Hello. Hello. How's it going? Hi. My name is Kenna. I'm Koelle. Why don't you have your headset on?
My hair is wet and I don't want headset hair.
So it's underneath my neck. So I can hear literally everything else that's going on in this room right now, but you can't.
Yeah, you're wearing like noise-canceling headsets. And you can't hear yourself. And I can't hear myself.
Yeah. Yeah. I can't I can't even hear. I mean I can hear you clearly when you're talking to me,
but I don't have no idea what it's gonna sound like.
All right. Well, it sounds fine because I can hear it in my head.
Welcome back to Diagnosing a Killer. We're really excited about this case.
I'm super excited. So excited.
I'm gonna do something a little bit different. Okay. I know we've talked about we're gonna do some pretty big names.
However, I'm going to put in the title Mystery Killer because I don't want it to be given away.
So it's a mystery to me and the listeners. Okay. All at once. Let's get started. This is gonna be a very long episode.
I'm excited for a very long episode though. We're not gonna do a two-parter for this. We're just gonna give it all to you.
So it's probably gonna end up being close to an hour and a half, maybe two hours. But obviously if you need to take a pee break, it could pause us.
We won't be though. We're gonna sit here in these tiny chairs until our asses fall asleep. Absolutely.
All right. January 19th, 1991. Dolores Davis, a 62-year-old woman who was retired and living alone in her home in Sedwick County, Kansas, was getting ready for bed.
Any of those dates or names or states? Not yet. Just January and I was hoping it was a birthday because I'd be like, Capricorn.
No. It's not a birthday. This is very much the opposite. Oh no.
It was a very cold night, so she locked up, got cozy in bed, and eventually fell into a deep sleep.
After she had been asleep for a little while, Dolores awoke to a very loud noise coming from the side of her house.
Thinking a car had run off the road and into her home, she arrived that loud. Oh my gosh.
She arrived by the glass side door to see that in fact a cinder block had been thrown in through it in a break-in attempt.
Into her sliding glass door? Oh that's creepy. Oh gosh. Oh no. This is like a purge. Oh yeah, literally.
Dolores quickly realized that this attempt had been successful and she'd locked eyes with her intruder.
I literally have goosebumps. The man explained that he was a criminal that was on the run and he was in need of food, money, warmth, and a car.
The man also explained that while he was acquiring these items, he was going to tie her up in order to make sure she didn't try to escape.
Sound familiar yet? No. Dolores complied and went to grab the keys to her vehicle, the man making small talk with her calmly the entire time.
Eww. Creepy.
After the man had the car keys, he handcuffed Dolores to a chair in her room and went about the house, seemingly making some food for himself even and gathering things he needed for his escape.
Okay, that does sound a little familiar but okay, alright. I'm like making all these faces, like do not do not do that.
After a while, the man walked out to the car to put the things in it and it seemed as though he was leaving.
Unfortunately, this was his plan and he knew the entire time that he would return to Dolores and that she was not going to be left unharmed.
What? So he took- wait, okay. Alright. Oh wait, oh wait.
So he went to her house, told her this was his plan, but he didn't just have a change of heart before he left, he knew that he wasn't going to leave her unharmed the entire time but he just told her something different.
So he left in the car?
He went out to the car to put the things he had gathered in it and it seemed as though he was also leaving but then he returns.
Content warning. The man returned to Dolores' bedroom and after rummaging through her things for a bit, he had come across a pair of her pantyhose.
The man used the pantyhose and wrapped them around Dolores' neck, ultimately strangling her to death.
After the man was sure that Dolores had passed, he wrapped her in a blanket and drug her body to her own car and placed her in the trunk of it.
At this point, the man had, quote, snap back to re- snap back to reality.
Oh my god. Jesus. That's hilarious.
So at this point, the man had snapped back to reality and remembered that he actually had a prior commitment that he had left in order to commit this murder.
So he knew he needed to return soon or risk being noticed as absent.
He was like, oh, look at the time.
Yeah.
After taking off from the house, the man dumped Dolores' body by a lake near Park City where he hid her body and the other evidence under some trees and headed back to her home to put her vehicle back.
Every time you say something, I feel like that's a specific emo, but I also feel like in my mind, their emo is from different killers for some reason.
You know, like the eating thing, like eating out of the fridge reminds me of the guy with the plates.
Is it the guy with the plates?
I think that's Golden State, but it's not him.
Okay. Because he's the one that did couples.
I think that's either Golden State or that's Kemper or something.
It wasn't Kemper. It was the guy with the plate. You know how he had the balance plates and he would eat, make sandwiches.
Yeah.
Okay, that's, I think that.
But then I think the under the tree thing, I think like kind of like Andre Cicatillo where he would like leave bodies by rivers usually in parks and under trees.
Well, he's already done him.
No, I know. I know it's not him, but I'm just, I'm rocking my brain.
Yes.
So he returns back to Dolores' home in her vehicle.
So this gets a little confusing.
He had dumped her body with her own vehicle and brings it back.
He had parked his own vehicle down the street in order to not be noticed.
Okay.
So he went back to his vehicle.
Okay.
And then he was going to return to her again to move the body to a final location.
I think he was just trying to get her out without using his car out of the house and then he was going to use his car to...
Yeah. So it's like, again, it's like time crunch, like kind of a thing.
It's like, okay, first things first, like it's like a, like a priority list, right?
Literally.
Like get her out of the car so I can return the car to get back to my car.
So my car is not noticed.
And then go back and move her to a different location or cover her up somehow.
Okay.
So while he was getting all of the things he had stolen in the process into his vehicle,
he realized that he was actually missing one of his guns and he didn't remember where it was.
Hmm.
Dumbass.
Dummy.
The man realized that he must have dropped it in the process of this whole endeavor.
So he went back to her house with his own car.
Dummy.
Where he found his gun lying on the floor by the back door where he had broken it.
Dummy.
Now that it was really time for him to leave, he wiped the vehicle down for fingerprints,
her vehicle, and threw the keys onto the roof of the house to get rid of them or just throw
someone off if they tried to find it.
Yeah. Walter White and the pizza.
Yeah. Literally. Literally. It was an accident.
Yeah. So he returned to his own car again and then drove back to where he dumped Dolores'
body in order to move it to the final location.
Okay.
Upon arriving at the body, he put her back into the trunk this time his own vehicle and
drove to a secluded place under a bridge in Sedwick County where he dumped her body for good.
Now I mentioned that this man had a prior commitment that he was needing to return to.
The man left the scene and headed back to where he was needing to go, changing his clothes in the
process. Where was he going, you ask? This is where you're going to find out who it is because
I know you know this. Well, this man was returning to a Boy Scout camp where he was the troop leader.
On top of this, he was also a husband, father, community asset, and even president of his church
council.
Okay, I know who it is.
That's right. We're going to be talking about the infamous Dennis Raider, aka BTK.
All of the goosebumps.
I'm excited. I'm so excited now.
Everyone take a deep breath.
This is going to be a doozy.
So I wanted to lie kind of lie out his last murder. So that was in detail his last murder,
but we're going to go all the way back to when Dennis Lynn Raider was born.
Dennis Lynn Raider was born on March 9th, 1945 in Pittsburgh, Kansas to William Eleven Raider
and Dorothea May Cook. Dennis was the oldest of four sons, his younger brothers being Paul Raider,
born in 1947, William Bill Raider, born in 1949, and Jeff Raider, born in 1955.
Although he was born in Pittsburgh, Dennis and his brothers were raised in Wichita, Kansas.
Wichita. Wichita. I love that name.
Their father, William, was a member of the US Marine Corps, who later worked for the
electricity utility KG and E after World War II, seemingly when they moved to Wichita.
I actually couldn't find what his mom did for a living, but it did state that both of his parents
worked very often, resulting in Dennis feeling neglected and ignored by them, especially his
mother. And we'll definitely see that he ended up resenting her a lot for not being around a lot
when he was a kid.
What's the age difference between the brothers, I'm sorry?
So he was born in 45, his youngest brother was born in 55. So it's like two to four year gaps
between the age. So Dennis was said to have joined the Boy Scouts in his youth. Weird.
And he attended Riverview Elementary School. He was also known to have participated in
group activities in the local Lutheran Church because they were regulars. Although he had his
extracurricular activities, Dennis was considered an average to below average student and extremely
introverted. He was noted as being a withdrawn child in school. And it really doesn't surprise me
due to the lack of attention he was getting at home. Kind of seems as though he was just used to
being ignored. So he just like shut down, like on his own.
Do you think like doing extracurricular activities kind of helped garden a little bit more attention
for himself? Probably. Yeah. Like he was thinking, you know, the more I, the more active I am,
the more people are going to notice. Yeah, probably. Now Dennis would later admit that he
actually began developing fantasies about domination, bondage, and torture at a very early age in
grade school. So I have no idea where this, like it seemingly comes out of nowhere.
Control maybe? Oh, probably. Yeah, definitely. Well, duh. But I mean, you know what I mean? Like,
but at a young age, right? You would feel like you have to be exposed to that.
Yes. But now, if we think about it, there was, we know there was neglect in the household,
but there's also three other very young boys living in that home who didn't develop these
feelings and ideas. So why was he special? Well, they didn't become kidding me.
They didn't become BTK. Upon his later arrest, Dr. Tony Rourke, a forensic psychologist,
evaluated Dennis and commented on why he believes something happened really early on in Dennis's
life that quote spawned the BTK killer. His statement said quote, if Raider was completely
honest, which he is not, I am sure that we would find some sort of childhood event that Raider
immediately associated with feelings of sexuality. Somehow very early on, Raider encountered an event
where he immediately linked sexual pleasure with watching a living creature suffer and die.
And after that first encounter, Raider probably began to work very hard to nurture those feelings.
Like in Boy Scouts or probably hunting had anything to do with it or camping.
Yeah, but also it's kind of annoying because it's the activities probably,
but it's also a lot of nature. He probably already had some skewed psyche that those things
caused him to kind of go to bed. Because obviously not all Boy Scouts turn out to be
chill. No, of course. Yeah, exactly. Like you said, but maybe he already had certain types of
feelings like maybe some type of eroticism or something like that in his head. And then when
he's surrounded by boys and they're doing hunting and things like that, maybe something clicked or
something. Yeah, because I'm not saying that all young boys do that. My boy is a sweetheart.
