Uncover the harrowing secrets of one of America's most notorious murderers. This gripping episode takes you on a chilling journey into the dark world of the infamous BTK killer. We navigate the dreadful crime scenes, analyzing the shocking methods used by the man who brought a community to its knees. Journey with us as we delve into the life scars left behind, from the victims' families to the shockwaves felt throughout the nation and John Douglass's former FBI profiler's perspective of the time this case was developing.
Enter the mind of a monster as we dissect the psyche of the BTK killer, a man who prides himself on his ability to blend into his environment. Hear the chilling phone call he made to authorities, boasting about his 'perfect kill'. We discuss the disturbing details of his crimes, his evolving methods, and his eerie similarities with another notorious serial killer, Harvey Gladman. The terror induced by this ruthless murderer is palpable as we explore the haunting path he left behind.
Terror envelops a community as the BTK's insatiable craving for recognition and validation escalates his violence. We examine the press conference held by Wichita's police chief after receiving a chilling letter from the killer. Hear how the cryptic messages and an unnerving nursery rhyme affected an entire community. As we unravel the mind of this infamous serial killer, we gain unprecedented insight into a reign of terror that has haunted the nation for decades. This is not just another murder case. This is the chilling tale of the BTK killer.
Uncover the harrowing secrets of one of America's most notorious murderers. This gripping episode takes you on a chilling journey into the dark world of the infamous BTK killer. We navigate the dreadful crime scenes, analyzing the shocking methods used by the man who brought a community to its knees. Journey with us as we delve into the life scars left behind, from the victims' families to the shockwaves felt throughout the nation and John Douglass's former FBI profiler's perspective of the time this case was developing.
Enter the mind of a monster as we dissect the psyche of the BTK killer, a man who prides himself on his ability to blend into his environment. Hear the chilling phone call he made to authorities, boasting about his 'perfect kill'. We discuss the disturbing details of his crimes, his evolving methods, and his eerie similarities with another notorious serial killer, Harvey Gladman. The terror induced by this ruthless murderer is palpable as we explore the haunting path he left behind.
Terror envelops a community as the BTK's insatiable craving for recognition and validation escalates his violence. We examine the press conference held by Wichita's police chief after receiving a chilling letter from the killer. Hear how the cryptic messages and an unnerving nursery rhyme affected an entire community. As we unravel the mind of this infamous serial killer, we gain unprecedented insight into a reign of terror that has haunted the nation for decades. This is not just another murder case. This is the chilling tale of the BTK killer.
Welcome to the murder book. I'm your host, keira, and this is part 3 of the BTK case, as told by FBI profiler John Douglas. Let's begin. Btk's next victim was Shirley Vian. She was murdered in her bedroom as her children, who had been locked away in a bathroom, pleaded with the killer to leave their mother alone.
Speaker 1:It was early afternoon of March 17, 1977 when Ritita Police Lieutenant Bernie Drowatzky pulled out to the house at 1311 South Hydraulic Street, located two miles northwest of the Otero residence. The fact that Drowatzky kept showing up at BTK crime scenes was hardly surprising. Bernie was something of a to-go guy with the Ritita Police Department, the type of cop who loved to stick his nose into just about any co-farm dispatch he heard come over his car radio. All he knew from the radio was that the woman who lived there, 24-year-old Shirley Vian, had been strangled. As he walked up to the front door and stood on the rundown wooden porch, he couldn't help thinking how much he had been detired, while the wooden siding reminded him of Kathy Bright's house, yet another murder he had helped investigate. Drowatzky went inside In. A patrolman who had arrived earlier gave him a quick tick-tock of the events, as told to officers by Vian's 5-year-old son Steve. According to the boy, a stranger who had entered the house locked him and his 8-year-old brother Bud and 4-year-old sister Stephanie in the bathroom, then proceeded to murder his mother in the adjacent bedroom. No more than 30-45 minutes had passed between the time the killer walked into the house and departed.
Speaker 1:Drowatzky poked around a small, hopelessly cluttered place. Two doors, one from each bedroom, led into the bathroom. To prevent the kids from opening one of the doors, the killer looped a length of new nylon rope to a pipe beneath the sink, then tied off around the doorknob. The first thing that struck Drowatzky were the knots. He said in his mind that he had seen them before and something about them reminded him of what he had seen in the Otero murder. It just wasn't the kind of knot that someone in the Navy or the Boy Scouts would tie. It was like someone had taken a basic cloth hitch and kept trying it over and over again until he had stumbled on this new one.
Speaker 1:Shirley's nude body was laid out in the living room near the open sofa bed. Two white adhesive Ikiji leads were stuck to her chest, left behind by paramedics who initially thought they might be able to revive Mrs Byan. Newspapers and shoes littered the floor. A tattered, overstuffed chair sat in the corner beside an ashtray heaped with cigarette butts. The menace arrived at the scene a few minutes before 1pm.
Speaker 1:Not long before police, a neighbor made the call about Byan's terrified son ran over to her house screaming that his mother was dead. They found her in the bedroom tied to the metal bed frame. Nearby Bombett had formed a kidney shaped potter in the dirty carpet Because her body was still warm. Police estimated that 15 minutes have lapsed since the killer had left. The room was so dark. The EMS technicians cut the white nylon cords looped around her arms and legs that carried her into the light, mainly hoping to be able to resuscitate her. Her face was a mess, splotchy red from cyanosis and hemorrhaging, with a piece of blue Dried blood, and Bombett was caked around her nose and mouth. The robe around her neck had left a hideous rust color abrasion on much of her throat.
