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    Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
    Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
    Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
    Audiobook (abridged)2 hours

    Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit

    Written by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker

    Narrated by John E. Douglas

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    About this audiobook

    Now a Netflix original series

    Discover the classic, behind-the-scenes chronicle of John E. Douglas’ twenty-five-year career in the FBI Investigative Support Unit, where he used psychological profiling to delve into the minds of the country’s most notorious serial killers and criminals.

    In chilling detail, the legendary Mindhunter takes us behind the scenes of some of his most gruesome, fascinating, and challenging cases—and into the darkest recesses of our worst nightmares.

    During his twenty-five year career with the Investigative Support Unit, Special Agent John Douglas became a legendary figure in law enforcement, pursuing some of the most notorious and sadistic serial killers of our time: the man who hunted prostitutes for sport in the woods of Alaska, the Atlanta child murderer, and Seattle's Green River killer, the case that nearly cost Douglas his life.

    As the model for Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs, Douglas has confronted, interviewed, and studied scores of serial killers and assassins, including Charles Manson, Ted Bundy, and Ed Gein, who dressed himself in his victims' peeled skin. Using his uncanny ability to become both predator and prey, Douglas examines each crime scene, reliving both the killer's and the victim's actions in his mind, creating their profiles, describing their habits, and predicting their next moves.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherSimon & Schuster Audio
    Release dateNov 1, 1995
    ISBN9780743541381
    Author

    John E. Douglas

    John Douglas, the legendary FBI criminal profiler and veteran author of true crime books, has spent over twenty-five years researching and culling the stories of America’s most disturbing criminals. A veteran of the United States Air Force, he has directly worked and/or had overall supervision in over 5,000 violent crime cases over the past 48 years. He is currently chairman of the board of the “Cold Case Foundation.” One of the foremost experts and investigators of criminal minds and motivations, he currently lives in the Washington, D.C. area. Mark Olshaker is an Emmy Award-winning documentary filmmaker and author of ten nonfiction books and five novels, including Einstein’s Brain and The Edge. His books with former FBI Special Agent and criminal profiling pioneer John Douglas, beginning with Mindhunter and, most recently, Law & Disorder, have sold millions of copies and have been translated into many languages. Mindhunter is now a dramatic series on Netflix, directed by David Fincher. He and his wife Carolyn, an attorney, live in Washington, D.C.

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    Reviews for Mindhunter

    4/5

    674 ratings18 reviews

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    • 5/5
      So interesting. I’m a MFM fan so this was a must read for me .
    • 3/5
      This book is everything I hope it would be. The abridged version only gets 3 stars because it leaves out so much good stuff in the original.. If you're in a hurry then go ahead. I recommend going for the Full length edition.
    • 5/5
      If you like the series you will see more in depth about the characters and challenges.
    • 5/5
      It's not a long so it's great if you're wanting to spend a couple hours hearing some stories from the first known FBI Behavior Analyst. Definitely enjoyed it.
    • 3/5
      Didnt realise this was abridged until the end. Would have liked to have the Unabridged version. Now i dont know what ive missed.
    • 5/5
      Fantastic! Criminal profiling is one of my main interests or hobbies if you want to call it that and this is like the classic primer. John Douglas is the man who coined the term "profiling"; he didn't invent it, but he basically started the modern science we know today. I didn't learn anything new about the psychology, but this was fascinating from an historical point of view as a memoir and a history of the BSU and the FBI itself. Douglas joined the FBI when Hoover was still the Chief and if you know anything about those times you'll know J. Edgar thought the "soft" sciences were a bunch of b.s. and a small clandestine group was working behind his back quietly using psychology on an inquiry-based only system and this is where Douglas first found himself. However, the book starts with Douglas' birth, childhood, college drop-out, military service, etc. before it even gets to his enrollment in the Bureau. I enjoy memoirs and found his writing style highly readable, relishing the book from the get-go. Then, of course, I became fascinated when Douglas turns to his work in the FBI, relates how profiling worked its way into being a legitimate technique, his famous study of interviewing living serial killers to find out how they thought and his work on famous cases including everything from The Trailside Killer, The Atlanta Child Murders and The Tylenol Murders. Douglas has earned himself some controversy over the years; some people find his writing style arrogant. This is the only book I've read by him but I've got its sequel on hold at the library already! so it won't be my last. Obviously I didn't find him arrogant in the least and his serial killer interviews (conducted with two others) are admittedly a giant breakthrough that even his detractors cannot dismiss.
    • 3/5
      All the stuff dealing with profiling and the crimes was very interesting. Disturbing, obviously, but very interesting. On the other hand, I really didn't care for Douglas as a human being. He's smart and moved the field forward, of course, but he really comes of as having a huge ego and a bit of a douche bag.

