I heard about this book after listening to one of my favorite podcasts cover the case. In 1974, Dennis Rader stalked and killed his first victims - the Oteros, a family of four in Wichita. He had been obsessed with serial killers throughout adolescence and his teen years. He continued to kill, until he accrued 10 victims (and took a "break"). He then named himself BTK for Bind them, Torture them, Kill them and wrote notes that terrorized the city until he was finally caught after being on the loose for thirty years (during which no one knew that he was the killer - this guy literally created hiding in plain sight). Katherine Ramsland, throughout jail visits and extensive correspondence with the BTK Killer, she worked to analyze the inner workings of his mind and this book is the result. Using his drawings, letters, interviews, and Rader's unique codes, she presents in meticulous detail the childhood roots and development his motivation to stalk, torture, and kill.
This is the first book by Katherine Ramsland that I read and I really enjoyed it. I am interested in True Crime because I'm fascinated and curious about what makes people act in a manner that is so beyond the pale and this book did a magnificent job in doing that for me with this particular serial killer. I felt like I really got into the (scary) head of the BTK killer in large part because Dr. Ramsland just went with it and let him say whatever he wanted. DOn't get me wrong, the book itself is sometimes very, very surreal and bizarre and you have to have the stomach to read some of his descriptions of things, but it really was very well done.
Highly recommended.
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