He would never. He would never. But it's like ants in a magnifying glass. You know what I mean?
Things like that. At a certain age though, we've talked about this before that people grow out of
that feeling of like when they finally realize that they're actually hurting a living creature,
they stop. And some people don't. And some people that don't are killers later in life. It's just
you know, a fact. Yeah, whether or not you develop that emotion or that empathy or whatever.
Yeah. Now, so it's safe to assume that if there is something specific that occurred causing him
to develop these horrific fantasies, it's unknown because he's just never admitted to anything like
that happening. Dr. Ruark was not the only psychologist to evaluate and comment on Dennis's
younger years. Dr. Terrence G. Leary, who helps lead the largest non-governmental serial killer
database in the world, it's actually called Radford slash FGCU Serial Killer Research.
Dr. Leary made several comments on what he thinks of Dennis's childhood, making him into the infamous
BTK killer. In an interview about the subject, Leary stated that Dennis's method of torture
and murder are a sign of someone who was regularly exposed to quote, horrific abuse.
Hmm. Leary went on to say quote, Dennis Rader has been an enigma to many of us in the field,
because I don't think the people who claim to be experts are regarding Dennis. And I'll tell you why.
They say he was the squeaky clean oldest of four boys, very traditional parents, traditional family,
went to school, did the right things, etc. So there were no clues. According to Leary,
there actually were clues that others had not seen. He stated that even if no one knew about his
animal cruelty as a kid, he still showed plenty signs of antisocial behavior. So that is the
that is the clue. So content warning, this next part has to do with animals. Dennis would later
admit that he had a history of animal abuse as a child, and he decided to act out these horrific
fantasies on them first. He would frequently kill cats and dogs via hanging, which seemed to be
his favorite way of torture and control as a child. It's awful. Once Dennis reached his pubic years,
he began fantasizing about tying up girls and having his way with them. He would say that his
fantasies were quote, almost like a picture show, and that he wanted to direct and produce them in
real life. It's terrifying. Like snuffles? Yeah. In fact, he recalled that the mousekeeper Annette
Funicello from the original Mickey Mouse Club was one of his favorite subjects for imaginary
bondage. What? Gross. If I was her, I'd be like, like, I don't know that, right? I know that.
Was he also the one that was, no, who was about Jodie Foster? Somebody else was really about Jodie
Foster. I don't know. I think it was Chapman, the one that killed John Lennon. I'm pretty sure it was.
I don't know. He thought that Jodie Foster had told him to kill John Lennon.
I'm sorry, I don't know. Listeners, if you remember, I'm pretty sure it was John Chapman.
Yeah, actually, I think there's a family guy skit about that, actually, that I think about.
Yeah, like he thought Jodie, like I said, that Jodie Foster told him to kill John Lennon. That's
weird. That's like schizophrenia, I think. Yeah, for sure. On top of the obvious antisocial behavior
in Strange Fantasies, of course, remember he has a resentment for his mom. A forensic scientist by
the name of Dr. Catherine Ramsland was able to interview Dennis for an episode of a TV show,
and Dennis admitted some things to her as well. According to this interview, Dennis told Ramsland,
quote, I got along real well with dad, but mom wasn't always so happy. I've always loved her.
I still love her greatly. But I did have a little, a little bit of a grudge against mama.
That's a quote. A little bit of a grudge against her.
Ramsland went on to tell a story of Dennis's that he believes may have contributed to his
future terrorism of women. Ramsland stated, quote, when he was young, his mother's
mother. His mother. His mother. His mother. Quote, when he was young, his mother's ring
got caught on a couch spring, and she couldn't get her hand out. She apparently was terrified and
told him to go get help. And he felt the first stirrings of a rousal over this. It was exciting
to him to see a woman helpless. And it was the beginning of his ideas about women that he wanted
from them was to keep them trapped and helpless and looking to him in terror. That became imprinted
in his mind and became the image he was always after. Well, looking to him like help for help and
attention, like you have the power. Yeah, you have no other choice but to look at me for attention
and help. Yeah. Lastly, Dr. Leary stated that if Dennis was ignored as a child, it may have led to
this need for attention. Just like you said, are you a doctor? I'm a doctor. I'm a doctor. I'm the
doctor. Quote, he is also narcissistic. The very, very strong need to be recognized. The other
factor here is in family situations, he was the oldest and the oldest is the guinea pig.
Can you attest to that? Yes, absolutely. That is 100% accurate. You can ask Trish to.
Quote, the parents could have behaved very differently towards him than they did the others.
I've seen that in cases and the other kids are spared some of the discipline and hard
behavior apparently sometimes. That's true. So like I said, around pubic age, Dennis began
thinking about acting at his fantasies on young women. It was at this time that he also started
cutting out female pictures from magazines and would draw ropes and gags on the pictures and
actually pasted them onto index cards that he would carry around with him in his pockets.
What? That is so gross. I feel like what the fuck you got there, Den? I'm laughing at the
ridiculousness. Yeah. And how old was he at this point? This was probably 14, 15. Dennis also
admitted that he would get sexually aroused when he was spanked as a child and when he would see
chickens waiting to get slaughtered. Where was he hanging out? Maybe they had chickens at their
house. Yeah, they had the chickens. I mean they're in Kansas. That's true. He was also sexually
excited when reading about notorious serial killers and he would frequently read his father's
book about the lonely hearts killers, Raymond Fernandez and Martha Beck. Damn. We've talked
about them. If you haven't listened to that episode, listen to it because we've talked about them and
it's wild that that connected. Yeah. It was a wild case to research for sure. Definitely. It was an
interesting story. He even admitted to masturbating while reading this book. Gross. What? He's
masturbating because of their crimes and like she's not a good looking lady. He definitely wasn't
a good looking lady. She was laughing. She was from people. He looked like she was from
being nine of the light living dead. No, literally. He was terrible. Yeah. He was creepy, sleazy looking.
He looked like the wolf cartoon from like tech savory. Oh my god. It was like that one.
On top of these things, he would fantasize about tying women to train tracks and engaged in
autoerotic asphyxiation, also spying on his female neighbors. It's incredibly dangerous. He was also
known to dress himself in women's clothing and bind things around his neck in order to increase
the reality of the fantasy. This occurred throughout his middle school experience and into high school
as well. Oh my god. It gets worse. It gets worse. It was also at this time that Dennis recalled
first referring to his penis as Sparky, which is disgusting. It's so gross. Why give it a dog's name?
When he would orgasm, do you want to know what he called it? What? Sparky big time.
Sparky big time. So gross. That is so disgusting. Why give it a dog's name?
I guess you couldn't call it Douglas. I don't know. Douglas big time.
Douglas big time. His name is Charles. Charles big time. Charles big time, you know?
All right. Jesus. Okay. He's just such like an anomaly. Like he's a bumbling idiot.
He is. He's a dummy. He's proven it. Classmates that knew him per...
He said it so seriously. Classmates that knew him personally would describe him as quiet and
polite, but he preferred to keep to himself. One friend of his stated that he completely
lacked a sense of humor and was studious and focused. Yeah, that's called lack of empathy.
That's dangerous. Yeah. He was also described as a person who thought through his words before
speaking and he would also give you his full attention as you spoke. Very stoic. That's kind
of... Well, I don't say that's kind of creepy. I mean, whatever. That's nice. Yeah. Dennis graduated
from Wichita High School in 1963 and quickly got a job at a grocery store. It wasn't until
two years later in 1965 that Dennis got accepted to Kansas Westland College in Salina, which was
far enough away from Wichita to move out of the family home. However, he only lasted two semesters
there and in the summer of 1966, at the age of 21, Dennis decided to join the Air Force.
Dennis was sent to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio, Texas. Shut up. I swear to God.
Shut up. I swear to God. Shut up right now. For basic training. No. He was here. He was here.
And so were mom and dad. They were both here at that time too. Well, dad was probably in Corpus,
but still. What year? 66. Yeah, he was in Corpus. Mom was here though.
No. He was only 16. Oh, yeah. Yeah. He spent some time at Shepherd Air Force Base in Wichita
Falls, Texas after this and did technical training there. In early 1967, Dennis was stationed at
Berkeley Air Force Base in Mobile, Alabama. And there was so that's so mobile. And he was there
until around January of 1968. This is when he was sent to Caden Air Force Base in Okinawa,
West Pacific, where he remained for six months. In July of 1968, he was moved to mainland Japan,
stationed at the Tachikawa Air Base near Tokyo, where he remained there until the end of his
service in 1970. According to Dennis, he also spent time in Korea, Greece, and Turkey while in
the Air Force. He was like down surrounding the whole world. He could have done something cool
with it. I know. During his four years in the Air Force, Dennis attained the rank of sergeant
and worked in the installation of antenna systems and repairing wires. He was known as just one of
the guys and sort of blended in. He also received the Air Force Good Conduct Medal, the Small Arms
Expert Marksmanship Ribbon, and the National Defense Service Medal. He also later confessed to
peeking through blinds to watch women undress and even breaking into some homes to steal their
undergarments on occasion during the entire time he was in the military. Surprise, surprise. So it's
like all these great things. And then he, oh by the way, he confessed to all this. He's such a great guy.
Yeah. But he feels panty. He's a panty raider. He's a panty raider. Dennis panty raider.
He was discharged from active service in 1970 and returned home to Wichita, Kansas, where he
spent two more years in the reserves. Once back home, he moved to a suburb in Park City, just seven
miles north of Wichita. Here he got a job in a meat department at the local IGA. During this time,
Dennis also reconnected with a girl from high school by the name of Paula Dietz, a fellow church
goer and bookkeeper at the IGA. At this point, Dennis was 26 years old and Paula was 23. The two
would marry on May 22nd of 1971, like six months after they reconnected. What? In 1972, Dennis left
the grocery store and went to work at the Coleman Company, a manufacturer of camping supplies.
