Dennis Rader
Dennis Rader | |
---|---|
File:Dennis Rader.jpg Rader's mugshot at the El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas | |
Born | Dennis Lynn Rader March 9, 1945 Pittsburg, Kansas, U.S. |
Other names | BTK Killer, BTK Strangler |
Spouse |
Paula Dietz
(m. 1971; div. 2005) |
Children | 2 |
Conviction(s) | Murder |
Criminal penalty | Life imprisonment without the possibility of parole for 175 years (10 consecutive life sentences) |
Details | |
Victims | 10 |
Span of crimes | 1974–1991 |
Country | United States |
State(s) | Kansas |
Date apprehended | February 25, 2005 |
Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945) is an American serial killer known as the BTK Killer or the BTK Strangler. He gave himself the name "BTK" (for "Bind, Torture, Kill"), which was his infamous signature. Between 1974 and 1991, Rader killed ten people in the Wichita, Kansas metro area.
Rader was particularly known for sending taunting letters to police and newspapers describing the details of his crimes.[1][2][3] After a decade-long hiatus, Rader resumed sending letters in 2004, leading to his 2005 arrest and subsequent guilty plea. He is currently serving ten consecutive life sentences at El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas.
Early life and career
Dennis Rader is the oldest of four sons born to Dorothea Mae Rader (née Cook) and William Elvin Rader.[4] Though born in Pittsburg, Kansas, he grew up in Wichita. According to many reports, including his confessions, he tortured animals as a child.[5] He also had a sexual fetish for women's underwear and stole underpants from his victims and wore them himself.[6]
Rader spent 1966–1970 in the United States Air Force.[6] 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.[7] He married Paula Dietz on May 22, 1971, and had two children.[8][9] He attended Butler County Community College in El Dorado, earning an associate degree in electronics in 1973.[10] He then enrolled at Wichita State University, and graduated in 1979 with a bachelor's 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 a part of his job, in many cases for homeowners concerned about the BTK killings.[8][11] Rader was a census field operations supervisor for the Wichita area in 1989, before the 1990 federal census.[12] In May 1991, he became a dogcatcher and compliance officer in Park City.[13][8][14][15] In this position, neighbors recalled him as being sometimes overzealous and extremely strict. One neighbor complained he euthanized her dog for no reason.[16]
On March 2, 2005, the Park City council terminated Rader's employment for failure to report to work or call in. He had been arrested for the murders five days earlier.[13]
Rader was a member of Christ Lutheran Church and had been elected president of the church council.[8][17] He was also a Cub Scout leader.[8] On July 26, 2005, after Rader's arrest, his wife was granted an "emergency divorce" (waiving the normal waiting period).[9][18]
Victims
Name | Sex | Age | Date of Death | Place of Death | Cause of Death | Weapon Used |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Joseph Otero | M | 38 | January 15, 1974 | 803 North Edgemoor Street, Wichita | Suffocated | Plastic bag |
Julie Otero | F | 33 | Strangled | Rope | ||
Joseph Otero, Jr. | M | 9 | Suffocated | Plastic bag | ||
Josephine Otero | F | 11 | Hanged from a drainage pipe | Rope | ||
Kathryn Bright | F | 21 | April 4, 1974 | 3217 East 13th Street North, Wichita
died at Wesley Medical Center. |
Stabbed 11 times in torso and back | Knife |
Shirley Vian | F | 24 | March 17, 1977 | 1311 South Hydraulic Street, Wichita | Strangled | Rope |
Nancy Fox | F | 25 | December 8, 1977 | 843 South Pershing Street, Wichita | Strangled | Belt |
Marine Hedge | F | 53 | April 27, 1985 | 6254 North Independence Street, Park City | Strangled | Hand(s) |
Vicki Wegerle | F | 28 | September 16, 1986 | 2404 West 13th Street North, Wichita | Strangled | Nylon stocking |
Dolores E. Davis | F | 62 | January 19, 1991 | 6226 North Hillside Street, Wichita | Strangled | Pantyhose |
Case history
Murders
On January 15, 1974, four members of the Otero family were murdered in Wichita, Kansas.[19] The victims were father Joseph Otero, aged 38, mother 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 grade 10 at the time and had returned home from school.[19] After his 2005 arrest Rader confessed to killing the Otero family.[20] Rader wrote a letter that had been stashed inside 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.[12]
In early 1978, he sent another letter to television station KAKE in Wichita, claiming responsibility for the murders of the Oteros, Kathryn Bright, Shirley Vian and Nancy Fox.[12] He suggested many 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 titled "Oh! Death to Nancy," a parody of the lyrics to the American folk song "O Death."[21][22]
