Dennis Rader: The BTK Killer

just before we get started with today's video i want to give a quick plug to my new podcast the casual criminalist we cover a lot of crimes criminals bad things on this channel because apparently you guys just love the darkest stuff well eat your black heart out because i now have a long form about an hour-long weekly podcast covering some of the darkest things that i could find from the uk doctor who was the worst serial killer in history to the time an american socialite murdered her best friend with her car allegedly and totally got away with it and much more but is also laid back more free form with the occasional laugh because isn't death hilarious so let's jump into it today jack the ripper the zodiac these are names that still evoke fear and dread in the hearts of many people decades even centuries after they were first mentioned this is due to a simple reason they were never caught or identified these men were able to carry out gruesome killing sprees fulfilling their darkest desires and then get away with it for decades there was another chilling name on that list btk short for bind torture kill a murderous maniac who began terrorizing wichita kansas during the 1970s he evaded capture during the original investigation during the 80s and early 90s he had become such a ghost that he killed three more people without the police even realizing that it was him doing it afterwards he completely went underground stopped all communication and erased all hope that he might one day be identified well almost all hope in the end his craving for attention made him reach out again one mistake later and he was identified and arrested it might have happened 30 years after his killing spree started but btk finally had a real name dennis rader dennis lynn raider was born on march 9 1945 one of four sons to william and dorothea raider he was born in pittsburgh kansas but raised in wichita the same place where he would carry out his spree of terror decades later raider attended wichita heights high school and later enrolled at wichita state university in 1964. college wasn't for him though so he dropped out and joined the united states air force when he was 21 and spent the next four years as a mechanic when he returned back to kansas raider wanted to complete his college education but it proved problematic for him as he switched between multiple institutions he finally obtained a degree in administration of justice in 1979. meanwhile he supported himself with various jobs in park city kansas a suburb of wichita including as an assembler for a camping gear company a grocery store employee and an installation manager for a home security company called adt security services the third one occurred while btk was active and was in fact one of the main reasons why so many people were getting home security systems in the first place little did any of them know that the person they were allowing into their homes to make themselves feel safer was the same person they wanted to be protected from in 1971 dennis rader married a woman called paula dietz and they had two children together carrie and brian on the outside it seemed very much like your typical humdrum family life and it would be decades until people discovered that there was actually something much darker hiding beneath the surface as we later found out after btk was finally apprehended dennis raider did not have the type of traumatic childhood that we often associate with serial killers he felt ignored by his parents because they worked long hours but that was about it even so sadistic urges began developing in dennis from an early age his sexual fantasies revolved around pain and bondage he started by cutting out female forms from magazines drawing gags and ropes around them and gluing them onto three by five index cards which carried around with him as a teenager raider took up peeping into windows and stealing women's underwear he began getting sexually excited by seeing animals being tortured and killed he started off by watching chickens being sent to the slaughter but then advanced doing the killing himself hanging a cat and a dog he enjoyed being spanked and tied up but liked it even more to see the same being done to women whenever he was aroused by such an act he called it sparky big time and the point of climax was called the big g in fact radar had a whole vocabulary or codex as he preferred it which he used in order to refer to his crimes he borrowed a lot of terms from true crime magazines from the 1950s and 60s he called his victims projects while a killing was a hit he referred to the murderous persona that lived inside him full of violent sexual impulses as the minotaur when it was time to switch from his normal everyday family guy facade to the minotaur he called it going dark and lastly he described the force that drove him to kill as some kind of mysterious element dubbed factor x there are two likely reasons why he came up with all of these terms according to psychologists the first would be to help distance himself from the reality of what he was doing in his mind he wasn't murdering a person no he was going dark to work on a project and it couldn't be his fault if he was driven to do it by some magical factor x the second reason was to simply make himself feel more special raider had the narcissistic personality you'd expect from a killer like him and it exhibited in typical fashion giving himself a name in the media taunting the police and trying to create some kind of mysterious impenetrable persona that made him unique among killers the irony here is that by doing these things to make himself feel special he was displaying the standard behavior of an eager maniacal psychopath with time brady became bolder and bolder when it came to living out his s m dreams when he was with the air force he drew his fantasies on pieces of paper that he