When requested by a law enforcement agency to assist in a crime scene investigation, the agents at the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) of the FBI Academy provide a behaviorally based suspect profile. Using information received from law enforcement about the crime and the crime scene, the agents have developed a technique for classifying offenders as organized or disorganized. They arrived at this classification method through years of experience. This chapter provides examples of the two types of murderers and represents one of the first research endeavors by the FBI’s National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime. The case examples illustrate the rich interview material gained regarding the thinking and actions of killers.
Profile Characteristics
Organized offenders tend to have a high birth order, often being the firstborn son in a family. The father’s work history is generally stable. Parental discipline is perceived as inconsistent (see table 8-1).
The organized offender has an average or better-than-average IQ but often works at occupations below his abilities. The organized offender has a history of working at a skilled occupation, although his work history is uneven. He also prefers a skilled occupation.
Precipitating situational stress prior to the murder is often present and includes such stresses as financial, marital, relationships with females, and employment problems. The organized offender is socially adept and usually is living with a partner.
Sections reprinted with permission from Sage Publications: Ressler, R.K., Burgess, A.W., Douglas, J.F., Hartman, C.R., and D’Agostino, R.B. Sexual Killers and their victims. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, 1 1986:288-308.
Table 8-1
Profile Characteristics of Organized and Disorganized Murderers
|
Organized |
Disorganized |
|---|---|
Good intelligence |
Average intelligence |
Socially competent |
Socially immature |
Skilled work preferred |
Poor work history |
Sexually competent |
Sexually incompetent |
High birth order status |
Minimal birth order status |
Father’s work stable |
Father’s work unstable |
Inconsistent childhood discipline |
Harsh discipline in childhood |
Controlled mood during crime |
Anxious mood during crime |
Use of alcohol with crime |
Minimal use of alcohol |
Precipitating situational stress |
Minimal situational stress |
Living with partner |
Living alone |
Mobility, with car in good condition |
Lives/works near crime scene |
Follows crime in news media |
Minimal interest in news media |
May change jobs or leave town |
Minimal change in life-style |
The organized offender may report an angry frame of mind at the time of the murder or state that he was depressed. However, he reports himself as calm and relaxed during the commission of the crimes. Alcohol may be used prior to the crime.
The organized offender is likely to have a car that is in good condition. Evidence of continued fantasy can be seen in his taking souvenirs from the victim or crime scene. Newspaper clippings of the crimes are often found during searches of the subject’s residence, indicating that the offender followed the crime investigation in the newspaper.
Crime Scene Characteristics
The crime scene of an organized offender suggests that a semblance of order existed prior to, during, and after the offense. This sense of methodical organization suggests a carefully planned crime that is aimed at deterring detection (see table 8-2).
Although the crime may be planned, the victim is frequently a stranger and is targeted because he or she is in a particular location staked out by the offender. In this sense, the victim becomes a victim of opportunity. Victims of serial murderers have been noted to share common characteristics. The offender often has a preference for a particular type of victim and thus may spend considerable time searching for the “right” victim. As one offender said, “I’m a night person. Plenty of times that I went out looking, but never came across nothing and just went back home. I’d sit waiting and as I was waiting, I was reliving all the others.” Common characteristics of victims selected by an individual murderer may include age, appearance, occupation, hairstyle, and life-style. Targeted victims in this sample included adolescent male youths, hitchhiking female college students, nurses, women frequenting bars, women sitting in automobiles with a male companion, and solitary women driving two-door cars.
