My daughter who is attending Emporia State University invited me down for a seminar about the BTK serial killer and how he was apprehended. Retired Detective Clint Snyder who worked on the case (with many others) gave the seminar. I was a child when the first murders took place back in the mid to late 70’s in Wichita Ks. The killer wasn’t caught until 2005.

To say the seminar was interesting would be a massive understatement.

http://www.emporiagazette.com/...12-12efa9d91616.html

I think I would find that interesting as well.

My very slight brush with infamy is that I worked at ADT for a time while he was also employed there. He had slaughtered the Otero family and, if I recall correctly, Nancy Fox by that time. He kept to himself quite a bit, at least as much as the job allowed.

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Originally posted by clubleaf206:
My very slight brush with infamy is that I worked at ADT for a time while he was also employed there. He had slaughtered the Otero family and, if I recall correctly, Nancy Fox by that time. He kept to himself quite a bit, at least as much as the job allowed.

Det Snyder showed us clips of Rader's interrogation. Rader struck me as an arrogant piece of shit. He was very proud of the crimes he committed.

When I first promoted to buck sgt at El Dorado, I had to stand at the video visitation booths while this fuck gave his step by step story to some lady. I assume she was writing a book on him. Guy had to have a hard on while telling that shit.

First time serving him breakfast was odd to say the least, but there after it was like any old timer behind a door. Pretty polite inmate, never gave anyone trouble.

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Originally posted by badcopnodonut!!:

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Originally posted by clubleaf206:
My very slight brush with infamy is that I worked at ADT for a time while he was also employed there. He had slaughtered the Otero family and, if I recall correctly, Nancy Fox by that time. He kept to himself quite a bit, at least as much as the job allowed.

Det Snyder showed us clips of Rader's interrogation. Rader struck me as an arrogant piece of shit. He was very proud of the crimes he committed.

Yeah, I’d say he was rather arrogant. And very demanding, if the the install called for a device to be placed six feet high, that meant six feet, not six feet and one eighth of an inch. He was sort of aloof, not the type of guy you’d have a beer with after work.

There is a really good show on Netflix entitled "Manhunt". I binged the first season, and at the end it leads into the hunt for BTK. for all those interested in crime drama TV, I recommend.

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Originally posted by Rev. A. J. Forsyth:
There is a really good show on Netflix entitled "Manhunt". I binged the first season, and at the end it leads into the hunt for BTK. for all those interested in crime drama TV, I recommend.

Mindhunter. And yes its an excellent series. The new season starts in November.

One reason that I own guns for self-defense is reading about BTK, Artie Shaw, Zodiac, the Texas Sundown Killer, and others. IIRC, BTK was caught because he sent the newspaper a floppy disc taunting the police. The disc encoded the SN of the computer and the police were able to back-track from the manufacturer to the sale.

I never heard of the BTK. i do have a morbid curiosity of the mentality of serial killers. Their sickness is palpable and, I fear, is infectious much like mental professionals get a little touched in the head after a while.

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Originally posted by mr kablammo:
One reason that I own guns for self-defense is reading about BTK, Artie Shaw, Zodiac, the Texas Sundown Killer, and others. IIRC, BTK was caught because he sent the newspaper a floppy disc taunting the police. The disc encoded the SN of the computer and the police were able to back-track from the manufacturer to the sale.

Artie Shaw the Band Leader?(He did play a killer clarinet)
Do you mean Arthur Shawcross, the Genesee River Killer?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Shawcross

Yes sir, him. Thanks for the correction. A bit drink-posting and sleep-posting.

I met him at a gun show at the Kansas Coliseum a couple of years before he got caught. A dealer friend's wife stopped me as I was making the first of the morning rounds and asked me if I knew him. He had moved on from their table right before I arrived so I didn't know who she was talking about. She wanted to know if I knew him because other people told her his very presence at their table drove them away. They told him he worked for the city and he was a big dickhead. Because I also worked for the city she wanted to know what he had done to deserve such a reputation. I came by later in the afternoon and she told me he had come by again a few more times and kept looking at the same gun. Just then he came by and she asked him if he knew me (from work). I started to ask him which department he worked for and nothing he said made any sense to me. He explained his position as compliance officer. His duties included writing homeowners citations for grass too tall and houses needing painting. As these duties are handled by separate departments I asked him what City he worked for and he told me Park City. As I work for a different local municipality I told him what I thought of Park City and I was not kind. The thing I remember most about him was he was so Dragnet Joe Friday about describing himself and his duties. This was the same way he described his crimes in court years later. A couple of years later when they announced his arrest they showed an old news clip of him describing how he was going to handle a pack of feral dogs roaming the area and there was that same delivery. Just the way he spoke during my one time meeting with him. That's when I realized who I had been talking to years before.

Oh by the way the gun he kept coming by that day to look at was a S&W 36. This was a gun he carried earlier with him on some of his crimes.

