Dennis Rader of Park City, Kan., is shown in this undated driver's license photo provided to the Witchita Eagle, in Witchita, Kan., Saturday, Feb. 26, 2005.
Posted on 02/26/2005 5:16:30 PM PST by AntiGuv
WICHITA, Kan. - A 31-year manhunt for a serial killer who taunted police with letters about his crimes ended Saturday when authorities said they finally caught up with the man who called himself BTK and linked him to at least 10 murders.
The suspect was identified as Dennis L. Rader, a 59-year-old city worker in nearby Park City, who was arrested Friday. Police did not say how they identified Rader as a suspect or whether he has said anything since his arrest.
"The bottom line: BTK is arrested," Wichita Police Chief Norman Williams said Saturday, setting off applause from a crowd that included family members of some of the victims.
BTK — a self-coined nickname that stands for "Bind, Torture, Kill" — stoked fears throughout the 1970s in Wichita, a manufacturing center with 350,000 residents, about 180 miles southwest of Kansas City, Mo.
Then the killer resurfaced about a year ago after 25 years of silence. He had been linked to eight slayings between 1974 and 1986, but police said Saturday they had identified two more, from 1985 and 1991.
Rader, a Cub Scout leader who was active at his Lutheran church, lived with his wife, neighbors said. Public records indicate they have two grown children. Messages left for family members were not returned on Saturday, and no one answered the door at the home of his in-laws.
A few neighbors recalled receiving small favors from Rader, but most interviewed Saturday said the municipal codes enforcement supervisor was an unpleasant man who often went looking for reasons to cite his neighbors for violations of city codes.
"A part of me was scared when I heard, because I talked to him. It's a little creepy," said Chris Yoder, 23, who once lived nearby.
Rader has yet to be charged, but a jubilant collection of law enforcers and community leaders told the crowd in City Council chambers they were confident the long-running case could now be closed.
"Victims whose voices were brutally silenced by the evil of one man will now have their voices heard again," Kansas Attorney General Phill Kline said.
Rader was being held at an undisclosed location, and it was not immediately clear if he had a lawyer. In Kansas, suspects generally appear before a judge for a status hearing within 48 hours of their arrest.
Prosecutor Nola Foulston said the death penalty would not apply to any crime committed before 1994, when the death penalty was introduced in Kansas.
The BTK slayings began in 1974 with the strangulations of Joseph Otero, 38, his wife, Julie, 34, and their two children. The six victims that followed were all women, and most were strangled.
Along with his grisly crimes, the killer terrorized Wichita by sending rambling letters to the media, including one in which he named himself BTK for "Bind them, Torture them, Kill them." In another he complained, "How many do I have to kill before I get my name in the paper or some national attention?"
But he stopped communicating in 1979 and remained silent for more than two decades before re-establishing contact last March with a letter to The Wichita Eagle about an unsolved 1986 killing.
The letter included a copy of the victim's driver's license and photos of her slain body. The return address on the letter said it was from Bill Thomas Killman — initials BTK.
Since then, the killer had sent at least eight letters to the media or police, including three packages containing jewelry that police believed may have been taken from BTK's victims. One letter contained the driver's license of victim Nancy Fox.
The new letters sent chills through Wichita but also rekindled hope that modern forensic science could find some clue that would finally lead police to the killer.
Thousands of tips poured in, and the Kansas Bureau of Investigation gathered thousands of DNA swabs in connection with the BTK investigation. In the end, DNA evidence was the key to cracking the case, said Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius.
"The way they made the link was some DNA evidence, that they had some DNA connection to the guy who they arrested," Sebelius said in an interview with The Associated Press. She did not elaborate.
The two newly identified cases were similar to the early ones with one exception, Sedgwick County Sheriff Gary Stead said: The bodies had been removed from the crime scenes. One of the victims lived on the same street as Rader.
"We as investigators keep an open mind. But only now are we able to bring them together as BTK cases," he said.
On Friday, investigators searched Rader's house and seized computer equipment.
Authorities, who generally declined to answer questions in detail after announcing the arrest, had little to say about why BTK resurfaced after years without contact.
"It is possible something in his life has changed. I think he felt the need to get his story out," said Richard LaMunyon, Wichita's police chief from 1963 to 1989.
I had the same thought...the police have the gall to pat themselves on the back at the news conference, when it appears that they were still NOWHERE until the daughter called them to say that she suspected her dad...
Dennis Rader of Park City, Kan., is shown in this undated driver's license photo provided to the Witchita Eagle, in Witchita, Kan., Saturday, Feb. 26, 2005.
one of his neighboors on FNC now, saying he would harass single females in the neighboorhood by measuring the height of their uncut lawns and issuing $300 tickets. also harassed people about their dogs.
