The face of evil - psychotic murderers; includes related article - Cover Story

National Review, Jan 23, 1995 by Eugene H. Methvin

The killer who taught the FBI the most was Ted Bundy. Articulate, with an IQ of 125, he compared his crimes to those of other serial killers, pointed out differences, and explained why he made certain choices. During a hunt for one such killer, Bundy advised staking out locations of the murderer's former crimes. He correctly predicted that the killer would revisit the scenes to relive the experiences and look for mementos.

Two cases show how FBI agents put their new knowledge to work. In a small Midwestern city, citizens were terrified by the grisly sex murder of a young woman, whose mutilated body was found in a public park near her home. Police pronounced themselves stumped, without a single clue or lead. The chief of detectives put in a call to John Douglas, a pioneer psychological profiler who today heads the NCAVC's investigative support unit. Over the phone the detective described the crime scene. "Put a microphone at the victim's grave and keep it under surveillance," Douglas suggested. Skeptical, the local cops nevertheless complied. They were astounded a couple of days later when a young man showed up soon after dark, dropped to his knees, and started apologizing to the victim for killing her. The cops arrested him and found some of the victim's jewelry in his pocket; at his apartment they found items of her bloody clothing. He was convicted of first-degree murder and sentenced to death.

In Adairsville, Georgia, the body of 12-year-old Mary Stoner was found in the woods near her home in December 1979. She had been sexually assaulted, and her head had been crushed with a large rock. By telephone the sheriff in this little mountain community consulted Douglas and described the scene. It was not much to go on. However, Douglas responded: "The killer will probably be a divorced white man in his mid twenties, will drive a black or blue car and work at a macho laborer's job. You'll probably find he had some prior contact with the victim. He'll probably be a high-school dropout who served in the Army or Marines, but he probably got a medical or dishonorable discharge after fewer than six months in service. I think he'll have a previous record of sex crimes. And if you put him on a lie detector, the test will be inconclusive or show no deception at all."

The sheriff was amazed. "You just described a suspect we just released!" he declared. Douglas suggested interviewing the man again, following a subtle interrogation technique that he detailed to the sheriff. The man was Darrell Gene Devier. As predicted, he showed no deception in a polygraph examination. At all points, his resemblance to Douglas's profile was uncanny. He worked as a tree-limb cutter, drove a dark blue Pinto, was an eighth-grade dropout, and had been kicked out of the Army with a general discharge after less than a year's service. He was divorced at the time of the killing. Other evidence implicated him in an attempt to rape a 13-year-old girl in a nearby town before Mary Stoner's murder. Witnesses testified that Devier's crew had worked at the Stoner home before the murder and that Devier had made sexual remarks about the girl. In an extensive interview, Devier confessed. Testimony about his confession was admitted at his March 1982 trial, and a jury convicted him and sentenced him to death for rape and murder.