When the trail of a cold case grows as chilling as the breath of the notorious BTK killer, detectives Otis and Gouch seize the opportunity to rewrite history. Join us as we shadow their pursuit amidst Wichita's most haunting enigma, revealing the gamble on DNA advancements that could clinch justice for Vicky Wegherly. With seasoned investigator Landwehr and local journalist Laviana, they piece together the intersections of criminal psychology and a community's shaken sense of safety. Their narratives, fraught with personal sacrifice and a media maelstrom, illuminate the detailed complexities of hunting a predator who revels in eluding capture.
A cryptic letter resurfaces old terror, and as Wichita braces for the worst, we uncover the strategy to trap a ghost. Listen to the echoes of a cat-and-mouse game where the Ghostbusters team and the FBI's psychological ploys against BTK set a new stage for capture. The tension is palpable; each move scrutinized, each decision laden with the weight of potential failure or long-awaited triumph. It's a journey into the heart of darkness where the media's pen and the detective's resolve converge in a silent war of wits.
As the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Wichita police grapple with the specter of the past, we explore the high-stakes dance between keeping the public informed and safeguarding the integrity of the chase. The inner workings of a task force on the brink of a breakthrough and the personal toll on those who stand as the public face of the pursuit form a narrative as gripping as the investigation itself. This episode isn't just a story—it's an experience that charts the jagged line between terror and tenacity, between the shadows of doubt and the light of potential closure.
When the trail of a cold case grows as chilling as the breath of the notorious BTK killer, detectives Otis and Gouch seize the opportunity to rewrite history. Join us as we shadow their pursuit amidst Wichita's most haunting enigma, revealing the gamble on DNA advancements that could clinch justice for Vicky Wegherly. With seasoned investigator Landwehr and local journalist Laviana, they piece together the intersections of criminal psychology and a community's shaken sense of safety. Their narratives, fraught with personal sacrifice and a media maelstrom, illuminate the detailed complexities of hunting a predator who revels in eluding capture.
A cryptic letter resurfaces old terror, and as Wichita braces for the worst, we uncover the strategy to trap a ghost. Listen to the echoes of a cat-and-mouse game where the Ghostbusters team and the FBI's psychological ploys against BTK set a new stage for capture. The tension is palpable; each move scrutinized, each decision laden with the weight of potential failure or long-awaited triumph. It's a journey into the heart of darkness where the media's pen and the detective's resolve converge in a silent war of wits.
As the Kansas Bureau of Investigation and the Wichita police grapple with the specter of the past, we explore the high-stakes dance between keeping the public informed and safeguarding the integrity of the chase. The inner workings of a task force on the brink of a breakthrough and the personal toll on those who stand as the public face of the pursuit form a narrative as gripping as the investigation itself. This episode isn't just a story—it's an experience that charts the jagged line between terror and tenacity, between the shadows of doubt and the light of potential closure.
Welcome to the Murder Book. I'm your host, keira, and this is part 10 of the BTK case. Let's begin by February 2000,. Wichita's murder rate had dropped. Community policing, a crackdown on local gangs and the booming economy will play a role. Landward told his detectives to let's see if they can go back and get some bad guys in the cold cases.
Speaker 1:Otis and Gouch, who had been partners for two years, picked a fallot random, a thick document in a three-ring binder label Vicky Vell Gehly, and Landward didn't tell them much about the case. He didn't want them working with preconceived notions. They knew that detectives at the time had thought Vicky's husband killed her. Otis and Gouch read the file at work and at home, and one night Otis told his wife what he was studying and Netta, surprised, told him that as a paramedic she had tried to save Vicky's life. She told him how sad it was to see Bill Wagerly holding his little boy. So Otis noticed right away that the killer had stolen Vicky's driver's license. From that he reached the same conclusion. Landward had years before this was a serial killer taking a trophy, and so Otis asked Gouch. He said what do you think? And Gouch said I don't think Bill killed his wife and Otis said I don't think he killed her either.
Speaker 1:And in years to come, paul Dodson would say that Landward made a crucial decision about BTK in the late 1980s. He refused, year after year, to test the DNA preserved from the semen found at the Otero and Fox crime scenes. Dna testing was helping solve high profile cases around the nation. The temptation to test the BTK sample was strong, but a test, landward told Dodson, would use up the samples they had and would show only what BTK's DNA signature looked like. He would not tell who BTK was and he said that he wanted to be patient because DNA technology is like computer technology it gets a lot better every year. The longer we hold off, the more we're going to learn when we test it.
Speaker 1:Examining the evidence in the Vicky Wagerly case, otis and Gouch found the autopsy and bento be included Bits of skin found under one of her fingernails. Perhaps DNA analysis of it would lead to a suspect. And if the killer wore no gloves, pulling on the leather laces and nylons as he tied and strangled Vicky, would have scraped skin cells off his hands. They might find the killer's DNA there as well. They decided to also test covers from Bill and Vicky's bed the killer had fought with her and might have sexually abused her there, leaving DNA. They also sent the lab blood sample taken from Vicky's body during the autopsy and a bag of trace material vacuumed from the floor of Vicky's bedroom the day she was killed. They needed to talk to Bill to learn everything he knew about Vicky, especially the names of men she knew. They could swap those men for DNA and see if he matched the fingernail sample, and they also needed a sample of Bill's DNA for comparison. They still needed to rule out the husband, but Otis realized that Bill might not talk. The transcript of Bill's interrogation showed Otis that the cops had given Bill a hard time. Otis concluded that if he had been him he would have walked out on the cops too.
Speaker 1:Otis approached Bill indirectly through one of Bill's relatives who had a job at Sedwick County Courthouse. Otis told her we're taking another look at Vicky's death. I can promise anything, but I have looked at the evidence and I'm leaning toward the idea that Bill didn't do it. We might be able to prove it. So he explained that he was requesting Bill's cooperation in a DNA swap. Otis waited a month and, through the relative, bill said no On February 14, only one week after Otis and Gout had submitted workily evidence for DNA analysis they got some lab results in writing.
Speaker 1:There was no result yet on the full DNA profile and that would take time. With DNA analysis Co-cases would always take a backseat to the new cases. But the lab had determined nearly 14 years after her death that the skin found under Rick's fingernail contained human male DNA. By early December 2000, the homicide team had worked only 23 new homicides for the year, less than half the number they worked in the record year of 1993. Langworth had kept his team working on co-cases, including workily, but on December 7, old spare time came to an end.
