A fascinating read but let down by a couple of things. Ressler's need to regularly stroke his own ego is irritating as noted in other reviews, but the thing that really undermined the book for me was his false statement regarding the identity of the Wearside Jack hoaxer. Ressler (writing in 1992) states the hoaxer was a retired police officer with a grudge against George Oldfield. This is not true. The hoaxer was not identified until 2005 and was neither a former police officer nor someone with a grudge against Oldfield. Given that Ressler presents this speculation as fact means I cannot take any of his other recollections without a large pinch of salt. When he is repeatedly bragging about the accuracy of his profiles, how can I be sure that his recollection is accurate and not just wishful thinking or speculation as in the case of Wearside Jack? There are no citations in any of the cases and precious few direct quotes from other sources so the whole thing ends up being anecdotes which may have been embroidered rather than the factual insider account I was hoping for. ( )

pioneer FBI profiler

Interesting as a source document. Thomas Harris started the serial killer boom with Silence of the Lambs, that snowballed into CSI, Profiler, Criminal Minds, etc. So Robert Ressler's Whoever Fights Monsters and John Douglas's Mindhunter can be considered the core nonfiction texts.

At best, profiling is a craft of educated guesswork. At worst, it's pseudoscientific cold-reading, confirmation bias, Texas sharpshooting. It's almost refreshing how Ressler has no compunctions about patting himself on the back, outwitting ass-covering bureaucrats, small-minded local cops, and the killers themselves.

There's a passage near the end:

In recent years, the hue and cry about profiling, and the misinterpretation of it as well as of what the Bureau legitimately does, has continued to increase. The media have come around to lionizing behavioral-science people as supersleuths who put all other police to shame and solve cases where others have failed.

But the entire book goes against this uncharacteristic humility. Ressler recounts how, after hours at a bar, because some Brits challenged them, he and Douglas worked up an off-the-cuff profile for the Yorkshire Ripper. Probably could've caught him too, if the regs had allowed it, beer in hand and all that. ( )

Maybe more of a 3 1/2 stars, but this is an engaging and super comprehensive true crime book, with a really solid audio. ( )

My only question after reading this great book is this: Why does the US have way more serial killers than the rest of the world? Looking at it per capita one would think the States were a war thorn place in the darkest part of Africa. ( )