Early on in the three-episode , an overly earnest and downhome Montie Rissell, serial killer and rapist, says: “Once you kill another human being, you’ll never be the same person again.” It’s basic to the point of obvious, haunting in its simplicity, wielded with knifelike flatness. But it is a line that underscores the basis of the cottage industry phenomenon of true crime, the background soundtrack of so many of our working days, and the allure of the so-called Dead Girl Industrial Complex.
In the ’70s, the FBI didn’t know why it was all so enticing either, why there was an exploding and alarming trend of spree criminals, with no real idea how to properly study their freshly coined term of “serial killer.” Enter, as she’s called, somewhat aptly, “Batman.” Dr.
Ann Burgess is the unofficial godparent of profiling and victimology, and, along with John Douglas and Robert Ressler, was key in establishing and validating the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit. She is also the inspiration for the character Dr. Wendy Carr in .
Dr. Burgess is more than deserving of her own spinoff miniseries documentary, based on her book . She needs little support, starring easily and charmingly, part Angela Lansbury in , part Clarice Starling, serving tea with bread and jam and a one thousand-watt smile, still wholly your favorite grandma.
Well, that is if your favorite grandma revolutionized the study and treatment of rape victims. Burgess began her career as a psychiatric nurse.