Synopses & Reviews
Profiler Roy Hazelwood is the world's leading expert on the strangest and most dangerous of all aberrant offenders--the sexual criminal. In Dark Dreams he reveals the twisted motives and perverse thinking that go into the most reprehensible crimes. He also catalogs the innovative and remarkably effective techniques--techniques that he helped pioneer at the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit--that allow Law Enforcement agents to construct psychological profiles of the offenders who comit them.
Hazelwood has helped track down some of the most violent and well known criminals in modern history; in Dark Dreams he takes readers into his world--a sinister world inhabited by scores of dangerous offenders for every Roy Hazelwood who would put them behind bars. These are sexual sadists, serial rapists, child molesters, and serial killers. The cases he describes are as shocking as they are perplexing; their resolutions are as fascinating as they are innovative:
* A young woman disappears from the convenience store where she works. Her body is later found in a field, strapped to a makeshift St. Andrew's Cross and mutilated beyond description. Who committed this heinous crime? And why?
* A teenager's corpse is found hanging in a storm sewer. His clothes are neatly folded by the entrance and a stopwatch lies in the grime beneath him. Is he the victim of a bizarre, ritualistic murder . . . or an elaborate masturbatory fantasy gone awry?
* A married couple, driving with their toddler in the back seat, pick up a female hitchhiker. They kidnap her and for seven years keep her in a box under their bed as a sexual slave. The wife had agreed to this inhuman arrangement in exchange for a second child. Who was to blame?
But as gruesome as the crimes are and as unsettling as the odds seem, Hazelwood, writing with veteran journalsit Stephen Michaud, proves that the right amounts of determination and logic can bring even the most cunning and devious criminals to justice.
Roy Hazelwood spent twenty-two years in the FBI, sixteen of them as a member of the Bureau's Behavioral Science Unit. He is now associated with the Academy Group, Inc, a forensic consulting firm with clients in government, industry, and the criminal justice system. He lives in southern Virginia with his wife, Peggy.
Stephen G. Michaud, a senior editor at D magazine in Dallas, has written extensively on criminal justice topics. His previous books include Lethal Shadow, a study of sexual sadism, and The Only Living Witness, an acclaimed portrait of serial killer Ted Bundy that the Daily News (New York) listed as one of the ten best true-crime books ever.
For sixteen years, profiler Roy Hazelwood served on the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, specializing in aberrant sex crimes--cases of sexual sadism, suicidal autoeroticism, pedophilia, necrophilia, serial rape and murder--that brought him face-to-face with human instincts darker than he ever anticipated, and raised questions he devoted his career to answering. Who commits these acts? What motivates them? How common are they? The answers are as unexpected as they are unsettling.
Dark Dreams explores the minds of the insidious and perversely creative criminals Hazelwood has encountered. He reveals the methods of tracking them, catching them, bringing them to justice, and, perhaps impossibly, understanding them. He offers a chronicle of crime and punishment like no other, set in a depraved world where the darkness in the mind of man can be frighteningly infinite.
An expert in crime analysis.--John Douglas, author of Mindhunter
Hazelwood's authentic and unique perspective pierces a darkness most of us would like to believe doesn't exist.--Chris Carter, creator of The X-Files
Review
"Hazelwood's authentic and unique perspective pierces a darkness most of us would like to believe doesn't exist." -Chris Carter, creator of
The X-Files"Hazelwood is a fascinating figure."--The New York Times
"An expert in crime analysis."--John Douglas, bestselling author of Mindhunter
Synopsis
Profiler Roy Hazelwood is the world's leading expert on the strangest and most dangerous of all aberrant offenders--the sexual criminal. In
Dark Dreams he reveals the twisted motives and perverse thinking that go into the most reprehensible crimes. He also catalogs the innovative and remarkably effective techniques--techniques that he helped pioneer at the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit--that allow Law Enforcement agents to construct psychological profiles of the offenders who comit them.
Hazelwood has helped track down some of the most violent and well known criminals in modern history; in Dark Dreams he takes readers into his world--a sinister world inhabited by scores of dangerous offenders for every Roy Hazelwood who would put them behind bars. These are sexual sadists, serial rapists, child molesters, and serial killers. The cases he describes are as shocking as they are perplexing; their resolutions are as fascinating as they are innovative:
* A young woman disappears from the convenience store where she works. Her body is later found in a field, strapped to a makeshift St. Andrew's Cross and mutilated beyond description. Who committed this heinous crime? And why?
* A teenager's corpse is found hanging in a storm sewer. His clothes are neatly folded by the entrance and a stopwatch lies in the grime beneath him. Is he the victim of a bizarre, ritualistic murder . . . or an elaborate masturbatory fantasy gone awry?
* A married couple, driving with their toddler in the back seat, pick up a female hitchhiker. They kidnap her and for seven years keep her in a box under their bed as a sexual slave. The wife had agreed to this inhuman arrangement in exchange for a second child. Who was to blame?
But as gruesome as the crimes are and as unsettling as the odds seem, Hazelwood, writing with veteran journalsit Stephen Michaud, proves that the right amounts of determination and logic can bring even the most cunning and devious criminals to justice. Dark Dreams is a 2002 Edgar Award Nominee for Best Fact Crime.
About the Author
Roy Hazelwood spent twenty-two years in the FBI, sixteen of them as a member of the Bureau's Behavioral Science Unit. He is now associated with the Academy Group, Inc., a forensic consulting firm with clients in government, industry, and the criminal justice system. Hazelwood lives in Virginia with his wife, Peggy.
Stephen G. Michaud has written extensively on criminal justice topics. His previous books include Lethal Shadow, a study of sexual sadism, and The Only Living Witness, an acclaimed portrait of serial killer Ted Bundy that the New York Daily News listed as one of the ten best true-crime books ever.