MARY ELLEN O’TOOLE, Ph.D. has spent her career studying the criminal mind. One of the most senior profilers for the FBI until her retirement in 2009, Dr. O’Toole has helped capture, interview and understand some of the world’s most infamous people including:
· Gary Ridgway, the Green River Killer · Derrick Todd Lee and Sean Vincent Gillis, both serial killers in Baton Rouge · The Collar Bomb Case, a bank robbery and murder of a pizza delivery man · Ted Kaczynski, the Unabomber · The Polly Klaas child abduction · David Parker Ray, a serial sexual sadist · The Red Lake School Shooting · The Monster of Florence serial murder case · The Zodiac serial murder case · The bombing during the 2002 Olympics in Salt Lake City, UT · The mass murder in Florence, Montana in 2001
Dr. O’Toole also worked the Elizabeth Smart and Natalee Holloway disappearances, the Columbine shootings and many other high profile cases. Dr. O’Toole worked as an FBI agent for 28 years, spending more than half of her Bureau career in the organization’s prestigious Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU)—the unit that is the focus of the hit crime series “Criminal Minds.”
Dr. O’Toole is recognized as the FBI’s leading expert in the area of psychopathy. She has served as adjunct faculty to the FBI’s Prestigious Leadership Development Institute (LDI) at the FBI Academy and also frequently lectures at the Smithsonian Institution about everything from Sherlock Holmes to personal safety. She is a Fellow with the American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
