Dennis Rader

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Pool video released March 1, 2005 of Rader's first appearance

Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945) is an American serial killer, who murdered at least ten people in Sedgwick County (in and around Wichita), Kansas, United States, between 1974 and 1991. He was known as the BTK killer (or strangler), which stands for Bind, Torture, and Kill, which was his modus operandi. Letters were written soon after the killings to police and to local news outlets, boasting of the crimes and knowledge of details. After a long hiatus, these letters resumed in 2004.

1 Arrest and conviction
2 Modus Operandi and victims
3 Letters
4 Biography
5 Notes
6 Books
7 External links

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Arrest and conviction

On Friday, February 25, 2005, Rader, a city inspector, Cub Scout leader, and Lutheran congregation council president, was detained near his home at 6220 61st and Independence in Park City, Kansas and accused of the BTK killings. At a press conference the next morning, Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams flatly asserted, "the bottom line is that BTK has been arrested." Rader pled guilty to his crimes on June 27, 2005, giving a graphic, almost surreal account of his crimes in court. He was sentenced to serve 10 consecutive life sentences, without possibility of parole for 175 years, on August 18, 2005. This includes nine life sentences each without the possibility for parole for 15 years, and one life sentence without the possibility for parole for 40 years.

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Modus Operandi and victims

Using personal jargon such as "hit kit" for his killing equipment, Rader casually described his crimes as his "projects" and at one point likened the murders of his victims to killing animals by saying he "put them down."

The name BTK chosen by Rader for himself also dictated his methods. Rader bound, tortured, and killed his victims. He created what he called a "hit kit," a briefcase or bowling bag containing the items he would use during murders: guns, tape, rope and handcuffs. He also packed what he called "hit clothes" that he would wear for the crimes and then dispose of.

Rader's victims include four members of one family (1974, Joseph Otero, his wife Julie Otero, and two of their five children: Joseph Otero II and Josephine Otero); Kathryn Bright (1974), Shirley Vian (1977), Nancy Fox (1977), and Vicki Wegerle (1986). Two other murders, Marine Hedge (1985) and Delores Davis (1991), were added after Rader's arrest. Police officials say there is no reason to believe Rader was responsible for any other murders, as he had kept collections related to the murders he committed and reportedly had nothing about any other killings there when they were found, although he hasn't necessarily been ruled out as a suspect in other cases.

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Letters

Rader was particularly known for sending taunting letters to police and newspapers. There were several communications from BTK during 1974 to 1979. The first was a letter that had been stashed in an engineering book in the Wichita Public Library in October, 1974 that described in detail the killing of the Otero family in January of that year. In early 1978 he sent another letter to television station KAKE in Wichita claiming responsibility for the murders of the Oteros, Shirley Vian, Nancy Fox and another unidentified victim assumed to be Kathryn Bright. He suggested a number of possible names for himself, including the one that stuck - BTK. He demanded media attention in this second letter, and it was finally announced that Wichita did indeed have a serial killer at large. A poem was enclosed entitled "Oh Death to Nancy". In 1979 he sent two identical packages, one to an intended victim who was not at home when he broke into her house and the other to KAKE. These featured another poem, "Oh Anna Why Didn't You Appear," a drawing of what he had intended to do to his victim, as well as some small items he had pilfered from Anna's home.

All of Rader's communications were poorly written with many misspellings and incorrect grammar usage. It was theorized at times that the writing style was a ruse to conceal his intelligence, but it turns out Rader really does write that way in his everyday life even though he earned a college degree in 1979.

In 1988, after the murders of three members of the Fager family in Wichita, a letter was received from someone claiming to be BTK in which he denied being the perpetrator of this crime. He did credit the killer with having done admirable work. It was never proven until 2005 that this letter was a genuine BTK communication, although BTK is not considered by police to have committed this crime.

