Top 20 Things From Mindhunter That Actually Happened

Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we’re looking behind-the-scenes at some of the unbelievable true stories that “Mindhunter” is based on. Here’s your warning, this video will contain major spoilers. What are your favorite moments from the true crime cult classic “Mindhunter”? Tell us everything in the comments.

#20: Humble Beginnings of the BSU

It seems hard to believe that modern criminal psychology developed as recently and suddenly as “Mindhunter” suggests. In the late 1970s, John E. Douglas did have to fight as hard as fictional counterpart Holden Ford to expand the FBI’s Behavioral Science Unit. Robert Ressler, the basis for Bill Tench, was roughly the only colleague invested in interactive psychological profiling. Only after some successful interviews were the two agents able to establish operations in the basement of the FBI Academy. Unlike Wendy Carr, though, Professor Ann Burgess didn’t have to relocate to Quantico as a consultant. TV can hardly convey how small and stigmatized the BSU was early on, or how successful it turned out to be.

#19: The Interviews

Most of “Mindhunter”’s drama hinges on interviews with the most notorious killers in 20th century America. The way they compose suspense and story may seem impeccably scripted. In fact, many of these conversations are closely based on transcripts and tapes of actual interviews, some not even conducted by the BSU. Some actors also carefully reenacted their characters’ behavior in video interviews from around that time. These verbatim dramatizations and their mostly accurate timeline support the show’s authenticity in the development of psychological profiling. The writing did take some liberties to have the criminals serve the fictional interviewers’ character arcs. Otherwise, the chilling insights into these dark minds feel even creepier knowing that many of them are real.

#18: Ed Kemper Turned Himself In

Not only is “Mindhunter” an incredibly well-produced series, it avoids gratuitous violence, instead focusing on the psychology of the criminals – letting them tell their own stories. Or at least… the actors playing them. Ed Kemper is an open book, gladly talking about his crimes in grisly detail. But he’s also, interestingly enough, happy to dissect his own motivations and thought patterns. In “Mindhunter,” we learn that Kemper actually turned himself in to police. This was also the case for the real Kemper. The reason? There was no talk of his crimes on the news, and apparently that made his fleeing justice feel pointless, and so he called the police to confess.

#17: The Cross Setup

The most creative plan to solve the 1981 Atlanta child murders case involved placing wooden crosses at sites where the victims’ bodies were found. Holden believed that the suspect would be tempted to visit these memorials before a march to raise awareness of the killings, presenting an opportunity for an arrest. Alas, his superiors failed to approve and execute the plan in time. This storyline was based on an actual plot by John Douglas, which was indeed thwarted by FBI bureaucracy. The scheme shows just how desperate Douglas’s investigation actually got.

#16: Hance’s Runaround

One of “Mindhunter”’s most bizarre cases is William Henry Hance. The former Marine was linked to at least four murders, including three around Columbus, Georgia. His plan to throw off authorities with letters of confession that supposedly came from the vigilante group “Forces of Evil” didn’t hold up. Robert Ressler was integral to capturing Hance, yet Bill is absent from the killer’s dramatized interview. Otherwise, it's faithful to Hance’s baffling testimony. The gaping holes in his plan and inconsistencies in his anecdotes are on record. An IQ test did rule Hance mentally incompetent after all. The BSU ultimately concluded that his case was unreliable in criminal profiling research. Hance’s eventual execution raised important questions about mental fitness and racial biases in capital punishment.

#15: How Montie Started

Montie Rissell’s storyline demonstrates how a twisted mind shifts into a murderous one. He already had a history of sexual assault when he took out his anger at his girlfriend on a sex worker in 1976. This was the first of the five women he pleaded guilty to murdering. He assured the BSU that his transition into a killer was really that sudden. As narratively convenient as that sounds, actor Sam Strike was repeating the real Rissell’s words in his BSU interview. This interview was an important moment in criminal psychology’s understanding of how violent tendencies escalate and relate to power. Sometimes, the truth is that dramatic.

