The Unknown Darkness: Profiling the Predators Among Us

by Gregg O. McCrary, Katherine Ramsland

A former Supervisory Special Agent for the FBI discusses the harrowing competition between the agency and the individuals they seek to capture, describing ten cases to explore the strengths and pitfalls of modern criminal investigation.

Genres: True Crime, Nonfiction, Psychology, Crime, Serial Killer, Memoir

336 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2003

Reviews

[Shaun · Rating 5 out of 5]

I'm a fan of true crime. I'm a fan of psychological thrillers. I'm a fan of books that explore behavior and why we do the things we do (both normal and abnormal psychology).

AND so...

I really enjoyed this.

The Unknown Darkness was written by Gregg McCrary with the help of Katherine Ramsland. McCrary, the narrator, is a former Supervisory Special Agent in the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit and considered "one of the country's preeminent criminal profilers," or so the book claims.

I personally enjoyed the organization of the book, which starts with a brief introduction to McCrary and the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit and quickly transitions into a recounting of various cases during McCrary's tenure and the BSU's role in helping local police departments solve them.

McCrary was also involved in the 1993 Waco siege. In his analysis he offers readers a profiler's perspective.

The stories are often grizzly and gruesome (though not gratuitously so), but I was fascinated by the process used to catch these predators.

I also appreciated the narrative, which is well-written and easy to read.

While not a book for everyone, if you're a fan of true crime and/or forensic psychology, this may be a book for you.

[Cheryl · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read all of John Douglas's books (I think) and a couple by Robert Ressler, so I was intrigued to come across this book written by someone who worked in the same unit as both men. Douglas and Ressler clearly had a falling out, as they tell overlapping stories with little or no acknowledgement of the existence, let alone input, of the other. I was hoping McCrary's book might shed some light on that. To my disappointment and his credit, it really didn't.

Several of the stories recounted here are ones any follower of true crime stories are familiar with: Arthur Shawcross in Rochester, Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka in Canada, and Mark Hofmann in Utah. And a great many more people are at least somewhat familiar with some iteration of the Sam Sheppard case in Ohio in the 1950s. Nonetheless I learned quite a bit more about the psyche of each of these killers and about the crimes and investigations as well. I did not realize that Paul Bernardo was already a rapist -- the Scarborough Rapist -- with a task force working on his case when he met Karla Homolka. I did know she was as sick as he was and got off way too easily -- the lawyer in me wonders at how broad the immunity & plea deal must have been that they couldn't find she violated by withholding info once they got the videotapes. And I now know the full story of the Sam Sheppard case and must agree that he killed his wife, despite his later acquittal in the second trial.

Other cases in the book I had not heard of but found equally fascinating. The slaying of Thai monks at a temple in Phoenix was clearly the inspiration for one of the early episodes of CSI. The "redeemed" killer turned author in Austria, who became a serial killer was an insight into ego and the brazen nature of some psychopaths -- getting a ride-along with Los Angeles cops on his visit there, where they showed him where to pick up the prostitutes he later murdered; interviewing the investigators looking into his crimes in Austria for a publication; facing down the chief witness against him in open court. The parallels to the Jack Abbott case were especially chilling, because it shows how easily duped people can be.

I also liked the look into the events in Waco with the fiasco at the Branch Davidian compound. I was glad to see that there were some changes made in response to the stupidity (no other word for it) of how that was handled. I was also glad that changes were made after the botched investigation into the Phoenix case of the monks. The way in which ego can get the better of those with even the best of intentions and blind them any possibility outside their own train of thought comes through again and again, in people on both sides of the law. All in all, a worthwhile read.

[C.E. · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is among the most useful books in my crime library. Gregg McCrary and Katherine Ramsland have written a fascinating can't-put-it-down study of his cases while he was an FBI profiler - one of the best and most well-known of a distinguished group of people.

It's exceedingly well told and tightly written, and the cases themselves are stunning - none more so than the story of German serial killer Jack Unterweger, the most terrifying murderer I have ever read about. Mr. McCrary's role in the investigation and trial makes him a front row participant and witness like no other - it's spellbinding, to say the least. His insights into the mind of these people is matched only by his humility and compassion as a person. Highly recommend to anyone interested in the real lives of crime fighters!

[Jeanine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of this information is available on the internet. I was hoping to learn even more about profiling.

