The Poet | 4. Ruth Under Siege
episode
The Binge Crimes: What Happened to the Harrisons?
37 min
5 speakers
4 chapters
transcribed 1 month ago
Transcript
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Transcript generated automatically by AI and may contain errors.
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
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I have a surprise for you in the lobby, Ruth.
Ruth is at work at the Southwestern Bell Telephone Company when a call comes in from the poet. He's in the lobby. she immediately calls the police. The cops had been on tenterhooks all Christmas, looking out for a gift the poet might send Ruth for the holiday. Was this it? Officers burst in, but he's already gone. They search the lobby for the poet's surprise, fearing it could be a bomb. But then they spot something strange tucked in the lobby's phone booth. A butcher knife, 12 inches long, wrapped in a red bandana. Two witnesses tell police they saw a man who looked like the sketch of the poet they saw on the news. But the man was gone before the police got there. A few days later, back at home, Ruth receives a letter.
There was a female named Ruth who thought nothing of calling a sleuth. I have no doubt my call was checked out. I didn't tell you your present was in a booth.
It's only January, but already 1980 isn't looking promising for Ruth or her investigators. And the frenzy has only just begun. Soon, the poet takes their correspondence from private to public. Businesses around Wichita get hit with letters from the poet requesting Ruth's gas be turned off, her driveway ripped up, her driver's license taken away, her bank account emptied, and her locks changed, all in an attempt to humiliate and terrorize her. He sends a particularly awful one to the health department.
This is an anonymous tip. There is a female spreading V.
venereal disease, what we'd now call a sexually transmitted infection. Not only has the poet stalked, kidnapped, and stabbed Ruth, now he's trying to ruin her reputation. This is no longer about blackmail for an old secret. He is trying to destroy her completely, like a cat playing with its prey, wearing her down before the final strike. One more letter comes in. The poet writes to the local mortuary asking about its services for dead bodies, which, he writes, Ruth would need soon. From Sony Music Entertainment and New Metric Media, this is The Poet. I'm Rachel Brown. Episode four, Ruth Under Siege.
At the start of the new year, Wichita Police Lieutenant Bernie Drewatsky receives a big promotion. He's been leading the Poet investigation since the beginning, befriending the Finleys along the way. But his new role means he'll be much less involved in the Poet case. So Captain Mike Hill takes over in his place. Hill is a hard-nosed, no-nonsense cop who'd been involved in the BTK serial killer investigation. Even before his briefing, Mike Hill reads the case files from cover to cover. He's going to reconsider every possible suspect, starting at the top of the pile, BTK.
Is BTK and the poet the same person? He got approved or disproved?
He even looks at Ruth and Ed themselves. He can rule out Ruth because the medical records show that her stabbing injuries could not have been self-inflicted. And it's Drowatzky who assures Hill that Ed would never hurt his wife. But Hill, known for his skepticism, is going to do things differently from Drowatzky.
What surprises and threats did Ruth first receive from the Poet in the lobby and by phone?
I don't get close to people. You can't get close because that affects your thinking.
You can get professionally close, but not socially close.
So did you have to tell Ed and Ruth specifically that they were no longer going to be kept in the loop about the investigation like they had been before? Did you tell them that directly?
No, I didn't have to tell them.
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Chapters
4 chapters
1
What is the main topic discussed in this episode?
0:00–5:23
2
What surprises and threats did Ruth first receive from the Poet in the lobby and by phone?
5:23–13:57
3
How did the Poet escalate from private letters to public harassment of Ruth and Wichita businesses?
13:57–23:37
4
Why did Captain Mike Hill take over the Poet investigation and how did his style differ?
23:37–37:13