Born in Pittsburgh, Kansas in 1945, Dennis Rader went on to live a double life. A devoted family man and businessman who joined the Wichita region of Kansas and was terrorized as a "BTK killer" by Bind,Torture,Kill.
Early years
Rader was the love child of William Elvin Rader and Dorothea Mae Cook, he grew up in Wichita and attended Riverview School, he later said that as a child he used to be cruel and kill animals, (a classic symptom of many childhood psychopaths).
Dennis secretly traps stray dogs and cats, carefully ties them up in an abandoned barn, and then hangs them from a wire. The animal suffering and subsequent death provide him with intense sexual pleasure, which he will continue to pursue during the murder operation years later.
As a teenager, he found another attraction in fetishism. He stole his mother's underwear, wore it in secret, and sometimes went on stage with her. In 2005, after his arrest, police found a photo from Rader's storage room. He dressed as a woman and was tied up and hanged.
During cross-examination, the killer admits that the bondage associated with oxygen deprivation and masturbation made it possible to increase his arousal by a factor of 10. The young assailants rarely participated in sports activities with other teenagers of the same age, did not participate in any clubs, and prioritized the privacy of the bedroom. Their school performance is deteriorating. He does not communicate his fantasy to anyone and probably continues to torture animals to satisfy his urges. At 18, he claims he saw a woman outside the window before stealing panties. Dennis Rader graduated from Wichita Heights High School in 1963.
He decided to continue his family's military tradition, but even though he didn't like it, he joined the U.S. Air Force at Kansas City in June 1966, at Wesleyan University. After a month of training at Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, he joined Sheppard Air Force Base in Wichita Falls, North Texas, as a mechanical and electrical engineer.
In 1967, he was stationed at a U.S. military base in Mobile, Alabama. From January to July 1968, he worked at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, and completed his career at Tachikawa, near Tokyo. According to several sources, he also had long-term stops in Greece, Turkey, and South Korea during his four-year tour of duty. After four years in the U.S. Air Force.
Dennis Rader resumed his studies and took a criminology course at the University of Wichita. Rader retired from the military in August 1970, returned to live with his parents in Park City for a time, and then settled in a small house nearby. An avid believer and churchgoer, he regularly attends Christ Lutheran Church in Wichita with Paula E. Dietz (1948), a 22-year-old medical secretary and choir member who married 22 years ago.
May 1971 through his connection with his mother, he worked at the IGA supermarket in Wichita until July 1973 before returning to college to pursue a degree in electrical engineering. Unemployed, he enrolled part-time at Wichita State University, where he studied criminology. He graduated in 1980 and had already been murdered several times. In late 1973, Dennis Rader went unnoticed and began stalking women on the streets. Like many other psychopathic serial killers, his secret, fantasy life gradually took over his real-life without anyone noticing.
In the eyes of his wife and other families, he looks like a normal young man and is eager to start a family and get a stable job. The police have no evidence and are questioning the facts of this version. On the other hand, there seems to be no doubt that he tried to kidnap a woman in the car park of the Wichita Mall. After a while, he spots a young red-haired woman on the street, watches her for a few days, and notes her workday, address, and habits. He even digs her future grave in a nearby meadow so that her body disappears immediately after the murder. He manages to get into her flat, retrieve personal belongings (including a driver's license), and waits a long time but ends up leaving the premises before his "prey" returns so as not to arouse his suspicions.
First victims
The Otero family from Puerto Rico moved into 803 North Edgemoor Street in Wichita nine weeks before the tragedy. Coincidentally, Dennis Rader met his mother, Julie Otero, and her youngest daughter, Josephine, in December 1973, while driving his wife to work. For about a month, he was eavesdropping on his family's life before he realized it. Work schedules, absence of parents, how the children got to school, arrivals and departures from home, and so on.
All the details are recorded in a small notebook, which he carefully hides in his desk drawer. He also chose the code name for the assassination operation.
The "Little Mex Project" (PJ Little Mex) has nominated a Hispanic girl and is currently mad about it. In January 1974, Dennis Rader managed to overwhelm the entire Otero family with such a weapon (Colt Woodsman .22 Long Rifle).
