[bloodhounds] and the investigative obsession

Just finished watching the 2007 version of Zodiac, the story of the serial killer who left cryptic clues in California in the late 60s. The story you can follow for yourself but the angle I'm interested in concerns the stages of an investigation and where it bottoms out.

In the case of the Zodiac killer, the cop who leads the investigation obsesses and finally gives it away after compromising himself. The baton is taken up by a newspaper cartoonist, Robert Graysmith, who finds himself drawn further and further into the case, to the point where his knowledge of it is second to none but sadly, it is at a human cost:

Graysmith ... loses his job and his wife Melanie takes their children with her.

Jim Garrison springs to mind too:

Opinions differ as to whether he uncovered a conspiracy behind the John F. Kennedy assassination but was blocked from successful prosecution by a federal government cover up, whether he bungled his chance to uncover a conspiracy, or whether the entire case was an unproductive waste of resources.

Ditto The Winslow Boy:

Although the family has won the case at law and lifted the cloud over Ronnie, it has taken its toll on the rest. His father's physical health has deteriorated under the strain, as to some degree has the happiness of the Winslows' home. The costs of the suit and the publicity campaign have eaten up his older brother Dickie's Oxford tuition, and hence his chance at a career in the Civil Service, as well as Catherine's marriage settlement. Her fiancé John Watherstone has broken off the engagement in the face of opposition from his father ...

There are common elements to all such investigations:

1. Something kicks it off and somewhere along the line, certain coincidences or certain evidence pops up which reveal that there really is truth in it after all. This is the trickiest part because it often occurs to one or two people and no one else can see it, having not been privy to how it cropped up;

2. For some time the investigation runs on the fuel of the investigator's good history and reputation but now the counter-claims and things which just don't seem to check out come into it. This is a time when a lot of soul searching goes on and the point where the investigator feels like throwing in the towel;

3. The next stage is the key.  The investigated person or phenomenon slips up - it only need be the once, whether it be a sent letter, a mannerism, whatever - and now the investigator [s] is sure he's on the right track.   The fixation with nailing the bstd now kicks in but because he's so focused, the others look at him askance;

4. One by one, helpers and friends drop out, acquaintances start to accuse him of obsession, of a vendetta, of a personal dispute, of ego kicking in and of losing the plot ... but meanwhile, more and more evidence is being accumulated and makes the truth easier to see;

5. The investigator's behaviour has been altering for some time and maybe even his character ... or at least the part of the character required for the investigation becomes highly developed and sensitized, whilst the more social aspects die away. Wives leave and take the children but the investigator still can't leave it alone;

6. In the end, he has a damned good case and confronts the accused with it but unfortunately, the world has lost interest after so long and the pyrrhic victory is so partial and achieved at such a cost that one wonders if it had been worth it;

7. The investigator finally ceases and takes stock. It takes him a long time to get back a sense of balance and perspective and then he sees how he's been sucked into another man's agenda, a nutter who is still not convicted [Zodiac] and goes off to some other victims whilst the investigator can do no more. He's used up all his favours and no one sees that the accused has got away, to the latter's sardonic smile, with virtual murder.

Serial perpetrators do this - they suck others into their agendas and it's near impossible to make that break with the case and not give the perpetrators the oxygen of publicity and obsession which they crave to mask their inadequacies.   They even attract admirers and their ego now knows no bounds.

There is only one piece of justice in this.

Whilst the investigator, if he can stop early enough, can get back to some sort of normality and perspective, unfortunately, the perpetrator, though believing himself invincible, is actually being eaten up from within and he does come a cropper in the end, not from any final conviction nor public approbation ... but from within himself.

More and more cases go on and on and on.    Another example is Daniel Craig in Quantum of Solace.    See what I mean? If you let it, it just goes on and on, branching into new territory like a river into new tributaries.

Unless you stop it.