,2
, PRAISE FOR JOHN DOUGLAS’S
MINDHUNTER
“One finally feels that Mr. Douglas’s keen eye for crime-scene detail and his
powerful inductive reasoning cannot be explained any more than one can
explain his murderous quarries’ capacity for merciless savagery . . . . By the
winter of 1981, when Atlanta became the hunting ground of a cunning killer of
black children, the FBI’s profiles had contributed to the apprehension of so
many murderers that Mr. Douglas was willing to endure public scorn by
announcing that these killings were not hate crimes perpetrated by the Ku Klux
Klan, as some believed, but were the work of a lone black man between twenty-
five and twenty-nine years old. He predicted that the culprit would be ‘a police
buff, drive a police-type vehicle . . . He would have a police-type dog, either a
German shepherd or a Doberman.’ When Wayne Bertram Williams, a twenty-
three-year-old black man, was taken into custody, he ‘fit our profile in every key
respect.’ . . . Mr. Douglas sets out to produce a good true-crime book, but
because of his insights and the power of his material, he gives us more—he
leaves us shaken, gripped by a quiet grief for the innocent victims and anguished
by the human condition.”
—Dean Koontz, The New York Times Book Review
“John Douglas is a brilliant man . . . . And he’s a great guy, very articulate, very
sweet. I wanted to cast him as Agent Jack Crawford in the movie.”
—Jonathan Demme, director of The Silence of the Lambs
AN ALTERNATE SELECTION OF Doubleday Book
Club The Literary Guild Mystery Guild
“John Douglas is the FBI’s pioneer and master of investigative profiling, and
one of the most exciting figures in law enforcement I’ve had the privilege of
knowing . . . . With Mr. Douglas we explore why there are monsters.”
—Patricia Cornwell, bestselling author of The Body Farm and From Potter’s Field
“A quirky, winning tale of awful crimes and awe-inspiring detective work . . .
Douglas gives us a pair of human eyes through which to view crimes and
criminals that are at once grotesque and compelling . . . . In the end,
MINDHUNTER rings the bell because Douglas knows what all the great crime
writers know—that the criminologist must be at least as interesting as the crime.
On that score, Douglas fits the profile.”
—Richard Willing, USA Today
“Although Douglas’s profiles reflect years of experience, there’s an uncanniness
3
, about their level of detail: He can predict the make and color of a killer’s car. In
the Trailside Killer case in which Northern California hikers were slain in
1979, Douglas rightly predicted the assailant was a stutterer . . . . Called the
‘FBI’s modern Sherlock Holmes,’ Douglas says he comes up with such details
by going into a trancelike state in which he becomes both killer and victim . . . .
Douglas’s conservative estimate is that there are between thirty-five and fifty
serial killers hard at work around the country right now, leaving ‘several
hundred’ dead people in their wake each year.”
—Deb Price, The Detroit News
“In this . . . fascinating memoir of his twenty-five-year career with the FBI, John
Douglas contends that psychopathic serial killers have a warped need to
kill . . . . The key to Douglas’s approach is to look for the ‘signature’—as
opposed to the modus operandi—of serial killers . . . . Douglas is at his best
describing the terrible crimes that were committed and explaining the logic of
his profiling method.”
—Charles P. Thobae, Houston Chronicle
“A fascinating journey into the thrill killer’s psyche . . . Douglas seems to have
a true gift of instinct. MINDHUNTER is gripping . . . ”
—Lou Grieco, Dayton (OH) Daily News
“Hannibal Lecter may have been a fictional creation, but his counterparts exist
in real life, and Douglas has tracked down, testified against or just sat down and
talked with dozens of them . . . . A chilling memoir . . . ”
—Lynda Hurst, Toronto Star
“In his spellbinding new book, the legendary Douglas . . . delves into much of
the gritty how-to of criminal personality ‘profiling.’ . . . He’s downright
gifted . . . I defy anyone interested in psychology, detective work, or logic and
puzzle-solving, to put MINDHUNTER willingly aside once begun.”
