FBI profiler, John Douglas, spoke on his experience with profiling as well as coping with deep vein thrombosis (DVT) Friday at the second annual Cardio-vascular Sym-posium.
Over his 25-year career with the FBI, Doug-las has aided police departments and prosecutors from around the world.He is the author of numerous articles and has done countless presentations on criminology.
Douglas has analyzed criminals such as Charles Manson, James Earl Ray and David Berkowitz (Son of Sam). He also was the inspiration for the character that Scott Glenn portrayed in the well known movie, Silence of the Lambs.
Douglas joined the FBI in 1970 and was soon getting into the minds of criminals to understand their motives, gaining the title “mind-hunter.”
“To understand the artist, you must understand the artwork,” Douglas said.
He illustrated this with a why + why = who formula for profiling criminals.
Douglas said that to understand why criminals commit crimes, you must understand how they think and what motives they have.
He discussed what motivates criminals such as JonBenet Ramsey’s killer and Charles Manson. He said that the crime first starts with a fantasy then progresses to the urge to fulfill the fantasy. In the criminals fantasy he/she can control what happens, but when the crime is committed in reality, things do not always happen the way he/she fantasized.
This can lead to the criminal becoming a second- and third- time offender because he/she desires for his/her fantasy to be exactly the way it was fantasized.
DVT started to affect Douglas shortly after an anxiety attack brought on from work related stressors. DVT refers to the formation of a blood clot within a deep vein, commonly in the thigh or calf. The blood clot can either partially or completely block the flow of blood in the vein.For Douglas, it affected both of his lungs as well as legs.
After he was diagnosed with DVT, Douglas was hospitalized and began to parallel FBI profiling to patient profiling. He paralleled what conditions motivate a criminal to what conditions cause illness in patients.
Douglas concluded with comments on capital punishment.
“If one has the death penalty on their record, then use it – or take it off,” he said. “Let’s make it life in prison, not 10 years.

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