[Rachel Wilson · Rating 5 out of 5]

The Unknown Darkness is definitely a good read! I highly recommend it if you're really interested in psychology and criminology. So far, this is the best profiling / crime book I’ve read. This book goes in depth about the mind of psychopaths and how you can learn to think like them. It teaches you techniques along the way of how you can learn to be one step ahead of the criminal. He writes about his accomplishments, and even his failures. This book is good for information of what it’s like to be a profiler and what it’s like to work in The Behavioral Science Unit.
McCrary tells you about the most brutal and sinister of cases he's worked on. It can get very disturbing & gruesome, for me at least, when he goes into detail about some the crimes. Most of the stories in here can be VERY revealing of the grotesque details of these specific crimes. This book makes you realize how dangerous and serious this line of work can be. He reveals how important it is to be one step ahead of the criminal, and what can happen if you’re not. The author seems to talk more about the entire case, than the actual profiling process in itself. Although if you’re looking for more insight from someone who personally worked on these type of cases; I recommend this book.

[Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have read a lot of profiler books and this was pretty good. I find that profiling books are really more about the actual case then they are about the actual process of profiling. This book went into a little more detail about profiling and how they've come up with the data they have and how they make determinations on suspects. It was an easy read and was pretty informative. I liked that the author integrated other literature into his assessments and addressed some of the major critiques about profiling in the media lately. It was fairly graphic, so if you can't handle dark crimes, probably not a book for you.

[Tbone · Rating 4 out of 5]

Looks into habits of Psychos and how they can be caught. Dont read if you are squemish about descriptive murders and such....... however this book is highly intellectual

[Mikey B. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The author worked with the Behavioral Science Unit of the F.B.I. and then became a consultant. He, along with a team, examined the behavior of violent criminals and crime-sites to determine as much as possible the type of perpetrator to look for. They would establish a profile. The author acknowledges that factual evidence is what leads to a conviction. However, profiling is one of the factors in a criminal investigation and can narrow down the range of suspects – or point to certain character types.

This book outlines several criminal investigations that the author participated in. Of interest to Canadians were the gruesome murders committed by Paul Bernardo and Karla Homolka in Ontario during the early 1990s. They were a sadistic couple, although Paul started on his own (I’m unsure how they met – and from the details surrounding the case I don’t feel I want to know much more about them). Homolka made a plea bargain implicating Bernardo, and got off rather easily. Bernardo is up for parole this year – he should never be released.

As the author aptly demonstrates by the examples in his book - once a psychopath, always a psychopath. There is something hard-wired in their brains that cannot be deactivated – narcissism, the complete lack of empathy, the desire to control…

The author also participated in the long, disastrous siege at Waco, Texas. He points out the obvious failures that lead to the loss of lives – and gives us a portrait of David Koresh with his religious fanaticism: Koresh’s belief that he was God and his control over his submissive congregation. “Control” (total control) is a theme that surfaces constantly with psychopaths.

The writing is erudite. The knowledge used by the authors' team to aid in solving crimes was impressive, with a strong emphasis on logic for a criminal investigation. When his team was consulted, the first requirement was to put the events in chronological order – and not, for example, see the list of those under suspicion. It was essential to start from the very beginning. He also asserted that serial killers will escalate the viciousness of their attacks over time. This was certainly the case with Paul Bernardo.

Less impressive were the attempts by certain police forces to manufacture or avoid evidence that did not lead to their presumed suspect.

This was a most interesting book, presenting us with a variety of crimes – and given the subject, written with compassion.

[Jason Morrison · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wow! I absolutely could not put this book down and did not want it to end.

I found this by just browsing the true crime section in the Middletown library and it was such a great find, just tucked away on the shelf.

The author does a fantastic job of laying out in tremendous details some truly horrific cases he worked as a profiler for the FBI. While there were a few cases I had never heard of, there were some more well known ones, such as Arthur Shawcross and David Koresh. It was both frightening and extremely interesting to have an insiders take on these.

I loved how the author outlined everything with such patience and detail, occasionally tossing in that cop humor that I so appreciate.

My only criticism of the book is that it wasn't long enough. I could have just kept reading it. If true crime is your thing, this is an absolute must.

[Koren · Rating 3 out of 5]

The author is a retired FBI agent who specialized in profiling. For me this book went into too much detail about the crimes, some of which are well-known and have books written about them (Paula Homolka and Paul Bernardo, David Koresch) and not enough about the actual profiling. I skimmed this quite a bit.

