BTK: The Killer Who Lived a Perfect Life Next Door

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A church leader, A compliance
officer, A husband.

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A father.
The kind of man neighbors

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trusted without question.
The kind you wouldn't look twice

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up.
And then there was the name he

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gave himself.
Bind.

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Torture.
Kill.

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Dennis Rader built a life that
looked ordinary, on purpose.

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Stable, structured, predictable.
But underneath it, he was

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feeding something controlled,
calculating and patient.

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In the 1970s in Wichita, KS,
they were shaken by a series of

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brutal murders.
The victims were chosen, watched

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and studied long before he made
contact.

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Families and women who lived all
alone.

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People who never saw him coming.
And then it just stopped.

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The killings ended, the messages
stopped.

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Time passed and the leads dried
up.

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The case went cold.
But Dennis Rader didn't

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disappear.
He worked, went to church,

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raised his family, and built a
life that made suspicion almost

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impossible.
It was never just about the

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violence, it was always about
control.

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And for decades he held on to
that control quietly, until the

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silence wasn't enough anymore.
Because eventually, being

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forgotten becomes worse than
being caught.

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So Dennis came back, and that
decision cost him everything.

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I'm Brittany Ransom and This is
When Killers Get Caught, a

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podcast where I examine the
people, the psychology, and the

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moments that lead to the most
extreme acts of violence and

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what happens when the truth
finally catches up.

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Today's story is about control
and what happens when someone

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needs that control more than
they need freedom.

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Dennis Rader was born in 1945 in
Kansas and to what looked like a

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completely ordinary working
class family.

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There was no chaos that stood
out, no obvious warning signs

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that would make someone step in
and say that something's wrong.

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On the surface, it was
structured, stable, the kind of

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upbringing that blends into
thousands of others.

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But inside that home, there was
a different kind of absence.

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Rader would later describe his
parents as emotionally distant.

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His mother works long hours.
His father was strict and not

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particularly engaged.
There was discipline, but not

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connection.
And for a child already wired

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differently, that gap mattered.
Because it didn't start with

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violence.
It started with his imagination.

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At a young age, Rader begin
developing fantasies that

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centered around control.
Not just dominance, but total

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control.
The kind where another person's

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fear, their restraint, and their
helplessness became the focus.

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He was drawn to bondage in an
early age, long before he even

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knew what it was, fascinated by
the idea of simply tying someone

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up and taking away their ability
to move or escape, and instead

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of being interrupted,
questioned, or redirected, all

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of those thoughts were allowed
to grow.

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He never talked about it,
though.

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He didn't act on it in a way
that would immediately cause

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alarm at school.
He just internalized it, and

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that internal world became
detailed over time, more

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specific and more consuming.
There were also early behaviors

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that, in hindsight, feel like
warning signs.

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Rader admitted to acts of animal
cruelty.

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He engaged in voyeurism.
He watched others without their

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consent.
He began stalking in very small,

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quiet ways, following, observing
and learning his community's

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routines.
But from the outside, none of

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this really defined him.
He was quiet, reserved, a rule

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follower, the kid who didn't
bring any attention.

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And that's the part that made
this stage of his life so

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unsettling.
There were two versions of

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Dennis that were developing
simultaneously, the one the

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world saw and the one that no
one else did.

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And the hidden one was being
reinforced through secrecy to

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repetition and the fact that
nothing and no one had

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interrupted this progression.
Each thought, each behavior,

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each private moment added
another layer to something that

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was becoming more structured,
more intentional.

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Because fantasy, once it's fed
long enough without consequence,

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doesn't just stay a fantasy.
It evolves.

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And for Rader, those early years
weren't just a phase or a set of

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passing thoughts.
They were the foundation, the

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place where control became the
center of absolutely everything,

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where imagination stopped being
harmless and started becoming

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something else entirely.
It didn't start with murder.

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This started with the
imagination of a small child.

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Now, as Dennis moved into early
adulthood, those two versions

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did not separate.
They became more organized.

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On the outside, his life flowed
like a clear, structured path.

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He joined the US Air Force, a
decision that gave him

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discipline, routine, and a sense
of order, things that he all

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valued.
For most people, that

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environment actually reinforces
stability.

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But for Raider, it did something
else.

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It gave structure to a mine that
was already fixated on control.

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After he finished his service,
he returned to Kansas and began

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building what looked like a
conventional adult life.

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He got married.
He had children.

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He settled as the kind of
routine that signals

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reliability.
It looked like he was doing

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everything right.
But underneath that stability,

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the internal world he had been
developing since childhood

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hadn't disappeared.
It had become more deliberate.

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Rigor didn't act randomly.
He planned.

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He observed and practiced.
He referred to all of these

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women he was obsessed with as
projects, a word that stripped

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away their humanity and replaced
it with a process.

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That language alone tells you
what he was thinking.

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This wasn't about emotion.
It wasn't his impulse.

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This was how methodical he spent
time stalking, watching people

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on their daily routines.
Even people that he wasn't

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interested in causing harm to,
he still watched them all the

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time.
He was constantly testing

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boundaries.
These were his rehearsals, his

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dry runs, moments where he would
get close enough to feel the

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control without fully acting on
it.

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And at the same time, the roles
that he was choosing in his

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professional life only reinforce
that need for authority.

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See, he got a job working
installing security systems.

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This job is rooted in
protection.

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He was entering people's homes,
showing them how to stay safe

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and how to protect their space.
It's almost a disturbing irony

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that the man who helped make
people feel protected was the

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same man studying those same
people for vulnerability.

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Later, he would become a
compliance officer, a position

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that gave him direct power over
others.

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He enforced rules, issued
citations, dictated what people

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could and couldn't do.
This was about control, and it

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was a legitimate control base
job.

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And that really defined the
stage of his life.

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He wasn't chaotic, he wasn't
spiraling.

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It was all structure, routine,
and access.

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Everything about this
environment allowed him to

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refine what had always been
growing.

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The discipline of his lifestyle
didn't suppress any of his

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impulses.
It sharpened them.

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Because Dennis wasn't losing
control, he was perfecting it.

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By 1974, though, the line
between fantasy and reality had

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finally been crossed.
Dennis had spent years

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imagining, rehearsing, refining
what control would look like.

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But when he acted, it didn't
really unfold the way he

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envisioned.
On January 15th, 1974, he

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targeted the Otero family in
Wichita, KS.

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Joseph senior, 38, Julia, 33,
and their children Joey and

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Josephine, 9 and 11.
Now, this wasn't an impulsive

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act.
Rader had been watching them for

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two solid months.
He had learned their routines,

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and that night he parked at a
distance, climbed a fence, cut

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the phone lines before he
approached the house, and waited

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until little Joey stepped
outside to let the dog out.

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He then confronted Joey and
forced himself in at gunpoint.

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At first, Joseph Senior didn't
really take him seriously, but

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Rader very quickly made it clear
that this wasn't a joke.

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He claimed he was armed with a
loaded 22 caliber pistol and

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told the family he was a wanted
man, someone very dangerous.

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He ordered them all to lay onto
the living room floor.

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From there he separated the
group, moving them women into

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the bedroom and binding them
with rope that he brought with

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him.
The entire scene carried the

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appearance of a robbery, and so
the family responded as if

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that's what it was.
They tried to cooperate.

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They explained they were
uncomfortable being bound and

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just laid flat on the floor.
Joseph Senior Joseph Senior

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mentioned prior injuries, saying
the restraints were causing him

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pain, and Rader responded in a
way that on the surface, seemed

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considerate.
He gave them pillows, adjusted

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their positions as if he was
going to make them more

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comfortable.
Later, he would say that this

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was the moment when he decided
he was going to kill them.

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Up until then, the situation had
the shape of something else, a

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burglary, a threat, something
that could end without violence.

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But in Dennis's mind, the
purpose had shifted.

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Control was not enough anymore.
And that's when the nightmare

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turned into something worse.
He started with Joseph Senior

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placing a plastic bag over his
head.

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The first time it failed, Joseph
was able to bite through the

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plastic, disrupting writers
attempt and forcing him to try

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again.
The second time though, he

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secured it more tightly and
watched Joseph slowly suffocate.

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He then turned to Julia.
He used a rope to strangle her,

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but it didn't go the way he
expected.

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Strangulation takes a lot of
time and strength, and during

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the process of trying to stab
her, she regained consciousness,

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begging him to spare her
children.

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That interruption, however, did
not stop him.

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When he tried again, he made
sure this time she didn't wake

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up.
With Joey Rader adjusted for his

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earlier mistake, he plays 2 bags
over the little boy's head,

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ensuring there would be no
chance of escape, and then

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watched him suffocate.
Finally, Josephine was taken to

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the basement.
He removed her clothing and tied

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a noose to a pipe overhead.
At one point, he asked her if

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there was a camera in the house,
as if he wanted to document what

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he had done.
When she asked what was going to

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happen, he told her she would be
in heaven with her family.

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He then hoisted Josephine into
the air and masturbated while

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she struggled to survive.
Afterward, he took the family's

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car and abandoned it at a local
grocery store.

