As the haunting melody of "O, death to Nancy" echoes through our latest episode, the dark poetry of the BTK killer sends shivers down our spines. Imagine finding yourself in the crosshairs of a man whose letters and cryptic clues leave a city paralyzed by fear. Join me, as we sift through the twisted mind of Wichita's most notorious murderer, exploring his heinous acts and the intense pressure on journalists like Hatteberg and Loewen, who grapple with the dilemma of reporting on the killer's taunts without compromising the police investigation.
Wichita transforms into a landscape of dread, where the simple act of checking a phone line becomes a ritual of survival. My journey into the BTK saga unveils the relentless pursuit by law enforcement to outwit an intelligent and unpredictable adversary. The eerie silence of the killer's trail is broken by the story of Anna Williams, who narrowly missed his deadly grip. We examine the intricate detective work behind the scenes and the essential cooperation between media and police.
But amid the darkness, there's a glimmer of the personal - the touching concern of Officer Landwehr's mother, who monitors her son's safety through a police scanner. As I share their story, we prepare to unfurl potential connections that could lead us deeper into the web of BTK's sinister legacy. Don't miss this intricate tale of horror, heroism, and the unyielding quest for justice. Keep the lights on and stay with us on The Murder Book.
As the haunting melody of "O, death to Nancy" echoes through our latest episode, the dark poetry of the BTK killer sends shivers down our spines. Imagine finding yourself in the crosshairs of a man whose letters and cryptic clues leave a city paralyzed by fear. Join me, as we sift through the twisted mind of Wichita's most notorious murderer, exploring his heinous acts and the intense pressure on journalists like Hatteberg and Loewen, who grapple with the dilemma of reporting on the killer's taunts without compromising the police investigation.
Wichita transforms into a landscape of dread, where the simple act of checking a phone line becomes a ritual of survival. My journey into the BTK saga unveils the relentless pursuit by law enforcement to outwit an intelligent and unpredictable adversary. The eerie silence of the killer's trail is broken by the story of Anna Williams, who narrowly missed his deadly grip. We examine the intricate detective work behind the scenes and the essential cooperation between media and police.
But amid the darkness, there's a glimmer of the personal - the touching concern of Officer Landwehr's mother, who monitors her son's safety through a police scanner. As I share their story, we prepare to unfurl potential connections that could lead us deeper into the web of BTK's sinister legacy. Don't miss this intricate tale of horror, heroism, and the unyielding quest for justice. Keep the lights on and stay with us on The Murder Book.
Welcome to the Murder Book. I'm your host, cara, and this is part 6 of In the Mind of a Murderer, exploring the BTK Case. Let's begin so now. This is February 10, 1978. And a letter came through K-A-K-E-T-V's front door and the receptionist opened the envelope and she found a poem, and the poem's title was O, exclamation point, death to Nancy. To the left of the poem the sender had typed BTK four times and beside each he added tiny hand-maned nooses. There was a pencil drawing of a woman bound and gagged in a two-page note with hundreds of words and many of them misspelled. And one of the things that he says in the note is how many do I have to kill before I get a name in the paper or some national attention? Do the cop think that all those deaths are not related?
Speaker 1:So a further journalist from K-A-K-E. His name was Lottie Hatterberg. He called his news director at home a few minutes later, rovan Lowen, and he was still in bed. And so Hatterberg told him look, you need to come down. And there was a downtown bar called the Looking Glass, and this is where journalists will hang out after work, and they have spent a lot of the time there the night before. So I think that's why he was sleeping late and he says you need to come now. He said why? I said because we have a letter. I said OK, why is it important? He says because I think it's from BTK. So he was still smelling of still beer. He pretty much put something on. He didn't take a shower, he just went immediately and went back to work to his office and he saw the drawing and he saw that the woman in the drawing was lying face down on a double bed. She was gagged, ankles and thighs bound, hands bound behind her.
Speaker 1:And Lowen knew who BTK was. He was the guy who claimed to have murdered the Oteros. But Lowen was relatively new to Weechita so parts of the letter mystified him. Like he said OK, so who is Nancy? Who is Vane? Like as he mentioned Vane, and Hatterberg said that there were Nancy, fox, shirley, not Vane, it was Vian, two murder victims from the previous year. So he looks like he misspelled the name, the last name, and then he asked so have anyone ever connected to the Otero killer, to the Fox and Vian homicides? And Hatterberg said no, not that I know of.
