BTK suspect said to confess to some killings

[ghost of miles]

A churchgoing family man and Cub Scout leader:

BTK

[Eric]

A churchgoing family man and Cub Scout leader:

BTK

I grew up in Wichita when this was going on ... pretty chilling at the time, although it still is. I am glad for the families that they caught this guy. Why do these guys so often otherwise seem "normal" ...

[ghost of miles]

Rader items hot on eBay auctions

Letters from the BTK suspect -- and copies of The Eagle -- are getting lots of bids online.

BY DEB GRUVER

The Wichita Eagle

When her dog Shooter's rabies shot expired, Melanie Dovak received a reminder letter from Park City compliance officer Dennis Rader.

On Saturday, Dovak posted the letter on eBay for a starting price of $9.95.

Other eBay members also were selling Rader letters, business cards and copies of Sunday's Wichita Eagle.

The online auction pulled Dovak's listing--and those of some others selling Dennis Rader-related items--Saturday night, citing eBay rules for listings it deems inappropriate.

Rader worked for Park City as a compliance supervisor, in charge of animal control and general code enforcement. Dovak said she received the rabies reminder letter from him Feb. 20.

Dovak's eBay description of the letter read: "31-year search has ended for the most sought-out, notorious serial killer of the mid-western United States and perhaps the world!"

eBay sent Dovak an e-mail saying it had ended her listing and refunded fees to her account.

In the e-mail, eBay said it "has always exercised judgment in allowing or disallowing certain listings consistent with the spirit of a worldwide community."

Included in the items eBay said it generally removes are letters or artwork from "notorious murderers."

"I think it's hogwash, personally," said Dovak, a Park City resident.

Before eBay pulled her listing, she had received 15 bids, the highest for $142.50.

Dovak reposted her letter Sunday, rewording the description and including a disclaimer that Rader is presumed innocent until proven otherwise in a court of law.

But by Sunday afternoon, when other eBayers started selling copies of the Sunday Eagle featuring photographs of Rader and eight pages of coverage, Dovak had received so many "hate e-mails" from people accusing her of trying to profit from grisly crimes that she decided to take the listing down again.

"I've gotten at least 30," she said.

Someone sold a Dennis Rader business card for $157.50. It received 28 bids and sold late Saturday.

Another letter from Rader sold Sunday morning for $55 and received 31 bids.

The starting price for one letter Rader signed was $400.

A man who identified himself as Jimmy Woo on a Yahoo e-mail address said he received two copies of a letter from Rader about three weeks ago related to limbs in his yard.

"I actually spoke to him on the phone on the 18th to notify him the yard was cleaned up," Woo wrote in an e-mail. "He was very polite and very friendly. I had the idea to sell it (the letter) to maybe raise some money that I could then give to a BTK victims fund."

By midafternoon Sunday, more than 25 people had asked Woo about the letter.

Many people Sunday were selling copies of The Eagle's coverage of Rader's arrest. One copy of the Sunday paper had a "buy-it-now" price of $24.99, not including shipping.

A Sunday copy of The Eagle costs $1.50 at newsstands or retailers.

[patricia]

A churchgoing family man and Cub Scout leader:

BTK

I grew up in Wichita when this was going on ... pretty chilling at the time, although it still is. I am glad for the families that they caught this guy. Why do these guys so often otherwise seem "normal" ...

They seem so "normal" because, aside from their crimes, they are.

There is no Mark of Cain. The reason that mass murderers, pedophiles and rapists can walk among us, undetected, is that look like us. They don't look like the monsters they are. That's why murders, molestations and rapes continue to happen. These warped people are US . That's what is so disturbing.

[AfricaBrass]

A churchgoing family man and Cub Scout leader:

BTK

I grew up in Wichita when this was going on ... pretty chilling at the time, although it still is. I am glad for the families that they caught this guy. Why do these guys so often otherwise seem "normal" ...

They seem so "normal" because, aside from their crimes, they are.

There is no Mark of Cain. The reason that mass murderers, pedophiles and rapists can walk among us, undetected, is that look like us. They don't look like the monsters they are. That's why murders, molestations and rapes continue to happen. These warped people are US . That's what is so disturbing.

Here's a case of a repressed personality at work.

This guy must have been so wrapped tight to go nuts like this. Heck, I think some of the other stuff he did (like measuring the height of grass) was nuts also.

