American Predator: The Hunt for the Most Meticulous Serial Killer of the 21st Century

by Maureen Callahan

He called in the FBI’s storied Behavioral Analysis Unit, despite Bell’s skepticism. What Bell knew of BAU came from TV and the movies. He pictured clean-cut paper pushers who sat in headquarters, thousands of miles away from a crime scene, with a superior deskside air that somehow resulted in a detailed, bang-on profile of an unknown suspect. Like many of his fellow investigators, Bell thought these profilers were a notch above psychics. Their predictions of violent offenders were almost always the same: Your suspect will be a young man, probably white, with a low-level job, difficulties maintaining relationships, and lots of anger issues, especially toward women. Hardly the most surprising conclusion to reach.

“Tell me what you want,” Feldis said. “I don’t know what you want.” “I want an execution date.” The room went silent. This was the exact opposite of Keyes’s initial demand—no death penalty. After a few beats, Feldis sought to clarify. “For you?” “Yes. I want this whole thing wrapped up and over with as soon as possible. I mean I could end up in federal Supermax prison somewhere for the rest of my life, which is what—if my attorney had his way, that’s where he wants me to go, and that’s not what I want.”

“I want this whole thing done in a year,” he said. “From today, start to finish, basically. I’ll tell you about everything, I’ll give you—plead guilty to whatever, I’ll give you every single gory detail you want, but that’s what I want.” He had a very simple reason. “I want my kid to have a chance to grow up,” Keyes said. “She’s in a safe place now. She’s not going to see any of this. I want her to have a chance to grow up and not have all this hanging over her head. If I end up in prison for who knows how many years—ten years, twenty years down the road—I know how this works. You’re going to keep looking, you’re going to keep going back, and I don’t want news about me.

And Keyes exploited their desperation, soon trading his hated paper slippers for sneakers and shoelaces and getting his newspapers. He even had a wilderness survival guide in his cell. Shock didn’t begin to cover Bell’s reaction when he found out. Didn’t Chandler know that Ted Bundy had escaped from prison twice? Keyes idolized Bundy.