Experts Pore Over Word Puzzle to See if It’s From Serial Strangler

A serial strangler who taunted police in Wichita, Kan., three decades ago, then resurfaced this spring to claim credit for an unsolved slaying, may be reaching out again -- this time with a word puzzle that experts said might hold clues about his methods.

A plain white envelope containing the puzzle, a fake ID and an outline for the killer’s autobiography arrived last week at KAKE-TV in Wichita. Employees turned it over to police.

Although investigators haven’t ruled out that it could be a hoax, Lt. Ken Landwehr said, they are taking the communique seriously.

“We are proceeding on the possibility this letter is from B.T.K.,” Landwehr said, using the initials the strangler gave himself to allude to his predilection for binding, torturing and killing.

B.T.K. stalked working-class neighborhoods in east Wichita from 1974 to 1979. In his first known attack, he killed two children and their parents.

He killed three women in separate incidents and reportedly stalked a fourth, only to leave in frustration when she was late coming home.

He wrote long letters to the media about the pleasure and torment he felt carrying out his sadistic fantasies.

The strangler demanded notoriety and threatened to kill again. He complained that it was impossible to get help for his “sexual perversion” now that he had shed so much blood.

His last letter came in 1979. Then he fell silent for 25 years.

In March, he sent the local newspaper a copy of the driver’s license of a young mother who had been killed in 1986. He also sent three photos of her body that only the killer could have taken. Police declared the letter genuine -- and warned the public that B.T.K. was back.

The source of the latest communication, however, is not so easily verified.

Missing from the mailing was a special mark that B.T.K. made on almost all of his letters to prove their authenticity. It does not name victims, as his other communications did. And it includes only information that the general public would be able to dig up with a little research; there’s nothing that only the killer would know.

Still, retired Wichita Police Chief Richard LaMunyon, who studied the letter and discussed it with investigators, finds it compelling.

“I think there’s a really high probability it’s from him,” LaMunyon said.

Police will not discuss their investigation in detail.

During a news conference Monday, Landwehr would say only that he has turned the letter over to the FBI for analysis. LaMunyon said that, to his knowledge, neither fingerprints nor DNA had been found.

A typed label taped to the envelope indicates it’s from a Thomas B. King; the return address given does not exist, said Bryan Frye, marketing director for KAKE-TV.

Inside the envelope were three sheets of paper. One lists titles for 13 chapters of “The B.T.K. Story.” Another is a grid of letters, apparently a find-the-hidden-words puzzle.

The third page contains a photocopy of an open billfold. Inside is the business card of a retired telephone company employee, arranged so that it might look like the top of an official ID badge, LaMunyon said. Also visible is a poorly made fake ID, purportedly from the Wichita public schools; the name typed on it matches that of a former employee who died years ago.

Police, employees of KAKE-TV and members of the local Mensa, the society for people with high IQs, have pored over the word puzzle for days. They have concluded that it refers to ploys B.T.K. may have used to gain access to his victims’ homes. The grid includes hidden words such as “school,” “telephone” and “ID ruse,” suggesting that B.T.K. may have passed himself off as a telephone repairman or as a school district employee coming to consult with parents.

There was no sign of forced entry at three of his victims’ houses, so police long have suspected that he found a way to be invited inside.

In his other known assault attempt, authorities said, B.T.K. broke a back window when no one was home, swept the glass into a tidy pile and then waited for the victim to return.

Robert Beattie, a lawyer who is writing a book about B.T.K., studied the latest letter with his Mensa group.

He said he was inclined to believe, but was not convinced, that it was authentic.

He is, however, sure of one thing: If it’s a hoax, the real B.T.K. will write soon to set the record straight.

In the ‘70s, the strangler expressed frustration at inaccurate or incomplete reporting on his assaults. At least twice he wrote to the media to ensure they got the story right.

Beattie suspects B.T.K. emerged from 25 years of silence for the same reason: “He wants to have his story told.”

“One way or another,” Beattie said, “the press will hear from B.T.K. again.”