Premise: Criminal profiling has come a long way over the last several decades, both in terms of its investigative methods and prominence in pop culture. One name that stands out in this area of study is John Douglas. His FBI career not only brought him face to face with some of the most notorious criminals in recent history, but his pioneering research in the field of criminal profiling has made him an esteemed lecturer, consultant, and author. The Netflix series Mindhunter is based on Douglas’ extensive work. 

His most recent book, The Killer Across the Table, compares and contrasts four different murderers to provide greater insight into what makes violent offenders tick. Douglas immerses us in his interrogative world to help better understand whether killers are born or made when examining their motives, rationale, and childhood. The author also parallels the anatomy of these crimes and their perpetrators to his experiences with other prolific criminals such as Charles Manson, Edmund Kemper,
Dennis Rader, and Gary Heidnik, among others. We’re treated to a front-row seat of how a malignant desire for power goes from conception to conviction. As Douglas says, there’s “one universal among all serial killers and violent predators: Other people don’t matter, they aren’t real, and they don’t have any rights.”

The 411: The Killer Across the Table is divided into sections on each individual profiled, walking us through their crimes, how they were ultimately caught, and their own interpretations of what they’d done. Douglas recounts his chilling interviews with these men while simultaneously providing an analysis of their behavior and pathology. The first criminal evaluated is Joseph McGowan, a schoolteacher who killed 7-year-old Joan D’Alessandro when she came to his mother’s house selling Girl Scout cookies. The second is Joe Kondro, a drug addict and drifter who killed several young girls who were children of friends and acquaintances. The third is Donald Harvey, who may have killed as many as 87 patients at hospitals he worked in over a 17-year stretch. The last is Todd Kohlhepp, a real estate broker who killed several people he felt had betrayed or insulted him. 

The book is rife with intuitive passages that distill the thought process of these criminals and explain why, in most cases, rehabilitation after their crimes have already begun is practically impossible. We see how patterns in these killers’ lives contributed to who they became and why. Douglas shares classic indicators that murderers often exhibit when their violent tendencies are still evolving, such as the “homicidal triangle” — fire-starting, cruelty to animals or people, and chronic bedwetting. 

The author also reveals common ploys often seen by criminals to manipulate their trial or parole hearings, and the dichotomy between criminal insanity versus conscious choices within that narrative. He goes on to discuss loopholes in the judicial system’s evaluation process that enabled, or could’ve potentially enabled, dangerous criminals to be set free. Douglas describes how killers often participate in searches for victims and have premeditated their crimes so carefully that they’ve formulated strategies to misdirect suspicion away from themselves. “Predators may look and sound and often act like we do, but they don’t think like we do. Their logical process is completely different,” Douglas says.

The Verdict: As the reader, you feel like you’re sitting in the room with Douglas during his interviews. For those who wince easily at descriptions of violent acts, this book may be a bit too intense. Douglas does a very professional job of keeping the tone conversational and empathetic; however, in order to understand these crimes, we must wade deep into the waters of visceral discomfort. Douglas has numerous other books, both on criminology as well as fiction, but for those who want to understand the mentality of a murderer, this is an excellent place to start. You’ll walk away a bit more confident in knowing why there are insidious people who, in their own way, are profilers looking to detect and exploit the vulnerability of potential victims. Works like Douglas’ serve as important tools on how to recognize and protect yourself from society’s criminals. 

Book & Author

The Killer Across the Table: Unlocking the Secrets of Serial Killers and Predators With the FBI’s Original Mindhunter
By: John Douglas and Mark Olshaker

Publisher: Harper Collins
MSRP: $17 paperback (Purchase here on Amazon)
URL: mindhuntersinc.com
Pages: 352
Rating:

• THRIVE
• SURVIVE
• DIE

OFFGRID LIBRARY OF RECOMMENDED BOOKS

• Tactics and Firearms
  • Two Person Close Quarters Tactics by Special Tactics
  • On Combat by Lt. Col. Grossman.
  • The Irish Republican Manual of Guerrilla Warfare
  • 100 Deadly Skills by Clint Emerson
• Skillsets and DIY
  • Visual Guide to Lock Picking, 3rd Edition
  • Primitive Technology Survivalist Guide Book by John Plant
  • 101 Skills You Need to Survive in the Woods by Kevin Estella
  • The Survival Medicine Handbook by Joseph & Amy Alton
  • Bushcraft by Mors Kochanski
• Novels and Literature
  • The Final Day by William Forstchen
  • The Savage by Frank Bill
• Scenarios and Survival
  • Lights Out by Ted Koppel
  • Waste Land by David T. Hanson

The post Book Review: “Killer Across the Table” by John Douglas and Mark Olshaker appeared first on RECOIL OFFGRID.