Speaker 1:Four bodies were found in a house at 1144 North Arie. The dead were Racheunda Wheaton, 18,. Quincy Williams, 17,. Odessa Laquita Ford, 18, and Germaine Levi, william sent Ford were cousins. Ford was rent in the house. Detectives began to compile the names of people who knew these teenagers. Within hours detective had suspects and began to plan a rest For a few days. As they worked without sleep, langworth and his detective thought this would be the biggest case they had in their whole year, one of the biggest since BTK.
Speaker 1:One week following the quadruple homicide, langworth and his detectives fell numb from fatigue. One of the people they had quickly arrested was Cornelius Oliver 18. He told the cops that he had gone to the house because he was mad at Wheaton his girlfriend. But he gave no clear reason why he killed. He said I just killed, I just did it.
Speaker 1:On December 14, odessa Langworth worked into the night, langworth doing paperwork, odess investigating what looked like a suspicious death. Langworth headed home after midnight. Odess determined his case was an overdose, stayed to do paperwork and drove home about 2.30 am. It was 25 degrees outside, wind chill 14, snow everywhere. Odess had worked a 17-hour day. Langworth had worked nearly as long and would be in bed by now.
Speaker 1:Odess pulled into his driveway just as a voice spoke from the police radio he carried he was the dispatcher and said potential homicide, multiple victims, 37 and Greenwich Road. And Odess said oh jeez. So he pulled into his garage and he said this can't be multiple victims. Again he sat still. His car engine was still running. Collos says the four of her friends had been shot in a field. So Odess didn't believe it. This has to be some drunk. He thought Somebody's drunk and calling 911 and messing with us. In two minutes went by, the dispatcher came back on with the correct address. The voice urgent Sheriff's deputy at the scene at 29th and Greenwich Road reports four bodies in a field.
Speaker 1:Odess backed out and drove east at high speed. He said holy moly, you know, unbelievable, a second quadruple homicide in eight days. So he called his boss on his cell phone and he said Langwood, we got a quadruple. And you know, he said Odess, you know even, say F you and hang up. And he thought, oh, odess was pulling one of his old jokes. But Odess died again. He said he said what. He said look, it's a quadruple homicide at 29th and Greenwich Road. He said that was last week. He said no, no, no, listen to me, we got a quadruple homicide. This is another one at 29th and Greenwich. So Langwood hung up the phone and he got out of bed.
Speaker 1:Five people had been shot, execution style in that snow, we feel, at 29th and Greenwich. The two men who did it and then drove their stolen truck over the bodies. Incredibly, one of the victims got up bleeding from the wound in her head and ran naked through the snow to summon help. When Odess met her at Wesley Medical Center, she gave him information that within nine hours led to the capture of two brothers, reginald and Jemethon Carr. Langwood looked at the naked bodies in the bloody snow and he thought you know what's the world coming to After the arrests. Dana Gauchen, rick Craig interviewed the Carr brothers. One of the first things they did was have a nurse take samples of hair, blood and saliva to learn whether the suspects DNA matched DNA found in the victims' bodies At the hospital.
Speaker 1:Jemethon Carr asked Kelly Odess what happened to those boys who shot those kids. He was asking about the Quarrupo homicide case the week before and Odess said they have been charged with capital murder. He said what's capital murder? He said anyone convicted of capital murder can get the death penalty. And he said so how is that done? He said lethal injection in. Carr sat silent for a long time before he spoke. He said do you feel anything? And Odess said we have never been able to ask anyone. So Tim Relf went to the hospital to ask the surviving victim more questions.
Speaker 1:Relf regarded her as a hero. In the next few months as he helped HG prepare to testify, he came to regard her as a friend. Relf had seen horrible things as a homicide detective, but what she told him was worse than the most things he had heard about cruelty. The dead were her fiancé Jason Beffer, 26, brad Heika, 27, aaron Sandor, 29, and his friend Heather Moeller, 25. Over the course of three hours the two intruders had beaten the men repeatedly, raped and sodomized the women, forced them to take money from their ATM accounts, made all five neon naked in the snow and then shot them.
Speaker 1:Relf pondered how cops internalized cruelty in different ways. Gouch appeared to rise above anger as he followed chains of evidence. Odess, in contrast, allowed himself to feel rage, then channeled it. Snyder, helping to solve the murder of a little girl, had sunk into despair, pulling out of it with the help of prayer and talks with his wife. Languished Remedy for a day's work in homicide had been widely known, though he didn't often take that remedy anymore. Relf had felt the anguish too. As he stood at the edge of the bloody soccer field. He thought about his family. Relf had four children and his wife was pregnant with their fifth. The killers wiped out four people, he thought, four lives and loves like mine. Still, he thought he feared better than most of the other homicide investigators and told them so His faith had been a blessing for his work.
Speaker 1:The first time he saw the photographs of Josie Otero in her basement. He studied them with calm detachment. His faith ensured that he could quickly recover his composure, even standing in that field. Like most people, he had questioned God at times. Some cases brought him to tears, but they all serve only to confirm his faith. As he see it, god did not make these five people kneel in the snow. God did not hand Josie Otero a strangle, nancy Fox. God is never one-sided or cruel or blameworthy. There is a devil in the world Evil. People do evil things by their choice and when they do, becomes necessary to hunt them down.
Speaker 1:Robert Beatty, the Wichita lawyer who had put the Charles Manson case through a mock trial at Newman University, went back in touch with the ego in the summer of 2001. Beatty was corresponding with the Oklahoma City Bomber Timothy McVeigh, who was soon to be executed for killing 168 people. Beatty told Roy Welms that he was planning mock trials. Beyond McVeigh. He had been correspondent with the science fiction writer Arthur C Clark and planned to put him on trial for creating the evil computer Howe, which killed astronauts in 2001, a space odyssey. Beatty said again that he might do something similar with the old BTK cases In Park City. That October Major Emil Burquist presented city compliance officer Dennis Rader with an award for 10 years of service. Rader was restless. He and Paula were empty nesters. Now their son and daughter were grown and gone.
Speaker 1:When Rader-Potroth Street, he took solace in unusual collection. He cut advertisements out of the ego, the slick ads that picture women and girls modeling outfits and underwear. He had collected hundreds of these pictures. He pasted many of them on index cards and wrote notations on the back about fantasies he entertained.
Speaker 1:After that year a woman named Misty King moved out of Park City because the compliance officer had harassed her for nearly three years. He would park outside her house and sit watching. He did this at least 20 times in one six-month stretch. Sometimes she would glance up and see him peeking through her kitchen or living room windows. He handed her one citation after another for code violations. He had not always been like that.