Speaker 1:So Lowen realized that if the letter was authentic, if BTK had killed Nancy Fox and Shirley Vian. That would make BTK a serial killer. And there was something the public had not heard before. So he kept reading more and part of the letter also said Josephine, when I hung her really turned me on her pleading for mercy. Then the rope took hold. She, helpless, staring at me with white terror, realized the rope getting tighter, tighter.
Speaker 1:Lowen was only 30 and he had never faced a story this big. So he felt sick, he felt alone and he just felt that he has been transported to the far side of the moon pretty much. So what should he do about the letter? So he kept reading. When he he reads about Shirley Vian's kids, he says they were very lucky, phone calls saved them. I was gone or going because it's been spelling To tape the boys and put plastics back over their head like I did, joseph and Shirley these are the orteros. And then hang the girl. God, god, what a beautiful sexual relief that would be.
Speaker 1:And then in the letter BTK claimed another victim, victim number five, whom he did not name, and he said seven down and many more to go. Btk was threatened to kill again. He underscored that point, saying that he would leave a note with the letters BTK on his next victim. So Lowen said well, we need to call the cops. And he picked up the phone. He wondered whether the cops knew BTK was a serial killer and had covered up. He wondered whether BTK had been stalking AK's female anchors.
Speaker 1:Haddenberg and Lowen drove to City Hall. As Lowen threaded out lies, he said what if it, if it's really BTK? But but the detective Lamonian blows us off and refuses to say how do we confirm it's really BTK? And and Hattergurt did not know what to advise, and he was. He kept thinking well, what if the letter is real but there's a cover up? All they have to do is deny the letter is authentic or worse, they could stall, tell us that they have to test the letter, show it to experts. And meanwhile there is a killer at large who has pledged to kill again. And Hattergurt said they had to run the story no matter what, because they needed to warn people. And and Lowen said well, we're going to air the story no matter what the detective says.
Speaker 1:So Lamonian and Deputy Chief Conwell read the letter slowly. They were saying side by side, turning pages. They have said hardly a word since the, the programming director and the photo journalists arrived and Detective Lamonian stood up and he said would you excuse us for a few minutes? We need to talk about this in private. And like 10 minutes passed and Lamonian came back in and Lowen asked I want to know if it is it from BTK. And Lamonian said yes, it is and I want to talk to you. This is where they tried to tell us not to air the story. That's what Lowen was thinking and Lamonian said I'm going to tell you the whole story. I'll tell you everything.
Speaker 1:The chief looked relieved, as though he had reached a difficult decision, said we believe we have a severe killer and we believe he has killed Sam. We have not made it public. We have known about this guy for a while. He probably killed the other and the public. And Lowen brags himself thinking this is where the arguing begins. And he said we know now it's time to talk For the good of everybody. It's time we tell what we know. We have got to warn people.
Speaker 1:And Lowen sank back in relief and Lamonian wanted the secret reveal. So Lowen told him that KAKE would broadcast the story on the 6 pm newscast. He asked Lamonian to show up to give an exclusive live interview. Lamonian agreed but said he would also call a news conference afterward and tell the other media. So he's given them the exclusive at least. So Lowen told him he intended to go on the air himself to tell the BTK story and he worried that BTK would stalk whoever broadcasts the story and he did not want to ask anyone else to face that. So he did not have a family, he had less to risk and maybe BTK was already stalking KAKE people. Lamonian agreed that there was a possibility BTK stalked women and might stalk KAKE female anchors. And as Lowen and Haderberg left Cornwall handed Lowen a police revolver and bullets and told him to keep them in his glove compartment.
Speaker 1:Back at KAKE, lowen tried to write the story himself. But this was a crazy day. He was talking to a station manager about the story, talking with the police trying to run the rest of the newsroom. He struggled to write it and finally Hatterberg did it for him. Keke's evening co-anchors were Jack Hicks sorry and Cindy Martin, but Lohan called Martin and told her to come in early and when she did he told her she was of the air that night and why he and Hicks would deliver the news. Martin was furious. Lohan was firm. Btk's interests in women and in KAQ prompted, like money, to order police protection for Martin Weakeren. Anchors wrote Stanley and Lohan, even though BTK had made no threats against them. He wanted them protected. So police followed Martin home that afternoon and checked to see whether BTK had already been there.
