cover image Profiles in Murder

Profiles in Murder

Russell Vorpagel, J. Harrington, R. Vorpagel. Da Capo Press, $26.95 (304pp) ISBN 978-0-306-45980-1

At FBI headquarters during the 1970s, Vorpagel, Ressler and other members of the Behavioral Science Unit formalized their techniques of profiling serial killers, an approach to criminology brought to public attention through Thomas Harris's 1988 bestseller, The Silence of the Lambs, and Jonathan Demme's 1991 Oscar-winning film adaptation. Using the analysis of a crime scene, a profiler tries to predict a murderer's mind-set, habits, background and appearance. When the Behavioral Science Unit was created, the FBI set out to establish patterns by studying as many mass murderers, bombers, rapists and serial killers as possible; hundreds of case histories were established through interviews, many conducted by Vorpagel, who looked into fantasies, family, sex, work, fears, goals and other aspects until ""a pattern began to emerge in the personality of a crime and its scene."" For many years, on assignment with the FBI, Vorpagel taught his techniques in police academies and military armories nationwide. Told in the third person and padded with pages of dialogue in an attempt to duplicate instructor-student interaction, this is largely a re-creation of past cases with only a superficial skim of the history and inner workings of the Behavioral Science Unit. The result often comes across like fiction (or a pitch for a hoped-for TV series), which undercuts credibility to a degree. Although the book does offer case histories not found elsewhere, readers looking for the sort of insights into twisted criminal minds revealed by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker in their recent Obsession will be disappointed. Photos. (Nov.)