This is the Hidden Killers podcast with Tony Bruske and continuing coverage of the case against Brian Koberger.

What drives a man who studied the criminal mind to become the suspect of one of the most brutal college town murders in recent memory?

That's the riddle at the center of the Brian Coburger case, a PhD student

in criminology, allegedly obsessed with a serial killer, accused of planning and executing the

murders of four University of Idaho students, and in doing so, some say with eerie precision.

But now a new controversial theory is gaining traction from Howard Bloom,

was Koberger trying to impress someone, not a girlfriend, not a peer, but his former professor

who we've had on this show many times, Dr. Catherine Ramsland, one of the world's foremost

experts in serial killers.

He studied under her.

It sounds like the plot of a dark Netflix drama, but it's a theory that Howard Bloom is taken to these articles.

It's making its way into serious discussion, fueled by unanswered questions, a lack of clear

motive, and some eyebrow-raising patterns in his behavior. Joining us as someone who knows a thing or two

about decoding motive and delusion, retired FBI special agent Robin Drake, former chief of the

counterintelligence behavioral analysis program. I was surprised when I saw this one, Robin, but I know you and me both really

respect his writing and his reporting, so I thought, let's discuss. From behavioral standpoint,

how plausible is it that a man like Coburger would commit an act this extreme, not out of

hatred or revenge, or being, uh, what's the, the, the, the name escapes me for a second here,

the guys who are obsessed with women but hate women, an in-cell.

An in-sell.

But to try to gain the admiration of someone he saw as a mentor.

This is Howard Bloom's theory at this moment in time he just published on airmail.

...