—Ann Rule, author of THE STRANGER BESIDE ME and SMALL SACRIFICES
"A book like no other I’ve read—one of the most important ever written."
—Rabbi Harold Kushner
"Often chilling, always fascinating."
—Roy Hazelwood, former member, FBI Behavioral Science Unit and co-author of DARK DREAMS and THE EVIL THAT MEN DO.
"Highly recommended...Remarkable for its insight and poignancy, BETWEEN GOOD AND EVIL is a book everyone should read."
—John H. Campbell, co-author of INTO THE MINDS OF MADMEN
"Compelling …Depue is a master storyteller…The world is a much better place because of Roger Depue.
—Ronald Kessler, author of THE FBI and THE BUREAU
"Because it is real, the story of Depue's journey is more gripping than any thriller."
Book Description
The FBI's former top serial-killer hunter shares his unique perspective as both a lawman and a member of the clergy counseling convicts--revealing the dangerously thin line between good and evil. Roger L. Depue spent decades tracking down America's most depraved criminals. First as a small town police chief, then as a S.W.A.T. team member, and ultimately as head of the FBI's famed Behavioral Sciences Unit--the unit responsible for profiling and hunting serial killers--where he pioneered revolutionary law enforcement programs and techniques that remain in use today by the FBI and police departments across the globe. In his quest to comprehend the true nature of good and evil, Depue embarked on a mid-career spiritual sabbatical to become a Brother of the Missionaries of the Holy Apostles, counseling maximum security inmates. With his combined experiences as both a law enforcement professional and a member of the clergy, Depue explores the criminal mind and soul as no one has ever done before.
About the Author
Roger L. Depue lives in Virginia.
Between Good and Evil: A Master Profiler's Hunt for Society's Most Violent Predators FROM THE PUBLISHER
"No one gets closer to evil than a criminal profiler, trained to penetrate the hearts and minds of society's most vicious psychopaths. Roger L. Depue, chief of the FBI Behavioral Science Unit at a time when its innovative work first came to prominence, headed a renowned team of mind hunters that included John Douglas, Robert Ressler, and Roy Hazelwood. He broke new ground with analytical techniques and training programs that are still used today. After retiring from the FBI, he founded an elite forensics group that consulted on high-profile cases, including the Martha Moxley and JonBenet Ramsey murders, and the Columbine school shootings." "After suffering a devastating personal loss, Depue, on the brink of despair, walked away from the outlide world and joined a seminary. It was there, while counseling maximum security inmates, that he rediscovered the capacity for goodness in people, and made the decision to return to the world to resume his work." Here is Depue's personal account, from growing up as a police officer's son to tracking down some of today's most brutal murderers. With its harrowing descriptions of human depravity and passionate call to fight against evil, Between Good and Evil is both a dispatch from the front lines of a war against human predators...and the powerful story of one man's journey between darkness and redemption.
FROM THE CRITICS
Library Journal
When the FBI agent who taught Mindhunter John Douglas everything he knows has something to say, true-crime fans will listen. But as Depue is also a clergyman who counsels convicts, others may listen as well. Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
Kirkus Reviews
Emotionally weighty memoir from one of the FBI's original "profilers." Ironically, profilers like Depue have become contemporary pop-culture archetypes, thanks to the novels of Thomas Harris and the bestsellers by Depue's former colleague, John Douglas. This grisly science, though, wasn't on the horizon in Depue's childhood, when his policeman father was known to keep order via strong hands and a sympathetic ear. After a typical "delinquent" adolescence, Depue saw stints in the Marines and as a small-town cop, experiences that later became his ticket away from the drudgery and casual violence of the Midwest, circa 1960. His innovations as a police chief of 26 in hardscrabble Claire, Michigan, made him an ideal candidate for FBI recruitment. The bureau was shedding the Hoover era's intellectual myopia: younger agents like Depue perceived that the drugs and strife of the 1960s would lead to a spike in violent crime that needed to be countered proactively. Depue's FBI career began in the Deep South, where he personally witnessed the injustices perpetrated by the Klan and their police sympathizers, an experience that prompted his early support of racial equality. Later, he moved to Washington and worked extortion, kidnapping, and fugitive cases. When his cohort at the bureau wondered how to predict the actions of child molesters, sexual sadists, serial killers, and other irredeemable types, the unit began interviewing offenders in custody, resulting in Depue's surreal encounters with figures like Ed Kemper, an articulate, intelligent, 300-pound psychopath, or the glib and amoral Ted Bundy. Depue retired as head of the Behavioral Science Unit and started a private law-enforcement consultingfirm that was called in on, among others, the JonBenet Ramsey and Columbine cases. When his wife died of cancer, he entered a seminary for several years and even worked with convicted felons, feeling an intense need to confront issues of good and evil in a different way from before. The collaborative prose here is workmanlike, while the combination of grisly crime story with Depue's personal journey is quite moving. Agent: Frank Weimann/The Literary Group
Art & Photography
Book Info
