September 11 @ 7 pm in Susman Room
In The Killer Across the Table, John E. Douglas, the legendary FBI criminal profiler, number-one New York Times bestselling author, and inspiration for Netflix’s Mindhunter delves deep into the lives and crimes of four of the most disturbing and complex predatory killers, offering never-before-revealed details about his profiling process, and divulging the strategies used to help crack some of America’s most challenging cases. The Killer Across the Table is narrated by Jonathan Groff, who plays Holden Ford on Mindhunter, the character inspired by John E. Douglas.
The FBI’s pioneer of criminal profiling, former special agent John Douglas, has studied and interviewed many of America’s most notorious killers—including Charles Manson, ”Son of Sam Killer” David Berkowitz and ”BTK Strangler” Dennis Rader—trained FBI agents and investigators around and the world, and helped educate the country about these deadly predators and how they operate, and has become a legend in popular culture, fictionalized in The Silence of the Lambs and the hit television shows Criminal Minds and Mindhunter.
Twenty years after his famous memoir, the man who literally wrote the book on FBI criminal profiling opens his case files once again. In this riveting work of true crime, he spotlights four of the most diabolical criminals he’s confronted, interviewed and learned from. Going deep into each man’s life and crimes, he outlines the factors that led them to murder and how he used his interrogation skills to expose their means, motives, and true evil. Like the hit Netflix show, The Killer Across the Table is centered around Douglas’ unique interrogation and profiling process. With his longtime collaborator Mark Olshaker, Douglas recounts the chilling encounters with these four killers as he experienced them—revealing for the first time his profile methods in detail.
Going step by step through his interviews, Douglas explains how he connects each killer’s crimes to the specific conversation, and contrasts these encounters with those of other deadly criminals to show what he learns from each one. In the process, he returns to other famous cases, killers and interviews that have shaped his career, describing how the knowledge he gained from those exchanges helped prepare him for these.
A glimpse into the mind of a man who has pierced the heart of human darkness, The Killer Across the Table unlocks the ultimate mystery of depravity and the techniques and approaches that have countered evil in the name of justic
On November 24, 1981, a year after Sheila's murder, investigators released a section of the FBI profile on the suspected perpetrator. According to the FBI profile, the killer of Sheila Shepherd was a white male who knew the victim well enough to be invited into her apartment. He lives in the city, the FBI theorizes, and is about the same age as the 22 year old victim.
Welcome to Crawlspace. In this episode Tim Pilleri and Lance Reenstierna chat original case investigator Tom Mitchell about Sheila Shepherd's unsolved murder. We also hear from Saratoga Springs Police Department Investigators Chris Callahan and Matt Wilson to discuss the 1980 murder of 22 year old Sheila Shepherd.
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.
How is the book structured? Does the author use any narrative devices like flashbacks or multiple voices in telling the story? How did this affect your reading of the story and your appreciation of the book? Do you think the author did a good job with it?
Would you recommend this work to a non-mystery/thriller fan simply on the basis of its literary merit?
Is the group familiar with the author's previous works? If so, did this book live up to or exceed your expectations of the author?
What kind of language does the author use? Is it objective and dispassionate? Or passionate and earnest? Is it biased, inflammatory, or sarcastic? Does the language help or undercut the author's premise?
If you got the chance to ask the author of this book one question, what would it be?
What do you know, and when did you know it? At what point in the book did you begin to piece together what happened?
Did each killer get a fair amount of time in the book? Do you feel like you understand and know each of their stories? Are there any areas you wished the author had elaborated upon further?
Did you race to the end of the book, or was it more of a slow burn? Were there certain episodes that you found more interesting? Why or why not?
What surprised you most about the book? Were there facts you didn't previously know? Or something you found interesting?
How does the book's title work in relation to the book's contents? If you could give the book a new title, what would it be?
What did you Google while reading the book? What parts of the book intrigued you enough to do more research? If so, why? If not, why not?
What do you think motivated John Douglas to share this story 20 years after his last bestseller?
Do you think John Douglas was honest in his representation of each killer? Was he a reliable narrator? Why or why not? What resources did the author consult? Is the author an authority on this subject? Do they have credibility in this field?
Were you glad you read this book? Would you recommend it to a friend? Do you want to read more work by these authors?
