Richard Walter
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Richard Walter is an American forensic psychologist for the Michigan prison system, a crime scene analyst and one of the creators of modern criminal profiling.[1]
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[edit] Career
Walter developed a number of psychological classifications for violent crime, and a co-founder of the Vidocq Society, an exclusive organization of forensic professionals dedicated to solving cold cases. As a psychologist for Michigan's prison system, he has interviewed more than 22,000 convicted felons.[2]
He worked with Robert D. Keppel, then the chief investigator for the Attorney General's Office in the State of Washington, and together they wrote Profiling Killers: A Revised Classification Model for Understanding Sexual Murder. Keppel created the Homicide Information Tracking Unit (HITS) database, of which Walter was a prolific contributor. Walter was the first to develop a matrix as a tool of investigation using pre-crime, crime and post-crime behaviours to help develop suspects.[3]
Author Michael Capuzzo has been given a sizeable advance to write about the Vidocq Society and its three co-founders.[4] The book is tentatively titled The Arms of Angels. Walter is also a member of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Medicine/Clinical Forensic Medicine, A Fellow of the Australasian College of Biomedical Sciences and a 22-year veteran prison psychologist for the state of Michigan.
Walter gives lectures to police organizations throughout the United States, England, Scotland, Turkey, Australia and Hong Kong. He has also been featured on programs for CBS, A&E, TLC and Court TV.
[edit] Notable cases
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In 1989, Walter provided the psychological profile for mass murderer John List, who had been in hiding for 18 years. Using Walter's profile, forensic sculptor Frank Bender was able to appropriately age the suspect in a bust displayed on America's Most Wanted; List was captured the next day.
In Lubbock, Texas in 1999, City Police solved the murder of Scott Dunn with Walter's aid. This is a rare case where a conviction was garnered in the absence of a body. The case is chronicled in the book Trail of Blood" by Wanda Evans and in the television series Medical Detectives
In 2005, the Hudson, Wisconsin Police Department consulted with the Vidocq Society on the cold case double homicide of Dan O'Connell and James Ellison. With the help of Walter, the Hudson police solved the case. The murderer was a priest who was trying to keep child molestation allegations from surfacing.
[edit] Notes
- ^ The Vidocq Society page retrieved on March 30, 2007
- ^ Mansfield University article retrieved on March 30, 2007
- ^ Robert D. Keppel Profiling Killers: A Revised Classification Model for Understanding Sexual Murder, the Institute for Forensics, retrieved on March 30, 2007
- ^ Publishers Weekly article retrieved on March 30, 2007