He also intended to kill others, such as Anna Williams, who in 1979, aged 63, escaped death by returning home much later than he expected. Rader explained during his confession that he became obsessed with Williams and was "absolutely livid" when she evaded him. He spent hours waiting at her home but became impatient and left when she did not return home from visiting friends.[23]
Marine Hedge, aged 53, was found on May 5, 1985, at East 53rd Street North between North Webb Road and North Greenwich Road in Wichita. She had been killed by Rader on April 27, 1985.[citation needed]
In 1988, after the murders of three members of the Fager family in Wichita, a letter was received from someone claiming to be the BTK killer, in which the author of the letter denied being the perpetrator of the Fager murders. The author credited the killer with having done "admirable work." It was not proven until 2005 that this letter was, in fact, written by Rader. He is not considered by police to have committed this crime.[22] Additionally, two of the women Rader had stalked in the 1980s and one he had stalked in the mid-1990s filed restraining orders against him; one of them also moved away.[24]
His final victim, Dolores E. Davis was found on February 1, 1991, at West 117th Street North and North Meridian Street in Sedgwick. She had been killed by Rader on January 19, 1991.[citation needed]
Cold case
By 2004, the investigation of the BTK Killer was considered a cold case. Then, Rader began a series of 11 communications to the local media that led directly to his arrest in February 2005. In March 2004, The Wichita Eagle received a letter from someone using the return address Bill Thomas Killman. The author of the letter claimed that he had 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.[25] Before this, it had not been definitively established that Wegerle was killed by BTK.[25] DNA collected from under Wegerle's fingernails provided police with previously unknown evidence. They then began DNA testing hundreds of men in an effort to find the serial killer.[26] Altogether, over 1,300 DNA samples were taken and later destroyed by court order.[27]
In May 2004, television station KAKE in Wichita received a letter with chapter headings for the "BTK Story," fake IDs, and a word puzzle.[7] On June 9, 2004, a package was found taped to a stop sign at the corner of First and Kansas in Wichita. It had graphic descriptions of the Otero murders and a sketch labeled "The Sexual Thrill Is My Bill."[28] Also enclosed was a chapter list for a proposed book titled The BTK Story, which mimicked a story written in 1999 by Court TV crime writer David Lohr. Chapter One was titled "A Serial Killer Is Born." In July, a package was dropped into the return slot at the downtown public library containing more bizarre material, including the claim that he was responsible for the death of 19-year-old Jake Allen in Argonia, Kansas earlier that month. This claim was false, and the death was ruled a suicide.[29] After his capture, Rader admitted in his interrogation that he had been planning to kill again and he had set a date, October 2004, and was stalking his intended victim.[24] In October 2004, a manila envelope was dropped into a UPS box in Wichita. It had many cards with images of terror and bondage of children pasted on them, a poem threatening the life of lead investigator Lt. Ken Landwehr, and a false autobiography with many details about Rader's life. These details were later released to the public.[citation needed]
In December 2004, Wichita police received another package from the BTK killer.[30] This time, the package was found in Wichita's Murdock Park. It had the driver's license of Nancy Fox, which was noted as stolen from the crime scene, as well as a doll that was symbolically bound at the hands and feet, and had a plastic bag tied over its head.[29]
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 discarded by the truck's owner. It was later retrieved from the trash after Rader 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, more postcards were sent to KAKE, and another cereal box left at a rural location was found to contain another bound doll, apparently meant to symbolize the murder of 11-year-old Josephine Otero.[citation needed]
In his letters to police, Rader asked if his writings, if put on a floppy disk, could be traced or not. The police answered his question in a newspaper ad posted in the Wichita Eagle saying it would be safe to use the disk. On February 16, 2005, Rader sent a purple 1.44-Megabyte Memorex floppy disk to Fox TV affiliate KSAS-TV in Wichita.[31][32] Also enclosed were a letter, a gold-colored necklace with a large medallion, and a photocopy of the cover of a 1989 novel about a serial killer: Rules of Prey.[32]
