PART FOUR
“The perfect criminal is a superman. He must be meticulous in his technique: unseen, unseeable, a Lone Wolf. He must have neither friends nor dependents. He must be careful to a fault, quick, of brain, hand and foot.... But these are nothing. There have been such men.... On the other hand, he must be a favored child of Fate—for circumstances over which he cannot have the remotest control must never contrive his downfall. This, I think, is more difficult to achieve.... But the last is most difficult of all. He must never repeat his crime, his weapon or his motive! ... In all my twoscore years as an official of the American police I have not once encountered the perfect criminal nor investigated the perfect crime.”
—From American Crime and Methods of Detection,
By Richard Queen.