#14: Wayne Williams’s Press Conference

They say there’s no such thing as bad press and that seems to be a philosophy that Atlanta native Wayne Williams subscribed to. After being brought in for questioning relating to the Atlanta killings (at which point he also volunteered to take a polygraph test), Williams called a press conference to proclaim his innocence. He did this of his own accord, seemingly without any outside pressure, which really goes against the normal behavior of pretty much any person who’s been accused of horrific crimes. In the show, it all plays out very dramatically, but that’s actually how it went down. Williams was clearly convinced that he would walk away from the charges. Instead, he was sentenced to life in prison.

#13: Ed Kemper’s Threats

Throughout season 1, Holden Ford develops a unique relationship with Ed Kemper. In the season finale, Holden learns that Kemper has attempted to take his own life. Ford visits Ed, but when the guards leave, Ed suddenly rises and explains to Holden how he could kill him. Then… he gives him a hug, an act so utterly terrifying that it mentally breaks the FBI Agent. In reality, this exchange didn’t occur between Kemper and Douglas, but between Kemper and Robert Ressler, who inspired the character Bill Tench. During one interview, the guards changed over, and Kemper detailed to a nervous Ressler all the things he could do to him if he wanted. Lucky for Ressler, there was no hug.

#12: Kemper & Manson

The California Medical Facility has held some of the most notorious criminals in the state’s history. In 1974, Charles Manson was briefly transferred there for psychiatric care, before taking residence there for nine years starting in ‘76. Ed Kemper has also lived at this facility since the 1970s. This true coincidence played into the fictional BSU’s long-sought interview with the murder cult mastermind. Holden was particularly concerned that regular interviewee Kemper would get jealous of his neighbor. However, there is no solid evidence that the two killers had a direct relationship in real life.

#11: Murder in Altoona

Holden and Bill first apply their profiling research with an investigation in Altoona, Pennsylvania. The gruesome assault and murder of babysitter Beverly Jean Shaw ultimately led back to her fiancé, with his sister and her husband being implicated in hiding the body. “Mindhunter” changed the names in this tragic true story, but little else. In 1979, Betty Jean Shade of Altoona was murdered by her boyfriend, who then hid the body with help from his sister and brother. John Douglas’s new criminal profiling technique was essential to uncovering this conspiracy. The Altoona case was one of “Mindhunter”’s first extensive dramatizations of Douglas’s and Robert Ressler’s true crime stories. It was also one of the least fictionalized.

#10: The Evasive Dennis Lynn Rader

Agents Tench and Ford assist police forces across the country in a number of open investigations. Sprinkled through seasons 1 and 2, however, are short vignettes exploring the actions of a man who would evade police capture for decades, only being brought to justice in 2005. The mustachioed man in question is Kansas native Dennis Lynn Rader, aka the BTK killer – standing for bind, torture, kill. As in the show, the BTK killer was on the FBI’s radar, but they had no way of identifying him until much later. The show sets him up as the ultimate “organized killer” and, based on how well he navigated law enforcement in real life, that’s not inaccurate.

#9: Son of Sam’s REAL Confession

David Berkowitz is one of the most infamous serial killers in US history. When questioned about his motives after his arrest, he claimed to be a victim himself – not of violence but of demonic influence. More specifically, he claimed that his neighbor’s dog, Harvey, was this demon in disguise, and that under its influence, he had no choice but to kill. When Tench and Ford go to interview Berkowitz in prison, he initially sticks to his story. But as Holden begins to peel back the layers of his narrative as it relates to his personal life and interests, and bring up financial interests, Berkowitz begins to crack. Finally, he admits the truth, just like he did to the real life agent Douglas.

#8: Jerry Brudos’ Obsession with Heels

Another of the criminals who Tench and Ford meet in season 1 is Jerome Henry “Jerry” Brudos. Like Speck, he proves uncooperative at first, but – having done his homework – Ford returns armed with a secret weapon: a large pair of women’s shoes. Brudos winds up using the shoes in a… let’s call it unique manner. Thankfully, there’s no record of him having done that in real life, at least not with FBI agents present while in prison. But as for his obsession with women’s clothing, shoes in particular? That’s well-documented. The nicknames he earned himself include the Lust Killer and the Shoe Fetish Slayer. In fact, he would often don high heeled shoes after committing his crimes.

