Inside the Mind of BTK

Meeting BTK: An Exclusive Interview 309
“You know a lot about me,” he said, smiling. “But you know
Berkowitz was also different than me. He was after lovers in the
park—and his crimes, like you wrote in one of your books, were
impersonal....You know they have another serial killer in here
named John Robinson.”
“I know all about John Robinson,” I told him. “I wrote a book
about him several years ago.”
“You did?” he asked. “I never saw that one.”
“Nobody did,” I said.“Nobody wanted to read about John Robinson.”
“He was sort of like me because of all the bondage stuff he was
into,” Rader said. “But he was into that whole discipline and
masochistic stuff which I’m not. He was more sophisticated than me
when he chose his victims. He often used the Internet to lure them
in ...I found mine the old-fashioned way. I got in my car and started
driving.
“You know, I used to love driving around with classical music on,
looking for projects in areas where I felt comfortable, where I knew
my way around and felt familiar with the streets. I can’t tell you how
many times I cruised past the homes of my past victims over the years.
I’d slow down and stare at the house and felt this feeling of accomplishment
settle over me because that house was my trophy. It
reminded me of what I’d gotten away with, of a secret I knew and
nobody else did.”
“Did you ever visit the graves of any of your victims?” I asked.
“No, but I cut their obituaries out of the newspaper and read
them over and over again. But I never went to the cemeteries, though.
I’d read that the cops sometimes staked out those places, so it didn’t
seem to be a safe place to go.”
“What about if the police had organized a community meeting
for residents, in order to update them on the killings and ask for citizen
volunteers. Would you have attended?” I asked.
“No way,” he said, shaking his head. “I’d know for certain that the
place would be filled with police just waiting for me to show up.”
I told him about my super-cop theory, explaining how the intended
goal was to make the UNSUB identify with a single officer instead of
an entire police force. As he listened, his eyes grew wide, and his
tongue darted over his top lip as if he were trying to wet it.
“Yes,” he said, grasping what it was I was speaking about. “Ken
Landwehr was kinda like that. For the longest time I really liked him.
He seemed like a good cop, a straight shooter. The two of us would