He lasted 13 months at this job. And during this time, Dennis decided it best for him to return to
college. So he enrolled in Butler Community College in El Dorado and actually earned his
associate's degree in electronics in 1973. He also got a job at Cessna for a small period of time,
but he was let go during the same year and fell back into his old ways and dark thoughts. So he's
has like all these different work experiences not lasting for very long. Seems like a very quick guy.
What was his beard's name? His beard. Sparky big time. Oh, his wife. Paula. Paula, okay. We're
Paula. All right. We're gonna root for Paula. Yeah. Oh yeah, for sure. All right. Somehow, he got his
head on straight and enrolled at Wichita State University in the same fall with dreams of becoming
a police officer. Later that year, on November 30th, 1973, the couple welcomed their first child,
Brian. A couple of months later in January of 1974, Dennis was still in between jobs and getting bored.
Paula was working at the VA hospital in Wichita at the same time, but she had trouble driving
through snow and ice. And since it was winter, Dennis frequently drove her to work. It's kind of nice.
Although he would take this opportunity of her being out of the house and him being out of the
house in another city to do what he called trolling. Trolling. And not the internet thing. No,
trolling. Stocking. Stocking. Okay, stalking. This consisted of him driving or walking around
certain neighborhoods or school campuses in order to observe women, where he would single one of
them out and use their image as the main focus of his fantasy. This is the first time in a
mentioned that he came up with the infamous BTK name standing for bind them, torture them, kill
them. He came up with that? Oh, he, oh, I didn't know that. I thought it was like a newspaper
thing. He sends a letter to the newspaper and gives them like 10 different choices for what
they're going to call him. It's fucking hysterical. I'm going to go through that. Don't worry.
All right. All right. Because we've got to make fun of this idiot. Also, if it was bind them, torture
them, kill them, it should be BTTTKT. Not BTK. Fuckin idiot. Sometimes he would plan to hide
in a women's back seats while they were in the grocery store shopping, but he never acted on it.
Oh my gosh. Could you imagine? I can't even imagine. No, yeah, that's terrifying. And like in the
70s, like they don't have the locks and the alerts that they do now. Like in cars, like it's probably
pretty easy to get in. Yeah, you can actually lock your car all the time. Exactly. This frequent
trolling, however, was giving him the urge to act on his feelings and he was running out of patience.
That's like, you know, when we've talked about addiction and things like that on one of our
mental breakdowns and how you're always chasing that first high, you know, so it's like, starts out
with a little bit of stalking, a little bit of, you know, whatever. And then you just eventually
escalate so bad because it's not satisfying anymore. It's like doing drugs. Like you do a little bit
and then you have to do more and more and more and more. You do it because your body gets used to it.
Living in a three bedroom farmhouse with his wife, child, and their dog, they seemed like the perfect
all-American family to everyone around them. Dennis had gotten a new job with ADT and during
this same year, security company, yep, yep, what? How do you think he broke into people's houses?
That's like a, like a serial stabber that like sells those door to door like Japanese times.
During the same year of 1974, a new family of Hispanic origin moved in across the street from
the Raiders by the last name Otero. I mentioned that they were Hispanic because Dennis particularly
had an interest in Hispanic women. Among the Otero family living across the street were Dad,
Joseph, 38, Mom, Julie, 34, 11 year old Josephine, and nine year old Joe. Joe, what were their names?
Joseph, Julie, Josephine, and Joe. Oh my God, that's so cute. One day while dropping Paula off at
work, Dennis noticed the new family, specifically Julie and Josephine. He began to put a plan
together in his mind, watching them both very closely for about two weeks. During this time,
he was putting together a kit consisting of a gun, knives, cords, and various tools to break
into the home. He would also watch to make sure that he knew the family's schedule and when
they were coming and going from the house. So scary. Based on what he learned from watching them,
he decided he would break into their home and carry out his plan, 11 year old Josephine being
the main target. I know. Just a baby. On the morning of January 15th, 1974, Dennis decided it was time
to put his plan into action. At around 8 20 a.m. Dennis made his way to the Otero house and entered
the backyard. Once in the backyard, Dennis cut the main phone line to the home so nobody would be able
to call for help once he entered. No, it's creepy. Thinking that Julie and Josephine would be the
only ones home at the time, Dennis walked up to the back door. He later recalled thinking about
Josephine during this time and stating that she quote, looked like she was made for SBT.
What's SBT? Sparky big time, of course. Gross. That's so gross. Fucking disgusting. That is so
gross. Oh my god. He's literally such a monster. So thinking that Julie and Josephine would be the
only ones in the home, Dennis was shocked when he entered the home and immediately saw Joseph and
Joey were also still there. Dennis did not let the fact that there were four people in the home
rather than two that he anticipated stop him. He pulled his gun out and pointed it at the family
in order to control their actions. In addition to the family being in the home, their family dog
was as well. And he of course began barking uncontrollably at the intruder. Dennis ordered Joey
to put the dog outside at gunpoint. He told the family that he was a criminal on the run, and he
was in need of money, food, and a car to escape. Also, you're a dumbass because you literally live
across the street from them. You think they've never fucking seen you before? I guess not. Well,
they're also new. That's true. He might have just hidden himself. At first, Joseph was confused,
and at one point even asked if this was a prank set up by his brother-in-law, which is really sad.
Using a cold, calm, and collected demeanor, Dennis was able to convince the family that this was
indeed not a joke. And he meant them no harm and was going to leave once he had these items.
Dennis knew he had other intentions, in fact, as he did go in with the intention of harming the
little girl. Dennis told the family to lie down in the living room, but quickly changed his mind
and sent them all up to a bedroom instead, and tied the entire family up. Dennis later explained
that the father, Joseph, has stated that he had recently been in a car accident and he was suffering
from a cracked rib. This being the case, Dennis tried to make Joseph as comfortable as possible
while tying him up. Because that makes sense. That's weird. Content warning. Unfortunately,
Dennis had other things he wanted, and after he grabbed the things he stated, he placed a bag over
Joseph's head, who immediately began to fight very hard, actually tearing holes in the bag in the
process. In response to this, Dennis grabbed a cord he had brought with him and strangled the father
to death. Dennis stated what happened at this point in a later interview with the statement,
quote, the whole family just panicked on me. I worked pretty quick. So they were in the same room
when that happened? That's awful. He went on, quote, I strangled Mrs. Otero. She passed out. I
thought she was dead. I strangled Josephine. She passed out. I thought she was dead. Then I went
over and put a bag over Junior's head. Unfortunately, the first attempt to strangle Julie was not
successful, and she ended up waking up after a short period of time. She allegedly begged Dennis
to not kill her children and was noted as saying, quote, God have mercy on your soul. Dennis, being
the piece of shit that he was, grabbed nine year old Joey and led him into his own bedroom, where he
killed him via strangulation and suffocation. Apparently, Joey rolled off the bed at one point,
causing him to land face down on the floor as Dennis left the room. Dennis then came back into
the room with a chair where he sat while he waited for the little boy to die. He just sat there and
watched him. That's awful. After both parents and young Joey were gone, Dennis went to get his main
target, 11 year old Josephine. I'm sorry, I really don't believe that he strangled the mom and the
daughter and then thought they were dead. Yeah. I really don't. I think he was probably trying to
get them to a point and then stop. Yeah. It's really, really bad. He stated that he again
attempted to strangle her as well, but the first attempt did not work as she came to shortly after.
This next part is very bad. I'm going to put a huge content warning on this. If you don't want to
hear about young children being gruesomely murdered, then skip past like five minutes, probably.
Just to be safe. Just to be safe. After this failed attempt, Dennis explained that he forced the
little girl down to the basement where he put a noose around her neck. He informed her that she
would now be joining her family in heaven. He asked Josephine if the family had a camera to which
she replied that they did not. Dennis proceeded to tie her up and recounted that he masturbated
while she died. Investigators later finding semen on a pipe behind her. So it seemed like that actually
happened. When asked later why he did this to the little girl, his response was, quote, I thought
it would be interesting to watch her die. He also later stated that he made the decision to quote,
put them down after realizing he was not wearing a mask to cover his identity.
Yeah, that's the afterthought for sure. Yeah. Dennis went back upstairs to clean up a bit and
steal some more things from the home, including Joseph's watch and a small radio. He grabbed the
family car keys and pulled out to the cross street erratically, where he nearly got in a wreck with
an oncoming vehicle. He drove to a nearby supermarket and parked the car. A lady that was
close by later testified that she saw Dennis exit the vehicle and he was reportedly, quote,
shaking like a leaf. Fucking pussy. Sorry. He then tossed the car keys onto the roof of the
supermarket and exited the area on foot. No one fucking saw that. Throwing car keys onto her roof.
Like a fucking busy fucking supermarket. It's like 9am. There's people there.
He walked back to his own vehicle, but when he arrived and was getting his things in order,
he realized that one of his knives was missing. God, this guy is so dumb. This fucking idiot.
This guy is so dumb. Decides he needs to go to receive, retrieve the knife in order to not get
caught because he can't leave it at the scene of the crime. Yeah, he can leave his jizz there,
but not a knife. Okay. So he drives his own vehicle back to the house. Whoopsies, gotta go.
And gets back into the backyard where he finds the knife right next to where he cut the phone wires.
He dropped it like first thing. It was like that was right when he got there. It's just like
as smart as Dennis thought he was. While surveying the family across the street,
he failed to notice that they had three other children. What? 13 year old Carmen,
14 year old Daniel, and 15 year old Charlie were all at school during this attack.
What? Unfortunately, when the oldest child Charlie returned home from school,
he walked into the horrible scene left behind by Dennis Rader. That's so sad.
15 year old Charlie later recalled, quote, I ran down the hall, went into their bedroom,
and saw my mother on the bed, my father on the floor, and my heart just got ripped out of my chest.
My life changed instantly. That's so sad. I know. It's like so awful.
Like talk about survivor's guilt. Yeah. At least there was three of them left,
rather than just one, but still like I can't even fucking imagine. It's hard enough to like
lose a family member, but like to lose so many. Yeah, all at once. And then, but you know, like
there was a few cases where stuff is happened to a family and like one child to survive. Yeah.
