What’s more disturbing than a show about killers and the men that have to go after them? How about the fact that some shows, like Mindhunter, are based upon the actual people that performed some of the most heinous crimes in history? The Netflix program is based upon the men that committed some of the most terrible acts possible and the agents that had to pursue them. It wasn’t just the pursuit however, these men also had to get inside the killers’ minds in order to understand just what had motivated them to do what they did. The implications of such a thing are horrible enough, but to have to sit and listen to each man justify what they did and why would be a stomach-churning event I’m sure.
Here are the individuals featured on the show and a little bit about them.
Holden Ford/John Douglas
Douglas was an instructor for hostage negotiations before taking on the task of delving into the minds of some of the sickest minds in the country. He figured out that when you’re searching for monsters sometimes the best information you can get is from the same type of monsters. He talked to some of the worst, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, and even Charles Manson. His work eventually helped to seek out and arrest many a violent offender and was instrumental in capturing Wayne Williams, a serial killer that was at large in the 1980’s.
Bill Tench/Robert Ressler
Ressler managed to get Douglas’s attention when he was working on the Ted Bundy case. He was attempting to accurately predict what type of woman that Bundy would target and where he would strike. After completing the profile Bundy was picked up not too long after. Working alongside Douglas, Ressler managed to coin the term ‘serial killer’ and went on to become a prominent agent that helped to revolutionize criminal psychology.
Dennis Rader (BTK Killer)
Currently serving 10 life sentences Rader was the type that figured he was intelligent enough to mock the police as he left clues behind at each murder. He was responsible for 10 deaths in over a decade, with several being strangled. He was an ADT service man so he knew how to get into people’s homes. Unfortunately for him the floppy disk he sent to the police was what proved to be his undoing.
Edmund Kemper
Kemper is a disturbed human being to be sure. After killing his grandparents at the age of 15 he would then go on to kill eight more people before killing his mother and her best friend. It wasn’t just the murders that were disturbing, it was what he did with the bodies that was truly terrifying and horrific. I won’t go into detail since your mind is probably already spinning with the most dire images.
Richard Speck
Speck was for all intents and purposes a loose electrical wire that is fine when left alone but has the potential to be deadly. He killed eight nursing students in 1966 and was caught just two days later. It was found out upon his death after 25 years spent in prison that his more aggressive tendencies might have been caused by brain abnormalities that were caused by the abuse he suffered from his stepfather.
It might be a bit disturbing but Mindhunter goes to great lengths to get the stories straight.
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