Criminal profiler shares some secrets of the trade.

SAN FRANCISCO -- In 1956, frustrated by their inability to apprehend the "Mad Bomber" who had been terrorizing New York City for 16 years, police detectives paid a visit to Dr. James A. Brussel, a noted psychiatrist and a criminologist. As he examined the evidence, Dr. Brussel developed what he called a "portrait" of the bomber.

The bomber, he predicted, would be suffering from paranoia. He would be a loner with no friends. He would be precise, neat, and tidy. He would be heavy, Catholic, and foreign born. He would be unmarried, and possibly living with an older female relative in Connecticut. Oh, and one more thing, Dr. Brussel said. When apprehended, the bomber would be wearing a doublebreasted suit, fully buttoned.

It's arguable whether Dr. Brussel's pioneering criminal profile helped the police apprehend the bomber. The bomber's anonymous letters to newspapers contained enough clues regarding his grievances with utility company Consolidated Edison that police were able to identify George Metesky (heavy, Catholic, and foreign born).

When he was apprehended at his home in Connecticut, where he lived with his two elderly spinster sisters, he answered the door wearing pajamas. Told to get dressed for his trip to the police station, he soon emerged from his room dressed neatly in a double-breasted suit, fully buttoned.

While accounts of Dr. Brussel's profile of the madbomber tend to highlight his correct predictions, in fact, he made more incorrect predictions than correct ones, said Steven E. Samuel, Ph.D., at the annual meeting of the American College of Forensic Psychiatry.

This is typical, said Dr. Samuel, a clinical psychologist in Philadelphia who, together Dr. Timothy J. Michals, a forensic psychiatrist at Jefferson Medical College in Philadelphia, often is asked to help law enforcement agencies develop profiles of criminal offenders. "You make hundreds of mistakes, but you get a couple of things right," he said. "It helps lead the investigation in a new direction."

Profiling often is not about apprehending an unknown offender, he pointed out. He and Dr. Michals frequently provide detectives with insights into the best way to interview a suspect who is already in custody.

The police want advice on the types of questions they should ask, whether the interrogator should be male or female, and whether it would be best to have one interrogator or two.

Dr. Samuel listed several characteristics that can make a psychiatrist a good criminal profiler. Foremost among them is the ability to step into someone else's shoes, including both the perpetrator and the victim of a crime.

"You've got to spend a lot of time thinking about what this individual would do, what he would say, and where he would go," Dr. Samuel said. What are his habits? Where does he like to eat? Where does he sleep? What does he think about? You can help "develop insights into the offender's fantasies and motivations. That's where your psychiatric training is especially helpful," he said.

Other characteristics that make a good profiler include clever reckoning skills, fine speculating skills, a predisposition for the careful weighing of facts, and a profound knowledge of human nature--including victims, witnesses, criminals, and other experts.

But is criminal profiling a science? "The answer is no," Dr. Samuel said. "It's a way of collecting leads; it's a way of collecting information; it's a form of making an educated guess about what happened and why. It identifies patterns. It looks at the gestalts of behavior."

BY ROBERT FINN

San Francisco Bureau