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But even then, the night wasn't
over.

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He had to return to the Otero
house to retrieve a knife he had

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left behind.
For someone that had spent years

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building this moment up in his
mind, he messed absolutely

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everything up.
There were so many mistakes,

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interruptions and adjustments,
and that all mattered because it

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didn't stop him.
He just realized that next time

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he had to do it better.
What followed wasn't really an

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escalation in violence, it was
the creation of an identity.

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See, Dennis Raider didn't just
want to be another killer, he

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wanted a name.
BTK, bind, torture, and kill. 3

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words that reduced. 3 words that
reduced the human life into a

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process, a formula.
His signature.

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And once that he had that
identity, he needed it so that

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he could exist outside of
himself.

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He began writing letters to the
police, to the media.

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He described the crimes,
inserted himself into the

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investigations, and demanded
attention.

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These weren't confessions that
were driven by guilt.

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They were performances Because
it wasn't just enough to kill.

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He needed to be seen now.
The Witch of the Eagle, a

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newspaper, got a letter from BTK
labeled I Did It, taking full

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responsibility for the Otero
family murders.

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Three brothers had actually
already confessed to this

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murder, but Dennis made sure to
leave in some details that had

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never been published publicly to
let the police know that he was

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the real killer.
In July, a man in Washington DC

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was arrested for the murders,
but he was cleared after

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fingerprint analysis.
The Wichita Beacon would

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actually respond to these
letters by running a classified

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ad that said BTK help is
available and leaving a phone

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number.
Dennis never called.

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As the murders continued, that
need, that need to be seen and

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acknowledged, it only grew
stronger.

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He lasted 3 months before
killing again.

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Catherine Bright was 21 when she
was attacked in her home, barely

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surviving.
Dennis referred to this attack

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00:12:22,000 --> 00:12:25,400
as Project Lights Out.
He had been sloppy here too

234
00:12:25,400 --> 00:12:28,360
because he didn't realize that
Catherine had a 19 year old

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00:12:28,680 --> 00:12:32,480
brother living in the house with
her and on April 4th, 1974 he

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00:12:32,480 --> 00:12:34,920
broke a glass sliding door and
waited inside her home.

237
00:12:35,600 --> 00:12:37,280
He must have been nervous
because he accidentally

238
00:12:37,280 --> 00:12:40,960
discharged his gun too and that
caused him to almost panic and

239
00:12:40,960 --> 00:12:44,200
abandoned the killing because he
was worried that when Catherine

240
00:12:44,200 --> 00:12:47,000
opened the door she would smell
the gunpowder.

241
00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:51,040
When both Catherine and her
brother returned home, Dennis

242
00:12:51,040 --> 00:12:53,720
told them he was a wanted man
from California and he needed

243
00:12:53,720 --> 00:12:57,200
money for food, forced them into
a bedroom and made Kevin tie up

244
00:12:57,200 --> 00:12:59,240
his sister and then tie Kevin up
himself.

245
00:12:59,920 --> 00:13:03,040
Now this time he used household
items that he found around the

246
00:13:03,040 --> 00:13:04,920
Bright House.
He didn't want the police to

247
00:13:04,920 --> 00:13:07,120
connect into the Otero murders,
not yet.

248
00:13:07,840 --> 00:13:10,560
He turned the radio up as loud
as possible and then when he

249
00:13:10,560 --> 00:13:15,320
went to kill Kevin, Kevin was
free and Kevin attacked him as

250
00:13:15,320 --> 00:13:16,480
soon as he walked through the
door.

251
00:13:16,960 --> 00:13:20,160
This ended in a scuffle and
Kevin got shot in the forehead.

252
00:13:21,320 --> 00:13:25,760
Rader then tried to strangle
Kevin on top of the shot, but

253
00:13:25,760 --> 00:13:29,200
that was also inefficient and
Kevin fought him back.

254
00:13:29,400 --> 00:13:33,520
He had to shoot Kevin two more
times, once above his mouth and

255
00:13:33,520 --> 00:13:35,600
then another simply grazed the
side of his face.

256
00:13:36,080 --> 00:13:38,920
At this point, Kevin decided the
best thing to do here was just

257
00:13:38,920 --> 00:13:45,120
play dead and as soon as Dennis
was out of the room, he ran and

258
00:13:45,120 --> 00:13:46,720
called the police from a
neighbor's house.

259
00:13:47,320 --> 00:13:50,360
Dennis then immediately went to
Catherine's room and tried to

260
00:13:50,360 --> 00:13:54,240
strangle her, but she started
fighting him after he said he

261
00:13:54,240 --> 00:13:57,800
had shot and killed her brother.
Rader kind of lost composure and

262
00:13:57,800 --> 00:14:01,200
began stabbing Catherine in the
upper stomach area below her

263
00:14:01,200 --> 00:14:04,560
ribs.
That was when Rader heard Kevin

264
00:14:04,560 --> 00:14:08,600
call for help again and he just
decided it was time to abandon

265
00:14:08,600 --> 00:14:10,840
Shep.
He stole Catherine's keys, but

266
00:14:10,840 --> 00:14:12,840
when her truck didn't start, he
just ran away.

267
00:14:13,200 --> 00:14:16,400
When the police arrived,
Catherine was alive and holding

268
00:14:16,400 --> 00:14:19,800
her phone, but she was
unresponsive and she died during

269
00:14:19,800 --> 00:14:24,600
emergency surgery.
Kevin survived, but he didn't

270
00:14:24,600 --> 00:14:28,520
give enough information for the
police to be able to find the

271
00:14:28,520 --> 00:14:32,040
man who killed his sister.
Now while Rader craved the

272
00:14:32,040 --> 00:14:35,920
attention from these murders,
the disaster of the murder made

273
00:14:35,920 --> 00:14:38,400
him pause for about 3 years
actually.

274
00:14:38,960 --> 00:14:41,440
That is until he could deny the
compulsion no longer.

275
00:14:41,440 --> 00:14:46,320
And on March 17th, 1977, he
targeted 26 year old Shirley

276
00:14:46,360 --> 00:14:49,560
Veen Ralford.
Dennis had actually planned to

277
00:14:49,560 --> 00:14:52,640
kill a completely different
woman but she wasn't home so he

278
00:14:52,640 --> 00:14:55,040
just picked a Random House on
the block.

279
00:14:56,080 --> 00:14:58,600
This is one of those interesting
moments in crime because part of

280
00:14:58,600 --> 00:15:03,080
Raiders pathology is that he had
this intense need for control

281
00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:07,160
but the need to kill was
stronger and so he actually in

282
00:15:07,160 --> 00:15:11,200
this vein wrist capture.
To get the release from the ACT.

283
00:15:12,600 --> 00:15:16,880
Dennis would stand on the block
and just kind of wait until he

284
00:15:16,880 --> 00:15:18,800
noticed a 5 year old boy walking
home.

285
00:15:19,240 --> 00:15:22,160
The little boy was Steven
Relford, and he would run out to

286
00:15:22,280 --> 00:15:24,240
grab soup for his mom, who was
sick.

287
00:15:25,000 --> 00:15:27,400
Dennis pretended to be an
undercover detective and showed

288
00:15:27,400 --> 00:15:29,440
the boy a photo of his own wife
and daughter.

289
00:15:30,080 --> 00:15:33,800
The little boy said that looks
like my mom and sister.

290
00:15:33,800 --> 00:15:37,280
And so Dennis followed him home.
Inside the Ralford house, he

291
00:15:37,280 --> 00:15:40,000
kept up the detective ruse.
He asked the family about the

292
00:15:40,000 --> 00:15:43,040
photo, and when Shirley was
looking, Dennis pulled his gun

293
00:15:43,040 --> 00:15:45,120
out.
He told her he was a wanted man

294
00:15:45,120 --> 00:15:48,040
and she was being robbed.
And just like before, Dennis

295
00:15:48,080 --> 00:15:51,320
struggled to properly secure his
victims.

296
00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:55,520
He tried to tie up the children.
They were too wiggly, so he

297
00:15:55,520 --> 00:15:58,320
ended up forcing them into a
bathroom and then barricading

298
00:15:58,320 --> 00:16:01,480
the door.
He actually made Shirley help

299
00:16:01,480 --> 00:16:05,320
him barricade them in.
But before he locked the door,

300
00:16:05,320 --> 00:16:07,040
he did give the children their
toys.

301
00:16:07,200 --> 00:16:09,360
And then he went to go kill
their mother.

302
00:16:10,600 --> 00:16:13,040
He strangled Shirley after
covering her head with two

303
00:16:13,040 --> 00:16:15,440
plastic bags.
And Dennis said that he

304
00:16:15,440 --> 00:16:18,800
originally intended to kill the
children too, but the phone rang

305
00:16:19,000 --> 00:16:22,480
and one of the children in the
bathroom yelled, that's someone

306
00:16:22,480 --> 00:16:25,280
coming to visit us.
And so Dennis ran away.

