Experience the psychological battlefield that engulfed Wichita as we trace the BTK Task Force's media gamesmanship aimed to flush out a hidden menace. The stakes soar in a narrative where the Wichita Police Department's clever manipulations of public information weave a net, intended not just for the infamous BTK but also to protect the community fabric tearing at the seams.
Grasp the complexities of a city under siege, where ethical dilemmas and moral quandaries challenge journalists and law enforcement alike, testing the boundaries of privacy, safety, and the relentless pursuit of a shadow that evades capture. Feel the pulse of a community in the throes of turmoil, sketched vividly through stakeouts, media storms, and the personal ordeals of those enmeshed in the killer's snares.
As the hunt intensifies, witness the merger of cutting-edge surveillance with time-honored detective tactics, illuminating a path fraught with false leads and breakthroughs that promise to draw the curtain on a grim saga. The chapter of this Murderbook closes with a detailed look at the narrowing suspect field, spotlighting the meticulous review of surveillance footage and vehicle records that would eventually corner a specter that had haunted Wichita for too long. This episode is a testament to a city's resilience and the unyielding resolve to uncover the truth.
Experience the psychological battlefield that engulfed Wichita as we trace the BTK Task Force's media gamesmanship aimed to flush out a hidden menace. The stakes soar in a narrative where the Wichita Police Department's clever manipulations of public information weave a net, intended not just for the infamous BTK but also to protect the community fabric tearing at the seams.
Grasp the complexities of a city under siege, where ethical dilemmas and moral quandaries challenge journalists and law enforcement alike, testing the boundaries of privacy, safety, and the relentless pursuit of a shadow that evades capture. Feel the pulse of a community in the throes of turmoil, sketched vividly through stakeouts, media storms, and the personal ordeals of those enmeshed in the killer's snares.
As the hunt intensifies, witness the merger of cutting-edge surveillance with time-honored detective tactics, illuminating a path fraught with false leads and breakthroughs that promise to draw the curtain on a grim saga. The chapter of this Murderbook closes with a detailed look at the narrowing suspect field, spotlighting the meticulous review of surveillance footage and vehicle records that would eventually corner a specter that had haunted Wichita for too long. This episode is a testament to a city's resilience and the unyielding resolve to uncover the truth.
Welcome to the Motorbook on your host, keira. And this is part 11 of BTK. Let's begin. So three days after Johnson told the FBI that police were taking the initiative, the task force made up a flimsy reason to talk to BTK and sucked the news media into playing it big. So on August 20th 2004, langworth went before reporters and began talking about the letter that BTK wrote in 1978. And he noted that it included the poem oh Death to Nancy, and that poem was an adaptation of a folk song and that is called oh Death. That it read in part I will stuff your jaws till you can't talk, I'll blind your legs till you can't walk. I'll tie your hands till you can't make a stand and finally, I'll close your eyes so you can't see. I'll bring sexual death unto you for me. And then he signed BTK.
Speaker 1:Langworth referred to BTK's message, which included PJ S as one of the chapter titles, and noted an English professor named PJ Wyatt had used that poem oh Death in a class at Wichita State University in the 1970s. So one of the things that Langworth said in that press conference was we're looking for the public's help on identifying anyone who had used this obscure folk song and had a contact with Dr PJ Wyatt, who died in 1991. And he said that the FBI profilers have confirmed their belief that there is a definite connection in the reference to PJ in the letter that they received last May with the folk song oh Death. This was a deliberate stretch. Investigators had consulted Wyatt in 1988, as a matter of fact as an expert, and after she recognized BTK's poem as a rewrite of the song, they got copies of her class list. But BTK had not claimed he had taken Wyatt's class, that he knew or that he knew Wyatt. So it was sort of a big piece of bait for what could be a wild goose chase. And reporters chase it enthusiastically At the Eagle crime reporter Stan Finger, court reporter von Silverster and others from across the newsroom they work overtime to learn all they could about the very private professor. They talk to friends of Wyatt in Michigan, former employees of her parents, defund radar supply business, countless university sources. The result was today's worth of stories dominating the front page with photos, information boxes, even a cybert story on the history of the song, which was not really obscured. It had been recorded since at least the 1920s and even had been featured in the George Clooney movie oh Brother, where Are Thou?
Speaker 1:The task forces' true intentions were noted in Johnson's internal memo that says, quote Doing this release. We are inviting a response from either one because he never thought we would make the connection, or two to tell us how stupid and wrong we are In terms of media. This will take the heat off the Argonia thing by giving them something else to pursue and it also shows the public that we have other leads and things we are doing besides just the swapping end. Quote Johnson underestimated the death of the Ego's reporting bench and his willingness to pull people from across the new room to help with BTK coverage. Tim Porter kept writing about the Argonia story while religion writer AT Levy and higher education reporter Catherine Leo Unmuth they both had major roles in the Wyatt stories. The investigators also hoped the Wyatt story would make BTK anxious. One thing that Johnson noted was that he was so careful and deliberate that he would not commit a harm, as I want his feeling anxiety and this will set him back on his heels.
Speaker 1:The Ego worked to broaden its coverage beyond Land Wars news conference because ultimately the paper would publish nearly 800 pieces about the case. Laviana talked to men whom the task force had swapped. Porter interviewed former FBI profilers, wrestler and Greg McCrary to paint a picture of how serial killers thought and operated. Porter flew to New Mexico. There, at the Western New Mexico Correctional Facility, porter found Charlie Otero with a goatee, a shaved head, and he was there for a three-year sentence for aggravated assault in a domestic violent case. Charlie had been a straight-A student. He was on his way to becoming an Ego scout when BTK wiped out most of his family and ever since that he has been drifted emotionally and has taken drugs. And of course he still hated BTK. He wanted him to go down.
Speaker 1:Now the BTK discussion board became one of the most popular spots on the Ego's website. Back in April the cops had obtained a subpoena looking for the identity of some of the people who posted comments on the board. None of the suspicious six were BTK. Months later, johnson still monitored the site, hoping BTK might join in. It upset her when the messages criticized the cops. She told Langworth that some of the self-styled BTK experts were idiots in that many discussed the far-flung theories obsessively. Langworth avoided looking at the discussion board unless Johnson brought a comment to his attention. The first time that happened he read the comments out of curiosity and there was one that said some of these people make a case that I'm a dumb son of a bitch. After reading what some of them said, I concluded that they're right. I really am a dumb son of a bitch. Now BTK did not respond to the news coverage about Wyatt and the poem, so the cops invented another excuse to communicate and keep him off kilter. On August 26, six days after the old death news conference, langworth stepped before the cameras to talk about the 1979 burglary at Anna Williams' house. And oh Anna, why didn't you appear? Langworth said that they wanted to talk to anyone who may have seen the original poem or has any other knowledge of the poem. Btk did not reply.