Table 8-2
Crime Scene Differences between Organized and Disorganized
Murderers
|
Organized |
Disorganized |
|---|---|
Offense planned |
Spontaneous offense |
Victim a targeted stranger |
Victim or location known |
Personalizes victim |
Depersonalizes victim |
Controlled conversation |
Minimal conversation |
Crime scene reflects overall control |
Crime scene random and sloppy |
Demands submissive victim |
Sudden violence to victim |
Restraints used |
Minimal use of restraints |
Aggressive acts prior to death |
Sexual acts after death |
Body hidden |
Body left in view |
Weapon/evidence absent |
Evidence/weapon often present |
Transports victim or body |
Body left at death scene |
The organized offender is socially adept and may strike up a conversation or a pseudorelationship with the victim as a prelude to the attack. Offenders may impersonate another person’s role as a method of gaining access to a victim. The offender’s demeanor is not usually suspicious. He may be average or above average in appearance, height, and weight; he may be dressed in a business suit, a uniform, or in neat, casual attire. In the organized style of attack, aimed at gaining the confidence of the victim, there is first the effort to strike up a conversation and to use verbal means to capture the victim rather than physical force. The organized offender frequently uses his or the victim’s vehicle in committing the offense.
Rape as well as murder may be the planned crime. Murder is always a possibility following rape; the assailant threatens the victim’s life and shows a weapon. Sexual control is continued past conversation to demands for specific types of reactions (fear, passivity) during the sexual assault. When the victim’s behavior counters being passive and compliant, the offender may increase the aggression.
Control over the victim is also noted in the use of restraints. Some of the restraints include ropes, chains, tape, belts, clothing, chemicals, handcuffs, gags, and blindfolds. The way weapons or restraints are used may suggest a sadistic element in the offender’s plan. The killing is eroticized, as in torture where death comes in a slow, deliberate manner. The power over another person’s life is seen in one example in which a murderer described tightening and loosening the rope around the victim’s neck as he watched the victim slip in and out of a conscious state.
Fantasy and ritual dominate in the organized offender. Obsessive, compulsive traits surface in the behavior and/or crime scene patterns. The offender often brings a weapon with him to the crime, taking it with him upon departure. He carefully avoids leaving evidence behind and often moves the body from the death scene.
Although sexual acts are part of the fantasy planning of the crime, murder may not be a conscious intent until a triggering cue occurs. This is illustrated by the following murderer’s statement:
I had thought about killing her … saying what am I going to do when this is over. Am I going to let her go so she can call the cops and get me busted again? So when she took off running—that decided it in my mind that killing her was what I was going to do.
A Case Example of an Organized Offender
Jeff (a pseudonym) was the youngest of three children, having an older adopted brother and natural sister. The parents separated and divorced when Jeff was seven years old, with both parents remarrying shortly thereafter. Jeff continued to live with his mother even though the second marriage dissolved. He completed age-level work until his senior year in high school when he was involuntarily withdrawn from school because of excessive absenteeism and lack of progress. He was of average intelligence and had aspired to attend college. He was athletically inclined and played league baseball. He was outgoing, often attending social events, and had a close circle of friends, both male and female. He saw himself as a leader, not a follower. At birth, it is reported that he was an Rh baby and required a complete blood transfusion. He has reportedly suffered no major health problems.
Jeff was sent out of state to a psychiatric residential facility following his first felony of rape and burglary at age fourteen. During his nineteen-month stay he received psychotherapy, and the discharge recommendation was that he live at home, attend public school, and continue psychotherapy on a weekly outpatient basis, with his mother actively involved in his treatment. He readily admitted to the use of alcohol and drugs of all types from his early teen years. He worked sporadically throughout his high school years as part of a program in which he attended school in the morning and worked in the afternoon.
His antisocial behavior is recorded at age nine when he and three other boys were caught by the school principal writing “cuss” words on the sidewalk. The boys were required to wash the sidewalks until the words were removed. Starting at age twelve the criminal behavior record begins with the assaultive and disruptive behavior of breaking into an apartment and stealing property valued at one hundred dollars. At age thirteen he was charged with driving without an operator’s license; at age fourteen he was charged with burglary and rape, and he committed two other minor acts of petty larceny and stealing a car before being sent to the residential facility.
