Dennis L. Rader was born on March 9, 1945 in the unremarkable town of Wichita, Kansas. A member of four siblings, Rader was a quiet kid, smart, and was well-behaved by all accounts. His family was very religious, and from every aspect, young Dennis Rader was a normal, harmless kid. However, Dennis Rader had a dark secret. As admitted later in his life, Rader had a wild sexual fantasy of bondage, a young developing sadomasochist. He dreamed of tying up girls and having his way with them, but his desire for dominance was not entirely sexual. He admitted to killing cats and dogs by hanging them, and early in his teenage years he was caught by his mother. She was worried but just passed it off as boyhood curiosity. He learned to hide his fantasies and actions better, and decided to keep them a secret from the world.
As he continued on into high school, his fantasies became more and more of an obsession, and he became disinterested in school. As a result of his poor grades, he dropped out of Kansas Wesleyan College in Salina after only one year of school. He joined the Air Force in 1966 and served as a pilot in Vietnam until 1969. Upon his return he took up multiple low-level jobs; a grocer, a worker on an assembly line, and finally settling as a "glorified dog chaser" or a code enforcer. Less than a year after returning to Kansas from Vietnam, Rader was married to Paula Dietz, a fellow Lutheran who he had attended high school with. After a few years of his low level job, and returning to a night school to earn an Associate's degree, Rader began to fall back into the fantasy world of his youth.
In 1974, Rader began his life as a serial killer. From his first victim to his last, Rader never lost total control even after his first murder of the Otero family, as evidenced by the fact that he only murdered ten people in 17 years, even when in his own words he said "My desire for the feeling got stronger with each case, but I knew I would get caught." In 1975, Rader got a steady job for the first time in his life, as a manager at ADT, a company based in Kansas. He also had his first of two children, Brian. For two years after his first murder, Rader went rogue, not doing anything illegal but never leaving behind the scouting of victims. From 1976-1991 Rader had 6 more victims. After the first few cases, Rader made his cases public, writing letters with bad grammar, and leaving behind the name "The BTK Killer." However, the police were hot on his trail, and after 1980 he never released another public letter, and began to focus on building up a solid background as a citizen. He became a cub scout leader, encouraging his son all the way to becoming an Eagle Scout. He got more involved in his church, and built an ethos for him to hide behind in the public eye. In 1991 he made his last kill, and after that he became a Scout Ranger.
For awhile, the BTK Killer went silent. He was forgotten all around the country, mostly. People just assumed he had died, or been institutionalized. Kids had become adults, and no one knew the story of the BTK Killer. Until the 30th Anniversary of the Otero Murders in 2004, when the papers released an article, and a book was released within a month. This bothered Rader because he wanted to be the one to tell his own story. Rader was so infuriated that he began a series of 11 'drops' all containing evidence that could be used against him. The drops often included letters (with very poor grammar) from the BTK Killer himself, pictures of the murders, and even sometimes tools the killer used to commit the murders. These drops took about a year to complete, and after each one the FBI gained on the BTK Killer. Finally, on February 25, Dennis Rader was surrounded by police after leaving his office and heading to his car.
After confessing his guilt at court in June 25, 2005, Dennis Rader was sentenced to 10 life sentences or 175 years without parol at the El Dorado Facility in El Dorado, Kansas.
As he continued on into high school, his fantasies became more and more of an obsession, and he became disinterested in school. As a result of his poor grades, he dropped out of Kansas Wesleyan College in Salina after only one year of school. He joined the Air Force in 1966 and served as a pilot in Vietnam until 1969. Upon his return he took up multiple low-level jobs; a grocer, a worker on an assembly line, and finally settling as a "glorified dog chaser" or a code enforcer. Less than a year after returning to Kansas from Vietnam, Rader was married to Paula Dietz, a fellow Lutheran who he had attended high school with. After a few years of his low level job, and returning to a night school to earn an Associate's degree, Rader began to fall back into the fantasy world of his youth.
In 1974, Rader began his life as a serial killer. From his first victim to his last, Rader never lost total control even after his first murder of the Otero family, as evidenced by the fact that he only murdered ten people in 17 years, even when in his own words he said "My desire for the feeling got stronger with each case, but I knew I would get caught." In 1975, Rader got a steady job for the first time in his life, as a manager at ADT, a company based in Kansas. He also had his first of two children, Brian. For two years after his first murder, Rader went rogue, not doing anything illegal but never leaving behind the scouting of victims. From 1976-1991 Rader had 6 more victims. After the first few cases, Rader made his cases public, writing letters with bad grammar, and leaving behind the name "The BTK Killer." However, the police were hot on his trail, and after 1980 he never released another public letter, and began to focus on building up a solid background as a citizen. He became a cub scout leader, encouraging his son all the way to becoming an Eagle Scout. He got more involved in his church, and built an ethos for him to hide behind in the public eye. In 1991 he made his last kill, and after that he became a Scout Ranger.
For awhile, the BTK Killer went silent. He was forgotten all around the country, mostly. People just assumed he had died, or been institutionalized. Kids had become adults, and no one knew the story of the BTK Killer. Until the 30th Anniversary of the Otero Murders in 2004, when the papers released an article, and a book was released within a month. This bothered Rader because he wanted to be the one to tell his own story. Rader was so infuriated that he began a series of 11 'drops' all containing evidence that could be used against him. The drops often included letters (with very poor grammar) from the BTK Killer himself, pictures of the murders, and even sometimes tools the killer used to commit the murders. These drops took about a year to complete, and after each one the FBI gained on the BTK Killer. Finally, on February 25, Dennis Rader was surrounded by police after leaving his office and heading to his car.
After confessing his guilt at court in June 25, 2005, Dennis Rader was sentenced to 10 life sentences or 175 years without parol at the El Dorado Facility in El Dorado, Kansas.