Speaker 1:By September 2004, chief Williams had noticed that Langworth had lost weight around 20 pounds. He seemed to be moving more slowly. His wife Cindy saw also that when he slept it was only for a couple of hours, but he had now somehow completed the bachelors degree in history that he had walked away from in 78. He had been around 10 college credits short. He was also overseeing the building of a new house in West Wichita and the house would include a room for his mother and who was around 85 years old, still living on her own, and Cindy have suggested that Wyatt sent her to a nursing home. If they loved her so much they should take her in. And of course Langworth had been touched. Cindy had the room designed with a wide door in case Irene even needed a wheelchair.
Speaker 1:Now one day at the construction site Cindy saw her husband looking at the workers with an odd expression and she suddenly realized that he was wondering whether one of them might be BTK, setting them up for an attack. And even Otis joke around saying hey, langworth, btk is probably laying your floor in there right now, and that was not funny for him. Now, september came and went. No sign that BTK intended to communicate again. Gouch and the rest of them worried that he was about to kill or go further underground. They wonder whether they might end up like the older cops from the 70s, hunted by failure. Every time Chief Williams' phone rang he expected to hear that his officers have found bodies in a house without cut phone line. The television covered war on him. Most of it was speculation. Some stations coupled BTK images with creepy music. That just fed BTK's ego. He thought.
Speaker 1:On the morning of September 14, the egos fashion writer and social columnist Bonnie Bing was standing in the middle of a busy rock road in northeast Wichita and she was there hooking newspapers as part of a promotion to raise money for United Way. Bing was sort of a celebrity in Wichita, as well known for her charitable work as her newspaper work. She served on advisory boards, roasted and toasted prominent friends and emcee dozens of fundraisers every year. On this morning she was bellowing enthusiastically at motorists as they were all passed on their way to work and a strange man walked up and spoke to her and he looked intense. He wanted her to tell a former ego opinion page editor, randy Brown, to meet him under the railroad trestle on Douglas Avenue, just half a block west of the eco building. He had a story to pass along and Bing said well, randy doesn't work at the Ego anymore, he hasn't worked there for years. And the man said well, you can call him, you can do anything you want and walk away. A few days later he called Bing and renew his request and then he said Bonnie, leaks have caused consequences. I'll get back to you. Bing called Brown, who now taught at Wichita State. He laughed it off. He's got a clock and dagger request from cooks like that once in a while.
Speaker 1:A few days later Bing got a call from a friend, a real estate agent named Cindy Carnahan, who sounded nervous. Carnahan insisted that Bing drop whatever she was doing and come to her house immediately. A few minutes later Bing found five men in Carnahan's home. One face looked familiar and Bing caught her breath. It was Ken Landworth, a homicide lieutenant who was investigating BTK. And he introduced the others Diana Gouch, kelly Otis Clint Snyder, tim Ralf. Bing listened in shock as the men talked. A letter had arrived at Carnahan's house and it has both their names. And the letter said I will contact the social book, bonnie Bing, and it warned that leaks have consequences. And Bing said well, that's why the guy said to me that day. And Landworth said what guy? So she realized that these men thought she had Carnahan-worthy recipients of a BTK communique. So as Landworth asked questions, bing saw that he seemed stressed and tired, but mask it with little jokes, he had a warm and a genuine manner. I said the other men and they spoke compassionately, trying to calm her. So Landworth gave her his work number, his cell number and his home number and said call any time if you need to.
Speaker 1:Bing had walked out of Carnahan's house feeling unsteady. She went all over town every week reporting stories, speaking to groups, doing TV and radio interviews, volunteering for dozens of charities. She couldn't stop doing that. Landworth had asked her to keep her mouth shut about her involvement in the newspaper's biggest story. He told her I need you to not tell anyone at the ego about this. This was a homicide investigation. They could not afford to jeopardize that with a leak. So Bonnie had agreed but said that she had to tell her husband because if she was at risk he needed to know. So Dick Honeyman, who was a civil defense attorney, asked Landworth to talk with him. He was worried about his wife, but when Landworth said the cops would keep close track of her, honeyman snorted. He said well, good luck with that. So Landworth smiled. But he was certain that BTK had picked out a new target.
Speaker 1:Within two weeks Bing was told to go to the FBI's Wichita headquarters and the Epic Center. Landworth wanted Bing to help produce a drawing of the man who had approached her on Rock Road. Landworth had called the FBI in Quantico, virginia, and said you need to send me the best sketch artist you got. Bing kept her secret. She was sure that she was betraying her profession and her boss, the editor, sherry Shinsenho, and twice she walked into Shinsenho's office to tell her what was going on, then stood mute as Shinsenho waited for her to speak, and each time Bing made up an excuse about why she was there, walked out, waited down with guilt.
Speaker 1:Laviana was getting overwhelmed by requests to see it for interviews, but was happy to meet with British clairvoyant Dennis Mackenzie and the documentary crew that brought him to Wichita. It was a story. Laviana shadowed them as they visited BTK crime sites, including Anna Williams' former home and the Otero House. Mackenzie said that he thought BTK was a maintenance man or a plumber. And so Landworth asked Bing at Carnaghan's house. He said when is your next big event where the public will know you will be there? And she said well, there's an auction. And she said that she would be the emcee for the Boo and Boo Bash. This is Halloween custom ball to benefit, dressed for success with Wichita. And so Landworth said so you mean where everybody wears masks? And Landworth smiled, dropped his head and discussed. He said OK, great, this is just great.
Speaker 1:So a day or so before the ball, landworth called Bing and asked her to meet him outside Century Second Convention Hall to plan how the cops will protect her and search for BTK in the crowd. When Bing arrived, she was startled at how tired Landworth looked, because he looked like he could face down on the pavement. Landworth did not tell her this, but he was exhausted. All of them were at their wits end, almost blind from lack of sleep, wondering if BTK was planning a murder instead of planning another letter. When the day of the ball arrived, landworth sent two detectives dressed as detectives and he said if Bonnie waves to you in the crowd at the auction, don't wave back and accidentally buy something. And this, of course, was a joke. This is an auction. So the detectives show up at the ball and they were acting as though they did not know Bing. And this was standard undercover procedure, which Landworth and all his detectives followed scrupulously, even on their days off. If Landworth was in a grocery store and an undercover cop happened to walk by, landworth would never acknowledge him, even if he was a friend. In other words, never tip off the bad guys that you know each other. At the ball, men wearing masks shoot Big's hand and Bing wondered with each handshake is this him? But how would anyone know?
