Inside the Mind of BTK

The Capture and Arrest of BTK 149
ment. He slowly but systematically worked his way from one merit
badge to the next.
Scouting also allowed him to put his fascination with string and
bindings to productive use, especially when it came time to begin
learning how to tie knots. Before long he was showing the same kind
of enthusiasm for his knots as he had on that snowy afternoon in sixth
grade when he sketched out his ghastly, deadly girl trap. Those close
to him couldn’t help but notice how proud he appeared to be of his
skills, once displaying them on a board at a meeting, the names of each
creation written out on tiny pieces of paper pinned beneath each knot.
His favorite, according to one of his friends, was the clove hitch.
“It’s one of the most elementary types of hitch knots,” he once
explained. “But what I like about it is that it’s quick to tie and easy to
slip over something. Additionally, it’s one of the easiest to untie, even
after a load has been applied.”
One summer, Rader traveled to New Mexico’s Philmont Scout
Ranch with his troop and embarked on a fifty-mile hiking expedition
through the Sangre de Cristo Range of the Rocky Mountains. Yet
Rader, who was a stickler for details and for following instructions,
just couldn’t bring himself to abide by one of the most stringent
requirements: nobody’s backpack could weigh more than forty-five
pounds. The way his friend interpreted it, Rader had clearly taken the
Boy Scout motto of always being prepared to heart, insisting on bringing
a pack filled with nearly seventy pounds of gear and supplies. The
troop leaders were hardly thrilled by the young hiker’s enormous pack,
but they told him he could bring it—provided he carry it during the
entire trek.
He did. And if it was ever too heavy, he never let on.
But then, Rader hardly divulged much of what was going on
inside him to anyone. God only knows what he had stashed away
inside his pack. I have a hunch it wasn’t survival gear he carried, but
gear for his own self-pleasure. Because the one thing I knew about
Rader was that, even at this young age, he’d developed a serious yearning
for isolation. It’s likely he anticipated that this trip might provide
him the opportunity to act out his self-bondage fantasies while others
slept.
During most of his time in high school, Rader put in long hours
at Leeker’s Family Foods, working as a bagboy, trying to save up
enough money for a car. Working was hardly a sacrifice, as deep down