Mindhunter: Inside the FBI’s Elite Serial Crime Unit

Douglas discusses how the observations and analyses of certain kinds of crime scenes can aid law enforcement in the apprehension and prosecution of the perpetrators. Douglas spent most of his career developing techniques in behavioral analysis and crime scene analysis. He asserts that “behavior reflects personality” (13) and that perpetrators leave behind clues about their individual personalities. He sought to learn more about this idea by conducting an in-depth study with his colleagues in which they interviewed numerous incarcerated violent offenders and studied their cases. Douglas contended that, like a doctor evaluating symptoms to diagnose an illness or disease, law enforcement officials can draw conclusions about an unknown offender according to patterns that emerge at crime scenes.

Douglas uses the example of Charlie Davis, an inmate at the Maryland State Penitentiary, whom he interviewed in the early 1980s as part of his study. Usually, before conducting these inmate interviews, Douglas and his team would review the entire case file—police files, crime scene photos, autopsy reports, trial transcripts—to develop a solid understanding of what transpired. This process would allow the agents to know when the offender was lying or being misleading. Douglas’s interview with Davis was impromptu, so he did not see the case file before the interview, and he had to rely on his previous interrogation experiences and the research that he had already done thus far. From the scant information that Davis provided to Douglas about his crimes, Douglas was able to describe what was going on in Davis’s life at the time he began killing. From this information, Douglas was able to draw conclusions regarding Davis’s interests, motives, and actions.

In particular, the “behavioral approach to criminal-personality profiling, crime analysis, and prosecutorial strategy” (18) developed by Douglas and his colleagues applied to serial violent offenders, who evolve and refine their techniques with time and experience. These offenders, unlike traditional criminals, are driven by something deeper and more complex than greed, jealousy, or anger, which “makes their patterns more confusing and distances them from such other normal feelings as compassion, guilt, or remorse” (18). The Investigative Support Unit (formerly known as the Behavioral Science Unit) at the FBI uses their vast experience and research to generate profiles that are meant to focus investigations for local law enforcement and provide them with additional tools to help catch and prosecute the offender. They also teach professionals at the National Academy how to analyze the crime so that they can solve the case.

Douglas and his team were not the first to use behavioral science in criminal investigations. Behavioral science appears in crime fiction, such as Poe’s “The Murders in the Rue Morgue” and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s series of books about Sherlock Holmes. One of the earlier real-life examples of profiling that Douglas recalls was done by a psychiatrist named Dr. James Brussel. In the 1940s and 50s, there was a spate of high-profile bombings in New York City. The Mad Bomber investigation by the NYPD was stymied until they contacted Dr. Brussel. After Dr. Brussel studied the bomber’s letters to the media and the bomb sites, he was able to develop a profile for the police that narrowed their target population. The police were eventually able to identify the bomber as George Metesky, a disgruntled former Consolidated Edison employee.  

Douglas describes his early life and career before he joined the FBI. He was born in Brooklyn, New York, and he moved to Hempstead, Long Island during elementary school. Douglas has a sister, Arlene, who is four years older. Douglas was a mediocre student, but he was well-liked thanks to his knack for inventive storytelling; this talent proved to be a benefit when he became an investigator who had to piece together narratives from bits of evidence and observations. Douglas loved animals, and as such, he initially pursued a career in veterinary medicine. Douglas spent summers with Cornell University’s Farm Cadet Program, working on dairy farms in upstate New York. As a result of the physical labor, he was very fit, and his fitness enabled him to play on various sports teams at Hempstead High School. At eighteen, Douglas got a job as a bouncer at two bars in Long Island—Gaslight East and the Surf Club. During this time, he got his first taste of profiling. His two main responsibilities were to screen out those below the legal drinking age and to break up fights. While fulfilling both duties, he studied body language and behavior to identify the underage individuals and to intimidate drunk and belligerent individuals so to prevent physical confrontations. Douglas noted that he “seemed to have some instinct for thinking like a criminal” (30), as many of the skills he developed are the same used by criminal predators and con men.