Speaker 1:A month after Bing first met Landworth. Her home security alarm began blaring at 4 in the morning and it indicated that the phone line had been cut. And Honeyman said well, this is not good. So he grabbed a seven-iron and marched downstairs to face the intruder and told her to stay here. And she said no. And she had already dialed 911 on a cell phone but had not hit the send button yet. As she followed him, someone began pounding on the front door and the voice called out saying this is the police. So Honeyman looked outside and saw a young Wichita police officer at the door. He said he had come to investigate the alarm. Bing told him that she believed that she had been the subject of a BTK letter. The officer looked startled and said excuse me, I need to call Lieutenant Landworth. And minutes later more officers arrived. They searched the three-story home thoroughly. The phone line to the house was intact, though it was no evidence of an intruder. It turned out that an underground phone line had gone faulty. Setting off the alarm, bing watched through a window as telephone repairmen ripped up her street to fix the line. If you ever really want fast phone service, she decided, just call Ken Landworth.
Speaker 1:So now is October 22nd and the cops finally heard from BTK, though they would not admit that to the reporters who pick up on rumors posted on the BTK discussion board. A United Partsales Service driver UPS driver had found a strange package in a drop box near I-135 in the center of the city. Witnesses saw Task Force detectives at the scene, so he was maddening to reporters that the cops wouldn't confirm the latest drop. It contained a four-page document label C2. Scroll to the left of the title, dawn. It appeared to be a chronological account of BTK's childhood and early adulthood. There was also a two-page list titled 3, the word 3, and then in numbers 1, 2, 3, uno dos tres theory. The BTK world works in threes and is based on the eternal triangle. And then it says it had a long thought that BTK had a fascination with the number 3, because all of his murder victims had a 3 in the home address. The documents had been copied, recopied and reduced several times, making the words difficult to read. Even when the cops enlarged the type, it made for dreary reading, though the content was meant to be titillating.
Speaker 1:Btk was sort of a dull writer and it says mother slept beside me at times, the smells, the feel of underclothes, and she let me rub her hair. Railroad sounds and smell of coal. Mother worked somewhere near the RRs. Mother got all day and days at a time. Grandparents took care of me. I missed mother a lot. Worn baths in a wash tub. They bathed us, kissing cousin and I, on the porch in the summer and by a stove in the winter.
Speaker 1:There was also this. It says masturbation reflections 10 to 11 years old. If you masturbate, god will come and kill you. Mom words after she found seminar yellow stain in her underwear one day. She tried to beat me. I fought back. She held my hands behind my back and used the man's belt to whip me. Funny, it hurt, but Sparky liked it. Mother finally quit and said oh my God, what have I done?
Speaker 1:He wrote that he used prostitutes, that he was born in 1939. That he had spent time in Texas, louisiana or Oklahoma down south. As a boy he secretly looked at girly books about subtle masochism and bondage. He went window peeping at age 18 and stole panties. He had hanged a cat than a dog. He traveled overseas in the Air Force in the 1960s and broke into people's houses while under service. He mentioned fantasies, drawings, pictures. He said. Always have to destroy them when I move from base to base Would start over again when the feelings started coming back. By his early 30s he had tried bondage on prostitutes. Some refused to see him again because he was too scary. At age 32 to 34, he was getting the feeling again and it was bad this time.
Speaker 1:He listed other serial killers, including Jack the Ripper, the Boston Strangler, ted Bundy and Richard Speck. He wrote about them as though he had studied their crimes and he said in the letter they all got caught, except the Ripper Could have become a killer and not get caught. The Rambling 2-page Eternal Triangle list is included. The following it says universe and parenthesis, god, cosmos, parenthesis, holy spirit, elements and imparentesis, son, woman, man, sex, psycho, serial killer, btk, btk, victim, police detectives, others, languor details, time hit, hit, thrill kill. It also made reference to PJ Boardwater and PJ Little Key.
Speaker 1:The last item in the package was a shilling collage photos of children. This were cut from Ego's advertisements with gags and bindings drawn on with a sharpie. The words Wichita and vicinity taken from the cover of the 2003 Southwestern Bell Book phone. A phone book served as a headline, but none of this was released to the public. On October 26, johnson Emo assured media advisory to local newsrooms. From the journalist's standpoint, it was unnecessarily vague, it says. Quote recently, the Wichita Police Department obtained another letter that could be connected to the BTK investigation. That letter was submitted to the Federal Bureau of Investigation on Monday, october 25, for authentication. Elle Kelly's call to Johnson to confirm she was talking about the package found in the dropbox was met with a court response and the advisory stands Now.
Speaker 1:One night James Langworth woke up after a nightmare and the wife told him that he should draw and talk about what he had seen. And James said well, I was that he was watching television. There was a knock. No one else was home and then not persisted growing louder. So James opened the door and kneeling on the language front stoop was a big man with a black cape and no head. He rushed in and grabbed James, who screamed. It was a textbook case of a dream describing reality. According to what you know, this is what Cindy thought. The headless man was BTK, whose face was unknown.
Speaker 1:Rayner had picked out in the meantime his 11th victim, scouting her for weeks. She was in her fifties and lived alone. Thinking of what he would do to her make him feel energized. She has seen the online message board chatter. He knew that some people dismiss him as old and feeble, no longer dangerous. And you know, in his mind was like old, I'm just 59 feeble. I'm not feeble, I'm going to prove it. So in the latest living room, or perhaps in a barn, he would drill holes in a support beam, install eyeballs incomprehensible hang his next victim. He had bought cables and a come along, the ratcheting tool used to tie wire fence. He would create his scene like a stage director A crucifixion with the victim stretched by cables tied to her arms and legs, and he would wrap her in plastic. When all was done, he was set fire to the scene, leaving Langworth to ponder what he had done.
Speaker 1:In late October Raiders set out to scout the woman one last time. There was road construction near the house. The work slow traffic on 2nd street and constructed escape routes In. That worried him so he postponed the crucifixion. In November Chief Williams traveled to FBI headquarters in Washington and asked for additional personnel and equipment. Provided background about the case. Noted that the killer's July letter included a clear threat. Soon the FBI was commuting more people and they were commuting more computers. The task force was about to provide a lot more tips.
