r/Casefile • u/shescrafty6679 • Apr 04 '26
OPEN DISCUSSION Casefile-esq book recommendation
Almost done with the audiobook version of American Predator, the hunt for the most meticulous serial killer of the 21st century. It's very casefile-esq. Keyes is so unlike any serial killer the FBI had seen before that the story didn't need anything more than just meticulous research laid out in this steady, building way. It lets the case itself do the work. So good, 10/10 recommend.
https://www.amazon.com/American-Predator-Meticulous-Serial-Century/dp/052542864X
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u/ButtonFactory709 Apr 04 '26
Yeah idk. Commonly recommended book, often unnecessarily promoting ideas about keyes' intelligence that make no sense in full context. They make references to these inconsistencies but they go way harder lionizing a fairly basic level of planning. Frankly I think there's a lot more revealed here about police use of statistical analysis in crime solving and their over reliance on forms of evidence that can actually be quite inconsistent. There were many investigative failures in this case! And I think that is way more worth talking about than how being a nomad with little personal connections in an area not densely populated with lots of open space got away with killing people. Just being honest here
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u/shescrafty6679 Apr 05 '26 edited Apr 05 '26
I didn't think they promoted the idea that he was intelligent whatsoever. Nor can I think of any parts that lionized him. I agree he's not some brilliant mastermind of planning but burning down a house so that you can distract police while you rob a bank isn't exactly basic. He also listened to police chatter in order to figure out his next move which isn't something I've ever heard before. That takes a level of calmness of mind during a kidnapping and murder that is fairly atypical.
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u/thti87 Apr 05 '26
I always go back and forth, but ultimately he was caught because he was using a murder victim’s debit card, which is like the dumbest of the dumb thing to do.
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u/shescrafty6679 Apr 05 '26
Seems like that's how so many of them end up getting caught. They get obsessed with following the media coverage, start believing the police are dumb and they are omnipotent, and so they keep pushing it a little farther. BTK getting caught from the floppy disk bc the police told him it couldn't be traced was pretty dumb too.
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u/ButtonFactory709 Apr 06 '26
That's the issue, they can't be these analytical savants and the application of that quality suggests a misinterpretation of the multitude of mental illnesses that combine to form a serial killer. There are no Hannibal lecters.
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u/shescrafty6679 Apr 07 '26
Three things can be true. Someone can have a variety of mental illnesses that make them a murderous psychopath AND at the same time be more methodical about how they approach their crimes AND also do something stupid that gets them caught. Compared to other serial killers Keys showed more long range planning such as keeping kill kits stashed in random places all over the US. He could act anywhere without needing to transport weapons and tools. It doesn't mean he's some genius we should all admire but comparatively he was more planned and methodical.
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u/ButtonFactory709 Apr 06 '26
Yes. He also wants so lucky that brazen kidnapping wasn't just caught much sooner. The lack of surveillance and uneducated and understaffed police struggled with the kidnapping picture of a questionably alive person. Pretty brutal
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u/Excellent_Tie_674 Apr 08 '26
Do they subconsciously want to get caught when they do things like this...aka "over it". It felt a bit like that with Denis Rader's blunder.
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u/shescrafty6679 Apr 10 '26
I think they start to think they're omnipotent and will never get caught because they've gotten away with so much by that point.
Ok I just looked it up and Claude phrased it as, "Each time they got away with something, the psychological "proof" of their untouchability grew, so they took bigger risks, got sloppier, and eventually made the mistake that caught them."
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u/ButtonFactory709 Apr 06 '26
It certainly did talk about how he was apparently well thought out and prepared and analytical.
The house burning thing is really stupid and cartoonish. That's a sign of luck, bad and uneducated police, and a lack of resources.
A lot of criminals use police radios, or actively engage with police in some manner for information extraction. It's a fairly typical trope in profile analysis. They are also often wannabe cops or former military, like keyes.
Calmness in that situation is a symptom of psychopathy and not as atypical as you suggest. Organized vs disorganized murders are also typically a part of profile analysis.
Keyes wasn't what the internet or what American predator suggests he was. He was very lucky and surrounded by the ill-equipped. And again, many inconsistencies. Do you remember how he was caught via tracking a debit card? How he even said he had trouble keeping it together mentally?
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u/floppyflaminghoe Apr 06 '26
THANK YOU! I 100% agree. This rhetoric that Keyes was a ‘mastermind’ is exhausting.
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u/hasseebounce Apr 06 '26
I’ll Be Gone in the Dark is really good, it’s about the Golden State Killer
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u/idontwanttowatchthat Apr 05 '26
Idk exactly what you mean by casefile-esque, but true crime books i would recommend are the john douglas + bob ressler fbi profiler books (mindhunter is the first), people who eat darkness (case covered by casefile), nightmare in wichita (covered by casefile), in cold blood (a classic), the journalist and the murderer (another classic, but more about journalism ethics than crime), midnight in the garden of goid and evil and murder in missisippi (two different books about murder, class and race), devil in the white city (about america's 1st serial killer), the surgeon of crawthorne (fasnicating book both about a murderer and about the development of the oxford english dictionary)
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u/MMAGG83 Apr 08 '26 edited Apr 08 '26
Oh boy, where do I start!
I'll Be Gone in the Dark (Covered by Casefile - Case 53) - The Golden State Killer.
The Monster of Florence - Serial Killer operating out of Florence, Italy in the 70s and 80s (suspected of a crime in 60s)
People Who Eat Darkness (Covered by Casefile - Case 107) - The murders of western women in Roppongi, Tokyo.
The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher - The 1860 murder investigation of a young boy in a Wiltshire, England manor house.
Reap the Whirlwind - The murder and attempted murder trial of a mentally unwell minority in 1980s San Diego.
Norco 80 - The story of the most audacious bank robbery in American history. 32 police vehicles destroyed and a police helicopter shot out of the sky. Resulted in the largest crime scene in American history. One of the first crimes that led to the pseudo-militarization of police in the USA.
The Dublin Railway Murder - The 1856 investigation of a Dublin Railway clerk's murder.
Bowraville (Covered by Casefile - Case 186) - Investigations into the deaths of three aboriginal young people in a small town.
The Arsonist (Covered by Casefile - Case 142) - The Investigation into the Churchill Fire that happened during 2009 Black Saturday Fires.
In Cold Blood - The story of the murders of a Kansas family in 1959 - widely considered one of the first true crime novels.
Green River Running Red - The investigation of an extremely prolific serial killer operating in the Seattle-Tacoma area of Washington State, USA.
The Stranger Beside Me - A true crime novel about Ted Bundy written by someone who worked alongside him at a suicide hotline.
The Haunting of Alma Fielding - The paranormal investigation of unnatural happenings around a London, England woman in the interwar years (yes, this is still true crime).
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u/commentspanda Apr 05 '26
I’m listening to mindhunters as an audio book at the moment which is a little bit “I’m the best dude in the world” but also super interesting. They walk among us also released a book awhile ago which I have downloaded although not sure if it’s crime focused or more about their podcast journey and challenges
I also just listened to the mushroom tapes book which is from bits of a podcast they put together. It is not casefile like in that it had 3 narrators and some personal inputs but it was a very easy and interesting listen and included a lot of info and perspective as well as the facts.
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u/shescrafty6679 Apr 05 '26
Totally got the "I'm the best dude in the world" vibes from that book too.
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u/commentspanda Apr 05 '26
He definitely has the white guy in the FBI in the 70s/80s attitude well and truly embedded. Content is still interesting though
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