Case Study BTK Maggie Lewis PDF

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Example paper of analysis of serial killer in regards to class cumulative class material including behavior, motives, typology, etc....

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Bind, Torture, Kill: The Deviant Behavior of a Normal Man Margaret D. Lewis Western Kentucky University Submitted to Dr. Carrie Trojan CRIM 456: Homicide and Serial Homicide April 18, 2021

Abstract The B.T.K. serial killer, meaning bind, torture, kill is one of the most prolific names among all serial homicide offenders. Dennis Rader, however was a perceived normal, churchgoing, employed husband, father, and troop leader. With his aforementioned public persona in consideration, there was much shock in discovering that not only was Dennis Rader B.T.K, but also that he was able to kill ten people of differing ages, genders, races, and backgrounds without remorse. Unlike other notorious serial killers, Rader lacked charm and charisma, however, his revealed inner-personality and deviant behavior did not lack the macabre twists that the mass media craves to exploit. Many who have studied and interacted with B.T.K. after his arrest have profiled and described him much differently than those who thought that they were close to Dennis Rader: sexual, sadistic, organized, a power-assertive killer, and a psychopath. In the coming sections of this paper, one will be able to gain a deeper understanding of Rader’s personal background, murders, modus operandi, profile, case-disposition, and sentencing. While many believe that they have a good understanding of who B.T.K. was, the proceeding information will shed light on a man whose offenses and predisposition leave much to be discussed.

Introduction Although people often feel inundated with news stories, documentaries, horror movies, and books about serial homicide, the truth is that the phenomenon is extremely rare in comparison to single-victim homicides and other types of violent crimes; however, this does not necessarily entail that the offenders that are covered by the media, as well as their crimes, are not as obscure and complex as they are conveyed (Williams, 2020). Dennis Rader, better known as the bind, torture, kill serial killer, or B.T.K., is no exception to this truth. Dennis Rader’s case has gained much notoriety, especially since his capture in 2005 in Wichita, Kansas. Although B.T.K.’s name has been spread far and wide through the means of several forms of media, many details relevant to his motives, personal nature, and crimes have been omitted for the sake of the dramatization or mere appropriateness. Despite the less than safe for work story that the entire entity of B.T.K. presents, it is important to conceptualize and study the life and crimes of Dennis Rader as more than stories and see them for the convoluted and ugly reality that they truly are; and the content of the following pages does just that.

Background B.T.K. was born as Dennis Lynn Rader on the day of March 9, 1945 in Pittsburgh Kansas to William and Dorthea Rader, the oldest of four boys. Dorthea and William were overall, very normal people. William was a veteran of the second world war and worked at the railroad, and Dorthea worked as a grocer at a local store throughout Dennis’ childhood. Unlike many serial killers, Dennis has no history of abuse, trauma, or head injury; the most that can be said for any complications concerning the introduction of Dennis Rader into this world was that his mother had admitted to smoking during her pregnancy, as well as dropping him as a baby (Kissel, Parks,

Zebrowski, & Neely, 2020, pg. 185). By all accounts, Rader’s classmates describe him as a normal child and teen stating that he was a good conversationalist, participated in school events, and enjoyed hunting and fishing. He was by no means a leader, but he was involved in his school and spent time with a regular group of friends. However, Dennis may not have been as normal as his friends had described, in fact, he discovered the extent of his deviant sexual tendencies and interests at a very young age. He describes feeling a sense of excitement as a child when watching his grandmother kill chickens by breaking their necks on her farm. Rader also described being aroused by seeing women bound by rope and cord. One particular instance he describes was seeking revenge on a teacher who humiliated him in early adolescence by watching her in her home and imagining tying her up and making her suffer. As he watched her, he would bind himself, or imagine binding himself, eventually leading to his first event of ejaculation (Dennis Rader: The Bind and Torture Killer | Real Crime). Another instance of Dennis Rader’s newfound pleasure is recalled when his mother discovered semen stains in his underpants and consequently spanked him for his unchristian-like behavior; rather than being upset or remorseful due to this embarrassing type of physical punishment, Dennis reports that he had an erection. These realizations eventually led to his ongoing, non-violent, sexual experimentation activities such as masturbating to detective magazines, drawing illustrations of his sexual fantasies, dreaming up “girl traps”, tying himself up, wearing and using his mother’s undergarments for his own pleasure, killing cats and masturbating as they died, and photographing himself in differing bound positions (Kissel, Parks, Zebrowski, & Neely, 2020, pg. 204). In Dennis Radar’s adult life, he appeared just as normal as he did throughout childhood. After going to college, Dennis joined the U.S. air force for four years before settling in Park City,