Speaker 1:Six o'clock came quickly. Lohan sat in one of the two anchor chairs, looked into the camera and began to report matter-of-factly that a serial killer was stalking people in the city. Lohan looked nervous on the air, and with good reason. Lohan was supposed to be sitting beside him, but Lohan was late. Lohan had already read several sentences of the script on the air. When Lohan walked into the studio, the KAQ staffer who was turning the wheel of the teleprompter, distracted by Lohan's entrance, stopped and Lohan stopped talking amidst sentence. He had forgotten that he had a second copy of Haddenberg's script in his hands and he just froze for a few moments. He apologized and then he told his audience that he would start the story from the beginning. And he did. Lohan sitting beside him now looked calm, resolved, and when Lohan asked about BTK, lohan bloody told viewers that police did not know who the killer was or how to stop him.
Speaker 1:A little later Lamanian Coa News conference and made his own announcement. Shocked reporters raced back to the newspaper office and two television stations and began to type out stories. Police followed Lohan home at that night, as they would for the next month. Alone in his apartment, lohan looked at a gun the gun that Cornwell had loaned him and he thought that he was a fool because he was capable of accidentally shooting himself in the dark. And so he unloaded the gun and hit it. Martin went back to work the next day for weeks afterward. When she arrived home from anchoring the 10 o'clock news, she saw a patrol car parked behind her apartment building, and when she walked from her car, the officer turned the headlights on and off, flick flick, as though saying goodnight.
Speaker 1:Lamanian had decided the moment he saw the KaK letter, that he had to publicly announce BTK. But in those few moments after Lohan handed him the letter, lamanian made a couple of quick phone calls to psychologists. He asked them whether going public about BTK might entice him to communicate more, given that he already seemed inclined to talk to the media. Nothing, the psychologist said, dissuaded him. So Lamanian began to plan his news conference. He began to plan how to tell a half million people in and around Wichita that a civil killer lived among them. He would not release the contents of the type of filled letter because he didn't want to encourage copycats, but he would say that BTK probably looked not like a monster but like one of us.
Speaker 1:Btk himself had said he was hiding in plain sight and it would be embarrassing to admit. The police were helpless. But Lamanian had to tell people to watch their backs. Some of his commanders still advised against this, but BTK had pointed out the obvious. He, one of the things that he wrote in the letter, says, quote Gali G yes, the MO is different in each, but look at, pattern is developing. The victims are tied up, most have been women or women. Phone cut bring some bondage matter, say this tendencies no struggle outside the death spot. No witness except the veins kids. And he wrote, veins not vying. They were lucky Fonko saved them.
Speaker 1:So Lamanian studied the BTK letter for a long time, trying to discern who the police were hunting. Btk seemed meticulous. The drawing of Nancy Fox on the bay was fairly accurate. Lamanian wondered if BTK took polaroids and drew from them. He wondered why BTK decided not to name the fifth of his seven victims. He was probably creating puzzles for the police playing games. Lamanian guessed the unknown victim was Catherine Bright, though there were two or three other contenders.
Speaker 1:It was clear from this note in the 1974 letter that BTK crave attention and wanted fame like saver killers of the past. And he wrote you don't understand these things because you are not under the influence of factor X. The same thing that made son of Sam Jack the Ripper, hartree Gladman, boston Strangler, dr H H Holmes, Panty Hose, strangler of Florida, hillside Strangler, ted of the West Coast and many more infamous character kill which seemed senseless. But we cannot help it. There was no help, no cure, except death or being cut and put away. How about some name? For me it's time seven down and many more to go. I like the following how about you? Btk Strangler, which it does? Strangler, poetic Strangler, the Bond Dedge Strangler and Bond Dedge was sort of separated Bond and Dedge Strangler.
Speaker 1:So Lamanian held a news conference at City Hall after he left KAKE and his commanders had worry allowed. He said if we talk people, how do we do it? Steaden the podium and say there's this guy out there who says he's going to kill again. We can't stop him. And Lamanian said well, yeah, that's pretty much what I'm going to say, and his announcement was the shocker. Lamanian knew it would be the next day, headlighting the Ego.
