Bind, Torture, Kill: Dennis Rader, The BTK Killer

Wichita is the largest city in Kansas and recognized as one of the major mid-sized cities in the nation. Founded in
1868, the city enshrined the name of Wichita Indians, who had made that area their home.

In this booming city with one of the best economies in the nation, something terrible was born. It's hard to say just
when it happened and how long it took to reach maturity. No doubt it began as a fantasy, an angry internal
cauldron of hate and frustration. Slowly, the fantasy became an obsession that demanded fulfillment. The
planning and execution of this seminal event took over his conscious thought. Just once, he told himself, and then
he would be free of this overwhelming need. It wouldn't be necessary to ever risk doing it again.

But he was deluding himself. The trophies, the photos, and the memories were poor substitutes for the
electrifying thrill and release of the act itself. The power he felt when he held a life in his hands was unparalleled.
There just had to be some way to continue what he was doing without getting caught. Stopping was not exactly
an option he had to consider.

Of course there was a way. For someone with his intellect, there was always a way. Cops are stupid, he knew
that. No match for him. No Harvard graduates there on the Wichita police force. If he was careful, there was no
reason for him not to indulge himself as many times as he wished. Truth be told, that element of danger added to
his excitement and kept him on his guard.

On January 15, 1974, a chilly winter day, 15-year-old Charlie Otero began his afternoon walk home from school.
Charlie, his parents, and four siblings had recently moved into a quiet peaceful suburban neighborhood in a small
frame house located at 803 North Edgemoor Street.
Charlie, happy that another school day had come to an end, walked gingerly up the side walk towards his home.
As he opened the front door and walked into the living room, nothing immediately seemed out of the ordinary.
"Hello, is anyone home?" he called out into the quiet house. There was no response. Not even a bark from his
dog. Such quiet was unusual. With some trepidation, Charlie walked toward his parents' bedroom. A strange
feeling of dread welled up inside him.

Charlie's father, Joseph, 38, was lying face down on the floor at the foot of his bed; his wrists and ankles had
been bound. His mother, Julie, 34, lay on the bed bound in similar fashion, only she had been gagged. For a few
seconds, Charlie could not move, he didn't know what to do. Moments later his senses came back to him and he
rushed out in desperation to get help for his parents, not realizing that he had experienced only a portion of the
horror that the house had in store.
A neighbor who came over to the house to help realized that when he tried to call the police, the phone lines had
been severed.

As the police searched the house, they were shocked to find nine-year-old Joseph II in his bedroom face down on
the floor at the foot of his bed. His wrists and ankles were also bound, the only difference being that over his head
was a hood -- and according to one reporter, he had three hoods covering his head.

The worst was yet to come. Downstairs in the basement, Charlie's eleven-year-old sister, Josephine, was
discovered hanging by her neck from a pipe; she was partially nude, dressed only in a sweatshirt and socks, and
she had been gagged.
Investigators were stunned at this daytime execution-style multiple murder in such a quiet neighborhood.

From the very beginning of this case, police have been very cautious about revealing the details of the murders.
What they did say was that all four of the victims had been strangled with lengths of cord cut from a Venetian
blind. There were no cords like that in he house, so the killer had brought the cords, hoods, tape, wire cutters and
possibly a gun with him.

According to Capt. Paul Dotson of the Wichita Police Department, semen was found throughout the house, and it
appeared as though the killer had masturbated on some of the victims, although none had been sexually
assaulted. Joseph Otero's watch was missing from the scene and has never been recovered. Aside from Julie
Otero's purse being dumped and the missing watch, there was no real evidence of forced entry, robbery, or a
struggle.

The coroner determined that all four murders occurred well before noon and very likely around 8 or nine in the
morning. Police theorized that while Joseph Otero was driving the older three children to school that the
murderer gained entry into the house where Julie and her two younger children were by themselves. Once the
killer subdued and bound the three of them, he waited for Joseph to come home to take the younger two children
to school and caught him by surprise. Someone had put the Oteros' notoriously unfriendly large dog out in back of
the house.
The killer hung around for about an hour an a half, then took the Otero family car and left it parked near Dillons
grocery not far away. Otero's neighbors noticed a man, possibly with a dark complexion, leaving Otero's home in
their car.

Police initially wondered just who these Oteros were and what they had done to warrant this brutal execution.
Several things they learned suggested motives, but nothing conclusive.
Joseph Otero had been born in Puerto Rico and, after moving to the States, began a career in the military. Just
before his death, he had retired from the Air Force where he was a flight instructor and mechanic. He was
physically very fit and was an excellent boxer. His colleagues liked him and no one could voice a motive for his
slaying.

The same type of report came back on Julie. She had recently been caught in a downsizing at Coleman Company,
but she would have been rehired when business picked up again. She, too, was a friendly person and a very good
mother. Like her husband, she was very accomplished in the art of self-defense. She had extensive training in
judo.
The Otero children were very good in school and were liked by the people who knew them. They, too, took up the
family sport of judo and were well beyond the average when it came to self defense.

So, what to make of this case? This brilliantly planned and orchestrated crime which required surveillance,
perfect timing, and the ability to subdue a group of people who were normally more than capable to defending
themselves. It had the hallmarks of a military operation, but then there were these nagging details that the police
didn't want to discuss. Police Chief Floyd Hannon told the Wichita Eagle in January of 1974 that "the way in which
family members were slain indicates a fetish on the part of the assailant."

In October of 1974, just nine months after the Otero family murders, the Wichita Eagle's Don Granger received an
anonymous call, presumably from the Otero killer himself. The caller directed him to a mechanical engineering
textbook in the Wichita Public Library. Inside the book, Granger found a letter claiming credit for the killings of the
Joseph Otero family, and promising more victims. The authenticity of the letter was not in doubt since it contained
details that only the police and killer knew.

The letter was addressed to the "Secret Witness Program" under which people with information about a crime
could pass on that information to police through the newspaper and remain anonymous. Investigators
immediately requested that the letter be withheld from the public in an attempt to prevent a string of false
confessions. The Wichita Eagle complied with the police request.

