Nicknamed “The BTK Killer” on his recommendation, after a letter that he sent to the police detailing a list of suggested names for his sick career as a serial killer, Dennis Rader always followed the same standard procedure for his murders: he would bind, torture and then kill her victims, usually women.
Known by his neighbors as a “polite” and “well-mannered” man, his criminal behavior displayed a typical case of erotophonophilia, the category to which belong the “lust murderers”: those who extract sexual gratification from killing.
With a long string of murderers that spanned over seventeen years, Rader successfully evaded capture from 1974 until 2005, when he was identified and arrested due to his attempts to be remembered as a killer.
Keep reading as we revise ten facts about the chilling, blood-curdling actions of this Kansas-born monster.
10 /10 A Mother's (Lack Of) Love
Like so many murderers and twisted individuals, Rader’s life began with trouble at home.
However, unlike the usual stuff that turns people into killers (or unleashes those tendencies, at least: domineering, abusive parents, especially mothers with control issues or overzealous about their religion), Rader’s parents were the other way around: they didn’t pay any attention to their children, often being away for long hours to work.
Rader would later claim: “I did have a little … a little bit of grudge against momma.”
9 /10 First Steps
Indeed, the first time that he experienced sadistic urges was against his mother: her ring got caught in a sofa spring, and as she anxiously asked her son to release her trapped hand, Rader felt excited at the sight of a trapped female “looking to him in terror.”
He would start to take out these urges on small animals that he captured and tortured away from the sight of those who knew him as a typical teenager.