STRANGLER VOWS HE'LL STRIKE: THE HERALD JOURNAL, FEBRUARY 12, 1978
"How many people do I have to kill before I get in the news, national attention," the letter asked. It reached a Wichita television station on Friday, February 10, 1978, and by Saturday the police chief was asking a frightened city to stay calm. The Herald Journal of Logan, Utah, carried the United Press International report on February 12. The writer called himself the BTK Strangler, for "Bind, Torture and Kill." He was Dennis Lynn Rader, but no newspaper would print that name for another 27 years, and this one never knew it.
The letter claimed the Otero family, killed in 1974, and three other slayings, the latest in December. It named two women, Shirley Vian and Nancy Fox, and claimed a seventh victim it did not name; detectives spent Saturday going through their unsolved files to find out who that was. The writer blamed something he called "factor x" and set himself beside the Son of Sam, Jack the Ripper and the Hillside Strangler.
Police Chief Richard LaMunyon said he had received three similar communications from the killer, all through the news media, and that the latest threatened more killings. "I know it is difficult to ask people to remain calm but we are asking this," he said. "When a person of this type is at large in our community, it requires special precautions and special awareness by everyone." The paper lists the four Oteros, Joseph, 38, Julie, 34, Josephine, 11, and Joseph II, 9, and notes that all six named victims were strangled in their own homes.
This is wire copy from the day after the letter arrived, and the killer is unidentified throughout. It gives Shirley Vian's age as 36; other reports give 24 or 26. The paper's version of the letter's question differs from the wording given elsewhere, "before I get my name in the paper or some national attention?" It says the 1974 letter was "obtained by" the Wichita Eagle and Beacon; that letter was hidden in a library textbook and found through the Eagle's tip line. Rader was arrested in February 2005, pleaded guilty that June to ten counts of first-degree murder, among them the Oteros, Vian and Fox, and is serving ten consecutive life terms.
The Herald Journal of Logan, Utah, printed this unbylined UPI report on February 12, 1978. The page comes from Utah Digital Newspapers, the University of Utah's J. Willard Marriott Library collection, which rates the issue "In Copyright (InC)"; the item is not in the public domain. No copyright notice appears on the article or on the issue's masthead, and the only one found in the issue belongs to a supermarket advertisement. The citation and the library's rights statement follow the scan.
The story was transcribed word for word, and every word could be read, so there are no illegible marks. The paper's own slips are kept: "socalled" as one word and "indentified" for identified. In the scan the second column runs right to the edge of the crop, and the full stop after the last word, "claiming," is clipped at the margin. The story is complete on page 2.
Transcription
Transcribed word for word from the page scan. Original spelling, punctuation, capitalisation and typographical errors have been kept exactly as printed. Unreadable words are marked [illegible]. Nothing has been modernised or corrected.
Strangler vows he'll strike
WICHITA, Kan. (UPI) — Authorities urged residents to remain calm Saturday despite a written threat by the socalled "BTK Strangler" that he would soon strike again.
The strangler, whose initials stand for "Bind, Torture and Kill," is believed to have slain at least seven persons in the area since 1974, including four members of one family.
"I know it is difficult to ask people to remain calm but we are asking this," Police Chief Richard LaMunyon said. "When a person of this type is at large in our community, it requires special precautions and special awareness by everyone."
In a letter received by a Wichita television station Friday, the author claimed he was responsible for the murder of the Joseph Otero family in 1974 and three other slayings, the most recent in December.
"How many people do I have to kill before I get in the news, national attention," he wrote.
The man claimed a "factor x" was responsible for the killings and compared himself with the Son of Sam, Jack the Ripper and the Hillside Strangler.
LaMunyon said he had received three similar communications from the killer, all through the news media. He said the latest letter contained a threat of future slayings.
"We have no reason but to believe the individual has the capacity to kill again," LaMunyon said.
A letter obtained by the Wichita Eagle and Beacon in 1974 indicated his victims were Joseph Otero, 38, his wife Julie, 34, and children Josephine, 11, and Joseph II, 9.
A letter received by television station KAKE Friday indentified victims Shirley Vian, 36, and Nancy Fox, 25. All six victims named were strangled in their homes.
Authorities Saturday searched through their files of unsolved murders to determine the identity of a seventh victim the strangler was now claiming.
Notes: Kept as printed: "socalled"; "indentified". The last line is printed "...the strangler was now claiming." The full stop is clipped at the column edge in the scan. The killer, Dennis Rader, was not identified until 2005. This is a contemporary report of the 1978 letter in which he named himself "BTK". No words were illegible.