Loading...
21st out of 47 books
—
18 voters
My rating:
add to my books
Inside the Mind of BTK: The True Story Behind the Thirty-Year Hunt for the Notorious Wichita Serial Killer
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 p
...morePaperback, 344 pages
Published
September 2nd 2008
by Jossey-Bass
(first published 2007)
There is a good chance some of your friends read this book. Sign in to see!
sign in »
Friend Reviews
To see what your friends thought of this book,
please sign up.
Community Reviews
(showing
1-30
of
478)
if you bought john douglas for what he was really worth, and sold him for what he is really worth... you'd make a killing. this book would have been really interesting if john douglas would have just stuck to writing about the killer and not himself. i didn't pick up the book, "btk killer and other musings about my life" by john douglas.
view 1 comment
A well written book by one of the FBI profilers that helped bring down BTK. Having read a few crime books before this one, I found BTK to be really interesting in the fact that he managed to elude police for so long and the strange way he killed his victims. He was not a rapist, just played out a very disturbing fantasy with every victim in his mind. It was sad to read about how working on this case nearly killed the author and consumed much of his life. Crazy to think that this killer was a...more
In a twisted way, I enjoyed reading this. It's like watching a graphic true crime TV show - you're disturbed, but it's thrilling, and you come away feeling educated. The author, John Douglas, says this about his reasoning for presenting such an in-depth portrait of a sexual serial killer:
"People often ask me why I want to write books about inhuman monsters like Dennis Rader. My answer is always the same: I've ways believed that by taking the sensationalism out of the crimes, I ...more
"People often ask me why I want to write books about inhuman monsters like Dennis Rader. My answer is always the same: I've ways believed that by taking the sensationalism out of the crimes, I ...more
I don't typically quote "the author on the author," but I think something from the last few pages of the book is very illustrative: "People often ask me why I want to write books about inhuman monsters like [BTK:]. My answer is always the same: I've always believed that by taking the sensationalism out of the crimes, I can destroy the myth. I describe the gory details out of their crimes, but never try and sensationalize their actions." I think that about sums it up. The book...more
Dennis Rader was a married 61 year old guy with 2 kids.He had a problem with killing any type of women.It took people years to catch the BTK but one day he came out of the blue and said he feels like no one cared about him and that he commited more crimes then they could ever thnk of. I think it was a good book about telling what goes through poeples heads. Poeple who like to read about true happings and fcats about poepls lives would like this book. But if i had a quastion to ask the BTK I woul...more
Reading about serial killers may not be everyones.favorite activity, but this was a good account of BTKs life and killings. Divided into three parts, the first is a general telling of each murder by Douglas, the second by BTK himself and the third is the exclusive interview. Douglas almost seems to focus the story on himself more than BTK. He takes a stance where it seems he played a huge role in the investigation, when other than his interview the case basically just crossed his desk. The w...more
I've liked John Douglas other books, but this one left me annoyed and disappointed. Douglas states quickly at the start of the book that he had little involvement in the actual capture of the serial killer known as BTK, but I still expected a detailed analysis of BTK's pathology. Instead, the book was mainly "filler", flushed out with stories of Douglas past exploits. BTK's story doesn't really begin until the middle of the book, and most of it is information already reported in the pr...more
I like this book and I learned more about the BTK then I heard from the media.
John E. Douglas usually satisfies my occasional urge for a true crime book, but this was very disappointing. Instead of being an active member of the team that hunted down BTK over the years, Douglas was a fringe enthusiast. So the "plot" of the book was essentially Douglas reading a file and summarizing his findings. An incredibly weak approach, especially when you compare it to something like Mindhunter: Inside the FBI's Elite Serial Crime Unit.
The story and the details of BTK are extremely fascinating in a you-cannot-look-away-because-it-is-too-horrifying kind of way. On the other hand, I kind of hate John Douglas. The cases he works are gruesomely interesting and he has access to all of the details and suspects and witnesses and friends and family, and ok, he was one of the pioneers in the field of criminal profiling (and he WILL NOT let you ever forget that) but he has a very arrogant and self centered style of writing that I find...more
Bind.Torture.Kill.
This book is an intense and intriguing 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!!