Imagine like being the only child that survived. No parents. Like that's awful. Well, even this
15 year old Charlie, he immediately has to become like the man of the house now. He has two younger
siblings that are going to have to depend on him. Right. Okay. I'm sad. I hated that. Yeah.
In April of the same year, 1974, so this is just a few months later, Dennis began stalking a 21 year
old woman by the name of Catherine Bright after his trolling when he came across her entering her
home in Wichita. He learned her schedule similarly to the family and he devised his plan. On April
4th, Dennis went to Catherine's home at a time that he knew she was not there and broken to the
back door. Once inside, he hid in a bathroom and waited for Catherine to return home.
Around 2pm, Catherine returned home. What Dennis was not anticipating, however, was that Catherine
would not be alone. Dumbass. Instead, she arrived home with her 19 year old little brother, Kevin.
Kevin did not live with Catherine. However, they had gone to the bank together earlier that day
and had been running errands. So he happened to be with her on this day. Once the two were inside,
Dennis decided to carry out his plan anyway. He startled the two by emerging from the bathroom
and producing a gun, which he was pointing at them, saying quote, hold it right there.
He used the same excuse he used with the Otero family. He was a criminal on the run from California
to New York and he needed a car and money. He then forced the two into a back bedroom where he
states he pointed a gun at Kevin and had Kevin tie Catherine up. Other sources stated that Dennis
tied Catherine up rather than Kevin doing it. After Catherine was tied up, Dennis attempted to
tie Kevin up in a different room. However, he was not anticipating there being another person in the
house so he did not bring enough materials that he needed. Dummy. This being the case, Dennis had
to improvise and use materials he found in the home. Because of this, Kevin was actually able to get
free and when Dennis returned to strangle him, Kevin fought him for the gun, nearly succeeding
in taking it away from him. Content warning. During the struggle, Dennis got a hold of the
gun again and shot directly at Kevin, hitting him in the face. Kevin lunged at Dennis once again
and tried to overpower him. But while doing so, Dennis shot Kevin once more in the head.
Bad bitch. Bad bitch alert. Yeah. Kevin at this point was of course bleeding and stunned and he
seemed to be dead or at least incapacitated at this point. Dennis figured Kevin would not make it
much longer so he headed into the other room where Catherine was tied up. Similarly to her brother,
Catherine put up a huge fight against Dennis when he attempted to strangle her. When he realized
that this was taking longer than he thought and already freaked out from the gunshots,
he decided it would be faster to stab Catherine multiple times. Then shooting her?
Yeah. Because he actually didn't want to make another noise at the gunshot. Oh, I see. I see.
Faster than trying to strangle her is what he was saying. Yeah. Unfortunately, Dennis stabbed
Catherine multiple times to the abdomen and other areas, inflicting deep cuts in multiple places.
What Dennis did not know, however, was that Kevin was very much still alive and during the end of
this struggle, he had run out of the house screaming for help from neighbors. What? Dennis noticed that
Kevin was gone and decided he needed to get the fuck out of there as well. Dennis ran from the
scene on foot, getting to his vehicle multiple blocks away and drove off hastily. He went home
and cleaned himself up, somehow not being seen by anybody around and not arousing any suspicion
from his wife when he went to pick her up from work. Oh, Paula. Due to Kevin's attempt to get help,
police arrived at the home and quickly rushed him and his sister to the hospital. Did they both
survive? Unfortunately, Catherine had succumbed to her injuries and died a few hours later,
despite multiple blood transfusions and surgery. Kevin was in critical condition due to his head
wounds, but he ultimately survived the attack. Wow. Later telling investigators that the man
who attacked him and murdered his sister was, quote, an average-sized guy, bushy mustache, psychotic eyes.
Literally. I know. Psychotic eyes. I know. Although that was a lead on the case,
police had nothing else to go on and Dennis continued to be at large. About six months went by with no
movement from this killer, while Dennis somehow managed to refrain from killing and focus on school.
Well, due to his narcissism, he could not stand the idea that nobody was looking in his direction,
so he decided to take action to get himself noticed. In October of 1974, Wichita Eagle
newspaper editor Don Granger received a phone call informing him of a two-page,
handwritten letter in an engineering book in the Wichita Public Library.
What? An engineering book already? He's like, this is what I do for a living.
This is what I do for a living, by the way. Literally. Last checked out by Dennis Rader.
Name's on it.
Dumbass. Honestly, like, I wouldn't be surprised.
Dummy. Granger immediately informed police and they received the letter, which described the
killings of the Otero family in great detail that could only have been known by the killer himself.
The letter included things like the type of knots the killer used, what clothes the family wore,
how the bodies were left, and what things were taken from the home.
He mentioned that he took the father's watch and the boy's radio, stating, quote,
I needed one, so I took it. Runs good. Like, can you be so much more cringy?
No, he sounds like a comic book villain. It's like, it's runs with. It sounds like Rorschach.
The police kept the letter a secret for months in order to not let the killer know that he had been
heard, making him more mad. Because he's like, oh my god, they haven't put my letter, oh my god.
And then he probably went back to the library and checked it. It was gone. He's gone. Oh my god,
they haven't even said anything? How dare they? Who last checked out this book? They must have taken it.
However, the letter also stated that the killer was stalking his next victim,
preparing to kill again. So months had gone by with no movement from police.
When a 26-year-old editor from the Wichita Sun newspaper by the name of Kathy Henkel
obtained a copy of it from a trusted source, and decided it best for the letter to become public.
I mean, the police are actively trying to keep this a secret and not be public, and she's like,
oh, I got it from a trusted source. Just post it for everyone to see.
Just post it on my Ices.
She published a story about the letter and how the killer was planning on killing again,
and that the police were trying to keep it private.
Good for her.
Yeah. Among other things in the letter, Dennis wrote, quote,
those three dude you have in custody are just talking to get publicity. I didn't misspoke,
he wrote dude instead of dudes because he's a dumbass. Also included in the letter,
a chilling excerpt with poor grammar. Bear with me here.
So he said he sounds like Rorschach.
Quote, when this monster enter my brain, I will never know. But it here to stay sounds like a caveman.
When monster into brain, it here to stay.
I'm not going to be able to get through this. Sorry, no, it's okay.
Okay.
A friend of mine was on Bumble, and there was a guy that was like, me like, gun.
There's something like that. We laughed so hard.
It here to stay.
He literally sounds like a caveman. Okay.
Quote, when this monster enter my brain, I will never know. But it here to stay.
Just leave it all.
Society can be thankful with two L's that there are.
So there's more.
Oh, there's way more.
That's why I'm like, I'm not going to be able to get through this.
Oh, no.
Quote, society can be thankful that there are ways for people like me to relieve myself at time by daydreams of some victim being torture and being mine.
It a big complicated game.
My friend of the monster play putting victims number down, follow them, checking up on them, waiting in the dark, waiting, waiting, dot, dot, dot.
Maybe you can stop him. I can't. He has already chosen his next victim.
Okay. It's like scary, but it's like also kind of fucking hilarious or dumb.
Do you think he's doing it on purpose so it sounds like somebody who's pumping anything?
Towards the end of the letter, the sentence quote, I did it myself with no one's help.
P.S. Since sex criminals do not change their M.O. or by nature cannot do so, I will not change mine.
The code words for me will be, bind them, torture them, kill them, B, T, K.
At least you can spell that.
What is it? It just reminds me of it. Is it the eradicator? It's like from kids in the hall?
Oh, no.
It's just like coming up with your own name like that?
Oh, no. It gets way worse.
Somehow a few years went by with no killings from Dennis at all.
A few years?
It wasn't until March 17, 1977 that he decided to begin stalking another victim.
So this has been almost three years.
At first he was stalking a specific woman he saw while trolling on a nearby campus,
but when he went to her house, she was not at home.
And Dennis later stated that he did not want to quote, waste his opportunity.
So he settled for another victim.
I guess I'll just settle.
He saw another woman with her son nearby and decided that she was next.
With her son?
This time Dennis did not sneak into the back of the home, but instead he walked right up to the front door and knocked.
Cool.
The five-year-old boy, Steve Relford, unwillingly let Dennis into the home after opening the door for him.
A kid looks through the window and sees somebody. They may or may not know they're going to open the door.
It's true.
Inside, 26-year-old Shirley Vane and her three children.
Three kids? Oh my gosh.
Instead of taking all of the family members and tying them up like he had done in the past,
Dennis locked the three children into the bathroom and proceeded to bind Shirley's arms with tape.
Content warning.
So you leave the kids alone?
He then placed a plastic bag over her head and tied a rope around her neck to strangle her.
After Shirley was deceased, Dennis ransacked the home and took off on foot.
Eventually the three children escaped from the bathroom and contacted authorities.
They were okay.
Well, yeah.
In a later interview, Steve, five years old at the time, stated that he is still haunted by seeing his mother, quote,
face down with a plastic bag over her head, a rope tied around her neck, all the fingers in her hand broken,
and her hands taped behind her back.
Oh, that's so sad.
Later that year, in December of 1977, Dennis had been trolling yet again in a neighborhood and noticed a 25-year-old woman by the name of Nancy Fox entering her home.
After doing, quote, a little homework, as he later called it, on where she worked, who she was, her schedule, etc.,
he broke into her home, tied her up, and strangled her to death with a pair of her stockings.
The next day, surprisingly, Dennis called 911 to anonymously report her homicide, simply stating, quote,
you will find a homicide, 843 South Pershing Nancy Fox, and hung up the phone.
Why is he like this?
He wants to get caught.
Because of the attention. It's the attention.
Exactly.
The following month, January 1978, Dennis sent an index card to the Wichita Eagle, the same newspaper that had released the letters years earlier, with a poem written on it.
It read, quote, Shirley locks, Shirley locks, wilt thou be mine.
Thinking that this poem was in relation to Valentine's Day and unaware that it was linked to Shirley Vane, the woman that he killed in March of 77 with the three kids.
The newspaper filed the postcard away in the classified department and thought nothing of it.
Oh, okay. So they didn't run it like it was like a Valentine's Day thing.
