Fame Through Assassination: A Secret Service Study : NPR
Interesting article - basically, “murderers searching for a cause”.
A snippet, describing how these agents went about their study:
Fein and Secret Service agent Bryan Vossekuil undertook the most extensive study of assassins and would-be assassins ever done.
In the Secret Service Exception Case Study Project, they identified 83 people who had completed assassinations or made assassination attempts since 1949 — some cases known to the public, some not — and collected every document they could find. Fein and Vossekuil also went to visit many of these people in jail.
Fein says they went with a very particular pitch: “We’d say, ‘We’re here because we’re in the business of trying to protect people and prevent these kinds of attacks. You are one of the few experts because you’ve engaged in this behavior. We would like to talk to you to understand your perspectives, your life.’ “
Most said they’d be very glad to talk, Fein recalls.
The researchers asked prisoners how they chose targets, how they prepared. They inquired about their motives, every intimate detail of their process. After they asked these questions, they combined the answers with other sources and analyzed the information. In 1999, they published their results in The Journal of Forensic Sciences.