The Poet | 1. The Call

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Binge Crimes: Cut, Color, Kill – The Poet | 1. The Call

Host: Rachel Brown (Sony Music Entertainment)
Original Release Date: July 1, 2026
Episode Focus: The chilling true story of Ruth Finley—an ordinary woman in 1970s Wichita, who becomes the target of relentless stalking, extortion, and poetic tormenter amidst the fear surrounding the BTK serial killer.

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Main Theme & Purpose

The premiere episode of The Poet undertakes a gripping exploration of fear, trauma, and obsession through the lens of Ruth Finley’s ordeal. It intertwines her personal stalking case with the broader terror of the BTK killer haunting Wichita, raising questions about hidden lives, how communities respond to crime, and how law enforcement manages overlapping nightmares.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

Ruth Finley: Ordinary Life Interrupted

• Ruth’s Backstory:

  • By the late 1970s, Ruth is a secretary at the local telephone company in Wichita, Kansas—described repeatedly as down-to-earth and "just your average woman." (08:12–08:40)
  • Married to Ed Finley, with two grown sons, Ruth is known for being sociable, witty, and generous, even baking for the local police homicide department. (08:47–09:03)

• 1946 Assault:

  • A pivotal childhood trauma: At 16, Ruth had been viciously assaulted in her Kansas apartment, branded with a hot iron, slashed, and humiliated by both the press and police. (11:45–15:21)
  • The traumatic branding incident left her with lasting psychological scars and a community eager to judge rather than support her.

The Stalker Emerges: "The Poet"

• First Threatening Call ([03:07–04:38]):

  • In the summer of 1977, a man calls Ruth, referencing her maiden name and the decades-old attack.
  • He threatens to publicize her past unless paid, exploiting Ruth’s hidden shame.

  “I know all about that night.” – Unknown Caller (03:53)

• Rapid Escalation:

  • A newspaper clipping of the assault shows up at Ruth’s office—a clear physical threat from her stalker. (09:03–16:49)
  • Multiple unnerving encounters: the stalker confronts Ruth on the street, grabs her wrist in an alley a year later, and begins sending increasingly graphic, bizarre letters. (20:29–27:12)

• Descent into Threats and Poetry:

  • The correspondence goes from blackmail to depraved poetic threats—simultaneously targeting Ruth and taunting authorities. (38:34–39:11)
    • “The holy horror bore her guilt in her bed of slime…” – Letter from the stalker (38:34)
    • “Red with blood and tied with twine.” – Letter from the stalker (39:06)

Law Enforcement Response & Societal Context

• Police Reluctance:

  • Initially, police dismiss Ruth and Ed’s concerns, suggesting caution but providing no substantial help—a reflection of overloaded law enforcement and skepticism towards women’s victimhood. (25:05–25:30)

• BTK Overlaps:

  • Simultaneously, Wichita is wracked with fear over the BTK serial killer (“Bind, Torture, Kill”), who writes to the media and police, sometimes in bad poetry, establishing chilling parallels to Ruth’s tormentor. (30:29–34:59)

  “We’re not big enough to have two different people with this kind of obsession.”
  —Fred Mann (journalist), echoing Lt. Drawski’s thoughts on the possible BTK connection (37:59)

• A Turning Point:

  • When Ruth brings a disturbingly poetic and obscene letter to the police, Major Crimes Division takes notice. The style echoes the notorious communications of BTK, triggering urgent investigative scrutiny. (27:12–28:52; 37:01–38:30)

The Broader Climate of Fear

• Wichita in Panic:

  • BTK’s pattern—targeting women, cutting phone lines, waiting inside homes—results in a citywide paranoia, increased gun ownership, and a flood of calls to police about possible sightings. (35:02–36:03)

  "People were locking their doors and buying guns."
  —Detective Mike McKenna (35:05)

• Media Frenzy:

  • The local and national press eagerly cover every development, fuelling communal anxiety and a proto-true-crime media landscape. (33:26–33:43)

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Memorable Moments & Notable Quotes

• On the Phone Threat:

  • “Look, I know all about that night.” – The caller, menacingly referencing Ruth's past (03:53)
  • “If you don't do what I want, I might just leave that article where everyone can see it.” (04:27)