No.
Okay. I thought that was what you were going to say. Like they put it in the newspaper thinking it was like a romantic poem.
So cute.
Well, I mean, you know, they had like male male seeking women and women seeking men and the classifies becoming upset that there was no response to his index card letter.
On February 10th, 1978, Dennis sent yet another letter this time to Wichita TV station, K A K E.
The letter is as follows and it is hard to listen to. So content warning, quote, I find the newspaper not writing about the poem on Vane.
It's amazing. A little paragraph would have would have enough. I know it not the media fault. The police chief, he keeps things quiet and don't doesn't let the public know they're a psycho running around loose strangling mostly women.
There's seven in the ground who will be next.
He goes on.
How many do I have to kill before I get a name in the paper or some national attention?
Do the cop think that all those deaths are not related? Golly G. Yes, the MO is different in each. But look, a pattern is developing.
The victims are tie up most have been women phone cut, bring some bondage matter, sadist tendencies, no struggle.
Outside the death spot, no witness except the veins kids. They were very lucky. A phone call saved them.
He continues.
I was going to tape the boys and put plastic bag over their head like I did Joseph and Shirley and then hang the girl. God, oh God, what a beautiful sexual relief that would have been.
This next part's bad.
Josephine when I hung her really turned me on her pleading for mercy. Then the rope took whole. She helpless staring at me with wide terror fill eyes. The rope getting tighter. You don't understand these things because you're not under the influence of factor X.
The same thing that made son of Sam Jack the Ripper, Havery Galtman, Boston Strangler, Dr. H H Holmes, Panny Ho Strangler of Florida, Hillside Strangler, Ted of the West Coast and many more infamous character kill.
Side note, Ted of the West Coast is a hilarious name for Ted Bundy. Just saying.
Ted of the West. Ted of the West. It continues. Quote. Which seems senseless, but we cannot help it. There is no help, no cure, except death or being caught and put away. It a terrible nightmare, but you see I don't lose any sleep over it.
After a thing like Fox, I come home and go about life like anyone else, and I will be like that until the urge hit me again. It not continuous and I don't have a lot of time. It take time to set a kill, one mistake and it all over.
Since I about blew it on the phone, handwriting is out, letter guide is too long and typewriter can be traced to. My short poem of death and maybe a drawing. Later on, real picture and maybe a tape of the sound will come your way.
So he's saying like I'm not getting attention from what I'm doing now, so I might as well kick it up a notch and send you a video.
Yeah, send you a video or an audio recording.
Quote. How will you know me before a murder or murders you will receive a copy of the initials BTK. You keep that copy. The original will show up someday on guess who may you not be the unlucky one.
This is the part where he gives them options for his new nickname because BTK is not working.
PS.
Oh, you don't like that? We could try out some other things.
Quote. PS. How about some name for me? It's time. Seven down and many more to go. I like the following. How about you? The BTK strangler, Wichita strangler, the poetic strangler.
Oh, he's so poetic.
Bond age strangler or psycho the Wichita hangman, the Wichita executioner.
It is I, the executioner.
The grot phantom.
And my personal favorite, the asphyxiator.
Shut up.
Deadass.
Shut up.
The asphyxiator.
You're not that cool. Like you're not special.
It's so weird.
The grot phantom.
The grot phantom sounds like a wrestler name.
I'm so sorry about how like brutal that letter was, but the end is like fucking so bumbly.
He is the asphyxiator.
He turns English.
What an idiot.
And then he signed it BTK, even though he already gave them all of their swarms.
The artist formerly known as BTK.
Formerly known as BTK.
Oh god.
The asphyxiator.
Okay.
Oh fuck.
Wow.
This guy's a lot.
Yeah, he is a lot.
Should I name the episode the asphyxiator?
People are going to be like who the fuck is that?
The grot phantom.
The asphyxiator.
The artist formerly known as BTK.
Oh, I might do that.
Okay.
I really, I don't know how I feel about the way that he wrote it.
I know I really don't, he uses words like developing and like, you know, not that they're like huge words, but for him to put it, it, it, it, it, it's the whole time.
There has to be a reason.
I think he's purposely trying to be like sinister or like, you know.
Purposely trying to make himself look like a dumbass because it's worth it.
Yeah.
I think, you know, when people like Son of Sam have really actual like psychosis that thinks like, well, some people didn't believe it, but, you know, these little typos are like Zodiac killer, you know, like that's a purposeful game that they're playing.
I don't know man.
But with him, it just seems like he, like he idolizes these killers so much that he has to have like a thing.
Yeah.
And it's just not putting S's on it.
That's his thing.
In this letter, he also included a poem named quote, oh death to Nancy, Wichita police chief Richard Lemonyan decided at best to call a news conference to reveal for the first time the presence of quote, the BTK strangler to the public.
So that's what they started to call him.
He stated quote, we have no reason but to believe the individual has the capacity to kill again.
On April 28th, Dennis had pinpointed his next victim, this time 63 year old Anna Williams.
Fortunately, when he was lying in wait for the woman to return home, she took too long and his patients ran out causing him to leave the home.
Oh, lucky her.
Less than two months later, Anna received multiple of her own personal items in the mail along with a poem titled quote, oh Anna, why didn't you appear?
See, that's, see, that's, you know, that's creepy.
Yeah, not, not putting S's on it.
It's that's not terrifying at all.
Oh, Anna, why didn't you appear?
That's so creepy.
Could you imagine?
They're receiving a box of all your own shit.
Someone was in my home and was in my room.
Someone was in my drawers.
K.A.K.E. received the same exact package, various containing a drawing of what he had intended to do to Anna.
After this, he took yet another hiatus from killing, continuing school in the process.
And after a total of six years in night school, he eventually achieved his bachelor's degree in administration of justice in 1979.
Cute.
Administration of justice.
He's the administrator.
Administration of justice.
The desire, the administrator of justice.
Jesus.
Ah.
During this time, and seemingly a bigger reason for his break and killing, was the fact that Dennis and his wife welcomed their second child, Carrie, on June 9th, 1978.
Having a newborn meant no time for trolling, and Dennis laid low for another few years.
Years?
On August 14th, 1979, the police made the decision to broadcast the phone call from Dennis admitting to Nancy Fox's murder back in December of 77.
With the hopes that somebody would recognize his voice.
Remember he called in and said there's a homicide.
Interesting.
While they got many phone calls regarding this, there were no tips that panned out.
After nearly five years without any murders, police still had no leads on who this infamous BTK Strangler was.
Weird.
So he hadn't killed at all during that time?
How can he have such restraint after like not having restraint?
In 1984, Chief Lemonian established a task force devoted to BTK's crimes, and nicknamed it the quote, Ghostbusters.
The fish should have been the asphyxiators.
The Garot Phantom.
This task force included a young officer named Kevin Landwer, and their sole job was to organize and preserve valuable evidence.
It was not until April 27th of 1985 that Dennis would strike again.
It's been like almost ten years at this point.
That's incredible.
After an evening of bingo and dinner with her boyfriend, 53 year old Marine Hedge was abducted from her home, which was just six houses down from the Raider House.
What a ballsy ass dummy.
Yeah.
Content warning.
Unlike his usual MO, Dennis strangled Marine with her own pantyhose and took her to Christ Lutheran Church, where he was president of the council.
Once at the church, he photographed Marine's body in various bondage positions, using black plastic sheets and other materials he had previously brought to the church for this reason.
He took her to the church.
The church he was the president of the council at.
What the fuck?
Once he was through, he took her body and dumped it along a dirt road.
Dennis later referred to this plan as, quote, project cookie.
Like that makes any fucking sense.
Okay, so now he's mission impossible.
He's like a cookie monster or something?
His eye.
He was succeeded.
So bad.
Police found Marine eight days later, but due to the MO being different, not the method of killing, but the method of what happened afterwards, they did not connect this murder to BTK at the time.
At this time, Dennis's daughter, Carrie, was about six years old.
She recalls hearing about the murder of Marine and being terrified.
She would frequently wake up screaming and sitting up in bed when her mom would come in and comfort her.
Carrie would say, quote, there's a bad man in my house to which Paula would respond, quote, no, there's no bad man in your house.
And it was him the whole time.
He was the lady.
I can't imagine that.
You know, I think about that sometimes when we do cases where these killers have children and what their life must be like, you know, growing up knowing what your father did or your mother did or yeah, that's just awful.
The following year on September 16th, 1986, Bill Wurgle headed home from work to have lunch with his wife and son and entered the home to find his two year old sitting alone.
He searched the rest of the house to find his wife, Vicki, deceased in their bedroom, the victim of a strangulation.
Dennis Rader had killed again, but without any evidence to tie to this, this to BTK, the husband actually became the primary suspect suspect suspect.
Go through the entire vowel list.
Suspect.
The husband actually became the primary suspect in the murder case.
That's awful.
Dennis happened to be on his lunch break as well, and he decided that Vicki would be his next target, so he learned her routine and broken with his usual MO.
Once again, the killing stopped for a while.
In 1988, there was a separate murder that occurred in Wichita, ending the lives of three members of the Fager family.
Shortly after this crime, a letter was received by police from someone claiming to be the BTK Stringler, but he denied being the perpetrator of this crime, the three people in the family.
Huh.
He's like, oh no, no.
Don't give whoever credit for it.
Yeah.
Don't make them look like me.
Right.
The letter stated that the writer credited the true killer for their quote admirable work.
He's like, that wasn't me, but whoever did it, it has admirable work.
Good job.
Like props, bro.
It was proven years later that this letter was in fact sent by the true BTK Stringler, Dennis Rader.
The next time Dennis would kill would be January 19, 1991.
1991.
Dolores Davis, the one that we talked about in the beginning.
Oh, full circle.
Okay.
That was a lot.
So the murder that we talked about in the beginning of the story, it's been a while now, so just a reminder for everyone, that was the one where he broke into her house, took her with her car, and then went back to get her dumped her off the side of the road, and then went back to the Boy Scout thing.
And this was in 1991.
Yes.
Okay.
