for or against man must be recognized, otherwise religion will be a deception and enlightenment an illusion. Freedom is a precondition for both: otherwise they are misunderstood. However, freedom is not everything. She is only part of the story and half the truth. Freedom is just the negative aspect of the phenomenon, its positive aspect is responsibility. There is a danger that freedom will degenerate into arbitrariness if it is not combined with responsibility.

Viktor I. Frankl, "Man: The Quest for Meaning"

These ominous streets must be walked by a man who himself is not angry, tainted by anything and devoid of fear.

Raymond Chandler, "The Simple Art of Murder"

This is not the Hollywood version. She is not ennobled, not combed, not elevated to the rank of "art". This is what is actually happening. In any case, in my description - far from the worst option. As happened more than once, I plunge into the soul of the killer. I don't know who the victim will be, but I'm ready to kill someone. And immediately.

My wife left me alone for the whole evening, whistled to a party with her friends, just not to hang around at home with me. However, it does not matter: we still constantly quarreled, and this day was no better. Still, quarrels oppressed me. I'm sick of this attitude. Maybe she's actually dating other men, like my first wife. She got hers - expired, falling face down into the bath and choking on her vomit. And rightly so - she spoiled a lot of blood for me.

Our two children were raised by my elders, and that pissed me off too—as if I couldn't take care of the little ones myself! I sat in front of the TV for a while, blew a couple of beers, and then added some wine. It didn't get any better. The mood continued to fall. I wanted more beer or something, so around nine, or maybe half past nine, I got up and went to the mini-mart near the commissariat and stocked up on another pack of Moosehead. Then, when I got to Armor Road, I stopped and just sat in the car for a long time, sipping beer and trying to figure out what was going on in my soul.

I drove to the north side of the base and, while continuing to sip my beer, stopped near the garages. “Damn it, the machines must be better off here than me!” I thought. And then I saw her. She crossed the road and jogged down the sidewalk. Even though it was quite dark, I could see her. Tall, rather pretty, in her twenties, with long, dark blond hair in a braid. Her forehead gleamed with sweat... Yes, she was quite pretty. She was wearing a red T-shirt with a Marine emblem on the chest and tight red shorts that emphasized the curvy ass. Her legs seemed infinitely long. Not a drop of fat. These cuties from the Marine Corps are in great shape - and it's all thanks to training and drill. These will give a hundred points of odds to any man.

For a while, I watched her breasts spring up in the rhythm of the run, wondering if it was worth running with her. It was enough for me to realize: I am far from being in such a shape as she is; besides drunk almost insole. Another thing is to catch up with her in a car, offer a ride to the barracks, and chat along the way.

But then I got cold: there are probably crowds of tough warriors around her, what does she have in common with a guy like me? These girls turn their noses up too high; we, mere mortals, are not worth a penny ... No matter how you crucify yourself, they will send you off in no time. And I'm already fed up with someone else's neglect. Fed up with them for the rest of my life.

No, I've had enough of shit, that's enough, at least for today. I'll just take whatever I want, that's the only way to get anywhere. This bitch will have to get to know me, don't care if she likes it or not.

I started the engine, caught up with the girl and, stretching across the passenger seat to the window, asked:

“Excuse me, can you tell me how far it is to the other side of the base?”

She wasn't frightened in the least, probably because she could see the base emblem on the glass. Plus, she was probably sure that she could cope with anyone, since she served in the Marine Corps. She stopped, trustingly approached the car. Leaning towards the window, she pointed to reverse side and, in a slightly broken voice after running, explained that I would have to travel three miles. She smiled kindly and ran on.

I realized: another second, she will disappear from view - and I will miss my chance. Opening the door, I jumped out of the car and rushed after her. I hit hard from behind and she sprawled on the pavement. I grabbed her. She gasped as she realized what was happening and began to fight back. She was quite tall and strong for a woman, but I was almost a foot taller and a hundred pounds heavier. Holding her hands, I smacked her on the temple with a swing - so that sparks probably fell from her eyes. However, she still fought back with all her might, kicking and punching me to break free. Okay, she's going to pay for this: I won't let some bitch treat me like that!

One of the authors of this book, John Douglas, was an FBI special agent in the United States of America for twenty-five years, until recently he headed the auxiliary investigation department in this Bureau. He has more than a thousand investigated cases related to the commission of the most serious crimes, including brutal serial murders, murders related to the abduction and sexual exploitation of children in the United States. John Douglas talks about the work of his department and, in particular, about the fruitful search for criminals based on the method they developed - analyzing the personality profile of the killer - from photographs from the crime scene. John Douglas and his colleagues not only accurately identified the type of offender, but also described his behavior after the crime was committed. The book equips the reader with an experience for which many of the heroes of this sad story paid with their lives.

* * *

The following excerpt from the book Psychological portrait of the killer. FBI Techniques (Mark Olshaker) provided by our book partner - the company LitRes.

