Inside the Mind of BTK

The Capture and Arrest of BTK 119
“I figured it would be harder for him to shoot me if I was staring
him right in the eyes,” he told me. “I wanted to personalize myself.”
His strategy didn’t appear to work. The robber walked over and
straddled Landwehr, ordering him to look away. “I figured I was a dead
man,” shrugged Landwehr. But for some reason, the man didn’t pull
the trigger. Instead, he and his accomplice, who had tied up the other
employees in the back of the store, ran out the front door with an
armful of suits.
A few hours later, Landwehr sat in a room with two detectives and
looked through a stack of mug shots. After a few minutes, he thumped
his index finger on one of the photos, informing them that this was
the guy who he’d heard called Butch during the heist. Both detectives
started grinning.
“That’s Butch Jordan,” they informed Landwehr, patting him on
the back, thanking him for his help.
But, much to Landwehr’s frustration, the police never seemed to go
after the career criminal. It wasn’t until a couple of months later when
Jordan shot an off-duty cop while robbing a liquor store that officers
finally raided one of his known haunts and arrested him. Landwehr
promptly picked him out of a lineup, and, one afternoon shortly before
the case went to trial, the young law student found himself seated in
the Sedgwick County district attorney’s office, discussing the matter.
Landwehr glanced over at a table full of evidence seized during
Butch Johnson’s arrest and noticed a familiar looking pair of pants
and a vest.
“Where’d you get that?” he asked.
“That’s what Butch was wearing when they picked him up,” the
prosecutor replied.
Landwehr stared at the table a moment longer, then announced, “I
got a suit coat that matches those clothes back at the store.”
The DA looked at him, not quite sure what he was hearing. “What
do you mean?” he asked.
“When Butch ran out of the store, he dropped the jacket to those
pants on his way out,” Landwehr told him.“I’ve still got it if you want it.”
The DA smiled, then told him to get back to the clothing store and
fetch the jacket. Two weeks later, Johnson was convicted of two counts
of armed robbery and the attempted murder of a police officer and is
still serving time at the Lansing Correctional Facility near Kansas City.
The experience left a deep impact on Landwehr. Not so much
because it marked the first time he’d been instrumental in helping take