However, Cathy Henkel, a reporter for a 2-month-old rival newspaper called the Wichita Sun, received a copy of
the letter and printed part of it in an article she wrote on Dec 11, 1974, some 11 months after the crime had been
committed.

The killer wrote that the three individuals being questioned for the Otero murders were not involved. The following
excerpts with their many misspellings and grammatical errors were printed in the Sun :

"I write this letter to you for the sake of the tax payer as well as your time. Those three dude you have in custody
are just talking to get publicity for the Otero murders. They know nothing at all. I did it by myself and with no ones
help. There has been no talk either. Let's put this straight...." The killer provides details of the crimes and crime
scene that were not published in the paper.
"I'm sorry this happen to society. They are the ones who suffer the most. It hard to control myself. You probably
call me 'psychotic with sexual perversion hang-up.' 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 hurt me as well as society. Society can be thankful that there are
ways for people like me to relieve myself at time by day dreams of some victims being torture and being mine. It a
big complicated game my friend of the monster play putting victims number down, follow them, checking up on
them, waiting in the dark, waiting, waiting.... the pressure is great and sometimes he run the game to his liking.
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 to late. Good luck hunting.
"YOURS, TRULY GUILTILY"

Although the letter was unsigned, it contained this postscript:
"P.S. Since sex criminals do not change their M.O. or by nature cannot do so, I will not change mine. The code
word for me will be....Bind them, toture them, kill them, B.T.K., you see he at it again. They will be on the next
victim."

B.T.K., despite a few feeble attempts to appear to have a weak grip on the English language, is quite well
educated and is a reasonably good speller when he is not trying to deceive his audience. He has no trouble with
words like "psychotic," "complicated," and "perversion." He has also done quite a bit of reading about the
criminal psychology of that era. The famous letters from California's Zodiac Killer and the Jack the Ripper letters
were well known from newspapers and books. Interestingly, the Zodiac began his murder series on October 30,
1966 and wrote his first letter to the police almost one month later on November 29, 1966. Even more interesting
is the fact that the Zodiac, after three years of silence, sent the first of a series of four letters to the San
Francisco Chronicle on January 29, 1974. Chances are that B.T.K. had read about this in the newspaper and
decided to open the lines of communication with the media and police.
The Wichita Eagle reported that on April 4, 1974, just three months after the Otero murders, Kathryn Bright, 20,
and her brother Kevin, 19, went to her home at 3217 E. 13th Street at approximately 1 p.m. There was an intruder
hiding in the house, waiting for her to return.

The intruder told them he needed money and a car to escape from the California police. At gun point, Kevin was
forced to tie his sister to a chair and was then taken to another room where he to was tied up and gagged. A few
minutes later, the man tried to stangle Kevin with a rope, but Kevin resisted and was shot twice in the head. He
heard sounds of distress from his sister in the next room. Kevin managed to escape and get help for his sister,
but she died five hours after being taken to the hospital with three stab wounds in her abdomen.

Police also noted that the Kathryn was partially undressed and that there was obvious ligature activity around her
neck. Kevin assisted the police in sketching a likeness of the intruder, but he was not identified. Police did not
associate B.T.K. with this crime at that point in time.

Three years later on March 17, 1977, Wichita police were dispatched to 1311 South Hydraulic Street. Upon arrival,
police entered the home and discovered 26-year-old Shirley Vian dead. She lay on her bed partially undressed,
hands and feet bound, a plastic bag draped over her head. Upon removing the bag investigators noted the BTK's
signature cord wrapped tightly around her neck. The armed intruder had locked Shirley's three children in the
closet. The children eventually managed to free themselves and call police.

Again, investigators believed that the crime was premeditated. The incident occurred during the daytime and
there was no sign of forced entry. The killer had stopped one of the victim's sons on the street that morning, and
showed him photographs of a woman and child, purportedly seeking directions to their home.

The town of Wichita was by now in a blind panic. Hundreds of people coming home for the evening would
regularly check to see if their telephone lines had been cut (a BTK trademark). Working women hurried home and
locked their doors. BTK was quickly becoming a ghost story told to newcomers at parties and bars.

On Dec. 8, 1977, BTK placed a call to the emergency hotline "Go to this address," he told an emergency
dispatcher, "You will find a homicide - Nancy Fox." Investigators were able to quickly trace the call to a downtown
phone booth, where witnesses indistinctly recalled a blond man, approximately six feet tall, using the phone
booth moments earlier. Unfortunately, the quality of the recording was too poor for investigators to perform any
type of voice analysis.

Following the caller's instructions, officers rushed to 843 S. Pershing. Upon arrival, investigators immediately
noticed that a window had been broken, allowing entry to the home. Upon entering the apartment house, officers
discovered 25-year-old Nancy Jo Fox dead in her bedroom, a nylon stocking twisted around her neck. Unlike
previous victims, she was fully clothed. Fox's driver's license (like Joseph Otero's watch) was missing from the
scene. Again, investigators theorized that the killer took the license as a memento of the crime. The murder had
occurred at night, semen was found at the scene, but an autopsy later revealed that Fox had not been sexually
assaulted.

As abruptly as they started, the killings appeared to have ended in 1977. It seemed as though BTK had vanished.
Or had he?

Eula West, a receptionist at the Sedgwick County Courthouse, recalls, "I was taking all precautions, and
everybody I heard talking about it did too." Many people refused to go outside at night for weeks. Some people
bought firearms.
On January 31, 1978, BTK mailed a letter to the Wichita Eagle-Beacon. Within the letter was a short poem about
Shirley Vian, who was murdered in March 1977. However, it was accidentally routed to the advertising
department by mistake and it went overlooked for days.

"It seemed as though every day we were waiting to see what would happen next," said Rose Stanley, who began
work at a Wichita TV station just before the killings began. "He would choke the person almost to the point of
death. Then he would let them come back. Then he would strangle them to death."