In March 2004, he began the series of eleven communications from BTK that led directly to his arrest in February 2005. The Wichita Eagle newspaper received a letter from someone using the return address Bill Thomas Killman. The writer claimed that he murdered Vicki Wegerle on September 16, 1986, and enclosed photographs of the crime scene and a photocopy of her driver's license, which had been stolen at the time of the crime. In May 2004 a word puzzle was received by KAKE. In June a package was found taped to a stop sign in Wichita containing graphic descriptions of the Otero murders. In July a package was dropped into the return slot at the downtown public library containing more bizarre material, including the claim that he, BTK, was responsible for the death of 19-year-old Jake Allen in Argonia, Kansas earlier that same month. This claim was found to be false and the death remains ruled as a suicide. In October 2004, a manila envelope was dropped into a UPS box in Wichita containing a series of cards with images of terror and bondage of children pasted on them. Also included was a poem threatening the life of lead investigator Lt. Ken Landwehr and a false autobiography giving many details about his life. These details were later released to the public as though possibly factual, but the police were mostly trying to encourage the killer to continue to communicate until making a major mistake.

In December 2004, Wichita police received another package from the BTK killer. This time the package was found in Wichita's Murdock Park. It contained the driver's license of Nancy Fox, which was noted as stolen at the scene of crime, as well as a doll that was symbolically bound at the hands and feet with a plastic bag tied over its head. In January 2005, Rader attempted to leave a cereal box in the bed of a pickup truck at a Home Depot in Wichita, but the box was at first discarded by the owner. It was later retrieved from the trash after Rader himself asked what had become of it in a later message. Surveillance tape of the parking lot from that date revealed a distant figure driving a black Jeep Cherokee leaving the box in the pickup. In February there were postcards to KAKE, and another cereal box left at a rural location that contained another bound doll symbolizing the murder of 11-year-old Josephine Otero. Rader asked the police that if he put his writings onto a floppy disk if the disk could be traced or not. He received his answer in a newspaper ad posted in the Wichita Eagle saying it would be OK. On February 16, 2005 he sent a floppy disk to Fox TV station KSAS in Wichita. Forensic analysis quickly determined that the disk had been used by the Christ Lutheran Church in Wichita, plus the name Dennis. A Google search determined that Rader was president of this church. He was arrested on February 25.

After his arrest, Rader stated he chose to resurface in 2004 for various reasons. including the release of the book Nightmare in Wichita - the Hunt for the BTK Strangler by Robert Beattie. He wanted the opportunity to tell his story his own way. He also said he was bored because his children had grown up and he had more time on his hands.

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Biography

Dennis Lynn Rader
Driver's License Photo From 2000

Dennis Lynn Rader was born in March 9, 1945, the first of four brothers. He was the son of William E. Rader and his wife, the former Dorothea M. Cook. He grew up in Wichita and graduated from Riverview School and later Wichita Heights High School. Rader attended Kansas Wesleyan College in 1965–66 and then spent four years from 1966 to 1970 in the U.S. Air Force, including time in Texas, Alabama, Okinawa, South Korea, Greece and Turkey.

When he returned to the United States, he moved to Park City, a suburb located seven miles north of Wichita. He worked for a time in the meat department of a supermarket in Park City. He married Paula née Dietz on May 22, 1971. He attended Butler County Community College in El Dorado, earning an Associate's Degree in Electronics in 1973. He enrolled at Wichita State University that same fall. There he graduated in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in Administration of Justice.

From 1972 to 1973, Rader worked as an assembler for the Coleman Company, a camping gear firm, as had two of BTK's early victims. From November 1974 until being fired in July 1988, Rader worked at a Wichita-based office of ADT Security Services, a company which sold and installed alarm system for commercial businesses during Rader's years there.^[1] He held several positions, including installation manager.

Rader was a census field operations supervisor for the Wichita area in 1989 for 3 months, prior to the 1990 federal census.

Rader had worked since 1991 as a supervisor of the Compliance Department at Park City, a two-employee, multi-functional department in charge of "animal control, housing problems, zoning, general permit enforcement and a variety of nuisance cases." In this position, neighbors recalled him as sometimes overzealous and extremely strict; one neighbor complained that he euthanized her dog for no reason. On March 2, 2005, the Park City council terminated Rader's employment for failure to report to work or to call in.

