Dennis Rader

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.

Biography

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.

Related Topics:
March 9 - 1945 - Wichita Heights High School - Kansas Wesleyan College - 1965 - 66 - 1970 - U.S. Air Force - Texas - Alabama - Okinawa - South Korea - Greece - Turkey

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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.

Related Topics:
United States - Park City - Wichita - 1971 - Butler County Community College - El Dorado - 1973 - Wichita State University - 1979

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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.{{an|1}} He held several positions, including installation manager.

Related Topics:
1972 - Coleman Company - 1974 - 1988 - ADT Security Services

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

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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.

Related Topics:
1991 - Animal control - Zoning - Euthanized - March 2 - 2005 - Park City

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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.

Related Topics:
Sedgwick County - 1996 - 1998 - Christ Lutheran Church - Lutheran - Cub Scout

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

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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. Dennis 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.

Related Topics:
Sedgwick County - Divorce - Mental health

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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.

Related Topics:
FOX - KSAS-TV - February 16 - MB - Floppy disk

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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.

Related Topics:
Warrant - Tissue - DNA - Probable cause

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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.

Related Topics:
February 25 - Bomb unit - SWAT - FBI - ATF

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

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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.

Related Topics:
February 26 - 2005

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(transcript via The Wichita Eagle http://www.kansas.com/mld/eagle/news/special_packages/btk/11002471.htm)

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Rader was officially arrested on February 28, 2005.

Related Topics:
February 28 - 2005

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Legal proceedings

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." http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/11009169.htm 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. http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/11058212.htm

Related Topics:
1994 - Supreme Court - Capital punishment - December 17 - 2004 - Associated Press - Sedgwick County - March 5

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On March 1, Rader was formally charged with ten counts of first degree murder (AP via The Wichita Eagle http://www.kansas.com/mld/kansas/11016083.htm). He made his first appearance via videoconference from jail. He was represented by a public defender. Bail was continued at $10 million.

Related Topics:
March 1 - First degree murder - AP - The Wichita Eagle - Videoconference

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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.

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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 http://media.mgbg.com/kwch/html/real_popup.html?sTitle=BTK%27s%20Confession&sitepage=kwch.com/news/localnews&movie=articles/05June/rader2_05-06-27.rm.)

Related Topics:
June 27 - RealMedia - KWCH

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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. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20050818/ap_on_re_us/btk_killings

Related Topics:
August 18 - Life terms - Parole - Death penalty

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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.http://docnet.dc.state.ks.us/kasper2/offender.asp?kdoc=0083707While 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.

Related Topics:
August 19 - Sedgwick County - El Dorado Correctional Facility - Kansas state prison - February 26 - 2180

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Some possible facts regarding the case

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

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• 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 http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6988048/ 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 27th. 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.

Movie

CBS has announced it will air The Hunt for BTK movie October 9th, 2005, starring Robert Forster as the lead detective and Gregg Henry as Dennis Rader.

Related Topics:
Robert Forster - Gregg Henry

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