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

Written by Tom Shachtman and Robert K. Ressler

Narrated by Tom Perkins

Face-to-face with some of America's most terrifying killers, FBI veteran and ex-Army CID colonel Robert Ressler learned from them how to identify the unknown monsters who walk among us—and put them behind bars. Now the man who coined the phrase "serial killer" and advised Thomas Harris on The Silence of the Lambs shows how he has tracked down some of the nation's most brutal murderers.



Just as it happened in The Silence of the Lambs, Ressler uses the evidence at a crime scene to put together a psychological profile of the killers. From the victims they choose, to the way they kill, to the often grotesque souvenirs they take with them, Ressler unlocks the identities of these vicious killers for the police to capture.



Join Ressler as he takes you on the hunt for America's most dangerous psychopaths. It is a terrifying journey you will not forget.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Jul 26, 2016
• ISBN: 9781515978954

Tom Shachtman

Tom Shachtman is an author, filmmaker, and educator. He has written or co-authored more than thirty books, including Rumspringa, Airlift to America, and Terrors and Marvels, as well documentaries for ABC, CBS, NBC, and PBS, and has taught at major universities. Publishers Weekly lauded his book Rumspringa: To Be or Not to Be Amish as "not only one of the most absorbing books ever written about the Plain People, but a perceptive snapshot of the larger culture in which they live and move." He has written articles for The New York Times, Newsday, Smithsonian, and environmental monthlies, and writes a column for The Lakeville Journal (CT). A two-hour television documentary based on his book Absolute Zero and the Conquest of Cold was broadcast on PBS in February 2008.

Reviews for Whoever Fights Monsters

[bellafoxx · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is another of those books that has been on my to-read list for a long time. As noted above, Robert Ressler has been tracking serial killers with the FBI for 20 years and his experience shows. He is rather humble and admits that ‘Profilers don’t catch killers. Cops catch killers.’ Profiling is just a tool to help them.This book is part auto-biography and part the history of profiling. The auto-biography part is not extensive, just enough to let you know how Mr. Ressler got into the FBI and why he holds some of the opinions he does.He details the work he initiated in interviewing serial killers and how they differ. He also gives brief histories of some cases, some very well known, Dahmer and Gacy, and some that I hadn’t heard of, which of course means, more books to read!This was a very easy (well despite the subject matter) book to read. It has a nice conversational style, informative, and not at all boring. I recommend this book.

[Julie Boler · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Excellent book, didn’t want to miss a word so I hit rewind after the slightest distraction. If you’re an avid reader of criminal nonfiction, especially about serial killers, you’ll be fascinated to hear how the FBI BAU was first formed. Kessler is...not afraid to toot his own horn. It’s a little intense sometimes in that way. But I suppose that someone who has made such a brilliant and dogged contribution to society while not often being trusted, appreciated or supported has every right to spell out that contribution. Bottom line about the book; it’s highly accessible while being well developed, nuanced, and intended for the reader with some familiarity with the subject matter. Good stuff.

[Jennifer Campbell · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

It was fascinating to hear the reality behind such a sensationalized topic. Ressler has a logic, curious, and compassionate approach to these horrible crimes. His influence on our understanding of the criminal mind is so vast it's hard to comprehend. I loved reading about his first hand experiences and seeing his insights.

[Schnickerdoodle · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed this man's knowledge and how he shared it. Bravo!

[nicdevera-16450 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Interesting as a source document. Thomas Harris started the serial killer boom with Silence of the Lambs, that snowballed into CSI, Profiler, Criminal Minds, etc. So Robert Ressler's Whoever Fights Monsters and John Douglas's Mindhunter can be considered the core nonfiction texts.

At best, profiling is a craft of educated guesswork. At worst, it's pseudoscientific cold-reading, confirmation bias, Texas sharpshooting. It's almost refreshing how Ressler has no compunctions about patting himself on the back, outwitting ass-covering bureaucrats, small-minded local cops, and the killers themselves.

There's a passage near the end:
In recent years, the hue and cry about profiling, and the misinterpretation of it as well as of what the Bureau legitimately does, has continued to increase. The media have come around to lionizing behavioral-science people as supersleuths who put all other police to shame and solve cases where others have failed.
But the entire book goes against this uncharacteristic humility. Ressler recounts how, after hours at a bar, because some Brits challenged them, he and Douglas worked up an off-the-cuff profile for the Yorkshire Ripper. Probably could've caught him too, if the regs had allowed it, beer in hand and all that.

[bookbrig-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Maybe more of a 3 1/2 stars, but this is an engaging and super comprehensive true crime book, with a really solid audio.

[kwoman · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A book that goes inside the serial killers' way of thinking. However, I believe that this book had the potential to be a slam dunk, but it just wasn't. The author glossed over many details that may have been interesting to the reader. Still, the interviews with the killers was somewhat interesting. To me, however, it seemed that the author missed something along the way.

[borg6mx5 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

True accounts from a genuine criminal profiler. How he works and what clues he finds significant in solving a crime. An interesting read.

[ague_3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

7/10. Did not finish reading it. Got too dense and boring. Needed better writing and editing. But, it is by Robert K. Ressler, the original FBI profiler. And also written with Tom Schachtman.