Police found metadata embedded in a deleted Microsoft Word document that was, unbeknownst to Rader, on the floppy disk.[33] The metadata contained Christ Lutheran Church, and the document was marked as last modified by "Dennis."[34] An internet search determined that a "Dennis Rader" was president of the church council.[31] From the Home Depot incident, the police also knew BTK owned a black Jeep Cherokee. When investigators drove by Rader's house, they noticed a black Jeep Cherokee parked outside.[35]
The police had strong circumstantial evidence against Rader, but they needed more direct evidence to detain him.[36] They obtained a warrant to test the DNA of a pap smear Rader's daughter had taken at the Kansas State University medical clinic when she was a student. The DNA of the pap smear was processed by the Kansas Bureau of Investigation at their lab in Topeka, and demonstrated a familial match to the DNA of the sample taken from victim Vicki Wegerle's fingernails. This indicated that the killer was closely related to Rader's daughter, and was the evidence the police needed to make an arrest.[37]
Arrest
Rader was arrested while driving near his home in Park City shortly after noon on February 25, 2005.[38] An officer asked, "Mr. Rader, do you know why you're going downtown?"; Rader replied, "Oh, I have suspicions why."[39][40] Wichita police, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the FBI, and Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives agents searched Rader's home and vehicle, seizing evidence including computer equipment, a pair of black pantyhose retrieved from a shed, and a cylindrical container. The church he attended, his office at City Hall, and the main branch of the Park City library were also searched. At a press conference the next morning, Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams announced, "the bottom line: BTK is arrested."[41][42]
Legal proceedings
On February 28, 2005, Rader was charged with 10 counts of first degree murder.[43] Soon after his arrest, the Associated Press cited an anonymous source alleging Rader had confessed to other murders in addition to those with which he had been connected;[44] the Sedgwick County district attorney denied this but refused to say whether Rader made any confessions or if investigators were looking into Rader's possible involvement in more unsolved killings.[45] On March 5, news sources claimed to have verified by multiple sources that Rader had confessed to the 10 murders he was charged with, but no other ones.[46]
On March 1, Rader's bail was set at US $10 million, and a public defender was appointed to represent him.[47] On May 3, the judge entered not-guilty pleas on Rader's behalf, as Rader did not speak at his arraignment.[48] However, on June 27, the scheduled trial date, Rader changed his plea to guilty. He described the murders in detail, and made no apologies.[49][50][51]
At Rader's August 18 sentencing, victims' families made statements, after which Rader apologized in a rambling thirty-minute monologue that the prosecutor likened to an Academy Awards acceptance speech.[52] His statement has been described as an example of an often-observed phenomenon among psychopaths: their inability to understand the emotional content of language.[53] He was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences, with a minimum of 175 years.[54] Kansas had no death penalty at the time of the murders.[52] On August 19, he was moved to the El Dorado Correctional Facility.[55]
According to witnesses, Rader talked about innocuous topics such as the weather during the forty-minute drive to El Dorado, but began to cry when the victims' families' statements from the court proceedings came on the radio. He is now in solitary confinement for his protection (with one hour of exercise per day, and showers three times per week). This will likely continue indefinitely. Beginning 2006, he was allowed access to television and radio, to read magazines, and other privileges for good behavior.[55][56]
Further investigations
Following Rader's arrest, police in Wichita, Park City and several surrounding cities looked into unsolved cases with the cooperation of the state police and the FBI. They particularly focused on cases after 1994, when the death penalty was reinstated in Kansas. Police in surrounding states such as Nebraska, Missouri, Colorado, Oklahoma and Texas also investigated cold cases that fit Rader's pattern to some extent. The FBI, Civil Air Patrol[57] and local jurisdictions at Rader's former duty stations checked into unsolved cases during Rader's time in the service.