Speaker 1:She first met Rader in 1998, the night that she came home from the hospital after her husband was critically injured in a tough man-amatone boxing match, rader asked if he could do anything to help. He checked under a well-being even after her husband returned home. When her marriage ended, rader continued to offer to keep an eye on things and then a boyfriend moved in. She began getting citations After claiming the grass next to her friends was higher than the grass in her lawn. He issued a citation because her boyfriend was working on a car in the driveway, even though her former father-in-law had done the same thing in the same spot for years without a citation. There were at least six citations between 1999 and 2001. She called the police several times to complain about Rader and they said that he was doing his job. More than once Rader told her all her problems would go away if she got rid of her boyfriend.
Speaker 1:In the 4th of 2001, she came home to find a note from Rader. Her dog, a big same-bonard Child Mix, had gotten out of her yard and Rader had taken it to the pound. When she went to get the dog she was told she had to meet with Rader first. She went to see him but was told that he wasn't available by the time they met. The following Monday the dog had been put down. There were streaks of gray and languorous hair.
Speaker 1:By the time the car brothers went to trial in the fall of 2002. Maybe it was his age he was now 47, maybe it was a stress, but the burdens on his unit had been immense from the day of the soccer field murders, and the workload did not slacken in the year and a half it took to bring the defendants to trial on 93 criminal counts in a death penalty case. Languards cell phone rang day and night. All the evidence held up, the trial was covered live on television and the work done by the cops prunted praise To his friends.
Speaker 1:Languards seemed happier now, calm, resolved and content. His wife, cindy, had done much to steady him, but his bond with his son seemed too deep in his maturity. After work he would help James build forts out of sofocutions and bedspreads in the basement. Within 15 minutes Languards would feel the weight of the world slide off and he would reach storybooks to his son and tuck him into bed and no longer do all on work. His detectives were so experienced now that he did not have to deal hands on with homicides. The detectives did most of the work while Languards coordinated, gave advice and ran administration. He and Cindy were talking about building a new house. He was thinking about finishing that history degree he had started working on 29 years ago.
Speaker 1:Laviana had a little quirk that one cell liked to tease him about in the newsroom, laviana would hear about a big event and say that it wasn't really big enough to be a story. In 1998, for example, after the biggest grain elevator in the world blew up just south of Wichita, one cell had assigned Laviana as the lead reporter and teased him. What do you think, hurst? Is this a story or just a two-inch brief? But Laviana was a reporter for a scale.
Speaker 1:On May 4, 2003, the ego published a story about Laviana showing that more than 2,000 people had been killed in the previous four years by prison parolees who should have been more closely supervised. Other charges also were pending against parolees and eight other cases. Reporting the story had taken years in a legal battle with the state that reached the Kansas Supreme Court. The story later won one of the biggest national awards the ego had earned in its 131-year history Laviana the leader of the four awards. He said he went back to writing cop stories. A few weeks later, lawyer Robert Beatty started sending emails to one cell telling him that he was teaching BTK as a class and working on a BTK book. He suggested one cell write a story about this. One cell turned to Laviana said you're the house expert on BTK, do you want this and Laviana made a face and he said well, this is a pretty old case.
Speaker 1:In the meantime, otis and Gouch has submitted Vicky Verguely's fingernail scraping and vaginal swab to the Setwick County Regional Forensic Science Center three years earlier. But the lab people have to give priority to new homicides. In August 2003, otis and Gout finally got the DNA results they have been waiting for. The DNA found under Vicky's fingernail was different from the DNA found in the semen on the vaginal swab. To Otis this was one more reminder that Bill had told the truth in 1986. Otis had read in the interrogation transcript that Bill told detectives that they had no marital problems and that he had made love with Vicky the night before she died. Bill also told the cops that he had a vasectomy shortly after his son was born. Men who have a successful vasectomy ejaculate semen but no sperm. Gouch and Otis did not have Bill's DNA to prove beyond doubt that the semen was Bill's, but the lab tests show it was semen with no sperm. The findings prompted Otis and Gouch, with long words blessing, to immediately request that the lab test samples of semen that BTK left at the Otero and Fox crime scenes. These DNA profiles could then be compared with the DNA found under Vicky's fingernail. They still needed to get a mouth swab from Bill. He had refused to cooperate. Three years earlier.
Speaker 1:Now Otis talked through options with Deputy District Attorney Kevin O'Connor. They decided that they could use a subpoena to compel Bill to give a DNA swab. Otis wrote out a request for the subpoena and once it was signed by a judge it would be good for only 72 hours before he came void Otis showed the subpoena request to O'Connor who said it was written properly. But then Otis stuck the request in a desk drawer and assigned by a judge and he would keep it like a card to play down the road. For now he could not bring himself to compel Bill to do anything. Otis had read the interrogation transcripts from 1986 and knew how rough the cops had been on Bill. He thought the guy had suffered enough at the hands of the cops. She would use the subpoena if he had to, but he wanted to tell Bill and convince him to give a swab voluntarily.
Speaker 1:Bady sent more messages to O'Connor about his BTK book and O'Connor kept putting Bady off. But one day O'Connor went to Laveana and said are you sure you don't want this? And Laveana said that he wasn't interested. But Bill Hirschman in Florida was still obsessing about BTK almost 10 years after his departure from the ego. A few weeks later, Hirschman, vole Laveana, assured email Just 6 words, we'll be right back. So now we are going to talk about events that happened between January 12th and March 19th 2004. Hirschman wrote a question. The 6 words that basically said do you know what Thursday is? And Laveana had to think for a moment. Today was Monday, so Thursday would be January 15th. Why does Hirschman care about January 15th? So he typed an email reply and he said it has to be Otero. And Hirschman replied 2 days later. So are you doing a 30th anniversary BTK piece? And Laveana wrote I will. Now he didn't want to do it.
Speaker 1:Though Hirschman liked anniversary stories, laveana disliked them. They didn't involve news. Laveana took the idea to Tim Rogers, the ego's assistant managing editor for local news. Laveana had to explain who BTK was, because Roger had worked at the paper less than 3 years. And Roger said I'm not a big fan of anniversary stories and he said I'm not either. And so Roger said let's see if there's anything new. If there is, we can do something. So Laveana walked away past one cell's desk. No story, he thought. But then he stopped. He said Roy, who was that guy who was doing something with BTK? And he said oh, his name is BD, a lawyer. He said do you have his number? So Laveana's story ran on Saturday, january 17. It was a routine followed by thousands of Wichita women in the late 1970s and it would say arriving home, check the phone immediately. If the line is dead, get out. And Robert BD was quoted as saying I don't think that people today realized the kind of tension there was in Wichita at that time.
