The conversation turns to criminal profiling, where DeLong explains how statistics guide investigations. She reveals that 95 percent of children killed by blunt force trauma in their homes were struck by a primary caretaker, and 76 percent of murdered women are killed by someone they know. She applies these principles to the then-ongoing Chandra Levy case, expressing confidence it would eventually be solved.
Art presses DeLong on Waco and Ruby Ridge, and she candidly discusses the demoralizing effect both incidents had on the FBI. She describes how lessons from those standoffs directly shaped the careful approach used to arrest Ted Kaczynski without violence. DeLong also shares her evolving views on the death penalty, noting that DNA exonerations have tempered her earlier certainty.
Key Moments
The Candy Store sting: posing as a madam over FBI radio: DeLong recounts how a thief who stole an FBI handheld radio kept transmitting sex chatter on it; she convinced bosses to let her go on the air posing as a brothel madam, the Candy Store, and lured him in.
Statistics on murdered children under 10: DeLong cites that approximately 95% of children under 10 killed by blunt-force head trauma in their own homes were killed by an adult primary caretaker, and 100% of staged child crime scenes the FBI examined were by a parent or caretaker.
Who actually kills women: not serial killers: Applying profiling stats to the Chandra Levy case, DeLong explains 30% of murdered women are killed by an intimate partner and 76% by someone they know, debunking the public perception that serial killers account for the rest.
Bundy: killing, not sex, was the real motive: DeLong discusses Ted Bundy's late confession via journalists Stephen Michaud, who got him to talk in third person, revealing that the act of taking a life - not the sex - was what he got off on.
Why FBI chose to mug, not raid, Ted Kaczynski: DeLong reveals that after Ruby Ridge and Waco, the San Francisco Unabom task force pushed back against headquarters and HRT pressure, deciding to lure Kaczynski out of his cabin and tackle him quietly rather than risk another armed standoff.