Kansas, a suburb of North Wichita. In 1971, he then married a girl native to the area named Paula Dietz, had two children, Brian and Kerri, and became employed as an assembly line worker. Dennis was also active as a deacon and congregation leader in his church, Christ Lutheran Church in North Wichita, where he spent many days working and participating in work and worship. He led his son’s boy scout troop, as well, although he would often sneak off during campouts to take erotic pictures of himself bound up wearing women’s clothing. As an adult, Dennis continued to read detective magazines and masturbate to pictures that he drew, stashing all of his erotic paraphernalia in a tree house behind his home. Dennis studied criminology and law in late adulthood and built a strong obsession with notorious serial killers such as Ted Bundy and The Night Stalker, which he would later use to his advantage. After his adult studies, Dennis became a compliance officer, enforcing compliance with city code throughout his jurisdiction in North Wichita. Rader took this job seriously and took weeks to build a strong case in response to a ticket appeal over a citation that he wrote to a woman for having her dog unleased in her front yard (Dennis Rader: The Bind and Torture Killer | Real Crime). Overall, Dennis Rader was perceived as a boringly normal, law-abiding family man, Christian, hard worker, and key contributor to his community.

Murders, Victims, and Crime Scene Dennis Rader killed ten people between the years of 1974 and 1991, the majority of whom met their demise through the means of strangulation. Before going into detail of the individual events concerning each individual incident of murder and its corresponding victim(s), it should be stated that Dennis Rader was rather routine and predictable in regards to the basic themes and series of events that comprised his homicidal ventures (Salfati, Bateman, 2005). The

first of these commonalities is stalking; Dennis Rader would troll for victims while going about his daily activities, such as grocery shopping, working, or walking in his neighborhood. His victims were not chosen for any specific reason or trait and seemed to have no connection with one another. All in all, B.T.K.’s victim selection was completely random. However, once Dennis chose a victim, they became prey whom he hunted, he so meticulously and calculatedly followed, tracked, and observed his victims that he referred to them as his “projects” (Williams, 2017). The second theme that can be observed throughout the entirety of B.T.K.’s homicides is self-expression. Before each murder he would inform the victim(s) that he had a sexual problem which he could not control and that he was not there to harm them, just to receive sexual pleasure. Although it may seem odd that Rader would preface his offenses with a miserable speech, this insincere and pitiful oration became part of his routine and contributed to the overall compliance of his victims and the ease in which he was able to perform his heinous and bizarre acts of violence, before finally killing them (Murray, 2017). Also seen in each murder was bondage with various materials such as ropes, ligatures, cords, and even panty hose. Rader bound victims in each event of homicide due to his sexual fetish surrounding the subject; in short, bondage was the main event in Dennis’ mind origin of his motive and pleasure (Bartels, Parsons, 2009). B.T.K. would pose the victim in an array of sexual positions as they were bound and masturbate, in one incident he even took pictures. Rader also tended to take souvenirs and mementos from each victim to add to his collection in the aforementioned tree house stash. Lastly, as many know, the “T” in B.T.K. stands for torture. In contrast to the belief of many, Dennis Rader did not slowly pull the teeth of victims, keep them entrapped for long periods of time, or break their bones, instead, his version of torture was much more heart wrenching and personal. Rader would always, if things went smoothly, strangle his victims with a ligature,

