The BTK Strangler
Rather recently, the Midwestern United States has experienced a bit of a shake-up, and surprisingly, it’s not by way of earthquakes. In 2005, Kansas was the home to at least ten random and incredibly vicious killings carried out by a man named Dennis Rader who was known in his chilling letters as B.T.K. which stood for Bind, torture, and Kill. In this article, we’ll see how he had an entire community bound in blindness by his apparent “good-guy” act, talk about how he tortured his victims, and then eventually killed them.
Dennis Rader AKA B.T.K
To the common eye, Dennis Rader would appear to have his life as orderly as a grown man should. He had a degree in electronics as well as justice administration, had two children with his wife, Paula, and a decent job in which he installed home security systems. He was an active member of the local Lutheran church, and was even a Cub Scout leader for his son’s troop.
Unbeknownst to literally anyone, Dennis Rader kept a ghastly secret- he was actually a serial killer. We would later learn that as a child, he often killed animals for no reason, and in a brief stint where he worked as a dog catcher, would euthanize dogs on the same pretenses. He often dressed up in women’s clothing when his family was away, and while dressed in this fashion, would plot out his killings. Even before Dennis Rader had gotten married, he had gotten some stalking charges, which would have given those that knew him some pretty good insight into the kind of person he was, had they just done a little bit of digging.
The B.T.K. killer’s first victims were a family of four in the 1970s. He had written a taunting letter to the press, stating that he was the murderer. He even wrote a poem about it within the letter. He detailed how he strangled each of them to death and talked about how much sexual gratification he received from killing the family, and left a bodily emission there as a sign to let others know he was there. Though authorities had been calling in literally every man in the area for testing, they were unable to find a match.
In a couple months’ time, The B.T.K. Killer was at it once again by stabbing and strangling a woman to death. He tried to kill her brother as well, but he ended up living, and therefore was able to provide a description of a man with “psychotic eyes” and a large, thick mustache to the police. He then wrote another letter to the press, but this time he explained that he wanted to be called B.T.K. and explained precisely what it meant to him.
His crimes did not stop there, either. He was truly getting a lot out of the attention that his letters being printed in the newspaper brought. He locked a woman’s children in the bathroom as he killed her, and then proceeded to write another letter. Not long after, he strangled yet another woman and wrote another piece of poetry about it that he submitted to the papers. In this poem, he also talked about how there is a monster inside of him that’s forcing him to do this type of thing. At this point, the media was comparing him to the likes of Ted Bundy and The Son of Sam killer.
Despite all of this going on, his wife would later state that she had no idea because he was a wonderful husband and father. He continued to hold down his job, but he also continued to kill people left and right and keep the state of Kansas on their toes with his obscene letters to the press.
Though Dennis Rader wasn’t caught until 2005, his last murder was in 1991 in which he kidnapped and killed an elderly lady that he was installing a security system for. He felt that it had been too long since B.T.K. had made an appearance, so he sent more letters to local media such as photos, cryptic puzzles, and an outline on the horrific story that he lived out a decade before. This time, however, he had written it on a computer, and authorities were now able to trace the computer back to his church, where he was a highly respected member. With the help of his daughter, they were able to extract some DNA, and thus tie him to all of the B.T.K. slayings.
His wife was granted an immediate divorce by the same judge who sentenced him to sixteen life sentences for the brutal charges that he pled guilty for in 2005. Dennis Rader is still serving those in a Kansas correctional facility at this very moment.