Kiriakou’s serial-killer letters were a series of letters John Kiriakou wrote to several well-known American serial killers as research for a planned book, drawing on his experience as an interviewer and interrogator. His correspondents included David Berkowitz (“Son of Sam”), Gary Leon Ridgway — the Green River Killer, who murdered 49 prostitutes in eastern Washington State — the BTK killer, the “co-ed killer,” and a member of the Manson family.[1]
The responses
Kiriakou’s first response came from Tex Watson of the Manson family, who asked him to help spread word that Watson had found Jesus.[2] A subsequent letter from David Berkowitz was, in Kiriakou’s account, also entirely about having found Jesus and read as insincere — “you could tell he was just going through the motions.”[3] Gary Leon Ridgway sent a thick envelope of religious pamphlets and asked Kiriakou to distribute them door-to-door in his own neighborhood, proclaiming that Ridgway had found Jesus.[4]
What Kiriakou wanted to ask
Kiriakou says he wanted to ask the BTK killer, Dennis Rader, how he was able to stop killing for 14 years, get married, raise a family, and get elected president of his church council — before murdering a six-year-old girl and molesting her body.[5] He describes the “co-ed killer” as having murdered his grandparents, his mother (who had abused and raped him), and six other women — decapitating his mother and having sex with her severed head. That killer, per Kiriakou, now works for Audible reading audiobooks.[6]