Speaker 1:Two years after the murder, when detectives from Wichita first show up at FBI headquarters, wondered if John Douglas could provide any help on the case. And don't worry, impress when they look at the photos of Shirley's body, because it's the kind of corpse that, according to John Douglas, you don't forget. It's the kind that occasionally come back to haunt you and your dreams, because one of the things that they tend to do when they're profiling is to take the expression frozen on the face of a murder victims and from there they start working backwards. In other words, they have to place themselves inside the head of the offender, but also of the victim. At the time of the crime, her lips, along with much of her face, exuded a dull, cold, bluish tint. Her last thoughts probably were about her children. She had cooperated with intruder because he probably promised her that he would not harm her three children. But the moment she felt that rope tighten around her neck, she knew she had made a terrible mistake. Like Joseph Otero, she lay there wracked with guilt, totally hopeless, crammed at the stranger who seemed so intent on killing her, who leave her daughter and two sons alone, hoping that when it was over they wouldn't be the ones to find her.
Speaker 1:According to the reports, it looks like Shirley was forever trying to strain her upper set life, but never quite could. She had been married twice and she was barely 24 years old, had already three kids. Otafum lived with her. She raised them the best she could and, just like the Otero parents, she was adored by her kids. Her oldest son, bud, was thought to have a cognitive impairment. His sister, stephanie, suffer from various learning disabilities. Steve at five appeared to be the only member of the family without some kind of learning or intellectual deficit.
Speaker 1:Shirley now lived with her husband, rick Vian, who was away at his job at a construction site when the murder occurred. Her kids were frequently absent from school and on that particular morning they have stayed home because their mother had stomach flu and they didn't feel up to getting them ready for class Earlier that morning. She have sent Steve to a nearby grocery to fit some chicken noodle soup and seven up for her queasy stomach. At the time he wasn't that odd for a five-year-old to run an errand like that in Wichita. Vian phone ahead and told the storekeeper to keep a lookout for her boy. She also asked Steve to pick up two money orders totaling $40.
Speaker 1:Steve returned home. A stranger stopped him on the sidewalk not far from the house, pulled out his billfold and show him a photograph. He asked the boy if he have seen either of the people in the picture and Steve told him no. The man who was carrying some sort of a bag continued to question him about the identity of two people in the photograph, but Steve insisted he had no idea who they were. Eventually the stranger allowed the boy to pass, but as Steve walked off he turned to watch the man continue up the street, then stopped at the home of his neighbors and knocked on their door.
Speaker 1:The boy had been home about ten minutes and was mesmerized by a cartoon show on TV. When someone knocked on his door, he opened it and saw the same man who had been talked to out on the sidewalk was now standing on front step and he said excuse me, son, I lost my dog. Have you seen any lost dogs around here? And Steve replied no, sir. As the man peered into the house and he asked is your mother home? Let's ask her, maybe she can help me find a lost dog. So Steve stood there with blood by his side as the man pushed past them walk over, turn off the TV which Stephanie was glued to. And next he pulled the shades down over the two front windows.
Speaker 1:The front room instantly went dark. The kids were confused, not quite sure what to make of this strange man who barged into their home as though he lived there. When he noticed the children staring at him, he pulled a pistol out of the shoulder holster hidden beneath his jacket and pointed it at them and he demanded where is your mother? And the sabre was shouting in unison she's in there. But by then Shirley had heard all the commotion going on in the front room. She had been lying in bed in her room but managed to drag herself out into the front room when she heard the strangest voice and she demanded what the hell are you doing? Who the hell are you? The man walked over toward her, brandishing his pistol and he said shut up. He snapped, pointing to the bedroom and get. And he said get in there. The telephone ran before she could move. Steve stared at it, but the intruder said leave it alone.
Speaker 1:Next he glanced around the house and ordered Shirley to gather up a blanket and some toys, then instructed her to spread everything out on the bathroom floor. After hustling the kids inside, he pulled some rope out of his pocket and went to work, looping it around the doorknob, then trying it to a drain pipe beneath the sink. He exited through the other door and soon could be heard siding, sliding a bed against it, effectively sealing the kids inside. A defiant Steve threw into one tie the rope, but the man quickly made him reconsider and he said you better not while we blow your f? F-ing head off. Shirley pleaded with her pet strong son to do as the man said.
Speaker 1:From inside the bathroom the children? He heard the sound of adhesive tape being torn from a roll. Steve pushed open the door with the bed shoved up against it and picked out. The image he saw was of his mother lying face down on the bed, naked. Her hands had been taped behind her back, a rope tied around her neck and a plastic bag pulled over her head. The children had no idea how long they were stuck in that bathroom, but reported that it felt like an eternity. Then the telephone began ringing again and but somehow managed to climb up on the sink and break out a tiny bathroom window with his fists. Blood quickly began streaming out from the cuts in his hands. As he screamed for help through the window, stephanie joined him.
