WEBVTT - Season 06 Episode 12 Extra: Mindhunters 0:00:10.600 --> 0:00:14.800 Welcome to Unexplained Extra with me Richard McClean Smith, where 0:00:14.880 --> 0:00:17.439 for the weeks in between episodes, we look at stories 0:00:17.440 --> 0:00:20.120 and ideas that, for one reason or other, didn't make 0:00:20.160 --> 0:00:23.720 it into the previous show. In the last episode, A 0:00:23.920 --> 0:00:26.759 Darkness on the Edge of Town, we ventured out to 0:00:26.800 --> 0:00:31.600 the American pastoral town of the Liska in southwest Iowa, where, 0:00:31.680 --> 0:00:35.440 in June nineteen twelve, eight people, six of whom were 0:00:35.520 --> 0:00:40.200 young children, were brutally murdered by an unknown assailant. Looking 0:00:40.200 --> 0:00:43.640 at all the available evidence, it seems reasonable to assume 0:00:43.680 --> 0:00:47.479 that whatever motivated the killer to commit these murders was 0:00:47.600 --> 0:00:51.280 nothing as simple as revenge or money, as private detective 0:00:51.440 --> 0:00:56.360 James Wilkerson suggested. Rather, the killer was far more likely 0:00:56.640 --> 0:00:59.680 to have been driven by a dark and complex desire 0:01:00.080 --> 0:01:04.120 that was both violent and sexual in nature, perhaps operating 0:01:04.120 --> 0:01:07.000 in the spur of the moment, having been unable to 0:01:07.000 --> 0:01:10.800 hold back his urges any longer. And how do I 0:01:10.880 --> 0:01:15.279 know this Because, despite having no experience in the field 0:01:15.319 --> 0:01:20.000 at all, years of watching police procedurals, true crime documentaries 0:01:20.120 --> 0:01:24.640 and movies about cannibalistic psychopaths as equipped me with all 0:01:24.760 --> 0:01:28.280 the analytical skills I could possibly need to think, I 0:01:28.400 --> 0:01:31.240 know what I'm talking about. And if I had to 0:01:31.280 --> 0:01:35.319 pick one suspect out as the most likely culprit, clearly 0:01:35.360 --> 0:01:39.240 it would be the socially awkward Reverend Lynn David Kelly, 0:01:39.280 --> 0:01:43.120 with his history of sexual deviancy and numerous statements in 0:01:43.240 --> 0:01:47.319 which he confessed to the crime. Simply put, he fits 0:01:47.360 --> 0:01:51.040 the profile as tempting as it is to play the 0:01:51.120 --> 0:01:55.160 Maverick forensic psychologist. All of this is, of course, wild 0:01:55.240 --> 0:02:00.320 and uninformed speculation. It did get me thinking, however, the 0:02:00.320 --> 0:02:04.280 history of criminal profiling and how the practice first came about, 0:02:05.040 --> 0:02:09.800 but more importantly, just how effective is it? Anyway, the 0:02:09.880 --> 0:02:20.440 answers might surprise you. On the evening of December second, 0:02:20.680 --> 0:02:25.239 nineteen fifty six, fifteen hundred people crowded into the Brooklyn 0:02:25.360 --> 0:02:29.079 Paramount Cinema in New York City to watch an evening 0:02:29.120 --> 0:02:33.600 showing of the latest blockbuster, War and Peace. It was 0:02:33.639 --> 0:02:36.520 about half an hour into the screening when a loud 0:02:36.560 --> 0:02:41.560 explosion ripped through the theater. A pipe bomb inserted into 0:02:41.600 --> 0:02:44.240 the cushioning of one of the seats had gone off, 0:02:44.639 --> 0:02:49.200 injuring six people. As it happened, This bomb was the 0:02:49.280 --> 0:02:52.920 thirty second such device that had been planted by the 0:02:53.040 --> 0:02:57.799 same perpetrator in a seemingly relentless campaign of terror aimed 0:02:57.840 --> 0:03:00.320 at the people of New York City, which had been 0:03:00.360 --> 0:03:04.359 going on for the last sixteen years. With fifteen people 0:03:04.400 --> 0:03:07.800 injured to date, and the bonds often being planted in 0:03:07.919 --> 0:03:12.960 popular public destinations such as train stations, libraries, and phone booths, 0:03:13.360 --> 0:03:16.200 it seemed only a matter of time before someone would 0:03:16.200 --> 0:03:20.720 lose their life. However, despite concerted efforts from the New 0:03:20.800 --> 0:03:24.720 York