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The section covering his actual crimes from 1974 to 1991 is quite small. I've expanded it a bit, and will come back and expand more later. Harizotoh9 (talk) 05:24, 1 July 2018 (UTC)[reply]
I know the definition, but is Rader a serial killer now? The article should say that he was convicted of murdering ten people. It's a conundrum, serial killers get no attention while active, but once safely behind bars they are labeled. 2600:1012:B1BC:6CE7:0:2E:91D5:AC01 (talk) 19:42, 6 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
Serial killers are so labeled while active all the time. It is common usage to call a serial killer a serial killer from the time they are identified as such thenceforward, whether or not they're in custody. The amount of attention they get varies but serial killers always get attention. Read any book or any media article about any serial killer. AmateurHistorian (talk) 20:05, 6 May 2021 (UTC)[reply]
When you have killed three or more people (which is what Rader did) with cool-off periods in between murder incidents, then you are a ALWAYS serial killer. He is a CONVICTED serial killer and was labelled a serial killer prior to his identification and arrest by police and the FBI.
I am not sure what Frazier Glenn Cross has to do with Rader. Like Cross, Rader's threats were terroristic in nature. Rader did not kill Cross, (obviously he killed others) but not killing Cross clearly doesn't bar him from being a serial killer.
If you find any biographically relevant AND NON-MINOR logical connection between Rader and Cross (as I can find nothing of the sort), then please submit it to the Talk page so we can discuss it. I do not think that any final edits made to the Dennis Rader page will involve Cross. Thank you for bringing this to the Talk page before making edits. SomeoneWWTSI (talk) 17:29, 15 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
I wanted to talk about making changes rather than directly doing so without initial oversight.
- The information about Dennis Rader's early life and horrendous crimes should be greatly shortened, as Rader enjoys publicity. I would not know exactly how to shorten it to such a skeletal set of information. His enjoyment of this publicity as well as the pain in which his victims and their families endured are more than enough reason to at least consider this.
- Kerri Rawson has cut off communication with her father in Summer 2021 mainly because he was signing crime scene photos for fans and cyberstalking her. If it is relevant to mention that Kerri forgives and has made amends with her father, then it is relevant to also mention that this is no longer exactly the case. I have a source on this from OXYGEN as well as a video of her saying that she disconnected from her father while she was at CrimeCon. I do not want to add information if it is ABSOLUTELY unnecessary or sourced only by a credible YouTube video and tabloid source. However, I think this is worth talking about updating.
- Jeffrey Davis, son of Rader's final victim Dolores Davis, wrote a book about his crisis of faith as well as the incident of his mother's death. This might be worth talking about, but I do not want to be frivolous.
- There are numerous documentaries about Rader. There are also numerous unmentioned films such as The Hunt for the B.T.K. Killer and B.T.K. directed by Ulli Lommel. I believe these are worth adding to the list of creative works about Rader as they are directly about him rather than purely fictional sources giving Rader attention that some would consider to be unnecessary.
Wikipedia is not supposed to censor information or deny it to the public on the grounds that having it known would make someone happy or sad. If you go down that route you might as well remove everything about everything because you'll always end up upsetting someone. 94.189.236.3 (talk) 17:26, 20 March 2022 (UTC)[reply]