• On the 1946 Trauma:

  • Fred Mann:
    “She remembered passing out… He at one point grabbed the iron off of the stove and brought it down, came up under her skirt and pressed this hot flat iron against one of her thighs, and she screamed and then passed out again.” (11:59–12:23)

• On Ruth’s Character:

  • “She was just a sweet lady. She made cakes and pies and she fed everyone in the homicide section very well.” —Unnamed police officer/journalist (08:47)
  • "She was an everyday woman, an average woman." (08:26)

• First Explicit, Poetic Threats:

  • Stalker:
    “Hickory dickory dock. Your face mounted on my clock.” (05:50)
  • "I'm a really good poet. I’m gonna send you some poems. I'm gonna get to you. I'm gonna see you.” (26:52)

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Important Timestamps

• 03:07–04:38: First call from the stalker; threat referencing Ruth’s branding.
• 09:03–15:21: Details of Ruth’s original 1946 assault and its aftermath.
• 16:49–17:23: Ruth and Ed’s initial containment strategy and decision not to involve police.
• 20:29–21:47: First face-to-face street encounter with the stalker.
• 24:15–25:05: Alley attack; Ed’s visit to the police—and resulting lack of action.
• 27:12–28:52: Police finally pay attention due to poetic, threatening letter; suspicion grows about a possible BTK link.
• 30:29–34:59: BTK’s reign in Wichita described; similarities with Ruth’s case explored.
• 37:01–38:30: Lt. Drawski’s investigation; police realize they can’t have two such obsessive criminals in one town.
• 38:34–39:11: Reading of the “poet’s” progressively threatening and disturbing verse.

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Episode Style & Tone

Rachel Brown’s narration is investigative, empathetic, and steadily suspenseful. Quotes from victims, police, and journalists retain a conversational and, at times, chillingly direct clarity reminiscent of true crime reporting. The pace alternates between reflective interviews and dramatic recountings of Ruth’s ordeal, steadily escalating tension and empathy for Ruth’s situation.

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Closing & Next Episode Tease

Rachel Brown concludes the episode on an unresolved note:

“Soon this poet was no longer stopping at letters. He was ready to take action. Next time on The Poet. Ruth is missing.” (39:11–39:25)

An ominous forecast sets up the next episode, where things turn from psychological to physical danger.

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Summary At a Glance

• Who is Ruth Finley?
  Ordinary Wichita woman whose hidden trauma becomes the focus of a year-long, escalating campaign of threats and harassment by a poetic stalker.

• Why is she targeted?
  A past assault left psychic scars; her stalker weaponizes this secret in a campaign of blackmail, threats, and eventually, poetry.

• Police & BTK Backdrop:
  Ruth’s case initially receives little attention, eclipsed by the ongoing BTK serial murders. But the style and escalation of her tormentor force police to take notice.

• Key Question Raised:
  Is Ruth’s stalker connected to BTK? Can there really be two such obsessives, each tormenting the city through letters and poetry?

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This episode delivers a compelling prelude to a deeply layered true crime mystery, where the lines between personal trauma and public terror blur—posing uncomfortable questions about misogyny, victim-blaming, and the nature of evil hiding in plain sight.

Transcript

[Molly Sims]

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[Rachel Brown]

Listen to every episode of the Poet ad free right now when you subscribe to the Binge. You'll hear the entire series before anyone else because get exclusive bonus episodes and unlock more than 60 other true crime podcasts. Just head to the Binge channel on Apple Podcasts and tap, subscribe or Visit. Get the binge.com to listen wherever you are. The Binge Feed your true crime obsession.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

The Binge.

[Rachel Brown]

For the first time in a long time, Ruth Finley was home alone. Killer locked the three children in the bathroom while he viciously attacked their mother inside their home. By the time, Ruth and Ed, her husband of 27 years, were rarely apart by the summer of 1977, they were empty nesters. Their two sons had grown up and moved away from Wichita, Kansas. But earlier that day, Ed had suffered what they thought was a heart attack. He was rushed to the hospital, and now doctors were keeping him overnight for observation. So Ruth was on her own. In his letter, the killer says a monster inside his mind drives him to kill. He signs off with the moniker btk. The people of Wichita were on edge. Btk, a serial killer whose alias stood for Bind, Torture, Kill, was actively hunting people in their city. Just months earlier, he'd killed a mother in her home at night. Suspect to be a killer from wichita. At around 10:30 that evening, Ruth's phone rings.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

Hello?

