Content advisory: The following article contains descriptions and reference to sexual violence, assault, and murder, including minor victims. Please take care while reading.
Of all the serial killers over the years, few retain the level of notoriety of Dennis Rader, better known as the BTK killer. BTK, by the way, is not a Burger King special, but an abbreviation of “bind, torture, kill” that the notorious deviant gave himself.
Rader, like a number of serial killers, was an upstanding citizen who gave people no real reason to suspect his secret life, although there were some subtle signs. He was a married man with kids, and ironically worked for ADT Security Services, installing alarms which people wanted to install because they feared him.
He even was elected president of his church council and also served as a cub scout leader. There is a lot of information out there about Rader, and it can be hard to differentiate one from another. That’s where we come in: we’ve sifted through the seemingly hundreds of podcasts, documentaries and movies about the killer to only bring you the very best. Before that, let’s do a summary of the man and his history to help with context.
Who was the BTK Killer?
In case you’re curious as to what the heck’s going on in the above photo, it’s a selfie police found in side Dennis Rader’s home. He liked to dress up in his victim’s clothes and underwear, tie himself up and take photos. But let’s start at the beginning.
Rader aka the BTK killer murdered 10 people between 1974 and 1991. He was born in Wichita, Kansas, and when he was a child, he murdered and dismembered animals and nurtured sick fantasies about bondage and rape.
He served in the Air Force in the ’60s and by 1970 he was back in Wichita with a wife and two children. He committed his first murders on January 15, 1974 – strangling four family members, two of them children.
Later that year, Rader murdered a 21-year-old woman by stabbing her. He left a note in a library book in the Wichita State Library saying that “the code words for me will be…bind them, torture them, kill them, B.T.K.”
He killed five more women over the next twenty years, but grew frustrated by the lack of media coverage. He wrote a letter to a local TV station and said “How many people do I have to kill before I get a name in the paper or some national attention?” This subsequently set off a panic.
He didn’t murder again for eight years, and his last murder was a 62-year-old woman. All the cases eventually went cold. In 2004, he started sending packages to media and leaving things around Wichita. In 2005, police recovered a cereal box sent by Rader (cereal – serial) that asked if police would be able to trace a floppy disk he sent.
They said it was safe and he stupidly sent it and was caught when the disk traced back to his local church where he was the president.
Essential BTK Podcasts, Movies and Documentaries
One of the most fascinating things about the BTK killer is that he pretty much got away with everything except in the end his ego got him. He wanted the attention for his crimes and because of that, police were able to track him down.
Let’s take a look at some media that tell the story the best.
True Crime All The Time
The True Crime All The Time podcast is one of the most thorough true crime podcasts around. Hosts Mike Ferguson and Mike Gibson deep dive into all the nuances and asides from the BTK story, and they know how to pace a narrative in a satisfying way.
They dive into the “why” just as much as they dive into the “how” when it comes to Rader’s story, and they don’t spare any details at all. And as a bonus: it’s a two-parter!
BTK: Confession of a Serial Killer
This in-depth doc, which originally premiered on the A&E, also does a deep dive on the psychology behind the killings. Dr. Katherine Ramsland, a professor of forensic psychology, goes into intimate detail about Rader’s upbringing and how that shaped him as he grew up.
It’s a fascinating deep dive from an academic standpoint, and a must see for anyone considering a career in criminal psychology.
MindHunter
If you’re looking for a more fictionalized version of the BTK story, look no further than the excellent Netflix crime show MindHunter. During its two seasons, the show provides little vignettes of Rader’s daily life.
What’s really interesting is the story of the killer is adjacent to the main narrative of the show. We follow Rader during his time in an office (presumably when he worked for ADT), through casing a house, and dropping off letters for people to find.
In one harrowing scene, he gets plastic gloves, tape and a revolver together on top of a winter coat.
I Survived BTK
I Survived BTK is a 2010 documentary about Charlie Otero as he explores what happened to his four family members, who brutally perished the BTK Killer broke into the Otero family home. Charlie came home from school on January 15, 1974 and discovered the deceased bodies of his family.
It’s a tough portrait of the detritus left behind after your whole family is killed, and how those mental scars never really heal.
BTK: A Killer Among Us
This TV movie explores the case from all angles, and feature interviews with investigators and family members who were forced to deal with the killer’s actions. It looks into not only his crimes but the time he spent while not committing murders, and how his own ego led to his capture.
Snapped Notorious: The BTK Serial Killer
This popular show on the Oxygen network gives viewers the BTK story in true Snapped style. It also features an exclusive peek at photos from crime scenes and his bondage selfies he took as recreations of his crimes.
There are also some interviews with people who were close to Rader in his personal life, including a co-worker who talked about what it was like “looking into the eyes of BTK.”