307
00:16:27,360 --> 00:16:30,200
He decided the next time he
would get, he would get it

308
00:16:30,200 --> 00:16:32,640
right.
And so this time, Dennis spent

309
00:16:32,640 --> 00:16:36,400
more time stalking his next
victim, Nancy Joe Fox.

310
00:16:36,760 --> 00:16:41,080
He waited until December 8th,
1977, to execute Project Fox

311
00:16:41,080 --> 00:16:44,320
Hunt, as he called it.
That night, he broke into her

312
00:16:44,320 --> 00:16:46,560
house through a back window and
waited for her to return home

313
00:16:46,560 --> 00:16:48,680
from work.
When Nancy found him in her

314
00:16:48,680 --> 00:16:53,240
home, she actually began
screaming full voice to get out

315
00:16:53,480 --> 00:16:55,440
and threatening that she was
going to call the police.

316
00:16:55,960 --> 00:16:58,720
Rader told her he'd already cut
the phone lines and very calmly

317
00:16:58,720 --> 00:17:01,800
told her he was going to bind
her, take photographs, and that

318
00:17:01,800 --> 00:17:05,040
he was going to rape her.
Rader undressed himself and

319
00:17:05,040 --> 00:17:07,280
allowed Nancy to undress in the
bathroom.

320
00:17:07,440 --> 00:17:11,079
How polite.
She resisted, and Dennis decided

321
00:17:11,079 --> 00:17:14,599
to handcuff her instead.
He didn't actually rape her, he

322
00:17:14,599 --> 00:17:18,920
actually kind of sat on top of
her and he used his belt to

323
00:17:18,920 --> 00:17:22,680
slowly choke her, releasing the
pressure enough that she would

324
00:17:22,680 --> 00:17:25,680
wake up and then he would choke
her until she passed out again.

325
00:17:26,040 --> 00:17:29,520
He never admitted how many times
he did this, but the following

326
00:17:29,520 --> 00:17:32,480
morning he called the police
from a phone booth and told them

327
00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:34,520
that they could find Nancy's
remains in her home.

328
00:17:35,000 --> 00:17:38,320
That call would be released in
1979, but it never actually led

329
00:17:38,320 --> 00:17:43,280
to any roll.
Around January 31st, 1978, Rader

330
00:17:43,280 --> 00:17:46,440
sent a bizarre letter to a local
classified department of the

331
00:17:46,440 --> 00:17:49,280
Wichita Beacon.
It contained a poem he wrote

332
00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:53,600
that began Shirley Lux, Shirley
Lux, and then it went into

333
00:17:53,880 --> 00:17:57,080
explicit details of how he
murdered Shirley Ralford.

334
00:17:57,880 --> 00:18:00,400
One month later, on February
10th, he sent another letter to

335
00:18:00,400 --> 00:18:05,160
the Wichita TV station KAKE Cake
and took responsibility for the

336
00:18:05,160 --> 00:18:08,600
Otera murders as well as Bright,
Ralford and Fox.

337
00:18:09,040 --> 00:18:11,480
This letter was important to the
investigation because Rader

338
00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:14,920
asked how many do I have to kill
before I get a name in the paper

339
00:18:14,920 --> 00:18:19,280
or some national attention?
Very clearly detailing his

340
00:18:19,280 --> 00:18:22,680
compulsive need for attention.
He also took time with this

341
00:18:22,680 --> 00:18:26,040
letter to compare himself to
Jack the Ripper, son of Sam and

342
00:18:26,040 --> 00:18:29,080
the Hillside Stranglers.
He wrote another poem titled

343
00:18:29,080 --> 00:18:32,920
Death to Nancy.
He told the police to send him a

344
00:18:32,920 --> 00:18:35,520
hidden message.
The police instead traced the

345
00:18:35,520 --> 00:18:38,760
letter to Wichita State
University, where Dennis was a

346
00:18:38,760 --> 00:18:42,280
student.
BTK wasn't a nickname that was

347
00:18:42,280 --> 00:18:44,120
given by the public.
It was something that he

348
00:18:44,120 --> 00:18:48,360
created, something he fed, and
something that Dennis needed.

349
00:18:49,200 --> 00:18:52,600
Every letter, every message, and
every taunt was part of him

350
00:18:52,600 --> 00:18:56,000
constructing this identity
because the act of killing

351
00:18:56,000 --> 00:19:00,200
people was only part of it.
He needed that recognition and

352
00:19:00,200 --> 00:19:02,680
as long as he was being watched,
talked about, and chased, he was

353
00:19:02,680 --> 00:19:06,360
getting exactly what he wanted.
Dennis tried to kill again in

354
00:19:06,360 --> 00:19:09,640
April of 1979.
This time his target was 63 year

355
00:19:09,640 --> 00:19:11,960
old Anna Williams.
Just like with Nancy, he stalked

356
00:19:11,960 --> 00:19:14,480
her for months, preparing his
attack and approach, even

357
00:19:14,480 --> 00:19:16,440
breaking in ahead of time and
stealing from her.

358
00:19:17,000 --> 00:19:19,840
The break in actually caused
Anna to hire a security company,

359
00:19:19,840 --> 00:19:22,240
and while we don't know if
Dennis installed her specific

360
00:19:22,240 --> 00:19:25,960
system, we do know that he
worked for ADT and he used his

361
00:19:25,960 --> 00:19:29,600
job to spy on his victims.
The night that he broke into

362
00:19:29,600 --> 00:19:32,840
Anna's home, he was confident
that he knew her routine, but

363
00:19:32,880 --> 00:19:36,400
Anna had been invited out by her
friends to go square dancing and

364
00:19:36,400 --> 00:19:39,640
she stayed out late.
Dennis waited in her home for

365
00:19:39,800 --> 00:19:44,120
hours and frustrated, went home
and penned the poem.

366
00:19:44,520 --> 00:19:48,240
Oh Anna, why didn't you appear?
He dropped that letter off at

367
00:19:48,240 --> 00:19:52,000
Anna's house and inside of the
envelope included the drawing of

368
00:19:52,000 --> 00:19:55,800
a nude woman tied up, and then
he added in a scarf and two

369
00:19:55,800 --> 00:19:59,200
plastic hair clips.
The scarf and the clips had

370
00:19:59,200 --> 00:20:02,360
belonged to Anna and they had
been stolen during the earlier

371
00:20:02,360 --> 00:20:04,600
break in.
He delivered that letter to her

372
00:20:04,600 --> 00:20:07,280
in June.
The police wouldn't hear from

373
00:20:07,280 --> 00:20:13,360
BTK again until 1988.
After 77, the violence stopped.

374
00:20:13,760 --> 00:20:16,320
As far as the police knew, there
were no new bodies, no new

375
00:20:16,320 --> 00:20:19,720
messages, no signs of BTK.
For investigators, it felt like

376
00:20:19,720 --> 00:20:22,640
the case had simply gone quiet.
Another killer who disappeared

377
00:20:22,640 --> 00:20:25,000
without explanation.
This wasn't anything new.

378
00:20:25,280 --> 00:20:27,240
Maybe he'd moved to another part
of the country.

379
00:20:27,280 --> 00:20:29,880
Maybe he died.
Maybe he lost his nerve.

380
00:20:30,360 --> 00:20:33,640
But Dennis didn't disappear.
He settled in.

381
00:20:34,280 --> 00:20:36,640
This is the part of the story
that's easy to misunderstand,

382
00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:39,600
because on the surface it looks
like restraint, like something

383
00:20:39,600 --> 00:20:42,720
inside of him shut down.
But nothing about Rader suggests

384
00:20:42,720 --> 00:20:44,680
he suddenly became a different
person.

385
00:20:45,040 --> 00:20:47,280
If anything, he became more
controlled.

386
00:20:47,840 --> 00:20:49,720
There are a few ways we can
explain the law.

387
00:20:50,000 --> 00:20:52,560
His children were growing up.
His responsibilities were

388
00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:54,720
expanding.
A stable home life requires

389
00:20:54,720 --> 00:20:56,400
time, attention, and
consistency.

390
00:20:56,720 --> 00:20:59,200
It's possible that maintaining
that image just became his

391
00:20:59,200 --> 00:21:01,480
priority.
It was more important to him

392
00:21:01,480 --> 00:21:06,040
that people saw him as the every
man, the everybody's dad.

393
00:21:08,880 --> 00:21:11,240
There's also the question of
fear.

394
00:21:11,960 --> 00:21:14,680
By the late 70s, law enforcement
was paying attention.

395
00:21:15,040 --> 00:21:17,840
His letters had drawn focus.
The risk was real.

396
00:21:17,920 --> 00:21:21,280
And let's be real, his prior
murders had not been clean and

397
00:21:21,280 --> 00:21:23,600
easy.
He left behind a lot of DNA

398
00:21:23,600 --> 00:21:25,200
evidence.
And even though we weren't in a

399
00:21:25,200 --> 00:21:28,880
state of technological
advancement to do anything with

400
00:21:28,880 --> 00:21:32,760
that evidence, all it would take
was one mistake and he would be

401
00:21:32,760 --> 00:21:35,880
caught and humiliated.
But for someone like Raiders,

402
00:21:35,880 --> 00:21:38,360
stopping doesn't necessarily
mean they lose the urge.

