In many instances, he would strangle his victims long enough for them to lose consciousness and then would let them come back enough to tell them that he was BTK and he was going to kill them.
The first of the 10 murders were a father, mother and two of their children: the Otero family. He forced the family into a small bedroom at gunpoint, tied them up, covered their heads with plastic and cloth so they couldn't tear the plastic or breathe through the cloth, tied the head coverings around their necks with rope, and sat to watch them die. He did this with all members of the Otero family except the 11-year-old girl, Josephine (Josie), whom he strangled until she lost consciousness, allowed to come back, and then led to the basement to hang her.
Rader strung a noose over a pipe in the basement and allowed the little girl to touch the floor only with her tiptoes. When her strength ran out, she would die from the hanging. Rader watched her as this happened, and masturbated at the same time. Afterall, his primary target in the house was little 11-year-old Josie. She was the subject of his sexual fantasy.
The next victim was Kathryn Bright, a young lady who lived alone. On the day Rader decided to strike, Kathryn's brother Kevin was visiting her. That didn't stop Rader. He tied Kevin up, went to kill his sister, and when Kevin tried to escape, Rader shot him twice in the head to keep him from getting away. He survived, ran from the house bleeding profusely from the head. His sister wasn't as fortunate. Kevin was the only person to survive Rader's attack.
After Kathryn was Shirley Vian Relford. Shirley had three small children at the time: two boys and a girl. Vian, herself, was very ill at the time of Rader's attack. She vomited once, and Rader gave her some water "to calm her down," and then she vomited again. Since the children were trying to intervene (Vian didn't want them witnessing anything, and they weren't Rader's primary targets), Vian and Rader put the children in a bathroom right next to the bedroom. Rader put a few toys and a blanket in the bathroom "to comfort them," and then blocked the door to the bathroom with Vian's bed.
Rader tied Vian to the bed, strangled her with a pair of pantyhose and her nightgown, and had plans to rape her, but apparently didn't. The kids said someone was supposed to be arriving at their house any moment, so Rader left. He told the investigators that had someone not been coming over, he probably would have killed the boys and done something similar to the little girl, Stephanie, as he had to Josie Otero.
Next were Nancy Fox and Marine Hedge, the latter of which was an older lady. Both, I believe, lived in the same general area as Rader and his family. If I remember correctly, he took the body of Marine Hedge to HIS OWN CHURCH, took her inside and took pictures of her dead body in bondage positions, and even LAID HER DEAD BODY ON THE ALTER! And he professed to be a Christian! No wonder his congregation turned its back on him!
I find it difficult to understand how his pastor could even look at him, let alone counsel him and offer opportunities for confession to him! In fact, his pastor was a frequent visitor. That pastor truly should be praised for his willingness to speak God's Word to someone who showed no regard for God's law or creations when he was out as part of society.
After those was Vicki Wegerle, a mother of two young children. She had dropped off her daughter Stephanie at school that morning and was taking care of her two-year-old son at home when Rader came to her door pretending to be a telephone repair man. He had already cut the phone lines at this time. She let him in, and he attacked. Rader said she, like Kathryn Bright, "fought like a hellcat." He said Wegerle had scratched him in the face before he strangled her, and he asked investigators if they could see a scar from it. He told them he knew they probably found skin under her fingernails, a detail that was never released to the public.
His last victim was Delores "Dee" Davis, whom he killed in 1991 (about six months after my family moved to Wichita). Her children were older and had children of their own. They were all very important to her. Rader broke into her house, strangled and killed her, and then dumped her body in a ditch some distance from her home. After he left her body, he came back a few times to visit it, at one point putting a mask on her face.
All this he did to fulfill his sexual fantasies. As a child, he had tortured animals, even hanging them to death. He said it wasn't until he was in the Air Force in the 1960s that he learned much about sex, and when he did, he started incorporating sex into his torture fantasies.