On January 15, 1974, Dennis Rader leaves home around 8 am. Then heads to the mall car park, where he leaves his car before stealing another car. The large hoodie hides various parts of his "combat gear". Two guns (including Colt Woodsman), two knives, ropes (possibly pre-tied), duct tape, and plastic bags. At 8.30 a.m. he enters Otero's territory, cuts the phone line, and walks slowly towards the door leading to the garden.
Convinced that mother and daughter are alone at this hour, he first waits in the cold, then sees nine-year-old Joseph Jr. walking his dog: Rader threatens him with a gun to take her away. Then he takes him to the kitchen, where he finds his father, a former soldier, Joseph, still there, sitting at breakfast with his wife and youngest daughter.
He orders the whole family to lie on the floor, at first pretending to be the burglar the police were looking for. He first ties up his father, whom he considers the most dangerous, then his mother and children, and then takes them all to his parent's bedroom. Using a plastic bag, Rader tries to strangle Joseph Otero. Joseph Otero struggles and is even able to tear him with his teeth. Another plastic bag and a T-shirt finally overcame his resistance. He suffocated to death minutes later. The children begin to scream, forcing Rader to cut the murder short. He strangles Julie Otero with a rope and drowns the child. Josephine is his main target: he takes her to the basement, ties her ankles together, and hangs her from the sewer pipe.
When she dies, he removes her trousers and panties and masturbates in front of her. Before leaving the grounds near the front door, Rader searches everything he can take and searches every room. He steals Joseph Otero's watch and radio receiver. He is probably known to return home early to retrieve a forgotten knife from his bedroom. The horror of the incident and the media coverage of the investigation shocked Wichita and the entire country. The police do not have a large footprint and Dennis Rader has nothing to worry about or doubt.
In February 1974, he began writing a short story titled "Death on a Cold January Morning." Catherine Bright (April 1974) Dennis Rader saw a new "hunt" in March 1974: Catherine D. A bright, blonde, hard-working 21-year-old single woman, a tenant in a small house at 3217 East 13th Street North in Wichita. Like the Otero family, she gives into operations. she futures the secret codename "Project Light Off" and she spends hours carefully spying on the target's whereabouts outside the house and on the streets. Outside of leaving no cops behind, the serial killer also uses a new pistol (357 Magnum) and what he finds in the house to bind and squeeze victims to change his course of action.
On April 4, 1974, Rader showed up at Catherine Bright's house dressed as a nearby student, in green pants, suede shoes, a hoodie, and a hat, and her house, no doubt, by neighbors. He wanted to enter more easily. An absent young woman burst through the back door of the house, hid in the bedroom closet, and decided to wait for her to come home steaming the smell of her clothes.
Kathryn Bright takes a few hours to get back home to her brother Kevin. Just as the Raiders prepare to leave the premises. The killer with a gun reintroduces himself as the thief the police were looking for and orders Kevin to tie his sister up with a scarf. Annoyed by this unexpected presence of a man, Raider first nurses a child in another room ties him up in trouble, and then tries to strangle him with means. Facing fierce resistance from him, he fired two bullets at close range, one to the chin. In another bedroom, he slowly begins to squeeze Catherine into another medium, but Kevin, his face bloodied, regains consciousness and rushes towards him.
The assailant shoots her in the head again and she realizes that his surgery is destined. He then used a knife to finish off Catherine, stabbing her in the stomach 11 times before escaping and returning. Despite many injuries, Kevin proceeded to leave the house and call an ambulance. Catherine is taken to the Wichita hospital and is still conscious, but she dies a few hours later. Fearing arrest, Rader hides all of his weapons in the basement of his parents' house and burns bloody loafers.
At the same time, Kevin Bright finds the strength to describe his sister's killer to the police, who immediately launch a lengthy investigation, during which they unsuccessfully interrogate nearly 800 white Wichita men. During this period, Dennis Rader was never suspected or summoned by investigators.
The Beginning of "BTK”
In October 1974, Rader placed a note in a book on the shelf of a public library, in which he took it upon himself to assassinate the Oteros. The note ended up in a local newspaper (it was written) and gave the authorities an idea of who they were dealing with. Rader wrote: "It's hard to control myself. You may call me a 'psychotic with sexual perversion issues'". He warned that he would assault again, noting: "The code words for me will tie them up, torture them, kill them, BTK". The initials stuck, and the killer came to be credited by variations of the name "BTK Killer", or simply "BTK". Rader's next known crimes occurred in 1977.
