Psychological Detectives
Past and Present

           In 1991 when Canadian Paul Bernardo committed his first sexual homicide, he didn't have a clue that FBI behavioral profiler Gregg McCrary was among those who would be responsible for his eventual identification and prosecution.  Actually, McCrary had first profiled Bernardo four years earlier when Bernardo first began his crime wave.  Yet he was not caught then, and the full extent of his activities would remain unknown until after they had evolved into something much more dangerous.   Then McCrary would face him again.

McCrary's new book, The Unknown Darkness, written with Dr. Katherine Ramsland, tells Bernardo's terrible tale along with many others.  In these pages, McCrary plumbs the depths of darkness to identify those who commit society's worst criminal nightmares.  As he tells the stories in which he's been involved, McCrary also details the evolution of the Behavioral Science Unit (BSU) at the FBI Academy, Quantico, Virginia.  He had the opportunity to be at the BSU during its formative years and he both contributed to the unit's development and benefited from his experiences there.  This book mesmerizes the reader with the minute details of his cases while it also instructs with textbook type references to behavioral profiling and related concepts.

The Unknown Darkness: Profiling the Predators Among Us

         Bernardo's outward appearance belied his sadistic nature, his hatred of women, and his need to dominate, control, and humiliate women.  He was considered well-groomed, intelligent, and socially skilled, with no problem approaching the opposite gender, yet he began to fondle and then assault women walking on the streets.  This behavior eventually evolved into a series of violent rapes in the Scarborough area of Toronto. No one suspected him.  Then several murders occurred in the same general geographical area where Bernardo lived, and now there was a significant new factor in his life.

        As his crimes escalated, Bernardo had changed his method of operation. He'd taken on a partner.  She was a seventeen-year-old girl, Karla Homolka, who became his wife.  She also became his criminal confidant and an accessory to his crimes.  It was she who turned him in, but the police still needed physical evidence against him.

         McCrary had been working with police on the Bernardo case for years but at a critical juncture in the investigation, he was able to provide important profiling information for a search warrant affidavit concerning Bernardo's home.  Based on the usual behavior of sexual predators, McCrary predicted that Bernardo would have made videotapes of his crimes, so he could relive them, and that they would probably be hidden somewhere in his home.  However, they were not recovered during the initial search, or even in a more extensive search.   Yet eventually they were located and turned over by an attorney connected with the Bernardo defense.  He advised that the tapes had been at the house the entire time.  McCrary had been correct.

         While McCrary's profiling role in the Bernardo investigation was crucial, he nevertheless makes the observation that "profiling doesn't solve crimes, investigators do – as they did in this case."  It is this modest affirmation that provides the reader with a sense of McCrary's style as an investigator and profiler.  McCrary has a self-confidence generated by enthusiasm for his work, coupled with the experience of a professional.  This allows him to form strong partnerships with police officers and detectives in the pursuit of killers.  His style derives in part from a lifelong interest in Shorinji Kempo, a type of martial art that has significantly influenced his approach to criminal investigation and profiling.

         Shorinji Kempo blends the qualities of strength and compassion, and prompts one to anticipate an adversary's attack with a counterattack that uses the opponent's momentum against him.  McCrary applies this concept to his work in law enforcement. In the larger sense, Shorinji Kempo also promotes a balanced approach to tasks through discipline, patience, and endurance.  McCrary follows these precepts by being meticulous, determined, and attentive to detail.  The results of his efforts, documented in The Unknown Darkness, have been impressive.

         The book, a collection of his ten most interesting cases, details other gripping investigations besides that of Paul Bernardo.  There is Arthur Shawcross, the child molester-turned-serial killer; Craig Price, the brutal teenage killer with "conduct disorder;" Mark Hofmann, the Mormon bomber; and Jack Unterweger the novelist and playwright with a dark side.  McCrary's telling of these stories is compelling.

        He even inserts a bit of humor in the midst of the horror.

         For example, during his presentation of the facts concerning the 1950s murder of Marilyn Sheppard by her husband, Dr. Sam Sheppard, we find several moments of levity.  McCrary was called into the civil trial concerning this case when Sam Sheppard Jr. sued the state of Ohio in the 1990s hoping to prove his father's innocence.  As part of their reinvestigation, the state requested the exhumation of Marilyn Sheppard's remains.  Sam Jr. reluctantly agreed but wanted his Buddhist monk spiritual advisor, Kobutsu, to be present at the exhumation.  McCrary explains how "everyone anticipated the arrival of a contemplative, serene, oriental monk, perhaps gracefully wearing orange saffron robes."  However, what they got was anything but.  According to McCrary, the monk "turned out to be an overweight, chain-smoking Irishman named Vince Malone from New Jersey...."

        McCrary ends this fascinating book with a glimpse of how behavioral profiling for law enforcement might evolve in the future.  He notes its international recognition and an increasing appreciation for the concepts of Criminal Investigative Analysis.  In 1995, McCrary himself chaired a symposium in Vienna, Austria on Criminal Investigative Analysis.  European countries have also adopted a program called the Violent Crime Linkage Analysis System to track violent criminals.  Generally, there is now a positive climate of cooperation between law enforcement professionals and experts in the fields of psychology, psychiatry, neurology, genetics, sociology, and forensic science.  McCrary's book leaves the reader with the hope that, one day, the unknown darkness of society's worst predators will be brought into the light and their horrors more successfully prevented.

Visit Amazon.com for Dr Katherine Ramsland's 25 books (including The Criminal Mind: A Writer's Guide to Forensic Psychology; Forensic Science at CSI; The Science of Cold Case Files; The Blood Hunters; and, her most recent, The Human Predator: A History of Serial Killers Through the Ages (to be published October, 2005).