When he wasn't killing people, he would look at magazine and catalog advertisements of women in lingerie or in bondage positions. He had cut out hundreds of them and affixed them to note cards. He would pick one out everyday, put it in his pocket, and pull it out to look at and fantasize over during the day. He would make notes on the back of the note card about what he would do to that model given the chance. That would satisfy his sexual fantasies for a while.
At one point, he even left his son at a Boy Scout overnight (for which he was a scout leader) so he could commit a murder, and then he returned to the camp!
Had law enforcement not caught Rader, he would have killed at least once more: he already had an 11th victim picked out in northern Kansas. He even had a grave dug for her. He told investigators that she would have been his "grand finale." In other words, he viewed his life as a serial killer as his career, and he was planning to retire, going out with a bang.
He said that this woman who would have been his last victim had a routine that he could time perfectly within about five minutes. People with a routine, he said, didn't fair too well with him. That attack, he said, would have been just perfect. Fortunately, the woman's life was spared.
At the conclusion of the sentencing, the family members of those Rader had killed stood to give statements or speeches either directed to the court or to Rader, himself. One of the most memorable and honest speeches came from Jeff Davis, the son of Delores Davis, Rader's last victim. Here's a portion of what he said:
"If I were spiteful, I would remind you that it is only fitting that a twisted, narcissistic psychopath, obsessed with public attention, will soon have his world reduced to an isolated solitary existence in an 80-square-foot cell doomed to languish away the rest of your miserable life, alone.
"If I had your devil nature, I would delight in the fact that your congregation has turned its back on you, that your friends have deserted you, that your wife has divorced you, that your own children have disowned you. And then I would remind you that you will never have any warm, loving human contact again for the remainder of your twisted existence.
"If I were cynical, I would remind this court that you would return to your murderous ways in a heartbeat if given the opportunity, so for the safety of society, you must remain caged forever like any other vicious predatory animal."
It really summed up what everyone was thinking and feeling at the moment. Rader pretended to get teary-eyed during the speech. It didn't fool anyone.
In the testimony Rader gave to those who captured him, he described his view of "heaven," where the women he had killed would be his sex slaves, and Josie Otero would be his "mistress." The men he had killed would be his servants. This was all described in notebooks that Rader had kept over the years, and yet at the end, he tried to say "it was all smoke." That didn't fool anyone, either.
Then Rader was allowed to speak. He rambled for about 25 minutes, making no real sense in relation to the charges of murder. He thanked the prosecution, his own lawyers, the judge, the jailers... as if he were receiving an Academy Award! Then he told the victims' families that there was "no way I could ever repay you," as if to say thank you for the lives he was able to take and make a part of his "career" as a serial killer!
What surprised me in the beginning, and then at the reminding of it at the end, was that Rader was given a psychological evaluation to try to determine if he was insane, and was deemed completely sane. He knew exactly what he was doing.
Now, he's been transferred to the El Dorado Correctional Facility (high-security prison), where he will spend 23 of 24 hours every day locked in a cell. He has been sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms with no possibility of parole for 40 years. He's 60 years old now. The door to his cell is solid metal, with a small opening in the door where they deliver his meals and medication, if he needs any.
He will not be allowed to socialize with the prison population because he is considered a "high-risk" inmate. Not high-risk because he's a serial killer, but high-risk because the other inmates, even those who have also committed multiple murders, have no respect for anyone who harms children. Rader not only killed children, but had actually masturbated after killing at least one. Because of that, he is considered a pedophile. Pedophiles don't fair well in prison.
For that one hour each day that he is allowed outside his cell, he will be accompanied by a few guards to keep other inmates from killing him.
Personally, I think he deserves whatever may be coming to him from the other prisoners.
Maybe that's unChristian-like, but he seems to be very much controlled by Satan. I don't know how he was ever able to enter the doors of a church, especially with the body of a woman he had murdered, without bursting into flames!
May God bless the families who remain, and also the memories of their loved ones who were taken from them far too soon. May He also protect the rest of us from the evils in this world, especially those like Dennis Rader.
1 comment:
I have no words for this, but thanks for the excellent summary.
Post a Comment