John E. Douglas

John E. Douglas is a highly regarded author of true crime non-fiction books and crime thriller novels. He has had a distinguished career as a former FBI agent and is considered one of the first criminal profilers. Douglas began his career in the FBI as a sniper and later became a hostage negotiator before being transferred to the Behavioral Science Unit. In this role, he taught hostage negotiation and criminal psychology, eventually starting and managing the Criminal Profiling Program at the FBI. This position required him to travel the country, interviewing serial killers, assassins, and violent sex offenders. Some of the infamous individuals he has interviewed include David Berkowitz, Ted Bundy, John Wayne Gacy, Charles Manson, Edmund Kemper, James Earl Ray, Sirhan Sirhan, Richard Speck, and Gary Ridgway.

In addition to his work as an FBI agent and criminal profiler, Douglas is also an accomplished writer. He uses his extensive expertise in criminal psychology to create informative and engaging accounts of his time spent working for the FBI. Douglas is known for his strong voice and commitment to accuracy in his writing. During his twenty-five year career with the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, he became the leading expert on criminal personality profiling and the pioneer of modern criminal investigative analysis. He has conducted hundreds of interviews with some of the world's most notorious serial offenders and his profiles have aided in the arrest of many serial criminals. Douglas has also made significant contributions to the field of psychology, including outlining the goals of a serial offender in an article published in the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin. He is the basis for several fictional characters, including Jack Crawford in The Silence of the Lambs by Thomas Harris and Holden Ford in the Netflix show Mindhunter.