EDC, or Every Day Carry is a deeply personal topic. Everyone has their own ideas of what to have on their person on a day-to-day basis. These items often include a handgun, knife, wallet of choice and sometimes medical components. In addition to the items on a person, some choose to bring along a small pack or satchel as a way of expanding what they have on themselves when they go out and about. To be clear, we are not discussing Bug-out bags or Survival kits.

Having additional equipment off-body can be incredibly valuable, but there are some considerations about what pack to choose for this task. The Eberlestock S25 Cherry Bomb with the optional hip belt removed fit the bill for looks, and its features met our objective requirements. The Cherry Bomb comes in several colorways, but we choose brown, or the “dry earth” option as listed on their website. None of these colorways scream “tactical” or “look at me, I like camo and I might have a firearm”. The aesthetics of your pack will inevitably come down to your location, but for those who live in sub-urban or metropolitan locations, standing out isn’t particularly a good thing, so we are staying away from tactical packs covered in webbing. If you’ve taken the responsibility to carry a firearm on your person for defending your own life and those around you, it’s best to be the most dangerous person in the room/street/road with no one knowing.

The primary feature of the Eberlestock Cherry Bomb is a scabbard in the main compartment that runs the length of the pack. We relocated the rain fly from its original storage location that was initially in its own external compartment located at the bottom of the exterior of the pack, providing enough space in the scabbard compartment to fit an AR with a 12-inch barrel and a Law Tactical AR Folding Stock Adapter. Without the folding stock adapter, one would need to run a 6” barrel or less on an AR or pistol caliber carbine for it to fit. Stowing a Primary Weapon System MK111 Mod 2 pistol with an SB Tactical SBA3 brace, we let the mentality of the pack drive what features to use on the firearm, keeping it simple and relatively lightweight. We topped it with a Vortex UH-1 gen 2 and Troy fold-down backup iron sights and also affixed a Surefire Mini Scout weapon light with a pressure pad. Due to the design of the bag, one only needs to unzip the primary compartment, to expose the pistol grip on the MK111 for an easy drawing of the entire firearm. A 20-Round magazine inserted into the firearm kept it slim and prevented it from binding when removing the MK111. In addition, a Dead-Air Sandman S Suppressor fit conveniently alongside, to be added on request for quieter activities.

While the 11.85-inch barrel AR in the scabbard took up much of the room available, an Invrt Bandoleer by IC13, a unique micro chest rig concept, still fit in the bottom of the main compartment. Holding two 30-round Pmags and a medical pouch filled with some of the essentials this easily deployable and rapidly adjustable bandoleir became an essential part of this EDC Pack. Not all chest rigs are as quickly adaptable as the Invrt, and when living in a place where someone might be in a winter jacket one day and a t-shirt the next, that speed and versatility together made the Invrt shine. Beside the chest rig, we included a G-Code Scorpion Softshell Magazine Pouch with a paddle backing in order to allow throwing a mag pouch on our beltline regardless of if we were in gym clothes or formal attire.  Inside the pouch we put a 40-round Pmag. Above the chest rig and pouch and below the folded brace was a small space where we placed an additional trauma kit.

$22.50 G-Code Scorpions at Optics Planet

Having a trauma kit handy, especially if you intend on carrying a firearm is a good idea. If you have the power to put holes in people, best to have a method to stop up those holes whenever possible. While there is some debate about what to have in a trauma or med kit, we kept it fairly simple: 1x pack of quick clot gauze, 3x packs of compressed gauze, 1x roll of tape, 1x compressible bandage, and of course several pairs of gloves at the very top. All of this fits snugly into an inexpensive black Cordura zip bag.

