BTK Killer - Dennis Lynn Rader - Research Paper Example

BTK Killer BTK Killer Dennis Lynn Rader was born in March 9, 1945. He is The BTK serial killer who killed 10 people in Sedgwick County between 1974 and 1991. "BTK" stands for "Bind, Torture, Kill", which was his infamous signature. Rader is the oldest of four sons. As a child, Dennis Rader appeared outwardly normal. He went to Riverview Elementary School and was a below average student who had withdrawn tendencies. Dennis Rader graduated from Wichita Heights High School, class of 1963. Between 1965 and 1966, he attended Kansas Wesleyan University (Wenzl 12). He married Paula Dietz on May 22, 1971, and they had two children. In 1972, Rader departed to work at a manufacturer of camping supplies known as Coleman Co. He worked until 1973 when he moved to Cessna, a small aircraft manufacturer BTK victims The murders began with the Otero family in 1974. He murdered Joseph Otero 38, Julie Otero 34, Josephine Otero 11 and Joseph Otero junior 9 in their home 803 North Edgemoor Street, Wichita on January 15th 1974. That morning, he cut the phone lines at the Otero's and waited at the back door. That evening he assembled together his hit kit which consisted of a gun, cords, knives, various tools for breaking and entering. Using his vagrant ruse, he was able to disarm the Otero’s and get them all tied up. He tied a bag over Joseph’s head but Joseph fought back by tearing several holes in the bag. However, Rader managed to strangle him afterwards using a ligature (Beattie 27). Julie was the second victim to die. His initial attempt to kill her through manual strangulation did not work since Julie revived after a time. Unfortunately, the second attempt was successful. Rader strangled and suffocated Junior in his bedroom and watched him die. Rader then attempted to strangle Josephine. He then took her to the basement of their home after she revived. He tied a loop around her neck which he used to hang her from a pipe. As if this was not enough, he ejaculated over her legs and a pipe behind her. His next victim was Kathryn Bright, 21, who died on April 4, 1974 at 3217 East 13th Street North, Wichita. He forcefully broke into the house where he waited for her to arrive home. He had Kevin Bright, her brother, tie her up and then he tied up Kevin's feet to the bedpost. Rader bound and stabbed Kathryn after she tried to resist by fighting him off. She passed away in the hospital several hours later despite attempts to save her life with blood transfusions and surgery. Luckily, her brother Kevin survived even though he had been shot by Rader twice (Douglas 66). In October, 1974, Wichita Eagle newspaper’s editor received a call which directed him to a hidden letter at the Wichita Public Library in an engineering book. He immediately notified the police who discovered the letter. It was a gruesome description of the Otero murders. The writer noted that the police had wrongly arrested some men for the Otero murders since the killer proudly proclaimed his sole responsibility in the crime (Beattie 41). The next victim was Shirley Vian, 24, on March 17, 1977 at 1311 South Hydraulic Street, Wichita. She was a random choice. After invading their home, Rader forced Shirley's three children into the bathroom and bound them up. He told her that he would only rape her before letting her go. Unlike she expected, he then went ahead to strangle her using a cord. BTK left semen on her panties which were found besides to her lifeless body. Rader later admitted the phone rang which unnerved him. This made him to leave before he could wipe out the children. Rader then got to the murder of Nancy Fox on December 8, 1977 at 843 South Pershing Street, Wichita. She was 25. He broke into her house using the backdoor and at gun point told her who exactly he was. She didn’t fight back .He then strangled her with a belt and masturbated on her. The following morning he left the office in a company van and from a phone booth a couple blocks down the street dialed a police dispatcher. He reported the murder and left the receiver dangling. Police officers rushed to Nancy’s residence where they found her body still lying on the bed with her head seriously swollen. A tape recording made from Rader’s call was played repeatedly in the Wichita media. No one, including Rader's family and co-workers, identified the voice (Smith 69). After a long absence, radar killed again in April 27, 1985 at 6254 North Independence