A Killer by Design: Murderers, Mindhunters, and My Quest to Decipher the Criminal Mind

TW: Graphic descriptions of violence, murder, kidnapping, sexual assault, domestic abuse, abuse against children, animal abuse, misogyny; sexism, racism, mental health Forensic nurse, Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess dives into how her pioneering research on sexual assault and trauma lead to her working with the FBI Mindhunters (aka the Beahvioral Science Unit) to capture some of the history’s most violent offenders. This goes over her recruitment, her helping them create questions to ask offenders, which eventually leads to profiling, and the capture of multiple violent offenders like Ed Kemper (the Co-Ed Killer), Dennis Radar (BTK), and Henry Wallace (the Taco Bell Strangler). This was a fascinating look at the history of profiling and diving into why killers do what they do. Before this month I had never heard of Ann Wolbert Burgess, which is crazy because I was once working on a criminal justice degree and learned about profiling, but her name was never mentioned! I really enjoyed learning about how she helped create a method of criminal profiling and how they eventually used it to capture multiple offenders. It was fascinating learning how these profiles happened and how that information was used, or not used, to later catch a killer. One of the best parts of this for me though was that Ann didn’t focus only on the killers. She continuously centers the victims of these crimes and never lets you forget that these were people who mattered and that their lives were cruelly cut short by depraved men. It is very obvious throughout this book that the victims are what are really important in these cases, not the serial killers that the media make famous and give all the attention to. Overall, this was fascinating and informative. It really showcased a woman who tries to take no fame from her accomplishments and brings her achievements to light.