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The BTK Strangler

BTK Killer Blames 'Demon' for Murders 1 hour, 26 minutes ago

WICHITA, Kan. - Confessed BTK serial killer Dennis Rader made his first public apology for the murders that horrified a community for a quarter-century, blaming a "demon" that got inside him at a young age.

"I have a lot of remorse. I'm very sorry for them. It is something I wouldn't want to happen to my family," he told KAKE-TV. The interview was conducted Saturday; some of it was aired Wednesday night with additional portions to air Thursday.

Rader, who pleaded guilty last week to 10 first-degree murders in the Wichita area from 1974 to 1991, nicknamed himself BTK, for "Bind, Torture, Kill," as he taunted media and police with cryptic messages about the crimes. He faces sentencing Aug. 17.

"I just know it's a dark side of me. It kind of controls me. I personally think it's a — and I know it is not very Christian — but I actually think it's a demon that's within me. ... At some point and time it entered me when I was very young," said Rader, who was once president of his Lutheran church.

Rader, 60, said his problems began in grade school, with his sexual fantasies that were "just a little bit weirder" than other people's. "Somewhere along the line, someone had to pick something up from me somewhere that there was a problem," he said. "They should have identified it."

Rader said he felt for Dale Fox when he saw him cry on television while talking about the 1977 strangulation of Fox's daughter Nancy — a crime Rader has admitted — and said his own relatives also suffer. "I am going to pay for it with a life sentence. The final victims are my ... family," he said. Rader told the court last week that sexual fantasies drove him to kill. He told KAKE he was "totally unprepared" for the court's request for details of the crimes. "I just wanted to get the facts out as quick as I could, try to not get too emotionally involved," he said.

Source
 
Didn't he already plead guilty and waive his right to a trial by jury? My assumption was that it's a done deal. He only needs to be sentenced...and since there was no death penatly in KS when the murders took place, he will only get life in prison.

No more pleas. He did it. And he's sorry. And he should be.
 
He's done with trial he will be sentanced and thats that.

edit:
I dont believe he is sorry. He's a wackjob, and simply pleading guilty like this to deny folks the trial is another way for him to get power over the situation.
 
Both correct as far as no chance for an 'insanity' plea, it's a done-deal.

Just to clarify, if slightly, OT...we don't technically have "life" sentences here in Kansas (whether "life without parole" or "twenty-to-life" or whatever). Prosectuors and especially juries in this state are extremely reluctant to seek the death penalty. I believe in eleven years since capital punishment was reinstated there have been perhaps six people put on death row (all of which are suspended pending a US Supreme Court ruling, but that's another story.) What is almost certain to happen is that he'll be given a 'hard 40' ie no parole for at least 40 years on each count and the sentences will run consectutively, not concurrently...10 x 40=400 years.
 
Im not one for giving everyone the death penalty, but in this case all i have to say is: Too bad he didnt commit his crimes in Texas.
 
I suspect Mr. Rader is simply trying to keep his face on tv for as long as possible. All protestations of sorrow, remorse, etc ring pretty hollow when you realize the guy had 30 + years to come forward and admit his guilt. Imo he's a sociopath, pure and simple. This whole process is a game to him, nothing more.

From what I understand, because his crimes were committed before the death penalty was put into law here in 1994, Rader cannot be sentenced to death. The best the judge can do is give him consecutive sentencing, with the 'hard 40' stipulation before he can come up for parole.
 
Brighid45 said:
I suspect Mr. Rader is simply trying to keep his face on tv for as long as possible. All protestations of sorrow, remorse, etc ring pretty hollow when you realize the guy had 30 + years to come forward and admit his guilt. Imo he's a sociopath, pure and simple. This whole process is a game to him, nothing more.

Absolutely agree, Brighid45. He's a pathetic example of a human being. Now it's all trying to wring every last bit of smug satisfaction from his sick crimes through the media.

All I can say is I hope someone shanks him in prison. :furious:
 
Detective Testifies in BTK Killer Case

Thursday August 18, 2005 5:01 PM

By ROXANA HEGEMAN Associated Press Writer

WICHITA, Kan. (AP) - BTK serial killer Dennis Rader's torturous fantasies were fueled by the final moments of his victims' lives, a detective testified Thursday in the second day of his sentencing hearing. He even recreated those moments, photographing himself tied to a chair and wearing a mask, a wig, a victim's dress, prosecutors said.

``He could live in that moment for years,'' Capt. Sam Houston of the Sedgwick County Sheriff's Office testified Thursday.

Rader's last known victim was Dolores Davis, a 63-year-old woman he handcuffed and tied with pantyhose before he choked her to death in 1991. The killer told police it took two or three minutes for her to die.