Speaker 1:Red City's BTK Strangler claims he has killed seven. If reporter Casey Scott's opening paragraph sounded a little sensational, it was also true. It says a killer claiming responsibility for seven which it murders at least six of them strangulations still is in the area and has threatened to strike again. Police Chief Richard Lamonian warned in a terse bunch of announcements Friday. I know it's difficult to ask people to remain calm, but we're asking exactly this. When a person of this type is at large in our community, it requires special precautions and special awareness by everyone. End quote. It was the most disturbing news people in Wichita had ever heard. Someone was hunting women and children in their city and strangling them. Parents over Wichita had to decide whether to tell their children.
Speaker 1:Nola Tedesco, 26 year old, rookie prosecutor and set with county district attorney's office, one day found herself examining a copy of the drawing BTK had made of Nancy Fox. Tedesco prosecuted sex crimes so she had become accustomed to looking at material like this, but the drawing and the idea that someone in town was stalking young women creeped her out At night. Some of her friends in the office Richard Ballinger, steve Osborne and others would walk her to her car. When she got home she would check her phone. Laura Kelly, now a senior known as L at East High School, was asked by her best friend to come over and spend the night, and they slept in shifts like two soldiers on patrol in a combat zone. The friend was too terrified to sleep alone. She had figured out that the roofline of her home would make it easy for BTK to enter her second floor bedroom a window, and no amount of reasoning would come. Her Franksters heightened the fear by calling women and saying this is BTK, you're next. Kelly's mother Barbara was home alone when she got such a call, and she would. You know. She was nervous and she would say well, what if this is not a hoax? A hoax, and so she would dial the BTK hotline to report it. As a detective began to talk with her, the phone went dead.
Speaker 1:Everyone in Wichita knew that BTK cut phone lines. In her panic she ran between the front and back doors, unsure which exit to take. In desperation she grabbed the phone again and heard a dial tone In shaking, she redialed the hotline number. The detective apologized he had fumbled the phone and cut her off. Still, she demanded that some consurged house. The officer who arrived helpfully pointed out that closing shower curtains and closet doors would give BTK places to hide. The fear of BTK warped her emotions so badly that for years she made others, including her teenage daughter, search the house before she could work up the courage to go inside herself.
Speaker 1:But if many civilians felt unnerved, it was now a different story with the cops. Clarity had finally come and there were no more debates about whether BTK was a saver killer. They knew now that he was and they knew now that he was going to be much harder to catch than most killers. Most murderers killed people they knew from modus as old as Cain and Abel. Anger, jealousy, revenge, greed, smoking, gun murders. The cops call them not always easy to solve, but they follow an internal logic. Cain killed Abel because he got jealous. Macbeth killed Duncan to take his throne. Booth shut Lincoln to strike a blow for the south. But saver killers follow no logic. There are few dots to connect. Btk killed strangers at random, probably outside his neighborhood. He planned things clean up, wore gloves. The FBI was only beginning to study saver killers intensely, but its experts were saying that a saver killer was much harder to catch. Most of the time you have to wait for him to kill again and hope he makes a mistake.
Speaker 1:Btk had killed 5 people in 1974. The 4 Oteros and Kathy Bright. Then he stopped killing, maybe because he got busy at work and school and then his wife got pregnant with his first born. But he killed again in 1977, Shirley Vaillan and Nancy Fox. Now he had stopped again For years afterward. The cops wonder why. The reason his daughter Kerri was born in June. We'll be right back. So the opening sentence of the letter that was sent to KAKE I find the newspaper not writing about the poem on vain on amusing prompted the cops to call the ego. Someone in classified advertising soon located BTK's Shirley Locke's poem in the newspaper 's dead letter file. They gave it to the police without making a copy for the newsroom. This was the second time the ego had muffed a chance to study an original BTK communication. Btk had called the newspaper first in 1974 when he left his letter about Diorteros in a book at the library. One of the police reporters, ken Stevens, was tired of the ego getting beat on a story he said the newspaper should have owned. He began to keep permanent files instead of throwing away notes and news releases. He wrote background memos to other police reporters to do the same and collected all the autopsy reports on BTK's non-victims. Davis Merritt, also known as Buzz, the EGRE's editor, had suggested some of this file building Some days. Soon the cops will catch the guy and the paper should be ready to tell the story behind the story. Part of that story, unknown to all but a handful of ego staffers, was the uncommonly close relationship that quickly developed between the newspaper and the police chief. Ken