How the Serial Killer Known as BTK Was Caught

[c.d.]

Watched a program on BTK the other night. To make a long story short, the police encouraged him throught the media to communicate with them. He sent them a computer floppy disk. They had their computer experts analyze it and they found that he had typed his first name (Dennis) as the computer user and it also listed the name of his church as the place where it was created.

Everyone involved said that the thing that amazed them the most was that he appeared to be such a normal person on the outside.

c.d.

[Errata]

This is how I know I am never going to be killed by my neighbors. They are all loud, rude, with a special kind of jaw dropping crazy you really only find in the American South.

[kensei]

Rader did not go uncaught for so many years because he was a cunning criminal. It was because he was almost unbelievably lucky. There were many times he could have easily been caught and he seems to have been saved every time by nothing but coincidental serendipity. He began by attacking almost an entire family without realizing how many of them were actually home, and after killing them he left evidence behind that he had to quickly come back and collect later before they were discovered. I hope I'm remembering this right- and someone please correct me if I'm wrong- but I think he followed that up by attacking a woman without knowing that her brother was with her and ended up struggling with the brother, who got a hold on Rader's gun and tried to shoot him with it but it jammed. Rader managed to successfully shoot the brother but he survived and escaped, and Rader didn't wear a mask so that attack could have easily resulted in either his capture or even his death. Then there was the woman who had kids present who Rader spared and left them locked in a bathroom, and as I recall she turned out to be ill at the time and her vomiting was a major buzz kill for how he had fantasized about the crime. Time after time, he failed to acheive his perfect fantasy and as a serial killer he was really quite a klutz. After one of his more successful crimes he also phoned it into 911 and left a record of his voice on tape. Stupid. How the man remained free for so long is anyone's guess.

And then, after having gotten away with it, a retrospective mention of him in the press years later offended him and caused him to start contacting the authorities again as he had in the past. Now that he was employed as a uniformed "compliance officer," he fancied himself being a peer of the police, almost a cop himself (which he really wasn't) and so he fantasized that he was on equal ground with them and that they had a real rapport going that was based on mutual respect. When he was caught because of the computer disc, he couldn't believe that they had lied to him and said that would be a safe method of communication. But he shifted into full confession mode, going on and on for many hours with them just so he could continue that rapport and be the center of attention. He really thought they found him fascinating and that they respected him as a peer and a worthy adversary. His greatest moment was when he got to confess to all of us in front of the cameras in court. Most of all, Rader reeeeeeally loves to talk about himself, and to express sadness only about himself, not about his victims at all. But when the prison door finally slammed shut behind him, he finally had his moment of, "Wait a minute... doesn't anybody want to talk to me anymore?"

God, I just LOVE IT when a notorious serial killer goes down that hard.

[Roy Corduroy]

No correction necessary, Kensei, I think you've got it all right and your point is well taken about luck.

After one of his more successful crimes he also phoned it into 911 and left a record of his voice on tape.

Yes and the call was traced to a pay phone. This was publicized, and it turns out a deputy fire chief was waiting across the street to use that phone. He came forward, of course, and remembered that the man who was using the phone, when he hung up, drove off in a white company van. Rader's place of work was nearby with white vans in the lot. But the police were unable to establish that connection. Not that I fault them. They put in many hours and did their best.

Roy

[Roy Corduroy]

...my neighbors. They are all loud, rude, with a special kind of jaw dropping crazy you really only find in the American South.

That's funny, I live in the South and all my neighbors are quiet, polite and genteel. It's a beautiful neighborhood and every lawn is perfectly manicured. The only blight is the death row lawyer who never rakes his leaves and whose yard is so ill-kept the grass won't grow.

Roy

[The Good Michael]

Roy,

Suburbs are suburbs. Covenants of neighborhoods force people to be a certain way. I think the South seems rude if one comes from the North and is not a WASP. I imagine the North seems rude to southerners as well, maybe because they are not glowingly hospitable.

Mike

[Barnaby]

Rader did not go uncaught for so many years because he was a cunning criminal. It was because he was almost unbelievably lucky.

Very true. I think the same could be said for JTR.

Which serial killers were truly cunning? Even ones considered intelligent like Bundy did incredibly impulsive things.

[Sister Hyde]

Even ones considered intelligent like Bundy did incredibly impulsive things.

Yeah and some like Dahmer got very ironic fate (dude Dahmer got eaten by his cellmate one day before his execution ahahahah)

[kensei]

Sister Hyde, I am confused by your post, to the point that I had to go and consult Wikipedia. What I remembered was hearing that Dahmer had been clubbed to death with something like a broomstick while cleaning a prison bathroom, but Wikipedia says that he and another man were both attacked together by a fellow inmate while working in the prison gym and were beaten with a weight bar. Dahmer died while en route to hospital, and the other victim died within a day or two. Not what I remembered at all, but as per your post, what did you mean about Dahmer's "execution"? He was not sentenced to death, but to 15 life terms. Wisconsin has not had the death penalty since 1853.

The irony, as you say, would be in the implement used to take Dahmer's life when his own first murder was committed with a barbell.

Also, in my first quick reading of your post I thought you wrote that Dahmer was "beaten" by his cellmate, but now I see that you actually wrote "eaten." Huh?

[Sister Hyde]

yeah i know the death of Dahmer was a bit weird he was convicted to 957 years in jail. the guys from Macabre were actually corresponding with him a lot (and the Dahmer album is just their very best), and yes he got a broomstick up his eye socket from Scarver (who was black, that's where the irony), what i'm counfounding with the story that his cellmate was also a cannibal and that they almost did eat eachother, but honestly what are the odds?
i gotta stop writing on fruday evenings while i'm in a prankish mood after a whole week of work, usually at this point the light is on but nobody's home (i usually start to talk gibberish mixing many languages, which i normally only do when close to a priest to pretend being possessed). when you need any info concerning serial killers the best source is mayhem.net but consult with caution, it can become very addictive.

[Sister Hyde]

great now i'm bugged, i know for sure a serial killer got killed a day before his execution exactly the same way that he killed, and because of that i can't rest until i've found it