After exhaustive investigations, none of these agencies discovered any further murders attributable to Rader, confirming early suspicions that Rader would have taken credit for any additional murders that he had committed. The 10 known murders are now believed to be the only murders that Rader is actually responsible for, although Wichita police are fairly certain that Rader stalked and researched a number of other potential victims. This includes one person who was saved when Rader called off his planned attack upon his arrival near the target's home due to the presence of construction and road crews near her home. Rader stated in his police interview that "there are a lot of lucky people," meaning that he had thought about and developed various levels of murder plans for other victims.[10]
Evaluation by Robert Mendoza
Massachusetts psychologist Robert Mendoza was hired by Rader's court-appointed public defenders to conduct a psychological evaluation for Rader, and determine if an insanity-based defense might be viable. He conducted an interview after Rader pleaded guilty on June 27. NBC claimed Rader knew the interview might be on TV, but this was false according to the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office. Rader mentioned the interview during his sentencing statement. On October 25, 2005, the Kansas attorney general filed a petition to sue Mendoza and Tali Waters, co-owners of Cambridge Forensic Consultants, LLC, for breach of contract, claiming that they intended to benefit financially from the use of information obtained through involvement in Rader's defense. On May 10, 2007, Mendoza settled the case for US $30,000 with no admission of wrongdoing.[58]
In media
Katherine Ramsland wrote Confession of a Serial Killer about Rader, compiled from her five-year correspondence with him. In the introduction, she describes the book as a "guided autobiography" of Rader, stating that she interjects only to "assist with chronology or provide substance, sense, or background."[59]
The writer Stephen King says his novella A Good Marriage, and the film based on it, was inspired by the BTK killer.[60]
The novelist Thomas Harris has said that the character of Francis Dolarhyde from his novel Red Dragon is partially based on Rader.[61]
A made-for-TV movie, The Hunt for the BTK Killer, told the story from the perspective of the Wichita detectives who worked the case for 31 years. Rader was played by Gregg Henry in one of the most-lauded performances of his career.[62]
In the Netflix show Mindhunter, he appears throughout season one in small vignettes set in and around Park City, Kansas (although the character is credited as “ADT serviceman”, the German language dubbing credits specifically list him as "Dennis Rader").[63][64]
The story of Dennis Rader was also told in the 2008 movie B.T.K, Written and Directed by Michael Feifer and starring Kane Hodder in the title role.[65]
See also
References
- ^ Siegel, Larry (January 19, 2012). Criminology: Theories, Patterns, and Typologies. Cengage Learning. p. 353. ISBN 1-133-71052-2. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ Bauer, Craig P. (March 25, 2013). Secret History: The Story of Cryptology. CRC Press. p. 17. ISBN 978-1-4665-6186-1. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ Hickey, Eric W. (May 10, 2012). Serial Murderers and their Victims. Cengage Learning. p. 254. ISBN 1-285-40168-9. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ "Ancestry of Dennis Rader". Retrieved September 13, 2014.
- ^ "Dennis Rader Biography". The Biography Channel. A&E Television Networks. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ a b Sylvester, Ron (March 27, 2012). "Investigators tell of grisly crimes, Rader's delight". The Wichita Eagle. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ a b "A Double Life: Dennis Rader lived quietly while killing 10" (PDF). The Wichita Eagle. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ a b c d e King, Gary C.; Allen, Kevin P. "Criminal Profile: Dennis Lynn Rader". Investigation Discovery. Discovery Communications. Archived from the original on December 31, 2012. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ a b "Raders' divorce granted". The Wichita Eagle. March 27, 2012. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ a b Wenzl, Roy; Potter, Tim; Laviana, Hurst; Kelly, L. (May 27, 2008). Bind, Torture, Kill: The Inside Story of BTK, the Serial Killer Next Door. HarperCollins. ISBN 978-0-06-137395-4. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ Twiddy, David (January 3, 2005). "BTK Suspect's Career in Security Probed". Associated Press. Retrieved July 11, 2014 – via HighBeam Research.
