Table of Contents
He knows that part of my beauty is being alive, but its the dead me he wants.
John Fowles, The Collector
Introduction
CRIME TOUCHES US ALL. In ways large and small, direct and indirect, our lives are affected by the criminal acts of others. Our taxes support law enforcement and the judicial and penal systems. Retail prices factor in the expectation of a certain amount of shoplifting. Some of our pensions have been reduced or even eliminated because of white-collar crime in corporate boardrooms.
Then there are the more personal effects of crime, the kinds that happen one-to-one. In my life, Ive had a few things stolen, and once in the 1970s I was mugged at knifepoint in a large city in California. The mugger left with seven dollars and change; I left with a little round hole in the back of my neck.
A girl I went to junior high and high school with became the first murder victim in our Virginia town. Another high school friend (at least, he was my friend until I decided he couldnt be trusted; the first time I used the phrase pathological liar was, I believe, in reference to him) became one of the most successful bank robbers in U.S. history; he died in a shoot-out with the police.
While researching this book, I learned that yet another high school classmate had probably been murdered by John Brennan Crutchley, who was known as the Vampire Rapist. I also discovered that the apartment complex in which my wife and I lived for a while in a second-floor unit was where serial killer and sexual predator Cleophus Prince took his first victimfrom a second-floor unita couple of years before we moved in. Youll meet both the Vampire Rapist and Mr. Prince in these pages.
The CBS television series Criminal Minds deals with crimes like Crutchleys and Princes, the heinous acts people commit against one another. It does so by telling the stories of profilers working in the Federal Bureau of Investigations Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU), a real entity that does spectacular work in bringing to justice kidnappers, rapists, murderers, and others. The cases depicted on Criminal Minds are fictional, but there may be elements that are similar to ones that have actually happened. In addition, during any given episode of Criminal Minds, one or more real-life criminals or crimes might be specifically mentioned as examples. Those true stories are what this book is about. (The book assumes that the reader has seen the episodes, or at least doesnt mind knowing the resolution, because sometimes in discussing the true crimes, the episodes mysteries must be unveiled.)
Some of the stories contained herein have been told many times, even fictionalized and filmed, with the result that the details are often murky or contradictory. Others have been told hardly at all, which means that there are few sources from which to learn about them. Wherever I found contradictions, I dug deeper still, looking for contemporary or firsthand accounts, settling on one version only when I could find multiple sources that agreed.
Details that are still not certain are described in that way. The reader should remember that some of the details of any crime are subject to interpretationoften the only people actually present were the criminal and the victim. The victim isnt talking, and the criminal is, in most cases, a liar; even detailed confessions are spun to achieve the criminals own end. These accounts are as true and accurate as I could make them, given those uncertainties.
Criminal Minds is excellent television, with strong writers and one of the best casts in the business. Every actor is a standout, playing action scenes, tense interrogations, and tender character moments with equal credibility. Although the show focuses on solving crimes, the human aspects of the characters lives and the effects of such a harrowing career are never shortchanged.
Just as important, the victims on the series are shown respect. In real life, it should also be that way. The bad men and women murder, rape, kidnap, and steal, but in the end its the victims and their families, friends, and loved ones who have to spend the rest of their days in the shadow of those acts. The survivors and those close to them often show incredible courage and grit, whether they launch public anticrime initiatives or simply continue living their lives, refusing to be brought up short by a psychopaths heartless act.
Like the TV series, this book focuses on the crimes and criminals. But the victims and the survivors have not been forgotten, and this author dedicates the pages that follow to them.
First Glance
AT FIRST GLANCE, you dont see anything strange about the man. Maybe you dont notice him at all; blending in is part of his technique, after all, and he looks just like anybody else out there. He might be young, like Bill Heirens, the Lipstick Killer. He might be huge, like Ed Kemper, the Coed Killer. Hes probably white, almost certainly male, most likely older than twenty but younger than forty. He might be staring directly at you, raising the fine hairs on the back of your neck. Its possible that hes unable to meet your gaze, so he glances away, pretending that his attention is elsewhere. Chances are hell be alone, but he might have a partner nearby, perhaps even a woman whose task is to lure you into complacency so he can strike.
The man is a predator. Hes driven by forces he doesnt understand, by urges he can tamp down but never quell. And by the time you realize what he is, its probably too late.
Criminal Minds is about the worst of the worst: murderers, rapists, stalkers, kidnappers, molesters, predators of every sort. Avid viewers know that these criminals can be categorized in a number of different ways. There are organized and disorganized offenders. There are serial killers, spree killers, mass murderers, family annihilators. There are lust or thrill killers, visionary killers, mission-based killers, power or control killers. When we look at their crimes, its important to consider which aspects are part of their modus operandi (MO) and which represent their individual signatures.
In subsequent chapters, well look at some of these real-life criminals in an organized fashion, grouping them by the types of crimes they commit, the types of victims on whom they prey, and so on. But well start with some who, for one reason or another, resist classification or who simply deserve to stand apart from their less accomplished fellows, and well allow them to demonstrate some of the characteristics of the categories above. Rarely do criminals fit exactly into one slot or anotherfor all their crimes, they re human beings, after all, and human beings tend to resist easy understanding.
I used the word accomplished in the previous paragraph with tongue somewhat in cheek; many of these people are, in fact, good at what they do and work hard at it, and they spend a lot of time and expend a great deal of energy and thought in pursuit of their avocations. Had they been willing to direct those resources toward useful goals, they might have contributed to society in some positive way.
Instead, they re the dregs, barely worth discussing, for the most part. However, theyre fascinating to examine as case studies, in some perverse wayfor the same reason we go to horror movies, one supposes, to see at a safe distance things we hope never to encounter in our own lives. As noted FBI profiler John Douglas points out in several books devoted to his work, the better we can understand these human predators, the better we as a society can protect ourselves from them and try to prevent them from doing the things they do.
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