Speaker 1:On November 30, langworth co-ordinated another news conference. In this conference he acknowledged that BTK has provided certain background information about himself which he claimed is accurate. Langworth read more than 20 items, including the following BTK claimed he was born in 1939, making his current age 64-65. He had a cousin named Suzanne, who moved to Missouri. His grandfather played the fiddle in Diathlon disease. His father died in World War II. His mother dated a railroad detective. He had an Hispanic acquaintance named Petra, who had a younger sister named Tina. He had repaired copiers. He was in the military in the 1960s. He had a lifelong fascination with trains and had always lived near a railroad. Langworth asked for help in identifying anyone with a similar background.
Speaker 1:The amateur sleuth on the online discussion board loved it. Other people did not. A lot of people in town were sick of the BTK coverage. A caller to the ego complained and said, quote the only reason BTK should be in the news is if he's captured. The media should stop feeding into his ego with all the coverage. The scary music that TV stations add to the BTK stories is humorous.
Speaker 1:Btk's clues led detectives down frustrating paths. Detectives called the Federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention for help compiling a list of mining locations where people might contract long disease. They cross-checked the suspect list with railroad workers and hobbyists and now many sets of sisters named Petra and Tina in the right age range could there be. Police compiled a list of 27 from across the nation. A dozen pairs were from the southwest, the next were BTK hinted he was front, and one set was from Wichita, which the online sleuths quickly discovered. Toward off harassment, the sisters issued a written statement denying any connection to the silver killer and pointing out they were of Bulgarian descent. We'll be right back.
Speaker 1:At 9.30 am on December 1st 2004, reported Tim Potter found several messages awaiting him at the ego from a good source who was frantically trying to give him a tip. About 20 cops were about to kick in a door in south Wichita and arrest someone. The caller said it sounded like the cops thought they had found BTK. The address was near railroad tracks. So Potter reporter Stan Finger, photographer Randi Tobias and Bo Rader headed toward the location. They found out in separate cars, trying not to alert the suspect. They didn't see any sign of an impending arrest. No marked cars, no signs of surveillance Superplex. Potter parked a couple of blocks down and watched the little white house At the ego. Other reporters started looking up public records on the man who owned the house and apparently he was 65. He lived across the street from train tracks. He was Hispanic, as some eyewitness reports and linguists have suggested BTK might be. He had lived in Wichita his whole life.
Speaker 1:That afternoon as Potter drove down the side street in the working class neighborhood, he noticed a small blue sedan following. He recognized it as one of the unmarked cars used by detectives. So Potter pulled over the sedan, stopped, outstepped Otis looking irritated and asked him what are you doing? And he said working. And Otis said you need to stay out of the way and stay out of sight. Set off private property. Otis was furious. He walked back to his car called Langworth and told him that Potter was sticking out the stakeout. So of course Langworth blew his stack. He told Otis to come back to the office. He called back the other detectives as well.
Speaker 1:The ego was onto an investigation that had started early that morning with another tip. A source the police never named had tipped them at that a man named Roger Valadez might be BTK. When Galt Ralph and Otis went to his house to ask for a DNA sample, they saw movement through a window, but no one answered their knock. Potter had pulled within viewing distance as the cops waited to hear whether outstanding warrants not related to BTK would give them legal authority to enter Valadez's house. So the detective asked Langworth, what do we do now? They were cursing reporters. They were dropping F bombs. Part of it was anger, where ego reporters hunted them while they hunted BTK. Part of it was sleep deprivation they were strung out dead on their feet. Part of it was they really thought this might be their guy. And Otis wondered whether reporters were following detectives when they left the city parking garage. If so, they were flirting with obstruction of justice charges.
Speaker 1:Now Porter called El Kelly and said you know, I have been made. Otis pulled me over, so this seal it if Otis was there. It was about BTK. But this also complicated things. The reporter and detective knew the law and they were both just doing their jobs. The journalists had a right to observe from their cars as long as they don't impede the cops. Kelly told Porter that if a cop said he was obstructing an investigation and ordered him to leave, he shoots back off and call her immediately. But editors would sort it out from there. But it didn't come to that the day we're on.
Speaker 1:Reporters and photographers wanted awaited, I should say, in shifts for something to happen. It looked as though the cops were not coming back, but they might. Now the Nike Cups reporter from the ego, dana Strungin. She took her turn as the stakeout stretch into the afternoon. After several hours Laviana drove out to let her take a dinner break. When Strungin tried to start her car she found the battery was dead because she had been running the heater to stay warm. Laviana said that he would jump start her car, but it took the two of them 10 minutes to get their car hoods open and then they fumbled with cables in the dark. Finally, about 7.30pm, laviana noticed a flurry of activity at the house. Minutes later, ego photographer Travis Haynes flashed capture an image of Valadiz being led from his home in cops by two uninformed cops and detective Tim Ralph.
Speaker 1:Police hauled a few bags and boxes out of the house. They booked them in into the Sedwick County jail on outstanding warrants, alleging criminal with trespass, housing code violations from years earlier. Minor changes After things from years earlier, I would say after years, sorry, after things have been quiet for a while. Strungin walked up to the house and she knocked. Someone picked out, but no one answered. And then she saw a man with a flashlight and she said what's your name, who are you with? And so she told him in that method that he was with the KBI. Strungin recognized him as Larry Thomas, one of the agency's best homicide investigators. They were going to occupy the house for the night. He said you need to get off this property.
Speaker 1:At the Eagle, reporters checking public records realized that the arrested man had a cup of grown children and an ex-wife who lived in West Wichita. Porter went to the ex-wife's address. He told the young man who answered the door that his father had been arrested and that preliminary information indicated that police might consider his father to be a BTK suspect. Porter chose his words carefully. The young man sat stunned and he said that they just celebrated his father's birthday. He was retired. He had worked at Coldman most of his life.
Speaker 1:At the newspaper editor Cherry Chisholm, tim Rogers, al Kelly and others passionately debated what to report. This was a major scoop and Porter's interview with the man's son was an ego exclusive. But what if police had the wrong man? Was it worth possibly ruining an innocent man's life or risking a lawsuit? Reporters and editors called confidential sources close to the BTK investigation to gauge the situation. In the end the ego reported that something unusual had happened in South Wichita, an arrest involving a large number of police, including homicide detectives, the KBI. But Chisholm played the story inside the paper, keeping the man's name and address and the term BTK out of the story. She also temporarily held off running Porter's separate story. She also temporarily held off running Porter's desperate story, separate story, his interview with the man's son. So Chisholm's instincts were right.
