Notes from the FBI's Robert Ressler

Makes you wonder why Spain and third-world countries with large populations don't make the cut. And, why so heavily dominated by countries with an "English" heritage? Why aren't Scotland and Ireland and Wales mentioned? All good questions, Ja? But I digress.

From the excellent book "Whoever Fights Monsters" :

Analyzing facts from a fresh incident : Most sexual killers are under 35.  Paranoid schizophrenic. Thin? Ernst Kretchmer (DE), William Sheldon (Columbia) - body types - mental temperament correlation - thin - asthenic - tend to be introverted schizophrenic - don't eat well, don't think in terms of nourishment, skip meals. Don't care about cleanliness, neatness - puts others off - so they live alone, messy. Wouldn't have been in the military - too disorganized. Probably didn't finish college. Introvert with problems dating back to pubescent years. If he had a car, would be a wreck - dirty. So, probably lived nearby - too disorganized to drive somewhere premeditatedly. 

"Sexually dysfunctional adults" : From birth to age 6,7 the most important figure in a child's life is the mother. Child learns what love is. If relationship is cruel, distant, unloving, neglectful - little touching, emotional warmth and demonstration of cherishment and affection. Deprived of love - ended up paying during remainder of their lives. Task of first 12 years of life is socialization. 

Many of the pre-crime stressors that precipitate murderous actions also occur to normal people - job loss, relationship breakups, financial strains. But normal people deal with them from a scaffolding of helpful normal pattern of development. In potential murderers, the scaffolding is faulty to start with and so are the mental mechanisms for dealing with the stressful event. 

It's always good to do your own research

A shocker - Ressler narrates this one matter-of-factly - but, he didn't know he was wrong. Worse, he was such an expert that he believed himself. It's scary what Google throws up - nearly twenty years later. In his defense, he didn't have DNA testing available at that time. Consider : Lori Roscetti and a fellow medical student get into her car at one level of the garage. She drives to another level where he exits and she assumes the car door is locked. She is normally conscientious (is circumspect a better word) about such matters. The medical center is at the edge of a sketchy neighborhood at the Univ. of Illinois Circle Campus. At 5:30 AM the car and body are found next to a railroad trestle next to an impoverished black community and not more than 0.5 mi from a hospital. The report reveals a savage end. Her empty wallet was found in the car. There were no suspects. A platonic friend who had sought more but been spurned was in town that time and was on the police radar. A janitor at the medical center was also a suspect. Now, in his own words :

"In terms of profiling, the case was easy. And, after viewing aerial photos of the crime scene area, the medical examiner's report and all the other documents, I gave an oral profile to Tom Cronan at his home. My guess was based on what I thought was likely to have happened after Roscetti had left the garage. She had probably stopped at a light in this run-down district. Some people had likely come up to her, blocked the car and one had pulled the door, which happened to be open, even though she had thought it was looked. These people then forced her to drive to the somewhat isolated location where they had raped, killed and robbed her. To my mind, this had been an opportunistic crime. The attempt to rob had been the primary motivator and the sexual assault was secondary. The murder had probably been committed to prevent the victim from identifying her attackers and it reflected the psychopathic nature of the group of attackers. The presence of a good deal of seminal fluid had made it likely that there had been more than one killer. It had all the hallmarks of a gang event. I told the police to look for a group of black youths, somewhere between three and six males ranging in age from 15 to 20 who would previously have been in jail, and who lived close by the scene of the abduction and the railroad trestle where Roscetti had been killed. In white middle-class neighborhoods, kids tend to "hang out" in single age groups - all 15 year-olds for example, or all 18 year-olds. But, in black neighborhoods, there is often a mixture of ages with young ones accompanying older ones. The murder took place well before the rape of the jogger in Central Park by a bunch of kids who had gone "wilding." If I had known the term wilding then, I would have used it to describe what I thought had happened in the murder of Lori Roscetti. The anal assault convinced me that at least some of the gang members had already been incarcerated, because such assaults are common in prisons. Was this an obvious profile? Yes and no. As I indicated earlier, the police were intensely investigating people personally linked to Roscetti and continuing on that path would have taken them further and further astray. The profile allowed the police to refocus the investigation and thereby sped up the case. Armed with the profile and the lure of reward money for information, police put the word out on the streets of the black neighborhoods of the crime sites that they were looking for young black men who had bragged of taking money from a medical student or doing anything else associated with Roscetti's murder. The community, rather readily, came up with a number of nicknames - Shim Sham was one - and youngsters were hauled in for questioning. The youngest was 14. Interrogated, he admitted to the crime, as did two other perpetrators aged 17 and 16. Between them, these latter two already had more than two dozen arrests and convictions for previous offenses and both had served time in youth reformatories. A fourth youth was being sought when the whole story emerged. After a night out, the foursome had run out of money and were looking for a car to rob. They waited for 15 minutes until they saw a car with a lone white female stopped at a light. Two had stood in front of the car, betting that the driver wouldn't run them over, while another tried the doors. Finding a door open, he climbed into it and opened the other doors for his companions. After that, the foursome had driven Roscetti to the trestle sight where they stabbed her with a sharpened stick she had kept in the car for protection and had put her over the hood of the car and raped her before beating her into unconsciousness. When she stirred again they smashed in her head with a piece of concrete wrapped in a plastic bag and ran her car over her body. Then the attackers had walked to the Ablo Projects where three of them lived and where the fourth used to reside. The fourth suspect, 18, eventually surrendered in the custody of a local television news man who was known for such assistance. Later, several of the suspects tried to recant their early confessions and claimed these had been coerced by the police. The jury evidently didn't believe the recantations and all four were convicted. Three were sent to prison and the youngest to a youth facility. The escort system Lori had fought for was reinstated. Neither the convictions nor the beefed up security brought Lori Roscetti back of course, but the laws vengeance and the future protection of other potential victims were the only solace available to the community, to Lori's family and friends and to Dr. Cavanaugh and the staff of the medical center."