Distraught at the lack of publicity, BTK wrote another letter on February 10, 1978 to a local television station. "How
many do I have to kill," he wrote, "before I get my name in the paper or some national attention?" In this latest
letter, the strangler claimed to have murdered seven victims, naming Nancy Jo Fox as the latest. Number seven
remained nameless, adding, "You guess the motive and the victims." According to The Wichita Eagle newspaper,
even though investigators were unable to document the killer's claim, they took his word - announced
acceptance of the body count - and assumed that the seventh unnamed victim was Kathryn Bright. In addition to
these claims, the killer blamed his crimes on "a demon" and a mysterious "factor X", he compared his work with
that of Jack the Ripper, the Hillside Stranglers, and Son of Sam.
He claimed that he was sorry for the murders and that a monster had entered his brain. He also warned that he
had chosen his next victim.

Until March of 2004, the last confirmed BTK incident took place on April 28, 1979, when he waited inside a house
in the 600 block of South Pinecrest for the 63-year-old owner to come home. When she did not show up, BTK
became angry and sent the woman a note along with one of her scarves. "Be glad you weren't here," he wrote,
"because I was."

''I think people were really scared, especially if you were a woman living alone, which I was at the time," said
Kathy Page-Hauptman, director of performing arts at the Wichita Center for the Arts.
The BTK investigation was dormant through most of the early 1980s with no new leads or tips.
In 1983 two teams of detectives were assigned to reinvestigate the murders. They set out on a cross-country trip,
collecting saliva and blood samples from over 200 people that had been flagged by their computer as prime
suspects in the case. The samples collected were all voluntary, only five of the men refused. The blood tests
ultimately eliminated all but 12 of the names on the list (including the five who refused the tests).

In July of 1984, investigators, set up a task force, nicknamed "The Ghostbusters" and hired a computer
consultant to work with them in an attempt to try and discover the identity of BTK. After assembling their massive
collection of DNA evidence, seven years after the last murder, investigators finished entering their data into an
IBM computer, and a list of suspects began to spew out.

"The Ghostbusters" task force discovered some of the most promising evidence during their investigation. One
of the most startling clues was the revelation of one similarity, all of the murders occurred within 3 1/2 miles of
one another. This led investigators to believe that the BTK strangler only felt comfortable killing in areas that were
familiar to him.
During the fall of 1984, one of the task force investigators took the February 10, 1978 BTK letter to Xerox
headquarters in Syracuse, New York. There a lab technician concluded that the letter was a fifth-generation copy
of the original, which would make it virtually impossible to trace. In addition, the technician went on to state that
the machine used to generate the copy was located at the Wichita State University library.

During the investigation into the letters, the contents of the poems were also regarded as clues. It was soon
discovered that the Vian poem was patterned after a "Curly Locks" nursery rhyme that had only just appeared in
Games, a puzzle magazine. After making this startling discovery, investigators obtained a list of all the
subscribers to the magazine in question.

The Fox poem, titled "Oh Death to Nancy," had been patterned after a poem entitled Oh Death which had been
published in a Wichita State University textbook. The book had previously been used in an American folklore
class; hence, investigators obtained a copy of the class roster.
Law enforcement officials have not yet released BTK's letters to the public. When asked to typify them, Capt. Paul
Dotson stated, "Here I am. Pay attention."

Using all of the available evidence obtained, investigators soon began to assemble lists of every white male that
lived within a quarter-mile of the Oteros' house in or around January 1974. Investigators also made similar lists
for the Vian, Fox and Bright homes. In addition, task force investigators compiled lists of men living within 1 1/4
miles of each of the victim's homes; they also assembled lists of white male students who attended Wichita state
University between 1974 and 1979. The smallest list contained the names of eight people who had checked out
the mechanical engineering textbook from the library where the Otero letter was found.

Detectives decided that the most significant of all were the address lists. ''The main crux of our search always
was geographical," said Lt. Kenneth Landwehr of the Wichita Police Department. "According to the behavioral
scientists, the individual lived close to where he was striking."
Once the lists were completed, investigators used their computer to try to come up with a more precise list of
suspects. The computer gave them 225 possible suspects, most of whom no longer resided in Wichita. One by
one, the detectives set out to eliminate each of the 225 possible suspects.

One of the key pieces of evidence that the killer left behind was his semen. Lab technicians were able to
determine that it was a type of semen found in fewer than 6 percent of all males. Police will not comment as to
the type, citing their rules of evidence.
Although the two-year investigation ended without an arrest, the knowledge gained and some of the samples
collected formed the of the basis for the work of the squad.

''We tried a hundred thousand theories," now retired Lt. Al Stewart said. "We checked house numbers, the
victims' length of residency, the phases of the moon, we read books, looking for arcane connections to
mythology, witchcraft and demonology."

On Oct. 31, 1987, the body of 15-year-old Shannon Olson was found dumped in a pond in an industrial area,
partially disrobed and stabbed numerous times. Her hands and feet were bound. The murder sparked off an
outbreak of letters to the police and media suggesting the BTK Strangler committed the crime.

On Dec. 31, 1987, Mary Fager, the married mother of two daughters, returned to her Wichita home after spending
2 1/2 days out of town. Upon entering her house, she discovered her husband, Phillip Fager, dead; he had been
shot twice in the back. Her two daughters, 16-year-old Kelli and 10-year-old Sherri, were both found strangled in
the hot tub situated in the basement of the home. Sherri's hands and feet were bound with black electrical tape,
which later washed loose. Kelli Fager was nude.

Soon after the Fager murders, someone wrote a letter to Mary Fager, claiming to be the BTK Strangler. The letter
declared that while he had not committed the murders he was a fan of whoever had. FBI experts said they cannot
irrefutably say that the letter came from BTK, but one source involved in the investigation who saw the letter
himself, states that there is no doubt in his mind that it was authentic. "It made the hair stand up on the back of
my neck," the source stated.
According to Lt. Landwehr, a local contractor stated to police that he went to the Fager house, where he was
doing construction work, and discovered the father's body. He went on to claim that he had heard some noise in
the house and fled in the family's car. The contractor was arrested in Florida four days later. According to
Landwehr, the man claimed he had a total blank of the events that had occurred.

The contractor was arrested and subsequently charged with the Fager murders. However, a jury acquitted him of
all charges.
Lt. Landwehr said they have closed the Fager case because they are confident that the contractor was the killer.

In 1991, the Wichita Police Department assembled a cold case squad when police received a new lead in the BTK
murders. Although the lead fizzled, Capt. Paul Dotson will not disclose the nature of the tip.

