(Photograph by Gary Wayne Gilbert| Watch a video of the making of the image above .)
The first-floor elevator bank in Maloney Hall was several waves of students deep on a recent Wednesday morning, so Professor Ann Wolbert Burgess opted for the stairs. She had no time for lines. Burgess teaches a full course load in the Connell School of Nursing, and maintains several side commitments that are the result of her decades of work as one of the country鈥檚 most prominent experts in forensics, or the application of scientific techniques to criminal investigations. Burgess is a pioneer in, well, lots of things, including the methods used to assess and treat the victims of trauma and abuse; the way that crimes and criminals are classified by the modern-day criminal justice system; and even what it means to be a nurse. Over the course of her career, she has offered courtroom testimony in dozens of high-profile cases, including the one involving Eric and Lyle Menendez, the brothers who shotgunned their parents to death in Beverly Hills in 1989. She鈥檚 also helped to change the way that rape is understood by law enforcement, and played a leading role in transforming the FBI鈥檚 approach to investigating serial killers.
It鈥檚 that last one鈥攈er work with the FBI鈥攖hat has resulted in a burst of mainstream attention for Burgess over the past year or so. To the long list of things that she has inspired in her career, you can now add the television character Dr. Wendy Carr of the hit Netflix series Mindhunter. In the show, Carr is an academic from Boston who joins a fledgling seventies-era unit at the FBI that is trying to solve serial killer cases by conducting jailhouse interviews with convicted murderers. The hope is that these glimpses into the killers鈥� minds will illuminate patterns that can help the investigators crack open cases. The Carr character, which is based on Burgess鈥檚 actual work with the FBI, helps the agents create an organized system for recording and interpreting their findings. She is presented as the voice of reason and order, and, arguably, as the real brains behind the operation.
After a quick climb of the Maloney Hall stairs, Burgess reached the third floor and led me down a hallway to her office. Wearing an elegant tweed skirt and matching turquoise cardigan, fastened at the collar with a brooch depicting the Boston skyline, she looked more like your very chic great-aunt than a hunter of what lurks inside the criminal mind. But Burgess鈥檚 forensics skill and experience are the stuff of legend鈥攍iterally. In 2016, the American Academy of Nursing honored her with its Living Legend award, the academy鈥檚 highest honor, in recognition of her work in furthering the field of forensic nursing. The International Association of Forensic Nurses, meanwhile, even created an accolade that bears her name: the Ann Burgess Forensic Nursing Award. The walls of Burgess鈥檚 office offer further testament to her accomplishments. There鈥檚 a certificate of appreciation from the U.S. Department of Justice acknowledging her service on the Attorney General鈥檚 Task Force on Family Violence in 1984, a 2003 letter from the Boston Archdiocese thanking her for her work on the Cardinal鈥檚 Commission on Protection of Children, and a notice of her induction to the Sigma Theta Tau International Nurse Researcher Hall of Fame.
Professors Ann Burgess, left, and Lynda Holmstrom in 1972, discussing their study that changed the way law enforcement understands rape and treats the victims of rape. (Photo: Dan Natchek, "Thursday Reporter", University Archives)
So, yes, in the fields of nursing, forensics, psychology, and law enforcement, Burgess is very highly regarded. Which has made her recent brush with minor celebrity a little amusing. She鈥檚 watched Mindhunter, of course, but 鈥渋t鈥檚 interesting鈥� is about as far as she鈥檒l go. (After a little pressing, I did get her to speculate about which of the serial killers from the first season she thinks might return for season two, which is scheduled for release this summer. She guessed Jerry Brudos, the 鈥渟hoe fetish slayer,鈥� who was the subject of a 1983 study that Burgess published in the Journal of American Psychiatry.) 鈥淭he 鈥楬ollywood part鈥� of the show is so far afield from the way we were as people,鈥� she told me as we talked in聽her office. 鈥淏ut the cases, how they portrayed them, that was pretty good.鈥�
Although some of the fictional murderers in season one came from a blend of different real-life cases, Burgess said, most of what viewers saw was true, or close to true鈥攖he way the team learned to talk to offenders, the challenges they faced in getting the rest of the agency to value the work they were doing, the inroads they were able to make once they managed to secure consistent funding. One thing that was decidedly not true, however, was the background of the character that was based on Burgess. The show鈥檚 creators made Dr. Carr a psychologist, not a nurse. That change was a 鈥渕issed opportunity,鈥� Burgess told me. 鈥淭he general public doesn鈥檛 really understand some of the advanced practices of nursing, such as academics or research,鈥� she said. 鈥淭he good news is that the show gives me a chance, every time I鈥檓 asked about it, to explain what nursing and forensics can be.鈥