Whoever Fights Monsters: My Twenty Years Tracking Serial Killers for the FBI

Robert Ressler's "Whoever Fights Monsters" is superior to John Douglas's "Mindhunter" because this book more deeply understands the nature of evil. It is a dark trip into the minds of the predators that prey on society. It understands the abyss and the savage darkness we face today in age everytime we leave the house or more frighteningly, go back into it. Ressler is a master profiler who deeply understands what it all means, this killers. This is a book all should read. "Whoever Fights Monsters" understands the mind of the monster and what lurks in it. I was chilled reading this, it's more effective than fiction.

Many people seem to be put-off by Ressler's "horn-tooting" in this book. Big deal! You're getting an insight into his psychology as well as those he hunts. Ego often accompanies greatness.

The read was fascinating. Ressler offers a dispassionate survey into the psychological make-up of serial killers and other disturbed individuals. Perhaps "dispassionate" is off the mark. He clearly has feelings and opinions, but offers them seperate from his analysis. Ressler doesn't like his subjects, nor approve of them, but he does understand them. His insights just make sense, as opposed to the odd ramblings of other authors on the subject.

Especially illuminating was his explanation of "Organized" and "Disorganized" killers. They have very different make-up and motivation. In addition, his side-by-side analysis of a couple dozen serial killers exposed patterns unavailable in a book solely about one killer, the majority of true crime books.

The resistance to the creation of a Behavioral Sciences Unit was unsurprising, given that the increased incidence of serial killers is a recent phenomena, growing since World War II.

I normally avoid True Crime books, but this one caught my eye, and kept my interest.

Wayne Gralian
Wayne's World of Books / Krakow RPGs

In response to Michael J. Tresca's review, wherein he states:

"Alas, truth is stranger than fiction, and the tales Ressler tells are positively awful. There' just one problem: we've heard all of this before.

Where? That'd be "Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit," by John E. Douglas, a man I can only assume was Ressler's protégé. It's a bit murky as to their relationship (the two reference each other, but not often)."

...it should be noted that Mindhunter came out AFTER Ressler's book, not before.

Otherwise, much of his review is fine. I would note, though, that Ressler's book is far superior, and he is far more modest and measured than Douglas. Douglas makes himself the center of every story, often quite lovingly, and does an unsettling amount of grandstanding about his contributions. Ressler lets the stories speak for themselves and doesn't try to outshine his subjects in importance. I've also read that one of the killers Douglas claims to have interviewed angrily denied he ever spoke to him. Douglas's vanity makes him almost unbearable at times, and with the subject at hand, that can smack of being a bit mercenary and out of touch.

The stories Ressler tells about himself tend to be more interesting, too. For instance, he speaks of people mysteriously losing weight while working on cases, without seeming to change their diets or other habits. Frankly, the stories in this book are so distressing that I, too, experienced a sudden inexplicable weight loss after reading it. This is the kind of thing that is very hard to take.

Ressler dispenses this disturbing material very well. I've read more than a dozen books of this type, and Ressler's towers over the rest. I'd recommend anyone interested in the fascinating subjects of abnormal psychology and psychological profiling read this book first if they'd like a skeleton key to understanding aspects of human behavior so dark they can seem all but forever unfathomable.

Robert Ressler, retired FBI agent with the Behavioral Science Unit, tells the story of many serial killers, and explains the process of profiling these monsters. It is amazing how this process expedites catching the criminal. The distinction between the organized vs. the disorganized killer directs law enforcement in their search. Ressler tells of his personal experience in interviewing killers all over the US, and the time he inadvertently placed himself at the mercy of a huge killer who had killed his grandparents, his mother, and many women. As scary as anything I have ever read, and offers a bit of understanding as to why humans become monsters.

This is the only book that a student of serial killers will ever need-the others are only case studies.Ressler gives the basic tools and terminology used to classify serial murderers and real life examples of the categories given.This book is a nice mix of an overview of the subject and an explanation of the science used to catch the killers.I found myself analyzing other killers using the same method Ressler teaches.Sadly,it is now hard for me to read books about serial murderers as I usually have them categorized within a chapter or two.This book avoids the sensationalism inherent to the subject,and is by far the best one of its kind that I have found.