403
00:21:39,120 --> 00:21:42,640
If we follow Robert Ressler and
John Douglas FBI profiling

404
00:21:42,640 --> 00:21:45,200
system, Dennis will be
classified as a classic

405
00:21:45,200 --> 00:21:48,000
organized serial killer.
And nothing about this subset of

406
00:21:48,000 --> 00:21:51,120
individuals is impulsive.
Everything is about constant

407
00:21:51,120 --> 00:21:54,640
routine control, controlling the
crime scene, maintaining your

408
00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:57,760
social focus, and above all
else, patients.

409
00:21:58,320 --> 00:22:01,600
Organized killers are known to
have very long cool down

410
00:22:01,600 --> 00:22:05,200
periods, and Rader is not the
first killer of his kind to

411
00:22:05,200 --> 00:22:09,840
suppress his urge for years.
For Dennis, those years of

412
00:22:09,840 --> 00:22:15,160
suppression were focused on him
building an almost untouchable

413
00:22:15,360 --> 00:22:18,680
social reputation and image.
He was the church president.

414
00:22:18,800 --> 00:22:21,880
He was a Boy Scout leader, a
city compliance officer.

415
00:22:22,080 --> 00:22:25,320
Positions that all signal trust,
authority and good moral

416
00:22:25,320 --> 00:22:27,280
standing.
The kind of roles that don't

417
00:22:27,280 --> 00:22:30,960
just blend into your community,
they actually anchor you into

418
00:22:30,960 --> 00:22:33,560
it.
He was the dependable neighbor.

419
00:22:34,040 --> 00:22:38,240
Never BTK that same person who
had committed those murders was

420
00:22:38,240 --> 00:22:41,360
now enforcing the rules,
mentoring children and leading

421
00:22:41,360 --> 00:22:43,040
people spiritually within his
church.

422
00:22:43,600 --> 00:22:46,480
Not as a cover in the
traditional sense, but this was

423
00:22:46,480 --> 00:22:48,560
a fully integrated aspect of his
identity.

424
00:22:49,160 --> 00:22:51,040
This isn't what you would call a
fracture.

425
00:22:51,240 --> 00:22:53,760
Like other killers we discussed
over the years who might be

426
00:22:53,760 --> 00:22:56,880
suffering from multiple
personality disorder, Dennis

427
00:22:56,880 --> 00:23:01,640
just had two sides to himself
who he could flip between very

428
00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:03,800
easily.
And he was fully cognizant of

429
00:23:03,800 --> 00:23:07,760
both aspects of his identity,
the father and the killer.

430
00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:10,960
They were all parts of the same
man.

431
00:23:11,360 --> 00:23:14,080
He had combined these identities
and he learned how to control

432
00:23:14,080 --> 00:23:16,080
both.
Whatever existed in those

433
00:23:16,080 --> 00:23:17,880
earlier years hadn't
disappeared.

434
00:23:18,400 --> 00:23:23,000
He contained it.
Dennis Rader didn't stop being

435
00:23:23,000 --> 00:23:25,200
BTK.
He got better at hiding him.

436
00:23:26,960 --> 00:23:29,760
Now, as the murder stopped, The
investigation didn't.

437
00:23:30,280 --> 00:23:33,080
Law enforcement in Wichita
formed what became known as the

438
00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:36,600
BTK Task Force, a dedicated
group focused on identifying a

439
00:23:36,600 --> 00:23:38,960
killer who had already shown he
was methodical, patient and

440
00:23:38,960 --> 00:23:41,560
capable of disappearing.
They weren't dealing with

441
00:23:42,160 --> 00:23:44,880
someone reckless, they were
dealing with a person who could

442
00:23:44,880 --> 00:23:48,440
blend in, and that made their
job exponentially harder.

443
00:23:48,960 --> 00:23:51,400
In the 1970's, the tools we
think of today simply didn't

444
00:23:51,400 --> 00:23:53,800
exist.
No modern DNA profiling, no

445
00:23:53,800 --> 00:23:56,600
national database to instantly
cross reference evidence.

446
00:23:57,040 --> 00:23:59,600
Investigators relied on physical
evidence, witness statements,

447
00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:02,880
and behavior patterns, all of
which only go so far when the

448
00:24:02,880 --> 00:24:04,680
offender doesn't leave much
behind.

449
00:24:05,560 --> 00:24:10,080
And DNA only matters if you can
actually compare it to a person.

450
00:24:11,120 --> 00:24:16,400
So the fact that he had left
behind so much DNA didn't mean

451
00:24:16,400 --> 00:24:19,160
anything.
And despite all of the early

452
00:24:19,160 --> 00:24:21,680
mishaps, Rader was still
careful.

453
00:24:21,920 --> 00:24:25,600
He was actually quite meticulous
in cleaning his time scenes.

454
00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:30,320
He didn't leave any obvious
connections between his victims.

455
00:24:30,680 --> 00:24:32,880
There were no clear suspects who
stood out.

456
00:24:33,240 --> 00:24:35,920
Instead there was just this
growing list of possibility.

457
00:24:36,120 --> 00:24:38,200
Hundreds of names that became
thousands.

458
00:24:38,360 --> 00:24:40,880
Men who lived in the area, men
with criminal records, men who

459
00:24:40,880 --> 00:24:45,160
seemed just a little bit weird,
but nothing that definitely, but

460
00:24:45,160 --> 00:24:48,720
nothing that definitively ever
pointed to just one person.

461
00:24:49,400 --> 00:24:52,280
And at the same time, the case
had another problem time.

462
00:24:53,280 --> 00:24:56,080
As the years passed without any
new murders or communication,

463
00:24:56,080 --> 00:24:59,360
public fear began to fade.
What had once felt immediate and

464
00:24:59,360 --> 00:25:02,920
urgent just became distant.
People moved on.

465
00:25:03,000 --> 00:25:05,360
Leads went cold.
Resources shifted.

466
00:25:05,920 --> 00:25:08,000
And for investigators, that
creates a different kind of

467
00:25:08,000 --> 00:25:11,200
pressure, because the longer a
case that's without movement,

468
00:25:11,200 --> 00:25:14,240
the harder it will be to revive.
When this memories fade,

469
00:25:14,600 --> 00:25:16,800
evidence degrades.
Momentum disappears.

470
00:25:17,720 --> 00:25:19,320
But the task force never
stopped.

471
00:25:19,680 --> 00:25:22,600
They reviewed files, revisited
evidence, followed leads that

472
00:25:22,840 --> 00:25:27,120
continued to go nowhere, tried
to build a profile of someone

473
00:25:27,120 --> 00:25:29,600
who, by all accounts, had simply
vanished.

474
00:25:30,920 --> 00:25:33,000
And that was the problem.
They weren't chasing somebody on

475
00:25:33,000 --> 00:25:35,440
the run.
They were hunting a ghost that

476
00:25:35,440 --> 00:25:39,600
had just decided to stand still.
Dennis wasn't running.

477
00:25:39,600 --> 00:25:42,960
He was living his life exactly
the way he always had been, and

478
00:25:42,960 --> 00:25:46,080
as long as he stayed quiet,
there was never anything that

479
00:25:46,080 --> 00:25:47,520
would pull him back into the
light.

480
00:25:49,800 --> 00:25:52,360
After six years of silence.
Though Dennis killed again

481
00:25:53,200 --> 00:25:57,400
Marine Hedge, whom Raider called
Project Cookie, she lived just a

482
00:25:57,400 --> 00:26:00,320
few houses down from him.
He chose her for a specific

483
00:26:00,320 --> 00:26:02,320
reason.
He wanted to see if he could

484
00:26:02,320 --> 00:26:04,280
kill one of his neighbors and
get away with it.

485
00:26:05,880 --> 00:26:08,800
On April 27th, 19. 85 Rader
created an alibi.

486
00:26:09,280 --> 00:26:12,240
He left a Cub Scouts outing
early, feigning sickness,

487
00:26:12,240 --> 00:26:14,920
changed his clothes, stopped at
a bar to make himself appear,

488
00:26:14,920 --> 00:26:19,240
talks intoxicated, and he even
called a taxi and used a fake

489
00:26:19,240 --> 00:26:21,600
slurred voice so he could be
dropped off near his

490
00:26:21,600 --> 00:26:23,240
neighborhood without any
suspicion.

491
00:26:23,800 --> 00:26:27,160
He cut Hedges phone line, broke
into her home and hid in her

492
00:26:27,160 --> 00:26:29,160
closet.
When she returned with her

493
00:26:29,160 --> 00:26:34,680
boyfriend, he waited only after
the boyfriend left, and Marie

494
00:26:35,680 --> 00:26:38,440
only after the boyfriend left
and Maureen went to bed, the

495
00:26:38,440 --> 00:26:41,200
dentist make his move.
He startled her awake, subdued

496
00:26:41,200 --> 00:26:44,520
her and strangled her.
But for Rader, the killing

497
00:26:44,520 --> 00:26:48,000
wasn't the end here.
He took her body to his church,

498
00:26:48,600 --> 00:26:50,840
a place where he had the keys
and privacy.

