A new book will be released in early September naming William Bury as Jack the Ripper. Bury's name has come up among diehard Jackophiles, but he remains an obscure choice. For one thing, he was married and was, in fact, executed for killing his wife. This alone does not preclude him from consideration, but think of the serial killers that have been married. Off the top of my head, Christie (killed his wife), Sutcliffe (did not), BTK (did not), Fred West (bad choice). OK, maybe there's no clearcut answer here; this just shows the diversity in criminals and puts paid to the notion that a "profile" can actually be any more than a "supposition." I believe people want to believe in profilers, as is evinced by the CSI shows and the Hannibal Lector movies, because it gives them the feeling that those who hunt the killers actually know what they're doing; thus, serial killers are just "lucky" and will be caught eventually. This is a dangerous fallacy.

Profilers can help generalize certain character types and events in a person's childhood that COULD lead one to be in danger of committing crimes. But it's no more than educated guesswork, as borne out by the completely useless FBI report of Jack the Ripper in 1988.

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