burned when he left base he claimed that he visited prostitutes but most of them were too intimidated by him and refused to play out his bondage ideas sometimes he broke into homes and stole women's underwear which he added to his collection this was a habit which continued through his entire spree raider took many keepsakes from his victims and for quick access he placed them in various spots around wichita which he called hidey holes of course as the years went on drawings and voyeurism became insufficient to satisfy raider's urges it was only a matter of time until he finally progressed to what he truly wanted murder raider carried out his first attack on january 15th 1974 and he started out big as he targeted an entire family husband and wife joseph and julie otero alongside two of their children nine-year-old joseph junior and eleven-year-old josephine he did it in the morning as well while the children were getting ready for school and the family also had a dog which could have alerted the neighbors in other words this was a high-risk crime so raider got pretty lucky that he wasn't caught right at the outset according to the killer himself he snuck inside the ottaros detached garage and waited for his opportunity then a little after 8 30 am joseph jr exited the house to go to school that is when raider armed with a knife and a 22-caliber pistol forced him back inside and confronted the entire family in order to keep them at ease he told the atterros that this was a robbery and that they would not be harmed if they did what he said the family complied first the father put the dog outside and afterwards they allowed themselves to be taken into the bedroom and tied up at this point it was too late for them they were completely at raider's mercy which did not exist he had been fantasizing about this moment for decades he killed the atteros by strangulation and suffocation using either a length of rope or plastic bags sometimes he would allow them to catch their breath and regain consciousness before dying just so he could strangle them again none of the victims were sexually assaulted although the murderer semen was found at the scene and it later proved instrumental in getting rid of convicted and if you want to make the crimes just a bit more horrifying the bodies were found by one of the other otero children fifteen-year-old charlie attero at the scene wichita police were stunned into shock not only were these the most gruesome murders they had ever seen but they happened in broad daylight in a quiet neighborhood plus the killer clearly planned the whole thing in advance as he was careful to bring along tapes hoods wire cutters cords and most likely a gun everything he needed in order to subdue the whole family there were no signs of forced entry or a struggle and no evidence of a robbery apart from joseph terra's watch which was missing after he was done the killer even left in the ateria's car the circumstances surrounding the crimes didn't immediately scream serial killer so the police investigated the possibility that the atteros might have been marked for execution by a criminal organization however looking into their backgrounds they could find nothing to suggest a possible motive for such a thing plus there were still the semen traces on the floor which definitely did not indicate a professional hit ultimately when talking to the press the wichita police chief floyd hanlon said that the crimes have been perpetrated by a killer with a fetish just three months later the killer struck again this time targeting 21 year old catherine bright on april 4th 1974 raider broke into bright's home when she wasn't there and waited for her return when the young woman came back accompanied by her younger brother kevin they were greeted by a man with a gun again raider played the role of a robber reassuring his victims that as long as they gave him the money and the car keys he would not harm them at gunpoint kevin tied his sister to a chair and then went into the bedroom with the intruder where he was also tied and gagged however once raider slipped a knotted stocking around his neck and began strangling him that is when kevin realized the true danger he was in and he started to fight back the scuffle was brief because raider pulled out a gun from his waistband and shot kevin bright he left the room for a moment then returned and shot him again he didn't bother to check if his victim was dead probably because his mind was on his real target catherine bright as a matter of fact kevin was still breathing in a daze he managed to get out of the house and stumble into two passing bystanders who took him to the hospital and called the police when the authorities arrived they found catherine bright with multiple injuries but still alive she had been stabbed three times in the abdomen and also had ligature marks around her throat from being strangled she was rushed to the hospital but she died a few hours later at the time the police did not associate catherine bright's murder with the deaths of the atero family raider didn't wear a mask when he attacked the brother and sister so they were able to get a description of the killer from kevin bright but this did not lead anywhere afterwards the murders stopped for a few years right off the bat raider's killings were a way for him to get attention when his crimes weren't making headlines anymore he would rekindle public interest in them by writing to the media or the police his first attempt at communication happened in october 1974 nine months after he killed the atterros raider contacted the wichita eagle anonymously and told them to look inside a certain book at the local public library there they found a letter whose author was claiming credit for the otero murders while also dismissing the other police suspects as nothing but people wanting publicity for his actions the letter contained details