Speaker 1:But after the story broke in about 1.15 am December 2nd on the EGOS website, local television stations scramble to catch up and play the story big. They connected the dots by checking the jail's booking blog and by 5 am they all have gone live with reports from outside the man's home On television station broadcast the man's name and they call him a BTK suspect. So many blockers gathered by 7.30 am that radio traffic reporters or reports advised commuters to avoid the area. His neighbors were quoted on camera saying they couldn't believe that BTK lived nearby. Reporters commented on how creepy was seeing children's toys in his yard. The scene was broadcast on national TV that afternoon.
Speaker 1:Chief Williams denounced the news coverage. He said it's in quote it is a travesty when you look at the impact and you look at what has happened to our neighborhood because of the fact that people assume that the Wichita Police Department was making an arrest in regards to BTK. Officers had no choice but to arrest Valdez because of his old warrants, he said. But this was released from jail about an hour after the chief's announcement. But he was afraid to go home. Crowds watched as cops returned a vanload of items to the house After getting so little out of the task force for the past nine months. Potter felt it was a crew when he got languored to say on the record a few days later that Valdez had been swapped and eliminated as a BTK suspect.
Speaker 1:But a month after that Valdez told Potter his version of the arrest. He had felt feverish in bed. That day around 7.30pm he heard pounding on his door. Police forced it open. Valdez saw a punch of guys with gum. They didn't mention Valdez sorry, they didn't mention BTK, but they said they had a search warrant for his DNA. They were going to take it from him one way or another. According to the officer, two officers had to have held him by his shoulders and a third took a mouse swab and for the next several hours investigators hauled items out of his house that included papers, typewriters, photographs and he said police trampled his family photographs and knocked holes in the walls. Later he heard a woman on TV call him a murderer.
Speaker 1:He sued some of the news outlets over their coverage. He knew some facts about him, matched some of the BTK background released the day before his arrest. He was the right age, he had served in the military, he lived near the railroad tracks. But still there was more to his life than that. He was a hard worker. He spent 29 years at Coleman. He was at Coleman as a manager. He was a loving father of three. He had three grandchildren. He was baffled about why the police suspected him and Valadés sued and he won a 1.1 million judgment against MS Communications, which vowed to appeal. He unfortunately died a month later.
Speaker 1:The Valadés episode left the cops feeling prickly about. Reporters Langworth reminded detectives to keep their mouths shut. Otis worried that there was a leak on the task force. He repeatedly asked Potter to tell how he knew to go to Valadés' neighborhood. Otis even offered to trade information. Give it to me, I'll give you something you want. This is Potter talking, who declined and at this time he couldn't reveal his source. Asked the Insider about leaks approached Paranoia, otis himself came under suspicion One day. He saw KAKE reporter Jeanine Kiesling outside City Hall. Otis thought she looked particularly fetching in her score that day so he said hello. In a moment of innocent fun they made small talk for 13 seconds and then Otis joined a group of BTK detectives and said what were you telling her? We'll be right back Now let's go and discover what happened between December 2004 and January 2005.
Speaker 1:Wigita Mayor Carlos Mayans told Chief Williams one day that he had received many emails about the BTK case. In the emails they were suggesting to replace Langworth. And Mayans asked what do you think about those emails? And the Chief got upset about the question. He said I'm not going to replace Lieutenant Langworth. Ken is the best. Who better knows the ins and outs of this case than Langworth? Using him would send a bad message in the midst of the investigation. He could not control public opinion but he could control who ran the task force, and it was going to be Langworth. The Mayor did not dare to bring it up again but reporters said the ego heard rumors that Langworth was going to be tired or be replaced and they asked their sources about it and Johnson even told Langworth one day I just want to kill some of these people who complain. And Langworth would say you don't want to do that, you don't want to kill anybody. But if you do kill someone and this is him joking he said don't worry about it, I know how to make it Anything look like a suicide. But of course this is Langworth's dark sense of humor. Now let's see what happens in December.
Speaker 1:December 8th, raider made another call from a payphone to alert the media. He had not done such a thing since the day after his triangle Nancy Fox, 27 years earlier. But he was enjoying the publicity now. He would tell KAKETV where to find the latest BTK package. And this voice come on the phone and says hello, kaketv, this is BTK. And the worker said yeah, right, and hang up.
Speaker 1:Irritated, raider looked up another number in dial and he said it was Helzberg's jewelers and he said this is BTK, there is. And of course they hang up. He tried other numbers but people kept hanging up on him. Back in the 1970s pranksters had terrorized women by placing such phone calls. People were determined not to fall for that kind of sick joke now. So he got mad. He called a convenience store at 3216 East Harry Was a quick trip and the worker answered and he said do not hang up, there is a bomb in your store. This is BTK. That got attention. Brandon Sainer, the assistant manager, came to the phone. Raider told him to write down instructions and Raider said I'm calling to tell you of a BTK package at 9th and Minnesota on the northeast corner. And he hang up. Sainer called the cops.
Speaker 1:Raider walked away from the payphone steaming about the hangups. Some of the people who hang up on him had sounded young. The younger generation he thought they don't understand was important. The location Raider had given was near Moorduck Park next to Interstate I-35. When Langworth got there he noticed an empty Wichita Eagle newspaper rag, a likely place to leave the package. He thought he dug in his pockets for 50 cents. In the bottom of the rag Langworth found paper and a piece of rope trash. He began to walk Moorduck Park with patrol officers. They looked into trash cans, peered behind bushes. It was getting dark. Neighbors could see flashlights and dancing like fireflies in winter. They couldn't find the package.
Speaker 1:Three days later, america's most wanted television show that combines crime reporting with theatrics broadcast a BTK segment that had been filmed in Wichita. The show's producers tried to cozy up to the task force and the producers would call the police spokeswoman and say we're non-media, we're law enforcement, and Johnson would say no, you're media Undeterred. An America's most wanted host, john Walsh, announced on the show that he said I'm here to catch BTK. The producers pushed the cops for inside information and gave viewers the false impression that they got it. When Walsh said on the air that he had been asked to help with the BTK case, schiff Williams was furious because it wasn't true. Watch his confrontational we're coming after you style irritated the chief because it ran counter to language strategy of trying to establish a dialogue with BTK.