#7: Warehouse Hostage Situation

Holden Ford is introduced as a hostage negotiator at a warehouse, where a deranged bank robber holds a hostage at shotgun point, strips naked, and demands to speak to his wife. After Ford brings her in, the man simply turns the shotgun on himself. It was a gruesome lesson in not giving in to demands that could escalate an unstable mental state. That was the moral of a near-identical true story that John Douglas mentions in his memoir. One difference is that the real gunman actually spoke to his wife on the phone before his death. Also, Douglas was a sniper at the scene, having not yet graduated to hostage negotiation. Otherwise, his brief anecdote proved a shocking opener for the TV adaptation.

#6: Henley & the Candy Man

Dean Corll claimed at least 28 young lives as the Candy Man. Holden and Bill could only profile him via the testimony of the man who brought him down. Fellow serial killer Elmer Wayne Henley weaves the harrowing story of how he was sexually assaulted by Corll, then forced to become his accomplice in six murders. The teenager ultimately killed his mentor in self-defense before turning himself in. By the real Henley’s account, this incredible tragedy is true. The Houston Mass Murders were not just valuable in the BSU’s understanding of how cruel the Candy Man was. Henley’s tale was a dramatic milestone in understanding trauma and coercion in criminal psychology.

#5: “It Wasn’t Their Night”

Immediately after throwing his pet bird into the ceiling mounted fan, Richard Speck looks Ford and Tench straight in the face and delivers his chillingly matter of fact reason for his crimes: [“It wasn't their night"]. It’s so brazen, over the top and offensively dismissive that you might easily assume it’s creative license. The crazy thing is… it’s a direct quote from Speck, just not one that he delivered to the FBI. In 1996, an explicit video leaked of Speck consuming drugs and having a sexual encounter in prison in 1988. In the shocking footage, Speck is asked about his crimes, and as explanation, he offered the same line delivered by the actor playing him in the show.

#4: Coining the Term

The concept of a serial killer has probably been around as long as the concept of murder. Yet many may not realize that the term has only been around since the 1970s. “Mindhunter” dramatizes its inception when Bill comes up with a sharper alternative to “sequence killer.” That epiphany is likely fictional. But Robert K. Ressler really did coin the term “serial killer” to more accurately describe someone who habitually murders three or more people. This phrase and its concept quickly took off in popular culture. Now, people don't even think about how recently that happened. That’s a true testament to the incredible impact of Ressler and his colleagues’ work.

#3: The Controversial Darrell Gene Devier Interrogation

Despite the violent resistance encountered during their interview with Speck, Agent Ford feels that he’s learned something invaluable; when you engage with a killer on their own level, they let their guard down and start talking. And so when they’re called in to assist on an open case, he takes the approach he developed talking to convicted killers, and applies it to suspected killers. Holden’s approach is disturbing, at times downright sickening, but he ultimately gets results. Now, as many know, Holden is based on FBI agent John E. Douglas. The subject of Douglas’ first murder suspect interrogation was indeed Darrell Gene Devier. Much of this interview, including the use of the rock, was taken from the real thing.

#2: The Bird

In season 1, FBI agents Holden Ford and Bill Tench interview notorious mass murderer Richard Speck, who’s been caring for a small bird he found. When Speck refuses to open up about his crimes, Ford goes off-book and starts talking to the inmate in “his own language.” It works (for a time), but when Speck realizes he’s being manipulated, he angrily ends the interview, hammering home his indifference by throwing the bird into a fan. It makes for a shocking TV moment, but perhaps more shocking is the fact that something similar really happened. When a guard told the real Speck he couldn’t have a pet, Speck killed his bird in the same manner – saying that if he couldn’t have the bird, no one could.

#1: The Crucifixion

The vast majority of the criminal cases explored in “Mindhunter” are rooted in reality. Thankfully though, the story of Bill Tench’s son, Brian, is fictional, created for the series. Bill is based on FBI agent and author Robert Ressler, whose own family was never involved in such an upsetting situation. However, the murder that Brian watches was based on a real crime that took place in San Francisco in 1971, when two boys killed a toddler and tied him to a cross, hoping that he’d come back to life. It was a crime that shocked the country, forcing the nation to have a difficult conversation about how to treat violent offenders who are children when they commit horrific crimes.