This book is an intense and intriguing 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!!
Such a good read. I liked that it was a story and not just a dry report on the BTK killer as many serial killer books are. It was scary that it was a true story, one that only came to light a few years ago and the fact that he looked that a "normal" citizen.
Definitly a good read. It reads like non-fiction which just goes to show how crazy BTK actually is. But I think the author (former FBI profiler) took some story lines a little too far, making me roll my eyes because I know that what the author was writing was probably pretty far from non-fiction (regarding the authors own experiences, not anything BTK related), for example, was the author really sitting in a cemetary alone late at night thinking about the case when he suddenly hears something, r...more
I was hoping for more information on criminal profiling. The book itself wasn't well written, sometimes to a laughable degree. Still, it was a quick read and creeped me out before bed, so it gets a couple of stars.
Overall, the book is pretty good and does a very good job of explaining what was different about this particular criminal that made him so difficult to capture. A pretty fascinating glimpse into both what made this serial killer tick, but what makes the author himself tick--and frankly, what they both have in common sometimes. After a while, I began to question some of the offhanded comments the author seemed to feel compelled to include in his book--comments about wishing he could take some vig...more
Good, informative read. If you're interested in true crime books, this is worth picking up. Douglas not only goes through some of the behind the scenes goings on at the FBI and how he came to his profile of BTK, but also each crime in detail, and a mini-biography of BTK going back to childhood.
This is the best book on the subject I have read. And it is an intense read. Douglas goes deeper while analyzing all of Rader's horrific writings and sketches. He shows just how evil Rader is.
Disturbing. I actually couldn't finish reading it when I got to the part that shared his diaries. Just too dark.
This is a great book for those interested in profiling. Well written and very disturbing.
I got to page 286 and stopped...it wasn't very good, and the writer was very arrogant and made it sound as if he single handedly solved the mystery of BTK even though he really had very little to with the actual profiling of BTK and nothing to do with the solving of the case. I also didn't need all the details about the writer. The book is entitled "Inside the Mind of BTK," not, "John Douglas ~ How I Single Handedly Solved the Mystery of BTK and Everything Else You Ever Wanted To ...more
Not the typical John Douglas book since he was not directly involved with the case from the start, this one is more of a research project on John's part than a first-hand account. The descriptions of him researching seem a bit contrived/fictionalized to me and it was a bit distracting.
However, that's not the important part of the book of course and the BTK story is quite gripping because of the sheer brutality and the fact that he basically won. Yes, we was caught and is locked u...more
However, that's not the important part of the book of course and the BTK story is quite gripping because of the sheer brutality and the fact that he basically won. Yes, we was caught and is locked u...more
ugh freaking weirdo
Fascinating, horrifying.
Good, as usual. Lots of new information about the post-arrest period that I hadn't heard before. Also, lots of info on BTKs collection of journals and other items.
The reminder of the evil out there is always chilling.
A very interesting book.
Lesson Learned: don't send the cops a disc unless you want to get caught.
Lesson Learned: don't send the cops a disc unless you want to get caught.
BTK was very well written. The author does not waste time on "fluff" and gets right to the point. Only when evidence and research is lacking does he interject his theory. I will be purchasing "Mindhunter" and "Obsession" shortly! The only shortcoming I felt, was the lack of psychological research and testing. This information would be useful to the background/childhood of Dennis Rader.
John Douglas does a wonderful job explaining who BTK is and what he did. travels alot to see the person who cracked the case of BTK after he tried to. A read more about why he did it, but doesn't really explain all of the deeds done by BTK. You will hate this man to death after reading this.
Probably should have given the book an even lower rating, but he does cover all of the bases. Repetitive and poorly written, for the most part. Although he covers the BTK case, it is more a personal reflection and ego stroke for himself. I had trouble finishing it.
Informative, but not altogether a well written book.
There are no discussion topics on this book yet.
Be the first to start one »
Readers Also Enjoyed
John Edward Douglas is a former United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) agent, one of the first criminal profilers, and criminal psychology author. He also wrote four horror novels in the mid 1990s.
-Wikipedia
More about John E. Douglas...
-Wikipedia
Share This Book
No trivia or quizzes yet. Add some now »
