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Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI (St. Martin's True... |
Customer Rating: 
Sales Rank: 41271
Available from Amazon |
$6.99 |
<div>Face-to-face with some of America's most terrifying killers, FBI veteran and ex-Army CID colonel Robert Ressler learned form then how to identify the unknown monsters who walk among us--and put them behind bars. Now the man who coined the phrase "serial killer" and advised Thomas Harris on <i>The Silence of the Lambs</i> shows how is able to track down some of today's most brutal murderers.
Just as it happened in <i>The Silence of the Lambs</i>, Ressler used the evidence at a crime scene to put together a psychological profile of the killers. From the victims they choose, to the way they kill, to the often grotesque souvenirs they take with them--Ressler unlocks the identities of these vicious killers of the police to capture.
And with his discovery that serial killers share certain violent behaviors, Ressler's gone behind prison walls to hear the bizarre first-hand stories countless convicted murderers. Getting inside the mind of a killer to understand how and why he kills, is one of the FBI's most effective ways of helping police bring in killers who are still at large.
Join Ressler as he takes you on the hunt for toady's most dangerous psychopaths. It is a terrifying journey you will not forget.
"Whoever Fights Monsters" by Robert Ressler can be summed up with a quote from page 125.
"Every ounce of information we can extract from a killer about his mind and methods gives us more ammunition to track the next one."
Mr. Ressler chronicles his career with the military and eventually the FBI.
He is credited with coining the term "serial killer" and he gives the meaning and origin of the term.
In the book the author documents the start of profiling and his unsanctioned venture into prison interviews with violent criminals.
It was risky, but over time has paid off with some candid interviews and useful information for future investigations.
Some of the interview highlights that Mr. Ressler shares in the book come from Edmund Kemper, Charles Manson, Tex Watson, Ted Bundy, David Berkowitz, and Richard Speck.
He also gives examples of agent-interviewers who got too close emotionally to their subject.
He wrote about the compulsive confessor Henry Lee Lucas who never saw a murder that he wouldn't claim as his work much to the embarrassment of law enforcement agencies throughout the country.
Mr. Ressler's personal view of "Silence of the Lambs" and "Red Dragon" from his experience in the field was educational.
I was impressed with this author's writing style. Profilers have a reputation for being arrogant (whether that's just an impression or valid I wouldn't know) but Mr. Ressler humbly explains mistakes he has made over his career. He is efficient at detailing the psychology of the different types of violent criminals. A good book about criminal profiling!
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