- ^ a b c McClellan, Janet (May 18, 2010). Erotophonophilia: Investigating Lust Murder. Cambria Press. pp. 157, 173. ISBN 978-1-62196-929-7. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ a b Buselt, Lori O'Toole (March 3, 2005). "Park City Council dismisses Rader". The Wichita Eagle. Archived from the original on March 5, 2005. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
- ^ "Neighbor: I Watched BTK Suspect Shoot Dog". ABC News. February 27, 2005. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ Meadows, Bob; Klise, Kate; Comander, Lauren; Grisby, Lorna; Haederle, Michael (March 21, 2005). "The BTK Case: the Killer Unmasked?". People. 63 (11). Retrieved July 11, 2014.
The trait served Rader well in his next job, as a compliance officer for Park City, a Wichita suburb—but his nit-picking won him few friends.
- ^ Interview with Misty King; A&E Documentary Special—The BTK Killer Speaks
- ^ "People at CLC – Christ Lutheran Church – Wichita, Kansas". Archived from the original on February 6, 2005.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "BTK killer's wife granted an emergency divorce". NBC News. Associated Press. July 27, 2005. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ a b "Charlie Otero finds peace, stability nearly 40 years after BTK murders". kansas. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
- ^ "CNN.com - BTK: 'I took her to the basement and...hung her' - Jun 27, 2005". www.cnn.com. Retrieved July 1, 2018.
- ^ "Transcription of poem "Oh! Death to Nancy"" (PDF). City of Wichita. Archived from the original (PDF) on June 3, 2006. Retrieved August 9, 2011.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ a b Douglas, John; Dodd, Johnny (November 3, 2008). Inside the Mind of BTK: The True Story Behind the Thirty-Year Hunt for the Notorious Wichita Serial Killer. John Wiley & Sons. p. 83. ISBN 978-0-470-43768-1. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ Bardsley, Marilyn, Rachael Bell and David Lohr. "The BTK Story – More Clues Revealed". Crime Library. Archived from the original on May 29, 2008. Retrieved May 25, 2008.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help)CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^ a b A&E Documentary Special – The BTK Killer Speaks
- ^ a b "BTK Strangler resurfaces after 25 years". The Scotsman. March 28, 2004. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ "'BTK' serial killer caught". The Age. February 27, 2005. Retrieved October 17, 2011.
- ^ "Police destroy 1,326 DNA samples taken in BTK investigation". USA Today. May 31, 2006. Retrieved May 1, 2010.
- ^ Singular, Stephen (March 27, 2007). Unholy Messenger: The Life and Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer. Simon & Schuster. pp. 115–116. ISBN 978-1-4165-3154-8. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ a b Potter, Tim (July 10, 2005). "After 31 years and 10 deaths pieces fall in place". The Wichita Eagle. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
- ^ Girard, James E. (November 15, 2013). Criminalistics: Forensic Science, Crime, and Terrorism. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. p. 417. ISBN 978-1-4496-9180-6. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ a b "Cops Make Arrest in BTK Probe". Fox News. February 27, 2005. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ a b "Camp novel crops up in the BTK case". johnsandford.org, attributed to "StarTribune". March 3, 2005. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
- ^ Girard, James E. (November 15, 2013). Criminalistics: Forensic Science, Crime, and Terrorism. Jones & Bartlett Publishers. p. 417. ISBN 978-1-4496-9180-6. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
- ^ BTK Kansas Serial Killer – Full BTK Story – The Crime library Archived 15 June 2008 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ Potter, Tim (March 14, 2007). "Police tell details of BTK hunt". The Wichita Eagle. Retrieved June 1, 2012.
