News Articles 3
 
The following articles are the result of several people spending long hours at the Wichita Public Library.
and searches on the web by various people. They are presented here in chronological order.
Thank you to those people who have gathered these articles, most of which no longer seem to be
available on the internet.
 
 
 
Venetian Blind Cord Bound Murder Victims
 
The Wichita Beacon
(no reporter name given)
January 17, 1974
 
The rope used to bind the four members of the Joseph Otero family Tuesday morning appears to have
been cut from “a well used venetian blind,” Police Chief Floyd B. Hannon told The Beacon this morning.
 
“It appears to be venetian blind cord,” Hannon said, “but we can’t be absolutely certain until the report
comes back from the Federal Bureau of Investigation.”
 
Hannon said it is used cord and is a cheap grade.
 
It was used to tie up Otero, 38, his wife Julie, 34, their daughter Josephine, 11, and son Joseph II,
9, who were found dead of strangulation in various parts of their home at 803 N. Edgemoor.
 
The rope is a cotton braided cord with cotton core and can be purchased from several suppliers
over the country, according to Hannon.
 
He said it usually comes new in 1,000-yard spools. Its diameter is .13” to .15 inches.
 
The discovery that it apparently is used cord is a disappointment for police, who had hoped that
finding out where it was obtained might help in the investigation.
 
Meeting twice with reporters Wednesday, Hannon indicated one theory was the mass slaying was
committed by some “person in the community suffering from a mental disorder.”
 
He also indicated the murders may have been committed by a person or persons who knew the
Otero family. There is no evidence to indicate a forced entry to the house.
 
“It appears (the slayings were) permeditated (sic) at this point,” Hannon said.
 
Meanwhile, police have issued a pickup order for an unidentified man in connection with the murders.
Hannon said the suspect was described as between 28 and 34, between 5 feet 10 and 6 feet tall and
dark complexioned. Hannon added the suspect was of slender build and had shoulder-length brown
hair and wearing a long dark overcoat.
 
Hannon hoped to have an artist’s drawing of the suspect, based on witnesses’ reports, available this
afternoon. Bodies of Otero and his wife were found in a bedroom. Joseph II was found in another
bedroom. The body of Josephine, dressed only in socks and sweatshirt, was hanging from a pipe in
the basement.
 
Three other members of the family Charles, 15, Danny, 14, and Carmen 13 – discovered the bodies
Tuesday when they returned to the frame house after school.
 
Hannon said interviews with neighbors, acquaintances and members of the immediate family in
Puerto Rico where Otero was born, disclosed nothing to indicate the Oteros ‘are anything more than
a religious, God-fearing family.
 
Also being investigated is the possibility of illicit drug traffic being connected with the murder.
 
Involved is the Monday crash of an airplane near Miami, Fla. The plane, carrying 1 ½ tons of marijuana
was believed to be en route to Wichita.
 
 
 
Friend Didn’t Know Joe ‘From Out at Work’ Dead
 
The Wichita Eagle
(no reporter name given)
January 18, 1974
 
“I only knew him by Joe. It wasn’t until yesterday (Wednesday) that I knew his last name and that
he had been killed.”
 
Joseph Otero – Joe – was a new friend of Richard Haines, manager of the McConnell Aero Club.
Otero had done maintenance work for the club for a few weeks prior to his death Tuesday at the
hands of a brutal murderer.
 
When Haines was contacted by police late Tuesday, he even told them he did not know a Joseph
Otero.
 
The police, who found Haines’ telephone number among Otero’s belongings, did not explain why they
were calling.
 
The next morning Haines asked his roommate, John Harris, who also works at the club, if he knew
“a Joseph Otero.” Harris responded that it was “Joe from out at work.”
 
At that point, Haines assumed the police call must have been about an automobile accident Otero
had been in last week. The accident involved no injuries and there was no report in police files.
 
It was not until later that morning that Haines heard a news report and learned his friend Joe and
three of his family were dead.
 
Haines said Otero, who came to Wichita last year after retiring from military service, was quite friendly.
He had extended an invitation for Haines and a friend to come to their house for dinner some evening.
 
