Inside the Mind of BTK

244 INSIDE THE MIND OF BTK
“What in God’s name did you pull from his letter?” I asked. “Anything
that turned out to be useful?”
Landwehr reached into his folder and plucked out a copy of the
release police distributed. It read like this:
• He claims he was born in 1939, which would make his current age 64 or 65.
• His father died in World War II, and his mother raised him.
• His mother was forced to work, so his grandparents cared for him.
• His mother worked during the day near the railroad.
• He had a cousin named Susan, who moved to Missouri.
• His family moved a lot, but always lived near a railroad.
• His grandfather played the fiddle and died of a lung disease.
• His mother started dating a railroad detective when BTK was around 11 years old.
This relationship would have occurred during the years 1950–1955.
• In the early 1950s he built and operated a ham radio.
• He has participated in outdoor hobbies including hunting, fishing and camping.
• As a youth he attended church and Sunday school.
• He had a female, Hispanic acquaintance named Petra, who had a younger sister
named Tina.
• Around 1960, he went to tech military school. He then joined the military for active
duty and was discharged in 1966.
• He has a basic knowledge of photography and the ability to develop and print
pictures.
• In 1966 he moved back in with his mother who had re-married and was renting
out part of her house.
• His first job was as an electro-mechanic, requiring some travel.
• After attending more tech school, he worked repairing copiers and business equipment;
this sometimes required travel and he was away from home for extended
periods.
• He admits to soliciting prostitutes.
• He has a lifetime fascination with railroads and trains.
After immersing myself in his journals and talking to his friends,
I could clearly see that nearly everything Rader purported to be biographical
truth was anything but. He’d sprinkled a few tiny shreds of
veracity into the “life story” he sent to police, but it was all so general
and ambiguous that it gave investigators nothing to work with.
Why on earth Landwehr and his men spent any time and
resources trying to make sense out of his nonsense initially escaped
me. Clearly all Rader wanted to do was fling as much disinformation