Stevens, casey Scott or Craig Skatak talked to La Monion every day, not for publication. He gave them status reports on the investigation and confided that he wasn't sleeping much and that his wife was extremely worried about becoming the killer's next victim. From the beginning, according to an internal memo in Stevens' file, there was quote much debate on how to handle relationship with police, though no disagreement that it is better to cooperate than to look for good quick scoop Fear of provoking another murder or inblowing cops chances for catching BTK is expressed. Merritt decides that as long as we aren't getting deceived or feel we are being unfairly used, we will go along with police. Police worried about how to play cards, which cards to play and when to play them. They rely heavily on psychiatrists advice. La Monion confides Chief worries that if BTK kills again some persons will blame him and news media for publicizing and encouraging BTK. Much feelings of helplessness on part of cops newspaper people. New situation for cops and us newspaper makes special arrangements for checking incoming mail and taking phone calls. As usual, black human in the office is quite prevalent in most cases. It's notably skimpy on this case. Desire for scoop and letters letting readers know everything is tucked at by desire to try to avoid provoking another murder. No one's sure whether he or she is making right decision. Brutality and bizarreness of case frightening everyone, even those who have dealt with weird stories". So one benefit of covering cops, according to Stevens, was that he saw life and death in the wrong. It taught lessons. Life can be short, so savor it. But it also make him feel safer than other people felt. He knew that BTK couldn't kill everybody and that there was no reason to be afraid of the time. The chances of dying in a car wreck are much higher than of being murdered. Yet most drive without fear. Covering cops also taught him the value of gallows humor. Like most cops and many reporters. Stevens joked about danger, though some of his single women friends felt especially jittery. One night Stevens went to a movie with Janet Vitt, a copy editor, and they went to a theater in the mall where Nancy Fox had worked at night the night before she died. And after the movie Stevens and Vitt went to Vitt's apartment to have a beer. She lived in East Wichita near Wesley Medical Center and not far from where the otteros and brides were attacked. When she opened the door she reached in, pick up her phone and checked for a dial tone, and it was. That was her nightly ritual and if she heard no dial tone she would raise downstairs to flee BTK. Stevens thought that that was funny and when they went inside she began to search her rooms and Steven was like Janet, come on, if he's here, it's already too late, we will never get out of here alive. And just then they heard someone open the buildings outside door and they heard footsteps on the stairs and Stevens stepped out to the stairway to face down whoever it was, and he saw a big man coming up to Vitt's door. He carried the biggest pipe wrench Steven had ever seen. The man looked startled when he saw the burly Stevens and he said I'm the plumber. And Stevens and Vitt left afterward. But Stevens decided he would never make fun again of anybody who had BTK fears. He had been scared on the stairs and over the next few months he got so obsessed about BTK that people in the newsroom began to joke that maybe he was the killer. He told the other prime reporters that from now on whenever they cover any homicide they should ask was the phone line cut? Was the victim strangle? Was the victim tied up? They added notes to the file month by month. On March 10 we were still in 1978, one month after the news conference police arrested a man they thought might be BTK. He fit the profile, had connections to some victims and bought clothesline. One day, as the cops watch in surveillance, lamonia was so confident they have the right man that he told Ego reporters in the city hall press room that this was the guy. He handed them background information about him and said the tests were being done to show that his blood type matched that of the semen found at the Otero house. The reporters type, fiercely assuming they were writing the most sensational story in city history. But LaMonia stopped by the press room that evening and told them. It's not him. And everybody stopped typing. He said the blood test rules him out. Like the detectives who were willing to sit in the Otero house with a psychic, lamonia was now ready to try any idea. Soon after the news conference, with help from the new staff at KAK, he tried communicating with BTK through a subliminal suggestion. Police in Wichita had never tried before. They will never try it again. With his letter BTK had sent his drawing of Nancy Fox. It was so detailed that he showed Fox's glasses lying on a dresser near the bed. Police thought that might be important. They have noticed that most of BTK's victims were glasses. In his first letter he had mentioned where Josio Otero's glasses were left in the house. So perhaps glasses meant something to him. By this time police were even thinking that maybe BTK hunted women based on their eye color, or perhaps it was hair color or age. Lamonia arranged a personal appearance on a KAK newscast to talk about BTK and as he spoke an image flashed on screen for only a