“The Killer Inside,” the new Lifetime movie, tells the shocking tale of Ruth Finley, whose stalker in Wichita, Kansas winds up being closer to home than expected.
In the film, which takes place in the 1970s, Ruth reports that she's being stalked and attacked by a person who appears to be using her past trauma against her.
This is happening during the same time as the BTK serial killer, who was later identified as Dennis Rader, was terrorizing the Kansas town. Named for his method of killing, “bind, torture, kill,” Rader received 10 consecutive life sentences in prison in 2005.
As fear of the murders overcomes Wichita, Ruth's story begins to equally terrify the town and police buckle down to solve her case.
But how does the movie align with Ruth's true story? Here's what we know.
What happened to Ruth Finley
Gene Stone, who wrote “Little Girl Fly Away,” told Corey Mead in a 2021 interview that Ruth was attacked as a teenager in 1946 in another Kansas town.
By the late 1970s, Ruth was living with her husband, Ed, in Wichita when she started receiving threatening phone calls and letters coming from someone who knew about the 1946 attack, Mead reported. As the threats continued, she reported them to police, who suspected the culprit could be the BTK Killer.
Along with receiving hundreds of letters, Ruth also claimed to be victim of cut phone lines, a Christmas wreath fire, a butcher knife appearing at her workplace, and disturbing items appearing on her doorstep, like a bottle of urine, a jar of feces, broken glass and chunks of concrete, The Wichita Eagle reported.
Ed Finley named the stalker “The Poet,” due to the way the letters read, Mead reported.
During the same time, Mead reported, Ruth claimed to have been abducted into a car, ultimately freeing herself and running away.
In a 1979 attack, Ruth was stabbed three times with an ice pick in a Wichita parking lot and subsequently hospitalized, according to The Wichita Eagle.
Who was 'The Poet'?
Despite the threats, harassment and attacks, detectives were unable to find a perpetrator — or any “suspicious” activity surrounding the events, Mead reported. In 1981, one detective concluded that the stalker was closer to home than they suspected: Ruth, herself.
Police photographed Ruth sending a letter from The Poet to herself, The Wichita Eagle reported. Ruth admitted to being behind the hoax to investigators, including stabbing herself in the parking lot.
Police advised that Ruth see a doctor and was placed under a 24-hour-a-day psychiatric watch at an area hospital, per Mead.
Though the entire investigation cost the city of Wichita $370,000 at the time, per The Wichita Eagle, the Sedgwick County district attorney chose to not press charges based on Ruth's psychological report.
Through therapy, Ruth found her psychological symptoms began after experiencing childhood sexual abuse, the Wichita Eagle reported.
In a 1994 interview with Oprah Winfrey, Ruth clarified that she was not diagnosed with multiple personality disorder, but rather dissociative personality disorder.
Following treatment, there were no reports of Ruth writing threats again. She died in June 2019 at 89, according to The Wichita Eagle.
How to watch ‘The Killer Inside’
“The Killer Inside” aired June 29 on Lifetime and will continue to be televised on the network. Ruth is portrayed by Teri Hatcher.
The film is also available for streaming on Hulu and Prime Video.
