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Summary: Portraits of Guilt
Review: Jeanne Boylan's "Portraits of Guilt" is a bold testimony to the victim's subconscious mind which often holds the prominent and obsure details in finding the true roadmap to justice."Portaits of Guilt" honors Polly Class with love and compassion and provides an inner healing to those devastated by the horrors of violence. Let the reader beware that this is a bold and gripping story. Jeanne Boylan is a professional who defies tradition in connecting with her victims. She raises the reader's awareness and provides insight to the victim or witness perspective. Her method and technique is the one which the investigative community should continue to seek early in the crime phase. I hope Jeanne Boylan continues to reach the "system" before another mistake occurs. I believe Boylan's story gives hope and support to the victim's or eyewitness' memory. It is her passion and integrity that prevails in solving so many of these horrific crimes of violence.
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Summary: A Compelling Behind-the-Scenes Narrative
Review: This is a book that is hard to put down. Ms Boylan's recounting of some of the most infamous crimes in recent history from her own unique perspective is fascinating, to say the least. Have you ever happened across a crime scene strung all round with 'do not cross' police tape, and wondered with morbid curiosity what was going on the other side? Ms. Boylan lifts the tape and allows us to follow her into the closed-off, tightly controlled world of criminal investigation. It is a compelling, riveting, and heartbreaking journey. There is a thread that runs through this story that knocks you flat in the end.
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Summary: Portraits of Guilt
Review: This book is an outstanding true story. It is told by a woman of courage unmatched by many. Single handedly because of her own trauma she has gone into many crime scenes to successfully help uncover the real suspects. A must read that will inspire all who read it.
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Summary: This will be a movie you don't want to miss!
Review: Jeanne Boylans' writing will bring you to see, feel and taste, what has been her experience. I could not put this book down. She is my hero, and when you read this, she will become yours as well. Kenny Rankin
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Summary: Portraits of Guilt
Review: And the truth will set you free, unless it is covered up. Jeanne has brought us into a world of terror, egos and compasion. My heart aches as I put myself into these stories, both for the victims and for Jeanne, who too is a victim. Bravo to you Jeanne for trying to set the truth free!
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Summary: Compelling account of a difficult path
Review: As a parent and an educator, I followed the Polly Klass kidnapping in the news. My son was her age... it was the unthinkable. At the time, I was not aware of Jeanne Boylan's prominent role in the ensuing case. After reading "Portraits of Guilt", I have a great appreciation for the compassion and God-given skill that brought Ms. Boylan to the forefront of the Klass case, as well as others, such as that of the Unabomer and the Oklahoma City tragedy. This is a riveting account of one woman who has been able to gradually set in motion crime-solving procedures which will eventually make the system more efficient and effective.
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Summary: Praise for Jeanne Boylan's PORTRAITS OF GUILT
Review: No one--absolutely no one--can mine a victim's or an eyewitness's memory with the empathy, compassion, understanding, and eerily accurate success of Jeanne Boylan. She's the only common denominator behind some of the nation's biggest stories, and she has been the determining factor in some of America's Most Wanted's toughest cases. Portraits of Guilt is a deeply personal, riveting, and revealing behind-the-scenes look into what she's seen and what she knows about the hunt for justice. - (John Walsh, host of America's Most Wanted and author of Tears of Rage and No Mercy Jeanne Boylan's connection to people in distress is almost psychic. She is a lone woman in a mostly male world, an artist with terrifying subjects, an instinctive psychologist who elicits chilling accurate memories from victims and witnesses who have looked death in the face. Portraits of Guilt