Speaker 1:America's most wanted aired incorrect information in its broadcast and its live online chat room. Were members of the so-called America's most wanted BTK task force, collected viewers questions and tips During the online discussion. An American most wanted employee identified as BTK Task Force 3 and he wrote that BTK wore camouflage and hid his face during the 1974 attack on Catherine and Kevin Bright. Not true. Not all reviews from the cops were unflattering. Ralph said that. He said I have nothing but good things to say about John Walsh. He is a sincere man, but Ralph got Otis and Snyder. They did refend it, him as well. They hoped that the show's nation one read would turn up something useful. Ralph and Otis flew to Washington DC to help when the show asked viewers for tips on the case. Otis killed Natal, like in Walsh, whose career pursuing criminals had started with his young son, when his young son had been kidnapped and murdered. And something like that never leaves you, no matter what happens after Now.
Speaker 1:In the case of BTK, the show generated lots of attention but unfortunately no good leads. Late on December 13, a man named William Ronald Irvin saw a package near a tree as he walked through Murdock Park. He took it to his mother's house. The small white trash bag contained a clear plastic zig bag. Inside was a doll with its hands tied behind its back. There was sheets of paper held against the door with rubber bands and the driver's license of Nancy Fox, who have been dead for 27 years. Irving's mother recognized the same. She glanced at the television. So a news tip from me. A number for K, k8, ktv on the screen.
Speaker 1:After camera man arrived at the house and shot video of the package lying on the carpet. Kk cut the cops, or you know language orders. An officer walked in, pick up the, the package and walk out. K a, k, e didn't Get the shot. Language was intrigued by how pristine Nancy's driver's License looked. Btk had taken care of it. He had punched a small hole at one edge so he could tie it with a white string to the door's angles. Language and chief Williams were even more Intrigued that BTK had sent them the license.
Speaker 1:Silver killers would never give up trophies, but BTK had. Was he getting rid of incriminating souvenirs? Was he dying and using his trophies to have some fun at the last? Maybe he thought the cops were getting close? Williams suggested maybe he was unloading evidence. Btk had run pubic here on the half naked doll and wrapped Panny hose around his neck.
Speaker 1:A two-page letter title chapter 9 hits PJ Fox, tale 12, 8, 77 show that BTK was proud of what he had done and what he wanted to give the cops, which was a lot of information. And he said I spotted Nancy one day while crushing the area, find out her name by checking her mailbox and track her to work Up close. I visited the store where she worked, asking for some jewelry on display and bought some cheap jewelry. By the way, the jewelry I stole from Nancy I gave to another girlfriend. Natural I didn't tell my girlfriend where we came from. Btk was beginning to write in a confiding conversational tone. He said, quote on that date.
Speaker 1:I parked a few blocks away, walk to her apartment, cut the phone line and broke in waiting. She came home, enters and was confronted in the kitchen. She was startled and started to get the phone. I told her I had knife and display the magnum in my shoulder, hoster. We talked about sex and the harm if she didn't cooperate. She lit a smoke while we chatted and finally she said let's get this over with so I can call the police. He let her go to the bathroom, make her just rope and then handcuff her. He said. I pulled down her panties quickly, slipped my belt over her head and on to the neck, pull right, pull tight, but not the final stranglehold. Her hands found my scorpion and she tried to dig into my balls, but I pulled tighter and this increased my sexual thrill. I released the stranglehold and let her come back. After she passed out I spoke softly into her left ear. I was wanted for the ateros and others murdered, and she was next. She begun to really struggle. Then I did the final hold this my torture, mental and restrangle.
Speaker 1:Sbt Keiki news director Glenn Horn, a 38 year old veteran of intense locomedia competition in South Florida, had reminded his staff to always cooperate with police. But he also thought Ka ke and all which it, a news media, had been too accommodating to the cops. Horn said he never would have agreed to sit on the BTK resurfaces story for two days, as they go had done in March. He was tired of how the cops refused to answer questions, even with the BTK messages came to Ka ke. He did not think that was fair to the viewers who were also taxpayers and potential BTK victims. He didn't think it was too much to expect to get a few questions answered and video of the cops doing something Such as opening a BTK package. He said that they should never interfere with investigation, but they should never be naive either. Several BTK drug locations were close to I 135 and he was looking his working his way north. Long would wonder whether police should put up pull cameras on the interstate so Investigators could check every license plate, and that passed on days when BTK made his drops. They talked about it, but it was in practical. Thousands of drivers use I 135 every day, they will get nuclear images. Some cars will be obscured by other vehicles as they pass at 60 miles per hour. So they decided instead to try to coax BTK into taking more risks.
Speaker 1:On January 4th Wichita endured one of the most destructive ice storms in its history. Rain fell heavily, froze quickly on tree limbs which began to break off and pulled down power lines. The breaking limbs sounded like cannon fire for hours. The next day, as tens of thousands of powerless Wichita's filled up local motels and the Ego's newsroom had mobilized to cover the storm, longward made another public statement. He said quote the investigation has revealed that a necklace belonging to Nancy Fox could not be accounted for after her murder. The necklace in question is described as a gold chain with two pearls that were said vertically. Police believe that BTK may have given the necklace to a woman he was dating at the time. He asked that anyone who believes that they have seen this necklace or receive a similar necklace as a gift in December, as a gift in December of 1977 or the early month of 1978, please call the BTK tip line. Police released a photo of Nancy wearing the necklace and they hope that someone will recognize it. They also hope Longward's talk would manipulate BTK into communicating again. It did.
Speaker 1:Four days after the ice storm, a man driving a black jeep Cherokee drove into the parking lot of a Home Depot on North Woodlone in northeast Wichita. The lot was packed, thousands of tree limbs had fallen. Home Depot was selling a lot of chainsaws. Automated security cameras recorded a blurry image of a vehicle circling the lot a few times. Then parking the driver walked to a nearby pickup truck and stood beside it. He appeared to put something into the bed of the truck and then he drove away.
Speaker 1:Ergard Bishop worked at Home Depot. His friend Kelly Paul noticed a special case zero box in the truck bed. Written on the box in black letters were the words bomb and BTK. Pre Bishop thought it was a joke. When he and Paul opened the box they found a beaded necklace and several pages. So the the notes was saying um, that anyone entering BTK's lair would top off an explosion or touch of an explosion. And then another page. There was a long list of PJs, uh, including a paragraph about PJ Wyatt. And it looks silly. Bishop thought someone was pulling his his leg so he threw it in the trash.
