Inside the Mind of BTK

My Lifelong Hunt for BTK 85
my opinion, their best course of action was to keep the heat turned
up on the UNSUB, to force him to continue looking over his shoulder,
asking himself when police were going to come crashing through
his back door.
Not surprisingly, LaMunyon’s announcement sent a collective
shudder through the community, especially when, several days later,
an unfounded rumor began sweeping through the city. BTK, it
seemed, targeted only the occupants of residences “located on the west
side of a north- and south-running street with a house address containing
a number three within it.” Even if this had been true, I would
have written it off to coincidence. Serial killers, I’d learned, are far
more interested in finding a victim who—because of his or her various
traits and attributes—satisfied them psychologically, rather than
one who has a certain number in his or her street address.
BTK’s habit of cutting the outside phone lines of his victims
was also mentioned in the press conference. That evening, thousands
of residents throughout the city began a ritual that would last for
years: the first thing they did upon entering their home was check
to see if the phone worked. Others made it a habit—before entering
their house—to dial their home number from a pay phone, to see
if their phone rang.
Within days, the sale of guns soared. So did the demand for additional
door locks and peepholes and Mace. Because anyone could be
the killer, nobody felt safe, and every stranger seemed like a suspect.
Paranoia swept through the community like fire through a prairie
grassland—which certainly must have sent shivers of ecstasy up the
UNSUB’s spine.
Because, at its core, BTK’s letter was no different than the ones the
Son of Sam used to pen during his one-year killing spree that began
in July 1976. Like the Son of Sam, BTK wasn’t seeking notoriety initially,
but he soon took that direction when the press began running
stories. Both offenders relished the publicity, and each felt good about
the terror and fear they were creating and causing to unfold in their
respective communities. Both had become the bogeyman, a role to
which they quickly became addicted.
Police were initially stumped about the way BTK opened his communiqué,
complaining about “the newspaper not writing about the
poem on Vain.” Of course, it didn’t take Sherlock Holmes to understand
that the killer was referring to Shirley Vian. Within hours of
LaMunyon’s press conference, the full answer became apparent when