Somehow Dennis Rader ceased all killing after this and went on to continue his seemingly normal lifestyle. He ended up leaving ADT in 1980 and got a job working for Park City as a compliance supervisor in 1991.
In this new position of power, Dennis was known for being a stickler for the rules.
He left ADT in 80, but then didn't start another job until 91.
Yeah, looks like it.
He was in school, remember?
Oh, that's right.
Yeah.
He would measure the height of people's lawns and chase stray animals with a tranquilizer gun around the neighborhood.
He was like night, like what is it, the night neighborhood watch?
Yeah.
He's measuring lawns for the HOA.
Literally.
Like stated earlier in the episode, Dennis was also a Boy Scout troop leader and president of his church council.
After 13 years went by with no more murders, and this is 30 years after the murder of the Oteros, the first murders he committed,
the Wichita Eagle printed an article recalling the terrible crime committed 30 years prior by the infamous BTK,
suggesting that he had faded from people's memories after so long.
No!
He didn't like that!
Oh, it's like the worst thing you can say.
Oh, no one cares about him anymore.
Nobody cares about him.
He's probably dead somewhere.
Wouldn't it be crazy if you were just like, come back?
Well, of course, Dennis did not like this.
And later admitted that this article sprung him into action to get attention, stating, quote, that really stirred me.
And this guy has no idea he's just like writing an article.
He has like no idea that that's like the trigger.
Yeah.
On March 19th of 2004, the Wichita Eagle received a letter from someone using the return address, Bill Thomas Kilman.
BTK?
The author of the letter claimed that he took the life of Vicki Wurgle on September 16th, 1986,
and even included photographs of the crime scene and a photocopy of her driver's license, which was not recovered at the scene.
So he was like, you didn't know that I was actively still kind of active?
Like still actively killing?
Prior?
This is in 2004, mind you.
So yeah, it's been a while.
That's what the article came out because it was the 30 year anniversary of the Ontario.
Right.
I knew it was recent. I just didn't realize it was that recent.
Prior to this letter, police could not have definitively linked this crime to BTK.
But now they could.
The arrival of this letter showed the media that BTK was definitely still alive and watching.
With no attention thus far, KAKE received a separate letter in May of 2004.
It was a word search titled BTK biography that spelled out clues such as prowl, realtor, serviceman, telephone, and fantasies.
So he can spell them out.
Why realtor?
That's what I'm saying. I think that the letter residential kills maybe realtor.
What police failed to realize at this time and later found out was that the letters R-A-D-E-R were also grouped around the numbers 6220, Dennis's street address.
What? The ball's on this idiot. The ball's on this guy. Just leave it alone.
Literally, like you got away with it.
The rest of your life out free.
He's just such a narcissist.
This is a one-two.
On June 9th, 2004, a package was found taped to a stop sign in Wichita and contained graphic descriptions of the Otero murders with a sketch labeled, quote, the sexual thrill is my bill.
Like you're fucking cool.
He knows how to rhyme.
Also inside a chapter list for a proposed book named, quote, the BTK story, which was mocking a story written in 1999 by true TV crime writer David Lohr.
Chapter one was titled, quote, a serial killer is born.
Like he's like, write a book about me.
Oh, Raider was saying this.
Oh, he left this on the stop sign.
He's like, I'll give you the transcripts. I just need like an actual contract.
I'm going to type it up for you and then you publish it for me.
Yeah. And I'm just going to tape it to the back of various signs.
In July, a package was dropped in the return slot at the public library with more eerie material.
This package claimed that the author was responsible for the death of 19 year old Jake Allen in Argonia earlier that month.
It was later determined to be a false claim and the death was ruled a suicide.
In October of 2004, a Manila envelope was dropped into a UPS box in Wichita, including many cards with images of terror and bondage of children pasted on them,
and a poem that threatened the life of lead investigator, Lieutenant Ken Landwer.
Also included a false autobiography with many details about Dennis's life without his name, of course.
It was admitted later that Dennis had honed in on another victim, which he planned to act on in October of 2004, but ultimately decided not to.
In December of 2004, police received yet another package from BTK because he can't fucking just shut up.
He can't shut up. It's impossible for him to shut up.
He's probably a normal dude in his everyday life going like, it's a boring life. This is his other half.
This is exciting. This is his hobby. This is his vice. But everything else during the day is just boo boo boo.
Dennis going on about business.
This package was actually found in Wichita's Murdoch Park after KAKE received multiple phone calls from Dennis himself to inform them of it.
He's like, hey, go to the park. Something in there for you. Go to the park.
Hey, you want to go to the park? Let's go to the park.
Meet me in movie theater seven, you know.
It actually took police a while to get the package and multiple phone calls because he was introducing himself as BTK and they thought it was a prank call so they kept hanging up on him.
He's got so pissed.
He's got so pissed. BTK is like, oh, okay. How about I stay?
Yes, fix you.
Stop hanging up on me and fix you.
They finally found the package and it contained the driver's license of Nancy Fox, which was also noted as being stolen from the crime scene.
Also included in this package, a Barbie doll mimicking the murder of one of the Oteros bound at the hands and feet with a plastic bag over its head.
In January of 2005, Dennis attempted to leave another letter in a cereal box in the bed of a pickup truck in the parking lot of a home depot.
Why? Why is it so difficult?
That's so specific. That's his emote now.
So the truck owner walked out and saw the cereal box and then just tossed it. They were like, what the fuck is this doing here?
Oh, it wasn't even his cereal box. I figured that. I thought it was in the back of the truck already.
He placed it in the box.
This is like a box of honeycomb crisps or something.
Get this.
It was later received from the trash it was put in after Dennis sent yet another letter asking if they had found it.
Wait, what?
Did you find my letter?
Just following up. Did you find the cereal box?
Was it a cereal box because he's a serial killer?
I don't know.
What was the box?
Something to do with some perfectly good cereal.
Some frosted miniweeds.
Police pulled surveillance tapes from the home depot parking lot in order to try to...what?
It's just funny. I forget that this isn't 1970 or 80 anymore, that this is 2004 and 2005 and they have parking lot cameras.
Oh, let's see who does this.
Police pulled surveillance tapes from the home depot parking lot in order to try and identify the man leaving the cereal box,
but the tapes only showed a distant figure driving a black Jeep with no further lead.
Damn.
They didn't get anything.
I thought that was going to be the one that cracked the case.
Oh no.
The cereal box.
In the February of 2005, more postcards were sent to KAKE and another cereal box was found at a different location
that contained another bound doll apparently meant to be 11-year-old Josephine based on the bondage.
During this time as well, in his letters to police, Dennis stated, quote,
Can I communicate with floppy disk and not be tried to a computer?
Be honest.
Like, he wanted to communicate via floppy disk, but he didn't want them to be able to track him and like find out who he was.
He's a fucking idiot.
So he was like, oh, I can't do the like CD burning thing.
Yeah.
It was like clearly, yeah.
Police answered his question via a newspaper ad posted in the Wichita Eagle saying it would be okay to use the floppy disk to communicate.
The ad stated, quote, Rex, it will be okay.
Contact me, P.O. Box, first four ref numbers at 67202.
Rex?
What would Rex be?
I don't know.
Only six days later.
Did they know that his penis is named Sparky?
They're both dog names.
True.
I don't know.
Only six days later, BTK confirms that he received the message through another postcard sent to KAKE.
On February 16th, 2005, a floppy disk was sent to Fox TV station, KSAS in Wichita.
Of course, the police lied to Dennis and they could absolutely chase him again.
I'm just an idiot.
He just believed them.
I love that.
Forensic analysts determined that the disk had been used by the Christ Lutheran church in Wichita as well as a reference to the name Dennis.
Great.
He signed in.
He's like, hey, it's me, Dennis Rader.
Like all of his passwords and everything, just like, oh, God, what an idiot.
A quick internet search determined that a Dennis Rader was president of said church castle.
This poor guy is like, not poor guy, but, you know, he's just not used to today's technology.
He's still living in 1960.
With the new information the police had, they quickly zeroed in on Dennis Rader.
That's hilarious.
Police actually obtained first a warrant for the medical records of Carrie, his daughter,
and were able to get a sample taken from a pap smear from an annual visit of hers and tested against the stuff on the crime scene.
Wow. Due to this, police were able to test for a familial match against semen taken from the Otero home 30 years prior and also a fingernail sample from Vicki Lynn Wurgle.
The DNA samples were a match and this, along with other circumstantial evidence, were enough to get a warrant for Dennis Rader's arrest.
That is insane.
Oh my God, a floppy disk.
Bro.
It's like the early 2000s.
What is wrong with me?
Why do you even have floppy disks?
Because he thought that because CDs, I guess he thought one more.
Dennis was stopped while on his way home to pick up his wife for lunch and taken into custody shortly after noon on February 25th, 2005.
With Paula?
I don't know if he was with her when it happened, but he was on his way to pick her up for lunch.
Immediately after his arrest, law enforcement officials, including two SWAT trucks, KBI, FBI, ATF, and a Wichita police bomb unit truck all surrounded the Rader home.
I guess he was home.
I don't think he could make bombs. I don't think he'd be smart enough to.
Once he was in handcuffs, an officer asked Dennis, quote, Mr. Rader, do you know why you're going downtown?
To which he responded, quote, oh, I have my suspicions. Why?
I have my suspicions. Possibly be this mountain of evidence.
In a later interview about this capture, FBI profiler Greg McCrary told NBC News, referring to BTK's outreach to the Wichita Eagle, quote,
once he raised his head again and started gaming again, taunting the police, that's a very positive development and breeds new life into this case.
He also stated, quote, if he had been in Communicado and had not reached out, this case may have never been solved.
Yeah.
Dr. Catherine Ramsland, we were talking about earlier, she's a professor of forensic psychology who had actually been in communication with BTK for over a decade,
like, after he was arrested. So this is like farther down the road.
Oh, I see.
Stated that while speaking with him about his history, he confessed that he was planning on killing his 11th victim and had even picked her out prior to his arrest.
He actually admitted to having gone to this particular victim's house prior, but when he pulled up, he came across a construction crew in front of her house
and had to abort his plan. Ramsland stated about this conversation, quote, if he hadn't been arrested, he would have carried out the 11th one.