Three weeks after returning home from the residential facility, he was charged with attempted armed robbery—an act intended to be rape. This charge took one year to come before the judge for sentencing, and in that time the first rape and murder had been committed but not charged to the offender. The disposition on the attempted armed robbery was probation and outpatient psychotherapy, until his apprehension for the five murders. His psychiatric diagnoses have included adolescent adjustment reaction, character disorder without psychosis, and multiple personality. At the time of his arrest for the murders the young man was nineteen years old, weighed 144 pounds and was five feet, seven inches tall. He was given five life sentences for the five rape murders. After two years of incarceration, he admitted to six additional rapes for which he was never charged. (See table 8-3.)
Victim Profiles. Of the thirteen victims, eight were white, four were black, and one was hispanic. All were female with an age range of seventeen to thirty-four, and all were older than the offender by as much as nine years. Several victims were taller and heavier. Ten victims were total strangers; three were known by sight. Two of the ten stranger-victims recognized him after capture. All of the victims were of middle-income status, and the majority lived in the apartment complex where the offender also lived with his mother. All of the victims except one high school student were employed full-time, working in such positions as teacher, postal supervisor, store buyer, airline stewardess, and administrative assistant. Some victims, in addition, held part-time jobs as well, and/or were continuing their college education. The majority of victims were not married; several were divorced. Two victims were known to have children. Five of the women were raped and murdered; five were raped; two were gang raped; and one escaped from the offender prior to the completion of a criminal act. Most of the victims were approached at knife point as they entered the elevator to their apartment building. All the rape murder victims were abducted from the same location, killed in different areas, and found fully clothed. The time elapsed in locating their bodies ranged from one day to six weeks.
The Offender’s Behavior. The offender’s criminal behavior changed in two major ways: (1) the level of sexual aggression escalated from rape to rape and murder, and (2) the offenses increased in frequency, as noted by the decrease in time between offenses. Of special note are the facts that (1) all rape and murder offenses except the first were committed while the offender was under psychiatric supervision and probationary regulation; (2) the six rapes that were not charged to the offender were also committed while he was under psychiatric supervision and probationary regulation; and (3) the five homicides were neither linked to one offender nor indicated to include rape until the offender was apprehended and described the offenses.
Table 8-3
Escalation of Criminal Behavior
|
Offender’s |
Victim’s | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Date | Age |
Offense |
Age/Race |
Disposition |
9/1971 |
12 |
Petty larceny |
Probation: 11/71-6/72 |
|
9/1971 |
12 |
Disrupting school |
Probation: 11/71-6/72 |
|
10/1972 |
13 |
No operator’s license |
Continued until eighteenth |
|
birthday |
||||
4/1973 |
14 |
Burglary and rape |
25/white |
State Dept. Welfare Inst. (Psychiatr. Center 2/74-8/75) |
6/1973 |
14 |
Petty larceny |
SDWI |
|
7/1973 |
14 |
Breaking and entering |
SDWI |
|
12/1974 |
16 |
Rape |
25/black |
Never charged |
2/1975 |
16 |
Rape |
25/Cuban |
Never charged |
3/1975 |
16 |
Burglary and rape |
17/white |
Never charged |
(Co-offender) |
||||
6/1975 |
16 |
Rape (Co-offender) |
25/white |
Never charged |
9/1975 |
17 |
Attempted armed |
22/white |
Probation and outpatient |
robbery |
treatment under probation 9/1 5/30 |
|||
4/1976 |
18 |
Rape |
25/white |
Never charged |
8/1976 |
18 |
Rape and murder |
24/white |
Life in prison |
3/1977 |
19 |
Rape and murder |
22/white |
Life in prison |
4/1977 |
19 |
Rape and murder |
34/black |
Life in prison |
4/1977 |
19 |
Rape |
25/white |
Never charged |
4/1977 |
19 |
Rape and murder |
27/black |
Life in prison |
5/1977 |
19 |
Rape and murder |
24/white |
Life in prison |
Rape: The First Seven Offenses. The first charged rape (when Jeff was fourteen) involved a twenty-five-year-old neighbor woman. He broke into her apartment, woke her up, and raped her several times, left through her front door, returned to his own apartment and went to sleep. He was apprehended three weeks later.