It's a strange calling that drives them. BTK mentioned a "demon" was in his brain. I believe Berkowitz declared something similar (and that a dog was commanding him to kill). Didn't Bundy and Dahmer confess to titanic struggle with their urges to kill? Gacy reported no such struggle, and thought all was well -- never understanding how all those bodies ended up burried under his house.
>>>
Here's Gacy's trigger:
John Wayne Gacy was often beaten by his father and derided as a "sissy" and accused of being homosexual (which he was); in adulthood, Gacy would rape and torture boys and denounce them as being "faggots" and "sissies
absolutely right, that circus atmosphere of self-praise by them was a disgrace.
"Many serial killers display one or more of what are known as the "MacDonald Triad" of warning signs in childhood. These are:
Firestarting, invariably just for the thrill of destroying things.
Cruelty to Animals. Most children can be cruel to animals, such as pulling the legs off of spiders, but future serial killers often kill larger animals, like dogs and cats, and frequently for their solitary enjoyment rather than to impress peers.
Bedwetting beyond the age when children normally grow out of such behaviour.
Most serial killers claim their first victim when they are in their twenties, although this can vary, with one killer claiming the first of his victims when he was 38, and another who was just 15 when he admitted to murdering four people in the past two years. On average, serial killers start murdering people when they are in their mid-twenties. When they start they can rarely stop.
The rate at which they claim victims can also vary a great deal. Juan Corona murdered 25 people in just six weeks, whilst Fred West and his wife Rosemary claimed 12 victims over a period of twenty years."
I was reading a little info about his first killing, when he killed the Otero parents and 2 of their children. It seems like serial killers usually kill women, (or young boys)so I was surprised to see that he had killed a couple and 2 of their children. I see all his later victims were women.
I wonder why the family? Personal vendetta?
So his father drove him to madness. IMO, and no psychiatrist me, I believe that the pairing of an insensitive, overly disciplinarian, possibly otherwise troubled (alcoholism, etc) father (or other authority figure) with an extra-sensitive (or otherwise "different") son has brought about many, if not most, of the most heinous criminal acts in history. Think serial killers, maniacal dictators (Hitler), etc.
Maybe a man who found religion and tried to do the right thing and lead the police to him? I don't know. What I do know is the aholes on the left will have a field day with this. I don't think it really matters what side of some political isle some murderer is attatched. People do bad things and sometimes they have a better side.
Can't wait for the headline, "Better to have a homo for a scout leader than a serial killer". Coming soon to the New York Times.
The could have just as easily said "City Code Inspector Arrested in BTK Killings," but that wouldn't have advanced any liberal agenda would it?
Actually I think if youre perceptive and pay attention you can always tell there is "something off" about a closet psycho.
OT but I was treated for little scars of mine by a guy who turned out to lie about being a doctor. He gave me the creeps even though he seemed pleasant and calm on the surface and I didnt heed my own nagging instincts.
2 years later he gave an accidental overdose to one of his patients during surgery, she died and he buried her body in concrete under his house and then fled the country.
It bothers me that I didnt heed my own strong intuition.
Might've researched him, found out he was fake and gotten him locked up before he could have killed a patient. Anyway people should trust their gut feelings more. Not rationalize them away. <<<>>> http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/1-02262005-455955.html
post cont'd.....
Jason Day, 28, described the working-class neighborhood 7 miles north of Wichita as "very quiet. You'd never consider something like this happening here."
Day said his brother was in Rader's Cub Scout pack at the nearby Park City Baptist Church, but their mother pulled him out because of Rader.
"It was his demeanor," he said. "He was so strange."
http://www.phillyburbs.com/pb-dyn/news/1-02262005-455955.html
If I recall the account correctly (been a while since I read it) the father left to take an older child to school and then returned for the other two. The BTK killer had already broken into the home before the father returned and then ambushed him. It's thought that the father may have varied his routine for whatever reason, and that the BTK did not expect him to return. Basically, he was really after the mother (and it's unclear iirc whether he expected the two kids to be there either).
Looking at a list of serial killers worldwide, its kind of odd that UK and USA have the most by far.
