Fascinating stuff. I wonder where the late professor found the "poem"?

I've know of the song for at least forty years but only slightly different words than those in the DT.

I kind of like the "folk song" angle to this story. Apart from the monstrosity of the acts and the sickness of BTK, it sounds like a potential spin-off of "Seven".

Ard Macha, I found the "O Brother" scene you mention quite creepy too until the Klansmen began their dance, a wierd parody of the changing of the guard scene in "The Wizard of Oz".

I'm quite taken by serial killer stories. Having grown up in Wisconsin and having an odd connection to Ed Gien's crimes (the woman killed at the General store in Plainfield worked as an Express agent for my father and my father attended Riverside high school in Milwaukee with Robert Bloch the guy who wrote "Psycho" which HE based, loosely, on the Gien murders) I have been fascinated by serial murderers ever since. I especially enjoy trying to "solve" those which are still unsolved. The Zodiac, for instance. Now BTK! It might turn out to be an interesting winter after all.

Tell me more!

CB