TIME: Almanac 1993/TIME Almanac 1993.iso/time/050691/0506360.000

Text File | 1992-08-28 | 8.7 KB | 178 lines

                                                                                BEHAVIOR, Page 68

Mind Games with Monsters


The FBI's behavioral-science unit draws detailed portraits of
killers by focusing on how they commit their crimes

By ANASTASIA TOUFEXIS/QUANTICO


    As the ghastly photographs are passed around the table,
a police officer states the gruesome facts of each case: a
67-year-old white woman found tied up in her bathroom, her face
beaten; a black woman, 55, lying in the hallway of her home, her
head bashed in, apparently by a hammer; an 83-year-old white
woman discovered on her bed, possibly smothered, her lower body
nude . . . In all, 12 middle-aged and elderly women killed
between 1985 and 1988, all of whom dwelled within a 2.6-sq-km
(1-sq.-mi.) urban area.

    Over two days, FBI agent Judson Ray guides and prods
discussion with questions and comments: "Why so many loops in
the rope? You don't need that many to control an old woman . .
. Why is she in the bathroom? It's a closed-in space -- is he
after security, or is he secretive? And why is a pillow in there
-- to muffle her or to make her comfortable for sex? . . . Were
the cuts on the body made before or after she died? Did she die
on him, and he's mad at her? . . . Are any of these cases
related? . . . What kind of person are we looking for?"

    Watching the FBI's behavioral-science unit actually at
work is a far cry from seeing it depicted in the current hit
thriller The Silence of the Lambs. In the film, agent trainee
Clarice Starling, played by Jodie Foster, matches wits and quips
with toothsome terror Hannibal ("the Cannibal") Lecter and
chases down molting madman Buffalo Bill, right into his creepy
lair. In real life, behavioral-science agents remain largely
deskbound at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Va., hunkered down in
a windowless converted bomb shelter 18 m (60 ft.) below ground.
But the film is right on target in one major respect: few people
are as adept at entering the mind games of society's monsters
as are the members of the unit.

    That ability comes from experience. This year the unit,
known more formally as the National Center for the Analysis of
Violent Crime, will assist law-enforcement officials on more
than 1,000 cases. These are not typical assaults but the most
savage, perverse or bizarre offenses, ranging from serial
killings, rapes and child abductions to arson, bombings and
product tampering. "We see the worst of the worst," says agent
Kenneth Lanning.

    The unit also draws on formal research. In the past decade
it has interviewed scores of incarcerated sexual killers,
serial rapists, sexual sadists and child molesters, analyzing
and classifying their behavior so that future cases might be
cracked more swiftly. Such research has led Lanning to conclude,
for instance, that there are two distinct categories (and seven
subtypes) of child molesters. "About 90% are what we call
situational molesters," he says. "They have no real sexual
preference for children and have relatively few victims apiece.
They may turn to a youngster because an adult woman isn't
available." The remaining 10%, he says, have a true sexual
preference for children, and each may have victimized hundreds
of youngsters. To catch an offender, Lanning stresses, "it's
important to know which you're dealing with. They have different
patterns of behavior."

    In fact, to the unit, how a crime is committed is much
more revealing than why. In doing criminal investigative
analysis, more popularly known as profiling, agents pore over
police reports, autopsy and laboratory results, maps, sketches
and photographs of the crime scene. They rarely visit the scene
itself. "Police with a suspect in mind may become biased in
interpreting information," says agent John Douglas, who heads
the profiling branch. "We don't want to be emotionally slanted."
Especially important in understanding the criminal is gathering
information about the victim. "A profile depends on there being
interaction between the offender and victim," observes agent
Peter Smerick. "If it's not there, there isn't much we can do."
Analysts scrutinize a detailed work-up of the victim that
includes physical characteristics, preferred clothing, sexual
habits, likely response to an approach by a stranger and
reaction during an attack. With that information, they
reconstruct the sequence of events before, during and after the
crime.

    Smerick provides an example of how the process can work:
in one rape-murder, the victim was a 22-year-old, blue-eyed
blond secretary who lived in a racially mixed middle-class
community. She was happily married, did not smoke or drink, and
had a pleasant, unassertive personality. She was found tied to
her bed's headboard with the cord cut from a water mattress's
heater. A washcloth was stuffed in her mouth, and she was
blindfolded with her own sweatshirt. Her blouse was ripped open,
and she was nude from the waist down. She had been raped and
sodomized, and several objects had been inserted into her
vagina. She had been stabbed to death with a knife from the
kitchen. A pubic hair found under the victim identified the
attacker as black.

    The unit's analysis: that the assailant made no attempt to
cover up the victim meant he had no respect for her, no remorse
and wished to shock whoever found her. Placing objects inside
her was another way of humiliating his victim, but since they
were inserted after her death, the rapist was not motivated by
sadism. The attacker was able to perform sexually; possibly he
had successful relationships with women. No money was stolen,
and easily salable items like the TV and VCR were left behind,
indicating that he had a source of income. She was tied very
tightly, suggesting that her attacker was strong, possibly a
laborer. There were no signs that he washed up after the attack
in either the bathroom or kitchen; therefore he probably lived
or worked within walking distance. This also suggested he may
have known the victim at least by sight.

    A vital clue was the fact that the victim was bound and
killed with items found in the apartment. This showed that the
rapist was inexperienced -- someone, perhaps, in his early 20s.
Most likely his initial intent was rape, not murder. He
blindfolded his victim and may have chosen to kill her because
the blindfold slipped. Still, despite his inexperience, there
were no signs of panic, though he took great risks in attacking
on a Sunday during the day. He remained coolly in control,
deliberating and improvising as he went along. In short, the
killer was young, highly intelligent, probably with a high
school education, and possessed of a confident manner. The
police eventually arrested a 175-cm, 7.3-kg (5-ft. 9-in.,
160-lb.) black male who was physically strong, very bright and
macho, worked in a fast-food restaurant and had been staying
with his sister one building away from the victim. He was 15
years old.

    "Mistaking age is no big deal," says Douglas, who notes
that profiles indicate emotional, not chronological, age. "A
big miss would be sex or race." Analysts will make an educated
guess about race even in the absence of physical evidence.
Generally, crime is intraracial, with whites preying on whites
and blacks on blacks.

    FBI agents take pains not to exaggerate the powers of
profiling. "It's a myth that a profile always solves the case,"
cautions retired agent Robert Ressler, now a consultant to the
unit. "It's not the magic bullet of investigations. It's simply
another tool." Behavioral analysis can aid in other ways besides
identifying a suspect. It can indicate what the offender might
do after the crime: certain types of killers will return to
where they disposed of the body; a remorseful murderer is likely
to visit the victim's grave.

    Profiling can also help find new evidence. Sexual killers
often take a souvenir or trophy from their victim, perhaps a
piece of jewelry, which they keep to feed their fantasies or
give to a girlfriend or mother. Some child molesters maintain
extensive kiddie-pornography collections, including photographs
and videotapes of themselves in sex acts with their victims.
Says agent James Wright: "If you can find the porn collection,
it nails down the conviction."

    Do films like The Silence of the Lambs (and articles like
this one) help criminals learn the unit's tricks of the trade?
Probably so, but unit members are not too worried. Much of
behavior -- criminal or not -- is automatic, the result of the
way a person thinks. "For many of these people, fantasy consumes
their lives," observes Wright. "They follow their own scripts."
Rewriting them is difficult, no matter how much they might know
about the FBI.