"Oh! What a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive."  Sir Walter Scott

Nightmare in Wichita: The Hunt for the BTK Strangler

           The press has told the story worldwide and CBS is already looking at turning it into a TV movie. A home invader in Wichita, Kansas commits ten torture-murders all the while sending the police taunting clues, even, in one letter, choosing the name he would be known by: "The code words for me will be . . . Bind them, torture them, kill them, B.T.K." Seventeen years after his last known crime the killer once again begins to taunt the police in "communications" sent to news media and left in public places. What made him return? Many people believe it was the upcoming publication of Robert Beattie's book, Nightmare in Wichita: The Hunt for the BTK Strangler.

           It's an ugly story, but one that is well worth telling, and Beattie tells it well. It's also one that I, however slightly, was personally involved with.

           Robert Beattie is an attorney who lives in Wichita, Kansas and teaches at a local university.   In 2002 he began research into the unsolved BTK murders as preparation for a mock grand jury investigation for his students.  As he continued his research, he realized that the story was so far-reaching and complex that a book had to be written to tell it.

           Nightmare in Wichita is divided into four parts.  "The Slaughter" tells of BTK's first murders and the clues which forced the Wichita police department to come to grips with the fact a serial killer was loose in their city.  "The Hot Dog Squad" tells of the later murders and what happens to the City when BTK's crimes become public.  "The Ghostbusters" chronicles the investigation conducted by a hand-picked group of detectives after the case grows cold.   Finally, "The Hunted Emerges From Hiding" tells Beattie's story, why he decided to write the book and his own research into the case, as well as BTK's reappearance after a seventeen year silence.

           The first thing one notices about the book is its respectful treatment of the victims and their families. The crimes are gory and sensational: BTK was a sexually motivated killer with a bondage fetish.  Still the author manages to give us the details in such a way so as to tell us what we need to know yet not be overwhelmed by the carnage.

           The nightmare begins with the slaying of four members of the Joseph Otero family in Eastern Wichita, and Beattie describes the crime in detail.  Three of the Otero children came home from school on the afternoon of January 15, 1974 to discover the dead bodies of their parents and a brother and sister.  The parents and boy had been bound and strangled with venetian blind cord.  Josie, the eleven year old daughter had been hung from a pipe in the basement, semen was found on the inside of her thigh.  It is something Wichita police are not used to dealing with.

           Therein is my first connection with the case. In the eighties I knew the former Otero home, 803 N Edgemore, well.  My grandmother owned and lived in it.

           Beattie has a great deal of respect for the dedication and personal feelings of the officers assigned to the hunt.  He shows us the emotional and psychological strain the detectives work under.

           Frustration and anger build from the beginning of the investigation. Only a few months after the Otero murders the police had confessions from three different people, then the signature "communications" begin.   The local newspaper, The Wichita Eagle, received a phone call telling them that a letter concerning the Otero murders could be found in a book in the public library.  When recovered the letter contained a lengthy description of the crime scene including a description of the position and condition of all four victims.  It also contained a rather rambling psychological description of the killer himself: "... the monster goes on, ... Maybe you can stop him.  I can't."  The letter affected everyone that saw it.

           Even the "Ghostbusters" investigating the murders as a cold case in the eighties became so affected by trying to get inside the killer's head that they had to take time off because of the mental strain.

           Beattie also shows the great lengths that investigators go to try and crack the case.   The very first use of DNA testing in a criminal case in the United States was in the BTK investigation.  Satellite photos of the crime scenes taken at the approximate times of the crimes are taken and examined for any clues that might lead to the killer.  All witnesses are hypnotized and then questioned in hopes that their memories can be enhanced to obtain further clues.

           The book covers all the known victims as well as other crimes that have a BTK connection.   Three that are considered were later charged when the suspect was arrested.  Others, like the Fager murders and the very strange case of "The Poet" are fascinating in themselves.

           Most interesting of all is the final section which tells of how Beattie became interested in writing the story and, after the impending publication of the book is announced, the resumption of BTK's "communications."  And these communications led up to the arrest of the suspect, Dennis Rader, in February of 2005.

           And that is my second connection with the case: Dennis Rader had been my coworker for eight and a half years.

           The book is an excellent analysis of the crimes and investigation but it does have some problems.  When I first read it, the narrative seemed a little choppy.  Come to find out, the editor had trimmed more than 200 pages from the original manuscript.

           There is also more than a little hyperbole used.  The first chapter is titled "The Day Wichita Changed."  Quite frankly, the race riots in Wichita at the end of the 1960's changed my perception of life in general and Wichita in particular much more than the BTK killings.  Besides, Beattie tells us that when he spoke of BTK and the Otero murders to his students in the 1990's, they had no idea what he was talking about.  BTK, as horrible as he was, was never the eternal boogeyman Wichita parents used to scare their children.

           The capture of Dennis Rader occurred so close to publication time that Beattie was only given two weeks to write a chapter about the arrest so we learn practically nothing about what led up to it.  (Actually, we still don't know a whole lot about that.  Law enforcement and the Segwick County District Attorney's office have released almost no information.)   This gives the book a rushed and unsatisfied ending.

           Still, out of all the true crime books I have in my library this is one of the, if not the, best I have.  It's well worth the purchase price of a new book. You will be fascinated.

"Oh! What a tangled web we weave, When first we practice to deceive."  Sir Walter Scott