She had also added that he said this complication simply postponed his plans rather than ruining them all together.
So he probably just would have been killing until he died.
Oh, absolutely.
Absolutely.
That letter really reignited him.
Of course.
BTK was arrested and taken into custody within the same year his wife filed for divorce all the while claiming she had no idea what he was capable of and what he had been up to in his absence.
I do just want to touch on BTK's wife for a second because we didn't really talk about her much earlier.
And there's obviously a lot of rumors going around that she like somehow knew about his wrongdoings and how do you not know and they were married for nearly 35 years.
Right.
All the while, like pretty much, she was doing this.
So Paula Dietz was born on May 5th, 1948 in Park City, Kansas.
She was raised in a religious home with her mother being a librarian and her father being an engineer.
Oh my God, that's just incredible because he's an engineer.
Yeah.
He would leave things at the library and she also was brought up in a religious home.
So like, it's just kind of, you know what I'm saying?
I didn't even think about that.
Like he almost created his life around like his life.
No, well, kind of.
His bad life has similarities to his good life.
To his good life.
Yeah.
Wow.
Either that or he like is so, I don't know, like, because the library, dropping off things at the library wouldn't necessarily connect to her.
But I think like it shows that he would frequent the library.
Yeah.
So it's just interesting that I think that he, or that he kind of like made himself a chameleon to what she would fall in love with and want to stay with him.
And interesting.
That is weird.
After graduating from high school in 1966, Paula attended the National American University of Wichita and received a bachelor's degree in accounting in 1970.
That same year, she met Dennis at church and the two quickly fell in love and married, like I said earlier.
Paula remembered feeling overjoyed, of course, when she found out she was pregnant with and gave birth to her and Dennis' first son, Brian, in 73.
However, it would be just six months later that BTK would commit his first murder.
Murders.
Yeah.
I think you said they got married like six, within six months, too.
They got married pretty quickly, yeah.
Fast forward to BTK getting caught.
It was noted that Paula was oblivious to what her husband had been up to.
However, it came out shortly after this that Paula had actually discovered the poem BTK wrote entitled Shirley Locke's.
Hmm.
One infamous line of the poem read, quote,
Thou shalt not scream, but lay on cushion and think of me in death.
Now, this may seem like a huge red flag, like to anyone listening.
However, Dennis was attending college courses at the time, and when approached about this by Paula, he just chalked it up to a draft he had written for one of his classes.
It works.
She thought nothing more of it and kind of just ignored it.
Hmm.
So yeah, due to his excuse, she also noted that the poem was poorly spelt and horribly written.
This did not ring any bells to her when the BTK letter started surfacing in news outlets.
In fact, once such letters were released to the public with actual handwriting of the infamous killer, Paula was noted as joking to Dennis about the poor handwriting and teasingly said, quote,
You spell just like BTK.
Oh.
What?
That's what makes me think he's actually a dumbass and he wasn't putting on this like saw that he was dumb.
That doesn't make sense.
She like equated like BTK's notes and handwriting to his and like, wow, that's like really similar.
Was he like dyslexic or something?
Do you think?
Yeah, he might have probably was.
I mean, yeah.
So back to February 25th, 2005, BTK had just been arrested.
After this shocking arrest from Paula's perspective, she told police that her husband was, quote, a good man, a great father. He would never hurt anyone.
Shortly after his arrest, rumors came out stating that Dennis had confessed to other murders in addition to the 10 he was accused of and arrested for.
Even with these alleged confessions, DA of Sedwick County denied the stories to be true, yet refused to say whether or not Dennis had made any confessions or even if investigators were even looking into the possibility of him being involved in other unsolved murders.
He was just like hush hush about the whole thing.
That's so weird.
Like somebody's like telling you.
Yeah.
Like they probably believed that he was dead.
So there was like no reason why he would come back or something.
And can you imagine Paula being like, oh no, he would never do that.
Wait, he confessed?
Like literally.
On February 28th, 2005, so this is just three days after his arrest, Dennis was formally charged with 10 counts of first degree murder.
This is also when he made his first appearance via video conference from jail while being represented by a public defender.
His bail at this time was also set for $10 million.
$10 million.
And I didn't do the conversion rate, but I'm going to look really good.
But I'm going to look.
So I just did the conversion rate and $10 million in 2005 would be $15 million today.
So just, you know, $5 million.
$5 million.
Not a big deal.
On March 5th, 2005, news sources claimed to have been verified by multiple sources, Dennis's confirmed involvement in the 10 murders he was charged with.
Meanwhile, during this time, Paula and the children, Carrie is 26 at the time and Brian would be 30 or 31.
Could you imagine, like your whole life, your father, your whole life was dead.
And he started killing before Carrie was even born.
Was even born.
So they maintained that they had no idea of the monster that was living in their family home.
On April 19th, 2005, Dennis actually waives his right to have a preliminary hearing.
The scheduled hearing began, but only after a few short minutes, it also ended to an acknowledgement from the defense that the state possessed enough evidence to send the case to trial.
So they're like, whatever, we don't even need to do this.
Only two weeks later, on May 3rd, 2005, District Court Judge Gregory Waller entered non-guilty pleas on Raider's behalf for all 10 murder charges due to the fact that he did not show up to or speak at the Arrayment hearing.
So he just entered the pleas on his behalf of non-guilty.
Mike, can you just talk to him about it?
Yeah.
On July 26th, 2005, Paula Deets filed for an emergency divorce against Dennis Raider, citing emotional distress as the main reason.
It's an emergency.
Sorry.
If there's any kind of an emergency to get a divorce, it's this.
Literally.
Now, usually, divorce proceedings take at least 60 days to take effect, but due to the circumstances, the court granted the divorce on the same day.
They're like, yeah, absolutely.
Can I end?
Sorry, I'm here to file for divorce.
Yeah, what are the circumstances?
My husband's BTK.
BTK?
Oh shit, I'm so sorry.
Here you go.
On June 27th, 2005, Dennis arrived for his scheduled trial date, and in a shocking twist, he pleaded guilty for all 10 counts of first-degree murder.
I will say.
It was a long and grueling trial, as the judge recounted each and every murder in detail, making sure that Dennis knew exactly what he was pleading guilty to,
and requiring that he verbally agree to each count individually.
Wow.
That's huge.
I know, I have these ones.
All 10 murders were pleaded guilty for, the judge then proceeded to ask further questions that are required before making a verdict, just regular things, like, you are a Dennis Raider, like, obviously.
The first of these questions was, quote, Mr. Raider, as I understand it, you are 60 years of age, having been born March 9th, 1945.
Is that correct?
Dennis responded with, yes, sir.
And then there was a long pause.
Without being prompted, the next thing Dennis said was, quote, I just had some thinking on what I was going to do with either Mrs. Otario or Josephine, and basically I broke into the house, or didn't break into the house, but when they came out of the house, I came in and confronted the family, and then we went from there.
After this unsettling comment, the judge and Raider went back and forth in conversation, Dennis explaining each murder in gruesome detail, all the while remaining stoic and matter effect.
So the judge is like, just to let you know, like, not to let you know, but let's recap this so we know what we're agreeing to here.
You're pleading guilty to these specific crimes.
Is he, like, trying to correct him?
Is he like, well, actually it was more like this, or let me give you a little bit more detail because that also needs to be included.
Well, it absolutely seems like he wants every single person in that room to know exactly what he did because he's so proud of himself.
And I read the whole thing.
It is a lot.
I didn't put it in here, but the entire transcript is laid out online.
You can find it.
And it's like, I mean, pretty much everything we've talked about up until now, he just says all of it.
That's incredible.
Dennis's lawyer mentioned later that they entered the guilty plea due to overwhelming evidence against their client and the lack of firm legal footing on which to enter an insanity plea.
They were going to try for an insanity plea.
They're like, yeah, that's not going to work.
Yeah, right.
Yeah.
This evidence included BTK's own confession, DNA evidence and quote personal trophies he had kept from his victims.
His defense attorney, Steve Osburn, simply stated quote, from a legal standpoint, we had nothing to work with.
On July 22nd, 2005, a controversy erupted on CNN's Nancy Grace Show over a poem that was written by BTK being passed onto someone who then sold it on the black market.
The poem was entitled quote, Black Friday and owed to the date that BTK was arrested.
The poem expressed his unhappiness about being caught with one of the verses stating quote, the dark side of me has been exposed.
The sentencing hearing for Dennis featuring testimonies from numerous investigators and Raider himself apologizing for his crimes, asking the families to forgive him.
Victim's families were noted as calling him a monster and said that he should be quote, thrown in a deep dark hole and left to rot.
Damn.
That's heavy.
Sister of BTK's victim Nancy Fox stated at the hearing quote, Nancy's death is like a deep wound that will never ever heal.
As far as I'm concerned, Dennis Raider does not deserve to live. I want him to suffer as much as he made his victims suffer.
Brother of Catherine Bright stated about his sister's murder and his escape. This is Kevin, the one that got shot and escaped and survived quote, no remorse, no compassion.
He had no mercy. I think that's what he ought to receive.
Raider was also allowed to speak at this hearing.
He said things like quote, I know the victims families will never be able to forgive me. I hope somewhere deep down eventually that will happen.
He was also noted as saying about himself quote, a dark side is there, but now I think light is beginning to shine. Hopefully someday God will accept me.
He's a fucking mulled war.
Like, oh my God.
In two days of testimonies, Raider was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences, which requires a minimum of 175 years without the possibility of parole.
Now you're probably wondering why didn't he get the death penalty?
Yeah.
Because Kansas actually didn't have a death penalty at the time his crimes were committed. The maximum penalty allowed by law was life in prison.
Did they change that after BTK?
Of course.
Well, we can't have that again.
The next day on August 19, 2005, Raider was moved from the Sedwick County Jail to the El Dorado Correctional Facility, a state prison in Kansas, to begin serving his sentence as inmate number 008-3707.
With an earliest possible release date of February 26, 2180.
2180?
He might still be alive.
If one can hope.
I'm the vampire.
