January 1, 2022
In this riveting book, Franscell (Alice & Gerald: A Homicidal Love Story) details the crimes that led to the first psychological profile created by the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit. In 1973 the FBI was called to the small town of Manhattan, MT. The disappearance of seven-year-old Susie Jaeger, punctuated by mysterious phone calls from her kidnapper, spurred the largest manhunt in Montana history and uncovered connections to the disappearance of a young woman named Sandra Smallegan, also from Manhattan. The search for the perpetrator led investigators to call on FBI agents Patrick Mullany and Howard Teten, who were exploring the then new and radical concept of criminal profiling using behavioral analysis. Franscell's narrative is gripping, and he balances the complexities of these crimes with explorations of how Mullany and Teten used their criminal profile to search for the killer responsible for the deaths of Jaeger and Smallegan (their remains were uncovered soon after Jaeger's disappearance). Readers interested in further exploring criminal profiling might enjoy John Douglas and Mark Olshaker's The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators with the FBI's Original Mindhunter. VERDICT A thrilling book about the lengths to which investigators went to catch an elusive killer and a pivotal moment in the history of criminal investigation.--Kate Bellody
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Starred review from January 17, 2022
In this exceptional true crime account, Franscell (The Darkest Night) tells the fascinating story of the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit’s early days and the very first psychological profile used to catch a killer. In the summer of 1973, six-year-old Susie Jaeger was taken from her tent at a family campsite in a Montana state park. Nine months later, FBI special agent Pete Dunbar and his team discovered human remains near the park of a missing young woman and a small girl. Dunbar went to Quantico to ask two agents who taught a course in profiling to create a profile of the unknown suspect in the Jaeger case. Using clues from the crime scene and the investigation, they predicted he would be a white male, a military veteran, a loner—and that Susie wasn’t his first kill. One suspect who fit the bill was David Meirhofer, known as an “oddball,” but he passed three lie detector tests, and it wasn’t until body parts were found in his freezer that he confessed to four kidnapping and killings, including Susie’s. The profile also predicted he could be suicidal. In September of 1974, Meirhofer died by suicide while in jail. Franscell’s portrait of rural Montana will remind many of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, and the way he weaves together the threads of the different killings is spellbinding. This is a must for Mindhunter fans. Agent: Linda Konner, Linda Konner Literary.
February 15, 2022
Manhattan, Montana (population 900), the self-proclaimed "Potato Capital of the World," was a close-knit town where everyone knew each other and secrets were kept close to the vest. Crimes were usually of the petty variety, grist for the gossip mill, until a mysterious shooting and a fatal assault occurred in the sixties, perplexing residents. But these crimes would pale in comparison to the shocking abductions in the early 1970s of 7-year-old Susie Jaeger from a state park and of 19-year-old Sandy Smallegan from her home. The public furor over the abductions led to many wrong suspects. When all seemed lost, Montana-born and -bred FBI Agent Pete Dunbar consulted the bureau's fledgling Behavioral Science Unit. They helped build a profile, and a suspect came into focus. In this gripping real-life thriller, Franscell (The Darkest Night; Alice & Gerald) deftly relates a complex case with journalistic flourish, never losing focus of the human tragedy.
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