Candice DeLong - FBI Profiler

Miss DeLong belongs to that extremely small band of female profilers in the FBI, working alongside the likes of Mary O`Toole ( Clarice Starling was based on her) and Dayle Hinman.  Candice was one of four siblings - she had three brothers - and her first career move was qualifying as a psychiatric nurse and working for nearly ten years in that service.  She had married at 19 but the marriage did not last, and she raised her one and only son as a single parent.  She opted for a career change by hoping to get into the FBI, having listened to stories about Eliot Ness, from her father. Later, she learned that her father was in a Chicago speakeasy when it was raided by Ness and his men, and then became an informant for Ness.

    As with all female recruits to the Bureau, she had to fight the rampant sexism and barriers being put up in front of them by officers that were simply dinosaurs.  She won a lot of respect for her arrests and dedication, helping catch the Unabomber, terrorists (The Puerto Rican FALN) serial rapists & killers.  Her hard work paid off when she won acceptance to the fledgling Behavioural Sciences Unit, learning from their distinguished tutors, John Douglas, Roy Hazelwood & Robert Ressler.  It is a far cry from the supersonic speed at piecing together a profile and solving the case for the thick local cops as portrayed in "Criminal Minds".  

    Candice now she has retired from the Bureau, does consultancy on the TV series "Deadly Women" in which she reviews all the known evidence on the cases shown and offers her opinions.  What is refreshing, is that she pulls no punches in her evaluations.  Imagine what it would be like if it was Dr Phil giving opinions!  If she believes a woman is a sociopath, or an out & out bitch, she says so.  She does no excuse any behaviour, as many of these documentaries go on about how much of a troubled and turbulent childhood these killers had.  Big deal!  Many people suffer horrendous childhoods in one form or another, but that has not made them psychotic or turn into serial killers.  We need more plain talking people on these shows, like Candice DeLong.