Mindhunters | 2013 January

Dead Wrong

By Mark Olshaker On January 17, 2013 · 7 Comments

Robert Gleason, Jr.

A little after 9:00 p.m. on Wednesday, January 16, 2013, forty-two year-old Robert Gleason, Jr. was executed at the Greensville Correctional Center in Jarratt, Virginia. He opted for electrocution over the now more widely used lethal injection. He had murdered three men, the first in 2007 in connection with drug gang activity and the other two in prison – in 2009 and 2010, the second of those in the Red Onion “supermax” State Prison.

Capital punishment opponents declared that these two prison killings were a perfect example of why the death penalty should be abolished.

Huh? But wait. It’s a little more nuanced than that.

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Planning for Disaster

By Christian Cheshire On January 16, 2013 · 1 Comment

Police Training Excercise

Our correspondent, Christian Cheshire, is a criminal justice student at Marymount University in Virginia, with plans to go into law enforcement.

Among the many challenges modern police officers and federal agents alike must face, the deadliest threat that has emerged is mass shootings. From Columbine to Virginia Tech to the recent massacre in Connecticut, a target of choice of the mass shooter is often a school. This is due to a variety of factors, one of which is the fact that schools are filled with unarmed, innocent civilians. While a variety of different proposals have been introduced, one solution that is currently being utilized by law enforcement and school officials is practicing the Active Shooter Scenario.

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Dueling Amendments

By Mark Olshaker On January 9, 2013 · 8 Comments

Bill of Rights

In his now infamous comments on the Newtown, Connecticut horror, National Rifle Association executive vice president Wayne LaPierre attempted to shift responsibility from guns themselves to those who portray violence.

“And here’s another dirty little truth that the media try their best to conceal: There exists in this country a callous, corrupt and corrupting shadow industry that sells, and sows, violence against its own people.

“Through vicious, violent video games with names like Bulletstorm, Grand Theft Auto, Mortal Kombat and Splatterhouse. And here’s one: it’s called Kindergarten Killers. It’s been online for 10 years. How come my research department could find it and all of yours either couldn’t or didn’t want anyone to know you had found it?

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Can We Predict Mass Violence in Advance?

By Mark Olshaker On January 4, 2013 · 21 Comments

Question & Mark

People used to ask John Douglas if, from his knowledge of criminal behavior, he could predict which elementary school children were likely to grow up to be violent or antisocial individuals. He usually replied something to the effect of, “Yes, but so can any good elementary school teacher.”

And while this continues to be true, unfortunately, it doesn’t help us much in determining or predicting who is going to become a serial killer or mass murderer, or when. That is a lot more complicated.

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