Interesting factoid about the BTK case and profiler Pat Brown
By the way, Pat Brown's BTK profile was laughable. Maybe, like Patricia Cornwell and her Jack the Ripper candidate they zeroed in on one suspect and made the evidence fit their pre-determnined view. Not so good for a profiler to be stalking suspects methinks. Tunnel vision thy name is Pat Brown
"Profilers don't help their own cause much, either, at least not with the "amateur internet cybersleuths," and we are legion. An example is Pat Brown, a Minnesota-based profiler who manages to accrue a remarkable amount of face-time every time a major serial case hits the news. When the alleged BTK Strangler, Dennis Rader [Google search], was arrested in late February 2005, Brown seemed to defy time and space, showing up to do commentary for nearly every special break-in about the arrest. No one bothered to note that Brown's profile of BTK, while on-the-mark in some general and a few specific ways (something that could also be said about my own completely off-the cuff profile of this killer), was based on one particular person she'd zeroed in on a while back - and unfortunately for her, not Dennis Rader, but an ex-employee of the Wichita Eagle who many suspected was guilty of his wife's murder while on a camping trip about 10 years ago.
Profiler Brent Turvey, who at one time was Pat Brown's teacher, said the following about the peripatetic profiling pundit:
Pat Brown (...)approached me years ago, after taking several courses, to get my assistance in naming a person that she was essentially stalking as a serial murderer. No evidence. No proof. Just her firm belief that she knew better than anyone else. I of course refused, told her to stop stalking the guy lest she find herself arrested, and this did not make her happy at all. Ignoring admonishments regarding this and other terribly unprofessional conduct, she continues to go her own way in her corner of the profiling community...
Here Turvey gave a good example too of why profiling is being viewed with more skepticism; it is so thoroughly open to the obsessions and attitudes of the profiler. By the way, I've always wondered if Turvey was referring to the hapless ex-Eagle employee, as I knew, from various internet communications I received, the man's name and current disposition. Brown was good about that at least - she kept the poor guy's name off-line and out of her public dialogue. Still, if he was the guy she was "stalking," that must have been rough enough."
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/01/190243.php
"Profilers don't help their own cause much, either, at least not with the "amateur internet cybersleuths," and we are legion. An example is Pat Brown, a Minnesota-based profiler who manages to accrue a remarkable amount of face-time every time a major serial case hits the news. When the alleged BTK Strangler, Dennis Rader [Google search], was arrested in late February 2005, Brown seemed to defy time and space, showing up to do commentary for nearly every special break-in about the arrest. No one bothered to note that Brown's profile of BTK, while on-the-mark in some general and a few specific ways (something that could also be said about my own completely off-the cuff profile of this killer), was based on one particular person she'd zeroed in on a while back - and unfortunately for her, not Dennis Rader, but an ex-employee of the Wichita Eagle who many suspected was guilty of his wife's murder while on a camping trip about 10 years ago.
Profiler Brent Turvey, who at one time was Pat Brown's teacher, said the following about the peripatetic profiling pundit:
Pat Brown (...)approached me years ago, after taking several courses, to get my assistance in naming a person that she was essentially stalking as a serial murderer. No evidence. No proof. Just her firm belief that she knew better than anyone else. I of course refused, told her to stop stalking the guy lest she find herself arrested, and this did not make her happy at all. Ignoring admonishments regarding this and other terribly unprofessional conduct, she continues to go her own way in her corner of the profiling community...
Here Turvey gave a good example too of why profiling is being viewed with more skepticism; it is so thoroughly open to the obsessions and attitudes of the profiler. By the way, I've always wondered if Turvey was referring to the hapless ex-Eagle employee, as I knew, from various internet communications I received, the man's name and current disposition. Brown was good about that at least - she kept the poor guy's name off-line and out of her public dialogue. Still, if he was the guy she was "stalking," that must have been rough enough."
http://blogcritics.org/archives/2005/05/01/190243.php
posted by Witch King of Angmar at 8:48 AM
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