Rader served on both the Sedgwick County's Board of Zoning Appeals and the Animal Control Advisory Board (appointed in 1996 and resigned in 1998). He was also a member of Christ Lutheran Church, a Lutheran congregation of about 200 people. He had been a member for about 30 years and had been elected president of the Congregation Council. He was also a Cub Scout leader.

Rader and his wife are the parents of two adult children, Brian and Kerri. Both were born after the BTK murders started.

On July 27, 2005, Sedgwick County District Judge Eric Yost waived the usual 60-day waiting period and granted an immediate divorce for Paula Rader, agreeing that her mental health was in danger. Rader didn't contest the divorce, and the 34-year marriage was ended. Paula Rader said in her divorce petition that her mental and physical condition has been adversely affected by the marriage. She also contended that the couple was incompatible and that he had failed to perform material marital duties and obligations—possibly due to his incarceration.

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Arrest

The BTK killer's last known communication with the media and police was a padded envelope which arrived at FOX affiliate KSAS-TV in Wichita on February 16, 2005. A purple, 1.44-MB Memorex floppy disk was enclosed in the package, and police reportedly traced it to Rader after FBI analysis of deleted data on the disk. Also enclosed were a letter, a photocopy of the cover of a 1989 novel about a serial killer (Rules of Prey ISBN 0425195198) and a gold-colored necklace with a large medallion. Once the computer disk was analyzed, police began surveillance of Rader.

Rader's mugshot, taken during booking at the Sedgwick County Jail at around 8 p.m. on February 27, 2005.

Sometime during this period, police obtained a warrant for the medical records of Rader's daughter, Kerri. A tissue sample seized at this time was tested for DNA and provided a familial match with semen at an earlier BTK crime scene. This, along with other evidence gathered prior to and during the surveillance, gave police probable cause for an arrest.

Rader was stopped while driving near his home and taken into custody shortly after noon on February 25, 2005. Immediately after, law enforcement officials—including a Wichita Police bomb unit truck, two SWAT trucks, and FBI and ATF agents—converged on Rader's residence near the intersection of I-135 and 61st Street North. Rader's home and vehicle were searched, and evidence—including computer equipment, a pair of black pantyhose retrieved from a shed, and a cylindrical container—was collected. The church he attended, his office at City Hall and the main branch of the Park City library were also searched that day. Officers were seen removing a computer from his City Hall office, but it is unclear if any evidence was found at these locations.

Rader talked to them for hours. He confessed right away. They filled up twelve DVDs with his confession.

On February 26, 2005, The Wichita Police Department announced that they were holding Dennis Lynn Rader as the prime suspect in the BTK killings in a press conference. (transcript via The Wichita Eagle [2])

Rader was officially arrested on February 28, 2005.

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Legal proceedings

Dennis Rader shaved his facial hair for this booking photo for El Dorado Correctional Facility; Rader would have to serve 175 years there before becoming eligible for parole

Kansas reinstated the death penalty in 1994. The last known BTK killing was in 1991, making all known BTK murders ineligible for the death penalty. Even if later murders are linked to the BTK killer, it was originally unclear whether the death penalty would come into play, as the Kansas Supreme Court declared the state's capital punishment law unconstitutional on December 17, 2004. The Sunday after his arrest, Associated Press reports cited an anonymous source that Rader had confessed to other killings in addition to the ones with which he was already connected. Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston called these reports "patently false." [3] On March 5, news sources claimed to have verified by multiple sources that Rader had confessed to the ten murders he is charged with, but no additional ones. [4]

On March 1, Rader was formally charged with ten counts of first degree murder (AP via The Wichita Eagle [5]). He made his first appearance via videoconference from jail. He was represented by a public defender. Bail was continued at $10 million.

On May 3, District Court Judge Gregory Waller entered not guilty pleas to the ten charges on Rader's behalf as Rader did not speak at his arraignment.