Speaker 1:Bd said he wanted his book to document a chapter in Wichita history and prompt someone to come forward with information that would solve this case. He said I'm sure we will be contacted by both crackpots and well meaning people who have little to contribute, but I do not think we will be contacted by BTK. In fact BTK regarded the ego story and BD's comments as a collective personal insult. He could hardly believe what he read. It said, although the killings remain firmly implanted in the minds of those who lived through them. Bd said many Wichita's probably had never heard of BTK. He said he used the BTK case during a segment of his class last year and was surprised at the reaction. I have zero recognition from the students he said not one of them had heard of it. I'm hoping someone will read the book and come forward with some information A driver's license, a watch, some car keys.
Speaker 1:He said it had been 13 years since BTK's last murder. In that time Rader had confronted the experts, resisted the temptation to flaunt himself and remained silent and safe. He had gotten away with murder 10 times over. But he found his story outrageous and impossible to ignore. Did they not remember him? Did they no longer feel the fear? And he will show them. He went to his trophy staches. He pulled out the three Polaroids he had snapped of Vicky Wurgely 17 years before he pulled out Vicky's driver's license. Did the lawyer want a driver's license? Then he would have one.
Speaker 1:Lieutenant Ken Langwell was 49 years old and looked healthy again after the stress of the car brother's case had abated. He had been a cop for 25 years. He had supervised the homicide detectives for nearly 12, for longer than the three years that have nearly ruined the health of his predecessor. One night a week he taught a class on serial killers at Wichita State University. He had sat brown eyes but laughed easily unless he was facing a homicide scene. He was going gray but he had not let himself go. A lot of women consider his creased face to be handsome. His face and hands were so brown that some people assumed that he had Lebanese or Hispanic ancestors. But the tan was from playing golf. The rest of him was a blinding pale white. He was still a sharp dresser Serial war frame glasses dark brown or charcoal gray suits, white shirts he ironed himself and dress shoes. A gold watch with a stretch band, a tiny serial cell phone attached to his left hip, his police badge attached to his right hip. He was a pack-a-day smoker of vantage cigarettes, but his son was begging him to give up the habit. As of Cindy and James, he was content and happy. They were about to change.
Speaker 1:The letter arrived in the Ego Newsroom in an ordinary white envelope on March 19, 2004. It was one of about 700 pieces of mail delivered to the paper every day. It's a wonder that one didn't get tossed in the trash Newsroom. People throw obscurities away and the center of this message had made its contents obscure. The first newsroom person to touch it was Glenda Elliott, the assistant to the editor. She sized open the envelope and shook out a sheet of paper. She saw a great new photocopy of three photos of a woman lying on the floor In a driver's license, some strange stenciling at the top G-B-S-O-A-P-7-T-N-L-T-R-D-E-I-T-B-S-F-A-V-1-4. It looked like routine nudge up stuff. Then in the lower right corner she noticed a faint graffiti-like symbol, the letter B, tipped over and made to look like breasts. The T and the K run together to make arms bound back and legs spread wide. Probably nothing, they said. But Hinge took the paper and the envelope and he said I'll show them to the homicide section.
Speaker 1:Back in the newsroom a short time later La Viana took a. Well before that I'm getting ahead. When she looked at all this, elliott felt the goosebumps and as a police reporter she had covered the terrible murders. And four years later, when Chief Lamonian and Deputy Chief Cornwell sought advice about what to do about BTK, cornwell had pulled her into the office one day and showed her parts of the BTK file. She had seen a symbol with a B made to look like breasts and this one was an identical. But it was closed. So she put the letter and the envelope on the desk after in Rogers, the editor for Local News. She didn't say anything to anyone about who it was from. She was sure they would know, but they did not.
Speaker 1:After 26 years Elliott was the only remaining person in the newsroom who remembered what BTK's signature looked like. So Rogers called out when La Viana walked into the newsroom and said hers, come check this out. And Rogers handed him paper and envelope. La Viana was mystified and he walked over to one cell. He said what do you make of this? And the cell looked and said I don't know, it's weird. It looks like crime scene photos. He said, but what would anyone send us this? He said well, I can't figure it out. So La Viana was working on two stories and he was in a hurry, but the paper puzzled him and he had not studied closely either. So he had not noticed the signature or the name Vicky L Wegerly in the driver's license.
Speaker 1:It was nearly time for the 10 AM police briefing and La Viana decided to take the letter with him. It did not occur to him that the message came from BTK, but he remembered Ken Stevens saying, nearly 20 years before, that the ego had blown his chances to have his own copies of BTK's first two messages. So he made a copy. The daily briefings were run by Janet Johnson, a civilian who served as police spokeswoman this morning. There was much to relate. Officers had shot to death a man who weighed the knife at them the previous night. His relatives had told the ego's Tim Potter that the man was mentally ill and probably didn't understand the officer's commands to drop the knife. La Viana took notes to pass along to Potter and then waited, and after the other reporters left he went to Johnson and to a police commander who happened to be there, captain Darrell Haynes, and La Viana handed them the paper. Haynes was fond of cop abbreviations. A crackpot, for example, was CCFCCP for Coco Pups. Haynes looked at the paper and thought it was CCFCC Pee, cuckoo-foo, cocoa-pups. But in Johnson and Gray's said cops get a lot of tips from cooks. And he said probably nothing. But Haines took the paper and envelope and he said well, I'm gonna show this to the homicide section.
Speaker 1:Back in the newsroom a short time later La Viana took a closer look at the copy that he had made. What he so suddenly made him very agitated. It was a driver's license of long woman smiling, virg-virgely, karma Vicky L. Date of birth 03 25 2558. So when he first seen the sheet of paper he had almost tossed it away. He realized now that if he had paid more attention he would have taken it to Land Wars homicide section himself. He knew who vicarly Virgely was, a known self homicide. She had lived only a mile from him. La Viana knew one of her relatives and he had talked with her occasionally about vickie's murder.
Speaker 1:La Viana handed the letter to Potter who Sat next to him. Potter pointed out something to La Viana had not noticed the envelope return address. It says Bill Thomas kill men one, six, eight, four. South Old Manor, wichita, kansas. Six, seven, two, one, eight. The initiatives would be Bill Thomas kill men B, t, k. This had not occurred to La Viana, interesting. He thought he had written that anniversary BTK story only two months before. But still he thought it was a hoax. The newspaper got letters from crackpots. Btk had not killed anyone. As far as La Viana knew since Nancy Fox in 77, 26 years have passed.