[JPM · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5. Interesting subject matter, but the writing was riddled with cliches in certain areas. I also didn’t find the connection between his martial arts practice and his work to be a compelling one. It seemed forced, and those sections were tedious.

[Dale · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is interesting that "profiling" is only a subset of all the things these people do. And it is troubling to know that there are people that are so incredibly depraved that we need profilers in the first place.

[Abby · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[Linda · Rating 3 out of 5]

True crime profiler, famous crimes from his point of view.

[Antam · Rating 5 out of 5]

A brilliant introduction to the world of criminal investigative analysis. The cases contained within each clearly demonstrate this science in action.

[Mandy Crick · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read this for research while writing my own book. It was okay.

[Kathy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting to me.

[Jeffner · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an excellent read. A glimpse into criminal minds. In sharing the stories of some of recent history’s most abhorrent killers, the author takes us on a journey of the profilers’ beginnings in an FBI basement through to the development of an organized unit. It’s more about the profiling than the crimes but it does detail the crimes (so be aware of that before deciding to read if that’s not your thing). He includes a bit of dark humour that most of us emergency workers appreciate.

[Alessandra · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great book. Specially if you enjoy detailed crimes and how they were solved.

[NoScreenName · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent. Too tired to write a review I've been in an ER for hours and it kept me company. It was juicy delicious, bitch. That's all you need to know.

[Gabby · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book I read is called The Unknown Darkness: Profiling the Predators Among Us by Gregg O. McCrary. It is a true crime book. The main theme is crimes that happen in every day lives that you don’t hear about and how you solve them by following an investigator through his job.

In the book there are a series of different stories that connect by one thing the investigator. Gregg O. McCrary investigates serial rapes, mass killings and hangings.Throughout the book he brings in these stories while investigating others. I cant write about all of them but I’ll write about one in particular which is the Scarborough Rapist. It talks about how a series of women were picked up at bus stops and then raped in back allies and forced to say crude things to the perpetrator but when a 15 year old girl is kidnapped, videotaped while being tortured, and murdered McCrary comes in. Throughout this book he faces murderers and con- artists and criminals of every sort but he tries his best to do his job by trying to catch the criminals that do these crude acts to innocent citizens.

I thought this book was adventurous and shocking. McCrary takes the readers on a journey that forces you to think beyond the box. This book shows that criminals have to be put in their place when disturbing the norm. This point was proven throughout the book. The book was detailed and very specific. One of my favorite parts of the book was when he talked about how to ease someone into telling the truth without forcing them to or even with them noticing it. I think that it is actually quite creative that they could just talk about a persons feelings and then in minutes, hours, days, etc... a person can give themselves away just out of the spur of the moment.

If you liked this book you might like Every Breath You Take by Ann Rule because it has to do with the same things as The Unkown Darkness. I would recommend this book to teenagers and adults because this book is so dramatic and shocking you involve yourself in the book but you definitely cant read it to a younger age group because of content and language.

Overall this book is amazing and so mind boggling you start to feel like you are an investigatr too. The Unknown Darkness: Profiling Predators Among Us is a heart racing attention grabber. You will never want to put it to rest until the case is put to rest.

[Steven Belanger · Rating 4 out of 5]

Greg McCrary's book (with Katherine Ramsland, MD--who is never mentioned in the text) is a good book about criminal profiling (though he dislikes the term) and the procedures that come before and after it. But overall it pales in comparison to the books by John Douglas, his former boss, partner and mentor.

It seems like McCrary is cashing in a little bit on his former boss's popularity, and he goes out of his way often to mention him, and his books. McCrary doesn't have anything to add to the process, which is maybe an unfair comparison to Douglas's prolific work, but there it is nonetheless. The writing is also not as good as in Douglas's work. McCrary tries a little too stiffly to be amusing, both in voice and in text, and it shows up too often. This book would've been better off just giving us the facts.

But the book is saved by the cases he covers. Especially worthwhile was his coverage of the fiasco of the Branch Davidians in Waco, Texas. McCrary is quick to point fingers at the parties who did wrong, however; I thought while reading it that I would be upset if I were the real-life federal agents he names to blame. He's saved a bit here by being right, it seems. If he really did say what he said at the time, and if he was ignored the way he says he was, by the people he says ignored him--well, then he's got a reason to be upset. His anger and frustration do show, though it seems like he tried to mute them.