about the killings that had not been made public so the authenticity was beyond doubt but police asked the newspaper not to publish it in order to prevent more false confessions the eagle complied but the competing wichita sun also got their hands on a copy and they published parts of the letter in december here are a few pertinent quotes that illustrate the killer's mentality i write this letter to you for the sake of the taxpayer as well as your time those three dude you have in custody are just talking to get publicity for the otero murders they knew nothing at all i did it by myself and with no one's help i'm sorry this happened to society they are the ones who suffer the most it's hard to control myself when this monster enter my brain i will never know but it here to stay how does one cure himself if you ask for help that you have killed four people they will laugh or hit the panic button and call the cops i can't stop it so the monster goes on and hunt me as well a society society can be thankful that there are ways for people like me to relieve myself at time by daydreams of some victims being torture and being mine maybe you can stop him i can't he has already chosen his next victim or victims i don't know who they are yet the next day after i read the paper i will know but it too late good luck hunting yours truly guilty there was also the postscript which was notable for mentioning for the first time the moniker by which this killer would be remembered ps since sex criminals do not change their mo or by nature cannot do so i will not change mine the code word for me will be bind them torture them kill them b-t-k you see he acted again they will be on the next victim so now the serial killer had a name btk now you might have noticed that the letter was rife with spelling and grammatical errors i certainly did reading it but the mistakes were seemingly done at random btk appeared to struggle with simple mundane words but he had no problem spelling psychotic or perversion investigators realized early on that this was probably an attempt by the criminal to make himself look more undereducated than he actually was and based on the content of the letter they also believed he studied criminal psychology at one point curiously even though btk clearly wanted to get credit for the crimes he committed there was no mention of catherine bright in the letter another reason why police didn't connect the murder until later btk went quiet after 1974. it seemed like the five murders plus the letter were enough to satiate his attention craving for a while at least he didn't strike again until 1977. on march the 17th he attacked 26 year old shirley vyan in her home she was there with her three children so she cooperated after he promised to leave them alone this time he actually kept his promise btk locked the children in the closet but did not harm them well sort of in an interview decades later raider admitted that he intended to kill them as well but had to leave the scene before doing so shirley van on the other hand felt the full force of his rage police found her on the bed with her hands and feet bound having been suffocated with a plastic bag over her head and strangled with a cord tied around her neck this time police suspected that this was the work of btk from the start the crime scene was very similar to that of the atteros it happened in broad daylight it had clearly been premeditated the killing method was the same the phone lines were cut and the culprit even used the same signature knot for the cord an important detail that was kept out of the newspapers btk killed again the same year 25 year old nancy fox was found in our home strangled with her own nylon stockings on december 8th this time though btk did something different he called in his own murder to the police we're not really sure why but this crime was carried out at night and the killer had to break a window to get into the house since it differed from the other crime scenes radar may have simply wanted to make sure that he got the credit for it his obsession with recognition was made pretty evident the following year when btk resumed his letter-writing campaign to the media it started with a document sent to a local tv station in january 1978. his message was now clear concise and error-free how many do i have to kill before i get my name in the paper or some national attention the next month he sent another letter this time to the wichita eagle beacon it contained a poem he titled oh death to nancy he also first made mention of the mysterious factor x which drove him to kill but most importantly he claimed to have murdered seven people not six taking credit for the death of catherine bright although he did not name her btk laid dormant for the next eight years barring one extremely close call for a woman named anna williams who probably had to count herself the luckiest person in wichita unbeknownst to her btk had selected her as his next target on the 28th of april 1979 he broke into her home and waited for williams to arrive however she was held up and came home much later than btk anticipated frustrated and tired of waiting he left before her return but made sure to let her know about what had happened raider took one of her scarves and later sent it back along with a note which said be glad you weren't here because i was the btk case went quiet during the first half of the 1980s for whatever reason raider not only tempered his murderous impulses but also stopped writing letters in 1979. on the investigative side police formed a task force that assembled a list with hundreds of suspects and slowly whittled it down until there was nobody left after about two years with no success the task force was disbanded with no new leads more and more investigators were being moved to other assignments while btk was quickly becoming a cold case many started to believe