Street, Park City. The victim was 53 year old Marine Hedge who was a neighbor. Radar broke into her house and waited for her to arrive. The victim arrived home accompanied by a male friend. Rader quietly hid inside the bedroom’s closet. He remained hidden until the friend left and for Marine went to sleep. He strangled her in her bed and then stripped her. Rader fearlessly took the body to his church. While he was there, he took some photos of her in bondage. He then dumped her in a roadside ditch around East 53rd Street North. Her body was found on May 5, 1985. He then returned to a Boy Scout event he had been attending. In September 16, 1986 at 2404 West 13th Street North, Wichita Rader had his eye on Vicki Wegerle, a 28 year old mother of two. He disguised himself as a telephone repair man and once inside the house drew his gun and informed Vicki that he was going to tie her up. He then assaulted and strangle her using a nylon stocking as ligature. Even though she tried to fight him off, Rader managed to overpower her. Rader proceeded to pose the dying body and took some photos of it (Smith 75). Vicki died shortly after her arrival in hospital. Rader then focused his attentions on a 62 year old, Dolores Davis, who lived alone at 6226 North Hillside Street, Wichita. She lived nearly a mile and a half from Rader’s residence. Radar used a cement block which was taken from a shed located in the backyard to ram through a sliding glass door. He pretended to be a wandering criminal who needed money, food and a car before tying up and strangling Dolores to death. He later posed the body and photographed it before leaving one of his masks on her face. Her body was found on February 1, 1991. Capture of BTK killer Wichita police invested approximately a hundred thousand hours from the year 1974 to 1991 but still had not caught the BTK killer. Fortunately in 2004, BTK investigation was re-started after Rader sent a letter dated March 17th, 2004 to The Wichita Eagle. In the later, he claimed to be responsible for the 1986 killing of Vicki Wegerle. The letter contained 3 photocopied photos taken in 1986 of the dying body of Vicki Wegerle. He signed the letter with the BTK symbol .On May 5th, 2004, he sent a second letter to the studios of KAKE-TV, an Wichita ABC affiliate (Douglas 101). The police communicated with the BTK Killer in an effort to gather his confidence. Radar sent a total of eleven correspondences. Then, in his last communication, Rader asked the police if information was traceable from floppy disks. Cunningly, the police said it was impossible though they knew it was. Rader believed them and sent a floppy to them. The police quickly checked the Microsoft Word document’s metadata. They discovered that the document was created by a man named Dennis. They managed to also find a link to the Lutheran Church. The police searched for 'Lutheran Church Wichita Dennis' on the Internet. They established his family name and hence and identified a suspect by the name Dennis Rader. He was a Lutheran Deacon. The police also established that the BTK killer owned a Jeep Cherokee. Investigators noticed a similar car parked outside when they drove near Rader's house (Beattie 120). They shortly obtained a warrant from the court to test the DNA of a Pap smear which the killer’s daughter had taken at medical clinic in Kansas State University. The DNA was a near match to a sample extracted from a victim's fingernails. This was used as sufficient evidence to arrest the suspect. On February 25, 2005, Rader was heading home in his car for lunch when he noted that he was fully surrounded by a huge number of police officers. He quietly surrendered and was led into a police car. Rader admitted to be guilty of his crimes and gave a graphic narration of the events. He was sentenced to 10 consecutive life sentences. Rader would only be eligible for parole in the year 2180 after 175 years of imprisonment. Works cited Beattie, Robert. Nightmare in Wichita: The Hunt for the BTK Strangler. Ohio: New American Library, 2005. Douglas, John E. Inside the Mind of BTK: The True Story Behind Thirty Years of Hunting for the Wichita Serial Killer. New York: Jossey Bass Wiley, 2007. Smith, Carlton. The BTK Murders: Inside the "Bind Torture Kill" Case that Terrified America's Heartland. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2006. Wenzl, Roy. Bind, Torture, Kill: The Inside Story of the Serial Killer Next Door. London: HarperCollins, 2007. Read More