- ^ "Policeman details capture of BTK killer". Retrieved September 13, 2014.
- ^ Nakashima, Ellen (April 21, 2008). "From DNA of Family, a Tool to Make Arrests". The Washington Post. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
- ^ Nye, Valerie; Barco, Kathy (2012). True Stories of Censorship Battles in America's Libraries. American Library Association. p. 133. ISBN 978-0-8389-1130-3. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ Magnus, Edie (August 24, 2005). "31 years of the BTK killer". msnbc.com. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
- ^ Fox, James Alan; Levin, Jack (March 14, 2011). Extreme Killing: Understanding Serial and Mass Murder. Thousand Oaks, California: Sage Publications. p. 11. ISBN 978-1-4129-8031-9. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ "CNN.com – Report: Daughter of BTK suspect alerted police – Apr 19, 2005". cnn.com. Retrieved October 19, 2015.
- ^ Samuelson, Andy (February 27, 2005). "Wichita police: 'BTK is arrested'". Lawrence Journal-World. Lawrence, Kansas: Ogden Newspapers Inc. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
- ^ "BTK Serial Killer Suspect's Charges — State of Kansas v. Dennis Rader (page 6)". findlaw.com. February 28, 2005. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
- ^ "'BTK' Serial Killer In Custody, Claims Police". St. Petersburg Times. Archived from the original on April 9, 2008. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "BTK Suspect Said to Confess to 6 Slayings". USA Today (AP). February 27, 2005. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
- ^ Finger, Stan; Potter, Tim (March 6, 2005). "Rader has admitted to killings, daily says". Deseret News. Salt Lake City, Utah: Deseret News Company. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
- ^ "Victim's brother describes killing linked to BTK". CNN. March 2, 2005. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
- ^ Strongin, Dana; Laviana, Hurst (May 5, 2005). "Families of BTK victims prepare to wait". Wichita Eagle. Wichita, Kansas: McClatchy Company. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
- ^ "Anger, Relief Over BTK Confessions". CBS News. June 28, 2005. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
- ^ Hansen, Mark (April 21, 2006). "How the Cops Caught BTK". ABA Journal. American Bar Association. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
- ^ "US Serial Killer pleads guilty to ten murders". The World Today. June 28, 2005. Retrieved January 21, 2015.
- ^ a b "BTK killer sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms". WHO-TV (AP). August 19, 2005. Archived from the original on August 9, 2007. Retrieved August 7, 2007.
{{cite news}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ "For most people, emotional words and scenes lead to heightened activity in the amygdala as the emotional sense of the situation overcomes them, often shutting down higher functions. For psychopaths, the amygdala responds less powerfully to the same items and when it does respond it does so in step with higher cortical activity. The cortex is the brain area associated with rational thought and interpretive functions. So, psychopaths presented with an emotional stimulus have to think about its meaning and rationally make sense of it in order to parse their response.They do not feel the effects of others’ fear, sadness, or pain, so they have to work to interpret their environment.
"This characteristic appears clearly in the allocution of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer. Standing in court before the judge, the victims’ families, and the assembled press, Rader listened as the judge read out the details of his offenses. Without blinking an eye, Rader stopped the judge at several junctures to correct some minor detail. Unmoved by the enormity of his crimes or the responses of the people gathered there, Rader makes almost casual responses to the facts in the case; at one point making mouth noises as he sought a precise fact. This is a man who cannot even begin to appreciate the impact he had on others." Richard M. Gray 2010). Psychopathy and the Will to Power: Ted Bundy and Dennis Rader. In S. Waller (Ed.), Serial Killers and Philosophy, Oxford: Blackwell Publishing - ^ Coates, Sam (August 19, 2005). "Rader Gets 175 Years For BTK Slayings". The Washington Post. Washington, DC: Nash Holdings, Inc. Retrieved February 20, 2009.