The admin panel at the front of the main compartment features a pair of what looks to be AR magazine pouches with retention bungees. A fully-loaded AR magazine here made the flap too heavy and cumbersome, so instead, we opted for a tourniquet and trauma shears on one side and a battery holder on the other. Behind this panel is another compartment where we stowed a small zip bag for essential items.

Small essential items tucked neatly into an ITS Tactical waxed canvas zip pouch. Inside here we put a few items one often cannot live without: writing instruments such as sharpies, pencils, pens, a highlighter, and a small ruler. Since most of us carry cell phones on a regular basis, we added a spare charging cable and a small battery bank. The pouch also contains a batch of boo-boo kit bandages, aspirin, ibuprofen, and Benadryl, a small sharpener, as well as a spare folding knife: a Skallywag Tactical Blackwater. This small bag fits either in this small sleeve-pouch within the main zipped compartment or in the secondary compartment.

The outer section of the Eberlestock Cherry Bomb is a bit confusing. The full-length clamshell design with zippers running to the very bottom of the bag allow this portion to flay open all the way. At the very middle of this compartment, a slip pouch maybe 10” deep and perhaps designed for tablets or books sits right in front of the main compartment that only has a half clamshell opening. If one were to put anything rigid deep into this pouch, it would prevent the main compartment from opening wide: a problem if fast access to the main compartment is required. This seems like a glaring flaw in an otherwise well-thought-out pack. We remedied the issue by putting nothing in this compartment at the “hinge point” of this compartment. The above-mentioned essentials pouch and a Skallywag Tactical D2 Dagger stow neatly here where both could be accessed without interfering with the rest of the pack’s contents.

Above: With everything else included, this outer pouch couldn’t be utilized as well. If anything rigid were stowed here, it would prevent the opening for the scabbard from folding over, frustrating the action of drawing a firearm from it. 

There are three additional pockets worth noting on the Eberlestock Cherry Bomb, a small but long pocket at the very front of the pack (that suffers from the same issues that plague the second compartment) and two small zippered exterior compartments found on either side of the pack. We used one of these side pockets to stow the relocated rain fly, and the other we kept largely empty save for a multi-tool occasionally.

After two years of continual use and minor refinement, the Eberlestock Cherry Bomb continues to prove itself as an exceptional EDC pack that won’t make the wearer stand out nearly as much as other options while still hauling about a slim but capable setup tailored for uncertain times. As this world seems to be chasing toward chaos, this EDC pack leans into being prepared in the event of an active shooter or to be used as a “get home” bag if things get weird. We hope we never see the day when we need a pack such as this, but if it’s needed, this setup is designed for the occasion.

Cherry Bombs for $250 at Optics Planet

Eberlestock Cherry Bomb Bag Drop

• • Eberlestock S25 Cherry Bomb Pack: eberlestock.com
  • MK111 Mod 2-M Pistol .223 Wylde: primaryweapons.com
  • SB Tactical SBA3 Brace: sbtactical.com

SBA3’s for $140 at Brownell’s

• • Wise Man Company SBA3 Splitfix: wisemencompany.com
  • Vortex AMG UH-1 Gen II vortexoptics.com
  • Troy Folding Front Sight: troyind.com
  • Troy Folding Rear Sight: troyind.com
  • Surefire Mini Scout: surefire.com
  • Hiperfire ECLipse Trigger: hiperfire.com
  • Magpul MS1 Sling: magpul.com
  • Invrt Bandoleer: ic13.us
  • Scorpion Softshell Mag Carrier: tacticalholsters.com
  • ITS Tactical Zip Bag (Canvas is discontinued for the time being): store.itstactical.com
  • Skallywag Tactical D2 Dagger: skallywagtactical.com
  • Skallywag Blackwater Folder: skallywagtactical.com
  • Sterling Sharpener: sterlingsharpener.com
  • CLC Zippered Bag (used for medical): www.northerntool.com
  • For medical items: narescue.com/
  • Condor Battery Case: condoroutdoor.com

More Bag Drops from OFFGRID

• • The Amazon Gray-Man Pack.
  • The Winter Survival Pack Loadout.
  • The Austere Environment Backpack.
  • The Commuter Backpack.
  • The Vehicle Bailout Bag.
  • 10 Bug Out Bag Tips for Long Treks.
  • The Gray Man EDC Pack.

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