499
00:26:51,360 --> 00:26:54,680
There he staged her body and
took photographs, turning the

500
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:58,720
scene into part of his fantasy.
Before morning, he cleaned

501
00:26:58,720 --> 00:27:02,040
everything up, removed her body
and later dumped it in a remote

502
00:27:02,040 --> 00:27:05,080
area.
Days later, her car was found

503
00:27:05,080 --> 00:27:08,800
abandoned and shortly after that
her body was recovered 7 miles

504
00:27:08,800 --> 00:27:12,240
away from home.
His next murder was.

505
00:27:12,240 --> 00:27:16,400
Vicki, wet girl.
At the time, Rader was still

506
00:27:16,400 --> 00:27:20,560
working for ADT and while on the
job he noticed 28 year old Vicki

507
00:27:20,840 --> 00:27:24,120
and began watching her, later
calling her project Piano.

508
00:27:24,840 --> 00:27:29,080
On September 16th, 1986, he used
his job as a disguise, wearing a

509
00:27:29,080 --> 00:27:31,600
hard hat and posing as a phone
technician.

510
00:27:32,000 --> 00:27:34,800
He first entered a neighbor's
home to make his presence seem

511
00:27:34,800 --> 00:27:37,200
legitimate, and then he went to
Vicki.

512
00:27:39,920 --> 00:27:42,040
Once inside, he.
Made small talk while pretending

513
00:27:42,040 --> 00:27:45,200
he was checking her phone line.
Then he pulled a gun and forced

514
00:27:45,200 --> 00:27:47,960
her into the bedroom.
Vicki fought back.

515
00:27:48,440 --> 00:27:51,560
She actually managed to break
free from the original bindings,

516
00:27:51,840 --> 00:27:55,200
and she scratched his face hard
enough that he later admitted

517
00:27:55,200 --> 00:27:58,280
that that marks scarred.
The struggle, along with the

518
00:27:58,280 --> 00:28:02,120
barking dogs and open windows
made Raider very nervous, and he

519
00:28:02,120 --> 00:28:04,880
knew his time was limited.
Even so, he couldn't stop.

520
00:28:04,880 --> 00:28:07,480
He had to finish the ritual
after killing her.

521
00:28:07,480 --> 00:28:10,800
He took photos of her body
before driving away in her car.

522
00:28:10,960 --> 00:28:15,160
He actually passed her husband
on the way away from her home

523
00:28:15,520 --> 00:28:18,440
and then abandoned the vehicle
nearby and returned home.

524
00:28:19,440 --> 00:28:25,280
For years, Vicky's husband was
the number one suspect.

525
00:28:26,040 --> 00:28:28,920
It wouldn't be until nearly two
decades later that Rader finally

526
00:28:28,920 --> 00:28:34,280
admitted the truth in 2004.
At the time, her case was

527
00:28:34,280 --> 00:28:38,160
actually unconnected, another
tragedy without a clear answer.

528
00:28:38,760 --> 00:28:41,040
But even in silence, Rader
wasn't disconnected from

529
00:28:41,040 --> 00:28:43,840
violence.
In January of 1988, there was a

530
00:28:43,840 --> 00:28:47,880
woman named Mary Fager and she
received an envelope postmarked

531
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:51,600
January 5th and inside was a
poem titled Oh God.

532
00:28:51,600 --> 00:28:56,600
He put Kelly Sherry in the tub
along with a disturbing drawing

533
00:28:56,600 --> 00:29:00,160
of a bound young girl near a
pool just days earlier.

534
00:29:00,320 --> 00:29:04,880
Mary's husband, Melvin and her
two daughters had been murdered

535
00:29:04,880 --> 00:29:07,600
in their home.
The details were horrific, and

536
00:29:07,600 --> 00:29:10,920
it absolutely matched the poem.
But Rader was never actually

537
00:29:10,920 --> 00:29:14,200
linked to those killings, and he
never claimed responsibility.

538
00:29:14,440 --> 00:29:18,760
He just inserted himself because
he wanted to be a part of the

539
00:29:18,760 --> 00:29:21,600
investigation.
He referenced the crime he wrote

540
00:29:21,600 --> 00:29:23,600
about.
It created his own version of

541
00:29:23,600 --> 00:29:26,240
the scene.
It wasn't accurate, but it's

542
00:29:26,240 --> 00:29:30,600
still caused a lot of trauma for
Mary Fager.

543
00:29:31,520 --> 00:29:34,160
It was like he was observing,
analyzing, and responding from a

544
00:29:34,160 --> 00:29:36,400
distance.
He actually later described

545
00:29:36,440 --> 00:29:40,440
admiration for this killer,
saying another one prowls the

546
00:29:40,440 --> 00:29:42,760
deep abyss of lewd thoughts and
deeds.

547
00:29:43,680 --> 00:29:47,320
Even without committing an act,
he wanted proximity to it.

548
00:29:48,040 --> 00:29:50,600
And then he went quiet for
another few years.

549
00:29:51,560 --> 00:29:53,680
His.
Last and final murder was. 1981

550
00:29:54,440 --> 00:29:57,480
he targeted 62 year old Dolores
Davis after watching her near

551
00:29:57,480 --> 00:30:00,200
her home, referring to her as
project dog side.

552
00:30:00,200 --> 00:30:03,080
He had been casing her house for
quite some time, waiting for the

553
00:30:03,080 --> 00:30:07,080
right moment.
Finally, on January 18th, he.

554
00:30:07,080 --> 00:30:10,880
Created another alibi.
Similar to before he left a.

555
00:30:10,880 --> 00:30:13,480
Boy Scout outing.
Early changed clothes, made his

556
00:30:13,480 --> 00:30:15,800
way to her home on foot through
fields in a cemetery.

557
00:30:16,040 --> 00:30:19,160
The cold pushed him to act
quickly, and instead of quietly

558
00:30:19,160 --> 00:30:22,440
entering, he just broke in.
He waited until Davis went to

559
00:30:22,440 --> 00:30:24,440
bed and then forced his way
inside her room.

560
00:30:24,960 --> 00:30:27,120
At first he told her he was
going to tie her up and take her

561
00:30:27,120 --> 00:30:29,480
car.
She resisted, and when he

562
00:30:29,480 --> 00:30:31,840
threatened her with weapons, she
decided to comply.

563
00:30:32,360 --> 00:30:35,560
He ransacked the kitchen to
maintain the illusion of a

564
00:30:35,560 --> 00:30:39,200
robbery, but when Dolores
started pleading for her life,

565
00:30:39,280 --> 00:30:43,280
he just strangled her.
Now initially.

566
00:30:43,280 --> 00:30:47,360
Dennis intended to stay longer
with Dolores body, but he had to

567
00:30:47,360 --> 00:30:50,360
leave sooner than expected.
He moved her body, drove it to a

568
00:30:50,360 --> 00:30:53,640
remote area and abandoned it and
he returned to her house to

569
00:30:53,640 --> 00:30:57,560
clean up parts of the scene and
re establish his alibi before

570
00:30:57,560 --> 00:31:01,320
anyone had noticed he was gone.
Weeks later they found her body

571
00:31:01,320 --> 00:31:04,600
under a bridge and then just
like before, it stopped.

572
00:31:05,200 --> 00:31:08,280
No communication, no activity
that law enforcement could tie

573
00:31:08,280 --> 00:31:11,320
back to BTK.
And the cases just sat.

574
00:31:12,160 --> 00:31:15,600
The name BTK faded.
The fear that once gripped

575
00:31:15,600 --> 00:31:18,040
Wichita slowly dissolved into
something more distant.

576
00:31:18,640 --> 00:31:20,960
But silence.
For someone like Dennis Rader,

577
00:31:21,360 --> 00:31:25,360
it's not permanent because being
forgotten becomes its own kind

578
00:31:25,360 --> 00:31:28,440
of pressure.
And in 2004, that pressure

579
00:31:28,440 --> 00:31:32,000
broke.
It started on March 19th, 2004.

580
00:31:32,360 --> 00:31:35,280
The Wichita Eagle received a
letter from someone named Bill

581
00:31:35,280 --> 00:31:39,920
Thomas Killman, A moniker, and
it took credit for Vicki

582
00:31:39,920 --> 00:31:42,800
Weggol's murder.
He included photographs from the

583
00:31:42,800 --> 00:31:46,320
scene and a copy of Vicki's
driver's license before.

584
00:31:46,320 --> 00:31:48,520
This moment, police.
Had never known that Vicki was

585
00:31:48,520 --> 00:31:51,240
killed by BTK.
Now what?

586
00:31:51,240 --> 00:31:53,320
Dennis didn't realize.
Was that in 2004?

