Mindhunter : Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit

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Summary: An invaluable tool for the fight against violent crime.
Review: John Douglas captivates his readers with the gripping truth of our nation's most heineous serial killers, a growing menace to our society today. Douglas' expertise in the philosophy of criminal personality profiling has aided investigators in solving seemingly unsolvable violent crimes. He has worked on such notorious serial cases as Jeffrey Dahmer, Wayne Williams and the more recent media spectacle of the alledged Unabomber, Ted Kazynski, adding his insight and knowledge into their violent minds. "Mindhunter" exemplifies the necessity of profiling, a philosophy created by Douglas himself, in that it depicts the horrific events surrounding criminals' violent acts, admitting the realism of such madness. Douglas ultimately delves into the minds of such criminals, linking them to their murders through crime scene analysis and autopsy photographs. "Mindhunter" is an excellent investigative tool that can assist the modern street cop with criminal profiling of an unknown offender, making the search less timely and much more productive. In today's violent society, the need for profiling is imperative, and with Douglas' contribution of knowledge as exhibited in "Mindhunter," there's one more weapon in the ongoing fight

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Summary: A compelling non-fiction on real serial killers and the FBI.
Review: My interest in profiling and the Investigative Support Unit of the Bureau inspired me to pick up Mindhunter by Douglas at the bookstore. If you want to learn to get inside the most dangerous people of the past and present, this book is well-recommended. Through hours I was glued to the pages, and was reluctant to take in food or even bathroom breaks. An excellent learn oncriminal psychology, answering controversial topics such as ciminal rehabilitation, the insanity plea, and capital punishment. After this horrifying glimpse on the scum of the Earth, you come to realize the true capabilities of the human mind. -Vanissa W. Chan

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Summary: A glowing review
Review: This book is an absolute must read for fans of authors like Patricia Cornwell and Diane Mott Davidson. I could not put it down. A fascinating, in depth, yet not sensationalistic piece of work. When you finish reading it, you'll find yourself profiling everyone you meet just for fun. It's also an interesting work to study the ways killers have worked in the past, in order to glean information on how to avoid becoming a victim of serial killer. For those of interested in intellectual armchair police work, this book is for you

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Summary: Fascinating!
Review: As an avid reader of suspense, crime, and mystery novels, I found this book to be extremely fascinating and educational. John Douglas' very readable novel relates background information on some of the countries most notorious serial killers and how the FBI Behavioral Science Unit played a role in identifying and capturing them. What fascinated me most was his ability to figure out "details" of a serial killer's persona and life with only minimal amounts of information. Highlighting one serial killer after another, each with their own "personality", he takes the reader on a morbid, educational, exciting tour through the killer's mind. I strongly recommend this book to anyone who wants to look into the mind of a serial killer

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Summary: Absolutely disturbing, is home still the safe place to be?
Review: Four of us were on our way home, it was time to switchdrivers. When we stopped at the gas station, I decided topick up something to read. There were no magazines of my interest. I looked at the novels. MIND HUNTER's unique appearance caught my eye. I looked at the back, it looked rather interesting. I picked up another one, looked at it, checked out another, looked at it, and then picked up MIND HUNTER again and purchased it. As we headed off again, I started the book, and while the other three were chatting, my nose was glued. In no time, I was already on page 44, and I had not realized it until someone asked me what page I'm on. I knew right away that I was in trouble. I'm a rather slow reader. When I got home, from the long exhausting trip, after going to the bathroom, I was in the book again. When I finished the book a few days later reading bits and pieces of it every night, I found myself looking at news, murder cases in particular, on television a new way. I don't know if it scared me because I think I knew more than I wanted to know or if I was fascinated by the crime story. The sincere tone John Douglas puts forward really draws you in. Now, I have a new interest in novel types: homicide. By the way, no - it did not make a murder out of me.

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Summary: Excellent for those intrigued by the serial criminal's mind
Review: The bible for wanna-be serial criminologists John Douglas does an exemplary job of splaying open the myths and misconceptions surrounding serial criminals while giving us a rare glimpse into what it means to hunt human monsters. An easy read (unless you have a weak stomach), the book is chock full of technical insight concerning the science -nay, art - of profiling and catching the modern serial offender.

