Mapping the Trail of a Crime: How Experts Use Geographic Profiling to Solve the World’s Most Notorious Cases

Mapping the Trail of a Crime is packed with gripping cases, fascinating forensic science and intriguing photographs. Follow the experts as they solve some of the world's most chilling crimes, using the latest science of geographic profiling.

Why do some serial killers kill only in their own homes or only in the homes of their victims? Why do some kidnappers and rapists travel far and wide to commit their crimes while others stick close to home?

This fully illustrated collection of true crime stories explores a range of well-known criminal cases from a fascinating perspective. It explores the chilling and audacious crimes of infamous serial killers, rapists, and child molesters, implementing the latest geographic profiling methods used by forensic experts. (Geographic profiling is a technique that analyzes the locations of a connected series of crimes and has proven to help investigators determine patterns and anticipate where future crimes may occur or where evidence from past crimes may be found.)

Each case explores the criminal's pattern of behavior, gives an overview of the significant incidents of the crime, provides a timeline of how the crime progressed, and includes a map that charts the geography of each case. Exploring the most notorious cases of our day in this unique way provides a novel perspective and gripping narrative. You'll learn how observing such geographic patterns helped investigators catch the most infamous of criminals. The cases include:

Deadly visitors

• Richard Trenton, also known as "The Vampire of Sacramento," killed people in their homes between 1977 and 1978.
• Richard Ramirez, also known as, "The Night Stalker," murdered people in their homes in Los Angeles and San Francisco between 1984 and 1985.

• Jeffrey Dahmer killed and cannibalized 17 people between 1977 and 1978.
• Arthur Gary Bishop, child killer and molester, lured young boys to his apartment in Salt Lake City from 1979 to 1983.

• David Berkowitz, also known as The Son of Sam, killed people in their cars from 1976 to 1977.
• Aileen Wuornos killed seven men, all of whom had picked her up as she was hitchhiking between 1989 and 1990.

• Ted Bundy killed women throughout Washington, Idaho, Utah, and Colorado from 1974 to 1978.
• Robert Black, serial killer, child molester, and rapist, abducted and killed young girls across the UK from 1982 to 1986.

• Andrei Chikatilo, a Russian mass murderer and rapist, abducted and killed children in the woods from 1978 to 1990.
• Robert Pickton, serial killer of approximately 26 women, killed mainly prostitutes and drug users and buried them on his farm between 1997 and 2001.

Gordon Kerr is a Scottish writer and journalist who has also worked in bookselling, publishing, and the wine trade. He has published more than 30 books on a wide variety of subjects, including true crime, wine, history, biography, humor, and travel. He has written more than a dozen true crime books in which he has dealt with all the major figures of criminal history, from Al Capone to Jeffrey Damher, and from Peter Sutcliffe to the Purple Gang. He lives in Hampshire in England and southwest France with his wife and two children.