587
00:31:53,320 --> 00:31:55,200
There was new evidence and new
technology.

588
00:31:55,600 --> 00:31:58,200
Vicki had DNA under her nails
from where she scratched him.

589
00:31:58,440 --> 00:32:01,520
And the police began to DNA test
hundreds of men in the region,

590
00:32:01,760 --> 00:32:04,560
professors, police officers,
anybody who was in a position of

591
00:32:04,560 --> 00:32:06,360
power.
And in the end they ended up

592
00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:10,880
doing 1300 tests the samples.
Were.

593
00:32:10,880 --> 00:32:13,800
Court ordered to be destroyed
after eliminating A suspect.

594
00:32:14,920 --> 00:32:18,400
They may not have found BTK, but
they knew they had his DNA and

595
00:32:18,400 --> 00:32:21,680
they could link it to all of his
past crimes in.

596
00:32:21,680 --> 00:32:26,200
May of 2000 and. 4K Ake received
a letter with chapter headings

597
00:32:26,400 --> 00:32:31,240
for the BTK story.
It came also with fake IDs and a

598
00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:35,080
word puzzle.
On June 9th, graphic images of

599
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:39,040
the Otera murders were found
taped to a stop sign at the

600
00:32:39,040 --> 00:32:41,600
corner of 1st and Kansas roads
in Wichita.

601
00:32:42,120 --> 00:32:45,800
It also included a sketch
labeled The Sexual Thrill Is My

602
00:32:45,800 --> 00:32:48,080
Bill.
And there were more chapter

603
00:32:48,080 --> 00:32:51,680
headings for this unwritten book
that he decided would be called

604
00:32:51,680 --> 00:32:56,200
The BTK Story.
This sort.

605
00:32:56,200 --> 00:33:02,520
Of story he wrote about himself
was very similar to a 1999 story

606
00:33:02,560 --> 00:33:06,640
that had been written about him
by a Court TV writer named David

607
00:33:06,640 --> 00:33:10,200
Lore.
So apparently BTK said you did a

608
00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:12,040
good job, but here, let me fix
this.

609
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:16,040
In July, a package was dropped
in a return slot at the local

610
00:33:16,040 --> 00:33:20,640
Public Library that took credit
for a suicide in Argonia, KS.

611
00:33:21,040 --> 00:33:24,400
Police weren't sure if this was
a copycat or Dennis just playing

612
00:33:24,400 --> 00:33:28,040
mind games with them.
In all of these correspondences,

613
00:33:28,200 --> 00:33:31,400
he gave entirely too much
personal information about

614
00:33:31,400 --> 00:33:33,000
himself.
He told him he was former

615
00:33:33,000 --> 00:33:34,800
military.
He told him he loved trains.

616
00:33:34,960 --> 00:33:38,160
He did try to mislead them by
saying he'd been born in 1939.

617
00:33:38,680 --> 00:33:41,600
But what the police didn't know
was that Dennis was trying to

618
00:33:41,600 --> 00:33:44,520
kind of rally himself to get
ready for another kill.

619
00:33:44,720 --> 00:33:47,520
He'd actually set a date in
October of 2004.

620
00:33:48,200 --> 00:33:51,360
He was in the process of
stalking his next victim, and he

621
00:33:51,360 --> 00:33:55,280
wanted people to remember the
fear of the 70s when he started

622
00:33:55,280 --> 00:33:57,520
up again.
We don't know why he didn't go

623
00:33:57,520 --> 00:34:00,440
through with it.
Instead, though, he continued

624
00:34:00,440 --> 00:34:01,920
his campaign with the local
media.

625
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:05,040
In the month of October, he
dropped a Manila envelope in a U

626
00:34:05,040 --> 00:34:09,360
PS: box with cards of images of
just horrible violence against

627
00:34:09,360 --> 00:34:13,120
women, and he also had drawings
he did himself of children in

628
00:34:13,120 --> 00:34:15,800
bondage.
It also contained A threatening

629
00:34:15,800 --> 00:34:18,719
poem about the lead
investigator, Lieutenant Ken

630
00:34:18,719 --> 00:34:22,320
Landware, and a fake
autobiography about his life

631
00:34:23,360 --> 00:34:24,280
then in.
December.

632
00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:27,600
Police found another package at
the local Murdoch Park that had

633
00:34:27,600 --> 00:34:31,400
Nancy Fox's driver's license and
had a doll that was bound at the

634
00:34:31,400 --> 00:34:34,719
hands and feet with a small
plastic bag over the doll's

635
00:34:34,719 --> 00:34:38,560
head.
But in January of 2005, Dennis

636
00:34:38,560 --> 00:34:41,760
left a cereal box in the bed of
a pickup truck at Home Depot,

637
00:34:42,000 --> 00:34:44,440
and when the owner saw it, he
immediately threw it in the

638
00:34:44,440 --> 00:34:46,719
trash.
Dennis had to write a letter to

639
00:34:46,719 --> 00:34:49,679
the police asking.
So you guys didn't get my new

640
00:34:49,679 --> 00:34:52,040
package?
And telling them where he had

641
00:34:52,040 --> 00:34:55,400
left it and the police had to go
recover the items from the

642
00:34:55,400 --> 00:34:57,720
garbage.
Surveillance videos showed a

643
00:34:57,720 --> 00:35:00,960
figure in a black Jeep Cherokee
leaving the box, but old school

644
00:35:00,960 --> 00:35:04,800
CTTV was pretty bad so they
couldn't see his license plate

645
00:35:04,800 --> 00:35:06,480
or really any details on his
face.

646
00:35:06,800 --> 00:35:11,440
In February, he sent more cards
to Cake and another cereal box

647
00:35:11,720 --> 00:35:16,240
with a doll inside of it.
Then Dennis made a mistake.

648
00:35:18,200 --> 00:35:20,320
In one of his letters.
He asked the police a simple

649
00:35:20,320 --> 00:35:23,080
question.
Can a floppy disk be traced?

650
00:35:24,480 --> 00:35:26,040
Investigators saw an
opportunity.

651
00:35:26,480 --> 00:35:28,680
They responded through a
classified ad in The Wichita

652
00:35:28,680 --> 00:35:30,280
Eagle telling him it would be
safe.

653
00:35:30,600 --> 00:35:35,640
One line, Rex, it'll be OK.
And Dennis believed them.

654
00:35:36,120 --> 00:35:40,280
On February 16th, 2005, Rader
sent a purple Memorex floppy

655
00:35:40,280 --> 00:35:43,880
disk to a local TV station with
a letter, a fake gold necklace,

656
00:35:43,880 --> 00:35:46,640
and a photocopy of a book titled
Rules of Prey.

657
00:35:47,360 --> 00:35:50,440
It was another attempt to insert
himself into the story, another

658
00:35:50,440 --> 00:35:53,000
way to be seen.
But this time he'd gone too far.

659
00:35:53,440 --> 00:35:56,000
Because what Rayder didn't
understand, or maybe he just

660
00:35:56,000 --> 00:35:59,360
chose to ignore, was that that
disk held more than just the

661
00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:03,800
files he intended to send.
It held information about him.

662
00:36:04,600 --> 00:36:07,640
The metadata they pulled from
the disk LED investigators to

663
00:36:07,640 --> 00:36:12,080
Christ Lutheran Church in a
simple Google church showed that

664
00:36:12,080 --> 00:36:17,000
only one man at the church was
named Dennis, and Dennis had

665
00:36:17,120 --> 00:36:20,640
edited a file that was on that
floppy drive.

666
00:36:22,520 --> 00:36:27,400
This man who had spent.
Decades controlling every little

667
00:36:27,400 --> 00:36:31,680
detail had just handed himself
over to the police and he didn't

668
00:36:31,680 --> 00:36:34,440
even realize it.
Surveillance would follow and

669
00:36:34,760 --> 00:36:38,400
police felt very confident after
seeing the black Jeep Cherokee

670
00:36:38,600 --> 00:36:41,800
that they had the right guy.
The problem was, this is still

671
00:36:41,800 --> 00:36:46,040
circumstantial evidence.
OK, we have the floppy Dr. that

672
00:36:46,040 --> 00:36:50,280
has a man named Dennis who works
at the church editing the file.

673
00:36:50,480 --> 00:36:54,320
And yeah, Dennis does drive the
same car that we saw drop off

674
00:36:54,320 --> 00:36:56,920
that cereal box, but it wasn't
enough.

675
00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:00,880
Police started to do something.
Unique at the time, they

676
00:37:00,880 --> 00:37:04,560
obtained a search warrant to
analyze a Pap smear sample from

677
00:37:04,560 --> 00:37:08,920
Dennis Rader's daughter.
She's gotten her pap smear.

678
00:37:08,920 --> 00:37:11,480
When she was in school at Kansas
State University.

