Hands-down one of the finest documentaries covering the creation/origin story of the FBI's Behavioral Science Unit at Quantico.
Truth be told, Dr. Ann Burgess did more to establish methodology and means than progenitors Robert Ressler or John Douglas.
Ressler (who played a significant role in the psychological profiling of violent offenders in the 1970s and is often credited with Americanizing Berlin investigator Ernst Gennat's 1930's term "serienmörder," aka "serial killer") grew up in the same neighborhood as John Wayne Gacy and was in the Boy Scouts with him.
Douglas (the inspiration behind Scott Glenn's "Jack Crawford" in The Silence of the Lambs, profilers Jason Gideon and David Rossi in CBS's Criminal Minds, and Holden Ford's "Jonathan Groff" in Netflix's Mindhunter) has 19 publications to his name, but my two favorites are 1995's Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit and 1999's The Anatomy of Motive: The FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding and Catching Violent Criminals.
Dr. Burgess is perhaps best approximated by Anna Torv's "Dr. Wendy Carr" in Netflix's Mindhunter, but her contributions to the BSU have rarely been so publicized as they are in Hulu's Mastermind.
If you're fascinated by the "true crime" genre, do yourself a favor and check out this doc.
It's illuminating, honorably (rather than salaciously) told, and we get to hear first-hand from Dr. Burgess herself. A rare treat, indeed.
Co-produced by Dakota and Elle Fanning, I'm hoping they'll serve up similarly honorific tales from the past in the years to come that shine a light on those operating behind the scenes.
