When Dennis Rader murdered a family of four in cold blood, he made the children watch as he strangled their parents. Then, he took the 11-year-old girl to the basement where he removed her underwear and hung her from a sewer pipe. He told the girl, "Well, honey, you’re going to be in heaven tonight with the rest of your family."
For 30 years, Boy Scout troop leader and church council president Dennis Rader was secretly the BTK murderer — while looking like the perfect family man to his neighbors in Kansas.
Dennis Rader was the president of his church congregation as well as a loving husband and a doting father. Altogether, he seemed to be a reliable and responsible man to all who knew him. But he was leading a double life.
She had no idea that for 30 years her father preyed on girls just like her. This is the brutal story of the BTK Killer.
Dennis Lynn Rader was born on March 9, 1945, as the oldest of four in Pittsburgh, Kansas. He would grow up in a fairly humble home in Wichita, the same city which he would later terrorize.
Even as a teen Rader had a violent streak in him. He would allegedly hang and torture stray animals and as he explained, “When I was in grade school, I sort of had some problems.” He continued in a 2005 audio interview that he had:
For 30 years, Boy Scout troop leader and church council president Dennis Rader was secretly the BTK murderer — while looking like the perfect family man to his neighbors in Kansas.
Dennis Rader was the president of his church congregation as well as a loving husband and a doting father. Altogether, he seemed to be a reliable and responsible man to all who knew him. But he was leading a double life.
Though not even Rader’s wife, Paula Dietz, had any idea, he had secretly been leading another life as the Park City, Kansas serial killer, better known as the BTK Killer — a man who had tortured and murdered 10 people in and around Wichita, Kansas between 1974 and 1991.
When the BTK Killer — which stands for “Bind, Torture, Kill” — was finally caught in 2005, Dennis Rader’s wife and his daughter Kerri even refused to believe it. “My dad was the one who taught me my morals,” his daughter would later say. “He taught me right from wrong.”
She had no idea that for 30 years her father preyed on girls just like her. This is the brutal story of the BTK Killer.
Dennis Lynn Rader was born on March 9, 1945, as the oldest of four in Pittsburgh, Kansas. He would grow up in a fairly humble home in Wichita, the same city which he would later terrorize.
Even as a teen Rader had a violent streak in him. He would allegedly hang and torture stray animals and as he explained, “When I was in grade school, I sort of had some problems.” He continued in a 2005 audio interview that he had:
“Sexual, sexual fantasies. Probably more than normal. All males probably go through some kind of, uh, sexual fantasy. Mine was just probably a bit weirder than other people.”
Rader went on to describe how he would bind his hands and ankles with rope. He would also cover his head with a bag — actions he would later employ on his victims.
He cut out photos of women from magazines whom he found arousing and drew ropes and gags on them. He imagined how he could restrain and control them.
When he returned home from duty, he took up work as an electrician in Wichita. He then met his wife Paula Dietz through church. She was a bookkeeper for Snacks convenience store and he proposed after just a few dates. They wed in 1971.
The BTK Killer’s First Murder
Rader was laid off from his job as an electrician in 1973 and shortly afterward killed his first victims on January 15, 1974.
While his wife Paula was sleeping, Dennis Rader broke into the home of the Otero family and murdered every person inside of the house. The children – 11-year-old Josie and 9-year-old Joseph – were forced to watch while he strangled their parents to death.
Josie cried out, “Mommy, I love you!” while she watched Rader strangle her mother to death. Then the little girl was dragged down into the basement where Rader pulled off her underwear and hung her from a sewer pipe.
Her last words were to ask what would become of her. Her killer, stoic and calm, told her: “Well, honey, you’re going to be in heaven tonight with the rest of your family.”
He watched the girl choke to death, masturbating while she died. He took pictures of the dead bodies and gathered up some of the little girl’s underwear as a memento of his first massacre.
Then Dennis Rader went home to his wife. He had to get ready for church, as he was, after all, church council president.
Dennis Rader’s Family Life Alongisde Paula Deitz While Committing His Murders
While her husband massacred a family, Dennis Rader’s wife Paula Dietz prepared to start one of her own.
Rader took his next two victims just a few months after the Oteros’ 15-year-old son discovered his family.
Rader stalked and waited in the apartment of a young college student named Kathryn Bright before he stabbed and strangled her. He then shot her brother, Kevin, twice — though he survived. Kevin later described Rader as having “‘psychotic’ eyes.”
Paula was three months pregnant with Rader’s first child when, unknown to her, her husband began to advertise his crimes covertly.