Speaker 1:By this point, steve used all his strength to kick through the bottom panel of the door that the killer had tied to the sink. The boy was so angry at the man who have seen her in his mother that he ran into the bedroom with his fist pulled up, ready to fight. But the man had vanished. Steve glanced at his mother still lying on her stomach on the bed. She didn't move. He sprinted outside and was standing on his neighbors porch a few seconds later, pounding on the door. My mom is dead called the cops. The neighbor rushed over to Steve's house and found bud and Stephanie sitting beside their mother's body sobbing.
Speaker 1:Paramedics were moving vion into the front room of the house as police arrived, forcing detectives to rely on the children's memories to piece together a clearer, more detailed picture of the crime scene. Although much of it had been removed by emergency medical personnel, white Nylon court appeared to have been used to bind vion's wrists and ankles, along with electrical tape that ascended up her legs in a pattern reminiscent of Roman army sandals. Investigators were never able to trace where the rope came from, and now Topsy revealed that she had not been sexually assaulted, nor did her hands bear the traces of any defensive wounds that she might have received trying to defend herself. So how was the killer able to subdue Shirley police reason that he convinced her to allow him to tie her up, promising her that if she did, he would not hurt her children. After making her remove all her clothes, the killer placed her nightgown over her head then slipped a bag over that. If the unsub did ejaculate what at the house police speculated he might have done so in a pair of Shirley panties, then taken them with him when he fled. In between telling the detective who interviewed them about the songster, mother would sing to them when they couldn't sleep.
Speaker 1:The children did their best to describe the killer. They insisted he was a dark-haired man in his late 30s or 40s with a heavy build and a punch. Police, however, placed little faith and information vion's kids provided, especially the description of the suspect, because the $40 and money orders that Steve picked up at the grocery had been taken from the house. Investigators believe robbery may have been the initial motive of the crime. Nevertheless, the murder was classified as a sex crime.
Speaker 1:Police didn't believe at first that there was enough evidence to connect vion's homicide to the terror murders. The reason the front line had not been cut there were a few detectives on the force that were thinking about possible parallels between the homicides. That they even toyed with the connection between the two murders spoke volumes about just how deeply the Oterus killer had warmed his way into the consciousness of the Wichita or Wichita police force. Now, investigators had a strong hunch that the photograph the killer displayed to vion's son, steve, was a snapshot of Chevrole Gilmore and her son Gilmore was the neighbor on whose front door Steve saw the killer knocked earlier that morning while walking home from the store. Detectives believe that Gilmore might have been the killer's intended target. She lived alone with her son and regularly came home for lunch from her job at a nearby optometrist's office. The only reason she wasn't home when the suspect knocked on her door was that she had to take her son to a medical appointment.
Speaker 1:Judging from the precise way that the suspect described his crime scenes and later on, it seems that he is a very visually oriented person and that that means that he was probably the type to rely on drawings or perhaps photographs snapped at his crime scenes to help open this trap door leading to his dark fantasy realm. Not all serial killers are visual types. Plenty of these guys make audiotapes of their torture and murder sessions and afterwards they listen to the recording of the victims screaming, begging for their lives and, in a few cases, pleading to be killed, much like a normal person who listened to a piano concerto by Mosserd on the stereo. The sounds transport them to that other world. Now BTK's method of killing appeared to be evolving. Instead of becoming more cautious, as one might have expected, he was taking more chances. His crime scenes revealed a high-digit degree of organization, and he still seemed to be planning out his murders. But he had begun developing a new skill. He now appear comfortable with the idea of improvising when one of his victims didn't show up, which is what led to Shirley Byans death.
Speaker 1:So the question is what's the source of this impulsiveness? Was it born out of an inability to control his homicide, homicidal urges of grandiose thinking, or of just playing carelessness? And then again, was it something else? Something none of us, you know, who study crimes, hadn't counter before? So one thing that's, at that time, they have to to think is what you know? Can we answer these questions? Because what on earth could have compelled this killer to tackle such high-risk targets in the middle of the day? And it didn't make sense at that time? We'll be right back.
Speaker 1:Btk's murders employed elements that were both uniquely organized and disorganized. He could be sloppy at times, such as when leaving behind biological evidence at his crime scenes, but it was the razor sharp control that he obviously maintained after his murders that were more outstanding. One of the reasons he was able to play so much time between his skills was because he had somehow developed the ability to blend into his environment. It would be far too much to expect him to stand out in his community, and the reason that they couldn't see him was that they were looking past him, not at him. So, john Douglas, one of the things that he did in his office was to start looking at the reports and BTK's Last-Done Murder, which occurred during the night of December 8, 1977, and they considered this the suspect's most perfect kill.
Speaker 1:It began to unfold to the outside world with a phone call to an emergency dispatcher at 8.20 the next morning, for which he took fire, fired away in Davis. It was a typical morning. He supplemented his income by working side jobs and on that particular morning he was sent to pick up a truck that was supposedly parked on St Francis Street, driving across town, but there was just one problem when he couldn't find it. So when he spotted a payphone outside a market on the corner of St Francis and Central Street, he decided to pull over and call the guy who had hired him he hoped. He hopped out of the car, shoved his hand in his pocket and realized that he had no change. So he hurried inside the market to break a dollar bill. A man was using the payphone, speaking quietly into the receiver, but Davis barely noticed him In those few moments that Davis was inside the store.