"I believe he is still probably in this community," Mike McKenna, a former Wichita police detective, said.

In 1997, Robert Ressler, a former FBI veteran who first applied the term "serial killer", helped outline a profile of
BTK. Ressler said the man was probably a graduate student or a professor in the criminal justice field at WSU in
Kansas, was most likely in his mid-to-late-20s at the time of the killings and was an avid reader of books and
newspaper stories concerning serial murders. Additionally, because his pattern of killings has not been seen in
Wichita since the '70s, he has "left the area, died or is in a mental institution or prison," Ressler said.

"I've learned that if man gets the opportunity, he will do devious things," Ressler said. "He has a dark side,
whether it's poisoning his neighbor's roses or killing his neighbor."

In February of 1998, Police Chief Richard LaMunyon said in an interview that a "typewritten, rambling
communiqué, which purports to be from BTK" received by police about a week after the Fager murders has no
connection to the Dec. 30 murders of Phillip Fager, and his daughters. LaMunyon said a continuing investigation
has not yet confirmed whether the serial killer sent the letter. LaMunyon went on to say that the department does
sporadically receive bogus letters from people claiming to be the BTK strangler.

As 1988 came to a close, a former BTK task force detective, Al Thimmesch, retired. Al says he regrets never
solving the murders. ''One of the things that bugged me was BTK," he said. "It was one that I worked on for a long
time."

Investigators call BTK fastidious, calculating and meticulous; with a strong possibility that he may be heard from
again. "This type of personality doesn't stop voluntarily," said Wichita Police Capt. Paul Dotson. "This type of
person continues to kill."

Sedgwick County Sheriff Mike Hill, who worked on the 1978 probe, said, "It's sad to say the only way that we'll
ever find out who this individual is will be we'll have to have a victim." Nevertheless, Stewart hopes that some day
a beat cop will stumble onto the BTK still savoring his press clippings or souvenirs.

FBI Profiler John Douglas in the book Obsession has a chapter on the BTK strangler. It is the chapter called
"Motivation X". Within the book, Douglas states that there were no defensive wounds found on any of the victims,
assuming that the killer used a gun to control them. He further stated that the killer's letters to the police had so
much detail that he is convinced that the perpetrator had taken his own crime scene photos in order to have a
keepsake of the crime to fantasize about later.

Douglas states that the killer used police lingo in his letters - Douglas thinks he may actually be a cop, or may
impersonate a cop - he probably reads detective magazines and may have even bought a police badge. He would
attempt to insert himself in the investigation. He would be tempted to brag or leave hints about what he had done.

Douglas states that the killer was in all probability a loner, inadequate, in his 20s or 30s, might possibly have an
arrest record for break-ins or voyeurism, but probably no actual rapes.
Douglas further states that the perpetrator may have stopped killing because he is in jail for something else, or a
mental hospital, may have died, or maybe he injected himself so closely into the investigation, he got scared. It is
even a possibility that the memories and photographs are enough for him to contain his obsession.

On August 4, 2000, David Lohr contacted Dr. Deborah Schurman-Kauflin, President of the Violent Crimes Institute,
and asked her to draw up a profile of the killer based on the information at hand. The profile read as follows:
"From the information provided to me which is limited (no crimes scene photos, police report, etc), I have
constructed the most likely type of person to have committed the murders in the 1970s. I do not believe the
murders from the 80s were connected."
1.        Single, white male 28-30
2.        Resided near Oteros or spent time in the area to form fantasy about Josephine (this was his main target).
Lived in a house, not apartment.
3.        Over 6'1, tall and trim. Neat in appearance with short hair. Clothes darker by choice.
4.        Considered quiet and conservative by those who would know him. Modest. I believe people would mistake
him as kind because of his quiet demeanor. But he suffers from extreme pathology -- psychopath.

There are no voices or demons. This man knew exactly what he was doing.

He was and, if alive, still would be an extremely sad individual. Sad for himself and his pain. Completely
self-absorbed.

Because I did not have access to the letters, his job status is questionable to me. I do feel that his job was very
secondary to him. Money was not important either. His compulsion to kill was and ALWAYS would be number 1.
He would not be satisfied with fantasy. He would be forced to act. Therefore, I find it hard to believe that he did not
kill between 1974 and 1977. If there were no murders in Kansas at that time, he was someplace else.

He was very immature -- the games, magazines, choice of child target. The fact that he did not sexually assault
lends credence to this. He masturbated on the victims but did not rape.

At the same time, he is very patient in his crimes, stalking and killing without detection. This makes him a
paradox, which in and of itself would be disturbing even to him.
I do feel like he is very comfortable with books and would have many of them in his home. Not just a few, many,
many books. True crime as well as books, which feed his fantasies. I feel as if they would be found all over his
house. He was smart, highly intelligent.

This is not someone who is heavily into drugs/alcohol. They do not cause his crimes. He may drink at times, but
that would not be an excuse for the murders.
5.        He had a car, which would have been dark in color as well. However, this is a person who would enjoy
walking around neighborhoods looking at people and victims.
6.        Due to his immaturity, he would be comfortable with people much younger than him. He would not have
many friends, only acquaintances who really do not know him. All of his relationships would be superficial. He
would not be married, and any history with women would be short-lived and meaningless.
This is not a person who would stop killing on his own. There are 3 reasons to stop:
1.        Death
2.        Prison
3.        Too disabled or sick to kill
Period. This is a compulsive psychopath who enjoyed killing and wouldn't give it up.
I generally give more detailed analyses but due to limited information, this is what I can provide."
Dr. Deborah Schurman-Kauflin
Violent Crimes Institute President

Although Wichita police invested 100,000 hours in at least a half-dozen investigations from 1974 until 1991, BTK
was not caught. The FBI called the case one of its top unsolved mysteries.
The search for the "BTK Strangler" had been scaled down to one detective. The remaining detective on the BTK
case, Lt. Kenneth Landwehr, stated that the case files were not just sitting around collecting dust: "I've been told
by the chief that this investigation will stay open until we have no more (reasonable) leads to follow", adding: "that
can almost be to infinity."
The investigation has involved thousands of suspects and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in man-hours,
travel expenses and telephone bills.

