Inside the Mind of BTK

220 INSIDE THE MIND OF BTK
sixty-two-year-old retired secretary at an oil and gas company. Before
long, he decided that she seemed to have everything going for her—
all the qualities he required of his victims. For weeks on end during
the closing months of 1990, he’d lie in bed and fantasize about all the
things he wanted to do to her.
One afternoon in mid-January 1991, the fantasies had grown so
real that he decided it didn’t make sense to wait any longer. A few
nights later on January 18, shortly after attending a Boy Scout function
with his son, he changed out of his scouting uniform at a Baptist
church near his home, then drove out near her house on North Hillside
Street in Park City. He parked a couple miles away.
It was so cold outside that the only thing that kept him warm on
that moonless night during his twenty-five-minute walk to her house
were the thoughts of what he was on the verge of doing.
Davis’s bedroom light was still on when he arrived in her front
yard. She was inside reading. He paced around in the darkness, waiting
for her to go to bed. It occurred to him that he didn’t have a clue
about how he was going to get inside. The locks on her doors were all
sturdy. It would come to him, he told himself. He just needed to be
patient. It made him crazy to know that his victim was inside, oblivious
to the wolf that lurked just beyond her walls.
After what felt like an eternity, Davis switched off her bedside light
and climbed into bed. Rader waited for another thirty minutes, then
decided the time had come to make his move. If there was some neat
and orderly way to get inside, he couldn’t figure out what it might be.
He decided to wing it. He’d never done that before with one of his
projects—at least not to gain entry. But, as he would later tell
Landwehr, he was “hell bent for leather, and Factor X had kicked in.”
According to his journal, he stood there in her backyard looking
around for something, anything he could use to help him get inside.
When he finally spotted a cinder block lying near the patio, he knew
exactly what he needed to do. After slicing through the outside phone
line, he picked up the block, gripping the sides of it firmly with his
hands; he crept up on the back porch, then heaved the block through
the large sliding-glass door. The sound of the glass shattering made
one helluva loud noise.
Davis came running out of her bedroom to see what had happened
and discovered Rader standing in her family room. She thought
a car had slammed into the side of her house, but he quickly set her
straight, telling her he was ex-con on the run.