Profilers - on the trail of serial killers and terrorists

Ever since The Silence of the Lambs, fascination with the work of criminal profilers has continued unabated. There’s been a glut of movies and detective novels portraying the psychological duel between the twisted genius of the serial killer and his equally inspired nemesis. The reality is completely different – yet no less exciting. Joachim Käppner outlines the work of Germany’s operational case analysts. He tells us how they were initially met with ridicule which soon turned to admiration as they became invaluable in solving sex murders and serial killings. Over the years Käppner has accompanied profilers across the country in the course of their work, with particular emphasis on the Munich case analyst director Alexander Horn and his team, who had the neo-Nazi NSU murderers down as the crimes of extremists or an insane individual perpetrator as early as 2006. At that time no one believed them, and the police investigators carried on searching for a shady underground organised crime syndicate. Käppner’s description of the background and the complex reappraisal of investigative slip-ups reads like a thriller itself.