Inside the Mind of BTK

104 INSIDE THE MIND OF BTK
As I spoke, I was reminded of something else. “A long rope is his
fantasy,” I said. “It’s his imagery. He talks about this in his letters. He’s
a writer. But he can also draw his fantasies. Look at his doodling. Part
of his trophies is in the form of images he takes from his scenes. It’s
what helps him relive his kills. I still think he photographed his
scenes.”
Hazelwood nodded in agreement, so I continued: “Since we know
he rifles through the drawers and purses of his victims, but doesn’t
seem to be taking monies or property, I think that’s indicative of not
needing money. So he must have an income to sustain himself.”
“Going through drawers is a sophisticated, extended means of
voyeurism,” said Walker. “You can bet that as a juvenile he had a
voyeuristic history.”
“In his late teens he might have hung or strangled feminine animals
like cats or cows,” said Hazelwood. “He would have done this
close to his home, so he could watch how the people around him
reacted. The police might go back and check if they ever had any
reports of that sort of thing.”
“I see this guy as being in the lower-middle class,” I said. “He’s
not going to have much cash. Because of that, I don’t think he’d have
the income to pay a mortgage. So I’d expect he’d be living in a rental
property.”
“Yeah,” said Walker. “He’d have a lower-paying white collar job, as
opposed to blue collar. But he’s a quasi-professional. Not poor, but not
middle class either.”
Hazelwood didn’t buy this. “I see him differently,” he said. “He’s
middle class, intelligent, articulate, but he’s also an underachiever. He
selects victims he feels superior to, so I’d expect him to be killing victims
in a class just below him.”
The smell of gunpowder, no doubt the result of some forensic
experiment gone awry in a nearby lab down the hall, seeped into the
conference room. For some reason at that moment, the odor triggered
a memory of my days spent in basic training, back in the Air Force.
And this reminded me of another thought I’d had a few days earlier,
something I couldn’t shake.
“He’s connected with the military,” I said. “Possibly the Air Force.
I know there’s an Air Force base near Wichita. Maybe he worked security
there. If he’s still in Wichita, that could be the reason. Maybe he
was recently discharged and stuck around for a while. Perhaps he was
taking college courses in criminology at Wichita State University in