Whoever Fights Monsters
My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI
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4.4 • 89 Ratings
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- $8.99
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- $8.99
Publisher Description
LEARN THE TRUE STORY OF ONE OF THE FBI PROFILERS WHO COINED THE PHRASE "SERIAL KILLER"
Face-to-face with some of America's most terrifying killers, FBI veteran Robert K. Ressler learned how to identify the unknown monsters who walk among us -- and put them behind bars. In Whoever Fights Monsters, Ressler—the inspiration for the character Agent Bill Tench in David Fincher's hit TV show Mindhunter—shows how he was able to track down some of the country's most brutal murderers.
Ressler, the FBI Agent and ex-Army CID colonel who advised Thomas Harris on The Silence of the Lambs, used the evidence at a crime scene to put together a psychological profile of the killers. From the victims they choose to the way they kill to the often grotesque souvenirs they take with them—Ressler unlocks the identities of these vicious killers. And with his discovery that serial killers share certain violent behaviors, Ressler goes behind prison walls to hear bizarre first-hand stories from countless convicted murderers, including Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy; Edmund Kemper; and Son of Sam. Getting inside the mind of a killer to understand how and why he kills is one of the FBI's most effective ways of helping police bring in killers who are still at large.
Join Ressler as he takes you on the hunt for the world's most dangerous psychopaths in this terrifying journey you will not forget.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Former FBI agent Ressler ( Sexual Homicide ) coined the term ``serial killer'' in the 1970s. Writing with Schachtman ( Skyscraper Dreams ), he recounts in straightforward, fact-filled style his interviews with such infamous murderers as Edmund Kemper, Charles Manson, John Wayne Gacy, William Heirens and Ted Bundy. Onetime head of the FBI's Criminal Personality Research Project, Ressler corrects the misleading, romanticized criminal profiles found in the novels of Thomas Harris and Mary Higgins Clark; recalls how he compiled his ground-breaking, close-to-the-mark profiles of actual criminals who were later apprehended; and tells how he worked with mental-health professionals to explore killers' personality traits. Before Ressler, the FBI knew surprisingly little about dangerous criminals. His quest--catching and understanding criminals--absorbs and unsettles the reader, placing true crime in the real world. Photos not seen by PW.
Customer Reviews
Couldn’t Put Down
Grisly, gross, gory. Intriguing look into the work and life of an FBI idol.
Great Read
Interesting book by an ex-FBI agent that explores the minds of various serial killers and exposes the procedures and processes that led to their capture.
Whoever Fights Monsters
I enjoyed this book, especially the chapters where Ressler describes how the profiling contributed to capturing and convicting murderers. I would recommend this book to anyone currently working in law enforcement.
I would have enjoyed the book more and rated it higher if a few changes had been made:
-Focus much more on how the police actually figured out who the murderers were and how they built the case against them, including many more details of the clues, techniques, interviews, and interrogations.
-Acknowledge that just like psychiatrists were duped by serial murderers, so might profilers have been regularly duped.
-Leave out his inconsistent beliefs on sentencing.
-Leave out that he testified on Dahmer's behalf... or better yet, not have done so.