Speaker 1:A brief, chilling exchange took place between the caller and two police dispatchers. The man told the dispatcher you will find a homicide at 843 South Pershing, nancy Fox. At one point another dispatcher who had been monitoring the call interrupted and he said I believe 843 South Pershing. And the man said yes, that's correct. Then the phone line went quiet. By the time Davis made it back to the parking lot the caller had vanished. The receiver dangled and made air Davis' gravate, placed the phone against his ear and when he didn't hear a dial tone he said hello and the voice on the other end of the line inquired if he was the same person who she just have been talking to. And he said no, some other guy was using the phone. And the dispatcher asked when is that you? Because the dispatcher recognizes voice, because emergency calls were often routed through the fire department and so they regularly spoke to each other and he said yeah, it's me, what's going on? And a moment later Wichita homicide captain out tamished jumped on the line the two men and their wives were long time square dance bodies and said wait, wait, did you get a look at the guy on the phone? He said no, not really, but what's all the fuss about? And Timmage quickly filled him in on the details. When he became apparent that Davis could recall precious little about the caller's appearance, timmage asked if he had object, if he would object to undergo a hypnosis at police headquarters, and Davis said no, no problem, but there was a problem. The killer had surfaced again for seven brief seconds and in 15 words he had broken his silence and risk everything to let the local authorities know he had returned.
Speaker 1:Shortly before 8.30, two patrol cars pulled up to the curb beside the pink duplex identified by the caller. The two officers who arrived at the scene quickly surveyed the exterior of the house. A back window had been shattered and the phone line leading into the dwelling had been cut. The front door was unlocked. The officers entered the house and were hit by a blast of hot air.
Speaker 1:A moment later, 25 year old Nancy Fox was found lying face down on the neon blue paisley bedspread wearing only a pale pink long sleeve sweater. The tips of her toes, which hung over the edge of the mattress, had turned black. The nails of her long slender fingers were pink. Something about the way they were positioned partially extended, partially curled looked deceivingly peaceful. Beatific Nile, stuck tightly bound her wrist behind her back. Her violet colored panties had been pulled down around her hips. Just above her knees A cream colored yellow nightgown had been tied around her ankles.
Speaker 1:When police rolled Fox over, they saw that the left side of her face had also turned black. In her mouth was stuff get a gag fashioned out of various colored pantyhose, and her dark tongue was swollen too many times its normal size. Whips of sandy blonde hair cover much of her face, but beneath its mirrors its mirrors of blood, could be seen caked around her nose and mouth. Another pair of pantyhose had been cinched tightly around her neck and one of the homicides detective says that he's made the comment. Whoever did this was a real pervert, because when asked later he said I say that because you could see the sexual perversion over that poor girl. The whole thing really just aggravated me.
Speaker 1:So on the coffee table were the contents of Nancy Fox's purse that were dumped on it, and the killer, it was believed have taken her driver's license as a souvenir. On the dresser beside the bed set a picture of Fox's bowling team. She and four friends stood there beside their bowling balls, goofing greens plastered on their faces. On either side of the picture, two jewelry boxes appear to be have to have been filed for through. On the bed next to Fox's body, the contents of her laundry drawer had been dumped. Police speculated that the killer had been searching for suitable bindings and gags. They also theorized that she had turned up the thermostat in order to compensate for the cold air that had entered the dwelling through the window. He chattered. Seaman was found at the scene in a blue nightgown left at the head of the bed.
Speaker 1:Crime scene technicians were able to retrieve enough of the sample to send it quickly to the state crime lab in Topeka and have it analyzed, and this was a decade before the advent of DNA testing. The only thing police could hope to clean from the sperm sample was blood type of the person it came from. Now, what they learned did little to help investigators focus their efforts, for the sperm had come from someone classified as a PGM-1 non-sicciter. So basically what this means is that the suspect had just hit the genetic jackpot. The reason that it hit the genetic jackpot is, if you were going to leave sperm behind in a crime scene, you could only hope to be PGM-1 non-sicciter, as this may try to pinpoint your blood type physically impossible.
Speaker 1:The search for the other types of evidence also proved less than fruitful. In an effort to determine if the killer left behind any fingerprints on Fox's body, investigators employed what was at the time considered to be a newfangled forensic technique. A week before the murder, the department's fingerprint technician had just attended a seminar on fuming, which involved erecting a makeshift plastic tent over the bed, pouring a chemical known as cyanolacrylate, which is what commonly known as superglue, into a ceramic bone, then heating it at low temperature In over the next two hours. The chemicals vaporize inside the tent and adhere to any of the oils left behind by fingerprints, which were visible when viewed under black light. When the process was finished, a portion of several fingerprints and part of a pawn print were detected on Fox's body, but they were not sufficient in helping police locate any suspects.
Speaker 1:So now Mrs Fox's body was wheeled out on a gurney, driven to St Francis Hospital and an autopsy determined that she died from strangulation. Yet the coroner found that despite partially undressing his victim and binding her, the killer had not raped or penetrated her. And while the the body was being examined, detectives were now visiting, interviewing friends and family co-workers. They wanted to reconstruct her final hours. So they learned that shortly after 9 pm Nancy Fox left her job at Halsberg Jewelry, which is at the Wichita Mall. She worked there as an assistant manager. On her way home she grabbed a burger at Drive Through Fast Food joint, then continue back to the duplex where she lived alone in a quiet, relatively cramped ring, lower middle class neighborhood.
