The legendary FBI criminal profiler, number-one New York Times
bestselling author, and inspiration for the hit Netflix show
Mindhunter delves deep into the lives and crimes of four of the most
disturbing and complex predatory killers, offering never-before-revealed
details about his profiling process, and divulging the strategies used
to crack some of America's most challenging cases.
The FBI's pioneer of criminal profiling, former special agent John
Douglas, has studied and interviewed many of America's most notorious
killers--including Charles Manson, "Son of Sam Killer" David Berkowitz
and "BTK Strangler" Dennis Rader--trained FBI agents and investigators
around and the world, and helped educate the country about these deadly
predators and how they operate, and has become a legend in popular
culture, fictionalized in The Silence of the Lambs and the hit
television shows Criminal Minds and Mindhunter.
Twenty years after his famous memoir, the man who literally wrote the
book on FBI criminal profiling opens his case files once again. In this
riveting work of true crime, he spotlights four of the most diabolical
criminals he's confronted, interviewed and learned from. Going deep into
each man's life and crimes, he outlines the factors that led them to
murder and how he used his interrogation skills to expose their means,
motives, and true evil. Like the hit Netflix show, The Killer Across
the Table is centered around Douglas' unique interrogation and
profiling process. With his longtime collaborator Mark Olshaker, Douglas
recounts the chilling encounters with these four killers as he
experienced them--revealing for the first time his profile methods in
detail.
Going step by step through his interviews, Douglas explains how he
connects each killer's crimes to the specific conversation, and
contrasts these encounters with those of other deadly criminals to show
what he learns from each one. In the process, he returns to other famous
cases, killers and interviews that have shaped his career, describing
how the knowledge he gained from those exchanges helped prepare him for
these.
A glimpse into the mind of a man who has pierced the heart of human
darkness, The Killer Across the Table unlocks the ultimate mystery of
depravity and the techniques and approaches that have countered evil in
the name of justice.
