Top 10 Things From Mindhunter That Actually Happened
#10: Ed Kemper Turned Himself In
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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.
#9: Wayne Williams’ Press Conference
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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.
#8: Ed Kemper's Threats
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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.
#7: The Evasive Dennis Lynn Rader
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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.
#6: Son of Sam’s REAL Confession
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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.
#5: Jerry Brudos’ Obsession with Heels
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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.
#4: “It Wasn't Their Night"
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Immediately after throwing his pet bird into the ceiling mounted fan, Richard Speck looks Ford and Tench straight 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.
#3: The Controversial Darrell Gene Devier Interrogation
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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
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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
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#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.