Police Department, not one person had been identified as 0:03:24.720 --> 0:03:28.800 a possible culprit. A series of letters written to the 0:03:28.800 --> 0:03:31.960 police by the perpetrator, who signed off only with the 0:03:32.000 --> 0:03:36.760 initials f P, suggested a grievance of some sort against 0:03:36.760 --> 0:03:41.040 the con Edison Energy Company. Aside from that, they had 0:03:41.080 --> 0:03:45.120 little else to go on, and so in late December 0:03:45.360 --> 0:03:50.760 nineteen fifty six, MYPD Captain Howard Finney decided to try 0:03:50.840 --> 0:03:54.920 something different and took two plainclothes colleagues to pay a 0:03:55.040 --> 0:03:58.280 visit to the office of fifty one year old psychologist 0:03:58.560 --> 0:04:03.320 James Brussell. At the time, Brussel was working as assistant 0:04:03.320 --> 0:04:07.320 commissioner at the Department of Mental Hygiene, tasked with overseeing 0:04:07.320 --> 0:04:11.800 the state's programs on mental health. He'd also once carried 0:04:11.840 --> 0:04:16.520 out counter spy work for the FBI. With nothing to lose, 0:04:16.960 --> 0:04:19.839 Finney wondered if Brussel might be able to turn his 0:04:19.960 --> 0:04:23.479 undoubted intelligence to the case of the mad bomber. As 0:04:23.480 --> 0:04:26.120 he was being called to see if he could discern 0:04:26.160 --> 0:04:29.760 anything from all the evidence they'd collected on him, they 0:04:29.800 --> 0:04:34.960 would not be disappointed. After being invited into Brussel's office, 0:04:35.360 --> 0:04:38.039 Finney and his colleagues laid out all their evidence on 0:04:38.120 --> 0:04:43.279 the revered psychologist's desk, which included photos of damaged crime scenes, 0:04:43.760 --> 0:04:47.360 as well as images of the unexploded bombs that ranged 0:04:47.400 --> 0:04:50.279 from four to ten inches long and had been finally 0:04:50.320 --> 0:04:54.280 constructed with timers made from pocket watches and torch batteries. 0:04:55.279 --> 0:04:59.440 And then there were the letters, all handwritten in the 0:04:59.480 --> 0:05:04.839 bombers distinctive style. I'm going to need some time, said Brussel, 0:05:05.400 --> 0:05:08.599 trying to ignore the look on the officers behind Finney, 0:05:08.720 --> 0:05:12.320 who clearly held out little hope for his input. That 0:05:12.480 --> 0:05:15.520 was fine, said the captain. They'd be more than happy 0:05:15.600 --> 0:05:26.719 to wait. Brussel began briefly with the photographs before turning 0:05:26.720 --> 0:05:30.720 to the letters. I will bring the con edison to justice. 0:05:31.120 --> 0:05:36.000 They will pay for their dastardly deeds, FP read one 0:05:36.040 --> 0:05:40.880 in bold capital letters, while another read, I have exhausted 0:05:40.880 --> 0:05:44.440 all other means, I intend with bombs to cause others 0:05:44.480 --> 0:05:48.480 to cry out for justice for me. One after another. 0:05:48.839 --> 0:05:53.080 He studied them intently, scanning and rescanning them over and 0:05:53.240 --> 0:05:57.240 over again. Then after a few hours, he stood up 0:05:57.279 --> 0:06:00.200 and wandered over to the window which looked out over 0:06:00.279 --> 0:06:03.560 City Hall and gazed down at the people on the street. 0:06:04.800 --> 0:06:08.200 You saw a man stood next to a car, another 0:06:08.560 --> 0:06:11.960 leaning in a doorway, while one was walking along the 0:06:12.040 --> 0:06:17.000 street suspiciously looking up at the surrounding buildings. The bomber 0:06:17.160 --> 0:06:21.279 could have been any of them, he thought. Then, after 0:06:21.320 --> 0:06:25.839 another hour of work, he gave his assessment. I believe 0:06:25.920 --> 0:06:28.960 the man you're looking for is possibly Slavic, he said, 0:06:29.600 --> 0:06:33.640 judging by the stilted language and lack of American colloquialisms 0:06:33.640 --> 0:06:37.640 in his writing. He suggested also that the police might 0:06:37.720 --> 0:06:40.400 want to focus their efforts on one of the industrial 0:06:40.440 --> 0:06:44.599 towns in Connecticut where