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Inside the Mind of BTK: The True Story Behind the Thirty-Year Hunt for the Notorious Wichita Serial Killer


by John Douglas, Johnny Dodd

List Price: $26.95
Price: $17.79
You Save: $9.16 (34%)
Available: Usually ships in 24 hours
Sales Rank: 330619
Studio: Jossey-Bass
Binding: Hardcover
Number Of Pages: 352
Publication Date: September 28, 2007
Publisher: Jossey-Bass


EDITORIAL REVIEWS

Product Description
A dramatic and compelling true-crime psychological thriller

This incredible story shows how John Douglas tracked and participated in the hunt for one of the most notorious serial killers in U.S. history. For 31 years a man who called himself BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill) terrorized the city of Wichita, Kansas, sexually assaulting and strangling a series of women, taunting the police with frequent communications, and bragging about his crimes to local newspapers and TV stations. After disappearing for nine years, he suddenly reappeared, complaining that no one was paying enough attention to him and claiming that he had committed other crimes for which he had not been given credit. When he was ultimately captured, BTK was shockingly revealed to be Dennis Rader, a 61-year-old married man with two children.



CUSTOMER REVIEWS (Average Customer Rating: 3.5 based on 12 reviews)

Not real good  
I like most books, this one would be a better (and truer) read if it were entitled "inside the mind of John Douglas". He is quite sure Btk would not have been found if not for his, and I mean his and his alone, brillance. He is condesending. Didn't like it.
April 27, 2008

Douglas at his worst.  
I like John Douglas, and have read everything he has published. Unfortunately, BTK offers virtually nothing new in terms of insights about serial killers in general, or the BTK in particular. One gets a sense of deja vu in reading this--a revisitation (and somewhat lethargic at that) of a crime and a criminal that we have already read about. Douglas covered the BTK already, in Obsession, and though he disguised the discussion, it is clearly the same facts, the same ideas, and the same conclusions. Why he chose to write about the BTK again, this time devoting an entire book to him, seems to more a kind of personal cleansing, or purging of the soul, for having contributed very little to the understanding and the capture of the BTK when his services were first requested some 30 years (though he naturally suggests that his profiles were fairly accurate, and simply not acknowledged--a supposition not substantiated by the actual facts of the case--the original profile was general, inconclusive, and ultimately rather useless). Clearly the case has haunted him ever since, and thus, this book. It goes over the same ground as others have done in their books on the BTK (there are several), though in an odd order, beginning with the present, then going back to the original killings, then forward, then backward, etc. The "exclusive" interview with BTK which is promoted on the cover, and as a chapter heading, is very disappointing, in that it offers virtually no new clues as to BTK crimes--in fact, we really never get a clear understanding of what "created" the BTK--what set him off, what caused his early instability, what fueled his dark fires, and so forth. Douglas seems to have written this book almost as an admission of his own bewilderment--"wow, look at this one--even I am confused!", without offering any real insights, or new views, on an old case. Very disappointing and uninspiring--for a better view of the BTK, and other similar killers, buy Obsession.
March 20, 2008

An absorbing read, however...  
I enjoyed reading this book. The subject matter kept it interesting and John Douglas wrote it so that it wasn't dry. The only problem I had was the TONS of proofreading errors throughout the book, which were very distracting. (These were all things that wouldn't be caught by a spell checker.) Mr. Douglas, hire a proofreader; and if you already did, hire a better one!
February 25, 2008

A Great Book!  
I finally found this book at Amazon! Its an excellent read all the way through. John Douglas does not disappoint! Reading this book will make you cringe at the thought of how brazen Dennis Rader (BTK) was. He didnt sneak around in the dark, he walked calmy in broad daylight and you invited him right in your front door!! Freaky stuff, great book!!
February 24, 2008

Lifelong hunt? Hardly!  
The first act of John Douglas's book about BTK is entitled "My Lifelong Hunt for BTK." He is being disingenuous at best. Let's review this "lifelong" hunt, shall we?

1. In the late 1970s and early 1980s, detectives from Wichita came to him for one-day sessions to create a profile of who BTK was/is.

2. After BTK is finally captured in 2004, Douglas is given a CD containing BTK's letters, diaries, and drawings.

That's it. Hardly a lifelong hunt.

Although Douglas does a nice job of reviewing the crimes BTK committed, as well as his motivations, he spends too much time talking about himself. He sees himself as a tireless hero in this quest, a real macho tough-guy. I found myself wanting to slap him throughout the book.

Interestingly enough, for such a highly celebrated criminal profiler, he gets A LOT of things wrong about BTK. He thinks that BTK is a loner who is afraid of women and does not associate with them; BTK was actually married for 30 years and was socially involved in both his church and his son's Boy Scout troup.

There is an interesting article in the New Yorker [...] about the history of criminal profilers and how they tend to say things that can be true no matter what. This is noticeable throughout the book when we are let in on some of the profilers' meetings with Wichita police. BTK is a loner afraid of women, but he might be married. He might also be divorced. Well which is it?

When Douglas finally interviews BTK at the end of the book (at the expense of a poor single mother who had been gaining BTK's trust for months so she could get her big break), Douglas says to BTK that he is sure that Nancy Fox was his perfect victim because she said something that really "got to" him and he didn't want to kill her. Nope, BTK says that was wrong entirely, which seems to be the case for almost all of Douglas' theories. Whenever something he theorized turns out to be right, he touts it over and over again, but conveniently leaves out the things he was so very, very wrong about.

All in all, a good overall book on the killings, but Douglas proves to be an insufferable author, so much so that I would never consider reading anything by him again.


February 20, 2008


SIMILAR PRODUCTS

Bind, Torture, Kill: The Inside Story of BTK, the Serial Killer Next Door
by Roy Wenzl, Tim Potter, Hurst Laviana, L. Kelly

The Anatomy of Motive : The FBI's Legendary Mindhunter Explores the Key to Understanding and Catching Violent Criminals
by John Douglas, Mark Olshaker

Obsession
by John E. Douglas, Mark Olshaker

Mind Hunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit
by John Douglas, Mark Olshaker

The Cases That Haunt Us
by John Douglas, Mark Olshaker, John "Douglas
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