``It was this moment that victim was tied and bound,'' Rader wrote in a journal, Houston testified.

Rader tossed Davis' body under a bridge. He returned later to take Polaroid photographs of her wearing a feminine mask Rader himself had worn for his own bondage fantasies.

Prosecutors flashed a photograph of Rader wearing the mask, tied to a chair and donning a woman's blond wig. They also showed other pictures the killer took in which he had bound himself and was wearing a dress he had taken from Davis' house - apparently reliving the ecstasy of the murder.

Some of the most disturbing details of Rader's 10 killings were expected to come from Wichita police Lt. Ken Landwehr, coordinator of the police department's investigation into BTK, who took the stand as the final witness.

Later, family members of victims were to confront the killer and Rader himself was to have a chance to address the court.

Rader, 60, a former church congregation president and Boy Scout leader led a double life, calling himself BTK for ``bind, torture and kill,'' pleaded guilty in June to 10 murders committed from 1974 to 1991. The slayings terrorized the Wichita area until Rader was arrested in February.

The sentencing in many ways is a formality, with the only issue before the judge whether Rader will serve his 10 life sentences consecutively or concurrently. Kansas had no death penalty at the time the killings were committed.

Wednesday's testimony outlined Rader's fascination with bondage, his desire to strengthen his hand muscles when he found it hard to choke victims, and a terrifying conversation he had with an 11-year-old girl before he killed her.

Detective Clint Snyder testified that Rader told investigators he used a squeeze ball to strengthen his grip after finding his hands numbed during strangulations.

In describing one killing, Rader told Snyder: ``I'm sorry. I know this is a human being, but I'm a monster.''

Kansas Bureau of Investigation special agent Larry Thomas testified that after Rader killed Josephine Otero's parents and brother, he took the girl to the basement. Prosecutors projected to a screen Rader's recollection of the exchange he had with Josephine before he killed her.

``What's going to happen to me?'' she asks.

Rader: ``Well, honey, you're going to be in heaven with the rest of your family.''

Rader then hanged the girl and masturbated over her body.

``I remember problems with Josephine because her hair was in the way,'' Rader told investigators.

Rader looked away briefly as crime scene photos were shown. He otherwise appeared calm throughout the hearing, sipping water or occasionally taking notes on a legal pad.

According to testimony, Rader at times used his connections to scouting and local churches to facilitate his crimes and provide him an alibi.

For the killing of Dolores Davis on Jan. 13, 1991, Rader left a Scout camp under the guise of going home for something he forgot, sheriff's Capt. Sam Houston said. Instead, Rader went to his parents' home to change out of his scouting uniform and into his dark ``hit clothes.''

He took the body of another of his victims, Marine Hedge, to the church he attended in Wichita, where he put black plastic over the windows to give him privacy while he took bondage pictures for his sexual satisfaction.

Rader, referring to the last two murders near the Park City home where he lived, told police: ``This is not really good serial killer business, this is right at my back door. I started getting lazy, the last few years.''

Wednesday's testimony was peppered with the bizarre acronyms and names police said Rader used to describe his killings. He called his potential victims projects, or PJs, and gave each a name.

He initially targeted Josephine Otero, who was Hispanic, as the object of his sexual fascination, calling it Project Little-Mex. Davis had a dog kennel at her home, so he dubbed her killing Project Dogside, according to testimony.
 
Watching the victims' families give their impact statements was gut-wrenching. I also expressed mild surprise that KS is not a death penalty state.
 
BTK killer gets life
BY TINA SUSMAN
STAFF CORRESPONDENT


August 18, 2005, 10:41 PM EDT

WICHITA — The courtroom was silent as one minute ticked by. Everyone was waiting for Delores Davis to die.

After the 60-second mark, Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Foulston broke the long silence and reminded the room that it had actually taken Davis three times that long to die, as Dennis Rader strangled her with a pair of her own panty hose in January 1991.

Rader, Wichita's self-proclaimed BTK — Bind, Torture, and Kill — murderer, was sentenced Thursday to 175 years in prison for the 10 slayings he committed from 1974 to 1991. The sentencing came after prosecutors and victims' relatives were allowed to argue that his crimes were so heinous as to warrant the maximum possible time.

Judge Greg Waller, who couldn't sentence Rader to death because the crimes occurred when Kansas did not have capital punishment, agreed, guaranteeing that the 60-year-old former church leader will die behind bars.

"This man needs to be thrown in a deep, dark hole and left to rot," said Beverly Plapp, whose sister, Nancy Fox, was slain in 1977.

"This world would have been much better off had your mother aborted your demon soul," said Davis' son, Jeffrey.

Davis, 63, was Rader's last victim, and as Foulston hammered away at her brutal murder, photographs of the striking woman with salt-and-pepper hair and a bright smile flashed across a screen.

