Summary of John E. Douglas & Mark Olshaker's The Cases That Haunt Us

By IRB Media

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview:

#1 The Jack the Ripper murders, which took place in London in 1888, were the first serial killings to shock the public. They were also the first crimes to be concentrated in a small geographic area and directed at a specific type of preferred victim.

#2 The Jack the Ripper case, which was the first time I had ever worked on a criminal case, was a two-hour television program set to be broadcast live from Los Angeles in October 1988. I was invited to participate in the program, and I constructed a profile of the killer.

#3 The FBI profiler’s job is to construct a profile of the offender, which is a set of assumptions about the person’s behavior, based on the facts of the case. The more details about the case that are provided to the profiler, the better he or she can construct a profile.

#4 The East End of London was a strange, distant, and fearful place for those who lived elsewhere within the metropolis. It was dominated by poor cockneys, and it was increasingly populated by immigrants straight off the docks.

• Language: English
• Publisher: IRB Media
• Release date: Jun 6, 2022
• ISBN: 9798822531895

IRB Media

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Insights on John E. Douglas & Mark Olshaker's The Cases That Haunt Us

Contents

Insights from Chapter 1

Insights from Chapter 2

Insights from Chapter 3

Insights from Chapter 4

Insights from Chapter 5

Insights from Chapter 6

Insights from Chapter 7

Insights from Chapter 1

#1

The Jack the Ripper murders, which took place in London in 1888, were the first serial killings to shock the public. They were also the first crimes to be concentrated in a small geographic area and directed at a specific type of preferred victim.

#2

The Jack the Ripper case, which was the first time I had ever worked on a criminal case, was a two-hour television program set to be broadcast live from Los Angeles in October 1988. I was invited to participate in the program, and I constructed a profile of the killer.

#3

The FBI profiler’s job is to construct a profile of the offender, which is a set of assumptions about the person’s behavior, based on the facts of the case. The more details about the case that are provided to the profiler, the better he or she can construct a profile.

#4

The East End of London was a strange, distant, and fearful place for those who lived elsewhere within the metropolis. It was dominated by poor cockneys, and it was increasingly populated by immigrants straight off the docks.

#5

On August 31, 1888, Polly Nichols, a mother of five children, was drunk and wandering the streets of London. She was found dead by two carmen, Charles A. Cross and Robert Paul, who told a police officer, Jonas Mizen.

#6

The murder of Mary Jane Kelly was not a simple robbery. The killer had cut her open, exposing her intestines. The circumstances and the fact that she was out on the street at that hour strongly suggested the vocation.

#7

The severity of the bruising around the face indicates an initial blitz-style attack. The neck bruising indicates an attempt to choke the victim and render her incapable of resistance. The multiple deep stab wounds suggest a frenzy of anger and released sexual tension.

#8

The M’Naghten Rule is the basis of the tests of insanity used today. It states that someone can be mentally ill but still criminally responsible, as they do what they do because they want to rather than because they have to.

#9

The murders of Martha Tabram and Polly Nichols were extremely brutal, and it seemed as though there was no motive behind them. However, the police believed that they were the work of a sex maniac.

#10

The police surgeon, Dr. George Bagster Phillips, examined the brutally butchered but ritualistically arranged corpse. He described what he had seen: The left arm was placed across the left breast. The legs were drawn up, the feet resting on the ground, and the knees turned outwards.

#11

The murder of the woman at the slaughterhouse was done with precision and care. The police found two farthing coins near the body, which indicated a particular psychosis and mental instability. The killer had cut off the victim’s nipples after death and placed them on her chest, as well as cut her earrings and placed them on the ground next to her head.

#12

The victim was identified as Annie Chapman by a washerwoman friend named Amelia Palmer. She was a stout five feet two with brown hair and blue eyes. She had been married to John Chapman, who’d made his living as a coachman for wealthy families in Mayfair. They had three children, one of whom was a girl who died in infancy.

#13

The police believed that the man who had murdered Annie Chapman had also murdered Mary Ann Nichols. They thought that the same man had also killed Martha Tabram.

#14

The East End was rife with rumors. One of the doctors who had examined the bodies thought the killer showed some medical or anatomical knowledge. Some thought that the killer