PAT BROWN

Killers can seem smart when you can't figure out who they are.

While there are many wonderful police investigators out there doing some very fine work, the majority of the time it is not brains that catches serial killers.

There are many more serial killers living outside the prison walls than inside.

Outside of dumb luck, the number one way serial killers are caught is through the help of the public.

Telling the community a serial killer is out there stirs up a lot of unpleasant attention.

Using MO to link crimes can be problematic.

We struggle to understand how any mother could kill her own children.

Often, a serial killer has no felony record.

Since there are only so many ways to kill a person, a good portion of homicides look pretty much alike.

Often I am asked if there is any such thing as a female serial killer.

Many of the less prolific killers' stories go unheard because they simply don't make good books.

Without solid connections between homicides, we may have the reverse problem of believing three local murders are the work of one serial killer when they may actually be the work of three!

Serial killers kill for the power and control they experience during the murders and for the added ego boost they get in the aftermath from community fears, media coverage, and the police investigations.

Nowadays, with much more racial and ethnic mixing, we are seeing serial killers murdering a variety of victims; whoever comes along will most likely do.

We assume people we know can't be serial killers.

Police are reluctant to label a murder as a possible serial homicide.

Serial killers are everywhere! Well, perhaps not in our neighborhood, but on our television screens, at the movie theatres, and in rows and rows of books at our local Borders or Barnes and Noble Booksellers.

Last but not least among serial killer methodologies, we have women who kill their own children.

The accepted definition of a serial killer is a person who kills at least three times with a cooling off period in between his murders.

What does signature mean? Supposedly these are the added touches that make the crime personal to the killer.

In reality, serial killers are of average intelligence.

Most well-known serial killers have victims numbering in the dozens, have sent taunting letters to the police or have done bizarre things to the bodies.

The one noticeable similarity with almost all serial killer victims is their short height and low weight.

Evidence can vary depending on the circumstances, the weather, and how long it has been hanging around.

In reality, those rare few cases with good forensic evidence are the ones that make it to court.