This book is an overview of the career of the FBI man who nearly single-handedly created the system for personality profiling of violent offenders. If there's a big-time multiple murderer from about 1950 until now who hasn't been interviewed by Robert Ressler, he probably refused the honor. Indispensable reading for serial killer mavens, and better written than John Douglas and Mark Olshaker's Mindhunter, this book is packed with fascinating details from dozens of cases: The killer John Joubert, for example, started his life of cruelty as a kid one day when he was riding his bike with a sharpened pencil in his hand. He rode up next to a little girl who was walking, and stabbed her in the back with the pencil. Ouch!


From Publishers Weekly
Former FBI agent Ressler, who coined the term "serial killer" in the 1970s, recounts in straightforward style his interviews with such infamous murderers as Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy. A BOMC selection in cloth. Photos. Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Library Journal
The success of Silence of the Lambs has readers fascinated with serial killers. "New applicants to the FBI's Behavioral Sciences Unit are taking Jodie Foster's character as a role model," notes Ressler, who was consulted for the movie but felt it should have been more realistic. The book is an informative and insightful account of Ressler's 30-year FBI career and the development of the Violent Criminal Apprehension Program. Ressler's numerous interviews with convicted killers (e.g., David Berkowitz, Ted Bundy), use of behavioral sciences principles, and many years of detective experience have given him an uncanny ability to "read" a crime scene and develop a criminal profile of the offender. His involvement in multiple serial killer investigations gives the reader an insider's view into police work. This book is an entertaining alternative to Eric W. Hickey's Serial Murderers and Their Victims ( Wadsworth, 1991) and Joel Norris's Serial Killers (Doubleday, 1988). Recommended for general readers and true crime collections. Previewed in Prepub Alert, LJ 1/92.- Robert Hodder, Memorial Univ. of Newfoundland Lib., St. John'sCopyright 1992 Reed Business Information, Inc.


From Kirkus Reviews
The FBI agent who coined the term ``serial killer'' boasts about his exploits--and for good reason. Modesty isn't Ressler's strong suit, as even the subtitle attests, but his career is packed with so many amazing episodes- -well related here with the help of Shachtman (Skyscraper Dreams, 1991, etc.)--that the chest-beating is forgivable. Ressler's major contribution to criminology has been his pioneering work in psychological profiling, which he developed by visiting prisons and talking to scores of convicted killers. His accounts here of interviews with Charles Manson, Richard Speck, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and others are told with a fine flair for drama--e.g., of being locked in a cell with 6'9'', 300-pound mutilation-killer Ed Kemper, who, when it was clear that guards weren't answering Ressler's call to open the cell door, threatened to ``screw off'' the FBI man's head. Myriad tales of how Ressler tracked down killers complement the jailhouse yarns and offer much insight into serial killers' minds. Of primary importance is to determine whether a killer is ``organized'' or ``disorganized,'' stresses Ressler, who goes on to explain that all serial killings are classified as ``sexual homicides,'' because at their root is a ``sexual maladjustment'' that ``drives'' the ``fantasies'' that are played out in death. As deeply as Ressler gets into killers' heads, though, he refuses to reveal much of his own here, offering no explanation other than ``fascination'' and ``interest'' for why he's devoted his life to a calling so dire and soul-wearying that, as he emphasizes and as the title quote from Nietzsche concludes, one who follows it risks becoming ``a monster himself.'' Gibbering horrors brought to heel, secrets of the serial- killer unveiled: a true-crime bonanza, though a bit more self- introspection would have iced the cake. (Sixteen-page b&w photo insert--not seen.) -- Copyright ©1992, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.


Review
"The real thing...Absolutely mesmerizing."--Ann Rule

"A true crime bonanza."--Kirkus

"An invaluable book for anyone who wants to understand serial murder."--Joseph Wambaugh

ANNOTATION

True-crime author Anne Rule calls this "the real thing . . . absolutely mesmerizing." The FBI expert who coined the term "serial killer" and advised Thomas Harris on The Silence of the Lambs tells how he uses evidence from a crime scene to construct a psychological profile of the killer--and unlock the secret of their identities. 8 pages of photos. Martin's.

FROM THE PUBLISHER

Face-to-face with some of America's most terrifying killers, FBI veteran and ex-Army CID colonel Robert Ressler learned from them how to identify the unknown monsters who walk among us--and put them behind bars. Now the man who coined the phrase "serial killer" and advised Thomas Harris on The Silence of the Lambs shows how he is able to track down some of today's most brutal murderers.

Just as it happened in The Silence of the Lambs, Ressler uses the evidence at a crime scene to put together a psychological profile of the killers. From the victims they choose, to the way they kill, to the often grotesque souvenirs they take with them--Ressler unlocks the identities of these vicious killers for the police to capture.

And with his discovery that serial killers share certain violent behavior, Ressler's gone behind prison walls to hear the bizarre first-hand stories of countless convicted murderers. Getting inside the mind of a killer to understand how and why he kills, is one of the FBI's most effective ways of helping police bring in killers who are still at large.

FROM THE CRITICS

Publishers Weekly

Former FBI agent Ressler, who coined the term ``serial killer'' in the 1970s, recounts in straightforward style his interviews with such infamous murderers as Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy and Ted Bundy. A BOMC selection in cloth. Photos. (Mar.)

Library Journal