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Do IT this week: Layering
Students eat up intuitive guesswork in ex-cop's class
By Carol Biliczky
Beacon Journal staff writer
POSTED: 08:52 p.m. EST, Nov 05, 2009
Mary Myers has no trouble finding 40 students to fill her class at the University of Akron.
After all, most courses don't focus on dead women in barrels, sexual deviancy and even bed wetting.
Myers, 56, leads the university's only course on criminal profiling — how to spot serial killers, how to interview them and how to understand them.
She comes to the job with credentials as a retired Akron police captain and psychologist whose specialty is to help officers deal with the kinds of stress they face at crime scenes.
She does not know of any other courses in the country like her Profiling Serial Killers, which she developed when she joined the university in 2003.
This week she was a focus of media attention as body after body was found in the home and at the property of Cleveland sex offender Anthony Sowell. Myers, trained by the FBI in criminal profiling, was one source of insight into the mind of accused killer Sowell.
''What they will find is a pattern of rapes and sexual offenses that increased with the alcohol and eventually turned into a series of homicides,'' she predicted. ''It's about power and control and making someone do what they want.
''Isn't he interesting?'' she asked mildly.
Today, she told her students about her observations on visiting the crime scene the night before.
That a big, blue Dumpster was located next to Sowell's home, which in turn was next to a sausage factory. That Sowell was visiting the local grocery store every two or three days to buy garbage bags. That Sowell treated his victims as castoffs, barely burying one body, not yet getting around to disposing of a skull in the basement.
Some students shudder, but everyone pays attention.
He likely has been raping and murdering women since his late 20s, the age at which many people have developed a sense of adult freedom, she said earlier in the week.
In childhood, he likely wet his bed, abused animals and set fires because he had no controls on his inhibitions.
The Cuyahoga County coroner's office has identified a second set of remains from Sowell's Cleveland home.
The coroner's office said the latest victim is 31-year-old Telacia Fortson of Cleveland. Inez Fortson says her daughter disappeared in June. Police say she was reported missing Oct. 31, a day after the first bodies turned up.
Investigators have found the remains of at least 11 people on the property of 50-year-old Sowell in the past week.
The only other body identified is that of 52-year-old Tonia Carmichael of Warrensville Heights.
Profiling is ''intuitive guessing,'' she tells her students, as beaded animal key chains made by her daughter dangle from her pockets. It's connecting one fact to guesses about other facts.
''People tend to pooh-pooh criminal profiling because it's not a real strong academic subject,'' she said. ''There's no theories or a lot of research. But students can use this in whatever kind of work they go into — sales or anything.''
She led the students through an exercise to figure out details about who was behind a series of murders in Kansas in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Five students provided details about the female victims, many of them single mothers or impoverished, while other students patched together a portrait of the killer.
''Who sees an attractive person? ... What kind of vehicle does he drive? ...What kind of person would kill a handicapped child in a wheelchair?'' Myers prodded them.
By the end of the class, it turned out that chunky grandfather John E. Robinson Sr. would do just that. Between 1984 and 2000 he committed eight known murders of women — hammering them to death, stuffing their bodies in chemical barrels and storage units to rot — as the first known Internet killer.
Students eat it up.
''Compared with math and English, this is stuff you can actually use,'' said Bill Habbeck, a 20-year-old student from Hartville.
''She teaches you to guess. You can't figure out anything if you don't guess,'' said 24-year-old Anthony Tomei of Akron.
Myers offers a bit of practical advice for fashion-conscious female students who do not want to part of a killer's resume.
The popular style of folding a scarf in half and stuffing the ends through a big loop could spell disaster. It would allow a perpetrator to pull the scarf tight quickly and choke his victim.
Knot the scarf twice on a long loop, she recommended. Several women in the class, all wearing scarves, nodded.
Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or at cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com. The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Mary Myers has no trouble finding 40 students to fill her class at the University of Akron.
After all, most courses don't focus on dead women in barrels, sexual deviancy and even bed wetting.
Myers, 56, leads the university's only course on criminal profiling — how to spot serial killers, how to interview them and how to understand them.
She comes to the job with credentials as a retired Akron police captain and psychologist whose specialty is to help officers deal with the kinds of stress they face at crime scenes.
She does not know of any other courses in the country like her Profiling Serial Killers, which she developed when she joined the university in 2003.
This week she was a focus of media attention as body after body was found in the home and at the property of Cleveland sex offender Anthony Sowell. Myers, trained by the FBI in criminal profiling, was one source of insight into the mind of accused killer Sowell.
''What they will find is a pattern of rapes and sexual offenses that increased with the alcohol and eventually turned into a series of homicides,'' she predicted. ''It's about power and control and making someone do what they want.
''Isn't he interesting?'' she asked mildly.