Motives for the murder

I often repeat: when we analyze a murder, when any experienced investigator is working, it is a lot like how a good actor gets used to the character, preparing to play a role. We both go on stage: for an actor it is a theater stage or a film set, for us it is a crime scene; we see what lies on the surface - a dialogue between the characters or evidence of a serious crime, and we try to understand what this indicates. In other words, what actually happened between the protagonists of this tragedy? The actors call this "subtext" and try to figure out what the character is trying to achieve before they act out the scene. Why does he utter certain words and perform certain actions? What are his motives?

The question of motives is one of the most delicate in the investigation of a crime, and at the same time one of the most important. Until you understand why a particular violent crime was committed, it will be extremely difficult to come to valid conclusions about the behavior and personality of the HC. Even if he is caught, the indictment against him is unlikely to succeed. Hank Williams faced such a problem during the Sedley Alley trial - that's why he turned to me. In the case of a bank robbery, the motive—and the signature associated with it—is clear: the criminal needs the money, but is unwilling to work to obtain it legally. Now imagine you are investigating a home invasion that results in the rape and death of the residents. What was the primary motive - burglary, sexual assault, or murder? Anyway, the victim is dead, but the motives of the crime are essential for us to find out what kind of person the killer is.

In the fall of 1982, we received a call from the Midwest Police Department investigating the rape and murder of a twenty-five-year-old woman. The crime was committed in the living room of the apartment where the victim and her husband lived for almost half a year. Returning home, the husband of the murdered woman found the apartment completely destroyed, and this led the police to believe that the primary motive was burglary, and rape and murder were only a secondary "crime of opportunity" or an accidental crime.

The photographs of the crime scene were of high quality and gave a complete picture of what happened. The victim was found lying face up on the floor in the living room, with her dress pulled up above her waist and her underpants pulled down to her knees. Despite the disorder in the room, there were no signs of a struggle, and there were no wounds on the corpse that the victim could receive by resisting. The owner's hammer became the murder weapon. It was found in the kitchen sink, where the HC apparently threw it to wash away the blood. The husband reported missing some of his wife's jewelry. Curiously, the type of crime scene was contradicted by the medical examiner's report, which noted that there was no evidence of sexual assault and no evidence of semen on the victim's body or clothing. But a blood alcohol test showed that the woman had been drinking shortly before the attack. Upon learning of this, I exclaimed: "In the bull's-eye!". The crime was staged in such a way that from the point of view of an inexperienced person it should have looked like rape and murder.

I told the astonished investigator that he must have already interrogated the murderer and that the motive for the crime was not burglary at all. There was not even sexual aggression.

In my opinion, the following happened. The victim and the perpetrator had a drink together in her apartment. A dispute ensued between them, which probably subsided more than once and continued again. The tension reached a peak that proved unbearable for the killer. He grabbed the first weapon suitable for murder that came to hand, namely, he found a hammer in the kitchen, returned and, in anger, hit the victim several times in the head and face until she collapsed to the floor. Realizing that he would certainly be suspected, the killer hurried to the kitchen sink, washed the blood from his hands and the bloody prints from the handle of the hammer. Then he returned to the dead victim, turned her on her back, lifted her dress and lowered her panties, staging a sexual attack. And then he scattered things, as if a robber who had broken into the apartment was looking for money or valuables.

At this point, the investigator interrupted me:

“You just let me know that it was the husband who did it.

I instructed him how to interrogate his husband. I said that during the polygraph test, the most important thing is to emphasize: the police know that he stained his hands with blood and unsuccessfully tried to wash away the bloody evidence.

A few days later, the husband was interrogated using a lie detector. He could not stand the test and confessed to the investigator in the murder. Sometimes you come across cases in which the motive seems to be obvious, but some details do not fit together. Such a crime occurred on the morning of January 27, 1981 in Rockford, Illinois. Around ten o'clock in the morning, someone walked into Fredd's Grocery and shot and killed the forty-four-year-old owner of the store, Willie Fredd, and his twenty-year-old nephew, Albert Pearson, who works for him. No witnesses were found.

Fredd was found face down on the floor behind the counter. Investigators determined that he must have been sitting at the counter when he was shot twice with .38 bullets, one in the neck and the other in the spleen. The second victim was found half leaning out of the revolving door to the street. Fredd's nephew was shot three times in the chest, with the same weapon, apparently as he was backing away from his attacker. Strangely, nothing was stolen. (Note that Fredd and Pearson were black.)

The next morning, at fifteen minutes to nine, a man who had driven to the Rockford Super 100 gas station owned by the Clark Oil Company for gasoline found the corpse of a station employee in the storage room. The victim was an eighteen-year-old white boy, Kevin Kaiser. He was slumped against the wall, having fallen after five shots from a 38-caliber weapon (later ballistics showed that two men in a grocery store had been killed the day before with another weapon of the same caliber). Four bullets hit the young man's chest, the fifth - in the right cheek, coming out from the left side of the neck: apparently, they shot at close range. The absence of bleeding from both wounds meant that the heart had already stopped: the young man died before the last shot was fired. If you follow victimology - the science of the victims, then people who knew Kevin could not say anything but good about him, describing him as a hard-working and "glorious fellow." As in the crime committed the day before, all the valuables were in place. A verbal portrait of a possible suspect was sent around the area, a black man in his thirties, of average height, with short hair and a moustache.

