BTK Killer:Dennis Rader

By: Alli Hicks

Dennis Rader’s Childhood/Early Adulthood:

• Grew up in Wichita, Kansas• Oldest of four brothers• Went to Riverview School and graduated from

Wichita Heights High School.• Confessed to being cruel to animals as a child.• Went to college for one year and then joined the

U.S. Air Force.• After serving for four years, Rader earned an

associate’s degree in electronics and a bachelor’s degree in Administration of Justice.

• Married Paula Dietz and had two children

Dennis Rader’s Jobs and Activities:

• Member of Christ Lutheran Church• Cub Scout Leader• 1972-1973: he worked as an assembler for The Coleman Company.• 1974-1988(when he was fired): He worked at ADT Security Services, a

company that sold and installed alarm systems for commercial businesses. This is where he learned how to break into home security systems.

• Served on Segwick County’s Board of Zoning Appeals and the Animal Control Advisory Board.

• 1991: Began working as a supervisor of the Compliance Department at Park City, there he was in charge of animal-control, housing problems, zoning, general permit enforcement, and a variety of nuisance cases.– While on the job, people in the area complained of Rader being “overzealous

and extremely strict”. – One person complained saying that he had “euthanized her dog for no reason.”

– Fired from job for not showing up to work after being arrested.

BTK’s Victims

The Otero Family:

• Joseph Otero (Father): He was 38 years old and was in the Military. He worked as a flight instructor and mechanic in the U.S. Air Force.

• Julie Otero (Mother): She was 34 Years old and had been laid off by the Coleman Company but was going to be rehired once business picked up.

• Josephine Otero (Daughter): 11 years old

• Joseph Otero Jr. (Son): 9 years old

Day Of Murder:• On January 15, 1974, 15 year old Charlie Otero found his parents

and two siblings killed when returning from school. • Joseph: Lying face down on the floor at the foot of the bed with his

wrists and ankles bound.• Julie: Face down at the foot of the bed with wrists and ankles

bound and had been gagged. • When Charlie found his parents he ran straight to the neighbors

who came over and tried to call the police, but the phone lines had been cut. They eventually contacted police, who came and discovered that there was more that Charlie had missed.

• Joseph Jr.: Found at the foot of his bed wrist and ankles bound with a hood over his face.

• Josephine: Found in the basement hanging by her neck from a pipe in the basement. She was partially naked, only wearing a sweatshirt and socks. She had also been gagged.

• None of the Otero’s had been sexually assaulted, but semen was found on some of the victims.

After:• In October of 1974, Don Granger, a Wichita Eagle, received an anonymous

call from The Otero Family’s killer. The killer directed him to an Mechanical Engineering book in the Wichita Public Library, where a letter was found, promising for more victims.

• The letter was definitely from the killer because it contained facts that only the police and killer would know.

• The writer of the letter said that the reason for the letter was to inform all of them that the three suspects were not involved in the murders and that he was the only one.

• "I can't stop it so the monster goes on, and hurt me as well as society. Society can be thankful that there are ways for people like me to relieve myself at time by day dreams of some victims 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.... the pressure is great and sometimes he run the game to his liking. Maybe you can stop him. I can't. He has already chosen his next victim or victims. I don't know who they are yet. The next day after I read the paper, I will know, but it to late. Good luck hunting.”

Continued:

• The letter was not signed, but it contained this at the end of the letter: "P.S. Since sex criminals do not change their M.O. or by nature cannot do so, I will not change mine. The code word for me will be....Bind them, toture them, kill them, B.T.K., you see he at it again. They will be on the next victim.”

• BTK used bad grammar and spelling to disguise himself. Dennis Rader was very educated and capable of using correct grammar and spelling. This did not fool investigators.

Kathryn Bright

Day Of Murder:• On April 4, 1974 brother and sister, Kathryn (20)

and Kevin (19) Bright, were returning to Kathryn’s home where they found that there was an intruder waiting for them.

• The killer forced Kevin, at gun point, to tie Kathryn to a chair and then took him to another room. Kevin was then ties up and gagged. The killer tried to strangle him, but Kevin resisted so he was shot twice in the head but didn’t die.

• The murderer then made his way to Kathryn, where he stabbed her in the abdomen three times. She was found partially undressed and strangled.

