Of the many horrendous crimes that have been committed over the years, certain criminal cases seem to have lives of their own. Despite the passage of time, they continue their hold on our collective imagination, and our collective fears. For some reason, each of these cases and the stories surrounding them touches something deep in the human condition, whether it be the personalities involved, the senseless depravity of the crime, the nagging and persistent doubts about whether justice was actually done, or the tantalising fact that no none was caught…
“Each of these cases we’ll be
examining in this book has been extremely controversial, and in each case that
controversy has continued. And each of these cases contains some universal
truth at its base to which we can all relate. Taken together, they present a
panorama of human behaviour under extreme stress and an inevitable commentary
on good and evil, innocence and guilt, expectation and surprise.”
Author: John Douglas is known
throughout the worldwide law enforcement community for his unsurpassed
expertise in the realm of criminal personality profiling and modern
investigative analysis. Mark Olshaker is an acclaimed
novelist specialised in thrillers. Both men live in the Washington, D.C. area.
My thoughts: This is a very good book and an exhaustive look into some of the most
notorious criminal cases. This book has a scientific approach (based on both
psychological analysis and investigative work). The storyteller is engaging.
I was very young when
I first heard of Jack the Ripper and I thought it was a tale akin to stories of
monsters and witches. It possessed all the classic elements: a man emerging
from the shadows wearing a cape, attacking woman and then vanishing without a
trace, spreading fear in the city, a hunt put in place to catch him without
success…It was much later, though, in my late teens, that I learnt, sadly, that
it was a story about real crimes. While I was a student in London, I never went
to the Whitechapel area (I cannot explain why…). Brick Lane, a historic street in this district, is
now a popular place for great Indian food. I recently went for some excellent
Indian/Pakistani food there and strolled the infamous streets…
There has been much
speculation, with somebody claiming to have discovered Ripper’s true identity
on a regular basis. A multitude of books have been written about him, groups of
Ripper amateur investigators have been created, films based on the case have
been made, and so on.