“He didn’t know many people in Wichita,” Haines said. “He associated with everyone he came in
contact with and was quite a character. He talked about flying a lot.”
 
Haines said Otero had a commercial pilot’s license and had been a flight instructor. But as far as he
knew, Otero only flew for pleasure during his time in Wichita.
 
“I didn’t believe it. It didn’t make any sense to me and still doesn’t,” he said. “I woke up several times
during the night last night and kept my guns at my bedside.”
 
Haines said he does a lot of hunting, but does not keep the guns loaded while in the house.
 
However, his attitude Thursday was “What would it hurt to be prepared if people are doing this.”
 
 
 
Suspect in Slayings Cleared
 
The Wichita Beacon
(no reporter name given)
January 20, 1974
 
What police had hoped was the first real break in the Otero murder case in Wichita fell through
Saturday night when a suspect picked up in Kansas City, Kan., was "definitely cleared" by
Wichita police.
 
It was the first arrest in the case. Kansas City police identified the man as Fred Allen Handy, 20,
of Pierce, Ariz.
 
Chief Floyd B. Hannon said the man was cleared because he was "too short" to fit the description.
 
Maj. William Cornwell of the Wichita Police Department said detectives who had gone to Kansas
City to check out the lead brought Handy back with them because "he wanted to clear himself."
 
It took police less than an hour to decide Handy was not the man.
 
He had been pointed out as a suspect by a desk clerk at the YMCA in Kansas City. When
Kansas City police were called Saturday morning, Handy was in the lobby, asleep on a bench.
 
Handy was booked on suspicion of murder by Kansas City authorities and held for the Wichita
officers.
 
Chief Hannon said Handy was fed and bathed Saturday night at the Detention and Rehabilitation
Center and would be given a bus ticket back to Kansas City where he has a job at a car wash.
 
Handy worked at a car wash in Michigan, but left there in November to visit his foster parents in
Arizona. He told police he was on his way back when he was picked up.
 
Joseph Otero, 38, his wife Julie, 34, and two of their children, Joseph II, 9, and Josephine, 11,
were strangled Tuesday.
 
U.S. Rep. Garner Shriver, R-Kan., announced Saturday that he had asked the White House to
arrange transportation to Puerto Rico where the Oteros are to be buried.
 
 
 
Murder Clues Sparse – Key Angle Fades
 
The Wichita Beacon
By Glenda Holder
January 23, 1974
 
Police have reached a “deadend (sic) on concrete leads” into the slaying of four members of the Joseph
Otero family last week, but “we are taking an affirmative approach” that the murderer will be apprehended.
 
Police Chief Floyd Hannon said today that in an effort to obtain additional information about Otero, 38,
and his wife, Julie, 34, their photographs would be distributed to the news media.
 
He said these pictures of the man and wife, who were slain along with two children, Josephine, 11, and
Joseph II, 9, last Tuesday, “might bring forth information” about them or their activities and associates that
police have not yet learned.
 
Interviewing of all employes (sic) and former employes (sic) in the assembly unit at the Coleman Co.,
where Mrs. Otero worked for a short time, will begin today, he said.
 
In addition, officers were expected to begin interviewing students in schools in Derby and Oaklawn that the
Otero children had attended prior to the family’s move to 803 N. Edgemoor, where the slayings occurred.
 
Hannon said the three surviving children, Charlie, Danny, and Carmen will be interviewed by telephone
today about a “conflict” between Otero and a man that occurred sometime in September. Police have
not been able to identify that man and are hopeful that the children can offer clues to his identity.
 
Police had one suspect they were watching until Tuesday night when “we developed enough information
to eliminate him,” Hannon said.
 
That person had frequented an area where a set of car keys at first believed to have belonged to the
Oteros was found.
 
The keys were found in a car at Lincoln and Woodlawn, by a young Wichitan about 12:15 p.m., the day
of the murders.
 
The keys were turned in to officers by the youth, Hannon said, and they “started the ignition, locked
and unlocked the doors,” and also operated the tailgate of the Otero station wagon.
 
