The Killer's Handwriting. How FBI Profilers Identify Maniacs and Psychopaths

Serial killers leave behind not only bodies. Each of them has a signature – a psychological 'business card' that repeatedly manifests in their crimes: a special ritual, a form of torture, a scenario of violence. It is through these recurring details that investigator Robert Keppel – one of the leading specialists in serial killings in the U.S. – tries to understand what drives a maniac and how to stop him before he kills again. Keppel has investigated more than two thousand murders and personally interviewed Ted Bundy, attempting to connect one serial killer with another – the elusive Green River killer. Analyzing the most notorious and brutal cases of the 20th century – from Jeffrey Dahmer to John Gacy – he illustrates how criminalists learn to read a crime scene like an open book. 'The Killer's Handwriting' is one of the most famous studies of serial violence, where criminology, psychology, and real investigation materials merge into a frightening portrait of a criminal mind.