[Rachel Brown]

In an interview Ruth later gave to Cake tv, she said the conversation was fine at first. The man started out friendly, like lasagna. Ruth Smock. Ruth hadn't gone by her maiden name smock since the 1940s, when she did in fact live in Fort Scott, Kansas. Then he started asking me about this incident. The man on the phone asks, you

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

still have your brand.

[Rachel Brown]

Ruth had been assaulted by a stranger in her apartment when she was 16 years old. Attacked, incapacitated and branded with a hot iron.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

Look, I know all about that night.

[Rachel Brown]

The man who did it had never been caught. The guy on the phone tells her he works for a construction company tearing down buildings in his work. He'd found a newspaper clipping from 1946 about the attack. The newspaper had published Ruth's high school photo under the word branded. The coverage had humiliated her, making her private trauma the talk of her hometown.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

I know where you work. If you don't do what I want, I might just leave that article where everyone can see it.

[Rachel Brown]

She had told very few people in her life in Wichita about the attack. The gist of it was, he's going to want some money from me. Or he was going to tell this again. He was going to bring it up again. He demands payment to keep the story quiet. She has three weeks. He says he'll call back then and expect her to pay up. The caller's words didn't rhyme, but they soon would. This one call would set off a years long manhunt, One of the most expensive in Wichita history for a mysterious character who would spread fear throughout this midwestern city.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

The poet was always two steps in front of us and we just didn't know why.

[Rachel Brown]

It's a story about a seemingly normal middle aged woman.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

Why is this person threatening her? Why is this happening to her?

[Rachel Brown]

Targeted by a monster.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

Hickory dickory dog. Your face mounted on my clock.

[Rachel Brown]

Whose story would become a media sensation.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

We consider him extremely dangerous. He's virtually a pathological person.

[Rachel Brown]

Block printing and a piece of a red bandana.

[Sponsor Voice 1]

There's a lot of terrifying things that

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

were happening to her. Yeah, we knew he was a very violent person.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

Hickory dickory dock.

[Rachel Brown]

From Sony Music Entertainment and New Metric Media, this is the Poet. I'm Rachel Brown. Episode one the Call. I'm an investigative reporter. I cover cases dealing with cults, serial killers, all things true crime and the story of Ruth Finley and her tormentor caught my attention because of how strange and extreme it got. It's the 1970s, at the dawn of the serial killer era, when criminal profiling has just been invented. A middle aged woman from middle America has a stalker, a stalker who writes her poetry. But then the story twists and turns and gets caught up in a media tornado that goes well beyond Kansas, even ending up on the Oprah Winfrey Show. But Ruth's peaceful life was disrupted when

[Molly Sims]

an unknown man vowed to kill her.

[Rachel Brown]

I'd been trying to untangle this whole thing from my home in Toronto, but I knew I had to go see where it all happened to really understand it. Even though nearly 50 years had passed since that first threatening phone call. Andy, is your phone on?

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

Yes.

[Rachel Brown]

So I hopped on a plane to Wichita. I knew I would never get to talk to Ruth Finley. She passed away years before.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

Oh, sure, I'll turn it on.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

Far off.

[Emma Dillinger / Detective Mike McKenna (voice acting)]

Perfect.

[Rachel Brown]

But I needed to talk to the people closest to Ruth to understand who was she and was there anything about her that could have helped them anticipate the wild events to come.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

Ruth Finley, I always thought was kind of like my mom.

[Rachel Brown]

In 1977, Ruth was in her late 40s. A mother, a wife, a secretary at the telephone company. Not somebody you'd expect to have enemies or big secrets.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

She is this woman who went to work every day because she wanted to make something of herself. She's this woman who raised a family. She was an everyday woman, an average woman.