      Also hope I don't have nightmares about killers.
    • 3/5
      Those cases are either cherry-picked for the accuracy of profiles or this is witchcraft. The cases are fascinating and disturbing but the author sometimes comes across as a bit deranged himself - occupational disease? I guess working with cases like this all your life would affect everyone.
    • 2/5
      This book is the basis for season 1 of the HBO Mindhunter series, so much so that I wonder what they'll do next. Maybe HBO could use Ressler's book for the next season.

      I've read this and Ressler's Whoever Fights Monsters. Obviously the FBI has competent and motivated people, but it's clear that much of the vaunted Behavioral Science mystique is educated guesswork and cold reading.
    • 3/5
      This was a fascinating look at how criminal profiling got started in the FBI, written by the man who was so integral to its application. Douglas discusses in detail how profiling was used in many infamous, as well as lesser-known, cases (so detailed that it sometimes got hard to read because of what he was describing). I did feel the book, particularly the early chapters, sometimes felt too much like a biography of Douglas, as opposed to a focus on profiling, and that Douglas sometimes came across as bragging a little too much. But everything he accomplished with his team is amazing, and so interesting.
    • 4/5
      Wonderful author who writes an interesting subject.
    • 3/5
      I'm not really a "true crime" guy -- generally hate that stuff, but I found this on my dad's bookshelf a few years ago and it was pretty fascinating.
    • 5/5
      Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit by John E. Douglas, Mark OlshakerUpon retiring, Special Agent John Douglas was finally able to share his story. He is the elite pioneer of what we now know as criminal profiling. He is also the model for the chief male agent in the book and movie, “Silence of the Lambs”. In this book, Douglas takes us into the early days of the FBI’s special unit for this highly specialized field.Special Agent Douglas was involved in several notorious crimes, including John Wayne Gacy, the Tylenol poisoning case, the Atlanta Child Murders, and the Green River Killer. His profiling of the criminal mind was integral in solving these among other major crimes.To hone his skills, Douglas studied and interviewed the likes of infamous serial killers Richard Speck, Charles Manson John Wayne Gacy and other serious offenders. This enabled him to understand the working of their mind, as well as what drove them to commit such heinous crimes.A fascinating psychological read, this is also an excellent account of true criminal justice. Fans of the TV show “Criminal Minds” will certainly appreciate this compelling book.
    • 4/5
      John Douglas takes us through his history first, his experiences growing up, what made him decide to become an FBI agent and how he used profiling even before he became an agent and knew what it was. While he does not mince words when describing crimes the descriptions are neither gratuitous nor graphic, what comes through all his narration is respect and sympathy for the victims. He explains that profiling is an investigation into the why of a crime, and why this is important in solving certain types of crime.He also details the interviews he and another agent had with convicted serial killers and how this has helped him and other agents fine tune their investigative skills. I would recommend this book to those who enjoy reading about investigative technique (profiling) and psychology.
    • 4/5
      This is a great read for someone interested in the basis for and origin of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit. If you are looking for Criminal Minds or Silence of the Lambs, you're out of luck. John Douglas, with the help of Mark Olshaker, provide tremendous insight into the fascinating task of profiling and targeting the most depraved that humanity has to offer. While this book is not one of fast paced action, it will have you flipping the pages faster and faster to see what is next. Even if your fascination with this topic was forged from viewing Silence of the Lambs, this factual look at these monsters and the FBI’s attempt to capture them should still keep you captivated.
    • 3/5
      This is a darkly fascinating topic that begins in an era that defined the FBI's own profile for years afterwards. Douglas follows the evolution of the ISU (then known somewhat unfortunately as 'BS') as he and his colleagues learned to meet the challenges presented by its particular types of quarry... how they identified these men, (down to details as seemingly unrelated as the kind of car they would drive), the existence of 'signatures' as opposed to Modus Operandi, and at the root of it all, what compelled these men to act.The minds described by Douglas are so phenomenally warped as to warrant a branch of law enforcement - a science - simply to keep up. The minds that forced them into the light are simply put, brilliant. The defining concept of 'Mindhunter' is that not only were Douglas and his team catching killers, they were learning from them, ceaselessly, in a bid to be out in front of the next case.Very readable, although with the proliferation of TV and film coverage of 'Behavioural Science', the reader has to make a conscious effort to appreciate the impact of the freshly discovered insights into the profiling of serial killers and violent, sexually motivated criminals.
    • 4/5
      If you're a CSI fan, this is the book for you. Enthralling descriptions of horrific crimes; if you've ever doubted some people are simply born evil, this will cure that conviction. A little self-serving (we heard a few too many times how hard he worked and how skeptical people were), but given the results--getting some of these people off the the streets--he's earned the indulgence.
    • 3/5
      John Douglas was brought to my attention when his talk radio show first aired on the radio. He was a “profiler” for the FBI for many years, retiring from his position as Director of the Behavioral Investigation Unit. In this nonfiction book, he describes how he came to work for the FBI and describes the nature of the work, providing the reader with a general overview. I found the information interesting and am curious to read some of his other books, with more specific focus on the different crimes or types of crimes he investigated.