Ed Miller spoke to Mercyhurst College students about criminals and their behavior on Wednesday, Feb. 3.

Miller is the chief national correspondent and head of the West Coast Bureau for “America’s Most Wanted.”

Miller began the presentation by telling the audience a story about a 6-year-old boy, Adam Walsh, who was kidnapped and murdered in Florida 25 years ago. “America’s Most Wanted” was formed because of the mistakes police made in that case, Miller said.

Since the formation 23 years ago, “America’s Most Wanted” has helped capture more than 1,000 fugitives.

“America’s Most Wanted” has been involved in cases with fugitives such as James Hampton, Scott Peterson, Jesse James Hollywood and the Arellano Felix Drug Cartel.

During the lecture, Miller showed videos of a few fugitives’ cases.

Miller said his view of people has changed due to working on the show.

“I definitely believe there are people in the world that are pure evil,” Miller said. “They are beyond hope (to help).”

He said these fugitives do not just kill a single person. Miller said, “These families grieve forever,” and the fugitives end up destroying the mother, father, siblings and friends as well.

At the end of the lecture, Miller gave a tip to the females in the room.

“If a guy is too controlling, it almost always leads to violence,” he said.

The tell-tale sign of violence is when the man isolates you by cutting you off from family and friends, Miller said.

Mercyhurst freshmen Steven Long, Ryan Haylett and Ethan Bratton said they thought the presentation was interesting.

“I liked his background and was impressed by his exposure to such well-known criminals and dangerous people,” Haylett said.

“It was very interesting how criminals often try to justify why they committed the crimes they did,” Long said. “Some used the excuse that they were an angel.”

This presentation was the second in MSG’s five-speaker series.

The next speaker, Dr. Gary Telgenhoff, will speak at Mercyhurst on Tuesday, March 16. Telgenhoff is a consultant for “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation.”