OBSESSION: BY John Douglas and Mark Olshaker

Publisher:  Pocket Books
Release Date:  1998
Pages:  496
Genre:  Current Events - Crime
Reviewed By WC

About the Book:  With a deep sense of compassion for the victims and an uncanny understanding of the perpetrators, Douglas exposes the chilling obsessions that compel the murderers, rapists, and stalkers of modern times.

WC's Review:  Author John E Douglas is obsessed with his topic. A self-proclaimed early profiler, Douglas writes to background and decipher at length the characteristics and modus operandi of rapists, serial killers, and most prominently, stalkers.

He does well. Sometimes, he offers too much information when expounding on the character flaws of demented beings in our society who prey upon the susceptibility of attractive conquests.

Ronnie Shelton, serial rapist of Cleveland, Joseph Thompson, South Aukland New Zealand rapist, New York's notorious "Preppie Murder", John Hinkley, who festered into our psyches to impress Jodie Foster through the assassination of President Reagan, Ed Gein, Gary Heidnick, and Ted Bundy are some of his heavily-examinded personalities.

The message is simple and one with which feel-good, prominent experts would not agree: Serial rapists/stalkers cannot be rehabilitated. Exterminate them or lock them up for the rest of their lives.

Get to authorities who know how to deal with these subhumans immediately, especially stalkers. Unfortunately, many police departments are not trained to deal with heinous crimes of subjugation. Hopefully, a 911 call can lead to a facility specializing in such behavior.

It remains a tragedy of today's society when someone like "Buffalo Bill" is glorified in the movie, "Silence of the Lambs."

4 Stars

About the Author:  John Edward Douglas is a former United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent, one of the first criminal profilers, and criminal psychology author. He also wrote four horror novels in the mid 1990s.