logo
episode-header-image
Jul 2024
39m 53s

The Nurse Behind the FBI’s Mindhunters (...

SPOTIFY STUDIOS
About this episode

In 1978, Ann Wolbert Burgess was a psychiatric nurse, researcher, and professor at Boston College’s Connell School of Nursing. She and her colleague, Lynda Holmstrom, had recently published their findings on the emotional and psychological effects of sexual assault on survivors. That fall, her work was interrupted by a phone call. The FBI wanted to speak with her. They needed her help.

Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Have a story to share? Email us at serialkillerstories@spotify.com

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Up next
Aug 18
Visionary Killer: Joe Kallinger
The visionary killer blames their crimes on an external force – an apparition who commands them to kill. In Joseph Kallinger’s case, multiple entities urging him to commit arson… and then, to kill everyone on planet Earth. Keep up with us on Instagram @serialkillerspodcast! Learn ... Show More
30m 58s
Aug 11
Power and Control Killer: Ted Bundy
Ted Bundy was calculated, composed, even charming. But behind the polished exterior was a predator obsessed with control. He used manipulation, deceit, and dominance to gain total power over his victims. From his carefully planned attacks to his detailed confessions, Ted Bundy is ... Show More
41m 9s
Aug 4
The Idaho Four Pt. 2 (with Kayna Whitworth)
In 2022, Six weeks after the murders of the Idaho Four, Bryan Kohberger was arrested in Pennsylvania. Fast forward to July of 2025, when just weeks before his trial was set to begin, he pleaded guilty. Later that month, he was sentenced to life in prison. ABC News Kayna Whitworth ... Show More
44m 47s
Recommended Episodes
Aug 2024
Episode 649: Dr. Ann Burgess - A quest to decipher the criminal mind
She was the inspiration behind the character of Dr.Wendy in the hit Netflix show Mindhunter. Dr.Ann Burgess began her career in trauma nursing before she went on to work with the FBI in the behavioral science unit where she helped to develop a method for profiling sexual serial k ... Show More
31m 24s
May 2
Did Bryan Kohberger Kill to Impress His Professor, Dr. Katherine Ramsland? Howard Blum Thinks So
Did Bryan Kohberger Kill to Impress His Professor, Dr. Katherine Ramsland? Howard Blum Thinks So In this episode, Tony Brueski takes a deep dive into one of the most unsettling and psychologically complex theories in the Bryan Kohberger case: the claim that the murders were commi ... Show More
36m 8s
May 2024
Postmortem, Ep. 4: The anatomy lab
As haunting as the Harvard morgue scandal is, you don't have to go back very far in history to find practices for sourcing bodies that would be shocking today. Reporter Ally Jarmanning finds that for more than a century, medical schools relied on grave robbing and body snatching ... Show More
23m 47s
Feb 2025
Patricia A. Roos, "Surviving Alex: A Mother's Story of Love, Loss, and Addiction" (Rutgers UP, 2024)
In 2015, Patricia Roos’s twenty-five-year-old son Alex died of a heroin overdose. Turning her grief into action, Roos, a professor of sociology at Rutgers University, began to research the social factors and institutional failures that contributed to his death. Surviving Alex: A ... Show More
1h 16m
Jun 13
124. The Mysterious Death of Cindy James Part 2
In 1989, the body of a woman was found hog tied off the side of a road in Richmond British Columbia. What followed was one of the longest coroners inquest in Canadian history. An inquest that would say the woman had died by an unknown event. Although she was found with her hands ... Show More
37m 3s
Aug 2024
Blue Barrel Killer: Dr. John Analyzes Alleged Heinous Sex Crimes
Timothy Haslett Jr. was first arrested in October of 2022 after a woman, identified only by her initials in docs as TJ, saved her life by escaping out of what was essentially a homemade torture chamber, where she had been held captive. Fast forward to July of 2024, Timothy Haslet ... Show More
1h 6m
Jan 2023
A Not So Private Idaho - Dr. Danielle Slakoff on Media Ethics in Idaho Four Case, True Crime Content and the Families
A Not So Private Idaho - Dr. Danielle Slakoff on Media Sensationalization in Idaho Four Case, Ethical True Crime and the Families Left Picking Up the PiecesWhat is it about true crime that leaves audiences with a nearly insatiable appetite for the bleeding headlines? With the rec ... Show More
1h 7m
Jan 2024
Inside The Making Of The Silence Of The Lambs
Jana Monroe was a trailblazer who rose through the ranks while at the FBI. Although she investigated some of the country's most notorious serial killers, many are familiar with her work in the movie industry. As the only female at the Bureau's Behavioral Sciences Unit in Quantico ... Show More
26m 8s
Aug 2023
BEYOND THE VEIL: INTERVIEW WITH LARRY AND KAY WOODCOCK THE DAY BEFORE LORI VALLOW IS SENTENCED
This interview with Larry and Kay Woodcock and Dr John Matthias took place on July 30, 2023, the day before Lori Vallow Daybell was sentenced in Rexburg, Idaho.Our original Beyond the Veil season continues as a forensic psychologist and journalist (who are husband and wife) explo ... Show More
32m 47s
Jul 2024
Review of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, Black market weight loss drugs, Composer Undine Smith Moore
Former Chief Prosecutor Nazir Afzal speaks to Nuala McGovern about his independent culture review of the Nursing and Midwifery Council, which is the independent regulator for nurses and midwifes in the UK. The report is highly critical, finding that a "dysfunctional culture" at t ... Show More
55m 40s