The Church Leader Who Was America's BTK Serial Killer

Dennis Lynn Rader lived the American dream on the surface. Born March 9, 1945, in Pittsburg, Kansas, the man who would become known as BTK held the role of compliance officer, served on his Lutheran church council, and led a Cub Scout troop. He had a wife, a house, and the kind of community respect that made neighbors wave hello at the grocery store.

Behind closed doors, Rader was methodically murdering his neighbors.

## The Double Life

Between 1974 and 1991, Rader killed 10 people across Wichita and Park City, Kansas, targeting primarily women in their homes. He would bind victims with ropes or cord—often items found in their own houses—then torture and suffocate them with plastic bags or strangle them with ligatures. The self-created acronym BTK, which he later revealed to police, stood for his modus operandi: Bind, Torture, Kill.

His first and one of his most brutal attacks came on January 15, 1974, when Rader invaded the Otero family home. He murdered Julie Otero, her husband Joseph, and their children Joey and Josephine, age 11. He bound them, suffocated Joseph and Joey with plastic bags, strangled Julie, and hanged young Josephine in the basement. The savagery of the crime shocked Wichita, but investigators had no immediate leads.

Rader continued his spree with calculated precision. In April 1974, he targeted a 21-year-old Coleman employee, shooting her brother—who managed to escape—before stabbing her fatally. In 1986, he shot Kevin Bright, who survived by playing dead and fleeing. By 1991, when he murdered Dolores E. Davis with her own pantyhose, Rader had claimed his tenth victim.