Speaker 1:He studied a sheet a few more moments. Potter had noticed the return address. Maybe there was more. And then La Viana saw it. He walked to one cell. So look at the photos. And what cell looked? He said what is it? Those are not crime scene photos. Look at her arms. They have been moved. They're not in the same position in all the photos. The cops never move a body around when they shoot photos at a crime scene.
Speaker 1:And when cells said, well, this is creepy. Potter just pointed out and that Bill Thomas kill men's initials Would be BTK, la Viana said. And when cells said what do you think? He said no. So why? Say because it's a hoax, it can't be. And when cells asked, did you run the name of the woman? Said I already know the name Vicky Wargilly was a murder victim 1986, unsolved. So was Wargilly one of BTK's victims? He said not, that I know of, but it isn't unsolved homicide. So when? So look at Wargilly's face and the driver's license. And when cells said you have to tell the editors about this. And La Viana did, then he went to his computer and searched court records for a bill Thomas killmen. He found nothing.
Speaker 1:Rogers walked over to one cell. He said you think there's anything to this? Said I don't know, but if it's, btk will see whether her things is more than a two-inch brief. The old man or return address turned out to be false and there was no trace of a Bill Thomas killmen. The name sounded like a tongue-in-cheek clue. So did old manner BTK liked to tongue people and talk about himself. He would be an old man now.
Speaker 1:That evening in the newsroom when cell called out to La Viana, he said did the cops ever get back to you? He said no. So La Viana emailed Johnson. He said anything to that letter and she and she emailed back that no one in homicide has seen it and that long well had been out of the office all day and she wrote half a great weekend, we'll be right back March 22 to 25th 2004. On Monday, la Viana covered the daily briefing again and, stepping to Haines office Afterward, he said whatever happened to that letter and Haines looked sheepish. She said I forgot about it. So he grabbed it and headed upstairs.
Speaker 1:Languid at the moment was a Riverside hospital, hoping he could avoid work. He was standing beside a gurney on which is a small town in the middle of the city. He was standing beside a gurney on which his wife was resting. Cindy was minutes away from gobladder surgery. She had timed the surgery for spring break so that she could recover without missing work at West High School. West High School and Languid had left his cell phone turn on in the homicide section.
Speaker 1:Detective Dana Gouch watch with Am I am. I'm amusement as Haines walked in, look into language empty office Supervisors apparently like to talk only to other supervisors. Gouch thought and so got asked him can I help you? And Haines say well, I was looking for language. He says now he's not here. So well, I have something I wanted to show him. Hers brought it to us, so can I see it? He said yeah, why don't you look at this? So got to look at the envelope without touching it. Something about it caught his eye. He stepped away, pulled on a pair of latex gloves, then took the envelope and put out the paper inside and One look was so it took. He turned to Kelly Otis standing nearby. He said look at this. And Otis looked at. He said shit.
Speaker 1:Languid's cell phone rang just after a nurse stuck a needle into Cindy's arm and started to sell the sailing drip that precedes surgery. And he says this is Langworth. So you're not going to believe what we just got. He said what is? It's a letter from BTK. Langworth said nothing for a moment. So why? He asked it's got the BTK signature when girlies driver's license photos of her in her bedroom. So where did this come from? He said hers brought it to us. So he said bring it to me. So Langworth closed his phone, looked down at Cindy and he waited. His detective sometimes teased him Kenny's getting excited, otis would say mocking him. Langworth had a cool head. He said nothing now to Cindy because he preferred to see things for himself.
Speaker 1:Gautja notice drove to Riverside mostly in silence. They have studied the workily case Truly in the past four years. They knew no cop have ever taken a photograph of Bicky lying dead on her bedroom floor. Otis's own Paramedic wife, nitta, had told him that the firefighters had carried Vicky's body out of her bedroom and Into the larger dining room. The moment they found her they needed the extra space to start CPR. So this images had to have come from the killer's stash. But had the letter come from the killer? Otis was doubtful. Maybe some somebody had found BTK's trophies and was playing with the cops. Maybe it was a son, a nephew, somebody who had bought the killer's house. Whoever he was, he knew secrets that only the cops and Vicky's killer knew. Only the killer could have shot these Polaroids.
Speaker 1:Cindy did not ask Langworth about his phone call and he did not tell her he was always getting calls. He had worked on more than 400 homicides, maybe 450. He had last count. The doctors were going to start the surgery in minutes. Langworth looked up when gout and Otis walked into the room. Gout had photocopies in his hand. Nurses were working around Cindy's bed asking her how she was making sure the saline drip properly. Langworth let his detectives out of the room and looked at the papers and he said it's him. Oh yes, this is him. So Otis glanced out at Langworth's feet and began to grin.
Speaker 1:In spite of the of the moment, langworth dressed sharply for work, but in the hospital he was wearing a gold shirt, khaki pants and the Soviet's looking pair of cheap tennis shoes. Otis had ever seen all men shoes. He thought the white ones with the Belco strip straps and the size of the shoes were even staying green from mowing the lawn. And Otis said Jesus Langworth, what don't you buy decent shoes? But Langworth did not even laugh. He looked like he was in shock. He said we are so much trouble.
Speaker 1:Langworth walked back to check on Cindy. He talked to her for a moment and then came out. His first thought, he said later, was I hope I don't screw this up. Homicide section leaders are like anybody else. They feel doubts at the beginning of a case. He said would I, you know, ruin this if I already Ruin this by missing something important in the last 20 years? What if we don't catch him? What if this asshole decides to kill somebody again? So he realized that he was holding his career in his hands and he's. He thought well, I need to think fast.
Speaker 1:La Viana in the newspaper would want to publish a story immediately about BTK resurfacing. This time around the storm would hit the police department. The moment the story was published the national media would show up. 580,000 people in the metro area will feel twitchy about opening the front doors at night and everything the cops did, everything Langworth did, will be put under a giant microscope. He needed to ask La Viana to hold off on the story long enough for his detectives To set up a task force and a tip line with a tap on it. They needed to be ready in case BTK call the tip line himself. Langworth needed La Viana to be reasonable. If he could get the newspaper to hold off for two days, he might be able to get the lab people to do a quick turnaround on the DNA found at the Otero Fox and workily scenes, then run it through the federal criminal database. Maybe BTK really has been in prison all those years and was now out Covis. The FBI's combined DNA index system Contained the genetic profiles of more than 1.5 million offenders. If they got a match it could be over before the newspaper paper printed a story.
Speaker 1:So Langworth told Otis to co-hurst. He said tell him we need time. So Otis made a face. Say how much time. He said ask him if he can give us a couple of days to get organized.
