Ann Wolbert Burgess: How a Nursing Professor Helped FBI Track Down Dozens of Notoriously Violent Offenders and Serial Killers

Criminal Profiling has become a key component of investigations especially when it comes to violent crimes, according to the US Department of Justice.

Ann Wolbert Burgess, Professor, at Connell School of Nursing, played a major role in making law enforcement officials understand the benefits of criminal profiling in catching notorious killers, Boston College reported. Her contribution has been covered in shows like Mindhunter and Mastermind: To Think Like a Killer.

Burgess' journey with the FBI started when the organization came across her research with Lynda Lytle Holmstrom, a sociologist, Boston College reported. In the study, the duo interviewed nearly 150 victims of rape to understand the emotional and traumatic effects of sexual violence. The interviews and analysis made them conclude that sexual violence was more about power and control than the act of sex.

Burgess and Holmstrom coined the term  "rape trauma syndrome" to describe the psychological effects of a sexual assault, Boston College reported. According to their research the mental aftereffects of rape last way more than the physical injuries.

Their research titled "The Rape Victim in the Emergency Ward" in the American Journal of Nursing, caught the attention of Roy Hazelwood of the FBI.

Hazelwood contacted Burgess and asked her to give lectures and teach the agents about victimology and violent sex crimes in the FBI Academy at Quantico, Boston College reported. In the facility, she encountered agents Robert Ressler and John Douglas, who were conducting a side project interviewing 36 serial killers. She joined them in their project. 

In her book A Killer by Design: Murderers, Mindhunters, and My Quest to Decipher the Criminal Mind, Burgee recounted that she was excited about the project because of its unique objective, Boston College reported. "As far as I know, no one’s ever tried to figure out why serial killers kill," she recalled telling the agents.

The agents and Burgess used the findings from their project in an active murder investigation of young teen boys in Nebraska in 1983, Boston College reported. The team developed a profile of the likely perpetrator and helped in catching John Joseph Joubert IV, who was eventually convicted of the murders.

The success in this case validated the use of criminal profiling in investigations. "We'd proven that there was value in understanding the criminal mind…to be able to actually use criminal profiling in an active case to hunt down a killer was the most satisfying reward of all," wrote Burgess in her book.

Another case that Burgess was involved in solving was that of the "Ski Mask Rapist," whose modus operandi involved breaking into homes, tying up the victims, and raping them in front of any men in the house before robbing them, ARS Technica reported. According to her analysis, the attacker was a man in his late 20s or early 30s, never married, meticulous about details, in good physical shape, who was educated, had likely served in the military, and saw himself as an "alpha male." 

The profile was distributed to various departments and led to the arrest of Jon Barry Simonis in Lake Charles, Louisiana, ARS Technica reported.

Since the 1970s, the criminal profiling program has grown very rapidly and now consists of one program manager, seven criminal profilers, as well as crime analysts, the US Department of Justice reported.

Burgess was often the only woman working with the so-called "mindhunters," ARS Technica reported. In the beginning, many attempts were made to shock her as a kind of test or rite of passage.

Douglas kept a skull on her desk to gauge her reaction to it. "He would watch to see where your eyes went," she said. "Did you look at it? Did you try to avoid it? Did you ask about it? That was the test."

Discussing a case with Hazelwood in the 1980s, she recounted, "He tried to walk some imaginary line of social decorum while talking to me about extreme acts of violence, regardless of how many times I told him to knock it off," Boston College reported.

Steven Matthew Constantine, associate director of marketing and communications, at the Connell School, believes that Burgess was not only a pioneer for popularising criminal profiling but also for changing the attitude of law enforcement towards sexual crimes, Boston College reported.

"She was a pioneer. Her work helped change how law enforcement thought about these cases and it changed how the legal system thought about these cases. It’s the foundation of the modern aspects of how sexual crimes are dealt with. The public understanding of rape—once dismissed as a ‘women’s issue’—has come so far and that’s a testament to Dr. Burgess and her work," Constantine explained, Boston College reported.