John E. Douglas

“Serial murder may, in fact, be a much older phenomenon than we realize. The stories and legends that have filtered down about…

— John E. Douglas

“Manipulation. Domination. Control. These are the three watchwords of violent serial offenders.”

— John E. Douglas

“One of the first things every trainee is taught is that an FBI agent only shoots to kill. The thinking that went…

— John E. Douglas

“Traditionally, most murders and violent crimes were relatively easy for law enforcement officials to comprehend. They resulted from critically exaggerated manifestations of…

— John E. Douglas

“It all comes down to this: Whenever theory supersedes evidence, and prejudice deposes rationalism, there can be no real justice.”

— John E. Douglas

“of Edgar Allan Poe’s 1841 classic “The Murders in the Rue Morgue,” may have been history’s first behavioral profiler.”

— John E. Douglas

“from the Adairsville PD. What you’ve got to do is imply that you understand the subject, understand what was going through his…

— John E. Douglas

“I knew the way these guys operated; I'd seen it over and over again. They had a need to manipulate and dominate…

— John E. Douglas

“By studying as many crimes as we could, and through talking to the experts—the perpetrators themselves—we have learned to interpret those clues…

— John E. Douglas

“So much of what a law enforcement officer does is difficult to share with anyone, even a spouse. When you spend your…

— John E. Douglas

“Even though their crimes were completely different, the one thing the maladjusted genius Ted Kaczynski and the sadistic but banal underachiever Dennis…

— John E. Douglas

“If a bank robber tapes over the lens of a surveillance camera, that’s MO. If he feels a need to tear his…

— John E. Douglas

“I've come out many times publicly in support of the death penalty. I've stated that I'd be more than willing personally to…

— John E. Douglas

“The problem with offering up the top guy, in addition to encouraging other desperate little people to try the same thing, is…

— John E. Douglas

“Behavior reflects personality. The best indicator of future violence is past violence. To understand the "artist," you must study his "art." The…

— John E. Douglas

“As with everything else in my life, I decided that if we were all going to get through this in one piece,…

— John E. Douglas

“Put yourself in the position of the hunter. That's what I have to do. Think of one of those nature films: a…

— John E. Douglas

There are certain crimes that are simply too cruel, too sadistic, too hideous to be forgiven.

— John E. Douglas

“And yet often when I was out in the park or the woods, say, with my own little girls, I'd seen something…

— John E. Douglas

“Dennis Rader quoted Harvey Glatman as saying, 'It was all about the rope.' What exactly does that mean? The rope symbolized total…

— John E. Douglas

“Could newspapers now be held hostage by any dangerous lunatic who wanted his opinions heard?”

— John E. Douglas

“Since we wrote Mindhunter, the prevalence of certain crimes has changed. Violent crime in general has been on a downward trend, but…

— John E. Douglas

“It's what we are. There was something inherent, deep within the criminal's mind and psyche, that compelled him to do things in…

— John E. Douglas

“freedom is in danger of degenerating into mere arbitrariness unless it is lived in terms of responsibleness. —VIKTOR E. FRANKL, Man’s Search…

— John E. Douglas

“The more I questioned these guys, the more I came to understand that the successful criminals were good profilers.”

— John E. Douglas