In March of that year, he tied up and strangled Shirley Vian, quickly locking her children in the bathroom. In December, he strangled Nancy Fox in her home and subsequently called the police to report the murder. Shortly thereafter, in January 1978, Rader sent a poem to a local newspaper about himself.
Other murders
• Shirley Vian, 26 years old: She was a young mother of two boys and a girl. On March 17, 1977, Dennis Rader rings the bell of the small house dressed in a tweed jacket and carrying a briefcase containing his "intervention kit". He first threatens the children with his gun, closes the shutters, and pretends to be a thief, as is his custom.
On the pretense of ensuring his escape, he locks the three children in the bathroom and discovers that the mother of the family is sick and nauseous. Him alone with her victim, he undresses her before fastening her to her bed frame with nylon stockings and a cord. He then gradually suffocates her with a plastic bag and the belt from her pink robe, before masturbating into her panties during her agony.
The screams of the children and the incessant ringing of the telephone force Rader to interrupt his presence in the house. He emerges furious at being molested, and returns to his job and then to college to take his criminology courses.
The investigation does not immediately conclude a new BTK crime because, unlike the Otero murder, the children were spared. The police do not believe, at this time, that a serial killer can change his routine and, on occasion, even disprove his real existence. Once again, there are no direct witnesses apart from the children whose descriptions of the killer are contradictory. About fifty people are questioned in the neighborhood, without success.
Rader is not worried and continues the secret writing of his memoirs, embellished with macabre poems. Ella Paula's wife accidentally discovers these terrifying stories, but she believes her husband when she tells her they are academic notes taken during a criminology class dedicated to the notorious Wichita killer.
• Nancy Fox, 25 years old: The same year 1977, Dennis Rader began to follow Nancy Fox, a young waitress noticed in a Wichita bar, Seven Seventies. As usual, she meticulously spies on the life of her new prey, searches her mailbox, and even breaks into her house to steal her underwear. Rader assigns a new codename to his future assassination operation: "Project Fox Tail" (PJ Fox Tail).
On the morning of December 8, 1977, Rader warns his wife that he will be home later than usual after work, claiming a visit to the university library as part of his studies in criminology. Around 8 p.m., equipped with his "intervention kit," he parks his car a few blocks from Nancy Fox's house, walks to 843 South Pershing Street, cuts the phone lines, and enters his victim's house through the street. Back door. He decides to wait for her hidden in the closet of her room. Nancy Fox gets home around 9 p.m. she is alone.
This time, Rader doesn't use a firearm to neutralize her victim: he lunges at her and exposes her willingness to tie her up, rape her, and then take pictures of her. Maybe he promised her life. Resigned, Nancy Fox lays down on the bed and then allows herself to be handcuffed and tied up by her attacker. Rader removes her panties, binds her ankles, and slowly suffocates her with a belt that he tightens and loosens on her to leave her in agony. Once dead, Nancy Fox is bound at the ankles and wrists with different colored pantyhose. Rader masturbates in his victim's robe, and then grabs various items of undergarment and jewelry. It is likely that he took photographs of her body before fleeing.
The next morning, exasperated to discover that the press had not reported his murder, Dennis Rader decided to contact the police. He goes to a mall in his work van and calls 911 from a phone booth to report the address of the murder and the name of the victim. Despite the presence of several witnesses, the murderer manages to leave the place without being recognized. After his arrest, BTK will admit that this call was a mistake, linked to his desire for fame.
At the crime scene, investigators find traces of semen on the nightgown Rader was masturbating in. Sent to the laboratories of the Kansas Bureau of Investigation in Topeka, the samples gave no concrete results, the analyzes reveal very common characteristics.
• Marine Hedge, age 53: Between 1 AM and 7 AM that day, the BTK Killer attacked the woman at her home and took her away. He then strangled her with her bare hands and left her completely naked in a place away from her. Her body was unattached, but a pair of pantyhose was found near her.
• Vicki Wegerle, age 28 (September 16, 1986): This young mother of a 2-year-old boy was strangled and her body left on the floor of her bedroom. Her husband, dejected by the death of his wife, hired a private detective.
• Dolores Davis, age 62 (January 1991): She was kidnapped from her home and strangled. Her body was found under a bridge. This was the last murder of hers.