Douglas went to Montana State University, and after surviving the initial experience of culture shock, he thoroughly embraced college social life. Consequently, his grades suffered tremendously, and after two run-ins with the police, he left college at the end of his second year. He lived at home for some time, until the Selective Service contacted him. Douglas joined the Air Force, and he completed basic training in Amarillo, Texas. After basic training, he worked as a clerk typist in the Personnel Department at Cannon Air Force Base in New Mexico. He was able to transfer to Special Services, where he ran all of the athletic programs. Douglas also became eligible for Operation Bootstrap, which paid for seventy-five percent of his education costs. This funding allowed him to complete his college degree at Eastern New Mexico University and to begin his master’s degree in industrial psychology at nights and on weekends. Douglas also found time to volunteer for a recreational program at a local association that helped children with disabilities. Because of his good work with the children, he was offered a four-year scholarship in special education at the university. However, the Air Force declined to accept this offer, thwarting Douglas’s dreams of working in special education.  

During the holiday season in 1969, Douglas swapped cars with his best friend in the Air Force, Robert LaFond, so that he could catch a plane to New York and spend Christmas with his family. As a result, Douglas missed the Special Services Christmas party. LaFond, however, attended the gathering, and he attempted to drive after becoming inebriated at the party. LaFond hit a station wagon head on and was killed. Douglas sought to discover who had put LaFond behind the wheel and he narrowed down the search to two men that he felt were responsible. He got into a physical altercation with the men and had to be physically restrained. Afterwards, the Air Force decided that Douglas would be discharged early rather than court-martialed; court-martialing Douglas would have meant that the Air Force would have had to attend to his formal accusation against the two individuals he had beaten up. After Douglas’s discharge, he continued his education on the GI Bill. During this time, Douglas met FBI Special Agent Frank Haines, who convinced him to apply to join the FBI. Douglas joined the FBI, led by the legendary J. Edgar Hoover, in November 1970.  

Douglas begins his fourteen-week training on December 14, 1970, during which he was educated in a variety of fields, including but not limited to firearms and other weapons, criminal law, fingerprint analysis, various types of crimes, FBI history, and physical training. During this time, he began to develop his reputation as someone who was so eager to succeed that he had “blue flames coming out of [his] ass” (46). Blue-flamers, as they were called, either succeeded and thrived, or failed in a very public and lasting way. After he completed training, Douglas was placed in Detroit, which had the distinction of being the crime capital of United States with more than eight hundred homicides a year. The city was racially polarized, and its residents did not trust the federal government. Local law enforcement also disliked the FBI; they perceived the FBI as people who stole cases and claimed credit for solving them. Despite their aversion to the Bureau, local police officers in Detroit provided practical street training to the federal agents. Douglas states that “[m]uch of the success of my generation of special agents unquestionably is attributable to the professionalism and generosity of police officers all over the United States” (48).

The newly minted Special Agent Douglas was assigned to the Unlawful Flight to Avoid Prosecution (UFAP) Squad within the Reactive Crimes Unit. He worked on cases that involved bank robberies, extortion, and catching fugitives like military deserters, who made up a large number of the fugitives at the time. Douglas found this part of his new job the least rewarding, as the military did not keep their personnel records up to date and did not see the need to update the FBI regarding their arrest warrants. Often, when the deserter was located, the agents found that the individual had already been sent to Vietnam as punishment for their initial desertion, where they had distinguished themselves in battle and were subsequently discharged. As well, some individuals listed on the arrest warrant had been killed in action overseas.

Bank robberies were widespread and frequent during Douglas’s time in Detroit. While working on these cases, Douglas became interested in the thought processes behind criminal activity. During his interrogations, he discovered that “the successful criminals were good profilers” (53) who had done their research regarding the types of banks they preferred to rob and the methods they used to rob it. Some robbers preferred banks near highways because they allowed for a quick getaway; others preferred small and isolated banks. Many of the criminals would case the bank before they robbed it; from this process, they would learn the layout and architecture of the bank, how much security protected the bank, the number of customers and employees at any given hour, parking, and other relevant details. They also had preferred methods of actually robbing the targeted bank; some would use a note while others would make an announcement. While investigating bank robberies, Douglas noticed that there were patterns in how the crimes occurred, which allowed law enforcement to take proactive measures to catch the perpetrators and to fortify security measures in the banks so that robberies would not occur in the future.

Douglas’s involvement in a sting that resulted in the arrest of over two hundred gamblers led to an epiphany. During an interrogation, a bookie informed Douglas that the FBI’s efforts would not make a difference because the FBI “can’t stop us, John, no matter what you do. It’s what we are” (58). Douglas realized that there was “something inherent, deep within a criminal’s mind and psyche, that compelled him to do things in a certain way” (58). Eventually, this realization became what Douglas termed a signature, something that stands out about a particular crime that is unique to that specific perpetrator.