What makes a serial killer? Only one man really knows. John Douglas. A man who has looked evil in the eye and made a vocation of understanding it. Now retired, Douglas can let us inside the FBI elite serial crime unit and into the disturbed minds of some of the most savage killers in the world. The man who was the inspiration for Special Agent Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs and who lent the film's makers his expertise explains how he invented and established the practice of criminal profiling; what it was like to submerge himself mentally in the world of serial killers to the point of 'becoming' both perpetrator and victim; and individual case histories including those of Jeffrey Dahmer, Charles Manson, Ted Bundy and the Atlanta child murders

Author Biography

John Douglas joined the FBI in 1970, starting his career as a sniper in a SWAT team and progressing on to become a hostage negotiator. In 1977 he transferred to the Behavioural Science Unit (BSU), where he taught applied criminal psychology. He created the FBI's Criminal Profiling Program and led this division of special agents through harrowing and groundbreaking cases, including those behind Anthony Hopkins' role as Hannibal Lecter. Douglas lives with his family in the Washington, DC area. Mark Olshaker, author of four novels and producer of the Emmy-nominated The Mind of a Serial Killer, lives in Washington DC.