On June 27, the scheduled trial date, Dennis Rader changed his plea to guilty. In a very calm manner he described, in detail, the killings. He made no apologies. (Rader's Pleas online in RealMedia format courtesy KWCH-TV [6].)

On August 18, Dennis Rader faced sentencing. The victims' families made statements, followed by Rader, who apologized for the crimes. He was sentenced to ten consecutive life terms, which requires a minimum of 175 years without a chance of parole. Kansas had no death penalty at the time the killings were committed so this was the maximum sentence allowed. [7]

On August 19, Rader was moved from the Sedgwick County Jail to the El Dorado Correctional Facility, a Kansas state prison, to begin serving his life sentence as inmate #0083707 with an earliest possible release date of February 26, 2180.[8]While going there, Rader talked about the weather. But when Victims Families Statements from a day before at his sentence hearing, came on the radio, Rader began to cry.

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Some possible facts regarding the case

Physical and circumstantial facts that would have corroborated Rader as the BTK killer:

DNA analysis of BTK's semen and material taken from underneath the fingernails of victim Vicki Wegerle match the DNA profile of Dennis Rader.
Rader's grammar and writing style matches letters and poems received from BTK.
Rader was reportedly seen circulating (in his son's vehicle) frequently in the Home Depot parking lot near a BTK package drop site in early 2005.
ADT Security was located a few blocks from a payphone that the killer used to report a murder in 1977.
Rader had attended Wichita State University in the 1970s. The BTK killer used a photocopier on campus to copy one of his letters. A survivor of the attack on Bright reported that the killer had asked him if he had seen him at the university. A poem in one of the killer's letters was similar to a folk song taught by a professor on that campus in that time period.
Rader lived on the same street as Marine Hedge, just houses away. The BTK killer's other victims were in and around central Wichita.
The Coleman Company was located a few blocks from a payphone that the killer used to report a murder, and two of the victims (Julie Otero and Kathryn Bright) worked at Coleman during the same period that Rader worked there. Rader worked at Coleman only a short time and not at the same location as the victims.
Semen found on or near the bodies of his victims appears to be the critical evidence linking Rader to the crimes. Rader also sent trophies to police in his letters, and others may have been discovered in his home. Other cold cases in Kansas were reopened [9] to see if Rader's DNA matched crime scenes, but Rader's confession was limited to the ten known victims.
Rader and Joseph Otero, one of the first victims, both worked as Air Force mechanics, but no connection has been made between the two.

Critics believe that Rader might have been identified years earlier had more of these links been followed and analyzed.

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Notoriety and profit

On July 22, 2005, a controversy erupted on CNN's Nancy Grace show over a poem that Dennis Rader had written that was passed on to someone who then sold it on an auction site that specializes in serial killer memorabilia. The poem was titled "Black Friday," an ode to the day he was arrested. The poem expressed a point that Dennis Rader was not happy about being caught, with one of the verses proclaiming, "The dark side of me has been exposed."

NBC aired 'Confessions of BTK'. Mendoza interviewed Rader after he pled guilty on June 27. They claimed on the program that Rader knew the interview might be on T.V. but that was a false statement according to Sedgwick County Police. They thought it was strange Mendoza recorded the interview with a camera. Rader mentioned the interview during his sentencing statement.

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Movie

CBS aired The Hunt for BTK made for TV movie October 9, 2005, starring Robert Forster as the lead detective and Gregg Henry as Dennis Rader. It had 9 million viewers.

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Notes

^ Twiddy, David. "BTK suspect's career in security probed." Associated Press. February 28, 2005. [10]

^ Williams, Sarah T. "Camp novel crops up in the BTK case." Minneapolis Star-Tribune. March 3, 2005. [11]

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Books

Davis, Jeffrey M. The Shadow of Evil: Where Is God in a Violent World? Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1996. (ISBN 0787219819) - Davis is the son of BTK victim Delores Davis.
Beattie, Robert Nightmare In Wichita: The Hunt for the BTK Strangler New American Library, March 30, 2005. (ISBN 0451217381)

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