Review of The Killer Across the Table; Unlocking the secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI's original Mindhunter


The Killer Across the Table
Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI's original MINDHUNTER
by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker

c 2019;Pg 340

 I never thought I’d say this about the subject of serial killers but this book was boring. Boring and tedious.  They highlight a bad guy, who was raised terrible, who terrorized and kills people, is caught and then is analyzed.

This book highlights 4 killers that the author was called in to assist in analyzing and giving opinion and while doing so brings up other cases that he’s worked on.  For those people that are obsessed with all things John Douglas and forensic psychology and serial killers, this is a good read.  However, it’s repetitive from his other books. The 4 killers he reviews are
Joseph McGowan, a high school chemistry teaching who kidnapped, raped and beat a 7 year old neighbor girl.
Joseph Kondro who molested victims and killed two people.

Donald Harvey who was an angel of death, a nurse who possibly killed over 100 people.
Todd Kohlepp who killed 4 people in a cycle shop and then later on kidnapped and killed the male half of a couple and his her on his property. He had killed others but not in a usual serial kind of way. His killings were situational and driven by other issues.


Here are some highlights and salient points that he makes.

“… seemed to characterize the motivation of every one of our offenders:  Manipulation. Domination. Control “ ( pg 18). 
“ The contrasts between them are intriguing and compelling . But so are the similarities.  They are all predators, and all grew up without forming trusting bonds with other human beings during their formative years. And they are all prime exhibits in one of the central debates of behavioral science: nature versus nurture, whether killers are born or made.”  The author addressed that question in his last chapter.

“One of the things that is interesting and pretty consistent amongst serial predators is that two emotional concepts are constantly warring within them. One is a feeling of grandiosity and entitlement. The other is a deep-seated and pervasive sense of inferiority  and inadequacy. “ ( Pg 149)

One of the most head shaking aspects he recounts is one of the serial predators relates that as young as 12 or 13 he “ put together this rape kit and I went to the store after they shut down at eleven…” and “ I pulled the knife on her and stuff and took her out to the Mount Solo area”.  (pg 150). 
Where in the world does that come from ? At 12 or 13,  most kids just want to know what to say or how to get the girls to like them not rape kits and knife threats.

One of the greatest statements, echoed by Stanton Samenow, “ Predators may look and sound and often act like we do, but they don’t think like we do. Their logical process is completely different.” ( pg 156)

In one of the later chapters he goes into some detail of the case of Todd Kohlhepp who was smart and not easy to categorize killer. “ He had some of the inherent nature to become a criminal, but in his case it was nurture – or rather, the lack thereof – from his family and from the law enforcement establishment that fulfilled his destiny.” ( pg

317).  Douglas utilizes his case and the last chapter to bring up the nature versus nurture issue and his conclusion is that it’s a mixture of both. Kohlepp admittedly he was fully responsible for his actions “ But the residual parts of a bad childhood and then prison for so  long just wouldn’t let me walk away from violence and slights” ( pg 323) and “ his unfortunate background had not robbed him of free agency.”
The author states “ Many killer would have it that their murderous actions were not their own choice at all, that killing was a fixed, nonnegotiable action for them. Yet nothing I have seen in all my years of criminal investigation leads me to accept that premise, except in the most extreme cases of mental illness.” ( pg 331).

Overall a good book with some good nuggets who have read his stuff before. 




 

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