Over twenty-five years later, the Otero house has changed hands a half-dozen times. Charlie Otero and two
siblings have since moved to Albuquerque but have not been heard from since the Ghostbusters investigation.

Suddenly in 2004, after so many years, BTK investigation was re-launched after the killer sent a letter to The
Wichita Eagle that claimed responsibility for the 1986 murder of Vicki Wegerle, who was strangled in her home at
2404 W. 13th. BTK provided some very convincing evidence of the letter's authenticity by including crime scene
photos and Wegerle's driver's license. She was the mother of two children, one of whom was home at the time of
the murder.

After nearly 30 years of silence, BTK once again terrorized the city of Wichita. The killer resurfaced on March 19,
2004, when he sent a letter to The Wichita Eagle newsroom.
According to reports in the Eagle, the letter suggested the killer was taking responsibility for the September 16,
1986, unsolved death of Vicki Wegerle, who was found in her home at 2404 W. 13th Street. Included with the
letter were a photocopy of Wegerle's driver's license and three photos of her body.

Investigators are not yet releasing the contents of the letter, however it has been reported in the media that the
return address on the letter was from "Bill Thomas Killman" (BTK) -- 1684 South Oldmanor. Investigators have
since determined the name to be fictitious and the address a vacant lot. Why he chose them is unknown, but
many speculate there is a hiding meaning behind it.

On March 24, 2004, Lt. Ken Landwehr, who has been investigating the BTK case for over 20 years, confirmed that
the letter was from BTK. The single fingerprint removed from the letter, he stated, would most likely come back to
an employee from the newspaper and not from the killer.

Landwehr told Wichita news station Kake-10 that investigators were following leads from more than 290
telephone tips and requested that anyone with information should call the BTK hotline. It's not traceable, so
tipsters can remain anonymous.

On March 25, 2004, Gregg McCrary, a former FBI profiler, told The Wichita Eagle he felt BTK was bragging about
his crimes and he craves the media attention: "'Look at what I've done.' He can't resist doing that," said McCrary.
"Frightening the public is like playing God. It's a heady, intoxicating experience, so they're not afraid to make
contact with you (the media) or police -- that's all a part of the game for a guy like this. He's outwitted law
enforcement and everybody else all these years."

Psychologist Dr. Harold Brodsky spoke with KAKE-TV on March 28, 2004, and said giving BTK attention is a good
thing. "Are we falling into his hands by showing him this attention? The reality is, if we don't show him this
attention, he's going to do something diabolical," said Brodsky. Regardless of where he has been and why he has
suddenly come back, one thing is certain -- he has once again brought panic to the city of Wichita. Investigators
have surmised that the killer is living in the area. No one feels safe and practically everyone is taking steps to
protect themselves. Sales of security systems, locks, guns, personal alarms, pepper spray and other security
devices have sky rocketed. The case has drawn the attention of national news organizations and CNN, MSNBC
and Good Morning America are covering it from all angles.

In the mean time everyone seems to have the same questions: Will he make contact again? Or more importantly:
Will he kill again? Unfortunately, no one has an answer to either question and only time will tell if BTK strikes
again.

On May 5, 2004, another letter suspected to be from BTK was sent to Kansas television station KAKE-TV. The
letter was three pages. On the first page was typed "The BTK Story," under which was a list of chapters taken
from Court TV's Crime Library story on the killer, Ron Sylvester reported in The Wichita Eagle. Intriguingly, some
of the chapter titles were changed from those listed in Crime Library original story. For example, Chapter 7
originally titled "BTK- The Next Step" was changed to "PJ's," Chapter 4 titled "BTK- Different Worlds Collide" was
altered to read "Fantasy World" and the chapter titled "BTK Cold Case Squad" was changed to "Will There (Be)
More?"

The second page of the letter was titled "Chapter 8" and contained word puzzles with letters in vertical rows,
Jeanene Kiesling reported in a May KAKE-TV article. On the last page were photocopies of business ID's
belonging to two men, one a former Southwestern Bell worker and the other a former employee of the Wichita
public school district, the Associated Press reported in June. According to the article, the phone company
employee was later contacted but he could not understand why a photocopy of his ID was in the letter. Upon
further investigation, the school district employee listed on the card did not exist and the logo of the school used
on the card had been discontinued. Interestingly, the three-page letter was different from the March letter sent to
The Wichita Eagle in that the return address on the envelope bore the name Thomas B. King (TBK) instead of Bill
Thomas Killman (BTK), Sylvester reported.

It didn't take long for the FBI to authenticate the letter as a genuine BTK communication, believed to have been his
third in a three-month period. The first known communication in 2004 was the March 19th letter sent to The
Wichita Eagle. The second known communication allegedly by BTK was an anonymous letter sent to Wichita's
KSN-TV in April 2004, which purportedly contained a photo of an unidentified baby.

There was no doubt that the killer was back to his old habit of taunting police. However, it is likely that he was
also providing them with vital clues to his identity and details regarding his past murders. It was suggested that
the killer may have used the IDs represented in the letter to gain access to the victims' homes. Moreover, police
alleged that the chapter titled "PJ's" could be a clue linking the killer to a faculty member at Wichita State
University.

Many wondered why the killer chose this point in time to resurface. Some believed that the killer reemerged
because he missed the media attention, which he seemed to crave. There is also a chance that his most recent
communications were a warning that he might strike again in the near future. BTK's new letters have re-ignited
the investigation into the killer, as well as the community's fears of more brutal murders. Many wonder whether
the BTK killer can be captured before he gets a chance to kill again.

On June 17, 2004 another letter was found in a mechanical engineering book in the drop box of the Wichita Public
Library. The letter was immediately handed over to police, who later revealed that it was yet another genuine BTK
communication. This time the letter detailed some of the events surrounding the 1974 Otero murders, among
other things.

The entire letter's contents have not yet been revealed by authorities. However, it is believed that there might
have been more clues present in the letter, which linked the killer to Wichita State University. Initially, it was
unclear why the hunt for BTK continuously led the police to the school campus. Yet, in August 2004 investigators
finally revealed the significance of the university in their investigation.