I tell you this; I'd rather have a GAY Cub Scout leader for my son than a tight-assed wack-job like this guy.

Edit: All I'm saying is that people like this guy are the ones screaming that everybody should live like themselves. I think not.

Edited February 28, 2005 by AfricaBrass

[ghost of miles]

A churchgoing family man and Cub Scout leader:

BTK

I think I'll phone mein freund over at the NSA and see if he can help to crack the code here. I just know there's a cynical little message hidden somewhere in there.

Just the facts, Doc... you spend too much time perusing those dusty tomes!

Signed,

Spouse of a churchgoer & former Cub Scout/Boy Scout

P.S.

Say, howza 'bout getting your buddy over at NSA to call in a surgical missile strike on the office of a certain Universal Music employee? Tell him we've heard reports that a WMD is hidden onsite... either that or a number of Bill Evans box-sets being held hostage.

[Randy Twizzle]

I totally agree with AfricaBrass. I don't want a serial killer being my son's Cub Scout leader either, especially those tight-assed types.

[AfricaBrass]

I totally agree with AfricaBrass. I don't want a serial killer being my son's Cub Scout leader either, especially those tight-assed types.

They'll have to change their rules for pack leaders to include "no serial killers:.

You got me... I meant, I'd rather not have a tightly wrapped person as my son's Cub Scout leader (even if he's not a serial killer).

[DTMX]

They'll have to change their rules for pack leaders to include "no serial killers:.

Not to mention keeping an extra-careful eye on the scout who only has badges in knot-tying and taxidermy.

[RDK]

Funny it took so long to get this guy. You'd think that Scout Merit Badge for "Serial Killing" would have given him away long ago...

[sheldonm]

Funny it took so long to get this guy. You'd think that Scout Merit Badge for "Serial Killing" would have given him away long ago...

hmmm.......RDK.......BTK......????? Could there be a connection????

[RDK]

Well this was my Halloween costume last year...

[AmirBagachelles]

RDK - you're way off base, but I guess I am too. I was sure BTK was Michael Jackson.

[Alexander]

Funny thing...they aired an episode of "Law and Order: SVU" last night that was loosely based on the BTK killer in which the killer was called RDK!

[sheldonm]

Funny thing...they aired an episode of "Law and Order: SVU" last night that was loosely based on the BTK killer in which the killer was called RDK!

...I knew it!

[Guest Chaney]

Guys, please. I'd ask that I be forgiven for the thread-crap but... serial murder is now grist for fun?

On January 15, 1974, a chilly winter day, 15-year-old Charlie Otero began his afternoon walk home from school. Charlie, his parents, and four siblings had recently moved into a quiet peaceful suburban neighborhood in a small frame house located at 803 North Edgemoor Street.

Charlie, happy that another school day had come to an end, walked gingerly up the side walk towards his home. As he opened the front door and walked into the living room, nothing immediately seemed out of the ordinary. "Hello, is anyone home?" he called out into the quiet house. There was no response. Not even a bark from his dog. Such quiet was unusual. With some trepidation, Charlie walked toward his parents' bedroom. A strange feeling of dread welled up inside him.

Charlie's father, Joseph, 38, was lying face down on the floor at the foot of his bed; his wrists and ankles had been bound. His mother, Julie, 34, lay on the bed bound in similar fashion, only she had been gagged. For a few seconds, Charlie could not move, he didn't know what to do. Moments later his senses came back to him and he rushed out in desperation to get help for his parents, not realizing that he had experienced only a portion of the horror that the house had in store.

A neighbor who came over to the house to help realized that when he tried to call the police, the phone lines had been severed.

As the police searched the house, they were shocked to find nine-year-old Joseph II in his bedroom face down on the floor at the foot of his bed. His wrists and ankles were also bound, the only difference being that over his head was a hood -- and according to one reporter, he had three hoods covering his head.

The worst was yet to come. Downstairs in the basement, Charlie's eleven-year-old sister, Josephine, was discovered hanging by her neck from a pipe; she was partially nude, dressed only in a sweatshirt and socks, and she had been gagged.

Investigators were stunned at this daytime execution-style multiple murder in such a quiet neighborhood.

