


Nowadays profiling rests, sometimes uneasily, somewhere between law enforcement and psychology. At the same time, though, much of the criminal profiling field developed within the law enforcement community-particularly the FBI. In the following decades, police in New York and elsewhere continued to consult psychologists and psychiatrists to develop profiles of particularly difficult-to-catch offenders. The profile proved dead on: It led police right to Metesky, who was arrested in January 1957 and confessed immediately. For instance, he said that because paranoia tends to peak around age 35, the bomber, 16 years after his first bomb, would now be in his 50s. While some of Brussel's predictions were simply common sense, others were based on psychological ideas.

Brussel came up with a detailed description of the suspect: He would be unmarried, foreign, self-educated, in his 50s, living in Connecticut, paranoid and with a vendetta against Con Edison-the first bomb had targeted the power company's 67th street headquarters. In 1956, the frustrated investigators asked psychiatrist James Brussel, New York State's assistant commissioner of mental hygiene, to study crime scene photos and notes from the bomber.
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Metesky planted more than 30 small bombs around the city between 19, hitting movie theaters, phone booths and other public areas. For 16 years, "mad bomber" George Metesky eluded New York City police.