[Rachel Brown]

Most people I spoke with told me Ruth and her husband Ed were normal, even for Wichita.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

Very, very normal. Just your average couple, you know, middle aged couple. She was just a sweet lady. She made cakes and pies and she fed everyone in the homicide section very well.

[Sponsor Voice 1]

Hi, Ruth.

[Emma Dillinger / Detective Mike McKenna (voice acting)]

Hi.

[Rachel Brown]

Give us a big wave. This is from a home video of Ruth celebrating New Year's with her friends. Well, actually, the story is about Ruth. Oh, that's the voice of her best friend, Emma Dillinger, who told me Ruth was a ton of fun. A good friend, a funny friend. Hilarious at times because she was smart and quick, quick witted. At the New Year's party, you can see Ruth sitting on a couch next to her husband Ed, joking around, say Ruth and Ed, earlier this evening. We're here to give resolutions.

[Sponsor Voice 1]

Yeah, yeah, let's hear them again.

[Rachel Brown]

I want to have a real good time. Ruth and Ed had met in Fort Scott, Kansas in the late 1940s, fell in love, married, then moved a few hours away to Wichita and had two sons in Two years. He was honest, forthright, smart. What was he like for Ruth? Oh, they were a good match. Ed worked as an accountant. Ruth had taken some time off when raising their boys, then returned to work as a secretary at the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company. Life was simple. Until it wasn't. Ruth was at work at the telephone company, checking the office mail as usual when she saw her own name on an envelope. There was no address, no room number, just Ruth Finley in crude, blocky handwriting. The letter must have been hand delivered. Inside is a yellowed clipping from the Fort Scott Tribune newspaper about her assault, just as the man on the phone had threatened her with. She hadn't seen this article since she she was 16. At the time of Ruth's assault in 1946. There were many articles published about her attack. The Fort Scott Tribune at the time. Branded by a hot flat iron, Ruth Smock, 16 year old Fort Scott High School girl, was resting today following an attack upon her early last night by a man whom Fort Scott police called a sex maniac. In high school, Ruth had moved to a neighboring town for a better education where she lived alone in an apartment and worked a part time job at the phone company in Fort Scott. She had been on her dinner break when she was attacked. She had come home and a man had followed her in close behind. He grabbed her and she fought back. Here's Fred Mann, a journalist who covered Ruth's story extensively in the 1970s.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

She remembers that he put a bottle of chloroform under her nose and held it against her. She was screaming, fighting, crying. He was wrestling with her and she remembered passing out.

[Rachel Brown]

She woke up on the kitchen floor seeing the man above her heating a hot iron on the stovetop.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

He at one point grabbed the iron off of the stove and brought it down, came up under her skirt and pressed this hot flat iron against one of her thighs and she screamed and then passed out again.

[Rachel Brown]

Her memory comes in flashes as she's in and out of consciousness.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

She remembered that he had had a knife out and he was slashing her legs with his knife. Just bang, bang, bang. He was chewing tobacco and some of it was starting to run out of his mouth. And then he stuffed a handkerchief into her mouth and she was gagging on that.

[Rachel Brown]

Eventually she woke up again and the man was gone. She had a deep wound on her inner thigh from the hot iron. After being treated by a doctor, Ruth's parents reported the incident to the police who interviewed her.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

They were doubtful, which really hurt her, embarrassed her, and at one point, one of the cops. As she was sitting in a chair telling him this, another cop who was sitting opposite her reached out with one of his legs and he had boots on, and he reached under her ankle and lifted up her leg to look under her skirt to look at the brand, try to confirm the brand. And that humiliated her.

[Rachel Brown]

Not only was the police interrogation mortifying, the newspapers took her story and ran wild with it.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

The newspaper didn't hold back. I mean, this was splashed all over the headlines. For several days, it ran story after story. High school girl attacked

[Rachel Brown]

at 16. Her name and home address were published in the paper alongside her high school photo. It's hard to imagine a paper today publishing a teenager's name and photo, not to mention her address. Ruth was a minor and the victim of a crime. This is like the 1940s era version of doxxing. Ruth's family's response was to pretend the assault hadn't happened.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

Her mother took her back home and put her up in her bedroom with the door closed for a week. Her mother was sort of the opinion that the less said the better. Ruth will be okay because we were trained to trust our problems to God. That's how her family approached it.