Professor P.J. Wyatt, who taught an English literature class at the university between 1964 and 1986, was of
interest to police because of a folksong she analyzed titled "Oh Death." The song was of great significance to the
BTK killer and inspired a poem he wrote called "Oh! Death to Nancy" which was found in a 1978 letter. It was
alleged that the altered poem referenced BTK's murder of Nancy Fox in December 1977. Investigators looked for
hidden meanings in the poem that might help them apprehend the killer but it turned out to be of little use.
Unfortunately, the professor could not assist investigators in the case because she passed away in 1991 of
cancer.
More interesting than "Oh! Death to Nancy" is the poem that BTK wrote to Anna, an intended victim, who did not
come home in time to be murdered by BTK. He waited in her home for her to return, but then became impatient
and left. This poem, part of which is printed below, commemorates this event.

T' was perfect plan of deviant pleasure so bold on that Spring nite
My inner felling hot with propension of the new awakening season

Warn, wet with inner fear and rapture, my pleasure of entanglement,
like new vines at night

The poem is in many ways remarkable because of the levels of meaning that BTK suggests in the words he uses.
Reminiscent of James Joyce's epic, Finnegan's Wake, BTK uses words that suggest several meanings. Starting
with the very first line in the poem, the T with the superscript 1 is used in scientific research to designate the
beginning phase of a study. Subsequent phases would be T2, T3, etc. On another more ordinary level, the
superscript 1 could be interpreted as an apostrophe to create "T'was" except that "T'was perfect plan" is
missing a word, like "a" or "the." It appears as though whatever BTK had in store for Anna was something "bold"
and new.
"Felling," for example, suggests the purposeful killing of a living tree, as well as the taking of Anna's life. It also
describes his feelings of excitement as he anticipates his meeting with her. Like Joyce, he creates words by
juxtaposing parts of other words. "Propension" is not some mistake on BTK's part, it is his creation of a new
word to represent the anticipation of this new encounter. "Propension" may be a combination of other words like
"propensity" or "property" or "possessions."

What's the point of these intellectual gymnastics? No doubt, BTK sees himself as an artist and gets pleasure in
creating these poems and lyrics with multiple levels of meaning. There is almost certainly another motivation as
well. BTK likes to demonstrate his considerable intelligence. He believes that he is a superior intellect and enjoys
pointing out to authorities that he is still at large. In other words, he is smarter than all of them local experts, FBI
profilers, amateur sleuths, psychics. Thus far, it appears that he is right.

The search for BTK has not only caught the attention of those in the United States but also that of millions around
the world. The BTK case has even led to the production of a British documentary film concerning the murders and
the ongoing investigation, Theresa Freed reported in a September 2004 KAKE-TV article. Freed reported that the
"British film crew not only wants to tell the BTK story but (also) offer police new insight into the case."

The new insight came in the form of a British psychic named Dennis McKenzie who traveled with the crew to
Wichita. Freed said that McKenzie has successfully assisted in several high profile investigations, including the
Soham murders. He was also able to contribute to the BTK investigation by producing an image of the killer with
the help of a sketch artist, as well as other potentially valuable information concerning the murder cases, Freed
stated. It is hoped that the new leads will result in the eventual apprehension of the BTK killer. Until that time,
Wichita residents are left in a perpetual state of fear, wondering if there will be a new victim in the near future.

On October 22, 2004, a suspicious letter was left at a UPS drop box outside the OmniCenter building at 250 N.
Kansas Street in Wichita, Kansas. Police suspected that the letter was written by BTK and have sent it to the FBI
for verification three days after its discovery. Interestingly, the letter was discovered on the 30th anniversary of
BTK's first communication with the authorities. Chances are that the timing was no coincidence. The contents of
the letter and the identity of the person who alerted police of its whereabouts still remain unclear.

Homicide Detective Kelly Otis of the Wichita Police, who is working on the BTK case, interviewed people who
were in the immediate area of the office building and who worked there at the time the letter was allegedly placed
at the scene. It was hoped that someone might have witnessed the person who left the letter in the UPS box. One
person who was interviewed by Otis claimed to have seen a suspicious individual dropping a letter off at the UPS
box on the same day the letter in question was purportedly left at the drop box.

On October 26, 2004, Beth Jett of KAKE-TV news quoted an unidentified man saying, "you could see the
nervousness in his eyes...I was right around the corner (from the UPS drop box) and he looked back at me and
that's when he took off." The man believed that the suspicious person he saw might have been the BTK killer. BTK
is thought to be around 50-60 years old with graying hair and of medium stature.

In the meantime, the authorities continue pouring over clues left by the BTK killer. It is clear that the killer has
gone to great effort to misguide and confuse the authorities by providing them with false information likely mixed
with subtle truths. It is almost certain that he is highly educated or at least well read, judging by his use of
statistical jargon and James Joyce-like style of writing. Moreover, his use of the name Thomas King in one of his
letters is very possibly yet another clue to his choice of literature. There is a Canadian author of articles, stories
and poems mostly about Native American life who bears the same name.

Both Thomas King and James Joyce are two of many famous authors whose works have been studied by
literature students at Kansas State University. Could BTK have studied these authors at some point at the
university? There seems to be many links between BTK and the school, especially with the now-deceased
lecturer Professor P.J. Wyatt. With the mounting evidence, there is a good chance that BTK was once a student
at the university or may have even worked there. However, it may also be another ploy used by the killer to
mislead investigators.

If the names BTK used in his letters were in fact clues to his identity, many wonder what would be the
significance of the name Bill Thomas Killman. Some believe the name is a puzzle in itself and if arranged properly
might spell out a hidden message or meaning. However, the name could also be another sophisticated tool used
to taunt police.

Return address on the envelope
Kenneth Thomas and Ralph Kilmann (with one "l" and two "n"s) devised a tool, known as the Thomas-Kilmann
Conflict Mode Instrument, which is used to help people handle conflict. The instrument is sometimes used by
police departments to help officers deal with people who are aggressive or scared, which they often encounter in
their line of work. When the killer used the name Bill Thomas Killman in his previous letters, could he have been
indirectly referring to this conflict instrument and using it as a tool to mock the police? It is a question that may
never be answered. Unfortunately, until the BTK killer is caught we can only speculate about his identity or
motivation for his horrific crimes.