—Ann G. Sjoerdsma, Virginian-Pilot
4
, PRAISE FOR JOHN DOUGLAS’S
MINDHUNTER
“One finally feels that Mr. Douglas’s keen eye for crime-scene detail and his
powerful inductive reasoning cannot be explained any more than one can
explain his murderous quarries’ capacity for merciless savagery . . . . By the
winter of 1981, when Atlanta became the hunting ground of a cunning killer of
black children, the FBI’s profiles had contributed to the apprehension of so
many murderers that Mr. Douglas was willing to endure public scorn by
announcing that these killings were not hate crimes perpetrated by the Ku Klux
Klan, as some believed, but were the work of a lone black man between twenty-
five and twenty-nine years old. He predicted that the culprit would be ‘a police
buff, drive a police-type vehicle . . . He would have a police-type dog, either a
German shepherd or a Doberman.’ When Wayne Bertram Williams, a twenty-
three-year-old black man, was taken into custody, he ‘fit our profile in every key
respect.’ . . . Mr. Douglas sets out to produce a good true-crime book, but
because of his insights and the power of his material, he gives us more—he
leaves us shaken, gripped by a quiet grief for the innocent victims and anguished
by the human condition.”
—Dean Koontz, The New York Times Book Review
“John Douglas is a brilliant man . . . . And he’s a great guy, very articulate, very
sweet. I wanted to cast him as Agent Jack Crawford in the movie.”
—Jonathan Demme, director of The Silence of the Lambs
AN ALTERNATE SELECTION OF Doubleday Book
Club The Literary Guild Mystery Guild
“John Douglas is the FBI’s pioneer and master of investigative profiling, and
one of the most exciting figures in law enforcement I’ve had the privilege of
knowing . . . . With Mr. Douglas we explore why there are monsters.”
—Patricia Cornwell, bestselling author of The Body Farm and From Potter’s Field
“A quirky, winning tale of awful crimes and awe-inspiring detective work . . .
Douglas gives us a pair of human eyes through which to view crimes and
criminals that are at once grotesque and compelling . . . . In the end,
MINDHUNTER rings the bell because Douglas knows what all the great crime
writers know—that the criminologist must be at least as interesting as the crime.
On that score, Douglas fits the profile.”
—Richard Willing, USA Today
“Although Douglas’s profiles reflect years of experience, there’s an uncanniness
3
, about their level of detail: He can predict the make and color of a killer’s car. In
the Trailside Killer case in which Northern California hikers were slain in
1979, Douglas rightly predicted the assailant was a stutterer . . . . Called the
‘FBI’s modern Sherlock Holmes,’ Douglas says he comes up with such details
by going into a trancelike state in which he becomes both killer and victim . . . .
Douglas’s conservative estimate is that there are between thirty-five and fifty
serial killers hard at work around the country right now, leaving ‘several
hundred’ dead people in their wake each year.”
—Deb Price, The Detroit News
“In this . . . fascinating memoir of his twenty-five-year career with the FBI, John
Douglas contends that psychopathic serial killers have a warped need to
kill . . . . The key to Douglas’s approach is to look for the ‘signature’—as
opposed to the modus operandi—of serial killers . . . . Douglas is at his best
describing the terrible crimes that were committed and explaining the logic of
his profiling method.”
—Charles P. Thobae, Houston Chronicle
“A fascinating journey into the thrill killer’s psyche . . . Douglas seems to have
a true gift of instinct. MINDHUNTER is gripping . . . ”
—Lou Grieco, Dayton (OH) Daily News
“Hannibal Lecter may have been a fictional creation, but his counterparts exist
in real life, and Douglas has tracked down, testified against or just sat down and
talked with dozens of them . . . . A chilling memoir . . . ”
—Lynda Hurst, Toronto Star
“In his spellbinding new book, the legendary Douglas . . . delves into much of
the gritty how-to of criminal personality ‘profiling.’ . . . He’s downright
gifted . . . I defy anyone interested in psychology, detective work, or logic and
puzzle-solving, to put MINDHUNTER willingly aside once begun.”
—Ann G. Sjoerdsma, Virginian-Pilot
4
