The birth of criminal profiling

The New Yorker’s Malcolm Gladwell–of whom I know nothing–has an excellent piece up on the magazine’s website about the origins of criminal profiling, and how it may or may not have led to the capture of a pipe bomber in 1950s New York.

This is a great piece–and not just for fans of true crime. It’s every bit as well-written as you’d expect from the magazine–and even better, there’s a twist. We all like a twist.

Makes you wonder what a criminal profiler–or a writer for The New Yorker–would think of the suspect in a recent Long Beach pipe bomb explosion: 47-year-old William Joseph Peltier of Huntington Beach, who is accused of detonating a pipe bomb inside a downtown parking structure on Oct. 20.

Peltier pleaded not guilty Wednesday in Long Beach Superior Court to four felony charges.

Tags: California, CITY NEWS SERVICE, Long Beach, LONG BEACH SUPERIOR COURT, MALCOLM GLADWELL, pipe bomb, PIPE BOMBER, PIPE BOMBING, press telegram, Southern California, The District Weekly, THE NEW YORKER, Theo Douglas, WILLIAM JOSEPH PELTIER