The Cases That Haunt Us

The #1 New York Times bestselling authors of Mindhunter revisit eight of the most infamous true crime cases of all time—from Jack the Ripper and the Zodiac Killer to JonBenet Ramsey—in this updated 25th anniversary edition exploring unsolved murders, FBI criminal profiling, and forensic science.

Violent. Provocative. Shocking. Call them what you want…but don’t call them open and shut.

Did Lizzie Borden murder her own father and stepmother? Who killed JonBenet Ramsey, and why? In this updated edition, legendary FBI criminal profiler John Douglas and Emmy Award-winning filmmaker and journalist Mark Olshaker—the team behind the famous Mindhunter series—explore these tantalizing questions and more in this mesmerizing work of detection.

Using modern forensic science and criminal profiling techniques developed by Douglas within the FBI, The Cases That Haunt Us challenges conventional theories, dissects investigative missteps, and exposes the societal biases that have shaped some of history’s most notorious murder investigations. From the Boston Strangler to the Zodiac Killer, these are the eight cases that just won’t go away because of their senseless depravity, the doubts about whether justice was done, or because, in some instances, no suspect has ever been identified or caught.

The Cases That Haunt Us not only offers convincing and controversial conclusions, it deconstructs the evidence and widely held beliefs surrounding each case and rebuilds them—with fascinating, surprising, and haunting results.