Speaker 1:Detective postulated that once inside, fox had had a smoke down a glass of water, then undressed for bed, neatly folding her tent skirt out over a wooden chair. And it was at this point police believed that the killer, who had been hiding in the bedroom closet, appeared and forced her onto the bed. And although there was no way of proving it, the speculation was that the killer masturbated into Fox's nightgown only after his victim had died. His inability to rape or penetrate any of his victims was telling the criminal profiler Douglas that he was so fearful of women that a woman's lifeless but partially naked body would represent the ultimate sexual turn on. Once dead, she became the perfect object, non-threatening, no longer nothing more than a flesh covered mannequin. All the things he dreamed about, which was why the man responsible for Fox's death went to such lengths to pose the body of his victim much the way a painter or sculptor might pose a model. Everything about her positioning on the bed, the tilt of her head, the way her panties were pulled down to her knees, her various bindings and gags fashioned from pantyhose In this reveal to the profiler that the killer was imposing his victim merely as a way to shock police who arrived at the scene. He posed Fox because he had to, just as he did with the body of his previous victim, shirley Mayan. The images he created at this crime scenes were similar to a catch of food he needed to protect, sorry, to pose Fox in order to take mental snapshots of her body, then use the memory to get him through those long lean periods where killing wouldn't be an option.
Speaker 1:There was a serial killer named Harvey Gladman and he did similar things. He would display the bodies of his victims and he was a hardcore bondatrix and he documented his many kills in diaries and he took countless photographs and later developed them in his own dark room. But Gladman wasn't content merely to take pictures of his victims body after he killed them. He used the camera to chronicle his killings, capturing the look of terror on the faces of his victims before he would strangle them with a piece of rope. And more than anything else, gladman got off on preserving in a photograph that empty-glazed look of prime fear and hopelessness in the eyes of those he killed. So jump Douglas decided to to think and wondered what sort of a role model this sick man had been for BTK, because they were both consumed by bondage, because of the detailed crime scene descriptions, so it was believed by Douglas that BTK was probably photographing his victims.
Speaker 1:So if we look at this other killer, mr Gladman, he had an obsession with bondage and ropes and he would spend hours masturbating in the attic when he was a teenager, hanging himself from the rafters in an effort to heighten his orgasms. A family doctor told his concerned parents to ignore their son's strange hobby because he would have grew it one day. But by the time Gladman turned 16 he used a cap, one to force a girl to undress. He was quickly arrested and upon being released on bail, he went to New York and not long afterward he was arrested for barbarian, sent to jail for five years. He was released in 1951.
Speaker 1:He moved to LA and opened a TV repair shop Into the outside world. He lived a fairly quiet life that is best to keep away from women. But then one afternoon in July 1957, gladman, self-imposed exile from the opposite sex, ended and he convinced a 19 year old model he met while on a TV repair job to post for him, telling her he made extra cash shooting pictures for detective magazines. She showed up at his house a few days later, eager to pocket the $50 he promised her for the photo shoot and within minutes of her arrival he raped her at gunpoint, drove her out to a remote expanse of desert outside LA, stripped the historical woman to her underwear and, before strangling her, shot pictures of her pleading for her life. Over the next year he killed two other women using his photography ruse in order to win them over. Gladman wasn't caught until one of his would-be victims, whom he had already shot through the thigh, wrapped his pistol while he drove her on a one-way ride out to the desert. When taken into custody, gladman clearly provided officers with detailed counts of each of his killings, and he was executed by Syna, gassens and Quentens in the death chamber in 1959.
Speaker 1:So the question is was BTK feeling a kinship with a secular like Gladman? After all, he seemed to possess a fantasy life every bit as intense and consuming as Harveys. Yet Gladman's main problem was his inability to harness this invisible world inside his head. If he had been able to do so, that world might have provided sustenance for him during those stretches when he should have been lying low, which was, it appeared, what Nancy Fox's killer had been doing for nine months since his murder of Shirley Vian. He had managed to restrain himself, and it was also what he did for the next two months after Fox's death. He retreated back into the shadows and no doubt did his best to resume his day-to-day life.
Speaker 1:At this point, the crimes still have not been connected with any of the unsolved previous killings. Police was focusing much of their efforts on three of Nancy's former boyfriends, but this quickly led nowhere To nearly everyone but her grieving family and friends. Her death began to feel like nothing more than a terribly random, isolated act of violence, and this must have irked the the suspect. The rush brought on from Nancy's killings would have faded in a matter of weeks. True, the murder would have provided him with plenty of sick memories, but something it seems that Fox's murder just wasn't receiving the kind of attention that BTK had hoped and yearned for, because the media interest in the killing quickly waned, especially because police didn't have any real suspects other than the mysterious man who phoned in to report of the murder.
Speaker 1:A recording of his voice was played over and over on local radio and TV stations, but no one could identify the man behind the voice, an FBI analyst. Voice analysts were unable to uncover anything of value from the seven second audio clip, such as whether or not the caller had attempted to mask his voice. The only thing police knew about the caller came from information firemen when Davis provided. The man was six feet tall, blonde hair, dressed in a gray industrial uniform and wearing a hat with ear flaps. Davis also reported that the man might have driven a late model van with sword of riding on his side and, after undergoing four sessions without him, no therapist. That was all Davis could retrieve from their subconscious. The general consensus among detectives was that he was blocking due to a very primal emotion fear.