The next day, at eight o'clock in the morning, a husband and wife, turning into the E-2 Co gas station in Rockford, saw the employee lying face up in a huge pool of blood in the station storage room. The couple dropped in there to look for someone, since the station seemed to them deserted in work time. This time the victim was Kenya Faust, a thirty-five year old white male. He was shot twice: one bullet hit his left cheek and pierced his head, and the other, after he collapsed to the floor, went right through his neck - from right to left. The clients immediately called an ambulance. She arrived while Faust was still alive, he was taken to Rockford Memorial Hospital, but he soon died without regaining consciousness. About $150 was stolen from the station. There were no witnesses to the crime, but a ballistics report determined that Kenya Faust had been killed with the same weapon used to shoot Willie Fredd and Albert Pearson, marking the first real connection between the three crimes. An investigative team was immediately formed in the Rockford police.

Four days later, on February 2, in the afternoon, someone entered a radio store in Beloit, Wisconsin, and shot and killed twenty-year-old manager Richard Beck and twenty-six-year-old customer Donald Raines. Later, another customer found them lying side by side on the floor at the entrance to the back of the store. Both of the dead had multiple wounds on the head and chest, although the police officers did not see any signs of a struggle with the criminal. Apparently, a certain amount was stolen, but it was not possible to determine how much. (Beloit is near the southern border of Wisconsin, twenty miles north of Rockford.)

The police had statements from three witnesses about men seen in the area of ​​the store shortly before the murder. One witness stated that he saw a black man whose description matched the verbal portrait drawn up in connection with the second Rockford murder. The testimony of witnesses and the similarity of the circumstances of the crime suggested that the latest murder may be connected with one or more previous ones. The incident went beyond the territory of one state - which meant that you should contact the FBI. I joined the investigation as soon as I got a call from a worried FBI official from Illinois.

The problem was the difference in circumstances. Shots were fired from different weapons. The victims were both whites and blacks, of different ages, at first glance the crimes looked like nothing more than an armed robbery, but the killer did not steal almost any valuables. Who is he and why does he kill people?

As I looked through the investigators' reports, crime scene photographs, and autopsy reports, it seemed less and less like a chain of armed robberies, more and more like some type of serial murder. Their motives were still a mystery to me at the time, but the killing style was constant, and I described it as the style of a single killer. None of the victims resisted, they were shot several times, with more brutality than was required for a simple elimination of people during a robbery. In other words, the crime has gone beyond the corresponding "modus operandi".

The killings were methodical and consistent, but looked pointless. They could even be mistaken for random, scattered, and not serial. The offender disregarded valuables. There was no sexual moment. Since we had no evidence that HC knew any of the victims, an attempt at personal revenge seemed unlikely. On the contrary, there was nothing in common between the victims.

After failing to analyze a motive based on a crime scenario, after you've gone through all the "logical" guesses one by one and they all didn't fit the case, it's time to look into the territory of psychiatry. All crimes have a motive, all crimes make sense according to a certain logic, although this logic may be strictly isolated, having nothing to do with "objective".

This led me to think that our NS is probably paranoid, suffering from hallucinations, but still capable of doing deliberate things. This was indicated by the use of different weapons. He used one type of weapon, apparently trusting thirty-eight caliber bullets. But he had more than one pistol of this caliber. I could guarantee that he has a whole arsenal: when paranoid, weapons are always lacking.

In addition, he has the ability to get from point A to point B - which means that he is able to drive a car, probably has a license and, therefore, at some level acts in Everyday life, works, even if the work does not suit him. He is forced to communicate with people around him, but they consider him an "eccentric".

In any series of crimes that occur at regular intervals, we focus on the first, usually the most significant for our purposes. In multiple homicides, the perpetrator is usually of the same race as his victims. Assuming that all four cases are related, we have a situation in which the first two victims were black and the next two were white. The killer started at the level he felt most comfortable with. For this reason, I decided that HC is a Negro and therefore could fit the description of two separate witnesses. For the same reason, I assumed that he most likely lives near Fredd's Grocery. He needed some excuse to show up in the area. According to our data, paranoia, like paranoid-type schizophrenia, usually manifests itself at the age of twenty-five. Approximately at the same age, the desire to kill arises, and therefore I could confidently say: the age of the NS is from twenty-five to thirty years.

On reflection, I came to the conclusion that a person of this type feels freer in the evenings, in the dark. The first murder—according to my assumptions, committed near the house—occurred during the day. But the next two are late at night or early in the morning. By the fourth murder, he was so bold that he "went hunting" in daylight. For the same reason, I believed that this person drives a dark car and prefers dark clothes. In addition, he probably keeps a guard dog, a German Shepherd or a Doberman Pinscher, or maybe even two, for safety. If I were to analyze this personality profile today, I would probably call it a pit bull, the latest fashion statement. But then the suspect could only have a German Shepherd or a Doberman. Along with the "police dog" he could have a radio transmitter, such as those used by police officers. In addition, he may have had a certain "track record" - not necessarily including murder, but rather aggressive behavior, attacks against representatives of the authorities, possibly placement in some correctional institution. The killing of the first comer during each raid speaks of a man who is trying to repay all his troubles with interest.

