What if an author was so inspired by your life’s work that he based a high-profile fictional character on you? What if that character was then played by numerous actors in movies and TV shows — and you didn’t like any of them?
This is the situation John Douglas finds himself in.
During his 24 years in the FBI, Douglas interviewed hundreds of murderers, rapists and kidnappers, and he pretty much invented the notion of studying psychopaths behind bars to help capture others. His work inspired author Thomas Harris — who sat in on criminal psychology classes that Douglas taught at the FBI Academy — to create the Jack Crawford character in his novels such as “The Silence of the Lambs” and “Red Dragon.”
Over the past three decades, several actors have played the character on screen: Dennis Farina in “Manhunter,” Harvey Keitel in “Red Dragon” and Scott Glenn in “The Silence of the Lambs.” Laurence Fishburne also took on the role in the TV series “Hannibal.”
But Douglas isn’t a fan.
“They don’t put across accurate portrayals, and [that] aggravates me,” he told The Post. “I can’t look at those movies. You see FBI agents pulling out guns and knocking down doors and taking over investigations . . . [In reality,] if you’re a cop and I work with you on a case, I help to develop a more proactive technique.”
Now, however, Douglas has a chance to right past pop-culture wrongs by consulting on the new Netflix miniseries “Mindhunter.” Directed by Oscar nominee David Fincher (“The Social Network”), the show is based on a 1995 memoir by Douglas and co-author Mark Olshaker. Jonathan Groff plays Holden Ford, a character modeled on Douglas.
“They’re going by the book and I am very pleased,” said Douglas. Watching the series “is like reliving my life all over again.”
A Brooklyn native, Douglas was recruited to the FBI in 1970 after a stint in the Air Force. During his tenure, he changed the bureau’s long-game approach to investigating violent criminals.
Traditionally, back in the ’70s, Douglas recalled, they “were interviewed from rehabilitative perspectives. I interviewed [violent criminals] for information that showed commonalities that could be applied to solving other cases.”
To do that, he often had to play the beta role.
“I used the sayings they used, slouched low in my chair so they felt superior, had their handcuffs removed,” said Douglas, now 72. While taking even the most outlandish comments in stride, he added, “I didn’t show disgust or anger. It told [the criminals] that we were developing trust.”
He played a softy while facing America’s most notorious prisoners: Charles Manson, nurse-killer Richard Speck and David “Son of Sam” Berkowitz among them.
Perhaps the most physically intimidating was Ed Kemper, who stood 6-foot-9, weighed some 300 pounds, had a 140 IQ and specialized in killing hitchhikers around Santa Cruz, Calif., during the early ’70s. He removed the inside passenger door handle of his car, so, as Douglas put it, “Once they were in, they weren’t getting out. Ed said that he could twist my head off with his bare hands. I just laughed — even as I was thinking about what the guy did.”
Kemper also killed his mother. “She continually demeaned him,” Douglas said. “All these guys, it reverts back to the mother. I’ve never had a case where someone comes from a nurturing family.
Bed-wetting, animal cruelty and fire-setting is the triangle these people tend to have in common.”
In recalling his encounters with Berkowitz, who shot 13 New Yorkers between the summers of 1976 and 1977, Douglas described him as “an inadequate nobody . . . His triggering mechanism was finding out he was adopted.”
As much as Douglas loved the work, it took a toll. In 1983, while in Seattle to advise on the Green River Killer case, he was found comatose in his hotel room. His temperature had spiked to 107 degrees; he was later told that his “brain had been fried.” The cause was viral encephalitis, exacerbated by stress and a relentless work schedule that had him teaching at police precincts across the country and juggling 150 cases at a time. “I survived a disease that kills everybody,” he said.
Douglas spent five months in physical and psychological rehab before returning to Quantico, Virginia, where “a big pile of cases waited for me.”
He retired 11 years later, but has continued to consult on select cases including the 1996 JonBenét Ramsey murder. He now lives in Fredericksburg, Virginia, with his wife.
Looking back on his career and legacy, Douglas boils it down: “The crimes are reflections of the offenders. If you want to understand art, talk to the artist.”