The second rape (first never-charged rape) occurred when Jeff, age 16, was home for Christmas vacation. The evening before returning to the residential facility, he approached a woman in the elevator to the apartment complex and at knife point took her to another location and raped her. The second never-charged rape (the third in sequence) occurred three months later when he approached a woman in the school parking lot where he was attending a local school for the residential facility. He forced the woman at knife point to drive to her apartment, where he raped her. The third and fourth never-charged rapes included co-offenders. While on a weekend pass, the offender and two patients stole a car, traveled out of state, broke into a house, stole two guns and money, and each raped a seventeen-year-old female who was in the house. Jeff then returned home; however, his mother immediately sent him back to the residential facility, and he was counseled on his runaway behavior. Three months after returning to the facility, Jeff and another patient went to a local swimming pool. They broke into a women’s locker room and raped a young woman, covering her head with a towel.
The fifth offense took place three weeks after Jeff’s release from the residential treatment facility, when he was arrested for attempted armed robbery. He had targeted a woman entering the elevator of the apartment complex, wore a ski mask, and held a knife to the victim. She was successful in escaping:
She broke … pushed me out of the way and started going to the front of the elevator, pushed the button to open the door, started to run, and stumbled. I started to run after her and stumbled over her and at that point the knife fell, and she was on the ground hollering and I was on the ground next to her, scared to death. My mind went blank. I ran out of the building.
The sixth rape (the fifth never-charged rape) took place prior to Jeff’s first rape and murder, and involved a woman he had seen in his own apartment building. He obtained an air pistol, captured her in the apartment elevator, took her to a storage room, and raped her twice, covering her face with her jacket.
During all the rapes, Jeff was concerned about being identified. During the rapes, he either covered the victim’s face, wore a mask, or left town immediately following. However, in the seven offenses, he was caught twice and both times he had worn the mask. Although the first rape victim was not able to identify him positively, the sixth victim did make a positive identification.
Murder: The Last Six Offenses. The last six victims were selected at random as Jeff watched cars drive into the apartment complex where he lived. Once he had targeted someone, Jeff would then walk behind the victim, follow her into the apartment elevator, pull his knife, and tell her it was a stickup. Then they would leave the building, either for the victim’s car or for an area near the apartment complex. In one case the pattern was reversed. Jeff was hitchhiking and was given a ride by a woman who was going to a party in his apartment complex. She left him off at his building; he then watched her park her car and then ran across the complex, entered the elevator, and captured her. All the abductions and murders occurred within his own territory. Thus, known territory was a distinct advantage: “Going somewhere that I didn’t know or where the cops patrolled might get me caught. I knew what time the cops came by in the morning because I’d be sitting there.” Indeed he was right. One of the reasons he was not caught until after the fifth murder was that the police were looking for strangers and suspicious characters—not a teenager living in the area.
Jeff’s use of either verbal and/or physical strategies to assert control over the victim depended on the initial response of the victim. The victim who was compliant with the show of a weapon received no additional threats or orders. Victims who screamed received verbal threats, and those who refused to cooperate were physically struck, as in the following case.
She faints and falls down on the floor. I pat her face. She wakes up, has a real frightened look on her face and she starts to scream. I stick the gun to her head and tell her if she screams I’m going to blow her head off. She asks what I want and I tell her I want money and to rape her. She balked on that and said, “No white man doing that to me.” I’m thinking she’s one of those prejudiced types. I backhanded her. She whimpered. I told her to take off her clothes. She refuses. I cocked the trigger back and she started hurrying up. And this time I’m feeling good because I’m domineering over her and forcing her to do something and I’m thinking this prejudiced bitch is going to do what I want her to do.