The police began to work on the testimony of witnesses, which eventually led them to a man staying at a motel two blocks from Fred's Grocery. Cigarettes sold in this store were found in his room. The man's name was Raymond Lee Stewart, but by the time the police tracked him down, he had fled.

On February 21, FBI agents arrested Raymond Lee Stewart in Greensboro, North Carolina on the basis of an illegal flight to avoid punishment and on a charge of armed robbery. Stuart was a twenty-nine-year-old five-foot-six black man. Prior to moving to North Carolina, he lived in Rockford and returned ahead of the upcoming birth of his illegitimate child. He was staying at a motel two blocks from Fred's Grocery. Fearing possible trouble or attack at the motel, he checked in under an assumed name.

On February 4, two days after Stewart carried out the murders at the Radio Shop in Beloit, he left for North Carolina in an old dark car with a trailer attached - in which he moved most of his belongings. As soon as the agents approached the car and trailer, they saw two Dobermans tied up nearby. Once authorized, investigators searched Stewart's trailer and cousin's home, finding a KO-31 revolver. Stewart was prosecuted for the armed robbery of self-service gas stations.

He was charged with four murders in Illinois and two in Wisconsin, although he was ultimately tried twice - once for armed robbery and the murders of Willie Fredd and Albert Pearson, and the second for the murder of Kevin Kaiser. At the trial, he was full of malice and expressed contempt for the court and for his victims. He was found guilty of a felony, capital murder, and sentenced to death penalty District Court of Winnebago, Illinois. He later claimed that racism had spurred him on to the killings, but argued that he deserved a pardon because he had been mistreated as a child. On September 18, 1996, Stewart was executed by lethal injection at the state prison in Springfield. In his last words, he said: "I hope you all will calm down on this, and the relatives of my victims will find peace."

The definition of "handwriting" as an element distinct from "modus operandi" was an attempt to shed light on the critical question of motive. Both motive and "handwriting" proved to be extremely important in linking the series of six murders of women in San Diego that took place from January to September 1990. Former Cuyahoga County, Ohio Attorney and now Cleveland Judge Tim McGuinty, with whom we worked several years ago on the case of serial rapist Ronnie Shelton, recommended me to the San Diego Police Department. When our department received an official request, the case was assigned to Larry Ankrom - he was responsible for this part of the country. By the time we got on the case, there had been three murders, all in the Buena Vista residential area of ​​Claremont. The first victim was a twenty-year-old University of San Diego student named Tiffany Schultz. Her friend, who discovered the body, was taken into custody as a suspect but quickly released. Two more victims soon appeared: Jenen Weinhold and Holly Tarr.

Since attacking women in such an environment in broad daylight is too risky, we assumed that the NA knew the area well. Violent offenders usually start in places where they feel most comfortable, like at home. That's why the first kill in the series has special significance. In addition, we believed that earlier the offender had to talk to women. This harassment - a kind of warm-up before the subsequent murders - might have seemed harmless, but did not satisfy him.

Before the attack on Tiffany Schultz, some real or imaginary crisis must have occurred in the life of a criminal that whipped him up. He approached the scene of the crimes extremely angry. It could be assumed that he considered any woman or women in general guilty of his problems and took out his anger on them. He must have had a number of unsuccessful relationships with women, usually accompanied by periodic outbursts of violence or abusive behavior. It is likely that the perpetrator took from one or more of the victims some personal items, most likely jewelry, and then gave them to the woman with whom he was then connected, but did not explain their origin.

We assumed that the criminal was working somewhere, but due to his temper and lack of communication skills, this could not be a job. high level besides, he probably moved from place to place more than once. Most likely, at school he was an underachieving student who did not get along with his peers, preferred loneliness and clashed with his superiors. He could well live dependent on a woman who provides him with financial support. A conflict with her could lead to a series of murders.

Like many other criminals, after the first murders, the behavior of the NS must have changed, which the people around him could not fail to notice. He could begin to drink, use drugs, sleep and eat at unusual times, lose weight, show anxiety, increased desire to communicate. Besides, he certainly followed the progress of the investigation. We told the police that the public could be of invaluable help in finding the killer if a list of these newly developed qualities of a person was published: at least someone in the entourage of the criminal would understand what was happening. Holly Tarr was killed in April. This up-and-coming talented actress from Okemos, Michigan, came over for spring break to visit her brother in the Buena Vista area. After this murder, the National Assembly barely escaped arrest. Several witnesses saw a man run out of the house with a knife, covering his face with a T-shirt. Regarding the features of the criminal, they could only say that he was swarthy, slightly below average height. While fleeing, he knocked down a maintenance worker, who was reported by one of the tenants about the "terrible scream." The repairman found Holly Tarr in the bedroom, covered with a bloody towel. By this point, the unknown perpetrator was being referred to in the press as the "Clermont Killer". We thought that all these events would lead to some calm and the killer would “lie down for a while”, gaining courage. We thought that after what happened, he would stop operating in the same area. He could even move to another city on the pretext of a better job or a visit to relatives or friends. But he is unlikely to come to his senses. Most of these people do not know how to stop there.

