This paper takes a look at the life and the murders of Dennis Rader, A.K.A. BTK killer.
While reading this paper you will gain better knowledge of what the BTK killer did and the
reasons for why he committed ten murders. Dennis Rader was a normal guy living in Wichita,
Kansas. He would have never been suspected of murdering ten people, until he sent the police
a critical piece of evidence. This was Rader’s only mistake throughout his thirty-one years of
killing.
The BTK Killer 3
“How many people do I have to Kill before I get a name in the paper or some national
attention (Dennis Rader, n.d)” Dennis was born on March 9th
Rader (Dennis Rader, n.d). Dennis was born in Pittsburg, Kansas but was raised in Wichita
(Dennis Rader,
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Some believe that this is how Rader was able to disable security systems without a hitch
(Dennis Lynn Rader, Blanco). Rader was hired as a supervisor of the Compliance Department at
Park City (Dennis Lynn Rader, Blanco). He was in charge of animal control, housing problems,
zoning, general permit enforcement, and a variety of nuisance cases (Dennis Lynn Rader,
Blanco). Neighbors recall Rader to be overly strict and one resident says that Dennis euthanized
her dog without any reason (Dennis Lynn Rader, Blanco).
Dennis Rader terrorized the Wichita community between 1974 and 1991. On January
, 1974 Dennis Rader murdered four members of the Otero family, Joseph, Julie, Joseph II,
and Josephine (Dennis Rader, n.d). Dennis Rader sent the first of many letters to a Wichita-based
television station KAKE (Dennis Rader, n.d). This letter explained that someone by the name of
Bill Thomas Killman had done the murders. He also suggested names for himself, such as The
Wichita Strangler, The Wichita Hangman, The Asphyxiater, The Poetic Strangler, The Garrote
Phantom, and The Bondage Strangler (Dennis Rader, n.d). The public gave him the name of the
BTK killer because he would bind, torture, and kill his victims (Dennis Rader, n.d). Along
Fries, C. (2014). Precision Simulations, Inc. :: Topete Murder Trial. [online] Precisionsim.com. Available at: http://www.precisionsim.com/index.php/archive/topete-murder-trial/ [Accessed 18 May. 2014].
He served in WWII as a flight radar observer and navigator. After serving in the army he went to school at Vanderbilt University in Tennessee. He went there on the G. I. Bill. After graduating from Vanderbilt with a M. A. in English, he started to teach. He taught first at the Rice Institute in Houston, Texas. His time there was cut short because he was recalled to duty in Korea as flight training instructor. But as soon as he was discharged from the Corps he returned to teach again at Rice University. He taught at Rice until 1954 when he left to go to Europe on the Sewanee Review fellowship. After returning to the U.S. he joined the English Department at the University of Florida. He did not stay there long because he resigned after a dispute after he h...
David Berkowitz unleashed his random malicious scats during the summer of 1976. He is known today as one of New York’s most notorious serial killers. Berkowitz was born on June 1st, 1953 in New York, New York. He was adopted by the Berkowitz couple a few days after his birth. When Berkowitz was 18 the joined the U.S. Army. After the army, he got a job as a security officer and moved into an apartment in New York. No one even noticed the danger that slept next door.
He worked hard and had his own business cutting trees. McMillian became well known due to an affair he had with a local married women Karen Kelley. Kelly was a white women and it became big news once in Monroe County about her affair with a black man. A few months after the murder of Ronda Morrison, a criminal named Ralph Myers was arrested for the murder of Vickie Pittman in a nearby county. Myers was a well-known criminal who was into drugs. Myers, but had started seeing Kelly during the months after McMillian and her split. Myers now in jail was trying to pin the murder on people including Sherriff Tate of Monroe County. Once he realized that was not sticking, he changed his story. Stevenson (2014) “… he had been involved in the murder of Vickie Pittman along with Karen Kelly and her black boyfriend, Walter McMillian. But that wasn’t all. He also told police that McMillian was responsible for the murder of Ronda Morrison.” (p, 33). Ralph Myers has now implicated McMillian, an innocent man, for the murder of Morrison who he no part in the event. McMillian was quickly charged and sent to death row before even being sentenced for the murder or Morrison. Within a year or so Myers and couple other people gave false testimony and McMillian in less than two days was sentenced to capital punishment with the death
On August 20th, 1962 Jane Sullivan had been raped and strangled with her nylons. The only black woman to be killed by the hands of the Boston Strangler was Sophie Clark. On December 30th, 1962, 23 year old Patricia Bissette was killed. Then 68 year old Mary Brown met her fate.