• Kevin escaped and went to get help, but Kathryn didn’t survive.

• BTK was not tied to this murder until later.

Shirley Vian

Day of Murder:

• On March 17, 1977, Police found Shirley Vian (26) dead on her bed. Her ankles and wrists were bound, she was partially naked with a trash bad draped over her face.

• The intruder had locked her three children in the closet. They eventually escaped and went for help.

• Earlier that day, the murderer had stopped one of the victim’s sons on the street, showed him a picture of a woman and her son, and asked where they lived.

Nancy Fox

Day of Murder:

• On December 8, 1977, BTK called 911 and told them to go to a certain address. He said that they would “find a homicide– Nancy Fox.”

• The police immediately traced the phone call to a pay phone and went to try to get a description of the murderer, but they did not receive enough information to make a profile of what he looked like.

• They then went to Nancy Fox’s house and found that a window had been broken out. Making their way through the house, they found Nancy in her bedroom, dead. She had been strangled with a nylon stocking.

• One thing that was different from BTK’s other murders was that she was completely clothed.

• The police also found semen at the scene, but Fox had not been sexually assaulted.

Marine Hedge

Day of Murder:• On April 27,1985, the BTK killer attacked again. His

next victim was Marine Hedge. Hedge was 53 years old.• BTK entered her house thinking that she was home

already because her car was there. When he go inside he realized that she wasn’t, so he decided to wait.

• Hedge arrived at her house with a friend who did not leave until late that night. Rader waited to attack in the middle of the night when she was sleeping.

• He flipped on the light and she woke up immediately, startled by the man in her room. BTK strangled her and threw the body in his car. He took it to Christ Lutheran Church, where he fulfilled his “sexual fantasies” with the dead body.

• He ended up leaving the body in a road side culvert and covered it with trees and brush.

Vicki Wegerle

30 Years Later…

• On March19, 2004 The Wichita Eagle received a letter from the BTK killer claiming responsibility of Vicki Wegerle’s murder on September 16, 1986.

• On the day of the murder, Rader planned to enter Wegerle’s house by acting like he was a telephone repair man.

• Once he made it inside of the house he told her to go back into her bedroom, where he tied her up. When she broke free and tried to fight him off, he grabbed a pair of her stockings to strangle her until she was not moving anymore.

• He then re-arranged her clothing, took pictures of her, and left quickly because of all the commotion caused by the struggle.

Dolores Davis

Day of Murder:

• Rader got into Dolores Davis’s house by using a cement block to break the window. He then told Davis that he was a run away and needed food. He handcuffed her and acted like he was just going to take some food and the car and then took the handcuffs off and tied her up, then he strangled her.

• BTK took her body and put it in the car, ran an errand and then dumped her body under a bridge.

Evidence Used to solve the case:

• DNA analysis of semen found at multiple murder sites.• DNA taken from under Vicki Wegerle’s fingernails.• The pay phone that BTK used was near ADT Security, where

Dennis Rader worked at the time.• All of BTK’s victims lived within 3.5 miles of each other.

Dennis Rader also lived on the same street as Marine Hedge.• One of the deciding factors to cracking the case was the

floppy disk that Rader used on the Christ Lutheran Church computers. Rader told the pastor that he needed to use the computer to run off copies for a meeting and he agreed. Not long after that, the FBI managed to trace the letters back to the church. They immediately went to the Pastor with a search warrant and shortly thereafter were able to tie the BTK killings to Dennis Rader.

Dennis Rader’s Trial:• Kansas did not allow the death penalty until 1994. The last BTK

murder was in 1991, so Rader was ineligible for the death penalty.

• February 28, 2005: Rader was formally charged with the 10 counts of murder. His bail was set at ten million dollars.

• May 3, 2005: The judge entered 10 not guilty pleas because Rader did not speak at the meeting.

• June 27, 2005: On the actual trial date, Rader changed his plea to guilty.

• August 18, 2005: Rader faced his sentencing. He apologized after hearing the victims’ family members speak. He received 10 consecutive life terms, which is equivalent to 175 years without parole.

• Dennis Rader is now in solitary confinement for the safety of other inmates. He stays in a cell for 23 hours and is allowed one hour for exercise time.

• April 23, 2006: Rader was allowed to reach “incentive level two”, where he can purchase and watch TV and radio, and receive magazines.