Watch "Violent Minds: Killers on Tape," a documentary serioes based on Dr. Carlisle and his more than 40 years of research on serial killers. Premiering April 2, 2023 on Oxygen and later on Peacock.
Published February 15, 2024: "The Ted Bundy Files: A 1976 Companion"
Coming out in 2025: "Happy Talk: Conversations with Keith Jesperson"
Books in the Development of the Violent Mind series:
1) "I'm Not Guilt!" The Case of Ted Bundy 2 2)
2) Mind of the Devil: The Cases of Arthur Gary Bishop & Westley Allan Dodd
3) Broken Samurai: One Marine's Journey from Hero to Hitman
4) The 1976 Psychological Assessment of Ted Bundy
5) The Ted Bundy Files: A 1976 Companion
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Al Carlisle (1937 - 2018)
Al Carlisle spent 20 years as a clinical psychologist at the Utah State Prison, retiring as the head of the department in 1989. He performed the first psychological assessment of Ted Bundy in 1976 while Ted was being held for a 90-day evaluation at the Utah State Prison.
Al was also a consultant for the Salt Lake Rape Crisis Center for several years and hosted workshops on serial homicide and other crime topics.
He conducted extensive research on serial killers and interviewed the Hi Fi killers, Arthur Gary Bishop, Westley Allan Dodd, Keith Jesperson, Ted Bundy and many others. Specialties include Dissociative Identity Disorder (formerly Multiple Personality Disorder).
Dr. Carlisle was born and raised in Utah and received a BS and MS from Utah State University and a PhD in clinical psychology from Brigham Young University.
Carrie Anne Keller, anthropologist, acted as his agent and helped get his four books published.
His daughter now publishes his books under Carlisle Legacy Books, LLC.
"I'm Not Guilty!" The Case of Ted Bundy
A thorough analysis of Bundy's life and crimes, based on Carlisle's research.
From his arrest until his execution in 1989, Ted Bundy was interviewed extensively by psychologists, journalists, and law enforcement. He offered insight into the thoughts and methods of other serial killers. It wasn't until the last few days of his life that he confessed to some of his crimes, which he attributed to a mysterious Entity he claimed compelled him to kill.
Dr. Al Carlisle, Ph.D., evaluated Bundy for the Utah court in 1976. Ever since, Carlisle has painstakingly reconstructed Ted’s history through conversations with Bundy's friends, lovers, neighbors, investigators and through Bundy's own words. The only book of its kind, I'm Not Guilty gives a thorough analysis of the facts of Bundy's life and crimes based on Carlisle's years of research.
Then, through a speculative interview, or Roman-a-Clef, Carlisle enhances what is known about Bundy’s victims, the origins of the Entity, and Bundy's need to kill. This book helps to explain how a series of choices can lead a good person, step by step, to become a serial killer.
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Mind Of The Devil: The Cases of Arthur Gary Bishop & Westley Allan Dodd
"How did I become a serial killer?"
Arthur Gary Bishop and Westley Allan Dodd had many things in common. They were both psychopathic pedophiles and child molesters who eventually turned to killing their victims. Both were executed for their crimes at their ownrequest.Most importantly, both desperately wanted to know one thing before they died: How did I become a serial killer?
It's often said that we will likely never understand how a person becomes a serial killer. However, I believe we can. In fact, we must, if we are ever going to find a way to stop the sexual abuse of children. But it's not only the victims we want to save. We also want to stop children from transforming themselves into killers.
This book goes a long way towards helping us understand why. It also includes a never-before-seen booklet written by Wes Dodd, telling children how to avoid strangers.
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Broken Samurai: One Marine's Journey from Hero to Hitman
“I believe one of the biggest crimes you can commit is to break your code.” -Danny
Danny joined the Marines in 1967 and saw some of the worst fighting of the VietnamWar. Continually bombarded by the enemy, never knowing if he would live or die, each day was kill or be killed. Then his best friend and fellow Marine was blown up. Danny became angry, depressed, and numb. The only thing that made him feel alive again was killing.e came home from the war with a bad case of PTSD and couldn’t adapt to normal life.
To feed his need for killing, he became a hitman for a biker gang. Danny developed his own “Samurai Code.” He admired the way of the Samurai. As long as he followed his personal code, he could justify the murders.
Then one day he broke his code…and it broke him.
Based on real events, this is Danny’s story. It also contains psychological insight by Dr. Carlisle.
Warning: This book does not have graphic content, but it does deal with war and murder. Therefore, some of the events may trigger those with PTSD.
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The 1976 Psychological Assessment of Ted Bundy
"Do you think I killed those girls?"
Ted Bundy asked me this question after we had completed the final interview. We were standing in the corridor outside my office and Ted was about to return to his cell. It was an unusual question to ask... I was caught off guard by the question.
…With this question, Ted had put me in a lose-lose situation. My best option might have been to tell him that I couldn’t, or wouldn’t, answer his question.
However, I said to him, “I don’t know, but if you did, I believe you will do it again.”
I’m sure it wasn’t what he wanted to hear. He didn’t say anything. He turned and walked back to his cell. In future conversations we had together he never again asked that question.” …Putting all the information I had gleaned from the test data as well as the phone conversations and the personal interviews with Ted… I concluded that it was my opinion that Ted’s personality fit the crime for which he was found guilty. I submitted my report to the court. Then all hell broke loose.
Many books have been written about Bundy, but rarely have we had the opportunity to understand the inner workings of his mind. Now, Dr. Carlisle shares he step-by-step psychological assessment process regarding how he determined that Bundy was indeed a violent person and would likely continue to kill if he was set free.
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The Ted Bundy Files: A 1976 Companion
Documents not seen in 40 years!
A fresh look at Bundy from the 1976 investigations, reports,
interviews, and evaluations.
In 1976, Dr. Al Carlisle and a team of psychologists at the Utah State Prison performed a 90-day Psychological Assessment on Ted Bundy.
Ted had been convicted of attempted kidnapping and the Court wanted to know if he had a violent personality.
In 2017 Dr. Carlisle wrote "The 1976 Psychological Assessment of Ted Bundy" about his experience with Ted. This is a companion volume, including some of the letters, documents, transcripts, and test results relating to Ted.
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