He "surfaced" again two months later - in a different place, but again in a residential area, near the area where he clearly felt most free. Then there were no such murders until mid-September, when Pamela Clarke and her eighteen-year-old daughter Amber died in a house near the university campus. (Pamela Clarke, Amber's mother, was youthful and quite attractive.) All six fell into the same physical type, and from the photographs, Amber Clarke bore a striking resemblance to the previous victim, Jenen Weinhold. In the most noisy manhunt in the history of the city, the San Diego police spent thirteen months doing everything possible to find the perpetrator, who, in their opinion, was guilty of all six sadistic murders.

The turning point in the investigation came in early February 1991: returning home from the family health center, Geralind Wenverloth was taking a shower when she heard the creaking of the doorknob. Looking out the peephole, she saw a black man trying to open the door. She managed to slide the bolt, and the stranger ran away. But a few days later, Wenverlot saw the same man drive her friend, Carla Lewis, to work.

His name was Cleophas Prince. One of the junior police officers assigned to the post at the health center arrested him on charges of attempting to commit a burglary. Several knives were found on the floor of Prince's 1982 Chevrolet Cavalier. But Prince had to be released on bail for lack of evidence. However, the police took samples of the detainee's blood and saliva, sending them to a cytology laboratory in Maryland for DNA analysis. Three weeks later, an analysis identified the detainee as the killer, Jenen Weinhold.

The police visited the apartment of Carla Lewis, where Prince lived. The fourth victim, Elissa Keller, lived next door. Prince himself left the city and returned home to Birmingham, Alabama. But they found a gold opal ring in the apartment - the same one that Holly Tarr's father gave her on her sixteenth birthday. The ring maker told police that sixty-three of these pieces were made in total, and none were shipped to California.

On Sunday, March 3, 1991, Birmingham police arrested a twenty-three-year-old black ex-Navy mechanic living in the Buena Vista area at the time of the first three murders. He was arrested for theft and released on bail, soon followed by a call from the San Diego Police Department. In Prince's apartment, they found another ring that looked like the one that belonged to Elissa Keller, and shoes that left prints consistent with those found at several crime scenes. The San Diego Sheriff's team began an investigation into the unsolved murder of Diana Dun in May 1988. Police in Homewood, Alabama, were also willing to talk to a detainee about the unsolved murder of 23-year-old Toni Lim in March 1990. Both of these crimes distinctive features reminiscent of those when six women died from stab wounds in the main series of murders.

The key point in the case was the match between the DNA in a semen sample taken from the clothes of the second Buena Vista victim, Jenen Weinhold (who had just turned twenty-one), and in a sample of blood and saliva taken from Prince. But what about the other five murders? The San Diego Police have asked us to look into all six cases to see if the conclusion that all the murders were committed by the same person is correct. Several experts, including prosecutors Dan Lambourne and Woody Clark, and Sergeant Ed Petric from the investigators' team, came to visit us in Quantico. If the prosecutors could prove that the defendant committed all six murders, and not one - Jenen Weinhold - then the number and composition of the crimes could be regarded under California law as "aggravating circumstances" requiring the death penalty. The accusers did not want this man to be free again. After reviewing all six cases, not just the first three, based on MO and handwriting considerations, we concluded that all murders are interconnected.

All six of the victims were white women, all except Pamela Clarke were brunettes between the ages of eighteen and twenty-one. As for the "modus operandi", in each case the killer entered the house through an unlocked door or window, each time he used a knife, everything happened in the house of the victims, that is, in four cases - in the apartment, in five cases the beginning of the day was chosen as the time of attack. Four times the knife was a random tool taken from the victim's kitchen. The first three victims lived in the same complex, on the second floor - all of which we regarded as a level of comfort for an attacker who lives nearby and knows the area well. There were no signs of break-in anywhere, and in five of the six cases no robbery was committed, although the perpetrator took the jewels from the third, fourth and fifth victims. This last fact falls under the category of "handwriting", if we assume that the original purpose of the perpetrator was not just a robbery.

Naturally, we did not believe that the perpetrator was planning only one robbery, since he did not take any things from the first, second and sixth victims; in addition, they all died from relatively shallow stab wounds, very similar in five of the six victims, concentrated in the chest area and indicating accumulated anger and rage. However, this rage was kept under unusually high control. We found no signs of the frenzy we often see in situations like this, and aside from the stab wounds, the victims suffered little physical trauma. All of the victims were found lying face up on the floor, naked or partially naked; the perpetrator did not even try to cover the corpses.

