James R. Fitzgerald (born June 24, 1953) is an American
criminal profiler
Offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is an investigative strategy used by law enforcement agencies to identify likely suspects and has been used by investigators to link cases that may have been committed by the same perpetrato ...
,
forensic linguist
Forensic linguistics, legal linguistics, or language and the law, is the application of linguistic knowledge, methods, and insights to the forensic context of law, language, crime investigation, trial, and judicial procedure. It is a branch of ap ...
, and author. He is a retired
FBI agent
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, t ...
and best known for his role in the UNABOM investigation, which resulted in the arrest and conviction of
Ted Kaczynski
Theodore John Kaczynski ( ; born May 22, 1942), also known as the Unabomber (), is an American domestic terrorist and former mathematics professor. Between 1978 and 1995, Kaczynski killed three people and injured 23 others in a nationwide ...
.
Law enforcement career
Fitzgerald's career in
law enforcement
Law enforcement is the activity of some members of government who act in an organized manner to enforce the law by discovering, deterring, rehabilitating, or punishing people who violate the rules
Rule or ruling may refer to:
Education ...
began in 1976 as a
police officer
A police officer (also called a policeman and, less commonly, a policewoman) is a warranted law employee of a police force. In most countries, "police officer" is a generic term not specifying a particular rank. In some, the use of the ...
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
. In 1987, after eleven years of local police work culminating in his promotion to the rank of sergeant, he was recruited by the
Federal Bureau of Investigation
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is the domestic intelligence and security service of the United States and its principal federal law enforcement agency. Operating under the jurisdiction of the United States Department of Justice, ...
Quantico, Virginia
Quantico ( or ; formerly Potomac) is a town in Prince William County, Virginia, United States. The population was 480 at the 2010 census. Quantico is approximately 35 miles southwest of Washington, DC, bordered by the Potomac River to the east ...
, Fitzgerald was assigned to the New York Field Division's Joint Bank Robbery Task Force. In 1995, Fitzgerald was promoted to
Criminal Profiler
Offender profiling, also known as criminal profiling, is an investigative strategy used by law enforcement agencies to identify likely suspects and has been used by investigators to link cases that may have been committed by the same perpetrato ...
at the
National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime
The National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) is a specialist FBI department. The NCAVC's role is to coordinate investigative and operational support functions, criminological research, and training in order to provide assistan ...
, which would later become the FBI's
Behavioral Analysis Unit
The Behavioral Analysis Unit (BAU) is a department of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime (NCAVC) that uses behavioral analysts to assist in criminal investigations. The mission of the NCAVC ...
, or BAU. Through myriad investigations of homicide,
serial rape
A serial rapist is someone who commits multiple rapes, whether with multiple victims or a single victim repeatedly over a period of time. Some serial rapists target children. The terms ''sexual predator'', ''repeat rape'' and ''multiple offending ...
,
extortion
Extortion is the practice of obtaining benefit through coercion. In most jurisdictions it is likely to constitute a criminal offence; the bulk of this article deals with such cases. Robbery is the simplest and most common form of extortion, ...
workplace violence
Workplace violence (WPV), violence in the workplace (VIW), or occupational violence refers to violence, usually in the form of physical abuse or threat, that creates a risk to the health and safety of an employee or multiple employees. The Natio ...
, Fitzgerald refined his skills in
forensic linguistics
Forensic linguistics, legal linguistics, or language and the law, is the application of linguistic knowledge, methods, and insights to the forensic context of law, language, crime investigation, trial, and judicial procedure. It is a branch of ap ...
and
threat assessment
Threat assessment is the practice of determining the credibility and seriousness of a potential threat, as well as the probability that the threat will become a reality. Threat assessment is separate to the more established practice of violence-r ...
, specialties that were used in the UNABOM investigation. In an interview with
NPR
National Public Radio (NPR, stylized in all lowercase) is an American privately and state funded nonprofit media organization headquartered in Washington, D.C., with its NPR West headquarters in Culver City, California. It differs from other ...