- ^ a b "Dennis Rader's listing on the Kansas Department of Corrections Kansas Adult Supervised Population Electronic Repository site". Archived from the original on November 25, 2007. Retrieved June 2, 2008.
{{cite web}}
: Unknown parameter|deadurl=
ignored (|url-status=
suggested) (help) - ^ Vries, Lloyd (April 24, 2006). "BTK Killer Gets Extra Jail Perks". CBS News. Retrieved March 20, 2018.
- ^ Beattie, Robert (2005). Nightmare in Wichita: The Hunt For The BTK Strangler. London, England: Penguin Books. p. 138. ISBN 9781101219928. Retrieved January 12, 2013.
- ^ "BTK Psychologist to Pay State". WIBW. Associated Press. May 10, 2007. Retrieved February 10, 2015.
- ^ Ramsland, Katherine M. (2016). Confession of a serial killer: the untold story of Dennis Rader, the BTK killer. ForeEdge. p. 1. ISBN 9781611688412. OCLC 945648889.
- ^ Wenzl, Roy (September 26, 2014). "Daughter of Wichita serial killer BTK: Stephen King 'exploiting my father's 10 victims'". Kansas City Star. Kansas City, Missouri: McClatchy Company. Retrieved March 17, 2015.
- ^ Beattie, Robert (2005). Nightmare In Wichita. Penguin Books.
- ^ Template:Cite article
- ^ Template:Cite article
- ^ Template:Cite article
- ^ "Internet Movie DataBase page for B.T.K".
Further reading
- Beattie, Robert. Nightmare In Wichita: The Hunt for the BTK Strangler. New American Library, 2005. ISBN 0-451-21738-1.
- Davis, Jeffrey M. The Shadow of Evil: Where Is God in a Violent World?. Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company, 1996. ISBN 0-7872-1981-9. (Davis is the son of BTK victim Dolores Davis.)
- Douglas, John E. Inside the Mind of BTK: The True Story Behind Thirty Years of Hunting for the Wichita Serial Killer. Jossey Bass Wiley, 2007. ISBN 978-0-7879-8484-7.
- Singular, Stephen. Unholy Messenger: The Life and Crimes of the BTK Serial Killer. Scribner Book Company, 2006. ISBN 1-4001-5252-6.
- Smith, Carlton. The BTK Murders: Inside the "Bind Torture Kill" Case that Terrified America's Heartland. St. Martin's True Crime, 2006. ISBN 0-312-93905-1.
- Wenzl, Roy; Potter, Tim; Laviana, Hurst; Kelly, L. Bind, Torture, Kill: The Inside Story of the Serial Killer Next Door. HC an imprint of HarperCollins, 2007. ISBN 978-0-06-124650-0.
- Welch, Larry. Beyond Cold Blood: The KBI from Ma Barker to BTK. University Press of Kansas, 2012. ISBN 978-0700618859.
External links
- Kansas Prison Inmate Database - Kansas Department of Corrections
- Rader, Dennis L (KDOC# 83707) - current status is incarcerated
- B.T.K. – The Worlds Most Elusive Serial Killer
- Sedgwick County 18th Judicial District collection of legal documents on the Rader case
- The Wichita Eagle Collection of articles and videos about BTK
- KAKE Collection of articles and videos on BTK
- Dennis Rader's listing on the Kansas Department of Corrections Kansas Adult Supervised Population Electronic Repository site, including current location and disciplinary actions.
- "Finding BTK" Investigation Discovery
- When your father is the BTK serial killer, forgiveness is not tidy
- 1945 births
- 20th-century American criminals
- American Lutherans
- American mass murderers
- American murderers of children
- American people convicted of murder
- American prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment
- American serial killers
- Butler Community College alumni
- Criminals from Kansas
- Living people
- Male serial killers
- Military personnel from Kansas
- People convicted of murder by Kansas
- People from Pittsburg, Kansas
- People from Sedgwick County, Kansas
- People with antisocial personality disorder
- Prisoners sentenced to life imprisonment by Kansas
- United States Air Force airmen
- Wichita State University alumni