Speaker 1:On the last day of January, btk's desire to stir things up appeared to get the better of him. He penned a pithy Valentine's poem to his latest victim, then sent it to the local newspaper. It wouldn't be discovered for nearly two weeks. By this point, police still had not made the connection between sure deviance, murder and foxes, and nor have they established any links with either of those homicides to the killing of Kathy Bride and the Otero family. But this was about to change when BTK decided the time had come to stick the knife in twisted just a bit In a terrifying moment, the murders of Oteros, vian and Fox would be irrevocably linked, although several more years would pass before the identity of Brideskiller would be understood.
Speaker 1:O'helbrook losing Wichita on the morning of February 10th 1978 because BTK surfaced again, setting in motion a chain of events that finally garnered for him the type of attention he craved. A receptionist at the offices of the local ABC affiliate, ka KETV10, opened an envelope that morning and discovered four pages of photocopy material that included a letter and a poem, for both of them were filled with plantation and patrician spelling errors, and there was a drawing of a woman, bound gagged, lying face down on the bed. This communique was the killer's most prolific public confession to date and a shilling taunt. It also provided a profiler dogless, with a revealing glimpse into his brain. The police chief decided to keep things quiet and doesn't let the public know that there's a cycle running around strongly, mostly women, and there are seven in the ground. So who will be next?
Speaker 1:So then in the poem it's like a paragraph and it says for many do I have to kill before I get a name in the paper with some national attention? Do the cop think that all those deaths are not related? Golly gee, yes, the MO is different in each, but look at a pattern it's developing. The victims are tied up, most have been women. Phone cut, bring some bondage matters say these tendencies. No struggle outside the death spot, no witness except the veins kids. They were very lucky. A phone call saved them. Was going to tape the boys and put plastics backs over their head, like I did Joseph and Shirley, and then hang the girl. God, oh God, what a beautiful sexual relief that would build. Josephine, when I hung her, really turned me on her pleading for money. Then the rope to a hole. She, helpless, staring at me with the white terra, fulies, the rope getting tighter and tighter.
Speaker 1:And then he says you don't understand these things because you're not understanding the influence of factor X, the same thing that made some of Sam Jack the Ripper, harvey Glatman, boston Strangler, dr H H Holmes, pandy Hill Strangler, florida Hillside Strangler, ted of the West Coast and many more famous character kill which seems senseless. But we cannot help it. There is no help, no cure except death or being caught and put away if it's a terrible nightmare. But you see, I don't lose any sleep over it. After a thing like fucks I come home and go about life like anything else and now will be like that until their urge hit me again. It not continuous and I don't have a lot of time. It looks like he has a lot of grammatical errors. I don't know if they're on purpose or that's how he writes.
Speaker 1:And then he says it takes time to set a kill. One mistake and it goes all over, since I about blew it on the phone. Handwriting is out, letter guide is too long and typewriter can be traced to my short point of death and maybe a drawing later on real picture, maybe a tape of the sound will come your way. How will you know me before I murder? All murders. You will receive a copy of the initials BTK. You keep that copy. Your video will show up someday on.
Speaker 1:Guess who? May you not be the lucky, the unlock, sorry, the unlock one, ps. How about some name for me? It's time? Seven down and many more to go.
Speaker 1:I like the following how about you? The BTK Strangler which it has strangler, poetic strangler, the bondage strangler or psycho, the which it the hand man, the which it a executioner, the garote phantom, the asphyxiated? Number five you guess motive and victim. Number six you found one, shirley vane, lying belly down on an unmade bed in northeast bedroom, hand tied behind back with a black tape and court feet, feet and ankles with black tape and legs ankles tied to west, head of the bed with small off white cord wrap around legs, hands, arm, finally the neck. Many times enough, white plastic back over the her head loop on with a pink. 90 was barefoot, barefooted. She was sick. Use a glass of water and smoke or eye or two cigarette house a total mess. Kids took some toys with them to the bathroom. Bed against east bathroom door chose at random with some pre-planning motive.
Speaker 1:Factor X number seven one Nancy Fox, lying belly down on made bed in southwest bedroom. Hands tie behind back with red pantyhose, feet together with yellow 97 nude with pink sweater and brass, small necklace, glasses on, west dresser panties below, but many different than the whole sherry me. She had a smoke and want to. I went to the bathroom before the final act. Very neat, housekeeper, dresser, rifle, purse, purse, kitchen, empty paper bag, white coat and living room heat up to 90 degrees, christmas tree lights on 90s and hosts around her. Around the room hosts, bag of orange, color it whole sherry on bed, driver license gone, semi, semi seminal stain on or in blue women wear, chose at random, with little pre-planning motive, factor X, next victim maybe. You will find her hanging with a wired news, hands behind back, black tape or cord, feet with tape or cord um gauge them, cord around the body to the neck, would it maybe possible? Seminar stain in anus or unbody will be chosen at random. Some pre-planning motive, factor X.
Speaker 1:Enclosed with the letter was a poem in a pencil sketch that closely resembled the scene officer. So when they entered Nancy Fox's sweltering apartment on the morning of December 9th 1977 and there was a poem uh title old death to Nancy, and it was based on the appellation Fox on old death it says. What is that I can see called? I see hands taking hold of me, for death has come. You all can see. Hill has opened its gate to trick me. Oh death, oh death. Can you spare me over for another year? I'll stuff your jaws till you can talk. I'll blind your legs till you can walk. I'll tie your hands so you can make a stand and finally I'll close your eyes so you can't see. I'll bring sexual death unto you for me.
