Mindhunter

i had no interest in this book until I found out that one of the main subjects of this book was a serial killer, Ed Kemper.
He's a serial killer that i find the most interesting. He is very different and reading this just proves my point more. The detective in this book holds Ed Kemper on a pedestal to every other serial killer. “unlike Ed kemper” “they weren't acting like Ed kemper” “ed kemper this” “ed kemper that” the detective compared every single case and killer to Ed Kemper.
Ed Kemper committed insanely gruesome crimes. Decapitated girls, killed his grandparents, killed a family friend and then decapitated his mother and sexually assaulted her decapitated head. Yeah... its disturbing which makes it so damn confusing that Ed Kemper committed these crimes. The author (detective) said he liked Ed. The prison guards love ed. Everyone enjoys his company and find him to be a splendid guy. Every serial killer is “charming” but professionals have said that Ed wasn't putting on any act, he was just a very nice guy. He is famous for being 6 foot 9 and large so hes a giant. He's a serial killer that turned himself in once he killed his mum. He was very open about his murders and let police use him as research to catch other serial killers. Its insane how much everyone liked him. Hes still alive, hes like 70 now and i hope he dies in prison but i think hes more loved in prison then he would be out of it. People LOVE him. He's a teachers pet but the prison version.
So its weird, hes such a likeable guy that no one suspected, he wasnt ever suspected until he turned himself in. Police hung up on him because they didnt believe him but he kept ringing to give his confession.

watch his interviews on youtube if you want a better perspective into him. Hes insanely smart and oddly calming but his crimes make me want to vomit.

This was fine. I'm giving it the benefit of the doubt and going with four stars. The actual crime parts are fascinating and really well told. The parts about Douglas himself or other general info are so boring/poorly written.

Unlike many readers, I came to the book “Mindhunter” because I wanted to watch the Netflix series. The book is filled with actual cases Douglas assisted with, so if you are a fan of true crime, you will enjoy it. I was intrigued by the novel techniques Douglas used to capture killers. His profiles were often spot-on, but he was also a pioneer of using the media to draw out criminals, and he also created some effective interrogation tactics. Some of the cases Douglas describes are familiar to fans. Once again, I recommend the book to any true crime fan for the wealth of law enforcement information. I loved reading about how Douglas and his team solved these terrible crimes. However, “Mindhunter” flags whenever Douglas inserts too much of his personality–primarily his ego–into it. He constantly boasts about how busy and successful he was, how he flouted FBI conventions to get things done, how he singlehandedly developed the profiling wing, how his profiles were never wrong, even things as unnecessary to the story as how successful he was with women and how attractive his wife was. I suppose it takes a great deal of confidence to create profiles of unsubs and pass them off to other law enforcement personnel, convinced of their accuracy. Douglas at one point also veers from his profiles and starts giving the reader his opinions on capital punishment and ways to fix the amount of violent crime in the US. He is of course entitled to his beliefs, and he has a lot of direct experience to base them on, but they do not always have a place in this book. Douglas never shows us any adversity. Except for one case (Green River killer), he never mentions a profile that did not work. He even depicts his relationship with his wife as more successful now than ever, even though she divorced him. And he talks up his TV appearances and the fact he advised Thomas Harris (“Tom”) when Harris was writing books like “Silence of the Lambs.” We get it: Douglas is awesome. But he never seems to realize that his ego and opinions take a backseat to the gruesome killers in this book and how the killers were ultimately caught in the end. I enjoyed this and may pick up book two in this series but I did not love it.