Hunting Serial Predators

Written by a leading expert on the subject, the Second Edition of Hunting Serial Predators describes the empirical process used to analyze serial murderers' crime scene actions, making it possible to form logical decisions about how to detect and apprehend serial killers. In this new edition, Dr. Maurice Godwin provides the reader with a model of the crime scene actions of American serial murderers based on information available to a police inquiry. This text also gives an overview of the related scientific knowledge, introduces a new method to classify the serial predator, and provides accounts of the process and difficulties of profiling the serial murderer. By presenting a classification model of serial murderers and their crime scene behaviors based on empirical and repeatable studies, this book makes significant advances in the areas of police investigations, etiology, and treatment possible.

The majority of the available published accounts of serial murderers are not in scholarly or technical publications. Even such few academic reviews as do exist typically commence with reference to fictional accounts so that the profile of a serial murderer is typically far from clear or precise. Hunting Serial Predators is unique in that each chapter, written in detail, explains how to research and interpret, psychologically, the crime scene actions of serial killers. The book provides the reader an empirical facet model of the crime scene actions of American serial murderers based on information available to a police inquiry; an overview of the related scientific knowledge, introducing a new method to classify the serial predator, and accounts of the process and difficulties of profiling the serial murderer. By presenting a classification model of serial murderers and their crime scene behaviors based on empirical and repeatable studies, this book makes significant advances in the areas of police investigations, etiology, and treatment possible. The empirical process used to analyze serial murderers' crime scene actions described in Hunting Serial Predators makes it possible to make logical decisions about how to detect, apprehend, and eventually access their dangerousness.

A former cop challenges the romanticized FBI "profiler" as a falsehood, showing that psychological profiles of serial killer are largely fictions while the more diversified police work that incorporates environmental psychology, landscape analysis, crime site investigation, and statistics often yields better results. Original.

A criminal profiler journeys inside the dark minds of serial killers to provide a portrait of these deadly predators, how they hunt for victims, how to identify them, and how to protect oneself from them.

There are two parts to every crime story: how they did it and why they got caught.This book is about the second part, and how it changes the way we catch serial killers. No two stories about the capture of a serial killer are the same. Sometimes, the killers make crucial mistakes; other times, investigators get lucky. And the process of profiling, hunting, and apprehending these predators has changed radically over time, particularly in the field of criminal forensics, which has exploded in the last ten to 15 years. Laser ablation, video spectral analysis, cyber-sleuthing, and even DNA-based genetic genealogy are now crucial tools in solving murders, including the recent capture of the so-called Golden State Killer. This book in the new Profiles in Crime series tells the history of forensics through the “capture stories” of some of the most notorious serial killers, going back almost a century. The killers include: Rodney Alcala, a serial rapist and murderer sometimes called “Dating Game killer” for his appearance on that TV show. No one knows the exact number of his victims. Takahiro Shiraishi, the suicide killer from Zama, Japan, who dismembered nine victims and stored their bodies in his refrigerator. Aileen Wuornos, one of the rare female serial killers. She shot seven men in Florida and was turned in by an accomplice. Jeffrey Dahmer, the “Milwaukee Cannibal,” and Bobby Joe Long, both identified by survivors Ted Bundy and David Berkowitz (“Son of Sam”), who both made mistakes Ludwig Tessnow, who killed several children in Germany, and was caught through new methods in forensic investigation that could distinguish human from animal blood

Israel Keyes was one of the most ambitious and terrifying serial killers in modern history. The FBI considered his behavior unprecedented. Over the course of fourteen years, Keyes would fly to a city, rent a car, and drive thousands of miles in order to kill. He would break into a stranger's house, abduct his victims in broad daylight, and kill and dispose of them in hours. And then he would return home to Alaska, resuming life as a quiet construction worker devoted to his daughter. When journalist Maureen Callahan first heard about Israel Keyes she was captivated by how a killer of this magnitude could go undetected for over a decade. And so began a project that consumed her - uncovering the true story behind how the FBI ultimately caught Israel Keyes, and trying to understand what it means for a killer like Keyes to exist.

A Fascinating Look into the Psychology of Serial Killers and the Men Who Hunt Them Down Colin Wilson opens this illuminating psychological discussion with the development of the 1977 Behavioral Science Unit at the FBI, which was set up in order to answer the many questions surrounding serial killers: • How does someone become a serial killer? • How do they choose their victims? • Why do they not feel remorse? • How are they caught? Wilson interviews FBI Special Agent Robert Ressler, coiner of the term “serial killer” and one of the pioneers of criminal profiling, as well as Ted Bundy and Charles Manson in order to figure out the motives behind their grisly actions. In Hunting Serial Killers, by tracking the BSU’s development of psychological profiling and genetic fingerprinting, Wilson reveals the forensic investigations that caused the seizure and arrest of some of the most vile and villainous people in the world, including Jeffrey Dahmer, William Heirens, Peter Sutcliffe, John Duffy, Jerry Brudos, Wayne Williams, and many more. As he divulges the details of each case, the murderers’ fantasy worlds, sadistic motives, and monstrous psychological tendencies emerge. For anyone who wants to understand the motives, investigations, and eventual arrests behind fifty serial-killing sprees, Hunting Serial Killers will not disappoint.

Violent criminals, lamentably, do not suffer from a shortage of numbers. Well-crafted research tools which may assist investigators in their unrelenting efforts to ensnare serial predators constitute an invaluable commodity. In his meticulously-researched book, Hunting Serial Predators, Dr. Grover Godwin proffers an expertly critical analysis of the extant academic literature appertaining to serial murder, and further introduces analytical research tools which may potentially enable police investigators to more effectually classify serial predators.

Includes material on "the Trailside Killer in San Francisco, the Atlanta child murderer, the Tylenol poisoner, the man who hunted prostitutes for sport in the woods of Alaska, and Seattle's Green River killer ..."

There are many cultural myths about serial killers, often propagated even by mental health professionals. Many assume there is a profile of a serial killer, that serial killers always go for the same victim type or always use the same MO, that they are more clever than ordinary people, and that they are inevitably charming and attractive. The truth is not as simple as that. There are different types of serial killers, and while there are many books that discuss the serial killer phenomenon especially in relationship to victim types or context, researchers have not yet been able to come up with a definition, or type, that covers the broad spectrum of serial killers and their complex psychological dynamics. Ramsland looks at the variety of serial killer types, illustrating that it is difficult to accurately depict these elusive, intriguing, and dangerous killers. There are many cultural myths about serial killers, often propagated even by mental health professionals. Many assume there is a profile of a serial killer, that serial killers always go for the same victim type or always use the same MO, that they are more clever than ordinary people, and that they are inevitably charming and attractive. The truth is not as simple as that. There are different types of serial killers and while there are many books that discuss the serial killer phenomenon especially in relationship to victim types or context, researchers have not yet been able to come up with a definition, or type, that covers the broad spectrum of serial killers and their complex psychological dynamics. Ramsland looks at serial killer types, illustrating that it is difficult to accurately depict these elusive, intriguing, and dangerous killers. This book examines a variety of serial killers, from sexual predators to psychotic killers, from murder teams to odd eccentric stalkers, in order to present the distinct psychological dynamics that set serial killers apart from other violent murderers. Among the motives addressed are lust, control, glory, profit, thrill, delusions, rage, the desire for company, the need to please a partner, and even murder as an intellectual exercise. Serial killers live double lives, hiding their violence even from those who live with them, so along with a study of motives are chapters devoted to how close associates have described killers, including parents, siblings, co-workers, lovers, and survivors. There is no profile of a serial killer, and this book establishes that in vivid and frightening detail.