BTK – Dennis Rader

Dennis Rader, better known as BTK, for his alias that designated his method (by its initials in English): B-Bind, T-Torture, K-Kill; was a murderer in the city of Wichita, Kansas between 1974 and 1991, and for 30 years kept the police busy chasing him.

In 1974, the police were alerted and alarmed by the case of the Otero family homicide, made up of 5 members, 4 of whom were victims of Rader: Joseph (38 years old), Julie (34), José (9), and Josephine (11); the eldest son, Charlie (15), unfortunately was the one who found his family in a terrible death scene. After this event, the police tried to identify the possible suspect of this atrocious crime. However, it was not until the police found a letter from the killer among engineering books at the city’s public library that the alias “BTK” took on a different meaning. Days before finding the letter, a young man confessed to being the author of the crime and implicated two more people; the police, upon investigating their records, discovered they had psychiatric backgrounds. Upon finding the letter, the details of the Otero family homicide and the places where he had left them and the police had found them had such a degree of detail that it was clear the killer was still at large and the previous suspects were nowhere near being the authors of the murder.

After this letter, more followed, in cereal boxes or addressed to a city TV station (KAKE). It was clear what this individual wanted: attention, not only from the police, but also from the media, and he even expressed it in his letters: “How many do I have to kill before I get to see my name in the newspaper or some national attention…?”. It was evident that Wichita police were facing an unprecedented case in the city. In an attempt not to alarm the population, the police tried to hide the first letter and the first crime, but it was a failure, as it only provoked more murders. The public was informed that this person was extremely dangerous, since in one of his letters, BTK mocked the police, mentioning that he led a normal life within the community.

Dennis Rader continued killing and evading the police, provoking the media and authorities with his endless clues. Dennis managed to hide in plain sight, being very active in his Lutheran church (as president) and also supporting his children in the scouts. He was a municipal official and security alarm installer. The last letter BTK sent to the police was a floppy disk in January 2005; an object they were able to trace to the Christ Lutheran Church and managed to get his name: “Dennis”, but they had no solid grounds to arrest him until they found that his daughter had gone to the doctor for a vaginal cytology and requested permission for a DNA sample that they managed to compare and link to BTK, so on February 25, 2005, Rader, 60 years old, living with his wife Paula and father of two children, was arrested that same day.

When the agents began to interrogate him, Rader did not take long to talk and describe the 10 murders he was charged with, but seemed upset, not for being arrested, but because the police officer, Landwehr, had promised him that the floppy disk would not be traced and they had lied to him: “but we had something so good. You and I were in sync” was Rader’s response to these facts. One of the last things Rader mentioned in this interview was that due to his age, he was beginning to slow down his ability to carry out his murder plans. On June 25, 2005, Dennis Rader went to trial, pleaded guilty to the murders, and to this day remains in prison.

Bibliography

Interesante, M. (2017). Serial Killers. Muy Interesante, 159. López, L. (August 27, 2019). ABCPLAY. Retrieved August 4, 2021, from https://www.abc.es/play/series/noticias/abci-asesino-peligroso-depredador-sexual-escondio-tras-perfecta-vida-familiar-201908261750_noticia.html?ref=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

#BTK #Criminology #Danger