Today, she told her students about her observations on visiting the crime scene the night before.
That a big, blue Dumpster was located next to Sowell's home, which in turn was next to a sausage factory. That Sowell was visiting the local grocery store every two or three days to buy garbage bags. That Sowell treated his victims as castoffs, barely burying one body, not yet getting around to disposing of a skull in the basement.
Some students shudder, but everyone pays attention.
He likely has been raping and murdering women since his late 20s, the age at which many people have developed a sense of adult freedom, she said earlier in the week.
In childhood, he likely wet his bed, abused animals and set fires because he had no controls on his inhibitions.
The Cuyahoga County coroner's office has identified a second set of remains from Sowell's Cleveland home.
The coroner's office said the latest victim is 31-year-old Telacia Fortson of Cleveland. Inez Fortson says her daughter disappeared in June. Police say she was reported missing Oct. 31, a day after the first bodies turned up.
Investigators have found the remains of at least 11 people on the property of 50-year-old Sowell in the past week.
The only other body identified is that of 52-year-old Tonia Carmichael of Warrensville Heights.
Profiling is ''intuitive guessing,'' she tells her students, as beaded animal key chains made by her daughter dangle from her pockets. It's connecting one fact to guesses about other facts.
''People tend to pooh-pooh criminal profiling because it's not a real strong academic subject,'' she said. ''There's no theories or a lot of research. But students can use this in whatever kind of work they go into — sales or anything.''
She led the students through an exercise to figure out details about who was behind a series of murders in Kansas in the late 1980s and 1990s.
Five students provided details about the female victims, many of them single mothers or impoverished, while other students patched together a portrait of the killer.
''Who sees an attractive person? ... What kind of vehicle does he drive? ...What kind of person would kill a handicapped child in a wheelchair?'' Myers prodded them.
By the end of the class, it turned out that chunky grandfather John E. Robinson Sr. would do just that. Between 1984 and 2000 he committed eight known murders of women — hammering them to death, stuffing their bodies in chemical barrels and storage units to rot — as the first known Internet killer.
Students eat it up.
''Compared with math and English, this is stuff you can actually use,'' said Bill Habbeck, a 20-year-old student from Hartville.
''She teaches you to guess. You can't figure out anything if you don't guess,'' said 24-year-old Anthony Tomei of Akron.
Myers offers a bit of practical advice for fashion-conscious female students who do not want to part of a killer's resume.
The popular style of folding a scarf in half and stuffing the ends through a big loop could spell disaster. It would allow a perpetrator to pull the scarf tight quickly and choke his victim.
Knot the scarf twice on a long loop, she recommended. Several women in the class, all wearing scarves, nodded.
Carol Biliczky can be reached at 330-996-3729 or at cbiliczky@thebeaconjournal.com. The Associated Press contributed to this article.
Comments
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Akron, OH
Posted 11:47 PM, 11/05/2009
"You can't figure out anything if you don't guess." Does that make even the slightest bit of sense? Good thing you're not in a real science class, chump.
uniontown, oh
Posted 07:48 AM, 11/06/2009
Easy to profile AFTER the fact. It is unusual to see many Afro-Americans as serial killers. Most are white males, very few females of any race. I'm sure these students do find this coarse to be interesting. I hope none of them ever meet the subject of their efforts. Good Luck.
Chagrin Falls, OH
Posted 08:11 AM, 11/06/2009
ZK: Actually, we 'punish' students for guessing in a school environment. Students are taught early on to provide only 'correct' answers creating an environment of failure for those who 'guess'. The exercise of "Guessing" feeds into a creative thinking process. Something our culture sorely lacks these days.
Chagrin Falls, OH
Posted 08:12 AM, 11/06/2009
CK62: Good point!
Canton, oh
Posted 08:15 AM, 11/06/2009
"Profiling is 'intuitive guessing,' she tells her students,... It's connecting one fact to guesses about other facts."
In other words, the "criminal profiles" are right about as often as they are wrong.
Akron, OH
Posted 08:16 AM, 11/06/2009
''Compared with math and English, this is stuff you can actually use''
I never use that math and English stuff either.
Akron, Oh
Posted 08:17 AM, 11/06/2009
Everybody loves a serial killer!
Canton, OH
Posted 08:22 AM, 11/06/2009
justagirl - LOL - actually a lot of the posters apparently never use English either!
_________, OH
Posted 08:25 AM, 11/06/2009
Disturbing subject no doubt. Thank god there are good people out there willing to deal in this heinous area of human nature. BTW are those pizza boxes on the table behind her??
Macedonia, Oh
Posted 08:26 AM, 11/06/2009
citizenk62 - the term is African-American. You're stuck in the '60s I see.