[Rachel Brown]

But outside her home, the attack was whispered about all through the community.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

And when she went back to school, there were a lot of kids who talked about it with her. And she kind of got in a little trouble in school because of that.

[Rachel Brown]

There was a time, Fred said, when a different girl named Ruth had been caught drinking with some boys, and the school officials assumed it was our Ruth. It wasn't fair. But the branding attack had cost her her reputation.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

Ruth had this aura about her having been attacked and doubted that she was somehow not a good person, not a good girl.

[Rachel Brown]

She was humiliated and traumatized. She said that for weeks after she'd throw up when she entered her apartment. Ruth was in so many ways, unsupported. Her parents, her school, her community, they doubted her and questioned her character, not her attackers. Soon after Ruth moved out of that apartment, she found a new place in Fort Scott in a rooming house. There she met Ed, the man who would become her husband. Ed was her lifeline during that time, which created the foundation for their close, long lasting marriage. But now, in 1977, as she sees this familiar newspaper headline fall out of an envelope onto her work desk, the shame comes rushing back. Ruth quickly shoves the clipping in her desk drawer and throws it out before anyone can see it. There was no note with the clipping, but the message was clear. If you don't pay up, I'll tell everyone about your branding. This was an escalation. A call to her home was one thing, but now he was coming for her at work. She hadn't mentioned the call to Ed before, while he was recovering at the hospital, but now that he was better, she decides to tell him everything.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

She turned to Ed and said, if a man calls, I want you to talk to him. And he said, what do you mean? And she told him the story about this phone call, this guy talking about her brands, wanting money to keep quiet about them. Kind of this sort of an aura of threat about him.

[Rachel Brown]

Ed is concerned, but at this point, they think they can handle it. They decide they won't pay this man any money. Maybe if they ignore him, he'll go away.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

Man, they didn't go to the police. It was sort of, well, let's see what happens.

[Rachel Brown]

But what happens next makes the situation a lot harder to ignore.

[Jonathan Van Ness / Ryan Reynolds]

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[Sponsor Voice 1]

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[Rachel Brown]

In the months after receiving the ominous envelope at work, Ruth received six more calls, always hanging up the moment she heard his voice. As she's leaving work one Friday to meet Ed for a ride home, a man walking down the street thumps her shoulder

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

and this guy started talking to her and the first thing he said

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

to her was, you done a good job at work this week. You can take the weekend off.

[Rachel Brown]

The crosswalk light changes and the man falls into step with Ruth as she crosses the street.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

I know you get the weekend off. Anyways.

[Rachel Brown]

He's a tall guy in his father 40s with wire framed glasses and dark hair that's graying at the temples. He tells Ruth he knows she works at the telephone company. He walks closely alongside her, babbling in her ear about cameras winning money in Las Vegas. On and on. He seems unwell, unhinged even.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

She finally got to the store where she usually met Ed and he stopped. At that point she turned to him and he looked at her and he said, I'm going to see you again.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

I'm going to see you again.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

Some people's fantasies Fantasies are other people's

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

nightmares,

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

and he turned and walked away.

[Rachel Brown]

Soon after, Ed picks Ruth up. As soon as she gets into the car, she tells Ed about this weird interaction. Here's journalist Fred Manigan.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

She came across as very stoic, very quiet, very. Here's something weird that happened to me just now. You know, she was not hysterical. She wasn't crying, none of that.

