Inside the Mind of BTK

The Capture and Arrest of BTK 263
There are moments in life when things become as clear as a freshly
cleaned windshield. Landwehr told me that this was one of those
moments. Because it was at that exact instant when Dennis Rader
uttered his name that he knew the man he’d been pursuing for the last
two decades was going to sing until someone told him to shut up.
For the first few minutes of the short drive, the three men sat quietly
as the community that Rader had terrorized for over three decades
rolled past the windows. Rader told my source that he tried to keep
his eyes riveted on the passing scenery, doing his best to look cool and
unflustered. He glanced up at the helicopter flying overhead.
After a few minutes, Landwehr told me, he turned toward Rader
and said, “Nice day outside. Good golfing weather. You play golf, Mr.
Rader?”
The expression on the handcuffed man’s face instantly softened.
“No,” he said, “Not much of a golfer. I garden and fish, mostly.”
He paused, peered back out the window and up at the helicopter.
He looked almost pleased, Landwehr told me.
“It certainly is a nice day,” he continued, starting to open up now.
“Spring is coming. I made some notes about that just the other day.
The flowers are coming up. You know, I saw some robins in the area
the other day. Canadian robins, I imagine. Probably just passing
through the area. I feed the birds, you know. Just to keep an eye on
them.”
Within minutes of arriving at the Epic Center, Rader was taken to
the fourth floor interrogation room, which was filled with computers,
printers, radios, and fax machines. He was still wearing his compliance
uniform. One of the men waiting for him in the room wiped
the inside of his mouth with cotton swabs, gathering saliva for a DNA
test. Crime technicians at the KBI’s crime lab were anxiously awaiting
the sample.
He was led to a chair and asked to take a seat.
Because a police wannabe and egomaniac like Rader would probably
be excited to know that an FBI agent had traveled to Wichita from
FBI headquarters just to interview him, Landwehr asked FBI behavioral
analyst Bob Morton to join in on this phase of the interview.
Morton sat at the table beside Landwehr. They both wore black suits.
“I’m from Quantico,” Morton said. “I flew all the way out here for
this ...because this is a very, very interesting investigation for us. I
mean, we’ve been looking at it off and on for thirty years.”