fraction of a second, a drawing of a pair of glasses with the words now called the chief. Btk did not call, other people did. The cops got hundreds of tips but none panned out. On October 2nd 1978 the police department hired a new patrol officer. He was a native of Wichita from the rough around the edges west side. He graduated six years earlier from Bishop Carroll Catholic High School and he was still a few credits shy of graduating from Wichita State University with a history degree. That robbery in the clothing store nearly a year before still waited on Kenny Langworth's mind and he had decided not to apply to the FBI. And as a family funeral he had pulled his father Lee off to the site to talk and he told him that he was going to drop out of college to enter the police academy because he wanted to fight crime on the street. And the father said okay, but let's not tell your mother yet. So when Landworth broke the news to her a few days later she did not complain, but she was more scared than she let on. At the application interview a police supervisor asked a 23 year old Landworth a standard question what do you want to do with your career? And the standard question from the recruits usually is I want to be a chief of police someday. But this recruits said I want to work in homicide. And his interior was surprised. He said you don't want to be chief. He said no, I want to command the homicide unit someday. On April 28, 1979, more than a year after BTK's last letter, a 63 year old with her name, anna Williams, arrived home about 11 pm from a night out square dancing. She found the door to a spare bedroom open, a vanity drawer open, close on the floor. Someone had stolen jewelry, clothing and a sock in which she had hidden $35. When she found the phone line was dead, she ran. Weeks later, on June 14, a clerk opening the downtown post office near central and main found a man waiting for her at 4 am and he handed her a package and he said put this in the Ka KE box. The clerk later described the man as clean, shaven, white, about 5'9 and about 30 years old. He was dressed in a jeans jacket, jeans and gloves, his hair was cropped short above the ears and he had gaps between his teeth. The clerk did not know it, but the man had mailed a similar package to Anna Williams. Williams' envelope was addressed in block letters. Inside was one of her scarves and a piece of her jewelry. There was a sketch of a gag woman, nude except for stockings, lying on the edge of a bed. Her hands and feet were tied to a pole, the way safari hunters carry home big game in the movies. She was thrust so she would pull her bindings tighter as she struggled. There was also a poem laced with typos and sexual menace. The name Louis had been crossed out and replaced with Anna and A. It says oh Anna, why didn't you appear in capital letters. And then it says it was perfect plan of deviant pleasure. So bold on that spring night, my inner feeling, hot with propension of the new awakening season, worn wet with inner fear and rapture. My pleasure of entanglement like new vines so tight. Oh A, why didn't you appear? Drop of fear, fresh spring rain would roll down from your nakedness to send the lofty fever that burns within. In that small world of longing, fear, rapture and desperation. The games we play fall on devil ears. Fantasy spring forth mounts to storm fury, then winter clam at the end. Oh A, why didn't you appear? Alone Now, in another time span, I lay with sweet rapture garments across most private thoughts. Bit of spring, moist grass, clean before the sun, enslaved with control, warm winds scented the air, sunlight sparkled tears and eyes so deep and clear. Alone again, I trod and passed memories of mirrors and ponder why you number eight was not oh A, why didn't you? Appeared and there was a strange signature A, B turned on its side to resemble glasses, with a T and part of a K conjoined to look like a smile dangling below. The signature was stylized, although the author was proud of himself. It was the first time he had marked a message this way. The cops wonder why BTK had targeted Williams. Most of his victims have been female, but all have been younger than 40. Perhaps BTK was really after Williams, 24 year old daughter, granddaughter, who often stayed with her. Williams did not wait for police to figure it out because she left Kansas. Lamonian asked Eagle editor Buzz Merritt to look at the Otero crime scene's photos. Knowing that he would never publish such graphic images, merritt didn't want to see them, so Lamonian offered a deal Eagle reporters would get a look at some portions of the secret investigative files in return for a promise not to report what they saw until BTK's capture. Lamonian was insistent and seamalcious. This would take the relationship between the police department and the newspaper to a new level. Merritt thought that soon, perhaps before 1979 ended, that BTK would be captured. Getting a look at the file would help build the story in advance. He went to see the photos, then arranged to send the reporters to. 12 days after BTK mailed the Williams poem, lamonian showed BTK's letters and a slide show of Otero crime photos to Ken Stevens. Casey Scott Stevens copied BTK's signature into his notebook. Kake had given his package to the cops unopened, but now the ego knew what was inside. Lamonyon would not tell the journalists why he wanted them to see the files until much later. He