When a Killer Calls: A Haunting Story of Murder, Criminal Profiling, and Justice in a Small Town (Cases of the FBI's Original Mindhunter, #2)

by John E. Douglas

To put it in its simplest terms, the more common and ordinary a crime, the harder it is to solve using our methods.

As long as individual men and women have the power and agency to exercise free will and choice, evil will continue to exist, and it must be challenged and fought.

Though not on the level of the Smith family, I tried to maintain a degree of faith, yet it always plagued me to wonder if death truly was the end.

“God does not do what has been done here. It is because of the confusion and the sin and depravity of man that we’ve come to an occasion like this.”

The reverend described how one American reporter looked on the devastation and said, “I cannot believe in God after seeing this.” A Welsh farmer searching for his own son said, “Friend, the God I know is here weeping with us. Don’t ever forget one day He lost His child too.”

She’d told me beforehand that she felt manipulative acting out this scenario, which was preplanned rather than a spontaneous gesture, and as I watched her, I had to concede to myself that I was manipulating her, just as the UNSUB had been doing. Though the motivation was different, I knew it was still distressing to her.

I’ve always felt that intuition can be a powerful force and Ellis swore to Shuler that he’d never question his wife’s again.

WHEN JUDGE SMITH HAD DISMISSED THE JURY FOR THE EVENING, AND JUST BEFORE he adjourned court, he addressed the two lead attorneys. “You two have been exemplary in regard to the trial in this case and to your kindness to me. It has been a long trial, and I think that the slight amount of friction in the air at times just shows what good lawyers both of you are.”

it is difficult to rehabilitate someone who has not been habilitated in the first place.