# Micki Pistorius

Micki Pistorius is a South African forensic or investigative psychologist and author. She was the first woman in her profession and the first profiler in South Africa, working on many high-profile cases involving serial killers for the South African Police Service in the 1990s. She is known for her autobiography, Catch Me a Killer (2000), on which a television series of the same name was based, released in 2024.

## Quotes

* I asked her where the posters in his room came from. She told me she had found some magazines in the forest at a spot where some soldiers had camped and had brought them home. This was shortly before the sexual murders started. I believe those pin-ups were the catalyst that triggered the fantasy that had been brewing inside Zikode since his childhood. His mother had unwittingly lit the tinder which had erupted into a blaze and cost many women their lives.
* The motive is settled deep within the unconscious psyche, and the serial killer is unaware of this. By ‘irresistible compulsion’ I do not mean that serial killers have absolutely no power over the urge to kill. Many of them experience the urge as an external force taking control of their own will and forcing them to commit murder, a force they perceive they cannot resist.
* South Africa has the third highest murder rate in the world, with Colombia and Swaziland ahead of it. The high rate of murder illustrates the amount of work that a Murder and Robbery detective has to cope with, and yet South Africa holds the record for apprehending serial killers within three to six months of a special investigation team being established, provided the serial killer stays active.
* Every human being passes through five psychosexual developmental phases. They are the oral phase, anal phase, Oedipus or phallic phase, latency phase and the genital phase. A person can fixate in any of these phases and failure to resolve the fixation would be cause for pathology. A layman’s term for a fixation would be a mental short-circuit. It is an individualistic reaction to being exposed to too much or too little of something.
* I had never thought when I did my work that someone would make a TV series about it.
* I was recommended and appointed, as I was writing my doctorate thesis about serial killers.
* I was a tool to help them perform their job of catching criminals and when they saw that my contribution was valuable, they taught me about investigation for I knew nothing about it. In return, I taught them about profiling, and this is how this whole idea came about to train and teach them. I founded the Investigative Psychology Unit of the South African Police Service and worked actively with the detectives I trained.
* Good men and good women can stand together to fight injustice.
* It came after the weeks of intense classes that I conducted in order to teach detectives. There was also an advanced course. At the end of it, I told them “Well, what are you waiting for? Go catch me a killer!” This is how it became the title of the book.
** The inspiration behind the title of the book, Catch Me a Killer.
* Since television series or films are often a dramatization of the events that happen in our lives, this has prompted me to launch my own YouTube Channel where I authentically speak about my experiences.
** Launched her own YouTube Channel, “Micki Pistorius Profiler on Record” series.
* One of the drawbacks we face today with the internet is the existence of clickbait or synthetic sensational information.
* As a professional psychologist, I therefore, through my YouTube Channel, offer authentic knowledge about forensic psychology. I want this platform to be inspirational and educational for everyone, free of cost and accessible.
** Revealing the aim and objective of her YouTube Channel.
* They are not Artificial Intelligence (AI)--generated monsters or Marvel comic book superheroes as often depicted in fictional series. The majority are not mentally ill. They are human beings, they could be your neighbour. Many people would presume that serial killers would be super intelligent, but they are not. They are normal people with average intelligence; few are intelligent and most are not.
** Debunks a few myths about serial killers.
* I am somewhere in Mauritius, for example, at the Odysseo oceanarium where one can see the sharks swimming with other fish. Now to us, it’s a dangerous shark but to the other fish, it’s just another fish. It is dangerous, but not a monster, just a fish. This is an analogy of how serial killers are, they move among us; just another person going about their daily lives.
** Gives an analogy of how serial killers are.
* Having trained the detectives, I told them that if we think of serial killers as enemies, it will be difficult but if we understand them, we will be a step ahead and able to arrest them. But, it isn’t about just arresting them, it is about gathering evidence to get them convicted.
* I never told my family about the full nature of my work. Years later, my father read my book and he was shocked, saying that this was dangerous. I had to reassure him that it was all in the past, and I was now safe. I resigned from the police with the rank equivalent to senior superintendent in 2000.
* I am living from a place of healing.
** Referring to living in Mauritius
* Serial killers are not monsters; they are human beings with tortured souls. I will never condone what they do, but I can understand them.
* Serial killers exist there, and if one really wants to find them, that is where one has to look. One cannot begin to understand a serial killer's mind if one is unprepared and if one does not know what they feel. One does not have to be raped to acquire empathy for a rape victim. I did not have to kill to understand why others do, but I had to go through some harrowing experiences in order to understand.