Loiaconi, Stephen. "When Serial Killers Strike: The Green River Killer." . HLN, 8 July 2013. Web. 20 Apr. 2014. .
A notorious murderer or serial killer is the typical next door neighbor one would hardly associate with a serious crime: an educated psychopath with little regard for life. Most of them commit murder for some misplaced psychological benefits. Their actions border on insanity as some commit theft by stealing their victims’ belongings and commiting rapes, an indication of a need for financial gain or a craving for distorted sexual desires. It is disheartening that people always associate the city of Chicago with crime, ranging from the prohibition-period gangsters to modern-day criminals; however, it is understandable because these crimes have a history going back several decades, and most received wide media coverage and documentation. Their names and pseudonyms are imbeded in the collective minds of the people. In all cases, these serial killings claim national attention and elicit heated debate, but this infamy sometimes fascinates the public to the extend that it sparks an initial interest in potential criminals. An examination into the characteristics of serial killers who were active in the Chicago area reveals they have varied motivations for their crimes but the overriding factors tend to include financial gains, sexual perversion, racial hatreds, and infamy. Chicago’s infamous reputation as a lawless and corruption riddled city stems from the motives for crimes committed by particular individuals in the Chicago area and the media attention these cases gained.
Johannes Mehserle was arrested on January 13th for the murder of Oscar Grant. Mehserle was granted bail; it was set at three million dollars (Bulwa). He testified that he thought that Oscar Grant had a weapon and was going to stock him with his stun gun but by accident he pulled out his gun. The prosecutors were trying to get him convicted of second-degree murder, by saying Mehserle was angry with Grant for resting the arres...
In order to gain value from reading about the main crime in Crime in Punishment, it must be understood that Raskolnikov committed his act of violence completely intentionally. He was not a victim of force from another person, he did not kill on accident, and was not put into a situation where he would die if he did not commit murder. Raskolnikov willfully and methodically planned the death of Alyona. Because the death of Alyona Ivanovna was completely based off of Raskolnikov’s judgment, his reactions afterward provide the reader with an accurate look into the mental psyche and beliefs of his character. Raskolnikov believed the murder was completely justified due to the torm...
The mysterious person did not have a real name because no one was able to identify him. The murder gave his a name which was the Zodiac Killer. The Zodiac Killer was responsible for five murders in California during the late 1960s. The Zodiac Killers first two murders was on December of 1968 in Benicia, California. David Farraday, who was 17, and Betty Lou Jensen, who was 16, were the first two of a series of murders by the Zodiac Killer. The two of them were inside a parked, when the Zodiac Killer came up behind them and shot them. A similar case happened to the next victim of the mysterious killer. The following year, on July 4, 1969, another couple were shot dead in their car, in Blue Rock Springs Park in Vallejo, California. 22 year old Darlene Ferrin was shot dead, but Michael Mageau, who was 19 years old survived the shots. The strange thing after these murders is that the police received a phone call from an unidentified person that confessed to murdering those people. The next killings occurred two months later, on September 27, 1969. Two couples were also in a parked car in Lake Berryessa in Napa County. Cecelia Shepard and Brian Hartnell were shot at by the killer, but Brian Hartnell, who was 20 years old survived the mu...
Introduction: On the spectrum of criminal activity, serial killers are rather rare. Rarer still is a serial killer like Ted Bundy. Bundy confessed to killing 28 women in the 1970s in ghastly fashion and some believe he may have killed far more. It is hard to imagine what could cause any person to cross the mental boundary into such macabre behavior as Bundy perpetrated. Nevertheless, it is important to try to understand that behavior because only though such an understanding would society be able to identify and deter mass murderers in order to save lives.
unhappy childhood and how he was a Ritalin child. While others blamed it on his drug
..., Kim, Juhu. 2004. “Critical Characteristics of Male Serial Murders.” American Journal of Criminal Justice 29(1): 117-131
Van Den Haag, E. (1969). On Deterrence and the Death Penalty. The Journal of Criminal
D’Alembe, Talbot “Understanding the Death Penalty Study Commission Report” Raising the Bar in Capital Cases. 34.2 ( 2007): n.pag. Web. 24 Jul 2014.