The book, "Silence of the Lambs," by Thomas Harris, was published in 1989.  The movie was released in 1991.  Both the book and movie hold up well over time.  They are just as engaging and creepy today as when they were released.

Clarice Starling (played by Jodie Foster in the movie) is an FBI trainee who is sent to meet with convicted serial killer and cannibal, the brilliant psychiatrist Hannibal Lecter (Anthony Hopkins).  The FBI is hunting a new serial killer known as Buffalo Bill, and they hope Dr. Lecter will open up to Starling and provide some insight.

Dr. Lecter does have information on Buffalo Bill, but he will not give it up before forcing Starling into a quid pro quo to get personal information from her.  Much of the story's force comes from the relationship between Starling and Dr. Lecter.  The desire to save Buffalo Bill's latest victim (who happens to be a powerful Senator's daughter) makes the situation urgent for the FBI.  But Dr. Lecter has all the time in the world.

Both the book and movie are smart and scary.  The book provides a little more detail and background.  But the parts changed or left out of the movie mostly made it better.

The movie won several Academy Awards, including all of the top five categories:  Best Picture, Best Actor for Anthony Hopkins, Best Actress for Jodie Foster, Best Director for Jonathan Demme, and Best Adapted Screenplay.

This is one of my top favorite movies of all time.  Check out the movie and book here:

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"Death in the City of Light" is a true crime book by David King about a serial killer who murdered dozens of people in Nazi-occupied Paris, France during World War II. 

The crimes committed by the accused serial killer and physician, Dr. Marcel Petiot, were truly horrible.  In addition to being gruesome, his crimes targeted some of the most vulnerable people during World War II - those who wanted to escape the Gestapo. 

Dr. Petiot was seen by those who knew him alternately as a charming humanitarian or a creep.  Dr. Petiot made a reputation for himself by providing free services to the poor.  He was also known to service drug users and was investigated more than once for improperly proscribing medication to addicts.

Petiot effectively used the Nazi occupation of Paris and the French Resistance movement to recruit new victims, prevent too many questions from being asked, and cover his crimes.  Once he is discovered and captured, the central question of his trial becomes whether his murders were committed for the Gestapo, the Resistance, or himself.

The book loses a lot of steam when the trial starts about halfway through.  Normally I'm fascinated by how a foreign country's criminal justice system and trial process compares to the United States, but this one got too bogged down in details.  Also, the author made a point of focusing on the defendant's "witty" remarks in court and the trial audience's delight in him, which was hard to take after learning of all the disgusting things he had done. 

More interesting were some of the procedures used in the French criminal court which were very different from a U.S. criminal trial.  For example, the first part of the trial was basically dedicated to an interrogation of the defendant by the trial judge and lawyers.  By contrast, in the U.S., we have the Fifth Amendment, which protects criminal defendants from ever having to speak in a criminal trial and even prevents the lawyers from commenting on his failure to testify.

Also, several of the victims in the French criminal trial were represented by civil attorneys who actively participated in the trial.  They questioned witnesses and presented evidence.  In the U.S. court system, criminal and civil trials are completely separate.

One of the things I was most struck by was the apparent lack of order in questioning and argument during the French trial.  The defendant and lawyers would speak up, question witnesses, and make arguments seemingly without structure or order.  If this is really the way of a French criminal trial, it is hard to imagine how anything could get accomplished with such a system.  Especially with so many lawyers involved and given lawyers' love of hearing themselves talk!

As far as foreign true crime serial killer books go, I preferred "The Monster of Florence" by Douglas Preston.

Check out my review of "The Monster of Florence" here.

Overall, however, the story underlying "Death in the City of Light" is simply too disturbing and intriguing to ignore. 

(Click the images or links above to check out the books for yourself.)

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High profile cases are generally not the best examples of a criminal justice system at work.  I would certainly not want someone judging the American criminal justice system on the basis of the O.J. Simpson and Casey Anthony trials, for example. 

With that caution, Italy's investigation into a serial killer known as the Monster of Florence (il Mostro di Firenze), as presented in a gripping true crime book, The Monster of Florence, by Douglas Preston and Mario Spezi, was nothing short of absurd.  

Although not well known in America, the Monster of Florence is one of the most famous serials killers known throughout the world.  The Monster preyed on young couples who used the hills surrounding Florence as an intimate escape. 

While the targeted couple was in the heat of passion in their car, the Monster would shoot the man, then the woman.  He would drag the woman from the car and cut out her vagina.  In later crimes he would also rip off the woman's left breast.

These horrific crimes, committed over a period of years, terrified people living in the Tuscany hills, and created a frenzy to find the killer or killers.

The book follows the decades of investigation and prosecution of several people accused of being the Monster, or being someone criminally associated with the Monster.  The investigators' theories evolve from a lone serial killer to a family of killers to a vast satanic consipracy involving most of Florence's upper class.  Even the book's authors were swept up in the investigation.