, Fitzgerald said the Unabomber's writings were a "pivotal factor" in cracking the Unabomber's case. He further claimed that he and his colleagues used the writing in the
Unabomber manifesto
''Industrial Society and Its Future'', generally known as the ''Unabomber Manifesto'', is a 1995 anti-technology essay by Ted Kaczynski, the "Unabomber". The manifesto contends that the Industrial Revolution began a harmful process of natura ...
to help pinpoint the age and geographic origin of their suspect.
Fitzgerald was also responsible for developing training programs and tools to improve the threat assessment capabilities of the FBI. Among these is the Communicated Threat Assessment Database (CTAD), an exhaustively indexed repository of data consisting of every communicated threat encountered in the course of FBI investigations.
Later career
Fitzgerald has remained active in the fields of criminal profiling and forensic linguistics since retiring from the FBI in 2007, holding positions as adjunct faculty at both Hofstra University in
Hempstead, New York
The Town of Hempstead (also known historically as South Hempstead) is the largest of the three towns in Nassau County (alongside North Hempstead and Oyster Bay) in the U.S. state of New York. It occupies the southwestern part of the county, on ...
,
Stockton University
Stockton University is a public university in Galloway Township, New Jersey. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. It is named for Richard Stockton, one of the New Jersey signers of the U.S. Declaration of Independence ...
in
Pomona, New Jersey
Pomona is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) located within Galloway Township, in Atlantic County, New Jersey.California University of Pennsylvania in California, Pennsylvania. He continues to work as a private consultant and technical advisor to free media productions, such as ''
Criminal Minds
''Criminal Minds'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series created and produced by Jeff Davis. The series premiered on CBS on September 22, 2005, and originally concluded on February 19, 2020; it was revived in 2022. It ...
Sam Worthington
Samuel Henry John Worthington (born 2 August 1976) is an Australian actor. He is best known for playing Jake Sully in ''Avatar'' and its sequel, ''Avatar: The Way of Water''; Marcus Wright in ''Terminator Salvation'', and Perseus in '' Clash o ...
as James "Fitz" Fitzgerald, described by Fitzgerald as "a composite character" of many investigators in the Unabomber case.
Television
* A&E's ''Killer Profile'' – Executive Producer and Co-Host
*
CBS
CBS Broadcasting Inc., commonly shortened to CBS, the abbreviation of its former legal name Columbia Broadcasting System, is an American commercial broadcast television and radio network serving as the flagship property of the CBS Entertainm ...
TV’s ''The Case of:
Jon Benet Ramsey
Jon is a shortened form of the common given name Jonathan, derived from "YHWH has given", and an alternate spelling of John, derived from "YHWH has pardoned".Criminal Minds
''Criminal Minds'' is an American police procedural crime drama television series created and produced by Jeff Davis. The series premiered on CBS on September 22, 2005, and originally concluded on February 19, 2020; it was revived in 2022. It ...
*2003: "Workplace violence: from threat to intervention", in ''Clinics in Occupational and Environmental Medicine''
*2004: "Using A Forensic Linguistic Approach to Track the Unabomber", in ''Profilers'', Campbell, John H., and DeNevi, Don, Prometheus Books
*2006: ''Forensic Linguistic Services at the Behavioral Analysis Unit-1'', an FBI handbook detailing services offered at the BAU-1
*2007: "The FBI's Communicated Threat Assessment Database; History, Design, and Implementation", in ''FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin''
*2014: '' A Journey to the Center of the Mind, Book I'', ''The Coming-of-Age Years,'' Infinity Publishing
*2017: ''A Journey to the Center of the Mind, Book II'', ''The Police Officer Years,'' Infinity Publishing
*2017: ''A Journey to the Center of the Mind, Book III'', ''The (First Ten) FBI Years,'' Infinity Publishing