Other inmates that were on the 40-minute car ride from the jail to the prison recounted that Dennis made innocuous comments about the weather and made very casual conversation the whole way there.
However,
He's a people person.
However, any time a story of one of his victims or family statements came on the radio, he would cry.
Because it was all about the media. There was a talking about him, obviously. They had the radio on when it would come up, he would cry.
I'm sure they were tears of joy because he was still in the media.
Yeah, and he was probably like, oh my god, remembering the fucking crimes.
Sparky big time.
That's terrible.
Upon arrival at the prison, Dennis was immediately kept in solitary confinement for quote, the inmate's own protecting.
For the inmate's protection?
Because he killed children.
He killed women and children.
They should have let him be in the general population and died.
He just, yeah.
He is only allowed out for one hour a day for sunlight. It's optional if he wants to.
And is allowed three showers per week.
Isn't so alive though, right?
Beginning on April 23rd, 2006, Dennis reached quote, incentive level two and was then allowed to purchase and watch TV, purchase and listen to the radio, receive and read magazines and have other privileges for good behavior.
After a year?
Not even?
A year.
Yeah.
The victims' families did not agree with these allowances.
No, of course not.
And I don't either.
Dennis is still in prison to this day at age 77.
77?
I don't even feel like that's that old.
It's not.
I feel like that nothing's going to kill this guy. He's going to live.
He's a cockroach.
So yeah, that is the story about BTK.
I do have some aftermath that I also wrote in here and I want to talk about because he is obviously very, very infamous.
People talk about him all the time. He's been part of numerous documentaries and shows and stuff like that.
So his story actually inspired the Stephen King novel A Good Marriage in 2010.
And he has been the subject of again many documentaries, TV shows, recreations and stories and books over the years.
Paula Deets, BTK's ex-wife, sold the family home at an auction for $90,000 and immediately left town.
Good for her.
She has not been seen or made any statements since then.
Good for you, Paula.
In 2019, Dennis and Paula's daughter, Carrie Rosson, published a memoir entitled A Serial Killer's Daughter, My Story of Faith, Love and Overcoming.
In an interview following the release of the book, Carrie stated that Paula, quote,
sort of dealt with my dad like he died on the day he was arrested.
As far as I understand, she has PTSD from the events around his arrest.
Oh my gosh.
Why wouldn't you?
Yeah.
The police don't believe that Paula had any idea that she was the wife of one of the most infamous serial killers.
Tim Relf, one of the detectives who helped capture Dennis, explained, quote,
Paula is a good and decent person.
She's being downplayed by some people as some sort of ignorant Christian person.
But her only mistake in life was to care for Dennis Rader.
Oh my god, that breaks my heart.
I can't even imagine.
During the initial trials and hearings, Dennis's defense attorney hired psychologist Robert Mendoza to conduct a psychological evaluation on Dennis,
again, to determine if they could use the insanity-based plea.
He also conducted an interview with Dennis after he pleaded guilty on June 27, 2005.
Mendoza diagnosed Dennis with narcissistic, antisocial, and obsessive-compulsive personality disorders.
He observed that Dennis had a grandiose sense of self, a belief that he is special and entitled to special treatment.
He also determined that Dennis has a pathological need for attention and admiration,
and a preoccupation with maintaining order and structure.
He ended with saying that he also has a complete lack of empathy.
All accurate.
Yeah.
Criminologist Scott Bond also described Dennis as a quote, a typical type of serial killer, stating about his long times between kills,
quote, most serial killers don't have these lengthy, extensive periods between their killings.
Most of them really, really escalate, and oftentimes, this is what leads to their undoing.
Dr. Catherine Ramsland disagreed with the understanding that BTK was self-controlled enough to wait between kills,
and she instead suggested that he doesn't have the right circumstances.
He just didn't have them back then.
She stated, quote, he had to do this carefully, and it had to be when he had pockets of opportunity that allowed him to pretend he was doing something else,
like library research for a course, or being at a town or going overnight in a Boy Scout camping trip.
He always had to have a cover story.
After his arrest and incarceration, Dennis provided Dr. Ramsland a list of 55, quote, projects, potential victims.
He called them projects.
Wow.
That had one, he had once targeted and included specific details about how or what he, like, what he was going to do to them.
Sorry, just to talk about the lull, right, and him not killing for a while.
We also agreed that, like, this is very much an attention thing.
Do you think that there were maybe other areas of his life where he was getting that attention and adoration, so he didn't need to kill?
Yeah, absolutely.
I also think that when he did kill, there was, like, multiple media outlets for probably multiple months afterwards that he kept seeing,
and that was enough for him, or whatever.
Yeah, that's true.
That's true.
Like, when, you know, Carrie was born, Carrie, right?
Mm-hmm.
When Carrie was born, he probably got a lot of attention because he had a brand new baby, or, like, working with the Boy Scout troop was, like,
that's a lot of attention, or, like, doing stuff with the church.
That's a lot of attention, you know?
Exactly.
So, yeah.
Ramsland also stated about this list, quote, it's not like he was inactive during those periods of time.
It's that he didn't have the right circumstances to go forward with something.
Yeah.
Ramsland and Vaughn both agreed that Dennis had an active fantasy life that allowed him to relive his previous killings during his downtime.
According to Vaughn, Dennis used to cut out magazine photos of women and dress up dolls in trophies he had taken from other victims.
He stated about this, quote, he told me in no uncertain terms in our correspondence that this enabled him to delay his killings.
Mm-hmm.
When investigators searched his home, they found numerous Polaroid photos, not only of his victims, but also of himself,
dressed in various forms of bondage and clothing.
Mm-hmm.
And he also tried to experiment with himself with autoerotic activity and take photos of himself in these situations.
Dr. Vaughn also described Dennis as a power control killer who got his pleasure not only from killing his victims, but stalking them beforehand.
He stated, quote, it was all about the process of killing and it was almost like foreplay before sex, where it would lead up to the ultimate moment where he would kill them.
But that's not really what he lived for.
What he lived for was the process.
BTK was able to get the same thrill in the previous jobs he had held in power positions of power,
especially being that compliance officer where, again, he was known for being a stickler for the rules.
Mm-hmm.
This is funny.
In fact, Barbara Walters recalled challenging Dennis on a $25 ticket that he had given her in 1998 after he said that her dog had been running loose.
When Dennis came to court to appear on the matter, he had a lengthy file report and video evidence to support his case.
He had been stalking Barbara Walters' dog?
Barbara stated later about this encounter, quote, he looked for absolutely everything and he must have enforced every rule there ever was, just because he could, I guess.
Barbara.
Like, what the hell?
That's amazing.
Lastly, his relationship with his mother growing up was frequently talked about and he commonly used this as an excuse for his shitty behavior as an adult.
I genuinely do believe that his psyche was skewed.
I'm not sure if it was nature or nurture, but either way, I'm glad this asshole is behind bars and caught.
That is incredible.
That is my case.
Um, can you imagine being Kevin?
Like, you survived this attack.
You didn't remember who this person was and they resurfaced, like, how many years later?
Yeah, literally.
And then seeing his face and, like, how traumatizing that might be?
Seeing him again.
All over again?
Yeah.
That is the story of BTK.
That was a doozy.
I had to do it.
I'm so glad to be done with this fucker.
I've been researching this for, like, literally the last two months and so.
But there is a lot that I didn't even put in here.
There is a lot that goes into him.
Like, you can watch documentaries, you can read books, like, all the articles and stuff.
There's a lot.
There's a lot I didn't know.
Like, I knew certain things.
Like, I knew the Boy Scout, like, Boy Scout leader, part of the church, married, kid.
I knew all that.
I can still see his face in my head, you know?
So scary.
When you were talking about the description, they were like a bushy mustache and psychotic
eyes.
Like, he does have shark eyes.
I definitely think that narcissistic personality disorder is definitely the most forward presenting
with this.
He's like a control freak.
He wants everyone to talk about him and look at him and know who he is all the time.
He literally, like, that's what they were saying, like, if he didn't resurface and send letters
to the news, like, they wouldn't have freaking caught him.
He would have been fine.
He would have never been caught.
He just needed that attention so badly and I guess he fucking got it because we're doing
a podcast.
He just...
Big fat could not keep his mouth shut.
He's just a fucking idiot.
Like, he's just dumb.
Like, literally, like, all the things that, like, he left his knife right where he cut
the wire.
You have one, John.
That was the first thing that you were doing.
You were doing with the gun with Dolores and then you drove your own vehicle back to the
car.
You fucking idiot.
He just, he wanted to get caught.
Literally.
I didn't even put it in his letter.
He was like, people like me either to die or get caught.
It's like...
So stupid.
Anyway, thanks for hanging out with me for a few hours.
My butt is officially asleep.
Yay!
That was the goal, though.
Yeah, that was a good one.
Follow sweet butts.
I hope that you guys liked this episode and definitely we're gonna continue to do these
like, bigger names.
Or at least I am, I don't know what you're doing, but I have a couple in mind.
I'm excited about my new ones.
Things were sticking through our not too part and just a long episode.
I like these ones.
I like getting it all out there so that people don't have to wait for the second part.
I can never hear Sparky ever again without the Sparky BigTab.
That also sounds like a wrestler name.
The Estixiator.
Oh, man.
I don't know what I'm gonna name this episode, but I kinda wanna do, like, the Garot Phantom.
No!
No, that would be so funny.
He'd probably hate that if he ever heard it.
Amazing.
I know, I love it.
He's still alive.
He has access to the radio.
That's true.
Well, we will definitely see you guys next time with another case.
In the meantime, you can follow us on Instagram at Diagnosing a Killer.
We have Twitter at Killer Diagnosis.
We have TikTok at Diagnosing a Killer.
We need to post on the TikTok.
Tenants and email, Diagnosing a Killer at gmail.com.
If you like what we're doing and you wanna support us, you can go to our Patreon.
It's patreon.com slash diagnosing a killer.
And I think that's all I got.
I think my voice is, like, hurting now.
I'm so hungry.
Alright, we're gonna go eat.
Alright guys, love you.
Bye, love you.
End of quarter scale.