[Rachel Brown]

Ruth is stoic. She holds her cards close to her chest. But I'd be unnerved if someone approached me on the street this way. And there was something familiar to Ruth about this guy, his voice. Is this the same guy who called the house? She asks Ed, who says he doesn't think so. He thinks this is just some weirdo looking for a last minute date for the weekend. But Ruth isn't so sure. And what does it mean if the caller has now found her on the street? Is he following her? Then more calls come to the house and they don't stop. If Ruth answered, she'd hear the man's voice and would immediately hang up. If Ed answered, he'd only hear a dial tone once. A call came in on a Saturday as Ruth and Ed were having lunch. He heard dead air, but this time stayed on the phone, yelling and yelling for a response. After nearly an hour, a voice suddenly responded. A man on the other end said he was walking by a public phone downtown by the post office and heard Ed shouting down the line. Someone had left the phone hanging off the hook. The calls went on like this intermittently for nearly a year. All that time, Ruth and Ed didn't go to the cops, probably hoping this guy would give up and go away. But in the summer of 1978, Ruth Stalker shows his face again. She had run an errand to Macy's on her lunch break. On her way back to work, she passes an alley and a hand reaches out and grabs her wrist. With horror, she realizes it's the same man who had accosted her on the street a year earlier.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

Ruth.

[Rachel Brown]

Ruth wrenches her arm free, breaking her watch band in the process.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

Get back here, you stupid bitch.

[Rachel Brown]

She bolts into Macy's and rushes up the escalator.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

And now she was. There was panic now in her. And she waited up there until enough time had passed where she thought you'd venture downstairs.

[Rachel Brown]

Finally, she calls Ed to come get her. And he races over.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

And at this point, Ed wanted to go to the police. That was too much for Ed, and Ruth said no, no, she didn't want to deal with police because of what had happened to her in Fort Scott.

[Rachel Brown]

So Ed goes to the police station and files a report alone. He tells them about the unsettling Encounters on the street and the phone calls. The officer he speaks to doesn't seem to take his concern very seriously. He just tells him to be cautious.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

Ed was actually kind of offended. This officer was so shallow and simple minded and so Ed left.

[Rachel Brown]

The Wichita police do not seem to think that Ruth getting harassed stocked even warrants their attention. After all, at this point, they've got bigger fish to fry.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

BTK was still out there and obviously they had their own other crimes to deal with. So they dismissed it and sort of left Ruth and Ed to kind of try to figure it out for themselves.

[Rachel Brown]

No one from the police calls the Finlays to update them or follow up on this report. On a weekend that fall, Ruth is at home baking pies for the church bake sale. Her English bulldog, Sherman, rolls over his signal that the mailman has come. She collects the mail from the front porch and as she sorts it, she notices one strange envelope tied with string and tape. It has her name in block letters. The writing's familiar. That same crude, almost childlike handwriting she'd seen on the envelope that contained the clipping about her assault. She tears the envelope open. The letter inside is handwritten as well, covered in ramblings on both sides.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

Fuck you. Fuck the police. Fuck the telephone company.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

He said, I write poems. I'm a really good poet. I'm gonna send you some poems. I'm gonna get to you. I'm gonna see you. And then there were some more threats, sort of vague, weird things. It wasn't a poem, but it was obviously really a disturbed letter.

[Rachel Brown]

The letter goes on to demand again that Ruth pay him, but gives no specifics. This time he threatens to hurt her if she doesn't comply. When Ed returns home, Ruth shows him the letter. They agree that it's time to go back to the police. This time, when Ed and Ruth show up to make their report, they bring the letter with them. And this time they're escorted immediately to the Major Crimes Division. This is a very different reception than the brush off Ed had gotten the first time he'd reported Ruth's harassment. That was because the police knew something Ruth and Ed didn't. This long, rambling, threatening message had all the hallmarks of another case they were deeply invested in. The police believe the person behind this letter might be the BTK killer. Do you see any pattern to BTK's conduct? We have an individual who apparently has the uncontrollable desire to kill. At times, the local media covered it obsessively, like this segment from ktv. Where they interviewed the police. And how could they not cover something so horrifying? This man liked to tie up and torture people before taking their lives. What kind of leads do you have? Very honestly, we have no solid leads at all.

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[Molly Sims]

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[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

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[Rachel Brown]

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[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

Sam's Club.

[Rachel Brown]

It was late in 1978 by the time Ruth brought her letter to the police. By then, the BTK killer had been terrorizing Wichita for nearly five years. He would bind, torture and kill his victims, usually women, often in their homes. The young officers of the Wichita Police Department were struggling under mounting public pressure. They had no leads, and BTK had claimed responsibility for seven victims.

