Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer, killed 10 people (mostly women) and photographed himself wearing women's clothing. He had a wife and 2 children and was an usher and member of the church council in his local church. One of the most profound cases of "compartmentalizing" I've ever heard of.
Dennis Lynn Rader (born March 9, 1945), better known as the
BTK killer, is an American
serial killer who murdered at least ten people in
Wichita and
Park City in
Kansas, between 1974 and 1991. Although he occasionally killed or attempted to kill men and children, Rader typically targeted women. His victims were often attacked in their homes, then bound, sometimes with objects from their homes, and either
suffocated with a plastic bag or manually
strangled with a ligature.
[4]
In a series of crimes that terrorized Wichita in the mid-to-late 1970s, Rader also initiated a series of taunting letters he sent to police and media outlets, describing his crimes in detail and referring to himself as BTK (for "bind, torture, kill").
[5][6] In addition, he stole keepsakes from his female victims, including underwear, driver's licenses and personal items. In 1979, BTK suddenly went quiet, and despite an exhaustive investigation, the case grew into one of the most infamous
cold cases in American history. Rader would later confess to killing three further victims between 1985 and 1991 that were not initially linked to BTK but were confirmed to be his doing through DNA and items found in his possession.
[7]
