John E. Douglas

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John E. Douglas (born June 18, 1945) is a former FBI agent and one of the first profilers. Douglas was instrumental in the capture of half a dozen serial killers, and for years he attempted to find out the identity of the Green River Killer, an endeavor which nearly cost him his life when his stress-wracked body was unable to fight off viral encephalitis. ^{[citation needed]} Following his retirement from the FBI in 1995, Douglas gained international fame as the author of a series of books detailing his life tracking serial killers. They are considered to be some of the most insightful works written on the minds, motives, and operation of serial killers, and the methods and lives of those who track them.

A veteran of the U.S. Air Force, he holds several degrees: B.S., M.S., Ed.S and doctorate in Adult Education. The Jack Crawford character in The Silence of the Lambs was directly based on Douglas, and he is thought to be the inspiration for several other fictional characters in television as well, including Virgil "Web" Webster in The Inside, Frank Black in Millennium, and (to a degree) Jason Gideon in Criminal Minds and Benton Wesley in the Kay Scarpetta novels by Patricia Cornwell.

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Douglas' mentor was Robert Ressler, a former FBI agent and a fellow Behavioural Science Unit employee. Douglas himself was later a mentor to Dayle Hinman.