Anyone have theory to explain this ?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_serial_killers
UK
Beverley Allitt - The Angel Of Death. Paediatric nurse who killed 13 patients and injured others in 1991
Robert Black - schoolgirl killer
Ian Brady - one of the Moors Murderers, with Myra Hindley
John Childs - burned the bodies of his six victims, jailed 1980
John Christie - the necrophile, who lived at 10 Rillington Place
Mary Ann Cotton - British Victorian killer, said to have taken more than 20 victims
Thomas Neill Cream - the Lambeth Poisoner, began his killing spree in the United States before moving to London
Peter George Dinsdale - aka Bruce Lee, the prolific Hull arsonist
Kenneth Erskine - The Stockwell Strangler, jailed in 1988 for murdering seven pensioners
John George Haigh - The Acid Bath Murderer or Vampire of London
Myra Hindley - (d. 2002) one of the Moors Murderers, with Ian Brady
Colin Ireland - The Gay Slayer or Fairy Liquidator
Jack the Ripper - infamous Victorian killer
Michael Lupo - the so-called Wolfman, originally from Italy
Patrick Mackay - confessed to killing 11 people
Robert Mawdsley - serial killer of four. Killed three in prison and dubbed Hannibal the Cannibal
Peter Moore - businessman who killed men at random in Wales.
Donald Neilson - The Black Panther
Dennis Nilsen - British serial killer of 15 (possibly 16)
Mark Rowntree - 19 year old psychopath who killed 4 people at random
Harold Frederick Shipman - British doctor convicted of 15 murders. A later inquiry stated he had killed at least 215 and possibly up to 457 people over a 25 year period
John Straffen - child-killer and Britain's longest serving prisoner.
Peter Sutcliffe - the Yorkshire Ripper
Fred and Rose West - the House of Horrors murderers in Gloucester
Graham Young - The Teacup Poisoner, (1947-1990) who killed three
USA
David Berkowitz - known as the "Son of Sam"
The Boston Strangler - allegedly Albert DeSalvo, though disputed
Ted Bundy - law student who raped and murdered over 30 women in several states
Dean Corll - committed the Houston Mass Murders with Elmer Wayne Henley and David Brooks
Juan Corona - Mexican immigrant who killed 25 people in the space of just six-weeks
Jeffrey Dahmer - Milwaukee cannibal who kept heads, skulls and body parts in his apartment
Glennon Engleman - mediocre St. Louis dentist who shot and bombed his way to financial success
Albert Fish - sadist and pedophile who cannibalised a 12-year-old girl
John Wayne Gacy - the 'Killer Clown' who kept bodies buried under his Chicago home
Ed Gein. Elements of Gein's life and crimes have inspired, at least in part The Silence of the Lambs, Psycho, and The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
Hillside Strangler - actually two men, Kenneth Bianchi and Angelo Buono, Jr.
Leonard Lake and Charles Ng - ex-marines and survivalists who collected female slaves
Derrick Todd Lee - aka the Baton Rouge Serial Killer
Eddie Leonski - the Brownout Strangler
Henry Lee Lucas - confessed to hundreds of murders, although most confessions were false
Charles Manson - found guilty of planning murders and ordering a group of followers to execute his plans, although he was not proven to have been present during any of the murders
Herman Mudgett, aka Dr. H. H. Holmes, active 1890-1894, during Chicago's 1893 World Columbian Exposition.
Herbert Mullin - schizophrenic who killed people to prevent earthquakes
Earle Nelson - Necrophiliac serial killer dubbed "Gorilla Man"
Jesse Pomeroy - teenaged psychopath who killed two children
Dorothea Puente - killed and robbed nine elderly people
Richard Ramirez - the 'Night Stalker' who terrorized Los Angeles in 1986
Angel Maturino Resendiz - killed nine people in Texas, Kentucky, and Illinois
Gary Ridgway - arrested in November, 2001 for The Green River Killer murders
John Edward Robinson - so-called 'Cyber Sex Killer' who lured victims through the internet
Danny Rolling - pleaded guilty to butchering five students in Florida
Arthur Shawcross - the Genesee River Killer
Charles Starkweather and Caril Ann Fugate - "Natural Born Killers"
Otis Toole - Henry Lee Lucas's accomplice. Convicted of six murders in Florida
Jane Toppan - 19th Century nurse who killed over thirty patients
Coral Eugene Watts - killed dozens of women in Texas and Michigan
Wayne Williams - convicted of the Atlanta Child Murders, disputed
Aileen Wuornos - rare female serial killer who shot dead six men in Florida
I think in other countries they're more likely to get away with it and never be caught.
Also, that list is clearly not comprehensive. I don't see Andrei Chikatilo..Russian..who I believe is the record-holder for serial murders.
Also there are a number of South American ones with massive kill totals that have come to light recently.
Yes you're correct on all comments.
Yes, ELCA...but evil hypocrits can hide in every church.
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