On Nov. 30, 2004, Wichita Police did a press release offering a great deal of background information supplied by
BTK about his life. This is, indeed unique in the history of serial killers. Occasionally, the concept that serial killers
"want to be caught" finds its way into the news. This is pure fiction. Serial killers are pyschopaths. They are
entirely self-focused. They will not intentionally put themselves in harm's way. Psychopaths are notorious liars
and BTK is no exception.

So, now that BTK has supplied a number of supposedly true facts about himself, what are we to make of it? Are
we now to believe this serial killer? Are we now to chase down and investigate his claims?
We would be foolish to do so. If BTK wanted to reveal his identity, he would walk into any police station and do so.
But he does not because he is a psychopath who is enjoys taunting and playing with the police and engaging the
huge public following that he has amassed. Now that he has "revealed" this biographical sketch, he can be
assured that countless BTK amateur sleuths, as well as FBI and Wichita police, will be completely absorbed in it.
What could be more gratifying to a dedicated narcissist?

It's possible that some of the information that BTK has volunteered about himself may be true, but you can be
assured that nothing factual that he has volunteered will trip him up. He's just too smart for that. Keep in mind that
he is very smart, potentially smarter than his pursuers. It's more likely that everything that BTK has volunteered
about his biography is false or misleading. He's playing with us, his public. We shall see. The fact that BTK is
pushing for attention based on details of his life, rather than recent murders, suggests that he is not in a position
to operate freely without the threat of discovery.

Throughout the fall of 2004, police continued their intense search for BTK, this time looking to their own ranks.
BTK is believed to have what some might consider "inside knowledge" of police activity or law enforcement
training. For practical reasons, many serial killers are focused on the investigation into their crimes. Some, like
the notorious South Carolina serial killer, Pee Wee Gaskins, and Dr. Frank Sweeney, Cleveland's Kingsbury Run
murderer, have even cultivated police sources by hanging around taverns where cops visit and luring them into
conversations about the investigation.

Serial killers are also attracted to law enforcement because it represents power, the ingredient that the serial
killer lacks in his everyday life. Kenneth Bianchi, one of the Hillside Stranglers, took courses in police science and
posed as a psychologist so that he could pal around with investigators working on his case. It was more than just
a practical activity to avoid becoming a suspect himself, it was the vicarious thrill of outsmarting the police and
exerting power over them.

Dr. Frank Sweeney did the same type of thing while decapitating 13 or more victims in the 1930s. The famed Eliot
Ness was head of law enforcement in Cleveland at that time. When Eliot Ness focused his attentions on Sweeney,
Sweeney reciprocated by sending Ness taunting post cards and even a papier maché torso. Sweeney got
tremendous pleasure from outsmarting the very smart Eliot Ness.

This is what is happening here with BTK. Instead of exerting power over his victims as he tortured and killed them
a couple of decades ago, he is now exerting power over the police. His games, his letters, his packages are
putting enormous pressure on them to produce an arrest. Not only that, BTK has found a way to hold power over
thousands of fascinated amateur sleuths who flock to the chat rooms and message boards to theorize and
analyze BTK's every word. With the Laci Peterson circus finally coming to a close, BTK is making a bid to be the
next televised obsession. He has become a celebrity.

Was BTK ever a Wichita cop? It's not likely, although he may have experience in the military police. Just to be on
the safe side in case BTK turns out to be another Gerard Schafer, Wichita police called on retired police officers
in mid-November to volunteer to have the inside of their mouths swabbed for DNA samples so they could be
eliminated as potential suspects. However, investigators ran into unexpected difficulty when at least one police
officer refused to participate in the ongoing investigation.

According to Roy Wenzl's November 21, 2004 article in the Wichita Eagle, retired Det. Frank Cummins was
skeptical of the DNA tests because of long-term privacy concerns. Wenzl reported that "because of the nature of
DNA, because it can show genetic family relationships, it would be like handing the police department a
permanent set of fingerprints, without permission from every person genetically related to him." Moreover,
Cummins believed that the tests were a waste of money and he distrusted how the police would utilize the
samples. Consequently, he decided not to voluntarily provide DNA samples. He would not be the last person to
refuse police testing.

In November, 2004, police publicly revealed for the first time information that BTK revealed about himself in a
letter. The personal information was released in the hopes that someone might recognize the killer's description
and come forward with even more information about his identity or whereabouts. It is likely that these
"revelations" are simply disinformation provided by BTK to throw the police off his trail. Jeanene Kiesling of
KAKE-TV gave out these new details on November 30, 2004:
·        BTK claims he was born in 1939, which would make him 64 or 65 years old.
·        His father died in World War II. His mother and grandparents raised him.
·        He has a fascination with railroads and between 1950 to 1955, his mother dated a detective with the railroad.
·        In the early 1950s he built and operated a ham radio. He also has knowledge of photography and can develop
and print pictures.
·        He also likes to hunt, fish and camp.
·        In 1960, BTK claims he went to tech school and then joined the military for active duty and was discharged in
1966 at which time he says he moved back in with his mother.
·        He worked repairing copiers and business equipment.
·        He admits to soliciting prostitutes.

BTK is now playing to an ever increasingly devoted audience and needs to keep their interest alive. So one can
expect to see many more communications from him as he discards incriminating evidence.
In the meantime, there are also old theories re-emerging that BTK might have served in the U.S. Air Force. BTK's
first victim, Joseph Otero, was known to have served in the Air Force and at the time of his death worked at Rose
Hill Airport. Some believe that BTK may also stand for "Born to Kill" the name and initials of several Air Force
squadrons.

In mid-December, 2004, an unidentified man found a suspicious white plastic bag wrapped in rubber bands in
Murdock Park. The man took the bag home and looked inside it, when to his surprise he noticed items that may
have belonged to some of BTK's victims.

Investigators examined the bag's contents and found a driver's license belonging to Nancy Fox and a letter, along
with other objects. The letter was similar to one found earlier in May 2004, which displayed a list of chapters
taken from this Crime Library story. However, some of the chapter titles were listed differently.
In the most recent letter chapter 13 was changed from "Will There More?" to "Will There Be More?" The chapter
originally had a different title. Yet, after the May letter, the title was changed to "Will there (Be) More." In BTK's
latest communication it is clear that he made a concerted effort to correct his grammatical errors. It also
appears that he is an avid true crime reader.