Rader has told police that, as with his other victims, he stalked Davis for weeks, then struck as she slept in her home in suburban Park City, about a mile and a half from the house where he lived with his wife.

"Too late, she realized his dreaded intention," Rader wrote later in a secret diary he kept of his murders, which reads like the screenplay of a horror film. "The end came in about two to three minutes, as the garrotte tightened and tightened."

In some of the most macabre details to emerge in the two-day sentencing hearing, police showed Polaroid pictures that Rader took of himself lying in a grave he dug for Davis, wearing a mask that he had also placed on her corpse and that he had embellished with red lips and fake eyelashes.

They were among thousands of pictures, obscene sketches, and writings Rader compiled and kept in stashes in his home, his office, and his camper, detailing his bondage fantasies and murders, and plotting future kills.

Rader has expressed pride in his stalking techniques and in his ability to elude capture for so long, but the hearing revealed him to be almost comically inept.

Once, while practicing a bondage fantasy on himself, he wrapped himself so tightly in plastic he feared he would have to call someone to untie him.

His plans to attack Davis one night were derailed when he was frightened off by her cat, who swatted the window with its paw after sensing something outside. He returned a few nights later.

Rader's last killing was in 1991, but he re-emerged in March 2004 with a series of letters and packages he sent to police and the press warning them he was on the prowl again. He was arrested in February after a computer disk he sent was traced to his church.

Rader appeared to shed some tears as relative after relative stood up to berate him. He then stood and delivered a rambling, 20-minute statement as illogical as his crimes.

He compared himself to an 18-wheeler, "able to switch gears back and forth," then did just that.

He recited positive qualities he said he shared with some of his victims.

He blew his nose and said he was sorry for his crimes.

He brightened up and, like an actor accepting an Oscar, thanked police, his court-appointed lawyers, his pastor, and virtually anyone it seemed he had encountered since his arrest.

He even lectured the police a bit on minor inaccuracies he said he had noted in their statements.

"That was vintage Dennis Rader," his public defender, Steven Osburn, said of Rader's final bow. Asked what he had told Rader, Osburn said: "I told him good luck. I tell that to all my clients."

Online version here.
 
Posted on Mon, Jan. 16, 2006

Pastor says "demonic force" at work in BTK killer

Associated Press

OVERLAND PARK, Kan. - The pastor of the Wichita church where Dennis Rader was a longtime leader believes a "demonic force" drove Rader to become a serial killer.

The Rev. Michael Clark, pastor of Christ Lutheran Church in Wichita, talked about his experiences with Rader during an appearance Sunday at Holy Cross Lutheran Church in Overland Park.

Rader, who lived in the Wichita suburb of Park City, pleaded guilty in June to killing 10 people between 1974 and 1991. He was sentenced in August to 10 consecutive life prison terms.

The killer who terrorized the Wichita area for years became known as BTK, a nickname he gave himself in letters to police and the media. The initials stood for "Bind, Torture, Kill."

After long silence, the communications resumed in March 2004, when a letter to The Wichita Eagle gave details of a 1986 death not previously linked to the serial killer. Included with the later was a photocopy of the slain women's driver's license and photos of her body.

Rader had long been active at Christ Lutheran Church, serving on its council and becoming president of its board not long before his arrest. A floppy disk sent to a Wichita television station by the BTK killer was traced to the church through an electronic imprint, and detectives went there with a search warrant, trying to find out who had access to the church computer.

"Dennis was influenced, I believe, by some kind of demonic force and that played a role in the choices and decisions he made," the Wichita pastor told members of the suburban Kansas City congregation.

Clark said being possessed doesn't mean Rader is some type of monster but that there was something inside him that drove him to kill. Rader even recognized that, Clark said, pointing to references in some of his letters to a monster inside him that he couldn't control.

When the media and psychologists tried to explain what drove Rader to kill, they looked only at answers that could be measured and tested, overlooking spiritual forces, the pastor said.

Clark said that a year ago he would have chased anyone suggesting that demonic possession was possible out of his office. He said he did not believe in that, regarding Satan as the "personification of evil of the human condition."

But his experience with Rader changed his views.

Clark said Rader's evil was felt not only by his victims and their families but by Rader's own family, his congregation, and the people who knew him.

"There were and still are a lot of people still in pain. There is no question about that," Clark said.

Asked why God would let Rader prey on victims and cause of much pain, Clark said God gives people the free will to make choices.

"There are times where demonics enter our mind and our soul, which causes us to make bad decisions," he said.

In response to another question about whether Rader had shown remorse for his crimes, Clark replied: "I can't go there. I would be betraying confidentiality."