McCrary also points out his successes maybe a little too often with the other cases he covers in this book. Douglas did the same thing, but in a less obvious and less self-flattering way, it seems to me. Such comparisons to Douglas's work is, again, perhaps not fair, but hard not to make, considering how closely they worked together. I should also add that McCrary is trying to sound like him, and walk in his literary footsteps, without complete success.

But this book is successful enough so that you should read it if you're a fan of such things. It won't make you a fan if you're not already, and you'll wish he was much more thorough as Douglas is (there's the comparison again), but it is readable and you will appreciate it, even if you're not severely impressed, or educated, by it. Read all of John Douglas's works first before you read this one.

[Blythe · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pretty solid book. McCrary worked some very interesting cases and not only does he have a lot of fascinating things to say about them, but he's also able to make his work approachable. It's easy to understand how he worked each case and reached his conclusions. He's also good at keeping his ego in check: some of his colleagues are prone to breaking off their books to take potshots at other agents or prop up their own egos. McCrary takes a balanced view, and doesn't hesitate to admit when he and the FBI did something wrong. I was particularly impressed with the chapter on Waco, and how he approached his analysis of it afterward.

I did have one huge problem with the book, and it made me cut my rating heavily. He talks about profiling the Bernardo/Holmolka killings, and the discovery that they'd videotaped themselves torturing their victims. What he writes about the tapes is detailed to the point of feeling exploitative--there are whole passages where he gives a play-by-play of exactly what was on the tapes and every act these poor girls suffered. Frankly, I'm not sure why he did this when a summary would have been more than enough. The reader doesn't need graphic insight into the last hours of Leslie Mahaffy, Kristen French, and Tammy Homolka, and providing it felt like yet another violation.

[Barbara · Rating 3 out of 5]

Gregg McCracy is a profiler with the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit (made famous by "Silence of the Lambs") and here, he takes us behind the scenes of notable FBI investigations including the Sam Sheppard and Arthur Shawcross cases. He explains the steps of a normal criminal investigation and how profiling fits in. He also delves into religiously-based offenses such as David Koresh's standoff with the ATF in 1993 and the massacre of Buddhist monks at a temple in the United States. Along the way, he discusses profiling and psychological clues that offenders leave behind as well as why certain laws designed to rehabilitate criminals often don't work. The book isn't light reading; there are crime scene photos and descriptions of human-on-human cruelty that will make squeamish readers gag. However, for those interested in the subject, this book is a good introduction. Like another reviewer here, I'd also recommend John Douglas' and Robert Ressler's books as well ("The Cases That Haunt Us", "Whoever Fights Monsters").

[Rsupergirl · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is fascinating. If you like the TV show Criminal Minds, you'll love this. It's written by a former FBI profiler and it gives whole new insight to the Waco (David Koresh), Sam Sheppard, Scarborough Rapist and other less well-known cases.

There are clearly criminal types who need to be identified early and never allowed to roam the free world. These are psychopaths, dangerous people who cannot be rehabilitated. Therapy often makes them more dangerous because they take what they learn to better manipulate their victims rather than apply it to themselves.

Further, this book talks about the inadequacy or wrong-headedness of some of our laws. In California, for example, you can hold a prisoner if they are treatable and need to continue treatment before being released. If they are not treatable, as psychopaths are not, they must be released at the end of their terms. Aaaagh! We've got to change our criminal justice system.

[Diana · Rating 3 out of 5]

McCrary, a former FBI profiler, talks about his most famous cases, including a Buddist temple massacre, a serial rapist who becomes a killer, and a re-examining of the Marilyn Sheppard case.

Enthralling, though a little hard to read. Sometimes a little disjointed, but stands on its own.

[Madonna Analla · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really liked this book! It offered a new perspective on some well known crimes. The perspective was from the inside, of someone personally involved in the cases and that made it very interesting. I would recommend this for anyone who reads true crime.

[Tiffany M · Rating 5 out of 5]

I took a class with Gregg McCrary (the author) for my masters and it was excellent. I highly recommend this book.

[Allison · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wonderful book written in almost a textbook style. A truly great analysis of the Sam Sheppard case at the end.

[Marianne Jay · Rating 4 out of 5]

I am a real true crime nut. This book was awesome.