large Slavic immigrant communities were known 0:06:44.640 --> 0:06:48.760 to concentrate. He pointed to the watermark on the letters 0:06:48.760 --> 0:06:52.880 by way of demonstration. The marks were made in Westchester, 0:06:53.320 --> 0:06:55.960 which was clearly part of an effort to disguise the 0:06:56.000 --> 0:07:01.039 perpetrator's true whereabouts. He said. Westchester also happened to be 0:07:01.120 --> 0:07:05.840 exactly halfway between Connecticut and New York City, the perfect 0:07:05.880 --> 0:07:09.120 place therefore for the bomber to stop en route to 0:07:09.160 --> 0:07:13.520 the city to post off his letters. The man thought. 0:07:13.560 --> 0:07:17.360 Brussel was also clearly in a state of advanced paranoia, 0:07:17.760 --> 0:07:21.320 having extended his campaign to the wider public at large, 0:07:21.640 --> 0:07:25.040 having initially being focused on only the con Edison company. 0:07:25.760 --> 0:07:28.280 It was as if he blamed everyone that used them 0:07:28.320 --> 0:07:32.679 to Such a state was rarely reached before the age 0:07:32.680 --> 0:07:35.640 of thirty five, he said, and since the first bomb 0:07:35.720 --> 0:07:39.080 was in nineteen forty, he suggested, the culprit would be 0:07:39.160 --> 0:07:43.160 late forties, possibly older, and would also be very neat 0:07:43.280 --> 0:07:47.480 and clean shaven on account of his handiwork constructing the bombs. 0:07:48.920 --> 0:07:53.360 He's probably a virgin, who thought Brussel. In fact, I'll 0:07:53.360 --> 0:07:56.360 bet he's never even kissed a girl, he said, and 0:07:56.520 --> 0:08:00.000 probably lives with some older female relatives who remind him 0:08:00.200 --> 0:08:03.880 of his mother, to whom he has confused eatable feelings. 0:08:04.960 --> 0:08:10.880 And with that Brussell was done. A stunned Howard. Finney 0:08:10.880 --> 0:08:14.480 and his colleagues thanked him for his time, then gathered 0:08:14.520 --> 0:08:17.160 the evidence into their bags and headed for the door. 0:08:18.400 --> 0:08:22.840 Oh and just one more thing, said Brussel. Finney stopped 0:08:22.840 --> 0:08:26.560 and turned back to see Brussel standing in deep concentration 0:08:26.920 --> 0:08:31.200 with his eyes closed. When you catch him, he'll be 0:08:31.240 --> 0:08:34.880 wearing a double breasted suit and it will be buttoned up, 0:08:34.920 --> 0:08:40.840 he said. A double breasted suit, repeated Finney. Brussel opened 0:08:40.880 --> 0:08:53.120 his eyes, yes and buttoned up, he replied. It was 0:08:53.160 --> 0:08:57.640 just before midnight on January twenty first, nineteen fifty seven, 0:08:57.760 --> 0:09:04.960 when police arrived at the door of George Meteski in Waterbury, Connecticut. Meteski, 0:09:05.320 --> 0:09:09.560 who was of Lithuanian descent, was unmarried and lived with 0:09:09.679 --> 0:09:13.679 two older sisters. Having worked for con Edison for two 0:09:13.800 --> 0:09:17.520 years between nineteen twenty nine and nineteen thirty one, he'd 0:09:17.520 --> 0:09:20.520 been forced to quit his job after sustaining an injury 0:09:20.559 --> 0:09:25.360 at work. Mateski had attempted to claim compensation for the accident, 0:09:25.760 --> 0:09:29.680 but had been continually denied it by the company. With 0:09:29.800 --> 0:09:32.920 the police being let into the property by Meteki, a 0:09:33.000 --> 0:09:35.920 quick search of his bedroom revealed a notebook full of 0:09:35.960 --> 0:09:40.640 writing identical to that found in the bomber's letters, Mateski 0:09:40.840 --> 0:09:45.760 was clearly their man. When the search was over, detectives 0:09:45.760 --> 0:09:49.720 turned their attention to the stocky, meek looking Meteski, who 0:09:49.840 --> 0:09:53.160 was still in his pajamas, and suggested he get dressed 0:09:53.320 --> 0:09:56.720 before they took him down to the station. A short 0:09:56.760 --> 0:10:01.280 time later, George Meteski appeared with his hair neatly combed, 0:10:01.800 --> 0:10:06.080 his shoes freshly shined, and wearing a buttoned up, double 0:10:06.080 --> 