Arrest
In 2004, the BTK case was filed. There was little hope of catching this attacker, so a "last desperate attempt" was made to catch him by analyzing DNA extracted from the victim's fingernails. In this attempt, the police took DNA samples from thousands of men who provided themselves because they felt stigmatized even by families who were sometimes thought to be BTK killers. To prove that they were not murderers, these individuals handed over their biological samples to reveal their names. Dennis Rader was also not on the police suspect list. He started sending tips to find them and showed complete arrogance.
In the last clue he sent, he asked if he could find out who he was if he sent them a floppy disk. The police had already received technical assistance. They responded through the newspaper that he sent the diskette and that he didn't know who sent it. The intruder sent a floppy disk with a file. Therefore, the police quickly verified the metadata of the Microsoft Word documents. In the metadata, police discovered that the letter writer was in attendance under the name "Dennis." A connection to the Lutheran Church was also found. Therefore, the police searched the Internet for "Iglesia Luterana Wichitadenis" (literally) "Iglesialterana Wichitadenis".
Investigators located suspect Dennis Rader, a Lutheran butler. But they needed more proof. Investigators knew that the BTK killer had a Jeep Cherokee. When they got to Rader, there was a Jeep Cherokee in his garage; However, that was not enough to stop her, so she asked the university her daughter was attending for a blood sample, which she had left as a condition of admission. The DNA sample was found to be similar to that found at the crime scene.
On February 25, 2005, Dennis Rader was arrested. On June 27 of that year, he pleaded guilty to "BTK murder" and was sentenced to 10 life sentences (one for each death) on August 18, 2005.
Dennis Rader is eligible for parole after serving 175 years in prison, or 2180 years in prison. Raider was spared the death penalty when Kansas reinstated his sentence in 1994, three years after his last murder.
Representations in pop culture
The case of BTK inspired many works from loud music to audiovisuals, some examples of this are:
In the music:
• Angerfist, Dutch electronic music DJ Gabber, composed music recounting the killer's misdeeds on his track Strangle & Mutilate.
• Album Bind Torture Kill (2006) Belgian Electro-Industrial group Suicide Commando.
• Brutal death metal band Suffocation has a track called Bind Torture Kill.
• Musician Steven Wilson wrote a song that references Rader. This one is on the Grace for Drowning album and is titled Raider II.
• Metal band Dead Cowboy Vixens introduced their CD Hand of Death BTK.
• In the album Blood In Blood Out by the thrash metal band Exodus the song BTK is included.
• The first track on the album Thy Kingdom Scum by doom metal band Church of Misery is titled BTK (Dennis Rader).
In the literature:
• John Douglas and Mark Olshaker (English trans.) Mindhunter: Inside the Mind of a Profiler, Paris, Michel Lafon, 2017
•Stephen King (English trans.), Full Dark, No Stars: news, Paris, Albin Michel, 2012. The new Bon Ménage is heavily inspired by the story of Dennis Rader, an irreproachable family man, and sadistic serial killer.
•Stephen King (translated from English), Mr. Mercedes, Paris, Albin Michel,2015. Dennis Rader is mentioned in the novel.
•Novelist Thomas Harris has said that the character of Francis Dolarhyde in his 1981 novel Red Dragon is partially based on the then-unidentified BTK Killer.
At the cinema:
• 2005: Ulli Lommel's BTK Killer - role played by Gerard Griesbaum (young BTK) and Eric Gerleman (old BTK).
• 2005: The Hunt for the BTK Killer by Stephen Kay - a role played by Gregg Henry.
• 2008: Michael Feifer's BTK - a role played by Kane Hodder.
• 2014: Model Couple (A Good Marriage) by Peter Askin - Anthony La Paglia plays a character inspired by BTK.
• 2017 Netflix crime drama, Mindhunter,
• 2018: Duncan Skiles' The Clovehitch Killer: Dylan McDermott plays a serial killer with methods heavily inspired by BTK, as well as being a family man and head of a section of junior scouts like Dennis Rader.
In TV series:
•Episode 4 of season 6 (2004) of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit is based on this case.
• 2005: New York, Special Unit, Season 6 Episode 4, a serial killer calls himself RDK and is inspired by BTK.
• 2006: Criminal Minds, season 1, episode 15, 20 years later ( Unfinished Business ), by J. Miller Tobin: the character of the "murderer of the