A local professor and author who was sought out the world over for his expert opinion on the criminal mind has passed away.

Elliot Leyton, the author of Hunting Humans, and who the London times called “the Godfather of criminal psychology,” passed away at Kenny’s Pond Retirement Home on Monday at the age of 82.

Leyton was a long-time professor at Memorial University and as his obituary outlines, transformed the way people think about homicide, serial killers and mass murder.

He advised agencies like the RCMP, FBI and Scotland Yard, but was most proud of “Dying Hard: Industrial Carnage in St. Lawrence, Newfoundland” a book about the industrial disease that claimed the lives of fluorspar miners on the Burin Peninsula.

A private family service is scheduled for Friday, February 18th in Vancouver.