------------
Information from: The Kansas City Star, http://www.kcstar.com

www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/ ... 639065.htm
 
BTK earns privileges for good behavior

Monday, April 24, 2006; Posted: 11:15 a.m. EDT (15:15 GMT)


WICHITA, Kansas (AP) -- Good behavior has earned the BTK serial killer the privilege to watch television, listen to the radio, read and draw in his prison cell.

Prosecutors had sought restrictions on such activities, saying images of women and children and news accounts of his murders would allow Dennis Rader to relive his grisly, sex-fueled fantasies. But Rader earned the privileges through a system designed to encourage good behavior, said Bill Miskell, a Department of Corrections spokesman.

The eased restrictions aren't sitting well with some family members of Rader's 10 victims and prosecutors who helped put him behind bars.

"We're having a hard time understanding why somebody like this is allowed to earn privileges when all the evidence was presented as to how he can turn what most people would consider to be innocent into something that is evil," said Kevin O'Connor, a Sedgwick County deputy district attorney.

Georgia Mason, the mother of Nancy Fox, who was killed by Rader in 1977, also was displeased with Rader's new status.

"I just don't think he needs anything in that little cell," she said.

Miskell said he couldn't disclose what items Rader has obtained for his good behavior. The spokesman did say that sexually explicit materials would not be allowed.

Even with the new privileges, Rader remains in the prison's most restrictive environment. He is let out of his 8-foot-by-10-foot cell one hour a day, five days a week, to shower and exercise.

Rader, who called himself BTK for his method to "bind, torture and kill," would have to serve a minimum of 175 years to be eligible for parole. Kansas had no death penalty at the time of the murders.

His chief public defender, Steve Osburn, said denying his client written and visual materials could push him further into a fantasy world.

"I don't know how he can possibly be a danger to anybody, no matter what he has," Osburn said.

---------
Copyright 2006 The Associated Press.

www.cnn.com/2006/LAW/04/23/btk.killer.ap/index.html
 
New documentary about Dennis Rader coming out :

Rader, now 73, has revealed what drove him to murder in Wichita over 17 years from 1974 to 1991. The sick murderer called himself BTK for 'bind, torture and kill'.


A new documentary features a previously unheard interview he gave after the arrest that details what drove his psychopathic urges.


https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/infamous-btk-serial-killer-reveals-13186451
 
BTK killer Dennis Rader thinks of himself as ‘monster’ and ‘a good person who did some bad things’: doctor

Dennis Rader appeared as an ordinary family man in Wichita, Kansas, who collected stamps and served as the president of his church,

dennis-rader-during-sentencing.jpg


But the seeming doting father and trusted Cub Scout leader was also a murderer who terrorized residents for decades using the moniker BTK – bind, torture, kill.

In 2005, Rader, now 76, pled guilty to killing 10 people from 1974 to 1991. And for over a decade, Rader corresponded with Dr. Katherine Ramsland, a professor of forensic psychology, to better understand how lust, as well as a desire for fame and power, drove him to kill. Now, she's sharing her story.

Ramsland is speaking out in a new true-crime docuseries on A&E titled "BTK: Confession of a Serial Killer." The two-night special from executive producer Dick Wolf of the "Law & Order" franchise features never-before-heard conversations between Rader and Ramsland as they discuss his past and gruesome crimes.

"Dennis Rader does think of himself as a monster, but he also thinks of himself as a good person who did some bad things," she explained. "He will talk about a monster in his brain. It’s his ‘Factor X,’ which is a way to distance himself from criminal responsibility. He thinks, for the most part, he’s not a monster. He certainly was in those instances when he selected a victim and carried through with his crimes. But overall, he doesn’t think of himself that way."

As for remorse? Ramsland said it depends on the day.

"He certainly regrets a lot because he doesn’t want to be in prison," she shared. "He didn’t want to lose his family. There’s a lot of regret there with that. But that’s not the same as remorse. It depends on his mood. It’s a concept he calls ‘cubing,’ where he has various faces of a cube he can turn on and off. So sometimes he’s a good family man. Sometimes he’s a serial killer, a thief or a liar. Sometimes he’s the churchgoer who studies the Bible. So it depends on what day you get him as to whether you’ll hear him talk about remorse."

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainme...der-katherine-ramsland-true-crime-documentary

maximus otter
 
New documentary about Dennis Rader coming out :

Rader, now 73, has revealed what drove him to murder in Wichita over 17 years from 1974 to 1991. The sick murderer called himself BTK for 'bind, torture and kill'.


A new documentary features a previously unheard interview he gave after the arrest that details what drove his psychopathic urges.

https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/us-news/infamous-btk-serial-killer-reveals-13186451
The big reveal was that he had a demon inside him. Well, that explains everything.
 
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