and other commanders hoped that new eyes would see new clues. They did not. The Williams letters spurred the detectives not only to more effort but new ideas. Over the next two years detectives Arlene Smith, bernie Drowaski, ald Timesh and others tried to track down which copy machine BTK used for the KAKE and Williams letters. They have noticed something interesting in BTK's first message. The 1974 library letter had been an original document, but since then BTK had sent copies of photocopies to cover his tracks. The rollers of copy machines leave two marked fingerprints on the edges of each sheet they process. Btk have even taken the trouble to trim off the margins of his messages. The detectives resolved to trace the copies anyway. They made themselves experts on every copier in Wichita and there were hundreds. Smith's peers consider him to be a brainy guy. Decades later Smith still could recite from memory the names of copy machine parts and ink components. He learned that pulp manufacturers use a mix of northern hemlock, spruce and pine in copy paper. He knew what amounts of what trace minerals would show up in different paper brands the result of each tree grower using different amounts of fertilizer. One day Smith looked up after a meeting to see two blue-suited and briefcase-carrying representatives from the Cerox Corporation wanting to talk, and they said that Cerox had a lab in Rochester, new York containing all copy machine models ever made. Cerox studied competitors' machines. Would these resources be useful? And of course Smith said hell yes. Timish sent Detective Tom Allen to Rochester with BTK messages, the 1978 letter and the old Anna Poem and drawing. Timish worried about letting evidence out of the building and he told Allen if that plane crashes, you cover the BTK messages with your body to protect them. Cerox experts and police eventually figured out that BTK had probably copied the Williams letter at the downtown library and he had definitely copied the KAKE letter on a machine at the life sciences building at Wichita State University. So the question was is this mean that BTK was a Wichita State University student. So the cops had already compiled several lists sex offenders, burglars who had turned violent, common workers, others. They now compare those lists with lists of WSU students and also with lists of law enforcement people because of the police jargon BTK use and messages. Smith and his partner Dordz Scanlan also recruited a child psychologist, tony Warke, to develop a behavior profile of BTK. They show him copies of the killer's writings, photos of crime scenes. They wanted him to tell them what drives him. What sort of guy should they look for? Warke studies the spelling and typing errors Some cops had suggested BTK wrote that way to disguise a killer voice. Warke disagreed he thought the guy might be careful but stupid who have a learning disability. Because BTK was so disturbing and disturbed, warke also wondered whether he might have BTK's real name at the child guidance center. Perhaps the center had treated BTK for emotional problems as a child. Over two years Warke studied files of children on his lunch breaks. Smith had given him BTK's age range 20 to 30s. Warke picked out former patients who were the right age and had sexual issues. Eventually he gave Smith more than a dozen names. Smith compared them with lists compared by investigators, but nothing matched by this time. The cops had spent hundreds of thousands of tax dollars, had compared thousands of names, had eliminated hundreds of men with alibis. They even put the postal clerk who saw BTK under him noses. They learned nothing. In the end there were only two good things about BTK's invasion of Anna Williams' privacy. One was that Williams survived. The other was that Ken Stevens got an alibi. Ego Newsroom gossip had joked so often about Stevens' obsession with BTK that some cops suspected him for real. But Stevens could prove that during the hours that BTK waited in ambush at Williams' house, he was tending bar at the annual Wichita News Media Poverty Show. Lamonion was the mystery guest on stage that night. So he told Lamonion you were my alibi and Lamonion said well, you were mine. On December 17, that year, officer Kenneth Landworth and his patrol beat partner Reginald Chancy, or Cheney, tracked a teenage burglary suspect to a house. The suspect slammed the back door twice on Landworth's arm, shattering the glass. Landworth drew his gun where he thought he saw the teenager reach for something, but as he aimed he suddenly froze. He saw a jet of blood spurting out of his right wrist, spattering onto the coat sleeve of his left arm. The glass had slashed him. Cheney put the teen on the floor, called for an ambulance and said Officer injured Landworth, bleeding profusely, took off his necktie, tied it on his forearm as a tourniquet. At the hospital owners said a caller was asking to talk to him. He said who is it? He said your mother, irene Landworth, had heard the whole thing on her police scanner. Her son, knowing how she worried about him, had given her the scanner when he joined the force, hoping that listening to his work would prove to her that his job was not dangerous. So they're starting to tell us about this, officer Landworth. What is the connection with the BTK? Let's see if we can find out on next episode. Thank you for listening to the Murder Book. Have a great week.