Speaker 1:Now, when all this is happening, there is uh, a reverend. His name is Terry Fox and he had grown his Emmanuel Baptist Church by hundreds of members in recent years by preaching a conservative religious message and by reaching out to families, including the poor. He had become a prominent statewide a few months before by leading an effort to put an anti-gay marriage amendment on a statewide referendum. Fox now decided to focus on the city's most prominent worry, so he called for a community prayer meeting on January 11th to persuade BTK to confess his sins. Some local pastors accused him of seeking publicity, but Fox persisted. He had hoped hundreds of people would show, but with people still living in shelters or motels and cleaning up after the storm, the church ended up welcoming only about a hundred people in the gym in two workshops Deputy chief Robert Lee and BTK task force detective Callis Otis and Fox called the killer to action.
Speaker 1:He said you have obviously made very poor choices, even tragic choices, up to this point. As a pastor, I am calling on you today to make the right choice and surrendering so that you can never hurt anyone again. But no one came forward and at the back of the gym, otis started faces in the crowd. Their detectives had donated a lot of duty time. But the department was racking up overtime numbers that strained the budget and there were other pills to pay. So it was with gratitude that the chief took several calls from a Kansas congressman, republican representative, tired in January and he arranged that one million dollars and federal money be sent to help the cops and the. The representative said that to get it he had to basically bottom hole house speaker than his has to and republican mayority leader ton delay, sometimes in their offices, sometimes on the house floor. Williamson Langworth were delighted. They used the money for overtime for rental cars, computers, dna testing and other needs and even though they were grateful, they asked hired to keep his work under behalf. Secret Johnson told that they didn't want BTK to know. So he agreed and he said but if you catch him, I want to be there.
Speaker 1:On January 25th Ka key received a postcard from BTK. The return address was s kill it at 803 north, edgemore a reference to the ottero home, and the letter was labeled communication number eight and it says date week of 117, 2005. Where, between 69th north and 77th north on Seneca street Contents post toasties, box c9, pj. Little little mix in dull hunt of ks acronym list and jewelry. There were more but new start recto glenhorn, toda a kl reporter, chris frank, to drive immediately to the isolated Road that btk mentioned and see if there was a package.
Speaker 1:Horn then tried to decide what to tell the cops. He had tried, as the btk story had unfolded, to do the right thing, sometimes consulting with journalism ethics experts at the pointer institute. He badly wanted ka key to have exclusive access to whatever happened next. He called the cops to say ka key had a postcard and long went to otis to go get it. Otis hurried into the lobby minutes later and asked horn for the postcard. To his amazement, horn started trying to negotiate a deal. Horn told him he wanted a video of the cops opening the package if one was found at the location name and the postcard, and he also wanted chief williams to come to ka key so they could get a video of him. And otis said you know, this is a homicide investigation. I need that message now. But horn kept talking in a quiet, a bruised tone and otis pulled out his cell phone and he called line word and explained Uh, what horn wanted.
Speaker 1:Otis then handed his cell phone to horn. He said he wants to talk to you. And horn took the phone and line word said look, I'm not gonna sit here and play. Let's make a deal with you. Detective otis needs that information now. You will either give that information to detective otis immediately or he's going to start arresting you and your people one at a time until your building is emptied out. He will arrest you for interfering with a homicide investigation. And horn said okay, all right. So he handed the phone back To otis and then he gave him the postcard and Otis, you know, left the building.
Speaker 1:Horn would say later that it would not have bothered him to go to jail. You know, he, he, he said quote throw me in a harmonica and I would have sat in jail and play a song, um, but on the other, uh, on the other hand, being nice is has not gotten us anywhere and I was tired of it. So the btk postcard had contained one more cryptic and tantalizing clue. It says let me know somehow if you are with ita pd receive this. Also, let me know if you opd received number seven at home depot drop site I, uh, 1805 thanks. So before he called the cops, horn has spent, has sent news. Anchor larry had her back to the new. The two home depots Start asking around if they have seen anything unusual. And I says he left kak e.
Speaker 1:Otis called gout and ralf and told them to head head to north senica. When otis got there he found out ralf and several people from kak tv clean, the reporters chris frank and janine kissling. Everyone was looking at a post toasty's cereal box festooned with a red creep. Uh, steamer streamer that waited down. It was waited down with a brick, a brick, um. And he was leaning against the base of a world curve, a sign. And of course gout wasn't happy Because this stretch of senica was dirt. The reporters had driven right up the road, swarped close to the sign, so that means that they have obliterated any tire tracks that might have been there. Then they have walked to within the foot of the box. They left footprints in the soft sand. Any hope of finding btk footprints was gone. So gout pointed to cigarette butts lying within a few feet of the box.
Speaker 1:Uh, cops love to find cigarette butts at crime scenes because they can test them for DNA. Gouch told otis that he was going to collect them until kissling told him they were hers. The more Otis heard, the more he got pissed off. They would have to swap kissling now, and maybe they should make an exception in her case and obtain her DNA with a needle and syringe. You know, otis even thought I want blood because he was so mad. So Otis looked around and they were in a rural area north of Wichita, between the towns of Valley Center and Park City, and he started thinking why did BTK put this stuff here? It occurred to him that they were standing within long walking distance of Park City. That's the hometown of Dolores Davis and Marine Hedge. This woman was strangled, with the phone lines cut.
Speaker 1:Langwood showed up a few minutes later with a police lab specialist, patrick Cunningham. Langwood was still hot about the conversation with Horn and he was thinking about asking District Attorney Nola Faust and if KAQ are subtracting justice. Langwood got more irritated when detectives show him the cigarette butts and footprints. And Langwood looked at the reporters and he said did they open the box? And the detectives said no. They said they didn't. But who knows? He said well, chris, do you touch the box? And none of them have touched it, not Chris. Frank, knowing that Langwood had a playful streak, made a little joke. He said well, I was tempted to open it, but I didn't have any milk to go with the cereal and Langwood said well, chris, if you have touched the box I would have made sure that Nola gave you all the milk you needed in jail.
Speaker 1:Langwood walked back to his detectives and he said if we find any indication that they opened it, they are a whole bunch of new people who are going to go to jail today. So Otis showed him the postcard, langwood's and Gouch and Ralph to check out the Home Depot's. When they arrived at the store North Woodlawn, they saw a KAKE truck already there and Hatterberg was inside interviewing people ahead of the detectives. In the post toasters box their detectives found the usual BTK creep. Show A note. Btk's acronym list. Another door, this one with a gag across the mouth and cords binding the wrist, waist, knees and ankles. The door was naked from the waist down, with the pubic area darkened by a marker. Ralph rope connected the doll's neck to a short piece of white plastic pipe. Langwood recognized it as a taunting reminder of Josie Otero.
