Full BTK news coverage

By Roxana Hegeman

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WICHITA, Kan. - When the BTK serial killer emerged after more than two decades of silence, he did so with a letter to The Wichita Eagle, placing the newspaper in the delicate position of deciding what to tell police - and what to tell its readers.

The letter was certainly newsworthy: Not only did it mark the return of a killer who terrorized Wichita throughout the 1970s, but it also included a copy of a driver's license belonging to a Wichita woman whose death police hadn't previously linked to BTK. Detectives asked the newspaper to withhold the victim's license - something The Eagle refused to do.

"At least one journalist told the cops, 'Hell no, I am not going to withhold that,'" said Hurst Laviana, the Eagle reporter who broke the story.

But the newspaper did withhold from the public, at the request of police, some other information included in that letter, which arrived last March. The two television stations that received subsequent communications from the killer also held back some details.

And that has left some wondering whether police might have arrested Dennis Rader, the Park City man charged with 10 counts of first-degree murder in killings blamed on BTK, sooner if the public had all the facts.

Among them is Bob Beattie, a Wichita attorney and author of an upcoming book on the BTK killings. Since Rader's arrest last month, he has compared some of the BTK letters to papers written by Rader in his capacity as a compliance officer in Park City.

Rader's papers contained similar, if not identical, spelling and grammatical errors as those contained in BTK's writings, Beattie said.

"I don't know if it would have made a difference. If I saw these things, others could have seen them," Beattie said. "If someone had known Dennis Rader and his work, could they have put two and two together - that is how the Unabomber was caught, because his brother recognized his writing."

Among the materials the BTK killer sent to the media was a cryptic word puzzle, mailed to KAKE-TV in May, that included dozens of hidden words, including a grouping of letters spelling "D. Rader" and 6220, the number of Rader's street address. The names of jobs that could be used as disguises to gain entry into homes were also hidden in the puzzle.

Beattie was given a copy of the word puzzle by KAKE on condition he not make its contents public. Beattie and fellow members of a local chapter of Mensa, a high IQ society, pored over its contents at a meeting but did not find the hidden messages.

"Had that been released, it is possible someone else would have seen that and recognized that as 'D. Rader.' It is an experiment we can no longer do. It is one of those things that in retrospect you wish you had done," Beattie said.

KAKE news director Glen Horn said the station always kept open the possibility it would release more information, adding there was some "give and take" with police over what was made public.

"Before we released information we asked them if it would compromise their investigation or hurt their investigation in any way," Horn said.

Last week, KAKE revealed that a package found in a Wichita park in December, which the station initially said contained the driver's license of a known BTK victim, also included a doll that had its head covered with a plastic bag and its hands bound with pantyhose.

Police told KAKE showing the doll might incite BTK to kill again, Horn said.

"We had a very delicate tightrope to walk on," Horn said. "On one hand, we were the eyes and ears of the public. ... On the other hand, we would work with police and try to honor their request for not releasing things that might hinder their investigation or incite this man to further violence."

The letter BTK sent to The Eagle last March, which included a copy of 28-year-old Vicki Wegerle's driver's license, also contained photos of her body, a string of apparently nonsensical stenciling and the killer's signature.

The newspaper withheld the signature and the apparent gibberish writing at the request of police. Authorities told The Eagle they wanted to keep those items secret to distinguish authentic BTK messages.

"If I had to do it over again, I'd probably do it the same," Laviana said.

Tim Rogers, an assistant managing editor at The Eagle, said it is a serious issue, adding the media must not be seen as an arm of the police.

"But there are cases - and the BTK case is clearly one - where we have to be mindful not only of what we can do, but what is the right thing to do," Rogers said.