Equally importance it also had the fact that a study of similar homicides occurring in the same area of ​​San Diego around the same time and a review of the Complete Violent Crime Program (VI ATS) database did not reveal homicides with the same characteristics anywhere else in the country . Of course, after that, we began to consider the differences in the alleged series of murders. The last two victims, Pamela Clark and her daughter, did not live in an apartment, but in a single-family home. Two of the six were raped and then killed. Holly Tarr was stabbed only once, and the most brutally attacked victim fifty-two times. However, as we noted, the evidence at the crime scene suggested that the killer had been thwarted. Most of the victims were classified as low risk, but two fell into the high-risk category. Tiffany Schultz, a student at the University of San Diego who became the first victim, worked part-time as a dancer in a San Diego nightclub shortly before her death. The relative risk for a particular person to become a victim of a crime and the relative risk a killer is willing to take in any given case are useful indicators to facilitate both victimology and personality profile analysis of the HC.

In the Holly Tarr case, the perpetrator tried to cover his tracks and the victim was found covered in a towel. This could represent a change in either "handwriting" or MO, but could also be related to the killer's feelings for that particular victim. But, most likely, the killer was simply prevented.

All of the above may seem like a statistical approach to studying a crime scene: at first glance, a computer can do what Larry Ankrom can do - run through the numbers and determine the probability. But the computer is not able to give meaning to each of the particulars and differences. There is simply no way to give a numerical value to each piece of information. It can only be properly assessed by the brain of an experienced personality profile analyst such as Larry. Tying all the details together, we came to the conclusion that all six murders were committed by the same person, and that his motive was restrained rage with a sexual connotation - judging by the stab wounds.

Prosecutor Dan Lambourne asked me to testify at his trial. I was already thinking about resigning and I thought that the people who remained in the department after me should gain experience and acquire their own reputation. Larry did the bulk of the analysis and could be a very knowledgeable, reliable, and authoritative witness. In my opinion, I should have briefly introduced the listeners to the essence of the matter and told in general about the analysis of the personality profile, and Larry should have done the analysis itself. This suited Lambourne and his partner Rick Clubby.

The defense, represented by state attorneys Lauren Mandel and Barton Sheela, was not at all pleased with the thought of our testimony at trial, and in motions prior to judicial trial they declared that, being neither psychiatrists nor psychologists, we had no right to comment on psychological questions, that our statements about the crimes and their connections would be imbued with prejudice towards the defendant. In other words, if the jury believes us and decides that Prince committed even one of the murders, they will conclude that he could have committed the other five. Lambourne and Clubby argued that our testimony would be more dangerous for the prosecutors, because if the jury believed us and found that the same person was guilty of all six murders, then they would decide that Prince did not commit any, and acquit him on all six counts.

In the end, as happened in most trials around the country, Judge Charles Hayes ruled that our experience, far beyond the common sense of the average citizen, would be enough to help the jury reach a decision. But in a twisted logic trying to balance the arguments of both sides, the judge forbade us from using the term "handwriting" because the defense believed that it implied psychological motivation ... This restriction in a sense tied us hand and foot with Larry, but we did our best, to complete your task. It took the jury more than nine days to finally reach a verdict on July 13, 1993. They found Cleophas Prince guilty of all six murders and twenty-one burglaries. Since the jury found "aggravating circumstances", including murders during rape and repeated murders, the perpetrator deserved the death penalty. IN next month the same jurors, after a one-day deliberation, recommended that the sentence be carried out in the San Quentin gas chamber or by lethal injection. Judge Hayes upheld the verdict on November 6.

“When law enforcement officers cannot determine the motive for a murder, they investigate its behavioral aspects. In developing methods to analyze the personality profile of killers, FBI agents found they needed to understand the killer's mindset in a way that would make sense of crime scene evidence and victim testimony. The characteristic features of the evidence and the victim can tell a lot about the planning, preparation of the killer for the crime, about his subsequent actions. Based on these considerations, agents begin to look for the killer's motivation, determining how much motivation is related to the criminal's dominant thought pattern. In many cases, hidden sexual motives appear, motives born of fantasy.”

Regrettably, the motive of uncontrollable anger and the need for sexual violence does not always manifest itself in relation to strangers. In the mid-1980s, I was approached from Toronto about a college student, a Malay girl named Deliana Heng, who was found dead, face down on the bathroom floor in her apartment. Her head was turned towards the toilet, her legs were tied with a strap at the ankles. There were signs of beatings on his face and head, and death was caused by strangulation with a strap from a camera case. The dead woman was naked below the waist, blood was caked on her stomach and left leg. She was sexually abused and the cross pendant she wore around her neck was gone. There were no signs of a break-in in the apartment, and based on the victimology and evidence at the crime scene, I concluded that the murder was committed by a man she knew and trusted. The Toronto police were of the same opinion. While looking for people Heng had contact with, they identified the prime suspect as a friend named Tien Po Soo, a bodybuilding fan who works out at a nearby sports center. The problem was to gather evidence that would convince the accuser and then the jury.

First of all, the police wanted a sample of his blood, but at the same time they did not want to show this guy that he was being held under suspicion. And if he refuses to take the test, then without substantial evidence it will be impossible to force him to do so. Canadian laws are extremely strict in matters such as publicizing a lawsuit, but the police have much more powers to investigate and collect information than in the United States. For example, we have no right to install a listening device in a cell or plant a disguised policeman next to a prisoner. But, despite such ample opportunity, investigators from Toronto showed real ingenuity.

