Book: Profiles in Murder

Russell Vorpagel
True Crime
Da Capo Press / August, 1998
Mass Market / 304 Pages

A victim is stabbed nineteen times but left in a peaceful, resting position. Was her killer a raging psychotic, or as timid as she was?

In a charred house a partially clothed woman is found in her bed with a pornographic magazine and a mirror. Did she die in the fire — or at a sex killer's hands?

Before it was immortalized in The Silence of the Lambs, the FBI Behavioral Science Profiling Unit was pioneered by Russell Vorpagel. Now the legendary profiler takes you into the most intriguing cases of his career — actual cases of serial killings, sex crimes, celebrity murders, and hostage takings.

Showing how profiling turns the chaos and blood of a crime scene into a psychological snapshot of a suspect — his age, his personality, even the model car he drives — Vorpagel illuminates the twisted minds of the most vicious criminals of our time.

From the vampire murderer Richard Trenton Case — who consumed the blood of his victims — to Vorpagel's own duel with an assassin on the island of St. Croix, Profiles in Murder is the chilling real-life story of the human monsters who share our streets — and the men and women who hunt them down.

I picked this book up because I was being nosy. I was looking for the infamous book from Real Housewives New Jersey. Didn't find that one *pout* but did find this one on profilers.

What I liked the Most? This book was freaking cool. I enjoyed the case files & exercises.

What I liked the Least? Now it's the "present", now the "past", in class, in field - it jumped alot

Review: In this engrossing book Russell Vorpagel instructs a class in death investigation. He uses some well known (and some no-so-known) cases to teach the class about some of the intricacies of death investigation, including critical thinking as it relates to solving cases using profiling. One of the major strengths of this book is Vorpagel's use of a myriad of cases to demonstrate his points, while somewhat graphic and shocking it was not an in your face tale of blood and guts without a purpose. His instruction to his class followed by a case study demonstrates his points in full detail. This is one of the best profiling books I have read it focuses on actual case histories. I never got bored with this book.

Recommended to: Someone else interested in the why crimes happen.

Best Quote: "People who drink blood can't have a very good diet."

Challenges: 100+