The authors convincingly present their own theory of the crimes and suspect.  My one complaint is that I wished the book had explained a little more was the Italian criminal justice system.  From the bits and pieces discussed, it appears the Italian system is very different from the U.S. system in some key respects (the prosecutor is a judge, a trial is heard by a panel of judges not lay jurors, an appeals court can hear new evidence). 

It would have been interesting to have a little more background on that.  Otherwise, I found the book to be a fascinating case study.  It's a must-read for any fan of true crime.  Despite the complexity of the story, it was a quick and enjoyable read.

There were also some interesting parallels for anyone who followed the Amanda Knox story (American exchange student Amanda Knox and her Italian boyfriend were convicted of murdering her roommate Meredith Kercher in Perugia, Italy).  The main prosecutor who believed in and investigated the satanic consipracy theories of the Monster killings was also Amanda Knox's prosecutor, and he advanced similar theories in that case.

For fans of The Silence of the Lambs (my favorite serial killer book and movie ever) and Hanibal, author Thomas Harris apparently followed the Monster investigations and used the case as inspiration for his books (click the images to order from Amazon). 

When it comes to investigating and prosecuting crime, federal and state agencies are parts of separate governments.  Each state is also separate from all the other states.  These are called jurisdictions. 

The federal government is limited in what crimes it is allowed to investigate and prosecute.  There must be federal jurisdiction before the federal government can get involved.  Most street crimes, like murder, do not involve federal jurisdiction. 

The federal government may have jurisdiction if an otherwise state crime occurs on federal property, or involves federal officials, or crosses state lines.

The states and federal government also have separate law enforcement and prosecutorial agencies.  At the federal level, the FBI and U.S. Attorney's Office are primarily involved in investigating and prosecuting federal crimes. 

Each state has state law enforcement officers, as well as local city police departments and county sheriff's departments.  Most states also have state attorneys general, district attorneys, and city attorneys who prosecute state crimes.

Often in movies and TV shows, the local police department will get offended when the FBI comes into their jurisdiction.  The show "Criminal Minds" handles this issue regularly.

Criminal Minds follows a team of FBI profilers who help track and catch serial killers.  Most episodes have the team called in by a local police department that needs the team's expertise on recent crimes. 

The agent in charge of the Criminal Minds profiling team often stresses the importance of being invited by the local police department and working cooperatively with them once there.  This is because the FBI generally has no jurisdiction to investigate local murders, even multiple murders.  The FBI, as a federal agency, has limited jurisdiction to investigate federal crimes. 

The specialized profiling team on Criminal Minds, therefore, would generally analyze evidence from their unique perspective and help educate the local police department about the person they are looking for.

One episode of Criminal Minds (Season 2, ep. 22 “Legacy”), helps show this concept and demonstrates the difference between state and federal jurisdictions.   

Detective McGee from the Kansas City Police Department contacts the Criminal Minds team for help when he believes at least 63 homeless people have disappeared.  Because these people have not turned up dead and no one has reported them missing, however, there are no open files and no active local investigation into the matter. 

The following conversation takes place about the FBI team's ability to work on the case:

Upon unofficially reviewing some of the evidence and recognizing a potentially serious threat, Agent Prentiss expresses frustration at the team’s hands being tied because of jurisdictional concerns.  Agent Morgan reminds her, “If we don’t follow the city’s jurisdiction, no one’s ever going to ask us for help.”

These scenes demonstrate how delicate the balance of power between different law enforcement agencies can be.  It also exemplifies the limited role of the federal government when it comes to investigating and prosecuting crime.  Unless there is some federal aspect of the case that gives the feds jurisdiction, they have no authority.

Later in the episode, when Agent Hotchner meets with the detective’s commander, the commander declines the FBI’s help, claiming there is no case to investigate.  He does not consider the unexplained and unreported disappearance of several homeless people a crime. 

It is then discovered that a taunting letter from the potential suspect was mailed to Detective McGee from Kansas City, Missouri, whereas the people went missing from Kansas City, Kansas.  This interstate communication gave the FBI jurisdiction to investigate the crimes on their own without invitation from the local authorities.

In this scenario, both the federal government and the local authorities had jurisdiction to investigate the same crimes.  This is called concurrent jurisdiction. 

Bank robbery and drug sales are common areas of concurrent jurisdiction, where both the federal and state governments have jurisdiction.  And since the federal and state governments are separate governments, each could potentially prosecute the suspect once he was caught.  Typically, however, someone is only prosecuted by either the state or the federal government, even where both have jurisdiction. 

As a side note, the U.S. Constitution’s Double Jeopardy Clause does not forbid both the federal and state governments from prosecuting the same person for the same crime because they are separate sovereigns.

(click picture to check out Criminal Minds on DVD)

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