From the very beginning of this case, police have been very cautious about revealing the details of the murders. What they did say was that all four of the victims had been strangled with lengths of cord cut from a Venetian blind. There were no cords like that in he house, so the killer had brought the cords, hoods, tape, wire cutters and possibly a gun with him.

According to Capt. Paul Dotson of the Wichita Police Department, semen was found throughout the house, and it appeared as though the killer had masturbated on some of the victims, although none had been sexually assaulted. Joseph Otero's watch was missing from the scene and has never been recovered. Aside from Julie Otero's purse being dumped and the missing watch, there was no real evidence of forced entry, robbery, or a struggle.

The coroner determined that all four murders occurred well before noon and very likely around 8 or nine in the morning. Police theorized that while Joseph Otero was driving the older three children to school that the murderer gained entry into the house where Julie and her two younger children were by themselves. Once the killer subdued and bound the three of them, he waited for Joseph to come home to take the younger two children to school and caught him by surprise. Someone had put the Oteros' notoriously unfriendly large dog out in back of the house.

The killer hung around for about an hour an a half, then took the Otero family car and left it parked near Dillons grocery not far away. Otero's neighbors noticed a man, possibly with a dark complexion, leaving Otero's home in their car.

[Jim Alfredson]

That is so messed up. Yuk.

We humans can be some sick fuckers, can't we?

[Guest Chaney]

I can't say that I believe in an eye for an eye but in cases such as these...

[Alexander]

Guys, please. I'd ask that I be forgiven for the thread-crap but... serial murder is now grist for fun?

No, not grist for fun. But it is a natural human reaction to try to take the edge off of horror by making light of it. Call it "gallows humor."

Nobody is sure *why* serial killers go 'round the bend and do the things they do, but psychologists and criminal profilers believe that it has to do with obsessive-compulsive behavior coupled with emotional detachment and (most importantly) a kind of magical thinking (highly structured) in which everything the killer does *makes perfect sense* and in fact *is perfectly justifiable.* These last two points are probably the most disturbing. In one case, a man who murdered several women culminated his serial killings by murdering his own mother. After this last crime, the killer simply stopped his activities and made no effort to elude the police. When asked why he stopped after his mother, the killer replied that futher murders "wouldn't have a point." As though his other murders *did* have a point. Which, of course, for him *they did.* From the killer's perspective, none of his crimes were without reason, but it was an insane personal logic that had no basis in reality. I have a feeling that something similar happened to BTK. Killers don't stop voluntarily. They either get caught, or the compulsion to kill goes away for whatever reason. That may have been the case with this man.

[ghost of miles]

I can't say that I believe in an eye for an eye but in cases such as these...

I'm a death-penalty opponent and am not aiming to start a debate about that here in a non-political forum... but for those interested, there are rumors that the Kansas police may be able to connect Rader to a murder committed after 1994, when the Kansas death penalty took effect. So there is a chance that he may face execution after all.

There's something rather Ellroyian about this case to me.

[patricia]

An excellent book about the mindsets of some of the lesser-known serial killers is "Alone With The Devil", which was written by a forensic psychiatrist, Ronald Markman in 1989. As I read about these murderers, I was surprised by how otherwise "normal" serial killers often are, even personable. Chilling.

[Jeff54]

With out a doubt BTK is the worst serial killer nick name of all time. It sounds like a hamburger . I understand he picked out the name himself , he should be hung for that alone. These things are better left to the professionals in the press.

[Alexander]

With out a doubt BTK is the worst serial killer nick name of all time. It sounds like a hamburger . I understand he picked out the name himself , he should be hung for that alone. These things are better left to the professionals in the press.

I agree! "BTK" sounds like something they're offering down at Burger King...

"Welcome to Burger King, may I take your order?"

"I'd like a BTK with a large fries and a coke."

"$4.60. Please drive around to the second window..."

[7/4]

With out a doubt  BTK is the worst serial killer  nick name of all time. It sounds like a hamburger . I understand he picked out the name himself , he should be hung for that alone. These things are better left to the professionals in the press.

I agree! "BTK" sounds like something they're offering down at Burger King...

"Welcome to Burger King, may I take your order?"

"I'd like a BTK with a large fries and a coke."

"$4.60. Please drive around to the second window..."

Want to guess what's in that burger?

[RDK]

Funny thing...they aired an episode of "Law and Order: SVU" last night that was loosely based on the BTK killer in which the killer was called RDK!

I should sue!