In 1992-3 I represented a serial killer, Joey Miller, at trial. I believe I once posted about the grisly nature of his crimes a few years ago. Having had represented more than a thousand clients in criminal matters in the first several years of my career, I can say there was something uniquely fascinating about him.

During my representation I consulted with Robert Ressler, the retired FBI special agent, who actually coined and defined the term "serial killer." Ressler was an amazing profiler, who could read a case file, and with shocking accuracy create a picture of the serialist by describing his car, living arrangements, age, work habits, etc. He even accurately profiled details such as a particular person counting steps as he walked and other OCD traits.

SB is correct that serial killers are almost always caucasian. They are always male too. The only other area, interestingly enough, where virtually all criminals are caucasian, Ressler said, was pedophelia.

Pathologists have theorized that serial killers suffer from a genetic mutation or malformed frontal lobe of the brain. Their act of murdering is usually passionless and systematic.

In my case Joey Miller murdered young black women, who were large. While race was tied as a motive or modus operandi, I never believed it was a factor as he grew up among blacks and mostly associated with blacks, and therefore I thought race was incidental to his crimes. His method of killing the women and disposing of their bodies was too brutal to recount, and it contrasted with his own gentle appearance. But as I had spent lots of hours alone with him in a prison interview room the size of a walk-in closet, I witnessed his demeanor change abruptly.

He's still incarcerated. He had two young kids at the time of trial and a baby born a few months after his incarceration on the charge. He'll never get out. Last year I noticed that his son, now 24, was charged with arson. It made me remember that I first represented his dad on an arson charge when he was roughly the same age.