Summary: To all appearances, Dennis Rader was a model citizen in the small town of Park City,Kansas, where he had lived with his family nearly his entire life. He was a localcompliance office, a former Boy Scout leader, the president of his church congregation,and a seemingly ordinary father and husband. But Rader’s average surface beliedthe existence of a dark, sadistic other self: he was the BTK serial killer. BTK had terrorized Wichita for 31 years, not only with his brutal, sexually motivatedcrimes, but also through his taunting, elusive communications with law enforcement.In 1974, BTK committed his first murders — torturing and strangling four membersof the Otero family — then writing the police an audacious letter and labelinghimself as BTK (for Bind, Torture, Kill). He stalked and killed a series of 10 victimsbut then apparently stopped in 1991. Law enforcement remained confounded until 2004,when BTK began writing another string of letters that would finally lead to hisarrest.
