Hey y’all did you enjoy the spring break? Sis you miss me? Because I sure as hell missed you! As per usual I have all the tea and I’m ready to share it. Did you bring the Easter eggs? I hope so! In the spirit of Easter I looked up “Murderers by people who thought they were Jesus.” 

(That was a bust) so I typed in “murderer claims to be Christ. (I’m thinking I was asking google too much, I didn’t know how else to write it!) 

So then it showed me douche bags like Chris Watts who “found God” in prison. (At this point I knew google truly didn’t understand me.) Then I saw a post about a “suspected” killer who claimed to be Christ just last month in El Paso. (So obviously there were not enough details.) But then I saw his name, Dennis Rader, better known as the BTK killer!

At a young age, Rader had “mommy issues.” The both of his parents worked and when they were home his mother payed him little to no attention. This caused him to resent her (I mean how dare you ignore your child Dorothea!) Over time Rader began to fantasize about torturing “trapped and helpless” women. (Again, MOMMY ISSUES!) 

He would watch women undress, steal their underwear, wear their underwear, masturbate with ropes around his arms and neck. (Yes you read that correctly!  Our friend Dennis was into  autoerotic asphyxiation, cross-dressingand voyeurism. As a part of his own sexual fantasy, he would wear women’s clothing and take pictures of himself bound while wearing a female mask. According to him, he was pretending to be his victims for his own sexual pleasure. Of course all this was hidden from the people around him. He was a college dropout after a year at Kansas Wesleyan University. He then served in the air force between 1966 and 1970. Once he was discharged he moved to Park City, Kansas. There he met Paula Dietz and married her on May 22 1971 (aww a spring wedding, how nice… but no) They had two kids Kerri and Brian. 

Fast forward to 1991, Rader became a Park City compliance officer and a dog catcher. Neighbors recall him being strict and enjoying the harassment of of single women (this included bullying.) 

Now by now you’re wondering okay Shanika, what does this have to do with Easter? Jesus? Well it has nothing to do with either really. Dennis Rader was a member of Christ Lutheran Church and had been elected president of the church council. 

Now does it really surprise you that the President of a church council was a serial killer? Might I add that he named himself? Like how sick and fame hungry do you have to be to name yourself? (Spoiler alert, his attention loving is what got him caught. He was WAY too full of himself.) 

On January 15, 1974, the BTS killer murdered four members of the Otero family; Joseph Otero, age 38; Julie Otero, age 33; Joseph Otero Jr., age 9; and Josephine Otero, age 11. Unfortunately the slain family was found by the three older children. They had been at school during the murders. (Now I didn’t understand why he killed the whole family if his anger was towards women… I assume it was to get his feet wet? Maybe to see if he could get away with it?) In October of that year, he stashed a letter detailing the gruesome murder in an engineering book in the local library. 

Over the next three years between 1974 and 1977 be killed three more women; Kathryn Bright (April 4, 1974), Shirley Vian Relford (March 17, 1977), and Nancy Fox (December 8, 1977). This time around there were no letter stashing but he sent it directly to the KAKE television station in Wichita taking ownership of all the murders. He then gave a few suggestions on what his name should be 🤦🏽‍♀️ he also DEMANDED media attention so that Wichita would know that a serial killer was amongst them. According to reports, Rader claimed to be a killer due to “factor X.” Which is described as a supernatural force that motivated other notorious people to kill such as: Jack the Ripper, the Son of Sam and the Hillside Strangler. (But wait, there’s more!) 

During a confession, our friend admitted that there was “the one who got away.” Her name was Anna Williams. Anna had gone out to visit friends and Rader grew “impatient” while waiting for her to get back home and left without killing her. It’s the fact that he said this for me! During the interview he said he was “absolutely livid” with Williams. (Yeah okay Mr. serial killer! Are we supposed to care that you’re upset?) 

On May 5 1985 a 53 year old Marine Hedge was found dead even though she was murdered by Radar on April 27th. On that treacherous day he took her dead body to the CHURCH where he was president of the council. He then took bondage photos of her. Prior to this, Rader had left black plastic sheets and other materials in the church in preparation of the murder. He dumped Marine’s body in a ditch in a ditch. This plan was called “Project Cookie.” (What kind of sick shit is this? Naming your murder plans?) 

Rader killed throughout the eighties and his last victim was found on February 1 , 1991. However, she was murdered on January 19. 

Rader had gotten away with murder until he resurfaced in 2004, after reaching out to the public media 11 times. 

In March 2004, the Wichita Eagle was sent a letter from a Bill Thomas Killman (BTS). In this letter Rader disclosed information about the death of Vicki Wegerle. He left gruesome photos enclosed in the letter along with a copy of her ID card. Which was declared stolen at the crime scene. Luckily police were able to retrieve DNA from under Wegerle’s fingernails leading to DNA testing of hundreds of men. In May 2004, the KAKE station received more letters, this time with fake stories and ID’s. On June 9th of that same year, a package taped to a stop sign in Wichita was found. Inside it contained details of Otero murders, there was also a sketched labeled “The Sexual Thrill Is My Bill.”

Now this is where our friend went wrong, in January 2005 he visited a Home Depot in Wichita. He then placed a cereal box in the bed of a pickup truck, but the driver discarded it. (Now remember how I said our friend was an attention freak? Yeah, that’s what got him in trouble.) In a message to the media, Rader asked what became of the cereal box. (Not so smart). Of course investigators checked the security footage from the exact date and were able to see someone who was driving a black jeep Cherokee leaving the box. 

Thinking he got away with it, he sent more letters in February 2005, this time asking the police if he could be traced if he submitted a floppy disk. (Because yeah they were on his side 🤦🏽‍♀️) 

They responded telling him no, they wouldn’t be able to trace him. He then sent a purple floppy disk On February 16, 2005 to KSAS-TV in Wichita. Unbeknownst to him, police found metadata in a deleted word document. The words “Christ Lutheran Church” were on the document and was last modified by “Dennis.” 

They did an internet search and found that a Dennis Rader was president of the church council. They drove by his house and noticed a black Jeep Cherokee. However, police needed hard evidence against Rader even though the floppy disk clearly linked him to the BTK killer (I never told you but BTK stands for “Bind, Torture, Kill”).

The icing on the cake for me is that police obtained a warrant to test his daughter’s PAP SMEAR! Yes, you read that correctly. The DNA tests showed that their was familial DNA between the pap smear and DNA found under the last victims nails. This was enough evidence for police to arrest Rader as he was driving home on February 25 2005. Three days later he was charged with 10 counts of first degree murder. On March 1st his bail was set to $10,000,000 and he was appointed a public defender (because he was a murderer not a billionaire.) On June 27th he plead guilty , described the murders and showed no remorse. 

During sentencing on August 18th he eventually apologized after hearing statements from his victims families. However it was more of a psychopathic monologue. Luckily for him Kansas had no death penalties at the time so he was only sentenced to life ten times with a 175 year minimum. Massachusetts psychologist Robert Mendoza diagnosed Rader with narcissistic, antisocial and obsessive–compulsive personality disorders. (That’s ALOT) 

There you have it folks, our church going president was a serial killer who loved attention and was caught thanks to his daughters Pap smear. (I can’t leave that out… EVER!) 

I really hope you enjoyed this weeks #MurderMysteryMondayBlog 

I’ll catch you guys next week.