Today’s post is on When a Killer Calls: A Haunting Story of Murder, Criminal Profiling, and Justice in a Small Town by John E. Douglas and Mark Olshaker. It is 336 pages long and is published by Dey Street Books. The cover is a black and white picture of a car with a house in the distance and a red newspaper headline. It is the second in Douglas’ memoirs, but you not have to have read the first one to understand this book. There is foul language, discussion of sexual violence and general violence in this book. There Be Spoilers.
From the back of the audiobook- On May 31, 1985, two days before her high school graduation, Shari Smith was abducted from the driveway of her family home in South Carolina. Based on the crime scene and the abductor’s repeated and taunting calls to the family, law enforcement quickly realized they were dealing with a sophisticated and highly dangerous criminal. A letter arrived the next day entitled “Last Will & Testament,” in which Shari, knowing she was to be murdered, wrote bravely and achingly of her love for her parents, siblings, and boyfriend, saying that while they would miss her, she knew they would persevere through their faith. The abduction rocked her quiet town, triggering a massive manhunt and bringing in the FBI, which enlisted profiler John Douglas. A few days later, a phone call told the family where they could find Shari’s body.
Then nine-year-old Debra May Helmick was kidnapped from her yard, confirming the harsh realization that Smith’s murder was no random act. A serial killer was evolving, and the only way to stop him would be to use the study of criminal behavior to anticipate his next move before he could kill again. Douglas devised a risky and emotionally fraught strategy to use Shari’s lookalike older sister Dawn as bait to draw out the unknown subject. Dawn and her parents courageously agreed.
One of the most haunting investigations of Douglas’s storied career, this case details how the eerily accurate profile he created—alongside his carefully crafted and stage-managed manipulation of the killer’s psychology—combined with dedicated police work and cutting-edge forensic science to end a reign of criminal terror. As Shari’s family took incredible personal risks to lure her killer from the shadows, Douglas and the FBI pushed criminal profiling to its limits, culminating in one of his most dramatic and effective confrontations with a sadistic and remorseless killer.
Review- An interesting and well written book from an FBI agent who worked the case. We start with Shari Smith being abducted from her mailbox near her home and go all the way to the end of the perpetrator’s death. Douglas and the FBI were quickly called in when the perpetrator started calling the family wanting to talk to them. Thus begins a cat and mouse game between law enforcement and the perpetrator. At times this book was terrifying with the perpetrator telling the older daughter that she was to be one with him like her younger sister. But it is interesting to see a case worked from the backend of a profiler. Douglas goes into his processes for creating a profile and how to use it with the local law enforcement. The case is resolved, justice is done but Douglas does not glaze over the pain from the families that were harmed by the perpetrator. Instead, he gives the reader insight into their lives and pain and how they overcame what happened to them in their own ways. I would recommend this book for true crime fans.
I give this book a Five out of Five stars. I get nothing for my review, and I borrowed this book from my local library.
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