Speaker 1:And Lauren went back into seeing this room and she looked at his face. She said what's up? Is it just some work? And she rolled her eyes. I said come on, kenny, two of you guys walk in here in the surgery room Dressed for work, with papers in their hands. He said yeah, so well, was it what? What is it so well, we just got a letter that needed to be to read. She said a letter, said yeah. And she look at his face and she said hmm, it's from BTK, isn't it? He said yeah, it is. She said oh. He said yeah. So he opened his cell phone. Turn away from.
Speaker 1:Cindy called a separate County regional forensic science Center that cold case, dna stuff. I asked her here. I'll tell her, willie, it's not a cold case anymore. I need that stuff now. He paced the room. A nurse spoke to Cindy and she said can I bring, can I bring in you anything? And and Cindy said tequila. And the nurse smiled so long. Where pace Cindy? For sorry for him. And she said to go to send out guys. Get him out of here. Just get him the hell out of here. So the three men walked out.
Speaker 1:Longwood told the detectives to start pulling the BTK files together to call La Viana. Longwood would call police commanders and the FBI. He would need manpower. He would stay with Cindy but would start up a task force with a cell phone. Longwood turned back to Cindy's room. Until this ended, there will be little time for his wife and son and he even thought that he would be lucky to see his son James today, tomorrow, for weeks to come, he said I'm going to have to live in my office until we catch this man. And we might never catch him. And the nurses took Cindy to surgery.
Speaker 1:Moments later Langworth took out his cell phone again. He said well, we hunt BTK. Well, btk hunt us. He said he has seen my picture on television. What if he follows me home? What if he sees James and Cindy? What if he kills somebody just to show us he can do it? So Langworth called his commanders and gave them the news when he hung up. He quickly made another call to his former partner on the Ghostbusters, paul Dutson, now retired from the Wichita Police Department and working as police chief at Wichita State University, and he said come over right here, right now, to Dutson.
Speaker 1:Langworth looked as unstrong in the hospital corridor as he had on the day his father had died 11 years before. Langworth hurried Dutson to a stairwell, put a piece of paper in his hands and watched him. Dutson took one look at the BTK's signature and the image of Wurgely's stolen driver's license and felt the hair stand up on his neck. And Langworth asked so what do we do? Someone walked into the stairwell. Dutson and Langworth looked at each other separately quickly and by instinct made sure their hands were visible. They suddenly felt embarrassed. They didn't want anyone thinking that two men were doing smoking strange things in a hospital stairwell and they almost laughed. And Langworth asked again what do we do? Dutson felt compassion for Langworth and gratitude.
Speaker 1:At the pivotal moment of Langworth's career. He had reached out to him. Then Dutson began to talk fast. He said your world as you know it is over and he began to tick off a list of what went. Landworth would need Money, cars for detectives, enough side headquarters for a new task force to eliminate leaks to the media. Police departments have office politics jealously gossip like any other organization. Langworth needed to get his task force out of city hall.
Speaker 1:It was time to implement the strategy that the Ghostbusters had devised 20 years before, together with BTK through the news media. Play to his ego, get him to make mistakes that would reveal his identity. Put one face on television to communicate with BTK. But whatever you do, do not become that face. That was Dutson's warning. You can't run the investigation and be the face that talks to BTK. The workload would tear you to pieces. He looked at Landworth as he said this, but he so brought him up short. Landworth no longer looked shocked, he looked resolved. It was clear that Landworth intended to do both jobs and Dutson said look, it's not my job to tell you what you want to hear, it's my job to talk straight. You can't do both jobs. But Landworth just looked at him and Dutson prepared to leave. He was so sorry about Landworth that he felt almost sick. He knew how smart Landworth was, but also what a self-doubt of his friend was how Landworth disguised a deep need to be liked, how much Landworth ached when he felt that he had failed something. Now the whole world would watch Landworth as he faced a hidden monster with his ass on the line and lives and careers at stake. One thing they had agreed upon After they got control of their nerves this letter might be the opportunity knocking. As Dutson left, Landworth began to punch in phone numbers. Maybe this asshole had given them the key to catching him.
Speaker 1:After prodding Captain Haines about the strange letter, laviana had gone back to the news room to work on other stories and his phone rang. He said this is Hurst and he said this is Kelly Otis. He said what's up? He said I need two days. It took Laviana half a moment to register what he had heard. He said what he said we're asking if you can give us two days before you put anything in the paper. And Laviana was in his mind thinking what was this? It had to be about the letter. Maybe it was a big deal. Maybe the cops were just being careful. Whatever it was, this was weird. So Laviana said I can promise anything. But Otis sounded polite, but cryptid. He said give us as much time as you can so we can get ready. And Laviana thought ready for what, ready to do what? And Laviana said I'll do what I can. And Otis hung up and said good, and he hung up. So Laviana stood up slowly look around the room. He would need to clue in the editors because this could be big.
Speaker 1:Maybe whoever had killed Vicky Wargley was hoaxing the paper and police. Maybe the real killer was posing as BTK. Maybe it was BTK. But no, he didn't believe it. So Langworth called the FBI Behavioral Science Unit in Quantico, virginia, and he asked to speak to a profiler. He found himself talking to Bob Morton, a behavioral analyst he had never met. Langworth did not know it at the moment, but Morton would become a key player in the task force he was hurriedly forming. Morton was thin, muscular and bolding, a former state trooper standing more than six feet tall, and he had studied several killers for years. His work involved predicting not only the criminal behavior but also how to lure them into making mistakes. Morton suggested the same strategy for trapping BTK that Langworth and the Ghostbusters have decided to adopt years before. He now helped to fine-tune the tactics.
Speaker 1:Number one BTK likes publicity. Call news conferences to save things about him. Make them look like real news conferences, but make communication with BTK the real purpose. Read scripted statements and answer no questions from reporters. Number two pick one person to conduct all the news conferences. Give BTK a face to fixate on. That could be dangerous for the person doing it, but the risk was necessary. Number three imply that you're making progress on the case. Btk does not want to get caught. If he thinks you're breathing down his neck, he might be reluctant to kill.
Speaker 1:Over the course of his first frantic day, langworth and police spokeswoman Janet Johnson talk frequently with Morton to prepare a presentation for Chief Williams and his staff. Langworth wondered whom they would choose to be the face talking to BTK Probably himself. He knew Cindy would dislike that. How could he tell her that she and James should feel safe or that BTK might not stalk him? But Langworth thought it was the right move. He had pursued BTK for 20 years. He had found hundreds of news briefings and knew how to do them right. There was one other reason to do it himself. Langworth didn't want anyone else to take the risk.
