Cub Scout Leader Arrested in BTK Killings

Associated Press ^ | February 26, 2005 | Roxana Hegeman

[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.

[Strategerist]

Other thing is that Britain and the US (relative to the world) have, by and large, honest and uncorrupt police forces. This is rare.

The Soviets attempted to cover up that there was even a serial killer at all in the case of Chikatilo, and the police were pressured to lay off him since he was a good party member.

In many countries the police would cover up the existence of a serial killer and make murders look like isolated occurances, to make their own life easier and avoid scrutiny.

[AntiGuv]

I've contemplated this before and I can give you my personal view fwiw. I think it's a highly disfunctional, almost schizophrenic, cultural attitude toward sexuality in general combined with a highly civilized and orderly society providing few, if any, 'legitimate' outlets for such murderous impulses. I think that it also involves aspects of the degree of individualism and the expectation of personal success (i.e., self-mastery) that these culture broadly feature.

But, I have nothing to back this up besides my own conjecture.

[Strategerist]

Actually had another insight on thinking about it;

In other parts of the world there's a far larger sort of nameless underclass that can be murdered without anyone noticing or caring.

There could be serial killers operating in India killing Untouchables or Low-Caste types, or killing prostitutes in Albania, or some serial killer in Saudi Arabia killing Pakistani migrant workers, who would basically go unnoticed because nobody gives a crap.

[deport]

Another map with locations and time frames when other items found

It's in pdf format thus can't post as a picture.

[AntiGuv]

Well, I would have to disagree with the accuracy of those remarks. In many nations with a very low homicide rate, and an all but nonexistent serial homicide rate, there is no basis to suggest that they are just more likely to get away with it and not get caught. Aside from the fact that a string of very similar and related murders would be a sensational event, they're police forces are just as effective if not more so than the US. By example, Japan and Germany pop to mind.

It's also worth noting that Germany, France, Spain, and Italy had a two-century burst of the serial killer phenomenon in the 1600s and 1700s that for whatever reason faded away by and large.

[Conservativegreatgrandma]

I'm no lover of the ELCA but this kind of thing could happen anywhere.

[Selkie]

Yes that does make sense.

[AntiGuv]

Keep in mind, however, that a key trait of many Anglo-nation serial killers is that of wanting to draw attention to themselves. If one assumes that serial killers are operating at a similar rate undetected worldwide then there is a notable absence of that typology.

[Selkie]

WICHITA, Kansas, 2005226 -- So what do we know about suspect Dennis Rader? We have been gathering a mass of information on his background.

Most interesting, we will hear from Dennis Rader himself. He spoke to KSN News on a general news story back in 2001. It was a surprise to us, and with what police have said Saturday, Rader’s life is a surprise to the entire city. Dennis Rader, the man now thought to be BTK, allegedly fooled police for decades. Now scores of Kansans are learning that he apparently fooled them as well. "It’s the biggest shock I’d ever had -- the nicest guy in the world. I’d have given him a key to watch my dog if I had to when I was leaving town," said Gary Van Dusen, neighbor.

Rader was a churchgoer at Christ Lutheran Church in north Wichita. He was not just any member of the church, he was president of the Congregation Council

Videotape interview of Radar before he was revealed BTK

http://www.ksn.com/news/stories/7036051.html

[Selkie]

CNN announced that it will broadcast a 1 hr. special on BTK Monday at 10 p.m.

[woofie]

That looks like my Uncle Joe...

[Phocion]

What I do know is the aholes on the left will have a field day with this.

Can you really blame them? I'm sure FR would be having a field day if it was a Muslim, illegal immigrant, or homosexual.

No group is completely free from sin, even grievous sin. And that includes white, Christian, male, ex-military Republicans.

[Zechariah_8_13]

FWIW, my perspective as a Christian:

I believe we have more instances of serial killers and some other forms of violence because we are by and large a Christian nation, and therefore are targeted by demonic forces.

I believe there is a war between good and evil, and Satan isn't going to bother with those who are no threat to him.

[Selkie]

What I do know is the aholes on the left will have a field day with this. Can you really blame them? I'm sure FR would be having a field day if it was a Muslim, illegal immigrant, or homosexual. No group is completely free from sin, even grievous sin. And that includes white, Christian, male, ex-military Republicans.>>> True it bothers me deeply.... Rader has very similar profile to another serial killer: John Robinson Sr.

He's known as the Cyber-Sex killer, but Robinson is now a confessed serial killer with a kink for torturing and raping women, then butchering them and hiding them in barrels.

Robinson is not only a God-fearing Christian businessman with four children and a wife, he is also an Eagle Scout, a Sunday School teacher, and a former man-of-the-year in Kansas City, Missouri. http://www.rotten.com/library/bio/crime/serial-killers/john-edward-robinson/

[Western Phil]

"Never EVER trust a man with a mustache."

Hey!

[WichitaMama]

Stories here have it that he had known the father in the Otero family in the Air Force and again at the Coleman factory where they both worked.

[kasparik]

The UK and the US both speak english. Wikipedia is in english.

[WichitaMama]

My Husband works with that guy. He tried. (No reflection on my husband, please) The guy said he woke up yesterday with police swarming around, helecopters hovering over and his block cordoned off. He tells how Rader would pick on single women...harrassing them and looking for opportunities to show up at their homes. One time he insists that he saw Rader let out the dog of a single woman's yard, then shoot the dog with a tranqulizer gun, then write her a $200 citation. He confronted Rader, which ended up in the police being called to Rader's home.

[TX Bluebonnet]

Thanks for the info.

Welcome to FR, by the way :)

[WichitaMama]

Yes, you are right. Dog catcher =Serial Killer would have been as effective.......