One of the most popular fictionalized protrayals of criminal profiling was presented to the public in the form of FBI agent Clarice Starling in the Thomas Harris novel 'The Silence of the Lambs", which was made into perhaps one of the scariest films ever. 
"It puts the lotion on its skin or else it gets the hose again")
Clarice was great, but the public was so fascinated by the character of Dr.
Hannibal Lecter that it led to a couple of sequels and now the inevitable prequel, Hannibal Rising.
The novel, by Harris, will be available on December 5th and the movie of the same name is set to be released in February. You can read or hear an excerpt from the novel at the Thomas Harris website.
A Trace of Irony?
A few helpful links for your research and analysis following today's lab on
Locard's Exchange Principle:
"
Edmond Locard (1877-1966) was the founder and director of the Institute of criminalistics at the University of Lyons in France. He believed that whenever a criminal came into contact with his environment, a cross-transference of evidence occurred. He believed that "every criminal can be connected to a crime by dust particles carried from the scene." (Saferstein, Richard, Criminalistics, Seventh Ed., 2001)"
IF(!?!) OJ did it
Would it surpise you to know that this is actually OJ's SECOND book about the crime? In February of 1995, in the middle of his trial, OJ published "I Want to Tell You". An Amazon.com review of the book puts it best:
"The killer tells us about his glory days as a football player and his "wonderful" life with poor Nicole, conveniently omitting his no contest plea to spousal abuse and eschewing references to the 8 times Nicole called the police to settle their domestic disputes. But the most glaring omission in this trashy, exploitive book is a confession"
and now we have that part too.
Helpful links:
OJTrial.com Famous Trials: OJ Simpson Wikipedia entry on the trialCourt TVGoldman wants to own OJ's faceCelebrity MugshotsOJ Find Real Killer (theOnion.com)The OJ Trial if written by Suess
Blood! So Much BLOOD!
A couple of helpful links for blood evidence analysis:
In case you missed it, here's the class assignment:
(1) Write a short summary of the Elizabeth Short Case (see the Black Dahlia entry on this blog)
(2) Compare the Short murder to that of Geneva Helliker Ellroy in terms of forensics
(3) Based on the various aspects of modern forensics we have studied and discussed in class, do you think the Ellroy murder case could be solved it it were committed today? Why or why not? What modern techniques and resources would help the investigation?