The car, which apparently was taken by the murderer, was left in a parking lot at Central and Oliver
after the slayings.
 
However, Hannon said, it was later learned that the keys found by the youth belonged to the “girlfriend
of his boyfriend.” The girl also owned a 1966 Oldsmobile, the same make and year of the Otero vehicle.
 
In talking with reporters today, the chief said that perhaps “too much emphasis” has been placed on
a composite drawing of what the murderer might look like.
 
“This is not an absolute, rather it is an investigative, lead and perhaps we should de-emphasize.”
 
Hannon said he is hopeful that rewards being offered, such as the Eagle-Beacon’s Secret Witness,
might bring new information on the case.
 
He said that the department has received a large volume of calls from citizens after the rewards were
announced. “Some of them are from people who saw a dark man (the assailant is believed to be of
Mid-Eastern descent) at Murdock and Broadway three weeks ago, or telling us how to run the investigation.”
 
But, Hannon said, there is always a chance one of the calls might lead to the arrest of the man.
 
The chief said he personally has received many calls from citizens who are “uptight” about the possibility
the murders might have been committed by a prowler.
 
“We can’t discount the possibility it was a prowler until we find the person who committed the crimes,”
the chief said. “People are uptight but the public must be more alert during this time.”
 
Hannon said he also has received calls “berating the department for not doing enough” to catch the
murderer. He said police are more anxious to apprehend the man than the citizenry.
 
“We are taking an affirmative approach to this case,” the chief said. “There are 20 men working on it
and they will keep working on it until there is nothing left. We just need to crack it.”
 
 
 
 
Letter May Be From Otero Killer
 
The Wichita Eagle
By Jerry Johanning
December 12, 1974
 
A letter, in which the writer says he killed four members of the Joseph Otero family, was written by the
killer or by someone with intimate knowledge of the murders, according to Wichita Police Chief Floyd
Hannon.
 
The letter, received by police sometime in October through the Wichita Eagle-Beacon Secret Witness
program, appeared in the Wednesday edition of the Wichita Sun. The letter indicated the writer had a
monster in his brain which drove him to the Otero killings and would force him to kill again.
 
In the letter, the writer says he will continue to kill.
 
Hannon, in a hastily called news conference Wednesday, denounced the release of the letter but said
his department thinks the letter writer could be a suspect in the murders.
 
“The writer of the letter would have had to be inside the house when the crime was committed or
participated in the crime,” Hannon said.
 
“We feel this man has intimate knowledge of the Otero thing. We feel this (the letter) is from the
person who committed the offense.”
 
Otero, 38; his wife, Julie, 34; their daughter Josephine, 11, and a son, Joseph Jr., 9, were found in
their home Jan. 16 by three Otero children upon their return from school.
 
The writer signed the letter only with the initials B.T.K.
 
“I think we’ve taken one hell of a risk (with release of the letter),” Hannon said. “He might have to go
out and commit this offense again to prove he committed this (Otero) offense.”
 
Questioned by a reporter as to what the man might do now, Hannon replied: “You’re working on
assumption and theory. I could not guess what might happen.”
 
Hannon asked the letter writer to contact police or some other agency which would contact police.
“He is a sick man who needs help,” said Hannon. “He should surrender to authorities.
 
“He is the type of man society would like to help, especially this department,” Hannon said.
 
“The man will not be harmed in any way. No way are we going to harm this man or allow anyone
else to harm him.”
 
A personality profile of the writer was compiled by nearly 30 doctors in Kansas, including most of
the psychiatrists in Wichita, who analyzed copies of the letter.
 
“All doctors basically felt we’re dealing with a very sick man. The man is mentally disturbed and
has a great problem,” Hannon said.
 
“We are looking for a man who had a fetish for bondage. His reaction sexually is to be bound or
bind other people.”
 
The Otero murders were sexually related, Hannon said, and apparently were not connected to other
recent unsolved murders, all which Hannon said are drug related.
 