Speaker 1:So when Ka key news producer Ron Lowe and delivered the packet to police chief Richard Lemmonian, it proved to be the final straw that forced the top police department official in town to do the very thing he dreaded most go public with the news that a serial killer was stuck in the streets of Wichita and that police, despite the best efforts, had been so far powerless to stop him. By midnight uh sorry, mid afternoon on friday february 10th, a few hours after the fox letter was dropped on his desk, lemmonian put out the word that a press conference would be held that evening at city hall. What he was about to tell the city's media made headlines around the nation. By the time reporters began filing into the building, a tense bus hung in the air. Something big and ugly was afoot. The sun had set, there was snow piled in the goddess of downtown and the air held a cold, a cold sting to it. And this was reminiscent of that winter four years when ago when they found the bodies inside the hotel at ever home. And this is how it started the press conference.
Speaker 1:It says, quote the purpose of this new conference is to advise the public of an extremely serious matter involving a series of murders which have occurred in our city. As you know, on January 1974, four members of the Otero family were murdered. In March of 1977, shirley Vayan was killed and in December 1977, nancy Fox was also murdered. Earlier today, kake TV received an immediately brought me a letter wherein the author took credit for the Otero Fox and the Vayan murders. In addition, whoever wrote this letter was taken credit for a seventh victim. We are convinced, without a doubt, that the person who claims to have killed the Otero's Miss Fox and Miss Vayan is in fact the same person. I want to restate that there is no question in our minds, but that the person who wrote the letter killed these people. This person has consistently identified himself with the initials BTK, and which is to be known as the BTK Strangler, because we are sure this man is responsible for seven murders.
Speaker 1:We wish to enlist the assistance of each citizen of this community. Our police department has already begun special efforts, which are as follows Additional uniformed officers are already on the street. A special detective force involving the major K squad has been established. A special phone number for citizens to call had been established. This phone will be staffed 24 hours a day. We have solicited the assistance of the district attorney for the sheriff and professionals in the field of human behavior and would welcome assistance from any person, regardless of their expertise. I know it's difficult to ask people to remain calm, but we are asking exactly this. When a person of this type is at large in our community, it requires special precautions, special awareness by everyone.
Speaker 1:One thing that you can see in the press conference was that Lemoyoun was honest with the residents of Wichita. He admitted that his investigator had no solid leads in the case, but because it led the killer off the hook far too easily and that was the last thing the authority should have done. So John Douglas, reflecting on this at that time, he said the best course of action was to keep the heat turned up on the suspect or the unsub because they don't know who it is An identified subject to force him to continue looking over his shoulder asking himself when police were going to come crashing through his back door. But, not surprisingly, lemoyoun's announcement sent a collective shudder to the community, especially when, several days later, an unfounded rumor began sweeping through the city. Btk, it seemed, targeted only the occupants of residences located on the west side of a north and south running street with a house address containing number 3 within it Even if this has been true, the coincidence who have been written off because serial killers. They are far more interested in finding a victim who, because of his or her various traits and attributes, satisfying them psychologically, rather than one who has a certain number in his or her street address.
Speaker 1:Btk's habit of cutting the outside phone lines of his victims was also mentioned in the press conference that evening. Thousands of residents throughout the city began a ritual that would last for years. The first thing they did upon entering the home was check to see if the phone worked. Others made it a habit, before entering their house, to dial their home number from a payphone to see if their phone rang. Within days, the sale of guns soared, so did the demand for additional door locks and peepholes and mace, because anyone could be the killer. Nobody felt safe and every stranger seemed like a suspect.
Speaker 1:Paranoia swept through the community like fire through a prairie grassland, which certainly must have sent shivers of ecstasy up the unsubspite spine. And because, at its core, btk's letter was no different than the ones that Sam used to pen during his one-year killing spree that began in 1976. Like the son of Sam, btk wasn't seen notoriety initially, but he soon took direction when the press began running stories. Both offenders relished the publicity and each felt good about the terror and fear they were creating and causing to unfold in the respective communities. Both had become the boogeyman, a role to which they quickly became addicted. So the police were initially stumped about the way BTK opened his communique, complaining about the newspaper not writing about the poem on rain. And of course it didn't take Sherlock Holmes to understand that the killer was referring to Shirley Ryan when he said rain.
Speaker 1:Within hours of La Mouillonne's press conference, the full answer became apparent when an employee of the Wichita Eagle discovered that a 3x5 index card, which arrived in a newsroom on January 31, had mistakenly been routed to the newspaper's advertising department Because the cryptic message on the card was printed in children's block letters from a robber stamp. Whoever first spotted the card believed it to be a personal ad, not a poem based on the murder of Shirley Ryan. It was based on an 18th century mother goose nursery rhyme title Curly Locks, and he said Shirley locks, shirley locks, wilt thou be mine, thou shalt not scream, not yet feel the line, but lay on cushion and think of me and death and how it is going to be. At the bottom of the card he printed the message poem for Fox. Next, the unsub waited 14 months before surfacing again, although initially police had their doubts that it was actually him.
