Profiling is described by Rodger Lyle Brown, author of the book review, as "the art and science of looking at the specifics of a crime -- the scene, the facts about the victim, the evidence and the act itself -- and extrapolating a portrait of the culprit's psyche and personal habits.

"[1] In this book, Douglas explores legendary cases including Lizzie Borden, Jack the Ripper, Black Dahlia, Laurie Bembenek, the Charles Lindbergh Jr. kidnapping, the Zodiac Killer, the Boston Strangler, and the killing of JonBenét Ramsey.

[1] Of Jack the Ripper suspects, Douglas states that a paranoid individual such as Aaron Kosminski would likely have openly boasted of the murders while incarcerated had he been the killer, but there is no record that he ever did so.

[3] Nigel Cawthorne, on the other hand, dismissed Cohen as a likely suspect because in the asylum his assaults were undirected, and his behaviour was wild and uncontrolled, whereas the Ripper seemed to attack specifically and quietly.

He tried to decapitate Polly Nichols in the middle of the street, he killed Annie Chapman while trespassing in a private rear yard after sunrise, and he slit Stride's throat while drunk.