Sorry. I had to do a web search on BTK. I don't remember anything about those cases, though.

flashguy

This was Det. Ken Landwehr's life time pursuit. Kenny has since passed, God rest his soul - a hero for sure. Our crime Commission holds an annual fund raising golf tournament in his honor. I am a member of the Wichita Crime Commission and have had the pleasure of hearing Kenny detail out the specifics of the day that this POS was arrested as well as the background. I'm so very glad that he had the opportunity to close this case before he died. RIP Kenny!

FWIW, I moved to Wichita in 1979 and BTK was a hot topic and something you needed to caution your women about. Then went dormant for a long, long time. There is a good book out there on the subject if you are interested.

Yes, he sent a message to Kenny, via the local newspaper, asking him if the perp could be ID's from a floppy disk. Of course, Kenny told him NOPE, no problem! There are more detail in the book, suggested reading! This guy needed to go the way of Perry and Dick IMO.

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Originally posted by Sailor1911:
This was Det. Ken Landwehr's life time pursuit. Kenny has since passed, God rest his soul - a hero for sure. Our crime Commission holds an annual fund raising golf tournament in his honor. I am a member of the Wichita Crime Commission and have had the pleasure of hearing Kenny detail out the specifics of the day that this POS was arrested as well as the background. I'm so very glad that he had the opportunity to close this case before he died. RIP Kenny!

FWIW, I moved to Wichita in 1979 and BTK was a hot topic and something you needed to caution your women about. Then went dormant for a long, long time. There is a good book out there on the subject if you are interested.

Yes, he sent a message to Kenny, via the local newspaper, asking him if the perp could be ID's from a floppy disk. Of course, Kenny told him NOPE, no problem! There are more detail in the book, suggested reading! This guy needed to go the way of Perry and Dick IMO.

Det Snyder brought up Det Landwehr's name many times during the seminar. I'm sorry to hear that he has passed. Its great that he was able to arrest Rader.

What is the book you suggest?

What is the book you suggest?[/QUOTE]

There are several books out there. "Nightmare In Wichita" by Robert Beattie is the book that caused BTK to resurface. An article about Mr. Beattie writing the book is the reason he started making contact with the WPD. Rader didn't want someone else making a profit off of his killings.

There is also "Unholy Messenger The Life and Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer" by Stephen Singular, and another authored by two Wichita Eagle news reporters which I don't recall the names of.

I was on the WPD from 1978 thru 2008. We had a number of training sessions on BTK over the years. One of his victims, Vicki Wegerle was killed on my beat. The Rader's lived about a block from us and I went to school with his younger brother and some of his other relatives.

Even though I lived in the same neighborhood with his family, shopped at the grocery store where his mother worked, ate at the restaurant's in Park City, and was involved in the Boy Scouts at the same time I don't remember ever meeting him.

Another interesting crime going on in Wichita at the same time was "The Poet." I don't know if there was ever a book written, but there was a lengthy newspaper article about her.

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Originally posted by B92F:

Another interesting crime going on in Wichita at the same time was "The Poet." I don't know if there was ever a book written, but there was a lengthy newspaper article about hwe.

As I’m sure you remember, Chief LaMunyon never believed her, he felt it was a hoax from the very beginning. And, of course, it was.

Vicki Wegerle lived about eight blocks away, she was discovered by her husband who had come home from work for lunch. Until Rader came forward with items he had taken with him (her DL,etc) the detectives never completely removed the husband from being a suspect, partly because the murder had occurred far outside of BTK’s area he’d been operating in.

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Originally posted by clubleaf206:
As I’m sure you remember, Chief LaMunyon never believed her, he felt it was a hoax from the very beginning. And, of course, it was.

Vicki Wegerle lived about eight blocks away, she was discovered by her husband who had come home from work for lunch. Until Rader came forward with items he had taken with him (her DL,etc) the detectives never completely removed the husband from being a suspect, partly because the murder had occurred far outside of BTK’s area he’d been operating in.

The FBI profile at the time was that BTK had his comfort zone in SE Wichita area and he would not go outside of it. So the killing up near WSU, NE Wichita was not strongly considered at the time to be him, and Wegerle was west Wichita. And we did consider the husband as a prime suspect at the time for the above and a few other reasons.

I was stationed at McConnell AFB from 1982-1985, and again from 1997-2000, and never heard of BTK. I moved there in 2002, and while surfing the internet, came across the story of BTK. In Early 2004, the local paper ran the story on the 30th anniversary of the first killings. Shortly thereafter is when BTK started communication after about 25 years. It was speculated that he wanted the attention afforded other serial killers like the Zodiac. In the 70's it was a local story, not a national one--he wasn't on the nightly national news like the Zodiac.
When he started up communication in 2004, it hit the cable news, and became a national story. He kept communication up, then got tripped up by the 3½" floppy.
I remember donating blood on the day he was sentenced. After donating at the Red Cross, I drove south on Main Street past the courthouse. Every network, cable news, & local news had trucks parked outside. Took up two of the four southbound lanes(one way street).