They tracked down the former weightlifter among the police officers, and he frequented the gym where the suspect worked out. The policeman came there at the same time as Su and chose the exercise machines in the neighborhood. Soon they began to look at each other, and then - to exchange friendly greetings, discuss the merits of training methods. Obviously, the suspect admired the form of an elderly friend and the fact that he surpasses him in every exercise. Su began to question the policeman about how he managed to build such muscles.

The policeman explained that he was following a special diet designed specifically for him based on the individual processes of metabolizing various nutrients. Su also wanted to try the diet, but the policeman warned him to go to a special doctor who would take a blood test and check which nutrients he lacked. Su expressed a desire to see this doctor, but the policeman said that this was a new method, not yet tested, so it was used with caution.

“Let’s do this,” the policeman suggested. “If you remind me, I will ask the doctor for instruments, take a blood sample from you and give it to him. And then I'll tell you how you should eat and what supplements to take.

This idea pleased the suspect, and he repeatedly reminded his new friend about the analysis. Some time later, a police officer brought tools to the gym and took a blood sample from Su's finger. Because the blood matched that found at the crime scene, the police obtained a search warrant, found more evidence, and charged Su with murder. Among other things, during the search, a book was found, published in the United States and entitled "Dossier of rapists" - in fact, a collection of true stories of rapists about their crimes. In one case, the perpetrator described how he took the victim to the bathroom, where he beat and raped her. Then, placing it in front of a mirror, he tied a tourniquet around her neck and squeezed it until the victim suffocated. But the perpetrator immediately released her, and then repeated everything from the beginning, each time tightening the tourniquet more and more - as a result, the victim literally saw how she was being killed. The killer hatched this plan long before he carried it out.

Su was married, and the police found out that he recently gave his wife a pendant in the shape of a cross - exactly the same as the murdered girl had. The public prosecutors asked me to come to Toronto before the start of the trial and advise on the strategy of the prosecution. They believed that the defendant could well testify, in which case the jury would find them very convincing. After all, he knew the murdered woman, and sadism and sexual rage, like control, are motives that are hard to ignore. When the defendant decided to testify, we understood that we had to find a way to influence him.

One of the most important pieces of evidence in the accusers' version was the victim's underpants covered in blood. I suggested that the accuser show them to the witness and force him to examine them. In several successful interrogations of other criminals, I have found that if you get the suspect to pay attention to any object related to the crime - the thing that belonged to the victim, the murder weapon itself, any other object of importance to the killer - he can be easily knocked out of ruts. While investigating the murder of 12-year-old Mary Frances Stoner in Edersville, Georgia in 1979, we extracted a confession from prime suspect Darrell Gene Devier by placing the bloodied stone that served as the murder weapon at a forty-five degree angle to his line of sight. As a result, Devier was found guilty of first-degree murder and executed sixteen years after the crime.

The same strategy worked in this case as well. Once Su was shown the victim's panties, he became visibly alarmed. The longer he was forced to hold them in his hands, the more he trembled. From this moment of testimony, his mask of a sensitive and naive person disappeared, and the jury realized what he really was. During a break in the meeting, I ran into lawyer Su in the corridor. He noticed that the accusers treated his client in the most inappropriate way.

- What are you talking about? I asked in bewilderment.

As it turned out, he considered it a shame that the jury saw the defendant in such an unsightly light - and the lawyer seemed to regret that his client dressed inappropriately this morning and therefore failed to make a favorable impression.

- Are you joking? I exclaimed. - This is a classic case. Before us is a criminal who raped a girl in front of a mirror, while showing all his fantasy, anger and hostility. And on top of that, he removed the cross from the dead woman and gave it to his wife - so that it would be easier for him to imagine the dead woman in her place. You are defending a classic killer! I concluded.

As in conversations in prisons, knowing the subject and his crimes well can quickly get to the truth. If Su had not been caught and tried, he would undoubtedly have remained in my memory as another Serial killer from Canada.

“We see only two things in people: what we want to see and what they want to show” (Dexter, a character in the TV series of the same name).

On the cover of the book “Psychological Portrait of a Killer. FBI Secret Techniques” has two names, while the story is told in the first person. The casket opened simply: the text was written by Mark Olshaker, but from the words and on behalf of John Douglas. The last 25 years worked as a special agent in the FBI.

In a certain sense, John Douglas is a cult figure. Significant at least. Due to the fact that he was one of the people who stood at the origins of the department of behavioral analysis in the Bureau. The employees of this department have been and are engaged in the fact that, after examining the crime scene and analyzing the conclusions of forensic experts and other additional data relevant to the case, they create a psychological profile of the offender. That is, they provide information about the estimated age, race, level of education, personal life and character of this person.

In addition, detectives receive recommendations on how best to interrogate this type of suspect, what to report to the media. The psychological profile of the offender also makes it possible to predict the behavior of the offender after the commission of the crime, which, of course, helps the investigation.