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Summary: Excellent exploration of the criminal mind
Review: For years I have been an avid reader of thrillers. I will never read another thriller without looking for parralels to this book. The book is well written and engaging. I must compliment the authors. Often true crime writing suffers from either trying to be more like fiction or stuck with a just the facts mame style. These authors understood how to help you see into the mind of the serial killer. It is a terrifying look at the underbelly of the American psyche. After reading Mind Hunter I have a new found respect for our police. Although I will still enjoy a thriller every now and again, Mind Hunter has puts these heinous crimes in a new light and made me question our public fascination with bizarre crimes. I highly recommend the book. It was disturbing but insightful

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Summary: An excelent book about Personal Profiling and Serial Killers
Review: This was an amazing finding for me and everyone else who wants to understand the basics (and even the "depths") of Serial Killer's crimes and characteristics. It's an excelent book and it's author has lived 25 years on the "line", so, you're hearing something from someone who had actualy lived everything that have been told on the book. The author shows on the book how he made the profilings of many of the famous serial killer cases in America, and how those cases were solved. It's without hesitation a masterpiece if you want to understand how a killer's mind works and how he would work and react. Really a MUST!

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Summary: How to spot dragons before they hatch
Review: I bought Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit, for research purposes. I'm writing a book about playing the "good guys" who hunt typical movie slashers, and this book seemed like a good introduction into how the ESCU works to catch the bad guys. What I got was something else entirely.

John Douglas is a very scary man. He's someone who has seen far too many horrific crimes, such that they affect him personally-when his kids scrape their knees, Douglas recounts tales of children torn in half by a murderer. When his wife cuts her finger with a kitchen knife, he points out how the spatter pattern would tell a story about what happened. Ultimately, this sort of exposure leads to a divorce and Douglas is upfront about the damage his profession did to his job.

The book starts out with Douglas in the hospital, the victim of being overworked and without enough manpower to help him. Near death, he recounts the creation of the ESCU and his struggles in making the profiling of serial killers (he invented the term) a legitimate profession. But it does not go into much detail as to how the ESCU works. In fact, it's more about Douglas and about the murderers themselves.

And what a ghastly rogues gallery it is! We have serial killers who invent vigilante groups to cover their tracks, we have killers who like to fly prostitutes out to woodlands and then hunt them down like deer, killers who believe God is telling them to kill people, and killers who strangle, rape, drown, and stab.

I read "Legacy of Blood: A Comprehensive Guide to Slasher Movies" at the same time and found an odd juxtaposition between the two books. Legacy of Blood states that the comfort of slasher flicks is that the bad guy is easily recognized by his disgusting appearance and his sudden attacks, when in reality serial killers often look like normal people and torture their victims for hours.

Not true, according to Mindhunter. Indeed, many of the killers are degenerate slimeballs, incapable of social contact and forced to use blitz-style attacks against the weak and helpless because of their inadequacies. Many have severe stutters, bad acne, or some other disfigurement. Nearly all have been abused in some fashion by their parents.

By now, the serial killer traits are well known: bed wetting, fire starting, and torturing small animals. But Douglas makes it clear that in every case, it's the child's upbringing that so horribly warps them to a life of murder. There are no strong role models to stop these children from turning into monsters; indeed, when children fall into the cracks, serial killers are what sometimes crawl out of them.

Unfortunately, exactly how Douglas comes to his conclusions is a lot like magic. Despite all of his attempts to legitimize what he does, his efforts amount to "and then magic happens!" Then Douglas comes up with a startling accurate profile. He never lets us know when he's wrong. That's a minor quibble with a book that I couldn't put down.

Mindhunter is as much a cautionary tale as it is a woeful biography of Douglas' life. Only one of the victims actually manages to turn the tables on their assailant. And in just about every other case, the killers were on murder sprees that lasted years with dozens of victims. As Douglas puts it, "sometimes the dragon wins."

As an author, this book gave me a host of ideas on how the good guys and the bad guys work. As a citizen of the United States, it gave me a new appreciation for the FBI. As a husband, it gave me a healthy regard for the mentally disturbed. A must read for anyone who wants to understand how to spot the dragons before they hatch.

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Summary: Don't bother reading this book
Review: I believe this is my second John Douglas book and although I enjoyed the first one, this one was rather boring. I still haven't finished reading it. Douglas put too much of his own personal life in this book and as always he likes to praise himself , things I don't care for. He jumps around too much in this book and it sometimes get's confusing. If you like John Douglas don't buy this book.