679
00:37:13,760 --> 00:37:16,800
They got that information.
From the medical clinic, DNA

680
00:37:16,800 --> 00:37:20,600
testing revealed there was a
familial match between the

681
00:37:20,600 --> 00:37:24,480
sample and the DNA recovered
from under Vicki Weggarl's

682
00:37:24,480 --> 00:37:27,280
nails.
The result indicated that the

683
00:37:28,200 --> 00:37:32,720
killer was a close relative of
Dennis Rader's daughter, and

684
00:37:32,720 --> 00:37:35,720
when combined with the other
evidence, it gave investigators

685
00:37:35,720 --> 00:37:37,480
enough to move forward with an
arrest.

686
00:37:38,200 --> 00:37:40,720
Dennis Rader was arrested while
driving near his home on

687
00:37:40,720 --> 00:37:45,560
February 25th, 2005.
An officer asked him, Mr. Rader,

688
00:37:45,600 --> 00:37:47,160
do you know why you're going
downtown?

689
00:37:47,800 --> 00:37:50,920
And he replied, oh, I have
suspicions.

690
00:37:50,920 --> 00:37:55,520
Why?
Now on February 28th. 2005

691
00:37:55,520 --> 00:37:58,320
Dennis was charged with 10
counts of first degree murder.

692
00:37:58,720 --> 00:38:00,880
It was rumored that during
interrogation he confessed to

693
00:38:00,880 --> 00:38:03,680
other murders, but the DA chose
to go with cases they had direct

694
00:38:03,800 --> 00:38:07,080
DNA evidence to convict.
The DA would later say that this

695
00:38:07,080 --> 00:38:10,920
was not true, but it does kind
of follow how most DAS work.

696
00:38:11,320 --> 00:38:14,680
You want the confirmed kill, not
potentially others.

697
00:38:14,680 --> 00:38:16,520
That would make the case more
confusing.

698
00:38:19,240 --> 00:38:21,480
Interestingly enough, Dennis.
Was particularly worried about

699
00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:24,200
the death penalty and he was
also worried about general

700
00:38:24,200 --> 00:38:26,800
population in prison.
He specifically said he didn't

701
00:38:26,800 --> 00:38:30,400
want to be with the loonies in
Gen. pop as if he's not one of

702
00:38:30,400 --> 00:38:33,080
the loonies.
On March 1st, his bail was set

703
00:38:33,080 --> 00:38:36,240
at $1 million and then on March
3rd a not guilty plea was

704
00:38:36,240 --> 00:38:39,480
submitted on his behalf because
he stood in court and refused to

705
00:38:39,480 --> 00:38:43,560
say anything.
Then on June. 27th he decided to

706
00:38:43,560 --> 00:38:46,680
change his plea to guilty.
That, coincidentally, was the

707
00:38:46,680 --> 00:38:49,160
first day of his pretrial
hearing.

708
00:38:50,440 --> 00:38:53,080
So in order.
For them to want to work with

709
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:56,000
him, they said you need to stand
in front of us and tell us

710
00:38:56,000 --> 00:38:58,680
everything.
So he did.

711
00:38:59,320 --> 00:39:00,840
Dennis did.
In court, there was no

712
00:39:00,840 --> 00:39:04,200
breakdown, no visible remorse,
no moment where the weight of

713
00:39:04,200 --> 00:39:06,400
all he had done seemed to catch
up with him.

714
00:39:06,880 --> 00:39:09,720
Instead, he spoke.
He was calm, clear and in

715
00:39:09,720 --> 00:39:12,000
detail.
He waved his right to a trial

716
00:39:12,160 --> 00:39:15,480
and he delivered a full
confession, walking through each

717
00:39:15,480 --> 00:39:19,520
murder as if he were recounting
a simple series of tasks.

718
00:39:19,840 --> 00:39:23,680
He used his own language, his
own structure, referring back to

719
00:39:23,680 --> 00:39:25,560
the same patterns he developed
years earlier.

720
00:39:26,040 --> 00:39:30,280
Binding, strangulation, control.
No hesitation, no emotional

721
00:39:30,280 --> 00:39:33,040
shift as he talked about the
victims, not even the children.

722
00:39:33,520 --> 00:39:35,920
No acknowledgement of the lives
he had taken beyond the

723
00:39:35,920 --> 00:39:39,320
mechanics of how he did it.
At times it sounded like a

724
00:39:39,320 --> 00:39:41,760
confession and other times a
report.

725
00:39:43,320 --> 00:39:47,720
In fact, sometimes when the DA
asked him questions, he

726
00:39:47,720 --> 00:39:52,960
corrected details, clarified the
timelines, added information

727
00:39:53,080 --> 00:39:56,520
that only he would know, not to
express his guilt, but to make

728
00:39:56,520 --> 00:40:01,040
sure the story was accurate and
complete, because even then he

729
00:40:01,040 --> 00:40:02,560
was still trying to control the
narrative.

730
00:40:03,840 --> 00:40:06,440
Families of the victims sat in
the courtroom and listened as he

731
00:40:06,440 --> 00:40:09,920
described their loved ones final
moments with the same tone

732
00:40:10,200 --> 00:40:13,880
someone might use to just
explain taking the trash out.

733
00:40:14,640 --> 00:40:16,320
And that's what made it so
unsettling.

734
00:40:16,680 --> 00:40:20,200
There was no distance.
From this, for him, he was never

735
00:40:20,200 --> 00:40:24,920
overwhelmed by what he had done.
He was reliving it in court, in

736
00:40:24,920 --> 00:40:27,160
front of the families of his
victims.

737
00:40:28,240 --> 00:40:31,360
And in that moment, the same
need that drove him to write

738
00:40:31,360 --> 00:40:34,720
those letters, to name himself,
to come back after decades of

739
00:40:34,720 --> 00:40:38,800
silence, it was still there.
He needed to be heard.

740
00:40:38,960 --> 00:40:42,560
He needed to be understood and
to make sure that nobody got his

741
00:40:42,560 --> 00:40:51,160
story wrong.
Sorry on June. 27th, 2005 Dennis

742
00:40:51,160 --> 00:40:53,520
Rader was sentenced to 10
consecutive life sentences,

743
00:40:53,880 --> 00:40:56,640
ensuring he would spend the rest
of his life in prison.

744
00:40:57,880 --> 00:41:00,440
Even then, though, the control
he chased for decades, it didn't

745
00:41:00,440 --> 00:41:04,840
fully disappear.
Remember, he didn't confess over

746
00:41:04,840 --> 00:41:08,080
guilt.
He wanted to be heard and as he

747
00:41:08,080 --> 00:41:10,960
was being transported to El
Dorado Correctional Facility.

748
00:41:12,240 --> 00:41:13,640
It was just a regular day for
him.

749
00:41:14,280 --> 00:41:16,320
The contrast actually was
striking.

750
00:41:16,640 --> 00:41:19,440
During the drive, the driver
said he made small talk about

751
00:41:19,440 --> 00:41:22,400
the weather as if nothing had
changed in his life.

752
00:41:23,200 --> 00:41:25,760
But then as they were listening
to the radio, as they were

753
00:41:25,760 --> 00:41:29,760
driving to the prison, the
victim impact statements played

754
00:41:29,760 --> 00:41:32,240
over the radio.
And Dennis cried.

755
00:41:33,160 --> 00:41:36,760
Not in the courtroom, not while
he confessed, but they're in

756
00:41:36,760 --> 00:41:39,920
private.
And then the door closed on his

757
00:41:39,920 --> 00:41:42,280
cell.
He was placed in solitary

758
00:41:42,280 --> 00:41:45,080
confinement for his own
protection, a status that will

759
00:41:45,080 --> 00:41:46,800
probably remain for the rest of
his life.

760
00:41:47,440 --> 00:41:49,880
He was removed from the public,
separated from other inmates,

761
00:41:49,880 --> 00:41:52,520
stripped of the environment that
he had control over.

762
00:41:53,200 --> 00:41:55,080
But that doesn't mean that the
need for control ever

763
00:41:55,080 --> 00:41:58,680
disappeared, just adapted.
In prison, he continued to seek

764
00:41:58,680 --> 00:42:01,120
out attention in whatever ways
were available to him.

765
00:42:01,640 --> 00:42:05,880
He was corresponding with
outsiders, talking to his fans

766
00:42:06,320 --> 00:42:11,080
and warned by president
officials about these ongoing

767
00:42:11,080 --> 00:42:13,120
communications that he was
crossing lines.

768
00:42:13,520 --> 00:42:16,720
At one point, he was granted
limited privileges for good

769
00:42:16,720 --> 00:42:20,320
behavior, access to ATV books
and art supplies.

770
00:42:20,840 --> 00:42:24,160
Even that, though, sparked
concern with prosecutors arguing

771
00:42:24,160 --> 00:42:27,320
that exposure to media and
imagery could actually allow him

772
00:42:27,320 --> 00:42:30,040
to relive his crimes.
Essentially, if you guys give

773
00:42:30,040 --> 00:42:33,560
him crayons and pencils, he's
going to draw his murders again.

774
00:42:34,760 --> 00:42:38,160
And they had a good point
because for Dennis Rader, the

775
00:42:38,160 --> 00:42:41,720
story never really ends.
It just changes form for him.

