BTK Decoded

For 31 years Dennis Rader walked through Wichita in a polo shirt, measuring lawns, ushering at church, leading Cub Scouts, kissing his wife goodnight. Nobody on his street felt a tug in the gut. Not one of them ever thought, that man is dangerous.

He killed ten people in their own homes. He wrote letters to the police. He sent in poems. He gave himself a name, three letters, BTK, like a brand. After thirteen years of careful silence, he walked back into the light and personally handed the investigators the thread that would lead them to his front door.

What kind of mind does that?

This book is not a list of crimes. The crimes are the easy part. This is the slow, uncomfortable autopsy of a man who built a maze around himself for half a century, who had a Lutheran wife and two children who loved him, who carried a working bag of rope in the boot of his car, and who, when the handcuffs finally clicked shut, looked at the detective through the open window of his compliance truck and said hi.

Why did he do it. Why did he stop. Why did he come back. And why, in the small private theatre of his own head, did he believe to the very end that the city he terrorised was his loyal audience.

By the last page, you will know how to spot the man behind the polo shirt.

The next one may already be on your street.

CraigBeck.com