is remarkable and a must for true-crime readers! - (Ann Rule, author of Bitter Harvest and And Never Let Her Go With the eye of an artist and the mind of a sleuth, Jeanne Boylan puts her unique creative genius to work, helping police and prosecutors all over the country solve the deadliest crimes. Portraits of Guilt, like Boylan's life, astounds and inspires. - (Linda Fairstein, author of Final Jeopardy) In my unlikely-heroes hall of fame, Jeanne Boylan gets a star position. Always last to be called and usually the one asked to undo the damages, she's been the miracle worker in nearly every major national crime in recent American history. Portraits of Guilt is sure to stir up trouble, but that's never stopped her yet. She defies traditions and gets results, and she's my kind of role model. - (Camryn Manheim, Emmy ® Award-winning actor on the legal drama "The Practice") Jeanne Boylan has the unique ability to crawl into someone's mind and extract an almost perfect picture. Her ability is almost mystical and her stories are riveting. - (Danny Coulson, former FBI special agent in charge and author of No Heroes)
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Summary: Moves the reader with its' strength
Review: The author Jeanne Boylan is considered the top artist of criminal suspects. Ms. Boylan manages to portray an easy, friendly manner that coaxes the victims into relaxing so that they are able to dig deep, past the trauma, in order to provide the police with an insightful description. She is so good at what she does, Ms. Boylan is almost always the first police sketch artist to be called for, especially on the high profile, media circus cases like the Unabomber, the Oklahoma City tragedy, and the Susan Smith drowning of her children. This biography provides insight into what motivates Ms. Boylan to the point of a frenzied obsession. This book is an excellent autobiography that allows readers to understand Ms. Boylan's need to always say "yes" to the FBI even at the price of her marriage. Her story is simply fascinating and this account provides high drama yet insight into a family friendly approach to police questioning. Ms. Boylan is a hero and her book deserves best-selling status, as it is a well-written autobiography that may be the genre's best of the year. Harriet Klausner
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Summary: Praise for PORTRAITS OF GUILT
Review: "No one--absolutely no one--can mine a victim's or an eyewitness's memory with the empathy, compassion, understanding, and eerily accurate success of Jeanne Boylan. She's the only common denominator behind some of the nation's biggest stories, and she has been the determining factor in some of "America's Most Wanted's" toughest cases. Portraits of Guilt is a deeply personal, riveting, and revealing behind-the-scenes look into what she's seen and what she knows about the hunt for justice." --JOHN WALSH, host of America's Most Wanted and author of Tears of Rage and No Mercy "Jeanne Boylan's connection to people in distress is almost psychic. She is a lone woman in a mostly male world, an artist with terrifying subjects, an instinctive psychologist who elicits chilling accurate memories from victims and witnesses who have looked death in the face. Portraits of Guilt is remarkable and a must for true-crime readers!" --ANN RULE, author of Bitter Harvest and And Never Let Her Go "In my unlikely-heroes hall of fame, Jeanne Boylan gets a star position. Always last to be called and usually the one asked to undo the damages,she's been the miracle worker in nearly every major national crime inrecent American history. Portraits of Guilt is sure to stir up trouble, but that's never stopped her yet. She defies traditions and gets results, and she's my kind of role model." --CAMRYN MANHEIM, Emmy-award winning actor on the legal drama, The Practice "Jeanne Boylan has the unique ability to crawl into someone's mind and extract an almost perfect picture. Her ability is almost mystical and her stories are riveting." --DANNY COULSON, former FBI Special Agent in Charge and author of No Heroes "With the eye of an artist and the mind of a sleuth, Jeanne Boylan puts her unique creative genius to work, helping police and prosecutors all over the country solve the deadliest crimes. Portraits of Guilt, like Boylan's life, astounds and inspires." --LINDA FAIRSTEIN, author of Final Jeopardy and Cold Hit
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Summary: The Elizabeth Smart case. Payment for patience.