I will assume that the person who wants to read this book is interested in criminal psychology. Of course, reading will satisfy the one who comes to the author with such a request. Naturally, this is not a textbook on criminal psychology, but you will find certain information about the characteristics of various criminals (mainly serial killers).

Nevertheless, there is reason to believe that the author (or publisher?) was somewhat cunning. Under the cover, you will find a few not what you are going to find. I'll try to explain with a metaphor.

Imagine that you want to eat pizza and another person wants to feed you broccoli. He makes an ordinary pizza, average, but he puts broccoli on it. A lot.

You can't blame him for not having pizza in front of you, but at the same time, when you read the word "pizza" on the menu, you hardly assumed that broccoli was included in the composition. On the other hand, nothing really criminal happened, since broccoli is not a herring and not, say, nails. But the impression of eating such an unexpected pizza remains slightly strange.

The book does not describe the very methods of the FBI, which are mentioned in the title. On the one hand, this is understandable, since hardly anyone would want to release a training manual for criminals. On the other hand, it would be possible to write at least something about this, and not be limited to vague information that the profile analyst is a person with incredible intuition, and his main task is to feel at the scene of a crime, almost to merge into the image of a killer and his victims.

Some interesting data can be gleaned from the book, nevertheless. For example, you will learn that in multiple homicides, the victims tend to be of the same race as the killer.

At the same time, the book is replete with much more ordinary facts: that only men commit sexual murders (if the book had described possible reasons it would be an order of magnitude more interesting) that killers visit the graves of their victims, either because they feel remorse or to evoke memories that give them pleasure. And stuff like that.

Most of the crimes described in the book are serial murders committed on sexual grounds. This did not surprise me at all, because I am quite familiar with the hysteria of the loudest American maniacs and I know perfectly well what kind of public attention these people cause. No one would seriously suggest that a reader might want stories about investigating supermarket robberies or carjackings, would they? Here the author writes about murders and rapes. With this, everything is clear.

However, I was somewhat surprised that about half of the book is devoted to pedophilia. I immediately thought that this was an accident, however, the longer I read, the more I realized that the author was very worried about this particular topic and he clearly focuses on it.

The second feature of the book, which could not help but catch my eye, is that the story of the murder of Suzanne Collins, Lance Corporal of the US Marine Corps, runs through the book. From her “Psychological portrait of the killer. FBI Secret Techniques begins, and several rather big chapters are devoted to it in the middle of the book. And this despite the fact that her killer can not even be called serial.

At the same time, unlike all the other crimes described in the book, this was overgrown with a huge number of details: the reader will be introduced to a very detailed biography of the victim, with the history of her family, they will describe the girl’s dreams and goals, and tell us about her personal life. The most unusual thing is that we learn about what her parents did during the court hearings in this case and what - after them.

And they did not quite typical actions - they worked to ensure that the accents shifted in the US judicial system. These people considered it extremely important to pay attention not only and not so much to the criminal as to the victim and to think first of all about her interests.

At the end of the book, the author embarks on a discussion about the death penalty, and at this moment everything falls into place. I got the impression that the whole book was written in order to express my position on whether criminals should be killed or not.

A criminal can be imprisoned for a limited period, counting on his re-education. He can be isolated from society if life imprisonment is chosen as a punishment. There is also the death penalty.

John Douglas believes that it is impossible to re-educate a serial killer. He commits crimes not for the sake of money (in this case, it would be possible to give him an education and / or a job), not because of addictions that can be worked with (for example, if the offender is a drug addict), not because of some circumstances, which can be corrected. A serial killer (or would-be serial killer) kills because it gives him pleasure. As long as such a person is isolated, no crimes are committed. But let him go free - he will take up the old.

It turns out that such people should either be kept in prison until death, or sentenced to death. Douglas prefers the latter precisely because he shares the idea of ​​prioritizing potential victims and victims over the perpetrator. From his point of view, society should not keep killers alive precisely because their life should be less important than the life of those from whom they can take it.

I myself am not a supporter of the death penalty, but this is the case when the arguments, one might say of my opponent, are clear to me, I consider them reasonable. Although, of course, they cannot change my position.

In the book, the reader will find absolutely amazing recommendations that will help protect your child from a pedophile. Indeed, they are smart. Separate chapters are devoted to this. It seems to me that this information is the most valuable.

It is very interesting to get acquainted with the classification of pedophiles, to debunk some stereotypes associated with pedophilia and learn something new related to this topic.

It seems to me that this book could have been better if its content had been tweaked or shortened to focus specifically on pedophile offenders. In the form in which it exists, the book looks somewhat heterogeneous. You will read a little about sex maniacs, a little about pedophiles, a little about victim priority and the judicial system. Plus, it will still be seasoned with the author's reasoning about the death penalty and memories from his family life.

The book cannot be called boring, and the material contained in it is weak. However, there is a feeling of some heterogeneity of the material and some discrepancy between the title and the content. However, if you are not as boring as I am, then you may not have these claims.

I think that several chapters on how to protect children from pedophiles can be recommended to all parents and all those who work with children. Well, the rest of the information contained in the book is clearly an amateur. Perhaps you are just such a fan.