Interaction between Victim and Offender. Reconstruction of the victims’ talk and actions as viewed from the offender’s perspective reveals that conversation and behavior serve either to neutralize or escalate the affective state of the offender.
Rape murder victim one, rape victim eight: After the rape had taken place and both were dressing, Jeff states that he had not decided what to do with the victim and that her attempt to escape angered him, which resulted in an increase in aggression.
She took off running down the ravine. That’s when I grabbed her. I had her in an arm lock—she was bigger than me. I started choking her and she started spitting up on my arm. She started stumbling; lost consciousness. We rolled down the hill into the water. I banged her head against the side of a rock and held her head under water.
Death in this case was caused by strangulation.
Rape murder victim two, rape victim nine: The victim’s talk consisted of many questions that served to annoy Jeff: “She asked all kinds of questions: why I wanted to do this; why did I pick her; didn’t I have a girlfriend; what was my problem? I am resenting this all the time, telling her to shut up.” As Jeff was driving after the rape, he says that he was uncertain as to his actions. The victim questions his next move and then acts to counter his control of the car.
She asked what I was going to do: kill her or tie her up and leave her. I told her I hadn’t decided. I felt I had decided to let her go but would knock her out and tie her up or shoot her—not killing her—but hurt her to where she would know that if she did say anything that someone would be after her to scare the hell out of her. So she started going down the road, stomps on the gas and says, “If you don’t throw that gun out of the car right now I’m going to run into this tree down here.” She’s going about 70 miles per hour. I turned the ignition off and stepped my foot on the brakes and the car slides sideways. Then she gets out and runs across the road to the barbed wire fence. She is screaming. It’s just getting light out. I get the knife. She’s run into the woods. I go into the woods after her. I see her run from behind a tree and that’s when I go after her. From then on I knew I had to kill her. She trips and falls over a log and that’s when I catch up to her and I just start stabbing her.
The victim was stabbed fourteen times in the chest.
Rape murder victim three, rape victim ten: Jeff claimed he had not decided whether he would kill this victim. He would not let her talk as they drove in the car because “the more I got to know about women the softer I got.” He ordered the victim to be quiet and to turn the car radio on. He said he decided to kill her when he heard her moving from the place where he left her: “I was thinking … I’ve killed two. I might as well kill this one too … because something in me was wanting to kill. I said to myself that I had to preserve and protect myself.” Jeff stabbed the victim, and the cause of death was twenty-one stab wounds to the left thorax and upper abdomen.
Rape victim eleven: Jeff had decided to kill this victim but her talking saved her life. She told him that her father was dying of cancer and that she was very depressed over that fact. This talk evidently neutralized Jeff’s aggression (“She had it bad already”), and he decided to let her live.
I thought of my own brother who had cancer. I couldn’t kill her … I took the car keys and threw them out in the woods and told her not to move for ten minutes, that I was going to be in the woods watching, but during that time I was running.
Rape murder victim four, rape victim twelve: Jeff had decided to kill this victim.
She put back on her clothes. We took a short cut. I decided to kill her then. Had to go up an embankment. I helped her, and as I started to climb up, she had ahold of my hand like she’s trying to help. She let go of my hand and swings down with her hand and she scratched me across the side of the face with her long nails. I got mad and she started to run. I got up from falling down … she ran into a tree and I caught her. We wrestled, rolled over the embankment into the water … She was fighting and she was strong. But I put her head underneath the water and I just sat there with my hands on her neck. I saw bubbles coming up and then the bubbles stopped. I sat there maybe a good forty-five minutes before I got out of the water.
The cause of death for this victim was forced drowning.
Rape murder five, rape victim thirteen: The victim’s talk led Jeff to realize that she knew him. This knowledge escalated the fear of disclosure and, in turn, led to Jeff’s confessing the four previous murders.
I realized I had known her younger brother until he was killed in an accident. I met her at a funeral and she had been really broken up about it. So she knew me and I knew I had to kill her. I told her I was the one who did the four murders in that area.