Speaker 1:The notes show yet again that BTK fancied himself some sort of cop or secret agent. Cops love abbreviations. Btk loved them too and had used a number of them. In this note he explained that SBT means Sparking Big Time or masturbation, sxf, sexual Fantasy, dbs, death by Strangulation, dtpg, death to Pretty Girl. There were many more. There was no reference to the other package mentioned on the postcard and interviews and searches at the two Home Depot stores turned out nothing. Cops asked door managers to post a notice in the employee break rooms asking whether anyone had seen or found anything strange in recent weeks.
Speaker 1:Otis wasn't the only person to note that Seneca Street Zero Box was found so close to Park City and to wonder whether BTK had killed two more people than the cops had the knowledge. Two days after the Seneca Street package was found, the ego published a story by Laviana and Potter pointing out the possible link between the Hedge and Davis homicides and the BTK case. They quoted former cops who said investigators have long suspected the Park City murders were related. Laviana, who had covered both homicides years before, wrote that Park City residents had gossip about this link for years. When Eckhart Bishop saw the notice in the Home Depot break room he came forward immediately and he told the cops about the special K Zero Box in the bed of his pickup. Two weeks earlier Bishop had thrown it away, but then he had gone on vacation so his trash cart had not been taken to the curb and dumped. That means that he still had the package. So Otis and Detective Cheryl Janes delivered it to the FBI lab. They saw BTK's description of how he intended to blow up his house with a propane and gasoline bomb if the cops enter it. That prompted a flip suggestion from Ralph and Otis, who were still angry with the ego for showing up outside Roger Valadez's house two months before. They joked that if BTK's house really was rigged to blow up, the cops are to invite the ego to go in first.
Speaker 1:Much of the writing in the special K box was the usual egocentric material. He liked to call himself Rex, latin for King, but the notes label communication. It was misspelling communication and that was intriguing. He says can I communicate with Floppy and not be traced to a computer? Be honest, under Miscellaneous Section 494, rex, it would be okay, only for a few days, in case I'm out of town. I would try a floppy for a test run sometime in the near future, february or March. So they start thinking was he serious? Otis thought BTK was blowing more smoke. Gouch, snyder and Ralph agree Did BTK think he could communicate with a floppy disk and not leave a trail, as he's stupid enough to think that the cops would be honest about whether a disk was traceable. Of course a floppy was traceable. He's just playing with us, according to Otis. But Langworth said maybe, but we'll try him out anyway. So he prepared to place a personal ad in the Miscellaneous Section of the Ego's classified ads and BTK had written be honest.
Speaker 1:As a young cop Langworth had worked undercover, grooming his hair to his shoulders, chief has dressed sloppily, pretending to sell stolen goods. Langworth had learned he was not good at undercover work because he was no good at lying. It wasn't that he was supposed to lie to criminals, he was just not good at it. But if BTK really was asking for advice about whether a floppy disk was traceable, langworth intended to lie to the best of his ability. So he sent Detective Cheryl James to the Ego. James told a classified ad clerk that her name was Cindy Johnson. She gave a fake telephone number, said that she needed to run an ad for seven consecutive days, starting immediately, and the clerk charged her $76.35. The ad began. As BTK has instructed Rex, it will be okay. The detectives fanned out all over town checking UPC codes, visiting Dollar General stores to determine where BTK shopped for zeros and dolls, and the swabbing continued. A code on the silver box left at Home Depot showed that it came from Leaker's Grocery at 61st and North Broadway in Park City, just north of Wichita, near I-135.
Speaker 1:Team Potter's Marine Corps father had survived combat on Kanaoka and other Pacific islands and Potter learned that if he was patient he could draw his father out and get him to talk about the brutality of the war. So Potter, as a reporter, had made a subspecialty of writing about trauma. When murders occur. He sought out family survivors and asked them to talk and unlike most crime reporters, potter seldom swore and never told macabre jokes. He wrote with insight about tragedy, using interviews with survivors to create many portraits of the dead. He had often been surprised at how willing survivors were to talk because it seemed therapeutic to them.
Speaker 1:With the cops shutting down almost all comment about BTK, potter had found other ways to write about the case. Between breaking news development, he tried for months to get an interview with the owner of the Otero House. In one day she called him in desperation. Three days after the Seneca Street package was found, they go publish the story about her. Her name was Buff Leeds and she and her husband lived at the corner of Moordock and Edgemore. Around the little house they had planted irises, roses, daffodils and lilies of the valley.
Speaker 1:Potter was the first reporter she led into the tiny house. She had hung up on America's most wanted five times until she finally led them in so they would film their segments and go away. Kids had come to her back door and pressed their faces against the glass even before BTK had resurfaced. A year before People parked across the street and stared. Pictures of her house had appeared on the internet. She was sick of strangers coming by, since she and her husband had bought the house years earlier without realizing it was a murder site. They just wanted to be left alone.
Speaker 1:Potter left Ghoulish doing his job. He stood in the kitchen where BTK had confronted the family. Elle Kelly had insisted that he must see the basement where Josie Otero had died. When he asked Leeds if he could go down there, she said no. Now, in the meantime, the Home Depot parking lot of North Woodlawn had three security camels Langward, his detectives, the FBI agents, studied the tapes until they figured out which truck in the busy lot belonged to employee Edcliffe Bishop.
Speaker 1:So as they watched the January tapes, they saw a series of images that they put together in the sequence of a story and at first it was all blur because there were hundreds of vehicles pulling in and out. But then they noticed something interesting. There was a vehicle that circled the lot several times. At 2.37 pm a man got out of that vehicle, approached Bishop's truck, walked around it and it appeared that he might be writing down Bishop's type number. Then the man appeared to put something into the truck and walk away.
Speaker 1:They rolled the tape backward and forward, backward, forward, and they traced the man back to his own vehicle and they kept going backward, forward, backward, forward. They could not make out what kind of vehicle he drove. They enhanced the video. They analyzed the slope of the hood, the slant of the windshield, the reach of the wheelbase. Btk drove a dark color, deep Cherokee. Detectives raced to the computers and checked motor vehicle records. How many dark color, cheap Cherokees were there in the Wichita area? Only 2,500. With a few strokes on the computer keyboard, langworth's detectives have dramatically narrowed the suspect list and on the video, for the first time they have seen a glimpse of BTK. Thank you for listening to the Murderbook. Have a great week.