Speaker 1:Langworth called another retired ghostbuster, paul Holmes Sharp Nose, sandy Hears, 148 pounds and 5 feet 8, has spent his 4 years of retirement laying bricks with his brother, larry, but he still jogs 6 miles a day, 3 times a week, a compulsion resulting from a vow never to let other street cops down by showing up for a fight out of shape. He still had that bullet wound from 1980 and still carry a 40 caliber glock strap onto his hip on most days and he still worked privately on BTK reading files trying to find something they had all missed. And Langworth said he's back. Holmes drew a breath. He did not ask who he was, he asked only one question Is there anything I can do to help?
Speaker 1:Like Holmes, kansas Bureau of Investigation Director Larry Welch was Langworth's friend. Welch faced many of his own problems. The KBI, which fought crime statewide and assisted sheriff's offices and police department especially as an expert, and had been fighting an extensive campaign for years against the worst drop since crack cocaine. Hundreds of methamphetamine cooks had appeared throughout rural Kansas, setting up illegal labs and homes, abandoned barns and sheds. They stole propane, anidrious ammonia and other hazardous ingredients and used them to cook common cold medicine into a cheap street drug. Welch had some of the best detectives in Kansas working for him and they were stretched to the limit. But he knew how bad BTK was. Welch had been an FBI agent. He had run the KBI for 10 years and for years he had lived in Goddard just west of Wigita. He and Langworth had been friends since Langworth was a patrol officer but explained the situation.
Speaker 1:Welch then made a general's offer you can have some of my agents and whatever other help I can provide. He soon sent Larry Thomas and Ray London to work with Langworth for however long it took, and Laviana told Otis later that afternoon we'll give you those two days, but after two days we won the story and we won it exclusive. Otis did not like that, but he conceded that when the letter first arrived Laviana could have burned the investigation with a huge story in the ego. Laviana had not done so. The ego was not in the business of panicking people with hoaxes and at this point the editors had no proof that this was anything but a letter from a twisted prankster. The paper's best shot at getting a comprehensive and accurate story was to wait and the Langworth checked it out. Then have Laviana sit down and talk with him about it. Otis told him that he could get back to him about the exclusive. The next morning's newspaper contained nothing about BTK.
Speaker 1:In the stairwell Dutson had counseled his friend not to set up a tip line unless his commanders gave him enough investigators to check out every tip, every alibi, every background of every suspect. Dutson thought Langworth would need a battalion of investigators, but Langworth limited the problem with one decision. The task force would check out tips, but detectives would not wear themselves out running down each man's story. They would merely swap him for DNA and compare it to BTK's DNA. Either the DNA matched or it didn't. Of all the clever things Langworth did, dutson said later this was one of the cleverest. The strategy might not catch BTK but it would eliminate thousands of suspects quickly and save hundreds of thousands of men hours. For two days. As they set up the plan, the cops worked around the clock. As Otis had predicted. None of the detectives slept.
Speaker 1:On the first day the homicide team set up a tip line and the means to record calls. The chief provided 24-hour a day staffing. They picked a task force in. It was Gouch, otis and Ralph from Homicide Thomas and London from KBI. Langworth also wanted Clint Snyder from Narcotics. Snyder had volunteered and the commanders approved. Another detective from Narcotics. Cheryl James joined the task force to compile and shape the task force computer databases and to work with VyCAP, the giant database the FBI had established to collect and sift information on violent crimes, providing criminals. James also went out and swapped people. Some homicide detectives Robert Chosom, heather Backman, robert Craig, tom Fadkin were kept off the task force to work with Chitas Other Murders Still. Backman and Chosom did that while also reading every BTK tip turned in and Craig and Fadkin helped run down leads. Langworth's task force also enlisted the help of 50 detectives and other officers in the first month From the undercover, the gang and sex crime units and from the KBI, fbi and the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office. The task force quietly set up a command post at the City County Law Enforcement Training Center on the edge of town, miles from the city hall.
Speaker 1:What is told Langworth what LaViana had said about wanting an exclusive when the police confirm it was from BTK and Langworth thought that that could be tricky because the more they reveal publicly the less effective they will be and the more likely there's some other dumbass out there might send copycat materials to throw them off. So he did not want to reveal details of the letter. He did not want LaViana to reveal what BTK's signature looked like or that there were stencil letters and numbers on the sheet. Keeping that information out of the newspaper was vital. But he couldn't tell LaViana what to do and he knew LaViana's editors must be on tender hooks waiting to hear if they had received a big scoop or just a sick joke in the mail. The EU had not plastered a letter like wallpaper over the front page. See, that meant that he could get LaViana to agree to hold back some information. The more the better. Langworth thought that if he tried to shut out the newspaper, the ego might reveal everything. So he had to give LaViana something.
Speaker 1:As the police spokeswoman Johnson often worked with Langworth on the media briefings whenever there was a homicide. She considered him a friend and he had the habit of sensing when she was having a tough day and saying a kind word. She knew he did the same for others. Now Langworth wanted her help. They would need to write a series of news releases designed to get BTK communicating. In addition, she would handle all media inquiries and invite us to all the news of the ФB tekne Wade Sai terms of Une Dys. Our company, she said One was that once word got out about BTK, the National Media Circus would come to town. All the tabloid newspapers and cheesy cable shows, all the networks.
Speaker 1:The second problem was bigger. If the police department refused to answer questions about the biggest murder mystery in Wichita history, it would upset reporters and they would make her life hell. And Longwood and the FBI now wanted her to refuse to answer questions. The third problem might stop the whole thing. Chief Williams might not like the plan. Wichita had one major newspaper, three major television stations, an account in PBS and smaller affiliates and several radio outlets.
Speaker 1:The cops tolerated local reporters. They did not like some of them but they kept their opinions to themselves. Sometimes, as with the Card Brothers case, the national media would show up and the cops liked them even less than they liked the locals. Still, williams prided himself on being open. If reporters asked a question, williams said he wanted it answered unless the answer would interfere with an investigation.
Speaker 1:Longwood and Morton were proposing that the department stage media events at which Longwood would say tantalizing things and then refuse to take questions. That ran counter to Chief's ideas about openness. At first Johnson was right. The chief was skeptical and so were members of his staff. The deputy chiefs pointed out that keeping people in the dark might feed the public anxiety that was sure to follow the story the ego was about to publish.
