Pat Brown's journey as a criminal profiler began when she agreed to rent a room to a friend's beau as a favor. Walt was odd, to say the least. He seemed to be a child caught in the body of a young man. He liked to dress in dark colors, and he seemed to be enamored with violence. Although he was glib, Walt was a compulsive liar, and he could not hold a job. Then, Anne Kelley was killed on a path that Walt frequently traveled, and he displayed quite unusual behavior in the aftermath of the death. Brown highly suspected that Walt was involved, and she made it her mission to communicate that to the police. After that, her job is done. Profilers provide information about possible suspects; law enforcement solves cases. 

• Brown works pro bono on cases as a criminal profiler. She is self-taught from the many library books she has read on the subject, and she teaches courses on the art of psychological profiling.
• Brown lays out how to conduct a criminal investigation in the book, including questioning persons of interest and developing a list of the top suspects.
• She reveals interesting information about psychopaths including how and why they make certain decisions before, during, and after the crime.
• She describes details of many crime scenes that she worked on, how she developed criminal profiles, and the investigations of the cases and their resolutions or lack of closure.
• Brown debunks Hollywood portrayals of serial killers (eg, The Silence of the Lambs) in which profilers are portrayed as psychics of clairvoyants. Profilers cannot identify small details about offenders that are unrelated to the crime.
• Criminal profilers use crime scene evidence and conversations with persons close to the victim to develop likely theories that characterize the suspect(s).
• Crimes are not prosecuted due to politics, prosecutors having too many cases, lack of evidence or police ineptness.

Stranger homicides are the hardest cases to solve by far. However, it is very important to remove homicidal psychopaths from the street in order to protect society. No one deserves to die in a heinous manner, and criminal profiling can help the cops do their vital work.

The Profiler: My Life Hunting Serial Killers and Psychopaths by Pat Brown with Bob Andelman, 2010

I like the way that the cases are laid out in this book. I love forensic psychology, and I was fascinated by this book. 

• Pat Brown Criminal Profiling Agency
• SHE: Sexual Homicide Exchange
• Books about serial killers