The cause of death was multiple (more than fifty) stab wounds.
Following the murders, Jeff would usually take some item of jewelry from the victim’s body for a souvenir, go back to the victim’s car and search through her purse for money, drive the victim’s car for an extended time period, park the victim’s car several blocks from his apartment, return to his apartment and go to bed, and watch the television and read the newspapers to see if the body was discovered.
Profile Characteristics
The disorganized offender is likely to be of below average intelligence or of low birth status in the family. Also, harsh parental discipline is sometimes reported in childhood. The father’s work history is unstable, and the disorganized offender seems to mirror this pattern with his own inconsistent and poor work history (see table 8-1).
Typically, this offender is preoccupied with recurring obsessional and/or primitive thoughts and is in a confused and distressed frame of mind at the time of the crime.
The disorganized offender is socially inadequate. Often he has never married, lives alone or with a parental figure, and lives in close proximity to the crime scene. This offender is fearful of people and may have developed a well-defined delusional system. He acts impulsively under stress, finding a victim usually within his own geographic area.
The offender is also sexually incompetent, often never having achieved any level of sexual intimacy with a peer. Although the offenders in this sample claimed to be heterosexual, there is a clear suggestion that the disorganized offender is ignorant of sex and often may have sexual aversions.
Crime Scene Characteristics
The overall impression given by the disorganized crime scene is that the crime has been committed suddenly and with no set plan of action for deterring detection. The crime scene shows great disarray; it has a spontaneous, symbolic, unplanned quality. The victim may be known to the offender, but the age and sex of the victim do not necessarily matter (see table 8-2).
If the offender is selecting a victim by randomly knocking on doors in a neighborhood, the first person to open a door becomes the victim. The offender kills instantly to have control; he cannot take the risk that the victim will get the upper hand.
The offender uses a blitz style of attack for encountering the victim. He either approaches the victim from behind, suddenly overpowering her, or he kills suddenly, as with a gun. The attack is a violent surprise, occurring out of the blue and in a location where the victim is going about his or her usual activities. The victim is caught completely off guard.
The offender depersonalizes the victim. Specific areas of the body may be targeted for extreme brutality. Overkill or excessive assault to the face is often an attempt to dehumanize the victim. Destruction to the face may also indicate that the killer knows the victim or that the victim resembles or represents a person who has caused the offender psychological distress. The offender may wear a mask or gloves, cover the victim’s face as he attacks, or blindfold her. There is minimal verbal interaction aside from orders and threats. Restraints are not necessary, as the victim is killed quickly.
Any sexually sadistic acts, often in the form of mutilation, are usually performed after death. Offenders have attempted a variety of sexual acts, including ejaculating into an open stab wound in the victim’s abdomen. Evidence of urination, defecation, and masturbation in the victim’s clothing and home has been found. Mutilation to the face, genitals, and breast, disembowelment, amputation, and vampirism may also be noted on the body.
Disorganized offenders might keep the dead body. One murderer killed two women and kept their body parts in his home for eight years. He made masks from their heads and drums and seat covers from their skins. Earlier he had exhumed the bodies of eight elderly women from their graves and performed similar mutilative acts to their bodies.
The death scene and crime scene are often the same for the disorganized offender, with the victim being left in the position in which she or he was killed. If the offender has mutilated the body, it may be positioned in a special way that has significance to the offender.
No attempt is made to conceal the body. Fingerprints and footprints may be found, and the police will have a great deal of evidence to use in their investigation. Usually, the murder weapon is one obtained at the scene and is left there, providing investigators with evidence.
