Bind. Torture. Kill. The Story of BTK, the Wolf in Sheep's Clothing

His story is mind-boggling. The most elusive killer in America. A serial murderer who inspired Thomas Harris and Stephen King. A key character in the series «Mindhunter». He prompted a boy to become a police officer, who caught him 30 years later, dedicating his life to this mission. For three decades, from 1974 to 2005, the brutal serial killer terrorized the residents of Wichita, Kansas. All his victims — women, men, and even children — were bound with complex knots and then strangled. The killer called himself BTK bind, torture, kill. Under this nickname, he terrorized the area for years and enjoyed corresponding with the police through the local newspaper. When he was finally caught, everyone was shocked: the brutal sadist and strangler turned out to be Dennis Rader — a loving husband and father, a member of the local Boy Scouts, a respected parishioner of the local church. The story of BTK is unique not just because of the personality of the killer. In the 1970s, when the first notorious murders of the strangler began, Kenny Landwehr was a local teenager. The impressionable boy wanted to become a police officer to hunt such killers and scum. No one suspected that he would be the one to catch BTK 30 years later, dedicating his entire professional life to this case. Landwehr played cat and mouse with the killer for years, waiting for him to make a mistake. The meticulously reconstructed police investigation that underpins the book tells how difficult it is to catch a serial killer, even when living in the same city with him.