Review: I've read a lot of good books about healing from trauma and the effects trauma has upon memory. I've also read a lot of books about the fallibility of memory that do not correctly take into account the actual experience of the trauma. Jeanne Boylan has succeeded in writing the first book that accurately addresses both sides of the understanding of memory. She clearly illustrates the way that traumatic memory can be malleable in the presence of suggestion. It is through the insight of Jeanne Boylan's work that we can keep the innocent people out of jail and the guilty people can be handled accordingly. She succeeds at what she does because she has both a natural ability and a deep understanding of trauma and memory. She also succeeds because she knows how to reach the heart. She works from her intuition as well as her logical understanding. Her kind and gentle nature is a true asset in the work that she does, and she could not achieve what she has achieved without it. In addition to all of this she has the added gift of being an incredible artist. Jeanne Boylan was born to do the work that she does; it is an inborn gift, which was further honed by her own personal experience of trauma and surviving a crime. Jeanne Boylan describes traumatic memory as being like a fifty-cent piece that has been tossed below eight feet of water. The memory gets buried by the intense emotional trauma, but at the same time is locked into memory. As the emotions arise our minds protect us by blurring the image, like the movement of water. We can still see it, but it is distorted. With the right approach the memory of the trauma can be brought back to the eyewitness's conscious memory in it's original condition, just as the fifty-cent piece can be retrieved from the water fully intact. Jeanne Boylan works with survivors to draw near perfect portraits of the criminals. Her technique is the art form. She says, "The answers to uncovering memory reside in understanding the powerful inner workings of the human mind-- and more importantly, in the power of the human heart. (p. 11)" She says "The higher the degree of personal trauma, the harder the mind works to discard or bury the image, but, also, the more likely it will have been encoded into memory in the first place, even if it is housed at a much deeper level of recall... Sometimes if we can coach the conscious mind to move aside we can still access the original untainted image--if there is reason enough for it to have been retained in memory. (p.13)" It is the release of emotions, no matter what form, that helps reach the image. She uses an interview technique, which brings the person into a safe space in order to access the memory without the emotions blocking it, and she uses carefully worded questions to prevent suggestions from distorting the original memory. During her chapters about the devastating kidnap and murder of twelve year old Polly Klass, she provides new insight into how to recognize the veracity of an eyewitness account. She explains that when witnesses remember the trauma or the attacker differently that this is actually a sign that they are telling the truth because no two people remember an experience identically. The discrepancies help to validate and preserve the images and details of the memory for later needs (as long as suggestion has not been introduced). There is usually one stronger witness, however that witness will often have a degree of self-doubt that can be increased when she/he encounters discrepancies among the other witnesses. Jeanne Boylan was the first person on the case of Polly Klass to treat the witnesses (also twelve years old) with the validation and support that they needed. The chapter about the abduction and torture of Sister Dianna Ortiz was the most powerful aspect of the book, for me. Anyone who has experienced a similar trauma will find a lot of healing and peace in reading this chapter. We watch Sister Dianna Ortiz work through the intense PTSD, become empowered, speak out and overcome the accusations that her experiences were a figment of her imagination. Sister Dianna Ortiz speaks of her healing, "Healing comes in many forms. I know I will always carry the memory of what happened to me on November second, 1989. For more than six and one-half years I have allowed my Guatemalan torturers and Alejandro to haunt me. Many times, I've felt like they danced within me. Many times I've felt that if I got close to anyone, I was going to contaminate them with the evilness that they left inside me. But today, I can sit here and say that that evil does not exist inside me anymore, and that is because of the work that I was able to accomplish with Jeanne Boylan. (p.282)... The images of my torturers and Alejandro have always stayed within me, and I have held myself responsible for the horrible things that happened on that November day, but today, because I was able, with the help of Jeanne Boylan, to put a face to these monsters, I can put them away from me. They no longer live in my soul. Until I faced them, I could never be free. (p283)" In the next chapter called Awakenings Jeanne Boylan says, "Though I knew instinctively the importance of freeing a victim of the evil left from an attack, never before had I realized so clearly the emotional power that floods the soul when the residual grip of an assailant is finally loosened, and gently removed from the heart. (p. 286)" Jeannie Boylan ends the book with the conclusion she left us wanting to hear since the Prologue. She weaves in her own experience, and powerfully does for herself what she has already done for so many others.
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