How much reality is there in 'MINDHUNTER', Netflix's latest hit

For decades, dozens of television series have appeared about police agents or members of the FBI, making the police genre one of the most popular and consumed by the public . The classic story of the cat and the mouse has been represented from all points of view (the good guys, the bad guys, heroes, antiheroes ...) but recently Netflix , who has walked through the phenomenon ' true crimes ' with documentaries like Making a Murderer or The Keepers, has had the opportunity to mix both genres with his latest production 'MINDHUNTER'. The series written by Joe Penhall and produced, among others, by Charlize Theron and David Fincher (who also directs four episodes) is located in the late 1970s, where two FBI agents meet with incarcerated murderers and rapists to develop psychological profiles of criminals.

' MINDHUNTER ' is an adaptation of the book Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit written by retired agent, John Douglas, and filmmaker Mark Olshaker. The text published in 1996, compiles the memories of Douglas himself during the time he worked for the FBI. The big question is whether really everything we see during the ten episodes that lasts the series happened in real life. The answer is yes. Because at least most of the facts narrated are true as well as the people linked to them.

THE GOOD

The series opts for a rather explicit portrait of the FBI which denotes the bureaucracy, the power game and the strategies - sometimes unorthodox - that are used to meet their objectives. This is how the qualifier of "good" is valid only when they are sitting in front of a criminal, not with another agent. The director, strict and retrograde, and his subordinates, the avid ones of information, represent Side A of the facts. Within the Federal Bureau, the three members of the Behavioral Sciences Unit stand out, the protagonists, all real.

Holden Ford / John Douglas Holden Ford (Jonathan Groff) is based on Agent John Douglas (yes, the author of the book) one of the greatest experts in the field of criminology in the United States. He founded the Criminal Profiles Program within the Behavioral Sciences Unit of the FBI. His work has inspired other fictional characters such as Jack Crawford from the novels about Hannibal Lecter.

Bill Tench / Robert K. Ressler

Tench (Holt McCallany) is a veteran of the war who joined the FBI in 1970, his experience provides maturity and rationality to the duo that makes up Ford. In real life Bill Tench was Robert K. Ressler , a military policeman from Chicago who became Douglas' closest associate. Although in the series Bill is 22 years older than Holden, in reality the difference was only 8 years.

Wendy Carr / Ann Wolbert Burgess.

The real Wendy Carr (Anna Corv) is Dr. Ann Wolbert Burgess , a living legend in the world of nursing, psychology and medicine who has spent years working as a therapist for victims of abuse. Among his extensive list of publications highlights the book Sexual Homicide: Patterns and Motives co-written precisely by Douglas and Ressler.

THE BAD GUYS

The 1970s was a rather hectic period in the United States, as well as previous years. The term "serial killer" was coined for the first time by then , as evidenced in the series, due to the increase in homicides at the hands of this type of sociopaths. The Unit where Ford, Tench and Carr work, specializes in studying and investigating criminals already sentenced, authors of the most atrocious crimes, in order to recognize and prevent acts and actors of the same ilk. Charles Manson (a tricky name in Hollywood) and David Berkowitz, " Son of Sam", Are one of the most famous names that only mention, while attention, this season, goes to four other very unpopular criminals too, who become the first four interviewed. Interestingly, the series (as well as Douglas in the book) keeps the real names of "the bad guys" intact , perhaps for greater veracity or simply to attract the public.

Ed Kemper

As described in the series, Edmund Kemper murdered his grandparents when he was still a teenager; then murdered his mother (and carried out all the details exposed in the drama) and finally ended the lives of five young people during the decades of the 60s and 70s. He currently pays life imprisonment in the Vacaville State Prison . Kemper, who surrendered to the police and is known for his high IQ, and the strange connection he developed to John Douglas that has been shown in the series and certainly is one of the bases (more sordid) of the plot.

Monte Rissell

Rissell (Sam Strike) raped and murdered five young men between 1976 and 1977, before turning 19 years old. Its clumsy and careless pattern of operation served to originate the concept of disorganized crime .

Jerome Brudos

It shares characteristics with Kemper, calculating and organized, but of extroverted personality. Brudos (Happy Anderson) was a fetishist and necrophile who murdered four women in 1960 . His family picture (married with two children) distracted the police for years.

