Yes? Then CONFESSIONS OF A SERIAL KILLER: The Untold Story of Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer is a must-read. Dr. Katherine Ramsland has created a remarkable book. She has captured the thoughts, motives, and fantasies of the notorious Bind Torture Kill serial murderer. Over years of developing a collaboration with Rader, she acts as his confessor, criminal psychologist, and biographer.
This book is not about a criminal expert interpreting what a serial killer says. It is primarily Dennis Rader’s commentary about himself. When his words deviate from facts, Ramsland corrects the account. I cannot think of any other nonfiction book with such insight into the thoughts of a psychopath.
As someone who knows a fair bit about many serial killers, I am embarrassed to say that I underlined in pen a good third of her book. I was particularly interested in Rader’s family life, considering the bizarre nature of his murders. Was there something going on during his childhood and formative years that might explain his deviance? His lack of conscience?
Apparently not. Rader describes a family and upbringing that was normal. No sexual abuse. No crazies. No extremists. Just hardworking rural Americans that are bringing up their children with Christian values and the importance of the Boy Scouts and military service. He was like a worm growing inside the flower. Somehow as a kid, his mind became focused on bondage and damsels in distress: The white hat and the black hat.
The story of Dennis Rader is not one of a normal youth entrapped by abnormal cultural influences, but rather a person is who secretly emotionally different from an early age. One who needs outlets that the average person does not.
One of the many things Rader admitted to Ramsland was that he spent months stalking potential victims, entering their homes, and quietly invading their privacy. He did not kill most of these individuals. It’s a disturbing thought that a killer surreptitiously enters a woman’s home, observes her lifestyle in detail, and carefully plans her death.
There was a very memorable time in my life where BTK became part of my life, though thankfully not for long. As the founder and executive editor of Court TV’s Crime Library website, I was shocked one day to learn that one of our Crime Library stories was a piece of evidence in the BTK investigation.
BTK was setting up a cat-and-mouse game. On March 19, 2004, BTK sent a letter to a Wichita Eagle reporter taking responsibility for the unsolved death of Vicki Wegerle. He told Ramsland “he had a new lease on life…This was my fantasy. ‘I’m back’ to tell the world, the games begin!” He included photos he had taken of Wegerle’s body and a photocopy of her driver’s license.
On May 4, 2004, Wichita’s KAKE-TV received a letter containing several items, one of which was a paper titled “The BTK Story” with a list of chapter titles from a Crime Library story by David Lohr. At that time, Crime Library had the only online story of the BTK killer. Interestingly, BTK had changed a few of the original chapter titles of Crime Library’s “The BTK Story.” For example, Chapter 7 originally titled “BTK-The Next Step” was changed to “PJ’s”; Chapter 4 titled “BTK-Different Worlds Collide” was altered to read “Fantasy World” and the chapter titled “BTK Cold Case Squad” was changed to “Will There (Be) More?”
At first, I was happy about the publicity until I realized that the author of our Crime Library was not available to update it. Crime Library author Rachael Bell and I took on the responsibility of updating the story with many fast-moving developments. It dawned on me that nobody knew where BTK was despite his ability to have items mailed to local media outlets from Wichita. There was speculation that long time gaps in his murders might indicate that he was in military service. If Bell and I were to do the updates, I had to think of our security. Bell was living in Holland at the time, but I was in Georgia. I asked Court TV’s security people to ensure reception not give anybody my phone number or address. Regular employees followed the security requirements, but there were many times when temporary employees answered the phones and gave out my phone number and address. It wasn’t the angry calls about our coverage of JonBenet Ramsay that troubled me. It was the all too frequent calls where I could hear breathing, but nothing was said.
The prospect of coming home with the phone lines cut and an armed monster hiding inside was scary. It was not until police arrested BTK in late February 2005 that I could rest easy.