After describing how he killed the Oteros in a letter he stashed inside an engineering book at the Wichita Public Library, Rader called a local paper, the Wichita Eagle and let them know where they could find his confession.
He added that he intended to kill again and named himself BTK, which was an acronym for his preferred method: Bind, Torture, and Kill.
For 30 years, Boy Scout troop leader and church council president Dennis Rader was secretly the BTK murderer — while looking like the perfect family man to his neighbors in Kansas.
Dennis Rader was the president of his church congregation as well as a loving husband and a doting father. Altogether, he seemed to be a reliable and responsible man to all who knew him. But he was leading a double life.
When the BTK Killer — which stands for “Bind, Torture, Kill” — was finally caught in 2005, Dennis Rader’s wife and his daughter Kerri even refused to believe it. “My dad was the one who taught me my morals,” his daughter would later say. “He taught me right from wrong.”
She had no idea that for 30 years her father preyed on girls just like her. This is the brutal story of the BTK Killer.
Dennis Lynn Rader was born on March 9, 1945, as the oldest of four in Pittsburgh, Kansas. He would grow up in a fairly humble home in Wichita, the same city which he would later terrorize.
Even as a teen Rader had a violent streak in him. He would allegedly hang and torture stray animals and as he explained, “When I was in grade school, I sort of had some problems.” He continued in a 2005 audio interview that he had:
“Sexual, sexual fantasies. Probably more than normal. All males probably go through some kind of, uh, sexual fantasy. Mine was just probably a bit weirder than other people.”
Rader went on to describe how he would bind his hands and ankles with rope. He would also cover his head with a bag — actions he would later employ on his victims.
He cut out photos of women from magazines whom he found arousing and drew ropes and gags on them. He imagined how he could restrain and control them.
But Rader continued to maintain an ordinary outward appearance, and he attended college for a time before he dropped out and joined the U.S. Air Force.
When he returned home from duty, he took up work as an electrician in Wichita. He then met his wife Paula Dietz through church. She was a bookkeeper for Snacks convenience store and he proposed after just a few dates. They wed in 1971.
The BTK Killer’s First Murder
Rader was laid off from his job as an electrician in 1973 and shortly afterward killed his first victims on January 15, 1974.
Josie cried out, “Mommy, I love you!” while she watched Rader strangle her mother to death. Then the little girl was dragged down into the basement where Rader pulled off her underwear and hung her from a sewer pipe.
Her last words were to ask what would become of her. Her killer, stoic and calm, told her: “Well, honey, you’re going to be in heaven tonight with the rest of your family.”
He watched the girl choke to death, masturbating while she died. He took pictures of the dead bodies and gathered up some of the little girl’s underwear as a memento of his first massacre.
Then Dennis Rader went home to his wife. He had to get ready for church, as he was, after all, church council president.
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Dennis Rader would bind himself for photographs in the clothing of his victim’s that he would pore over later.
While her husband massacred a family, Dennis Rader’s wife Paula Dietz prepared to start one of her own.
Rader took his next two victims just a few months after the Oteros’ 15-year-old son discovered his family.
Rader stalked and waited in the apartment of a young college student named Kathryn Bright before he stabbed and strangled her. He then shot her brother, Kevin, twice — though he survived. Kevin later described Rader as having “‘psychotic’ eyes.”
Paula was three months pregnant with Rader’s first child when, unknown to her, her husband began to advertise his crimes covertly.
After describing how he killed the Oteros in a letter he stashed inside an engineering book at the Wichita Public Library, Rader called a local paper, the Wichita Eagle and let them know where they could find his confession.
He added that he intended to kill again and named himself BTK, which was an acronym for his preferred method: Bind, Torture, and Kill.
Dennis Rader allegedly took some time off his murder streak after Paula Dietz told him that she was pregnant, “I was so excited, for us and our folks. We were now a family. With a job and a baby, I got busy.”
This lasted only a few short years, though, and the BTK Killer struck again in 1977. But shortly before her husband raped and choked his seventh victim, Shirley Vian, to death while her six-year-old son watched through the keyhole of a door, Dietz found an early draft of a poem entitled Shirley Locks in which her husband writes “Thou shalt not screem…but lay on cushion and think of me and death.”
But Paula Dietz did not ask questions, even when the clues added up.
She didn’t say anything when her husband marked-up newspaper stories on the serial killer with what he called his own secret code.
When she noticed that the taunting letters the BTK Killer sent to police were full of the same horrendous misspellings as the letters she got from her husband, she didn’t say anything more than a gentle ribbing: “You spell just like BTK.”.
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