The second season of Catching Killers returns to the familiar format of Netflix's true crime offering. Each episode is comparatively short, averaging just over 35 minutes, and explores the activities of the infamous serial killers from the perspective of the police investigating the crimes. Like “Link. Torture. Kill: BTK”, it is 2004, and the Wichita Police Department is examining an envelope they received containing a photocopy of three Polaroids.
Detectives Dana Gouge, Kelly Otis and Tim Relph recall how they recognized the dead woman in the photos as Vicki Wegerle, a victim of Wichita-area serial killer BTK, who had gone silent after murdering Wegerle and nine others. between 1974 and 1991. Only the same killer could have had these Polaroids, and since the envelope was sent to the police, it meant that BTK was announcing their return.
Stars: Charles Coffey, John Ingram, Jim McIntyre
Interviews with Otis, Gouge, and Relph form the majority of the episode. The detectives explain how they immediately set up an investigative task force and returned to lurid crime scene evidence from two or more decades earlier. They also tracked BTK's correspondence with the media, one of the killer's favorite tactics and something they knew fueled his narcissism. Uncertainty and fear surrounding BTK's crimes had plagued Wichita for decades, so police saw his revival as a unique opportunity to expose and arrest him. They also had access to a level of forensic technology that was not available to the original investigators. First, the killer's DNA was obtained from evidence dating back to 1974; now it was just a matter of matching him to the genetic profile of a contemporary suspect.
As the investigation moves into its sixth month, the physical and emotional toll on the detectives increases. But so does his stack of tantalizing new leads. The packages left by BTK for the police to find and communication with him through personal ads in the newspaper - it's all a terrible game of cat and mouse, with the killer's next victim always the target. The break they need finally comes when BTK messes up and science illuminates his mistake. Wichita resident Dennis Rader's DNA matches that of the killer, and in 2005, 31 years after he started his rampage, authorities moved to finally apprehend BTK.
The Catching Killers format is rewarding in its economy. There's no on-screen journalist to act as a guide, someone from the Dateline universe like Keith Morrison or Andrea Canning. There are no interviews with relatives, friends or colleagues of the victims. In fact, there is no attempt to pad the narrative with anything more than the verbiage of its title.
The cops are the storytellers, as they describe the methodology behind their investigation, the evidentiary findings that generated his case, and the revelations that led to the arrest and prosecution of the perpetrator. It's all very tidy, almost like a summary of the usual true crime documentary style, which tends to unfold with a broader scope and a more gradual pace.
That being said, Catching Killers could have spent more time on certain aspects of its theme. Rader's media fetish, for example. There are fascinating glimpses in his correspondence: "How many do I have to kill before I get a name in the paper or some national attention?" – and the tenor of archival local news broadcasts every time a new BTK message drops flirts with sensationalism. But the tight time frame does not allow for any probing.
There is no room for an interview with a reporter or presenter who might have received the note. Listening to a homicide detective tell how he picked up evidence at a TV station and took it to the crime lab isn't as exciting as Killers seems to think. And before long the series is coming to the station, his crime solved and the perpetrator done. While Catching Killers ably tells its story, the gravity of its subject matter may well deserve more depth.
Comments
Post a Comment