A Case Example of a Disorganized Offender
Murder 1: A husband returning from work at 6:00 P.M. discovered his wife’s dead body in the bedroom of their home. The autopsy revealed that she had been murdered sometime in the morning after being confronted by the assailant as she took garbage outside. The victim was shot in the head four times and thereafter disemboweled with a knife obtained in her home. No evidence of sexual assault or molestation was found, other than slash wounds to breasts and mutilation to internal reproductive organs. The victim was first slashed in the abdomen, and the assailant pulled her intestines out of the body cavity. The victim had what was later determined to be animal feces in her mouth. Garbage was strewn about the house. A yogurt cup was found, and indications were that the murderer used the cup to collect blood from the victim, which he then drank.
Crime 2: On the same date, a house burglary occurred within a quarter mile of the victim’s residence. Garbage was strewn throughout the home. Evidence indicated that the burglar urinated on female clothing and also defecated in the house. No one was home at the time.
Crime 3: Two days later the carcass of a dog was found in the same neighborhood. The dog had been shot in the head, and the bullet was determined to have come from the gun used in the first murder. The dog was also disemboweled.
Murder 2: Four days after the first slaying, a woman, who was waiting for a male friend to pick her up for a day’s outing with her next-door neighbor, noticed that the man’s car had pulled into her neighbor’s driveway. She telephoned to say she would be right over; receiving no answer, however, she looked out her window again, only to see that the man’s car had gone. Becoming suspicious, she went over to the house and discovered the bodies of her male friend, her female neighbor, and the neighbor’s child. A twenty-two-month-old infant was also missing from the home; however, a bullet hole was found in the pillow of the crib where the child had been, with what appeared to be brain and skull matter. This was also found in the half-filled bathtub, indicating that the child had been killed and the body washed and removed from the scene. The woman victim had been severely slashed and mutilated. She had been murdered in the bedroom, where she was also disemboweled from the breastbone to the pelvic area. Internal organs, including spleen, kidneys, and reproductive organs, had been removed and mutilated. No attack was noted to external genitals. The murderer had attempted to remove an eye and had also inserted a knife in the anal canal, cutting the victim severely in this area. Definite fingerprints with blood were found on the abdomen, shoulders, and legs of this victim. Additionally, a ring of blood was found on the floor, indicating that a bucket-type container was used for collecting blood.
The following information was extracted from a profile developed by the BSU.
Suspect description: white male aged twenty-five to twenty-seven; thin, undernourished appearance; single; living alone in a location within one mile of abandoned station wagon owned by one of the victims. Residence will be extremely slovenly and unkempt, and evidence of the crimes will be found at the residence. Suspect will have a history of mental illness and use of drugs. Suspect will be an unemployed loner who does not associate with either males or females and will probably spend a great deal of time in his own residence. If he resides with anyone, it will be with his parents. However, this is unlikely. Suspect will have no prior military history; will be a high school or college dropout; probably suffers from one or more forms of paranoid psychosis.
The police narrowed their search to a one-mile radius of the stolen vehicle, seeking a man of the suspect’s description. A twenty-seven-year-old white male, five feet, eleven inches tall, and weighing 149 pounds, was located in an apartment complex within the same block as the abandoned car. The man was in possession of a gun that matched the murder weapon in the slayings. Also found in the apartment were numerous body parts thought to be animal and possibly human. The man had previously been diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic and had been committed to a mental facility after he was found sucking blood from a dead bird. After being released, he was found bloodstained and wearing a loincloth in the desert. He told police he was sacrificing to flying saucers. He was released by police; however, a child’s body was later found in the same vicinity. In his apartment evidence was found indicating his obsession with blood, mutilation, and possible cannibalism and devouring of animals.
This research study of differences between organized and disorganized sexual murderers in regard to profile characteristics and crime scene indicators provides an important foundation for the investigative technique of criminal profiling. We have established that variables do exist that may be useful in drawing up a criminal profile and that differentiate between organized and disorganized sexual murderers. It is important to be aware of the limitations of this study. We do not mean to imply that all unsolved cases can be profiled successfully. We wish to emphasize that this study was exploratory and indicates that we have identified significant variables in crime scene analysis.