The writer, doctors theorized, is small in stature. They said he probably has a limited education in
the fields in engineering, bookkeeping of accounting. This conclusion by physicians was based on
analysis of marking used for corrections in the letter, Hannon said.
 
The letter said only one man was involved in the Otero slayings. Hannon said after police re-enacted
the crime that one man could have committed the murders, although that is improbable.
 
“It’s rather hard to predict if one could, with a minimal amount of subduing (victims)… kill all the
people,” the chief said.
 
Hannon attempted to keep the letter under a closed-door policy to ward off public hysteria, to keep
from motivating the writer into committing more murders and to tighten publicity releases on the
already well-publicized murders, he said.
 
“When the department started approaching other people for analyses on the letter, we started losing
our closed door policy.” Hannon said.
“We fairly well know (who leaked the letter),” the chief said, adding that the department does not
intend to make an issue of it.
 
Release of the letter and previous publicity has hampered investigation, the chief said.
 
“Whenever we do have a man confess to this, we can go to our clips and find his information was
in the news,” Hannon said.
 
“It’s extremely hard for us to know when the person tells the truth or does not tell the truth,”
when he divulges information, Hannon said.
 
“There were some things in the letter the news media did not know, even things we did not know,”
Hannon said.
 
Police received the letter through The Eagle-Beacon Secret Witness program, headed by community
relations director Don Granger.
 
“Don Granger should be commended,” Hannon said. “Don had a scoop here but did not demand to
see the letter; and it was even through Secret Witness that we were able to see the letter.”
 
Granger, upon police request, in an Oct. 31 column in the Beacon addressed a plea directly to B.T.K.
But no response was received from the letter writer.
 
Police requested Granger write the column after an advertisement in the Eagle-Beacon personal column in classified advertising section also failed to get a response.
 
Investigation of the Otero slayings has been a long process of tracking down leads which have led
police to Puerto Rico and South America. More than 20,000 man hours have been expended in the
course of the investigation.
 
Several people have confessed to the slayings, but after investigation, were discounted as likely suspects.
 
Hannon said two detectives will work full time on new leads take from the letter.
 
 
 
Special Phone Line to Handle Otero Calls
 
The Wichita Beacon
(no reporter name given)
December 12, 1974
 
Wichita police today set up a special telephone line to handle calls in the wake of Wednesday’s
announcement that there has been a possible break in the Otero murder case.
 
Col. Jack Bruce, head of the investigative division, said the telephone line will be manned 24 hours
to answer questions and receive information about the Jan. 16 murders of four members of the Joseph
Otero family.
 
The decision came after Chief Floyd Hannon’s announcement that an October letter to The Eagle and
Beacon’s Secret Witness program claiming responsibility for the slayings appeared to be authentic.
 
Since the writer fears he could kill again, police expect many of the calls to be from Wichita citizens
concerned about their safety.
 
Hannon Wednesday put out a plea for the writer of the letter to receive help by contacting the police
department or some other agency which will contact the police.
 
A “monster” in his brain forced the author of the letter to kill, according to his letter which was received
by The Eagle and The Beacon and then forwarded to the police department.
 
Hannon said the author was either responsible for the killings nearly 11 months ago or had intimate
knowledge of the crime.
 
“The writer of the letter would have had to be inside the house when the crime was committed, or
participated in the crime,” Hannon said.
 
“We feel this man has intimate knowledge of the Otero thing.”
 
Otero, 38, his wife, Julie, 34, and two of their four children, Josephine, 11, and Joseph Jr., 9, were
found murdered by strangulation in their home.
 
Writer of the letter signed it only with the initials B.T.K. He said he was afraid to seek help because
of possible ridicule.
 
“I think we’ve taken one hell of a risk with release of the letter,” Hannon said. “He might have to go
out and commit this offense again to prove he committed this offense.”
 
“He is a sick man who needs help,” Hannon said. “He should surrender to authorities.”
 
Hannon indicated release of the letter and previous publicity has hampered the investigation.
 
Hannon said police believe the letter is authentic because it disclosed details of the murders which
they did not know.
 

 

 
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