It's not often you get to hear from the creator of a science or technique that changes how we view the world. John Douglas is such a creator, the man who in his career with the FBI, created the terms serial killer, organized vs. disorganized killers, and who, with his colleagues, created a scale by which these killers could be categorized. During his time with the agency, he worked on the cases everyone interested in true crime recognizes; The Green River Killer, Son Of Sam, BTK, Lake and Ng, and Ed Kemper. In this book, Douglas opens his case files and with his co-author, uses four cases to talk more about the types of killers and how they can be differentiated.
The first case is Joseph McGowan. He killed a seven-year old neighbor who came to his door to collect money for Girl Scout cookies. McGowan was a local science teacher, a twenty-seven year old man who still lived with his mother. Douglas included this case to talk about how a killer often chooses a victim in ways that seem unlikely; this was his neighbor and one would expect him to be suspected. As with Kemper, McGowan had a domineering mother, who had broken up his engagement. He needed to reinstate control over his environment and chose this method of doing so. Although McGowan only had one victim, Douglas has been instrumental in keeping him from gaining parole, as he is sure McGowan would offend again.
Donald Harvey is one of a series of serial killers many don't consider. He was a nurse's aide and probably killed close to a hundred people before he was caught. This is common, as with Harold Shipman in Britain, who killed several hundred patients. These medical killers are under the radar. Their victims are the elderly and infirm, most of whom are expected to die anyhow, so their deaths don't seem surprising. Unlike the killers who get press, there is nothing sensational about their crimes; they don't abduct victims and they don't have an issue with disposing bodies. With most killers, there is an automatic recognition of murder and an immediate police investigation; those factors are not seen in these killers. Harvey was also a charming man whose polite manners kept him from being suspected.
Joseph Kondo killed several victims over the years. The unique factor in his case, to Douglas, was that he killed the children of people he was close to. He never had any empathy for others, so to him these victims were just the easiest to gain control of. He was the known friend of their parents, and in one case, even knew the safe word that the parents had taught their child to expect if they ever sent someone to get them. This made finding his victims easy and he did not distance himself from the families or investigations afterward.
The final killer was Todd Kohlkepp, who killed several times over a period of years in South Carolina. This was the only case I had heard of, as it is recent and close to me. Kohkepp killed four people in a motorcycle shop; the case went unsolved for over a decade. Then he kidnapped over months, two couples he hired to help him clean up brush and outbuildings on a farm he owned. He would immediately kill the men and then imprison the women. One woman was killed after several months of captivity while the other was found in time by law enforcement. Kohkepp was unusual in that he was well off, a real estate broker with his own agency and was highly intelligent. He was also unusual because of his attempts after capture to work with Douglas to understand his motivations and what made him kill.
Readers who are interested in true crime, and whose interest lies in trying to understand how people can be so far out of the ordinary, will be fascinated by Douglas' discussion of these cases. He constantly goes back to his scale and uses it as a framework in which every killer can be categorized. It is a privilege just to be able to view how he looks at cases and how he was able to help so many police forces solve cases. This book is recommended for true crime readers.
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