that btk was gone from wichita one way or another even his profile said that as a compulsive psychopath he would never willingly give up killing and that it was likely that he was either dead disabled or in prison none of those were true as it turned out while the police were searching for him raider was still right there along wisdom serving his community as a cub scout leader a compliance officer and even as a council member of the christ lutheran church strangely enough the one piece of communication he had with the police during the 1980s was to actually deny his involvement in the triple murder of the fager family in 1987 although he did express admiration for the true killer if nothing else this showed the authorities that btk was not dead or in prison as it turned out raider was not quite as inactive as authorities thought he was he killed three more women but the murders were sufficiently different from his usual mo the police never connected them to btk first was 53 year old marine hedge in 1985 one of raider's neighbors this was his most daring crime he thought because he knew it was very risky to target someone in his immediate area this is probably why he never claimed credit for the murder until after he was caught after he strangled her radar took her to his church where he posed her in bondage positions and took photographs afterwards he dumped her body in a ditch along a remote dirt road it was the first time that btk made an effort not to have his crime discovered and it occurred eight years after the last murder so it wasn't surprising that wichita police didn't immediately assume the crime was connected to its infamous serial killer his next target however was far more in line with raider's usual approach on september 16 1986 twenty-eight-year-old vicky wergerel was found in her home strangled with a pair of nylon stockings why she was not considered a possible btk victim we don't know probably because this was before the feigaletta from 1987 so authorities were still under the assumption that btk was gone afterwards came another long rest period for the killer radar claimed his 10th and final victim in january 1991 when he killed 62 year old dolores davis as with marine hedge he tried to conceal his crime by taking her body and dumping it under a bridge even though she was eventually discovered bound and strangled dolores davis was also not considered a btk victim following his last murder raider went into a very long period of inactivity and the world didn't hear from btk again for 14 years [Music] throughout the 1990s the killer remained silent and the btk case went cold his identity probably could have remained a mystery forever if raider's craving for attention didn't suddenly come back with a vengeance most believe that he was angered by an article published 30 years after the otero murders which said that kansas students no longer remembered the name btk in march 2004 he sent a new letter to the wichita eagle this time claiming credit for the murder of vikki urgeral from 1986. as proof he included a copy of her driver's license and several photographs of her body which he had kept all these decades there was no doubt in the investigator's mind that the letter was genuine and the case got hot once more fortunately for them there was no shortage of communication from the killer this time around clearly raider felt that he had been quiet long enough so he sent 11 messages in one year the police's main concern was that this renewed zeal could mean that btk was getting ready to kill again raider provided a lot of clues about his life in the messages he sent he claimed to have been born in 1939 he said his dad died in world war ii and that he also served in the military he said that he used to repair copiers and that he once operated a ham radio most of the claims were false but their goal was to talk the authorities showing them that even with his help they still couldn't catch btk eventually the killer got too cocky and made a big mistake that led to his capture in one letter he asked the police if a floppy disk could be traced hard they said no because of course they did who in their right mind would have expected them to tell the truth in this situation for whatever reason raider trusted them so with his next communique he included a floppy disk on the disc police were able to recover a deleted word file which still had metadata on it that directed them to the christ lutheran church and pointed the finger at dennis rader after 30 long years investigators knew the name of btk but they needed more solid evidence fortunately for them the killer had left his dna at several of the crime scenes they obtained a subpoena for the medical records of kerry rawson raider's daughter and compared a routine pap smear from her with the killer's dna it was a familial match kerry's father was btk dennis rader was finally arrested on february 25 2005. according to lead investigator ken landwear raider was shocked that the police lied to him about the disc especially landwear whom the killer called by his first name and thought the two had a close report together he later said in an interview that the floppy did me in after he got over his feelings of betrayal the investigation and subsequent trial went relatively smoothly raider confessed to all 10 killings and received 10 consecutive life sentences and will spend the rest of his days in maximum security prison so i'm not going to ask whether you enjoyed that video but i do hope you found it interesting if you did please do hit that thumbs up button below don't forget to check out my crime podcast it is linked to below and thank you for watching [Music]

Channel: Biographics

Views: 846,112

Keywords: biographics, biography, biographies, people, famous people, simon whistler

Id: fg6xSqc39bY

Length: 21min 9sec (1269 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 01 2021