Real Crime Stories/Paranormal Hauntings/Conspiracy Theories Book II

BTK Killer: Dennis Rader

Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945) is an American serial killer known as BTK or the BTK Strangler. Rader gave himself the name "BTK" (for "bind, torture, kill").

Between 1974 and 1991, Rader killed ten people in the Wichita, Kansas, metro area.

Rader sent taunting letters to police and newspapers describing the details of his crimes. After a decade-long hiatus, Rader resumed sending letters in 2004, leading to his 2005 arrest and subsequent guilty plea. He is serving ten consecutive life sentences at El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas.

Life and background

Dennis Rader was born on March 9, 1945, to Dorothea Mae Rader (née Cook) and William Elvin Rader. He is one of four sons; his brothers are named Paul, Bill, and Jeff. Though born in Pittsburg, Kansas, he grew up in Wichita. His parents both worked long hours and paid little attention to their children at home; he would later describe feeling ignored by his mother in particular, and resenting her for it.

From a young age, Rader harbored sadistic sexual fantasies about torturing "trapped and helpless" women. He also exhibited zoosadism by torturing, killing and hanging small animals. He acted out sexual fetishes for voyeurism, autoerotic asphyxiation, and cross-dressing. He would often spy on female neighbors while dressed in women's clothing, including women's underwear that he had stolen, and masturbate with ropes or other bindings around his arms and neck. Years later, during his "cooling off" periods between murders, he would take pictures of himself wearing women's clothes and a female mask while bound. He would later admit that he was pretending to be his victims as part of a sexual fantasy. He kept his sexual proclivities well-hidden, however, and was widely regarded in his community as friendly and polite.

Rader attended Kansas Wesleyan University after high school, but received mediocre grades and dropped out after one year. He spent 1966–1970 in the United States Air Force. Upon discharge, he moved to Park City, where he worked in the meat department of a Leekers IGA supermarket where his mother was a bookkeeper. He married Paula Dietz on May 22, 1971, and they had two children, Kerri and Brian. He attended Butler County Community College in El Dorado, earning an associate degree in electronics in 1973. He then enrolled at Wichita State University and graduated in 1979 with a bachelor's degree in administration of justice.

Rader worked as an assembler for the Coleman Company, an outdoor supply company. He worked at the Wichita-based office of ADT Security Services from 1974 to 1988, where he installed security alarms as part of his job, in many cases for homeowners concerned about the BTK killings. Rader was a census field operations supervisor for the Wichita area in 1989, before the 1990 federal census.

In May 1991, he became a dogcatcher and compliance officer in Park City. In this position, neighbors recalled him as being sometimes overzealous and extremely strict, as well as taking special pleasure in bullying and harassing single women. One neighbor complained he killed her dog for no reason.

Rader was a member of Christ Lutheran Church and had been elected president of the church council. He was also a Cub Scout leader. On July 26, 2005, after Rader's arrest, his wife was granted an "emergency divorce" (waiving the normal waiting period).

Case history

Murders

On January 15, 1974, four members of the Otero family were murdered in Wichita, Kansas. The victims were Joseph Otero, aged 38, Julie Otero, age 33, and two children: Joseph Otero Jr. age 9, and Josephine Otero age 11. Their bodies were discovered by the family's eldest child, Charlie Otero, who was in 10th grade at the time, as he returned home from school. After his 2005 arrest, Rader confessed to killing the Otero family. Rader wrote a letter that had been stashed inside an engineering book in the Wichita Public Library in October 1974, which described in detail the killing of the Otero family in January of that year.