Dr Gérard Labuschagne was the head of the SAPS’s specialised Investigative Psychology section. He writes here about the one case he worked on ... his most challenging case.
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Dr Gérard Labuschagne was the head of the SAPS’s specialised Investigative Psychology section, the only unit mandated to profile offenders, for fourteen and a half years, during which time he analysed 110 murder series and countless other bizarre crimes.
“Each criminal is interesting for different reasons.”
In this second instalment of the bestselling The Profiler Diaries, former South African Police Service (SAPS) head profiler Dr Gérard Labuschagne, successor to the legendary Micki Pistorius, recalls more of the 110 murder series and countless other bizarre crimes he analysed during his career. An expert on serial murder and rape cases, Labuschagne saw it all in his fourteen and a half years in the SAPS. The new chapters include tracking down a prolific serial stalker, psychologically assessing a schoolboy Samurai killer, linking the murders of two young women in Knysna, and apprehending a serial murderer of sex workers, among other intriguing – and often terrifying – cases. As Labuschagne says, catching a killer is one thing; getting them convicted in a court of law is an entirely different ball game. This book shows how it is done in fascinating detail.
This article was originally published in The Penguin Post, a magazine about books for book lovers from Penguin Random House South Africa.