Chagrin Falls, OH
Posted 08:30 AM, 11/06/2009
ZipsBBfan: Excellent 'intuitive' detective skills! Looks like pizza boxes to me, too....no wonder this course is so well attended! Talking about gruesome crimes and eating pizza. Students with strong stomachs no doubt.
Macedonia, Oh
Posted 08:32 AM, 11/06/2009
ZombieKoala - ever hear of something called intuition? No investigator would be worth their salt if they didn't have some. It's part of guessing and to use it correctly, one allows it to lead them to possible outcomes that are then supported by facts which in turn can lead us to the truth.
Scientists start to hypothesize by using this process all the time.
Posted 09:30 AM, 11/06/2009
all that training for a job that barely exists...unless you count TV and the Bookstore.
Chagrin Falls, OH
Posted 10:21 AM, 11/06/2009
J: Didn't the article state she was a police captain and a psychologist? I can't believe the police department assigns someone a 'captain' rank fresh off the street or a bookstore; and a psychologist? Takes a nice chunk of education to call yourself that. Sounds like this is a 'niche' job that has been around since the Perry Mason days. Nothing new. Did I miss something?
Macedonia, Oh
Posted 12:06 PM, 11/06/2009
J = a classic internet know-it-all and negaholic.
Posted 12:20 PM, 11/06/2009
you cant hide- No the instructor is well qualified, didn't mean to imply that. I was just saying that the job of "profiler" barely exists. It's a shame to lead these 40 kids to think they're gonna walk out of there and be FBI Profilers at the end of the year. It doesn't work like that. At the very least you'd have to be an experienced agent for a number of years before the opportunity even came up.
Jason12, go do a job search right now and tell me how many places are hiring criminal profilers. Maybe I'm wrong.
Akron, OH
Posted 12:26 PM, 11/06/2009
Without the school of Real Life as a cop the teacher's had, she could easily be just one more of the dimwit psychologists who decide an inmate like Sowell is fit to be released into society, unchecked.
akron, oh
Posted 12:32 PM, 11/06/2009
Capt. Myers has more knowledge in the tip of her pinky finger than the entire APD.
Akron, OH
Posted 01:11 PM, 11/06/2009
And then we have this, buried in the back pages, politically corrected so everyone "feels good about themselves":
"At least six months ago, Hasan came to the attention of law enforcement officials because of Internet postings about suicide bombings and other threats, including posts that equated suicide bombers to soldiers who throw themselves on a grenade to save the lives of their comrades."
http://www.ohio.com/news/nation/69366392.html
Posted 01:51 PM, 11/06/2009
I hope I didn't insult the captain. I was just saying this course sets up students to believe they can get a job doing profiling, just like on TV. The Captain is well qualified and experienced.
Akron, Ohio
Posted 02:04 PM, 11/06/2009
J, in no way does she mislead people thinking that they're gonna walk out of the class and become profilers. Quite the opposite. This is an elective course, besides what major has a one course you take, then you're done and go get a job?
Why do you feel it necessary to make up lies about people you don't even know?
akron, oh
Posted 02:13 PM, 11/06/2009
Where we go again!!!
Akron, Oh
Posted 02:18 PM, 11/06/2009
Nothing wrong with being stuck in the '60's. Heck, I've been there ever since the....oh, the '60's. At least the music was great then.
AKRON, OH
Posted 07:00 PM, 11/06/2009
"insight into mind of accused Cleveland serial killer" - TRANSLATED - ANYBODY'S GUESS
Cannoli Eater - AGREED - BEST TIME IN MY LIFE
anywhere, oh
Posted 11:04 PM, 11/06/2009
the well-educated captain took one course at the fbi academy exactly 162 years ago and calls herself a profiler.
i took a golf lesson 76 years ago and consider myself a pro.
maybe i should apply at pebblebeach with my credentials.
look at the horoscope in the funny pages. every single forecast is vague enough to be 100% accurate. just like profiling. 'he could be a butcher, a baker, a candlestick maker' he probably wet the bed, ate poptarts for breakfast, and actually enjoyed pin the tail on the donkey as a 7 year old.
it's hard to take this s*h** seriously.
Crazytown, OH
Posted 11:20 PM, 11/06/2009
@winterblue
"more knowledge in the tip of her pinky finger than the entire APD..."
WOW! There's more to that story than meets the eye...or finger.
Crazytown, OH
Posted 11:42 PM, 11/06/2009
@winterblue
Did you have to take one for the team? Don't worry, you're not alone. @J - with all your apologetic stumble/stuttering, are you a team player too? "Oh please, Captain, I didn't mean to insult you!" "Please don't..." Where are all the "every member/former member of the APD deserves to be hung in the town square"?!
Akron, Oh
Posted 02:16 AM, 11/07/2009
Hey ZombieKoala as for real science classes have you ever heard of a hypothesis its called an educational guess and its exactly what the quote is talking about