0:10:12.600 breasted suit. James Brussel, labeled the Profit of Twelfth Street 0:10:12.760 --> 0:10:16.880 and the Psychiatric Seer by the press, was understandably lauded 0:10:17.000 --> 0:10:19.760 for his efforts in helping to catch the mad bomber, 0:10:20.520 --> 0:10:23.880 efforts that effectively marked the beginning of what would become 0:10:23.920 --> 0:10:29.240 the practice of criminal profiling. Brussel's method, which he originally 0:10:29.280 --> 0:10:33.959 called reverse psychology, was a complete reversal of what psychologists 0:10:34.000 --> 0:10:38.200 would ordinarily do, looking at someone's actions and trying to 0:10:38.200 --> 0:10:41.520 determine what kind of person they were, as opposed to 0:10:41.520 --> 0:10:45.600 trying to determine what actions someone might take on account 0:10:45.640 --> 0:10:50.080 of their personality. This process would later be adapted and 0:10:50.160 --> 0:10:55.080 expanded on by FBI profiler Howard Tetten who helped establish 0:10:55.160 --> 0:10:59.319 the Bureau's now famous Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico in 0:10:59.440 --> 0:11:03.600 nineteen seventy two. Tenet's work was then expanded on by 0:11:03.640 --> 0:11:08.920 his protege, John Douglas. As some may know, Douglas was 0:11:08.960 --> 0:11:12.400 the inspiration for the character Jack Crawford in the novels 0:11:12.480 --> 0:11:15.640 Red Dragon and The Silence of the Lambs, as well 0:11:15.640 --> 0:11:18.679 as for Will Graham from the TV show Hannibal and 0:11:18.800 --> 0:11:23.800 the Michael Mann film Manhunter. Douglas and his most prominent 0:11:23.880 --> 0:11:28.600 partner at the BSU, Robert Wrestler, would also provide inspiration 0:11:28.840 --> 0:11:33.199 for the central characters of Holden Ford and Bill Tench, respectively, 0:11:33.600 --> 0:11:44.080 in the twenty seventeen Netflix drama mind Hunter. Though the 0:11:44.160 --> 0:11:49.080 methods of criminal profiling have developed considerably since James Brussell's day, 0:11:49.559 --> 0:11:53.679 Broadly speaking, profilers tend to base much of their analysis 0:11:53.720 --> 0:11:58.959 through the categorization of a crime as either organized or disorganized. 0:12:00.040 --> 0:12:04.640 An organized crime is one that is premeditated, well planned, 0:12:04.880 --> 0:12:08.240 and often leaves little evidence at the scene, while a 0:12:08.320 --> 0:12:12.160 disorganized crime, by contrast, would happen on the spur of 0:12:12.200 --> 0:12:16.400 the moment, is messily executed and tends to occur in 0:12:16.440 --> 0:12:19.880 a high risk environment where the perpetrator is lucky to 0:12:19.920 --> 0:12:24.040 get away. Certainly, as the movies would have it, the 0:12:24.200 --> 0:12:26.960 art of criminal profiling as a lot going for it, 0:12:27.520 --> 0:12:30.440 not least of all the compelling image of the Maverick 0:12:30.559 --> 0:12:34.080 mastermind cracking the case by getting into the head of 0:12:34.080 --> 0:12:37.840 the most complex and dangerous criminals to figure out how 0:12:37.840 --> 0:12:42.800 they tick. However, as Malcolm Gladwell pointed out in his 0:12:42.920 --> 0:12:48.120 twenty oh seven New Yorker article Dangerous Minds, Criminal Profiling 0:12:48.160 --> 0:12:53.160 made Easy, the reality is a little different. As Gladwell notes, 0:12:53.640 --> 0:12:56.840 in the mid nineties, a study into the efficacy of 0:12:56.880 --> 0:13:00.840 criminal profiling by the British Home Office found that after 0:13:00.880 --> 0:13:04.880 analyzing one hundred and eighty four crimes, profiling had only 0:13:05.000 --> 0:13:07.719 led to the capture of a perpetrator in five of 0:13:07.840 --> 0:13:11.120 those cases, which equates to a success rate of two 0:13:11.120 --> 0:13:15.760 point seven percent. A study conducted back in nineteen ninety 0:13:16.120 --> 0:13:19.440 showed also that a trained profiler, on average, did no 0:13:19.559 --> 0:13:23.160 better than someone with no training whatsoever in producing an 0:13:23.200 --> 0:13:26.959 accurate profile, a result