Dear friends of Profiling Evil: Whether you are attending CrimeCon or not, I hope you might take a moment to answer a 10-question Survey on Coercive Control at: https://arcg.is/1nen5a2

These are some of the things I will be covering in my presentation at CrimeCon on Sunday, May 31, at 1:00 p.m. and I hope you join me.

I also hope you’re taking time to catch my true crime clips from Europe as my wife and I spend a little time driving some of my favorite spots from the years of traveling here for work and play. I’m recording parts of this episode in Amsterdam and Cologne, near the place where serial killer Peter Kürten was raised, and I’ll also spend two days in Düsseldorf walking the crime scenes tied to one of Germany’s most infamous killers. Düsseldorf, Germany was the site of one of the most notorious serial killers in history, the Düsseldorf Vampire, Peter Kürten.

And then, make sure you’re subscribed for next week’s installment, this time from Baden-Baden, the Black Forest, Triberg and Freiburg. These are some of the most beautiful places you can visit in Germany, but each one carries a darker story beneath the scenery. In Baden-Baden, we’ll look at the witch trials of 1627 to 1631, when fear, religion, politics and forced confessions helped turn accusation into execution. In the Black Forest and Triberg, we talk about Heinrich Pommerenke, the violent West German serial offender known as the “Beast of the Black Forest,” whose 1959 crimes showed how predators can use roads, railways, stations and public spaces to move across a region. Then in Freiburg, we examine the 2016 murder of 19-year-old medical student Maria Ladenburger, a case built through careful police work, DNA, transit surveillance and phone data.

We’re talking more than just crime cases. We’ll dig into evidence, fear, geography, victimology and the way beautiful places disguise criminal horror stories. How justice systems can replace proof with panic or how offenders move discretely through ordinary spaces and how good investigations come together one fact at a time.

I’ll be home just in time to head to CrimeCon where I’ll be speaking on the big stage for the third year in a row. I can’t wait to meet you there.

From Germany, France, Luxembourg, Belgium and the Netherlands, “We’ll See You Soon… At the Next Crime Scene! -Mike