usually placing a plastic bag over their heads. The strangulation he inflicted upon his victims did not begin and end quickly. Instead in included B.T.K. applying immense pressure as he masturbated until the victim would lose consciousness. When he saw that the person was dying, he would relieve the pressure by letting off of the ligature, allowing the victim to catch their breath before tightening the ligature once more. He did this to prolong his own sexual pleasure, as it was dependent on his complete power over the victim as well as the duration of their struggling, and often he would ejaculate as they finally died (Kissel, Parks, Zebrowski, & Neely, 2020, pg. 197) (Murray, 2017). Although Dennis Rader murdered a total of ten people, he did so in a mere seven separate occasions. The first occasion, being the most lethal of the four, was comprised of the murders of an entire family, the Otero family. Joseph, Julia, Joseph jr., and Josephine Otero were murdered in their home on January 15, 1974 and are the first known victims of B.T.K. In order to gain access to their home, Rader showed them a photograph of an individual, asking Josephine, age 11 to ask her mother if she recognized the person in the picture. Josephine allowed Rader into the Otero home to wait on her mother, eventually leading to Rader’s revealing of a handgun. Rader used the handgun to instill initial compliance in his victims and began what would become a routine oration on his deviant sexual tendencies, lack of desire to harm, and need for release (Dennis Rader: The Bind and Torture Killer | Real Crime). Eventually, Rader killed the father of the family, Joseph, first in order to eliminate the extended threat of another adult male present at the scene, suffocating him with a plastic bag. Next, Dennis bound the mother of the family, as well as both children, strangling the mother first to begin his sexual arousal. Next, he suffocated the son, Joseph jr. with a plastic bag and attempted to suffocate his sister Josephine. However, Josephine continued to fade in an out of consciousness, so Rader resorted to hanging her alive

(Williams, 2017). After the death of all four family members, Dennis Rader proceeded to ejaculate on Josephine as she hung and then return home to his family as if nothing of significance had happened (Dennis Rader: The Bind and Torture Killer | Real Crime). In the very same year, on April 4, Dennis Rader stalked Kathryn “Kathy” Doreen Bright, a college student, to her home in Wichita. He waited for her return at the end of the day with a handgun. To Rader’s surprise, Kathy returned home alongside her brother, who was also a student. Due to this unexpected turn of events, Rader moved quickly, improvising that he was a criminal on his way to New York who was in need of food and a car, eventually forcing Kathy’s brother, Kevin, to tie her up, after which he bound Kevin. In the midst of Dennis’ sexually aroused state at observing Kathy struggle in her bonds, Kevin escaped and ran for help. In response, B.T.K. shot Kevin in the head. When his attention was returned to Kathryn Bright, where he noticed she was beginning to free herself. As he did not want her to escape his power, he stabbed her to death several times with a knife in slight panic. Kevin, on the other hand did not die, he came to and began screaming for the police (Dennis Rader: The Bind and Torture Killer | Real Crime). In court, Dennis Rader stated that he was unaware of Kevin’s survival and that he would have died and that Kathy would have been strangled if he had brought his “hit kit” with him. B.T.K. regarded this murder, as well as his first as the worst two among his series due to his inability to completely control his surroundings. However, to the good fortune of Dennis Rader, Kevin Bright was unable to recall any information other than Rader’s race and possible age when speaking to the authorities (Williams, 2017). In 1977, B.T.K. struck again, killing two women within seven months of one another. The first was Shirley Ruth Vian Relford, on March 17. Shirley was a 26-year-old single mother of three young children. Rader obtained entry to the home in the same fashion that he had used to

enter the Otero home, showing one of the children a picture of a “missing child”. The child retrieved his mother, sick with the flu at the time, to take a second glance at the photograph. Shirley immediately invited Rader in to further discuss the case pertaining to the individual in the picture and see if she could provide any help. Upon entry, Rader revealed a gun, and proceeded to share his sexual issues and fantasies with Shirley, warning her to cooperate so that the whole event could end sooner. Shirley responded by throwing up and then complying. Before binding Shirley with tape, he took the time to lock the children in the bathroom, providing them with a few toys to keep them busy until he could complete the plan he had laid out for their mother’s demise. He then fashioned a plastic bag over Shirley’s face and strangled her with a rope. When Rader went to retrieve the children so he could reenact his favorite part of the Otero murder with Shirley’s daughter, he noticed that the children had escaped through the window. Instead of looking for the children, B.T.K., simply retrieved some pairs of Shirley’s panties and left the scene through the same door that he had entered (Kissel, Parks, Zebrowski, & Neely, 2020, pg. 204). The second aforementioned murder was the event that Rader considers his favorite and most successful kill (Williams, 2017). In December, B.T.K. waited for Nancy Fox in her apartment, cutting her phone line before she returned home from work. When she arrived Rader, again, told Nancy of his sexual urges, explaining his problem and that he would have to tie her up to achieve sexual release. Nancy was calm, agreed to the rape in order to get it over with, held a conversation with Rader, smoked a cigarette, and gave herself up. Dennis tied her feet, handcuffed her to the bead and strangled her. He prolonged her death through his method of torture: tightening and releasing the ligature to continue her struggle throughout different stages of consciousness before finally killing her when he was ready to orgasm. Rader then called the