776
00:42:42,160 --> 00:42:45,120
They're even reports of him
setting rules for how people can

777
00:42:45,120 --> 00:42:49,040
contact him, conditions and
boundaries, requirements, even

778
00:42:49,040 --> 00:42:52,920
now in a prison cell, attempting
to dictate the terms of

779
00:42:52,920 --> 00:42:56,760
interaction, reinforcing the
same pattern that defined his

780
00:42:56,760 --> 00:43:00,120
life outside these walls.
Control over access, control

781
00:43:00,120 --> 00:43:05,120
over communication, control over
how he is being perceived and.

782
00:43:05,120 --> 00:43:07,720
Outside the prison.
The fascination still hasn't

783
00:43:07,720 --> 00:43:10,600
gone away.
Profilers study him, his

784
00:43:10,600 --> 00:43:14,440
behavior, his communication, his
psychology, his name.

785
00:43:14,440 --> 00:43:16,280
Continues to surface.
In discussions about criminal

786
00:43:16,280 --> 00:43:19,880
profiling, in the evolution of
serial offenders, books have

787
00:43:19,880 --> 00:43:22,040
been written, interviews have
been given.

788
00:43:22,400 --> 00:43:27,160
His story is revisited again and
again in podcasts like these.

789
00:43:27,840 --> 00:43:30,280
Even his home families had to
confront this reality.

790
00:43:30,760 --> 00:43:33,920
His daughter, Carrie Rawson, has
spoken publicly about the

791
00:43:33,920 --> 00:43:37,840
impossible task of reconciling
the father she knew with the man

792
00:43:37,840 --> 00:43:43,280
she now understands him to be.
A childhood that felt normal,

793
00:43:43,280 --> 00:43:45,600
refrained by something hidden in
plain sight.

794
00:43:46,200 --> 00:43:48,280
For years, Carrie tried to find
a path forward.

795
00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:50,760
She spoke about forgiveness,
about faith, about trying to

796
00:43:50,760 --> 00:43:54,160
make sense of it.
But that changed In 2021.

797
00:43:54,160 --> 00:43:56,520
She made a decision to cut off
contact with her father.

798
00:43:57,040 --> 00:44:00,560
What she had learned, what she
had uncovered, made any

799
00:44:00,560 --> 00:44:02,240
relationship impossible to
maintain.

800
00:44:02,960 --> 00:44:05,720
As investigators revisited old
evidence, they found journals.

801
00:44:05,720 --> 00:44:08,880
Radar had kept detailed, coded
records of his thoughts and

802
00:44:08,880 --> 00:44:11,440
actions.
Carrie helped decode parts of

803
00:44:11,440 --> 00:44:13,920
them, and what surfaced was
deeply personal.

804
00:44:14,280 --> 00:44:20,680
One entry read Carrie back slash
BND, back slash Game 1981.

805
00:44:21,320 --> 00:44:27,800
BND was Dennis's shorthand for
bondage, and in 1981 Carrie was

806
00:44:27,800 --> 00:44:31,120
a toddler.
In October of 2023, she

807
00:44:31,120 --> 00:44:35,720
confronted him in prison face to
face, and what followed was not

808
00:44:35,720 --> 00:44:39,560
accountability.
I sat feet across from.

809
00:44:39,560 --> 00:44:41,760
You.
You crumpled up, rotting away in

810
00:44:41,760 --> 00:44:45,120
a wheelchair, me standing tall
and brave and confronted you

811
00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:48,560
with the hard bare truth you had
kept hidden from me for over 4

812
00:44:48,560 --> 00:44:50,200
decades.
You denied it.

813
00:44:50,480 --> 00:44:54,440
Gas let me emotionally and
verbally abused me and asked me

814
00:44:54,440 --> 00:44:59,200
what PTSD is and then when I
explained it told me I had

815
00:44:59,200 --> 00:45:03,440
brought this all on myself.
Even then.

816
00:45:03,800 --> 00:45:07,720
Faced with all the information,
he refused to admit what he had

817
00:45:07,720 --> 00:45:10,680
done to carry.
And at the same time,

818
00:45:11,080 --> 00:45:14,040
investigators in Osage County
have continued examining

819
00:45:14,200 --> 00:45:17,880
hundreds of drawings and
writings recovered from Raiders

820
00:45:17,880 --> 00:45:21,280
home in 2005, hoping they may
connect him to additional

821
00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:25,120
crimes, including the 1976
disappearance of Cynthia Kenny.

822
00:45:26,360 --> 00:45:30,160
But Dennis remains silent, and
in that silence, the pattern

823
00:45:30,160 --> 00:45:33,320
continues.
Because even now, control is the

824
00:45:33,320 --> 00:45:36,320
one thing he refuses to give up.
It's the one thing that no one

825
00:45:36,320 --> 00:45:39,560
can take from him.
The truth and.

826
00:45:39,560 --> 00:45:42,000
It's still sitting exactly where
he wants it.

827
00:45:42,520 --> 00:45:45,160
The odds are that he has
actually committed more crimes,

828
00:45:45,520 --> 00:45:49,200
but he has absolutely no
intention of telling us anything

829
00:45:49,200 --> 00:45:51,760
about it.
Dennis intends.

830
00:45:51,760 --> 00:45:58,280
To die with that truth.
Dennis Raider didn't look like

831
00:45:58,280 --> 00:45:58,880
a.
Monster.

832
00:45:59,880 --> 00:46:01,760
That's the part that usually
stays with people.

833
00:46:02,280 --> 00:46:05,200
He wasn't hiding in the shadows,
he wasn't disconnected from

834
00:46:05,200 --> 00:46:07,840
society.
He was a part of it.

835
00:46:08,160 --> 00:46:11,800
A neighbor, a Co worker, a man
trusted to enforce the rules, to

836
00:46:11,800 --> 00:46:15,200
lead and to protect people.
And all the while, there was

837
00:46:15,200 --> 00:46:17,320
someone else living beneath the
surface.

838
00:46:19,160 --> 00:46:20,440
That's why we keep talking
about.

839
00:46:20,440 --> 00:46:21,720
Him.
That's what makes this all so

840
00:46:21,720 --> 00:46:25,160
unsettling, because it enforces
you to confront the reality that

841
00:46:25,160 --> 00:46:26,680
most people don't want to
accept.

842
00:46:27,240 --> 00:46:33,080
Someone can appear completely
normal, completely ordinary, and

843
00:46:33,080 --> 00:46:35,240
still be capable of
extraordinary harm.

844
00:46:36,760 --> 00:46:39,080
In the end it.
Wasn't the crimes that brought

845
00:46:39,080 --> 00:46:43,040
Dennis Raider down, it was his
ego the same?

846
00:46:43,040 --> 00:46:45,040
Need.
That pushed him to name himself,

847
00:46:45,400 --> 00:46:48,760
to write those letters, to
insert himself into other

848
00:46:48,760 --> 00:46:51,560
investigations.
It's all what exposed him.

849
00:46:51,960 --> 00:46:56,480
The media gave him a platform,
and after a long time, he used

850
00:46:56,480 --> 00:47:00,040
it exactly the way he wanted to
until it became a trap.

851
00:47:00,600 --> 00:47:02,720
Because the more he reached out,
the more he needed to be

852
00:47:02,720 --> 00:47:06,160
recognized, the more he
revealed, piece by piece, detail

853
00:47:06,160 --> 00:47:09,040
by detail, until there was
enough information to find him.

854
00:47:09,440 --> 00:47:11,720
And at the center of all this
was control.

855
00:47:12,280 --> 00:47:15,240
Dennis wanted to control his
victims, control his image,

856
00:47:15,560 --> 00:47:18,360
control over when he would
appear and when he would

857
00:47:18,360 --> 00:47:21,560
disappear.
But control for Dennis.

858
00:47:21,560 --> 00:47:24,120
Wasn't just a desire, it was an
addiction.

859
00:47:24,760 --> 00:47:28,240
And like many addictions, it
eventually cost him everything.

860
00:47:30,000 --> 00:47:32,560
What he wanted the most.
To be seen.

861
00:47:33,160 --> 00:47:34,520
It's what led him to be at
caught.

862
00:47:35,440 --> 00:47:37,760
And once that happened, the
version of himself he spent

863
00:47:37,760 --> 00:47:41,600
decades building collapsed,
leaving behind not a mystery,

864
00:47:42,120 --> 00:47:47,240
but a man.
A very real human man who chose

865
00:47:47,320 --> 00:47:50,200
over and over again to be
something else.

866
00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:53,480
Because the truth is, Dennis
Rader didn't just hide in plain

867
00:47:53,480 --> 00:47:56,840
sight, he depended on it.
I'm.

868
00:47:56,840 --> 00:47:58,640
Brittany Ransom.
And this has been another

869
00:47:58,640 --> 00:48:00,440
episode of When killers get
Caught.

870
00:48:01,160 --> 00:48:04,200
And remember, the truth always
leaves the trail.