Furthermore, in the letter found in the bag, chapters one, two and eight were left blank unlike those in the May
letter. In an interview with Larry Hatteberg of KAKE TV, he theorized that the empty chapters might have been
directly linked to Nancy Fox's murder date in 1977. He stated that "the chapters BTK left out, if put together in a
specific sequence, would mark the date Nancy Fox was killed," 12-8 or December 8th. If this were the case, it
would be a vital clue that might provide insight into BTK and the way in which he communicates.
The plastic bag was eventually handed over to the FBI. Information concerning the remainder of the bag's
contents has since been withheld from the public in an effort to maintain the continuity of the ongoing
investigation.

Law enforcement in Wichita are 99.9% sure that the suspect they have in custody, 59-year-old Dennis Rader, is
the BTK killer, but while the tone of the February 26 news conference morning was confident, very few details of
the investigation were divulged.

The 46 minutes of news conference self congratulations on "catching" BTK seems a bit misplaced considering
that after 30 years of so-called investigation, police were not even able to tie three victims (Wegerle, Hedge and
Davis) to BTK. Let's also not forget that had it not been for his daughter, Kerri Rader, cooperating with the police
before the arrest, there probably would have been no arrest. It's hard to understand how so much investigative
effort on the part of Wichita police and the FBI failed to respond to the obvious clues in Rader's past that tied in
with the profile that had been developed for BTK:
·        He went to Wichita State University, where one BTK letter was photocopied and a Professor P.J. Wyatt had
exposed in her classes the poem "Oh, Death" from which BTK created one of his poems.
·        He was in the Air Force. It was long speculated that BTK got the letters from "Born To Kill," a USAF squadron
term. He may have met BTK victim Joseph Otero, also in the Air Force at that time.
·        He worked at Coleman's, where two other victims worked
·        He is an odd guy with a need to exert power and control as evidenced by the code compliance position he
held with the Park City government. Several of his neighbors have gone on the record calling him a bureaucratic
"bully." This type of behavior is consistent with a sadistic serial killer and should have been a red flag to
investigators.
·        He lived nearby some victims, even on the same street as one of them.
It will be interesting to know if Rader was on any of the lists of suspects that police had collected over the past 30
years and, if so, why did they not collect any DNA from him?
It would be very surprising if some other cold cases don't turn out to be BTK victims as well. To name a few that
have been listed by Wichita residents on Internet bulletin boards
·        "Nov. 12, 1974: Sherry Baker, a Wichita State University student
stabbed in her apartment. Hands tied behind back (with a coiled telephone cord)
No sign of forced entry.
·        June 29, 1985: Linda Shawn Casey, a Wichita State University student
found dead on the bedroom floor of her home bound, beaten, sexually assaulted, tabbed repeatedly. No sign of
forced entry. At the time, BTK was mentioned as a possibility but discounted due to the length of time since his
last known victim.
·        Nov, 12, 1999: Tina Frederick, lived a few blocks from BTK victim Shirley Vian.
Found shot to death in her apartment - lying on a bedroom floor."
Also, it's likely that there are even other BTK victims. Serial killers can't stop, they just become more imaginative
about hiding their crimes.
District Attorney Nola Foulston said there is no statute of limitations on murder. However, the dealth penalty was
not approved in Kansas until 1994. No death penalty applies to murder cases committed before 1994. In other
words, the BTK case may not a capital case, unless they can tie him to new murders that occurred in 1994 or
later.

Prosecutors will not be discussing the case publically after any charges are filed, Foulston said, to ensure that
information released does not harm the trial.

                                                                 Dennis Rader, suspect

Two new victims have been uncovered in the investigation, bringing the number of BTK victims from eight to ten.

The two victims most recently attributed to Rader have been identified as Marine Hedge, 53, and Delores "Dee"
Davis, 62. The Wichita Eagle reported that Hedge was abducted from her home on Independence Street in Park
City on April 27, 1985. She had been strangled by a pair of pantyhose and found eight days later on a rural dirt
road near 143rd East and 37th North Street. The article stated that the case bore marked similarities to several
other BTK murders in that, "the phone line at Hedge's home was cut" and her car had been driven from the crime
scene to another location. Roxana Hegeman of The Associated Press claimed that Rader actually lived on the
same street as Hedge.

Delores Davis was abducted from her home on January 19, 1991 and found 13 days later under a bridge on 117th
Street North near Meridian, Kansas. Her hands and feet had been bound with the pantyhose that were used to
strangle her. According to the Wichita Eagle, her murderer cut the phone line at her home and "then threw a brick
through a glass door at the rear of her home to get inside." After disposing of Davis' body, the killer drove her car
to another location and abandoned it. Davis' murder remained unsolved for more than a decade.

In 2004, there was a great deal of excitement when police arrested a man that the media believed was connected
to the BTK case. At around 7:30 in the evening on December 1, 2004 after a day of heavy surveillance, police
arrested a 64-year-old man at his south Wichita residence. It was initially reported that the arrest was made in
connection with the BTK case and was prompted by a tip off from an unidentified caller into the BTK information
hotline. However, investigators later denied that the man arrested was in any way linked to the murder
investigation.

Monday, Feb. 28 8:50 a.m. update: After 31-years, the identity of Wichita, Kansas' most notorious serial killer,
known as BTK, was made public after the suspect's arrest on February 26, 2005. Dennis L. Rader, 59, of Park City,
Kansas was taken into custody after having been stopped at a traffic light near his home on East Kechi Road
shortly after noon that day. Even though formal charges have not yet been filed, the authorities said, "they would
ask prosecutors to file 10 counts of first degree murder against Rader, including two murders in Park City that
had not previously been attributed to the BTK killer," it was reported in a February 26th MSNBC article.

Who is Dennis Rader? The question now on everyone's lips is, "Who is Dennis L. Rader?" Relatively little is know
about him, especially since prosecutors are reluctant to divulge too much information, which could harm the
up-coming trial. What is certain is that Rader spent most of his life in Park City.