What should stand out in this story? If you guessed that the youths tried to recant their confessions, you're absolutely right. It rang a bell - I think either "The Invisible Gorilla" or "Sleights of Mind" mentioned how a victim of police tactics can be made to believe he is guilty of a "crime" - intense interrogation. And that's exactly what this case was. 

https://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-xpm-2004-12-17-0412170232-story.html

The saddest part is how Ressler puts two and two together without thinking how stereotypes might be playing with him. If anything, the fact that the indicted youths had tried to recant their confessions should have tipped him off. But, what could he have done? Who else would you look for? 

Where was he right? It was a "gang" - but, in this case, just a duo.

There was diversity in age - the real perpetrators (one of the killer's brothers kept the secret for 16 years and only spilled after DNA evidence cleared those jailed in 2002, to collect the $25k reward) were 22 and 30 at the time!

I say - given the savagery that was committed - could a 14 year old really have been involved? When he heard about that, shouldn't he have gotten more involved and asked some tough questions? Maybe about the nature of the interrogations?

Who stuck it out to make it happen? Kathleen Zellner

https://www.youtube.com/embed/kcqjyNJ8HBc

How did Ressler come up with the name "serial killer"? When he was growing up, in the 40's he watched The Phantom serials on TV. At the end of each episode, the Phantom would be in a quandary - usually mortal peril. This would create the tension that kept the audience coming back next week. In the case of murderer, at the end of one crime, he feels that the act was not quite perfect in some way and this creates the tension that makes him hungry for the next victim. Hence the name "serial killer." Ressler's words, not mine.

A couple more interesting cases - involving hoaxes. Sometimes a killer is organized enough to throw the police off the real trail. When the FBI gets involved and smells the hoax, though, it's usually game over because it's clear they need to look in the opposite direction to that which the staging suggests.

One serial killer piggy-backed on the nylon strangler, in Columbus, GA. He was naive enough to leave a message in his own voice - which suggested a black accent (he was purporting to represent a gang of white supremacists bent of avenging the recent murders of elderly white women. There was so much fear in that demographic at that time, in Columbus that old ladies were carrying guns in their handbags). His notes to the police referred to cars as vehicles and also "meters" (??). Ressler reasoned, from the inadequate English, that the killer did not have a college degree and was, therefore, an enlisted man. Since the police would first look at those associated with the victim (Gail Johnson was a black prostitute), he sought to lead them in the opposite direction.

In the case of the Yorkshire ripper, in England, the police received a that taunted them. Cluelessly, they used it as evidence, thinking it was the killer. Over beers, Ressler had to explain to his comrades in Bramshill why it was obviously not the case. "Hi Jim." The tone was extrovert. But, the serial killer was most likely a shy introvert. OK, then who should we look for? Oh, we haven't seen the crime scene evidence. We always resist the urge to do a spot profile. But the Brits wouldn't back down. Put up, or shut up. OK then, it's most likely a truck driver or a postal worker or even a policeman - someone who had a pretext for entering the areas of the crimes in a way that rendered him nearly invisible. Sure enough, eventually, they get the guy and he's a truck driver. The tape? It was a hoax perpetrated by a retired police officer who hated the head in charge of this investigation. All in a day's work.