Nurse Ann Burgess studied America’s most notorious killers in order to stop them

“Hearst Magazines and Yahoo may earn commissions or revenue on certain articles through these links.”

Ann Burgess She studied some of the most famous killers in modern history, such as Edmund Kemper, Ted Bundy, and brothers Erik and Lyle Menendez, trying to understand their motivations and actions. Her rigorous analysis of these and other figures has allowed her to leave an indelible mark on the field of criminology.

Now, a new Hulu documentary called Mastermind: Think Like a Killer The three-part series, set to premiere July 11, details his pioneering work with the FBI’s Behavioral Sciences Unit in the 1980s, which laid the foundation for modern psychological profiling of serial killers and other criminals. Decades later, Burgess continues to investigate crimes and inspire the next generation of investigators.

Burgess began her career as a nurse

Born in early October 1936, Burgess grew up in Newton, a suburb of Boston. Although she eventually found success in both fields, Burgess initially pursued a career in nursing rather than teaching. She explained to Boston College Magazine that three of her uncles were doctors. When Burgess was 10 or 11, she started helping one of them deliver babies in the country.

Burgess continued to work directly with patients in Boston University’s nursing program, doing her clinical work in the psychiatric unit of the Massachusetts Mental Health Center. “I was fascinated by human behavior and how it could vary,” she said. “I couldn’t learn enough.”

She and other nurses were often the first to treat crime victims, allowing Burgess to observe their behavior and reactions up close.

Burgess used his observational prowess to co-author a landmark 1973 study in the American Journal of NursingWorking with Lynda Lytle Holmstrom, a sociologist at Boston College, she helped interview 146 rape survivors ranging in age from 3 to 73. From their findings, the two women concluded that the crime was largely about power and control for the perpetrators — a major shift from the “blame the victim” mentality that still persisted at the time.

Burgess and Holmstrom also advocated for crisis counseling and taught clinicians how to recognize the signs of rape. Shortly after the study was published, the FBI contacted Burgess about his expertise.

Burgess set the standard for criminal profiling

According to BC MagazineIn 1978, then-FBI Director William Webster invited Burgess to the FBI Academy, where she gave classes on how to talk to crime victims and document the information they provided. This caught the attention of agents John Douglas and Robert Ressler, who wanted to see if Burgess’s methods could be used to understand the minds of criminals, particularly serial killers.

Beginning in 1980, with funding from the U.S. Department of Justice, the trio began laying the foundations of criminal profiling. They examined the motivations and methods of 36 killers and categorized them along a spectrum from organized individuals, more likely to commit premeditated crimes, to disorganized individuals, who commit impulsive, reckless violence. The group was also the first to examine the link between a killer’s crimes and past trauma.

Burgess and his team applied their work to the ongoing investigation into the 1983 murders of two young boys in Nebraska. After establishing a likely profile of the killer, authorities were able to apprehend John Joseph Joubert IV, who confessed to the murders and was later executed in 1996.

“We proved that there was value in understanding the criminal mind… being able to actually use criminal profiling in an active case to track down a killer was the most satisfying reward of all,” Burgess wrote in his 2021 memoir, A Killer by Design: Murderers, Mindhunters, and My Quest to Decipher the Criminal Mind.

Burgess’ work with the FBI served as the inspiration for the character of Wendy Carr, played by actress Anna Torv, in the Netflix thriller series. Mind Hunter, a dramatization of the founding of the Behavioral Sciences Unit.

She remains a very influential expert

Burgess, Douglas, and Ressler published two important books based on their research: Sexual homicide: patterns and motivations in 1988 and Crime Classification Manual: A Standard System for Investigating and Classifying Violent Crimes in 1992.

Even after working for the FBI, Burgess continued to play a key role in notable criminal cases. In 1993, she served as an expert witness for the defense in the first trial of Lyle and Erik Menendez, the brothers accused of murdering their parents in their Beverly Hills home in August 1989. Burgess interviewed Erik for approximately 50 hours as part of her involvement, determining that their father, José,’s allegations of sexual abuse were valid and constituted an “initial cause” of the murders. The trial ended in a hung jury, but the brothers were convicted of first-degree murder in 1996.

Burgess also interviewed Andrea Constand, who in a 2005 civil lawsuit accused actor and comedian Bill Cosby of sexual assault. A settlement was reached in that case the following year.

Today, Burgess is still investigating

Now 87, Burgess continues to use her investigative skills. She and her fellow psychiatric nurses at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland have formed a “Super Sleuth Club,” which meets once a month via Zoom to review unsolved cases.

At the same time, she continues to inspire the next generation of researchers as a professor of psychiatric mental health nursing at Boston College. She is also a professor emerita at the University of Pennsylvania.

Burgess said The teacher as… In her podcast, she teaches four courses at Boston College: victimology; forensic science; forensic mental health; and Wounded Warriors in Transition, an elective that allows students to “gain insight into military culture, catastrophic injuries, and the journey of Wounded Warriors and their families.” Her courses examine a number of past and ongoing cases, including the Gilgo Beach and University of Idaho murders, and often include former law enforcement personnel and real victims.

One of Burgess’s current areas of interest is threat assessment to prevent mass casualty events, such as school shootings. “We see so many of these types of shootings happening, and we need to be able to detect the red flags, the warning signs, and it’s all on social media,” Burgess said. “One way to try to understand what’s going on is to analyze what they’re writing, because what they’re writing is what they’re thinking, and we know that thinking is what drives behavior.”

The new Hulu docuseries, for which Burgess served as a consulting producer, will likely examine the in-depth approach she has used and continues to use throughout her career in criminology.

---

Flow Brain From July 11th

Mastermind: Think Like a Killer is directed by Abby Fuller and produced by Lewellen Pictures, the production company owned by actress Dakota Fanning and her Golden Globe-winning sister, Elle Fanning.

In an interview with Boston College, Fuller spoke about the importance of sharing Burgess’s story and her influence on the study of criminal personality. “Dr. Burgess’s story is not just about studying the minds of serial killers. It’s about understanding victims and believing them. That’s the thread that I saw,” she said. “The series is about her entire career and the many ways she influenced and shaped law enforcement, the courts, and different systems.”

Hulu’s three-part series will premiere in its entirety on July 11.

You may also like