Portraits of Guilt - Softcover

Boylan, Jeanne

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0671034863 ISBN 13: 9780671034863

Publisher: Pocket Star, 2001

Synopsis

Inside the investigations of the deadly crimes that have shocked our nation -- the Polly Klaas kidnapping, Susan Smith's drownings of her own children, the Oklahoma City bombing -- one woman is the investigative world's secret weapon. You've seen her work: it was her composite drawing that revealed the face of the Unabomber, her hand that put a profile on Oklahoma City's John Doe II, her "dead ringers" that led to resolutions of those and other cases. Now Jeanne Boylan, the gifted forensic artist, whose beauty and compassion make her one of the most fascinating crusaders in the war against crime, tells her own riveting and deeply personal story.

Boylan reveals the glories and the costs of a career that calls her to join high-profile manhunts to help pick up the pieces of lives devastated by violence. And in a moving disclosure, she shares the reasons behind her relentless pursuit of justice and how she, too, knows firsthand the price of crime.

About this title

Review

Portraits of Guilt has all the ingredients that fascinate and enthrall: there are tales of kidnapping, terrorism, and death, portraits of innocent victims, and manhunts for dangerous criminals. Add in the psychology of trauma, a crumbling marriage, and the fact that all the stories are true, and you have a book that's both edifying and mesmerizing. Once opened, it's nearly impossible to set back down.

Jeanne Boylan draws sketches of killers, and her talent is so rare that she's been called in on most every high-profile manhunt in the last couple of decades, from the Unabomber and the Polly Klaas kidnapping to the Susan Smith child drownings, the Oklahoma City bombing, and the murder of Ennis Cosby. What makes her unique has little to do with her artistic talent, however, and everything to do with her understanding of trauma and her interview technique. She talks to crime victims for hours, interspersing nonleading questions into easygoing conversations, teasing out true memories of the perpetrator's face and producing a picture that looks much more like the sought-after party than the usual police sketch. She reaches under the layers of pain and past the tainting photographs the police have shown to get at the pure image of the face that was seared into the brain of the witness at the moment of trauma.

Honest, sensitive, and engaging, Boylan narrates her own story--how she got started, why she feels driven to accept every case the FBI launches her way, the slow disintegration of her marriage, and the parallel progress of her career and personal growth. The focus of her book is not on herself, however, but on the cases she helped solve and the people she helped heal. Her sketches helped catch the man who kidnapped Polly Klaas; put behind bars the man who killed Justin Jones; and save the life of Ruth Mayer (the kidnappers had dug her grave and were about to kill her when they saw on the news how accurate the sketch was and released her). Boylan is slowly (very slowly) influencing the way police departments interview crime victims. And now she has written a first book that will glue you to your seat, lost in the world she so knowingly portrays. --Stephanie Gold

About the Author

Jeanne Boylan, a "criminal-image profiler," has assisted on thousands of cases for the FBI, television news divisions, and investigative agencies from Beijing to Moscow. Her pioneering method of interviewing eyewitnesses is based on years of research and real case studies of the psychological effects of trauma on perception and memory. FBI Director Louis Freeh conferred upon her a Special Letter of Commendation for Outstanding Work, and she was a recipient of the Business and Professional Women's "Magnificent Seven" Award. An internationally renowned public speaker and forensic instructor, she is a contributing correspondent on Fox Television's America's Most Wanted.

E-mail Jeanne at portratsofguilt@aol.com.

About this edition

• Publisher: Pocket Star
• Publication date: 2001
• ISBN 10: 0671034863
• ISBN 13: 9780671034863
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• Number of pages: 384