[Emma Dillinger / Detective Mike McKenna (voice acting)]

I always enjoyed law enforcement.

[Rachel Brown]

Detective Mike McKenna was a rookie in the Wichita Police department in the 70s. He loved the job.

[Emma Dillinger / Detective Mike McKenna (voice acting)]

There were times I thought to myself, I can't believe they're paying me to do this. If I was physically capable and young enough, I would still be doing it today.

[Rachel Brown]

And in fact, Detective McKenna's two sons are now both officers in the Wichita PD. But back in 1974, he was in his first year on the job. And that was the year the BTK horror began. It started with the infamous murders of the Otero family

[Emma Dillinger / Detective Mike McKenna (voice acting)]

when their son got home from school, Charles Otero, and found his parents, along with his brother and sister that had all been murdered.

[Rachel Brown]

BTK had broken into a family home, strangling the parents, Joseph and Julie, and two of their children. This crime terrified Wichita. A family murdered in their home. And the crime was sexually motivated and sadistic. And just three months later, he struck again.

[Emma Dillinger / Detective Mike McKenna (voice acting)]

Then after that, Katherine Bright was killed and her brother Kevin was wounded.

[Rachel Brown]

BTK stabbed Catherine to death. Her brother was shot in the head, but survived. At first, the Otero and Bright crimes weren't connected. It just felt like random violent crime was on the rise in Wichita. The police were scrambling with little to go on beyond vague descriptions of a dark haired man. Following a promising lead, they took suspects into Custody, triggering BTK to take credit for the Otero murders and write his first letter to the media. He wasn't going to let someone else get credit for his kills.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

Since sex criminals do not change their MO or by nature cannot do so, I will not change mine.

[Rachel Brown]

BTK's writing was full of grammatical and spelling errors, long and rambling. In that same letter he gave himself his moniker.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

Writing the code words for me will be bind them, torture them, kill them. Btk, they will be on the next victim.

[Rachel Brown]

But then the killing stopped. From 1974 to 1977, BTK went quiet. Wichita waited to see if the terror was over. In 1977, BTK returned first, 24 year old Shirley Vian was strangled in her home. And nine months later, 25 year old Nancy Jo Fox suffered the same fate again. Killed in her own home. What was it like being in the newsroom when all this is unfolding in town?

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

Well, it was, I hate to use the word exciting, but there was, there was a real buzz on about all this. Every time there was a BTK incident of some sort of letter or a phone call or the report of a new murder, you know, everybody was a buzz. Of course.

[Rachel Brown]

In 1977, Fred Mann was a young reporter. He's in his late 70s now, but still has that sharp inquisitive nature. You can just picture him as a young reporter in a bustling newsroom while everyone is scrambling to cover this serial killer. This was when the idea of serial killers was still pretty new. The FBI's Behavioral Science Unit, the BSU and the idea of criminal profiling was just getting mainstream. And the profile for BTK was alarming. Psychologists thought he could be anyone, just a regular functioning member of their community. BTK wrote another letter taking responsibility for his two newest victims and claiming he'd now killed seven people. In this letter he wrote his first poem. It was about his victim Shirley Vian. And began. Shirley locks. Shirley locks, wilt thou be mine. And warned that a poem for Fox, his newest victim, was next. Now Wichita knew for sure that they were under the watch of a serial killer with a taste for bad poetry.

[Emma Dillinger / Detective Mike McKenna (voice acting)]

And people were very scared.

[Rachel Brown]

Detective Mike McKenna Again, people were locking

[Emma Dillinger / Detective Mike McKenna (voice acting)]

their doors and buying guns.

[Rachel Brown]

BTK was known to stalk his victims and wait for them inside their homes. He would often cut his victims phone lines before an attack. People were warned that the moment they returned home they should pick up the phone. If the line was dead, they were told to run. Cops were at the ready.

[Emma Dillinger / Detective Mike McKenna (voice acting)]

The community was quite guarded. And on evenings or Whatever. When it was windy or there was a storm coming through or the trash cans rattled or the dogs barked, they would call us constantly to come check their homes. We, we rode overtime putting extra police power on the streets. People were very quick about calling. Somebody was outside their house. They thought it was btk.