Speaker 1:Just after 10pm on April 28, 1979, a 61 year old with her name Anna Williams returned home after a night of square dancing. She lived at 615 South Pimp Crest, roughly one mile from Nancy Fox's house. Friends dropped her off at her house and watched as she fumbled for her keys on the front porch. But just before unlocking the door she decided to reconsider the offer of a cup of coffee at a local café. She dropped her keys in her purse, climbed back into her car and was whisked away into the night. An hour later she once again returned home and quickly discovered that one of her basement windows had been shattered, a room handled. Several pieces of undergarments were found lying beside a bed in the basement guest room where her granddaughter often slept.
Speaker 1:Williams walked back upstairs, noticed that several scarves, pieces of jewelry, various articles of clothing and $35 and cash were missing. A half roll of toilet paper had been used, she realized, and, most rhyming of all, when she tried to telephone police she couldn't get a dial tone. She hurried next door to her neighbor's house and phoned police. A few minutes later a squad car pulled up to the house and two patrolmen began asking the badly shaken Williams questions. She had been in poor health ever since the recent death of her husband and this near disaster seemed on the verge of pushing her over the edge. One of the officers who poked around the backyard with a flashlight spotted the reason why her phone was dead the line had been cut.
Speaker 1:Burglary investigators combed through the house searching for fingerprints and traces of semen, but nothing was found. A crime report was taken, but it quickly disappeared to a foul cabinet and, because there was no reason to do so, it was never shared with homicide detectives and police department's burglary unit. No mention of the incident appeared in the local newspaper. Williams, however, never believed a random burglar was responsible for the breaking In her heart. She believed it to be the work of the BTK. On June 15th, a Manila envelope printed in neat black letters arrived at Williams' home and was opened by her daughter. It contained her mother's pilfered scarf and jewelry. Also stuffed inside the envelope was a tight photocopy poem, a drawing of a bound nude woman lying face down on her bed. A broomstick had been inserted into what appeared to be either her vagina or anus. Williams' daughter telephoned police without ever showing the letter to Anna. Two days later the Vegeta ego ran the headlines BTK is back. Intended victim gets poem on the front page. True to his word, btk had chosen his eighth victim. The only problem was she never bothered to show up In his 19th line poem titled O Anna, why didn't you appear?
Speaker 1:He aired his frustration. A beam denied the pleasure of getting to snuff out another life. And the poem says like this it was the perfect plan of deviant pleasure, so bold. On that spring night, my inner feeling hot, with propension of the new awakening season, worn with inner fear and rapture, my pleasure of entanglement like new vines. At night, o Anna, why didn't you appear? Drop of fear, fresh spring rain would roll down from your nakedness to scent, to lofty fever that burns within In that small world of longing, fear, rapture and desperation. The game we play for on devil's ears Fantasy. Spring forth mounts to storm fury, then winter clam at the end. O Anna, why didn't you appear? Alone now? In another time span, I lay with sweet rapture garments across most private thought, bed of spring, moist grass, clean before the sun, enslaved with control, warm when senting the air sunlight sparkle. Tears in eyes so deep and clear. Alone again, I tried and passed memory of mirrors and ponder why, for number eight was not O Anna, why didn't you appear? Although the killer possessed the poetic sensibility of a loved drunk college freshman, his communicates reinforce the beliefs that he possessed in eye for detail.
Speaker 1:Criminologists like Profilers like John Douglas had long suspected that killers studied the exploits of those of other killers who have come before them, soaking up every detail of true or fictional crimes wherever they could find. It Could be magazines, books, movies, tv. Long before any of these killers ever claimed their first victim, they spent a lifetime nurturing the dark dreams festering inside their heads by devouring publications with names like Master, detective, official Police Detective, front Page Detective, starling Detective. Do the words and images contained in the pages of these magazines create violent criminals? Certainly not, but clearly they fuel their sexual fantasies. Did BTK read these magazines? So with a no.
Speaker 1:But according to John Douglas, the killer who drove home, the idea that violent offenders learned the tools of their trade from their elders was a bold and gone serial killer named Joseph Fisher. On the evening that Douglas showed up at Aldeca State Prison to speak with him in 1981, it was hard to imagine how this former transient could have killed six women during his wanderings across the nation, but yet Fisher insisted that he had actually murdered 32 people, put this killer nurturing killer concept into perspective for Douglas in a way that none of the other murderers he had interviewed before had. And one of the things that Fisher said was that he grew up and wanted to kill people and he used to soak up every bit of information he could find on the guys who were good at playing his kind of game. So the question is that guys like Fisher referred to their habit of killing innocent people as a game. But clearly that's what it had become. For BTK.
Speaker 1:It was a deadly game that nobody had yet been able to stop, and by the summer of 1979, when the locals in Wichita learned that the serial killer living in their midst wasn't going away, btk finally graduated from rookie player to coach, from pupil to teacher, and he had finally achieved what he craved most the chance to be somebody. These last communications had revealed that in his mind, he had to ascend it to the next level in terms of his ability and proficiency as a killer, and now he yearned for some degrees of recognition for his accomplishments. The buzz of from all the mayhem he created must have been intense, but it would not last forever. That kitty sensation of self-worth would eventually fade, just as everything else that sustain him did. And when that emptiness and self-loathing returned and grew more intense, we have heard from him again. The only question was when. Thank you for listening to the murder book. Have a great week.