Richard Speck

Richard Speck does not fit the profile of serial killer but his crime is described as one of the most atrocious in the United States. Speck (Jack Erdie) had planned to raid the residence but ended up murdering eight students who lived in it. The tattoo shown in the series, ' raise to hell ', helped the only survivor to help with her capture.

Dennis Rader

Eight of the ten episodes of Mindhunter begin with the picture of an unknown man (Sonny Valicenti), an ADT worker, which is quite disturbing. He does not speak, he does not have a name but if he is in the series it probably is not for anything good. Indeed, this mysterious subject would be Dennis Rader, also known as The BTK Killer , initials of Bind, Torture, Kill (Atar, Torture , Killing) which describes his criminal pattern with which he ended the lives of women and children for two decades , 70 and 80. In the first five years of 2005, the police reopened the case to collect DNA samples in the tests. Many men underwent the required exams, some to clear their names, since their families were convinced that something had to do with the case. Rader, on the other hand, was not even on the list of suspects since his impeccable personality and his reputation as a family man and worker served to cover his misdeeds; without problems, he had the idea of ​​sending a disk to the police station with a word document where he mocked the ineptitude of the police force. By the way or not, the file contained the name of the person who had written it, Dennis, and they shortened the list of suspects to capture it. Rader's history has almost 20 victims .

THE CASES

Throughout the first season, Holden and Billy walk through much of the US geography, gathering information, interviews, teaching classes and having the opportunity to put their new acquired knowledge into practice. Four cases, one more brutal than the other, are exposed throughout the ten episodes and at least three happened in real life .

Director Wade

As part of a kind of educational program, Holden presents a talk on the first characteristics to recognize a criminal in an elementary school. The course of the story takes an unexpected turn when a teacher at the same school tells Holden that the principal, Roger Wade, has a strange behavior: he gives coins to the children in exchange for their permission to tickle them. the feet. Holden, convinced that this is an inappropriate gesture speaks with the parents of the children and comes to use his influence as an agent of the FBI to stop the director who ends up losing his job. Douglas tells the same story in his book, where he says he should change the name of the former director for the safety of the school and the children involved.

Beverly Jean Shaw / Betty Jane Shade

In the fourth episode, Holden and Bill, stop in Altoona, Pennsylvania to help with the investigation of the murder of the young Beverly Jean Shaw, local nanny who was allegedly about to marry her fiance, Benjamin Barn wright, who would end up being the author of the facts in complicity with his sister and brother-in-law. According to an article in the Altoona Mirror, on June 2, 1979, a 22-year-old girl, Betty Jane Shade , had a fight with her boyfriend, Charles Soult.. She planned to end the relationship. However, Shade agreed to take a walk with Soult and his brothers, Michael and Catherine. Since Betty Jane and Charles went away and did not return, Catherine went to look for them and got her brother hitting Shade almost to death. Shade died of bruises to the head. The trio, Charles, Catherine and Michael, took the body of the girl to the garbage dump, as happens in the series.

The police first captured Michael and Catherine, then arrested Charles while fleeing to Pittsburgh. Even though Charles was sentenced to die, the judge decided to give him life imprisonment . Soult currently pays his sentence in the Huntingdon State Prison, Pennsylvania.

As additional information, the name of Beverly Jean can also be a reference to Beverly Jean Hope , a mother of three who was murdered in Dallas, Texas in 1970. Although the case was never resolved, new evidence that emerged in 2016 points to the brother-in-law of the victim as prime suspect. In Mindhunter, one of Benji's accomplices is not his brother, but his brother-in-law.

Mary Frances Stoner

The first season of the series culminates with the case of Mary Frances Stoner, a 12-year-old girl who was raped and later murdered by Darrell Gene Devier a young man who worked trimming trees near Stoner's residence. Douglas talks about this case in his book to emphasize that it was the first time he could question a suspect so the folders with white pages, to make Devier believe that they had a lot of information about him, and the recreation of the The crime scene was carried out as shown in the episode.

Fincher has made it known that he hopes to make at least five more seasons and for now we only know that the second installment will focus on Wade Williams, a man who murdered children of color in Virginia. Enough to wait for the new new of ' MINDHUNTER ', a series that came to remind us that, sometimes, reality can be more twisted than fiction .