Speaker 1:The discussion went on for a long time. At times it looked as if the deputy chiefs would veto the idea. Johnson finally begged the commanders to do what Longwood wanted. He said look guys, if we don't do this, we're screwed. We call the FBI. If we then ignore their advice, they might get pissed off too. So what are we supposed to do if we don't do this? What other ideas is there? What am I supposed to say to the media about what we're doing? So in the end the chief approved the plan.
Speaker 1:The benefits awaited the problems. He decided he needed to make one more decision now. Who would do the news conferences? What phase would they show to be decayed? It was a dangerous assignment. Williams knew that it was like to be in danger as a patrol officer. He had been shot three times. He had risked his life many times. Now he would ask someone else to take that risk. So Williams said he wanted Longwood to do it. The job needed to be done, right, he said.
Speaker 1:Longwood's 12 years of experience with homicide briefings has called him in what. What to say and what not to say and, moreover, people in Wichita were accustomed to seeing Longwood talked about homicides. It would reassure them to hear Longwood deliver the messages. But was this a wise decision? Datsun had warned Longwood not to do this. While running the task force, datsun had helped develop a manual for the National Institute of Justice on how to run high profile police task forces. He has spent time consulting with some of the most experienced hunters of sewer killers in the nation, including the cops who had pursued the Green River killer in Washington. They had warned Datsun about how they had warned themselves out trying to do too much at once, but Chief Williams and his command staff now took care to make sure that didn't happen. Longwood would run the task force, be the face communicating with BTK, but Johnson would write all the scripted news releases and other police commanders would relieve Longwood of many administrative duties. Longwood's friend, lieutenant John Spear, would run the regular homicide investigations.
Speaker 1:The plan looked manageable, but when Longwood told Cindy that he had been talking to BTK, that he would be talking to BTK, she became upset, as Longwood had known she would, and she said why you? Are they just going to make you stand out there alone. He said no. So Laviena had given the cops their two days and had heard nothing from them. Now he wanted the story. He called Longwood on Wednesday morning. He said come on over.
Speaker 1:And Laviena reached the fourth floor of city hall minutes later and he found Longwood and Johnson sitting in the conference room adjoining the chief's office. Longwood, as usual, was wearing a white shirt, a dark suit. Laviena looked at Longwood's face, long and tan, with the creases running vertically down the cheeks. And what Laviena saw now gave him a moment's pause. They had known each other for 12 years, had encountered each other on the job hundreds of times, had needled each other, you know good. Naturally, every time Longwood had always been articulate, helpful and funny, sometimes hilariously profane. But Longwood's face showed there would be no joke in today, because if it was really BTK, there was a lot hanging in the balance with what the two men would say to each other.
Speaker 1:Now, if it was BTK, longwood might demand that Laviena keep a lid on the story. If so, laviena would refuse. People had a right to know. If a serial killer had resurfaced in the midst, maybe Landward would ask him to suppress only part of the message. If so, laviena was prepared to deal. The newspaper had a responsibility to readers, but he would not hinder a homicide investigation.
Speaker 1:Laviena was glad that he would photocopy the message Justice Kent Stephen had told him to do 20 years before he could see another copy of the message now lying on the top table between Landward's hands. He started to ask a question, but Landward interrupted and said before we start, can I ask you a question? He said sure, said did you make a copy? He said yes, can I have it? He said no, in that set of set. Laviena thought it is BTK, we'll be right back so.
Speaker 1:So Landward said, pointing at the sim. He said I won this. And he started pointing at the stenciling and the driver's license. I said and I won this. And he did this when he leaned forward and slipped the copy across the table so that Laviena could see what he was talking about the three photographs of Vicky, her driver's license and the strange stenciling which is the signature symbol in the corner In copshorthand. He was asking that Laviena not write about those details. Laviena, his editors had anticipated this. And Laviena said, pointing to the signature I can give you this and I can give you this. And he pointed to the stenciling and he said but I can't give you this. And he pointed to the license. So Landward did not look offended. Laviena had just told him that he would have reached two of his requests and not publish anything about the signature in the stenciling, but he would reveal that BTK had resurfaced. He would reveal that BTK now claimed to be the killer, vicky Wurgely, and he would reveal that BTK had sent the newspaper a message with photocoffees of Vicky's driver's license and pictures of her bound up body. And Landward said back waiting. Laviena realized with a thrill that Landward had decided to answer questions on the record and Laviena asked is the letter from BTK? And Landward said I'm 100% sure it's BTK. He said is the woman in the picture Vicky Wurgely? He said there's no doubt that that's Vicky Wurgely's picture. Is there a Bill Thomas kill man? And he said there has never been a Bill Thomas kill man. Why would he resurface now? And Landward shocked and he said that he did not know. He said how do you know it's BTK? He said no comment.
Speaker 1:The Eagle first broke the news on March 24th on its website, kansascom, just hours after Landward talked to Laviena. The editors also shared the story with KWCH TV, one of the local TV stations to promote the next morning's paper rival. Kak TV Also broadcast a short story that night based on an anonymous police source. Eagle editors topped the printed story with one of the most unsettling headlines Wichita's have ever seen. The headlines stack ran for inches deep. Laviena's lead photograph was straightforward and blunt.
Speaker 1:A serial killer who terrorized Wichita during the 1970s by commuting a series of seven murders has claimed his responsibility for an eighth slaying and is probably now living in Wichita, police said Wednesday. The story did what Landward had expected it frightened people. The tip line phones rang and rang. Landward tried to calm fears, appearing on live television that morning to talk in the drive tone he always used in public. We're encouraging citizens to practice normal safety steps. Keep the doors locked, keep their lights on. He began to talk directly to BTK, though he didn't tell any report of what he was doing. Landward, johnson and Morton had worked out how to do it. Morton had email suggestions ranging from keeping the overall tone positive to telling BTK how to reach Landward by email, telephone, post office box.
Speaker 1:Landward talked racially in a room packed with reporters and photographs photographers. The 340 word statement confirmed that Wichita Worgally was a BTK victim and suddenly encouraged BTK to keep talking. He said quote. This is the most challenging case I have ever worked on and the individual would be very interesting to talk with. End quote. Then came the next part of the strategy Make BTK too cautious to kill. Landward encouraged people to contact the department with tips. He said that the case was the department's top priority and that the sheriff's office, kbi and FBI were helping. He said quote. I wouldn't ever want to comment on any other cases around the nation, but it is, without a doubt, the most unusual case we have ever had in Wichita. End quote. All over Wichita, gun stores did risk business. People who had fear BTK when they were kids now fear him again and they walked into the houses as though walking into an ambush. Reporters from across the country began to pack the bags and look up Wichita, kansas on a map. Thank you for listening to the Murder Book. Have a great week.