Mindhunter: Inside The FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit (1996) - Plot & Excerpts
This was an intense book, but an illuminating, interesting, and ultimately valuable one. This is not a book to read if you have a weak stomach, however.John Douglas is a bit a legend, and seeing the process behind the formation of VICAP and the development of the tool of profiling is interesting from a historical perspective. Douglas provided a great gift to society by developing his method and cracking open the cases in the book. I appreciate his perspective on parole boards, psychiatry, and the recidivism rates of those who have successfully pleaded insanity for their crimes. And even though the very gruesome, sick details of these murders are extremely difficult to read, it serves to highlight a very serious point that serial murderers and sadists are depraved... not misunderstood victims, but depraved. And considering how good these predators are at playing the pity card, it's an important point to keep in mind.There was an interesting section in one of the chapters of the book. Douglas mentions he speaks at a conference for writers of mystery novels. While he is speaking to the writers, who want to know how to craft more realistic stories, he realizes the more he gets into his speech, the more these writers aren't actually interested in hearing what he has to say. They are so repelled by the cases, the details, and how things actually work that they start tuning him out! And while this may seem incredulous, if you read the book, you'd understand why. It's hard to even think about some of these things, much less write about them. But the primary reason I picked up this book was to continue to develop background for character's backstories, and learn about how these things work. I don't want to be like the writers at the conference. Though it's difficult to think about, if you're going to write about these things, you have to learn about them... And what writers do is nothing, nothing compared to the crazy amount of work and nasty situations that the writers of these profiles have to do everyday. Hats off to them.
Fantastic! Criminal profiling is one of my main interests or hobbies if you want to call it that and this is like the classic primer. John Douglas is the man who coined the term "profiling"; he didn't invent it, but he basically started the modern science we know today. I didn't learn anything new about the psychology, but this was fascinating from an historical point of view as a memoir and a history of the BSU and the FBI itself. Douglas joined the FBI when Hoover was still the Chief and if you know anything about those times you'll know J. Edgar thought the "soft" sciences were a bunch of b.s. and a small clandestine group was working behind his back quietly using psychology on an inquiry-based only system and this is where Douglas first found himself. However, the book starts with Douglas' birth, childhood, college drop-out, military service, etc. before it even gets to his enrollment in the Bureau. I enjoy memoirs and found his writing style highly readable, relishing the book from the get-go. Then, of course, I became fascinated when Douglas turns to his work in the FBI, relates how profiling worked its way into being a legitimate technique, his famous study of interviewing living serial killers to find out how they thought and his work on famous cases including everything from The Trailside Killer, The Atlanta Child Murders and The Tylenol Murders. Douglas has earned himself some controversy over the years; some people find his writing style arrogant. This is the only book I've read by him but I've got its sequel on hold at the library already! so it won't be my last. Obviously I didn't find him arrogant in the least and his serial killer interviews (conducted with two others) are admittedly a giant breakthrough that even his detractors cannot dismiss.
What do You think about Mindhunter: Inside The FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit (1996)?
This is how Mindhunter works: Douglas tells us about a crime, like a young girl who was raped and left for dead or a twenty-something who was murdered and tied up in an odd position in line with some odd ritualistic fantasy. From that he explains how he profiled the suspect: usually it's a male in his late twenties to early thirties who dresses scruffily and has next to no social skills. Finally, he relays how he went about catching said suspect. The book is repetitive in this nature, but might not have been so irritating if Douglas hadn't been so self-serving. Not only does he manage to successfully profile every single suspect down to a tee, but he also claims to being single-handedly responsible for groundbreaking advances in the FBI and how they catch and arrest murderers and rapists. I'm not saying he's lying--for all I know he's just as accomplished as he says he is--but he paints himself so flawlessly that it made me think he was brushing over finer details to make himself look better, which is ironic because I probably would have liked him a lot more had he admitted he wasn't so damn perfect.Call me begrudging, but by the midway point of this book I just couldn't stand him anymore.
—Brian
John Douglas is an excellent author. I read a ton of true crime, and although this book contains interviews with serial killers and revolves around solving cases there is much more to this one. This book is educational to anyone interested in the field of criminal profiling or behavioral science/psychology. Douglas is the man who created many terms we are used to hearing regarding crimes such as "signature" and it's difference from the motis operandi. His career is stunning, and his accomplishments vast in his field. This type of book is a nice change from the normal serial killer study. I look forward to reading more by the author and learning more on these subjects.
—Sarah
So John Douglas is great when he’s talking about serial rape and child murder, and then he’s intensely obnoxious when he’s talking about anything else. So I guess it’s a good thing he mostly talks about rape and murder?And when I say “John Douglas,” by the way, I mean John Douglas or his co/ghost writer, because who knows who wrote what. All I know is when this book talks about crime, it’s focused and intelligent and compassionate. And when it’s talking about anything else – the FBI, his home life, whatever -- I want to go hide under something to get away from the whining and the score-settling and the endless, endless, endless ego-wanking. It’s amazing that a guy whose entire vocation revolves around reading personality from behavior can’t read what he’s putting out in his own damn books.Oh, and he’s still incoherent about the death penalty, for anyone keeping score. So basically he needs to talk only and ever about human cannibals and child murder, because that’s way less uncomfortable than anything else he says, let me tell you.
—Lightreads
