Saturday, November 19, 2022

The Father of Criminal Profiling


Source

Incendiary: the psychiatrist, the mad bomber and the invention of criminal profiling

Author

Michael Cannell

Primary Subject

George Metesky  - the Mad Bomber

Cause

Paranoid schizophrenia: A chronic disorder of insidious development, characterized by persistent, unalterable, systematized, logically constructed delusions. People suffering from this disorder often have a cool and distant demeanor. They may hear demonic voices calling them to action or see things that are not real. They may believe other people are controlling them or plotting against them. They are typically reclusive, anti-social and consumed with hatred for their imagined enemies. For all their derangement, they are capable of acting quite normally until, inevitably, some aspect of their delusions enters into their conversation. The paranoic is the world's champion grudge-holder. We all get mad at other people and organizations sometimes. But, with most of us, the anger evaporates eventually. The paranoic's anger doesn't.

Quotes (Dr. Brussel)

“I’ve never fired my .32 Iver Johnson at anyone," he would say. “But it’s never far from reach while I attend patients in my mid-Manhattan office or on outside calls. And. believe me, if I ever need to shoot—l will.”

Trivia

  • GM signed letters to the press "FP" - Fair Play. He has a patent for a solenoid pump
  • Dr. B used to teach a course at Yeshiva University. Carried a revolver in his briefcase
  • Joe Petrosino "the Dago" - Italian born NY cop - pioneer in fight against organized crime. Tapped by none other than Teddy Roosevelt (NY Police Commissioner).
  • "Needed only one glance at the wounds of the victim to know what inspired the murder and what branch of the mafia was responsible"
  • Deductions from color of blast smoke: black - dynamite; yellow - nitroglycerin; blue - gunpowder
  • GM used shellac to make the bomb waterproof so it could be hidden in a toilet.
  • "Line coupling" vs "well coupling" - jargon was a clue to the resident county of the bomber.
  • "Brooklyn (in Waterbury, CT) was a long way from the Connecticut of well-heeled commuters and country roads lined with picturesque stone walls. "
  • Thomas Harris (creator of Hannibal Lector) got ideas from interviewing John Douglas at Quantico (FBI, BSU)

Dr. B's Lifespan

1905 - Oct 23, 1982 (77 years)

Other Books by Dr. Brussel

  • Casebook of a Crime Psychologist
  • Instant Shrink : Become an Expert Psychiatrist in 10 Easy Lessons
  • Just Murder, Darling (Kills wife's lover and frames her for it)

Dr. B's Hobbies

Composing crossword puzzles, playing electric organ and drums

 

Dr. James A. Brussel holding his book, "Casebook of a Crime Psychologist"


Joe Petrosino : Pioneer in NY's fight against organized crime


Teddy Roosevelt : NY Police Commissioner who tapped Joe Petrosino for a big position in the NYPD


Dr. Egas Moniz, first Portugeese winner of the Nobel Prize, "for his discovery of the therapeutic value of leucotomy (lobotomy) in certain psychoses". Dr. Brussel had to recommend lobotomies in his line of work.






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