[Rachel Brown]

But in the Wichita Police Department's Major Crimes Unit, one officer was about to find a new lead. Ruth Finley's letter. That officer was Lieutenant Bernie Drawski.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

And Drawski was. He was a real cops cop.

[Rachel Brown]

Fred Mann knew him.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

This was a no nonsense, a real tough guy. He looked the part, you know, he had slicked back here. He had a kind of a scarred face. He looked tough. And he had had a pretty good history as a cop, as a guy who was pretty relentless.

[Rachel Brown]

Fred says Drawacky was known as a bit of a hothead. He didn't like bad guys getting away. And now Ruth and Ed Finley were in the Major Crimes division in front of this tough cop. They showed him their strange threatening letter and told him about the other suspicious behavior over the last year.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

So they told him about these incidents downtown, about the phone call they had Rotsky read the letter and they waited and they waited for his reaction. But he didn't show anything, didn't show any signs of anything. Just read it calmly. And then he said, what's this about the brands? And then Ruth looked at Ed and Ed said, yeah, better tell him. And so then Ruth told them all about the branding incident towards Scott.

[Rachel Brown]

Ruth told him in her typical stoic way. Jarotsky listened, sizing Ruth and Ed up.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

He thought that they were two average people from Wichita Kens, you know, what disturbed him was the letter.

[Rachel Brown]

Drawski knew the BTK case very well. He was part of the investigative team and he knew the kinds of letters BTK had been sending. Not just letters, but poems.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

So when he read this guy threatening this woman with obscenities, the fact that he was a poet, he began to think, could we really have two different people or was this the same guy? We're not big enough to have two different people with this kind of obsession. He didn't tell them that, though. He didn't bring up BTK to them. But when they left, he went back and reread the letter. And then he started to take them very seriously.

[Rachel Brown]

And the letters to Ruth wouldn't stop. They were vile.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

The holy horror bore her guilt in

[Rachel Brown]

her bed of slime filled with violent imagery and degrading sexist language from selling

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

her ass and not charging a dime.

[Rachel Brown]

And they evolved from threatening to extort her or expose her secret to threatening her life.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

Here's to you.

[Rachel Brown]

A tender valentine tormenting Ruth at every turn and taunting the police and media.

[BTK Killer / Ruth Finley (voice acting)]

Red with blood and tied with twine.

[Rachel Brown]

Soon this poet was no longer stopping at letters. He was ready to take action. Next time on the Poet. Ruth is missing.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

We've had kidnappings, but nothing that resembled this.

[Rachel Brown]

And Ed comes to face his worst fear.

[Fred Mann / Lieutenant Bernie Drawski / Detective Mike McKenna (journalists and police officers)]

He put everything together and thought this guy got her. He thought she was dead.

[Rachel Brown]

Vacation Rental hosts can make or break a vacation. Luckily, vrbo makes it easy to find the ones who make it stress free. Vrbo's Premier Hosts badge highlights vacation rental hosts with top tier listings. The ones with excellent guest experience reviews, zero cancellations and strong ratings across the board. For trip planners who want to be hosted, not ghosted, choose Premier Hosts. Book today on the vrbo app. If you know you vrbo the Poet is a production of Sony Music Entertainment, New Metric Media and Muse Entertainment. The show is hosted by me, Rachel Brown. The series is written and produced by Pippa Johnstone and Rachel Brown from New Metric Media. Our executive producer is Chris Kelly from Sony Music Entertainment. Our executive producers are Catherine St. Louis and Jonathan Hirsch from Muse Entertainment. Our executive producer is Courtney Dobbins. Sound design and original music by Mark Angley. Nathan Howe is our story editor and associate producer consultant Gene Stone. Fact checking by Maya El Hawari and Alexis Green. Our lawyers are Daniel Henry, Garland Anthony and Austin Wong. Voice acting from Cassandra Sison, Morgan Murray and Antony McMahon. Special thanks to Andres Lara, Patrick McConnell, Sammy Allison, Allison Haney, Emily Racik and the rest of the team at Sony Music Entertainment.

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[Rachel Brown]

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