police to report the crime himself from a payphone, he was pleased with himself because things went smoothly (Dennis Rader: The Bind and Torture Killer | Real Crime). After an eight-year cooling period, B.T.K. began trolling for another victim, settling on his neighbor, four doors down in 1985. The woman Dennis chose as his next project was fiftythree-year-old Marine Hedge. Rader had prepared for this murder, as he had been casing Marine for some time. To provide himself an alibi, Rader executed this murder while on a cub scout campout, where he was acting as chaperone for his son. When all of the children went to sleep, Dennis snuck into Marine’s home and bound and strangled her until she died. Afterwards, he took her body to the Christ Lutheran church where he posed her in several sexual positions to take pictures of her as she was dead in the pantyhose bindings that he had placed around her hands, feet, and torso. Previously, Dennis had dug a grave near the campsite to place Marine’s body, but did not return to the area due to the risk of time and proximity to witnesses. Instead, he discarded Marine’s body in a ditch on the side of a road in Wichita. Later, Rader returned to the grave he had prepared for Marine to take photos of himself tied up in his female victim’s clothing to use for his own sexual pleasure. In 1986, B.T.K. killed Vicki Weggerle, age 28. Vicki came home with her baby to find Dennis waiting for her where repeated his routine of pulling a handgun on the young mother, describing his sexual perversions and the events to come, binding her on her bed, torturing her to death using techniques strangulation and suffocation, and leaving the scene. Weggerle’s husband arrived home soon after Dennis had left to find his wife bound and motionless. Vicki’s husband immediately cut her loose, believing her to be alive. He then, called the police whom pronounced Vicki dead at the scene (Dennis Rader: The Bind and Torture Killer | Real Crime). B.T.K.’s last victim was Delores Davis who was 62 years of age. In

typical B.T.K. fashion, Delores was handcuffed, bound, and strangled slowly. Her body was placed on the side of the road near a dead dog for a young boy to find (Williams, 2017).

Disposition of The Case

After two cooling periods, ten victims, and seven separate murder events, B.T.K. met his demise at his own hands. This being said, Dennis Rader was able to escape detection for around thirty years. The success of this anonymity is hard to believe based on the fact that Dennis was constantly contacting both the media and the police throughout the entirety of his homicide series. This “friendly banter” (Williams, 2017), was Rader’s way of ensuring his infamy, inclusion in the media, and power over the fear of the public. For example, after killing Kathy Bright, Dennis saw a report that three other men were suspected of the crime. Infuriated and intrigued, Rader wrote the police department, threatening the community and to kill again, as well as giving them nickname options that he created himself that they label him as when speaking to the media about his murders. He also contacted the police department to take credit after murdering Shirley Vian post-cooling period due to the fact that they did not connect her death to his previous victims because of the time-lapse that had occurred between the killings. After the killing of Nancy Fox, B.T.K. reported the crime himself over payphone so as to receive immediate validation and notice of his actions before contacting K.A.K.E. news to take credit for the kill and submit a poem dedicated to Nancy along with an illustration. In response, lock sells in Wichita, Kansas increased drastically (Kissel, Parks, Zebrowski, & Neely, 2020, pg. 207). With the constant communication to the police department, officers and detectives formed a task force to track down B.T.K. The group was unsuccessful for many years until the thirty-year

anniversary of the appearance of B.T.K. covered by the Wichita Eagle (Dennis Rader: The Bind and Torture Killer | Real Crime). Dennis responded to his reinstated fame by writing several letters to the police station to remind them of his “projects”, setting up scavenger hunts for detectives around Wichita including cereal (a pun on serial) boxes and dolls recreating the bondage his victims were discovered in. His own demise was met when he asked the police department if they could trace the origin of a ...