that was later backed up by 0:13:26.960 --> 0:13:31.760 a similar study conducted ten years later. As it turns out, 0:13:32.400 --> 0:13:35.880 much of what we know about James Brussell's apparent success 0:13:36.000 --> 0:13:39.559 in identifying the so called mad Bomber back in nineteen 0:13:39.600 --> 0:13:43.920 fifty six came from Brussel's own nineteen sixty nine memoir 0:13:44.480 --> 0:13:49.720 Casebook of a Crime Psychiatrist. In truth, he'd actually told 0:13:49.720 --> 0:13:52.720 police to look for a bomber in White Plains in 0:13:52.800 --> 0:13:57.920 Westchester County, New York, not Connecticut. He also told them 0:13:58.080 --> 0:14:00.920 he'd have a facial scar and be an expert in 0:14:01.040 --> 0:14:04.560 civil or military ordinance, none of which turned out to 0:14:04.600 --> 0:14:08.800 be true. He also never suggested that he would be Slavic, 0:14:09.320 --> 0:14:13.240 but rather that he was born and raised in Germany. 0:14:19.480 --> 0:14:22.680 Though some of what Brussel told them was useful, the 0:14:22.680 --> 0:14:26.120 true hero, as Malcolm Gladwell also pointed out in his 0:14:26.200 --> 0:14:29.520 New York apiece, was in fact the much lesser known, 0:14:29.880 --> 0:14:35.720 humble kN Edison secretary Alice Kelly. In nineteen fifty six, 0:14:36.080 --> 0:14:40.200 the New York journal American published an open letter urging 0:14:40.240 --> 0:14:44.720 the bomber to give themselves up. The enigmatic bomber then 0:14:44.800 --> 0:14:48.120 wrote a number of letters in reply, which Alice Kelly 0:14:48.280 --> 0:14:51.800 later read in the journal. Realizing he was a former 0:14:51.920 --> 0:14:55.600 con Edison employee, she took it on herself to laboriously 0:14:55.880 --> 0:14:58.840 read through the files of ex employees to see if 0:14:58.840 --> 0:15:01.160 she could find any who been injured on the job. 0:15:02.200 --> 0:15:05.920 In one she found numerous angry letters that had been 0:15:06.000 --> 0:15:09.600 written to the company, including one letter that employed the 0:15:09.640 --> 0:15:14.480 awkward phrase take justice in my own hands, a phrase 0:15:14.560 --> 0:15:17.600 that had also occurred in one of the bombers publicly 0:15:17.640 --> 0:15:24.040 published letters. The file, of course, was George Meteski's, and 0:15:24.200 --> 0:15:28.080 with that the police had an address, and soon after 0:15:28.760 --> 0:15:32.960 Meteski was arrested. All of which just goes to show 0:15:33.480 --> 0:15:37.680 perhaps there is simply no substitute for simple, honest, hard 0:15:37.760 --> 0:15:42.920 detective work, running the numbers, running the names, and double 0:15:43.200 --> 0:15:52.120 triple quadruple checking everything. If you enjoy Unexplained and would 0:15:52.120 --> 0:15:55.120 like to help supporters, you can now do so via patroon. 0:15:55.680 --> 0:15:58.760 To receive access to add three episodes, just go to 0:15:58.880 --> 0:16:03.360 patron dot com forward slash Unexplained pod to sign up. Unexplained, 0:16:03.400 --> 0:16:06.680 the book and audiobook, featuring ten stories that have never 0:16:06.720 --> 0:16:09.480 before been covered on the show, is now available to 0:16:09.560 --> 0:16:13.480 buy worldwide. You can purchase through Amazon, Barnes and Noble, 0:16:13.600 --> 0:16:18.400 and Waterstones, among other bookstores. All elements of Unexplained, including 0:16:18.400 --> 0:16:21.560 the show's music, are produced by me Richard McClain Smith. 0:16:21.960 --> 0:16:25.280 Please subscribe and rate the show wherever you listen to podcasts, 0:16:25.280 --> 0:16:27.520 and feel free to get in touch with any thoughts 0:16:27.600 --> 0:16:30.200 or ideas regarding the stories you've heard on the show. 0:16:30.800 --> 0:16:32.880 Perhaps you have an explanation of your own you'd like 0:16:32.960 --> 0:16:36.320 to share. You can reach us online at Unexplained podcast 0:16:36.400 --> 0:16:41.200 dot com or Twitter at Unexplained Pod and Facebook at 0:16:41.240 --> 0:16:45.080 Facebook dot com, Forward slash Unexplained Podcast