February 10, 2025 • 39 mins
Dennis Rader prepares to stand trial for his many crimes. But he's staying quiet. How will he plead on the stand?
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Speaker 1 (00:01):
You're listening to Monster BTK, a production of iHeart Podcasts
and Tenderfoot TV. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
One afternoon in two thousand and five, we noticed everything
went very quiet at the police department. No one would
return our calls, no one would even talk to us.
And I remember talking to our police reporter and she said,
something's up, and I thought exactly the same thing. And
(00:34):
in a few minutes, we heard traffic in Park City
that they had stopped a car in Park City, Kansas,
and every detective from the Wichitaw Police Department was out there,
so obviously we went out there and sure enough it
was Dennis Raider AKABTK and that's when the story exploded
(00:58):
in Wichita The networks flew their powerful anchors and reporters in.
Everybody wanted to interview denistrator, including me, and it was
kind of a free for all, and it was just crazy.
And all of the stories that I liked to cover
on wonderful people doing wonderful things, that was all put
(01:20):
by the wayside, and now it was BTK all the time,
every day as he's incarcerated in the Sedgwick County Detention Center.
I like every other reporter wrote to him and said,
I want to interview you.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Please let me interview you.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Well, we all wanted an interview, but that wasn't going
to happen. But I did write to him and I
gave him my phone number and I said, if you
can call me, this is my home phone. Give me
a call. Now he's incarcerated, he's not going to come
after me. And one Saturday morning he called me and
(02:00):
the operator said, no, I have a collect call from
the Sedgwy County Detention Center.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Will you accept the charges?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
And you go, wow, yes I will. And on the
other end, he said.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Larry, this is Dennis Rider. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I had my phone already set up to be able
to record audio, and the problem was the phone in
the jail is terrible. You talk about bad audio, this
was bad audio. Pops and buzzes and beeps, and I
have no clue how many people were listening on it.
I said, well, I appreciate you calling me. I have
(02:39):
thirty years of questions and he said I have twenty minutes.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I said, okay, So.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I started asking him questions. And one of the questions
that I asked him and I will never forget this.
I said, how could you kill two children? And he said, oh, well,
they were just collateral.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Just collise. I will never forget that.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
And he spoke about it as you would speak to
the baker as you pick up a dozen donuts at
the bakery, without feeling, without excitement, that they were just collateral.
And that I found that stunning. And then a few
months later the trial began in the Central County District Court.
(03:33):
Someone killed four members of a family.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Had you vanished from her home suddenly last weekend? Her
phone lines had been cut, her door left open.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
You see the victim playing there with plastic bags over
their heads, strangled. You could tell there was a planned scenario.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Well, police have said no more about the contents of
the letter. It does contain some sort of threat and
implies the killer may strike again.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
He's going to play with these victims to the point
of death and then bring them back, and then brings
them back to the point of death.
Speaker 5 (04:07):
From My Heart Podcasts and Tenderfoot TV. I'm Susan Peters
and this is Monster BTK. On February twenty eight, two
thousand and five, just three days after he was arrested,
(04:27):
Dennis Rader was charged with ten counts of first degree murder.
During his initial interrogation, Rader had revealed that he was
responsible for two murders the police hadn't known he was
connected to those of Marine Hedge and Dolores Davis. While
awaiting trial, Raider was held in the Sedgwick County Detention Center. Meanwhile,
(04:51):
prosecutors were starting to build their case. It was assigned
to Nola Fulston, the Sedgwick County District Attorney, and working
with her was Kevin O'Connor, who at the time was
the deputy district attorney. Their first goal was to keep
Raider in jail, so.
Speaker 6 (05:09):
There was a process in deciding how to charge it.
You charged the ten murders. I remember Judge Waller asking
what kind of bond we wanted, and I think I
said something to the effect of a I mean, Judge,
I don't know ten kazillion million. I don't know if
there is a number that you could ask for on bond.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
The next question was what sentence would the prosecutors seek.
Speaker 6 (05:35):
There was a lot of discussion at the time, a
lot of thoughts about whether or not he should get
the death penalty. Kansas didn't have a death penalty during
the years that he was committing these crimes. Kansas has
one now but didn't then, and so you had a
lot of confusion about why the death penalty wasn't being sought.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
The death penalty had been banned in Kansas up until
nineteen ninety four, when it was officially reinstated, but this
was long after Raider's last murder, which took place in
nineteen ninety one. Therefore, prosecutors had no choice but to
instead seek life without parole.
Speaker 6 (06:17):
We couldn't seek the death penalty. It wasn't an available
punishment at the time he was committing these murders. The
sentence was life, but sentence in Kansas the life sentence
meant fifteen years, So for each.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
Of Rader's ten murders, he would receive fifteen years in
prison if found guilty.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
The last murder of Dolores Davis occurred in ninety one,
where there was a hard forty is what it was called,
and that would mean that you got a life sentence,
but you couldn't be paroled until you serve forty years,
and you had to have a sentencing hearing on that.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
Remember, Raider was fifty nine years old. So this hard
forty rule effectively meant that if he was successfully convicted,
Raider would spend the rest of his life in prison
with no chance at parole. It seemed like Dennis Rader
had his work cut out for him, but apparently he
(07:17):
didn't want any part of it. He didn't find a
lawyer or speak much at all after his initial interrogation,
even though many attorneys had tried to represent him.
Speaker 6 (07:29):
I remember getting a call from the jail saying that
a local attorney was trying to get access to Dennis Raider,
and I remember running from my office over to the
jail because that attorney wasn't entitled to have contact with him.
He hadn't requested an attorney at that time, but the
jail had let him have access, and after that he
(07:51):
decided he didn't want to talk anymore.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
We don't know what happened that made Raider choose to
stay quiet after that interaction, but he wouldn't talk again
until months later. At one press conference, Nola Fulston and
Kevin O'Connor were asked if there would be any talks
of a plea deal with Raider.
Speaker 6 (08:12):
I mean, in my opinion, you can't ple negotiated a
Dennis Raider BTK case.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
In the conclusion to the State's summary of the evidence,
the destruct Attorney's Office echoed this sentiment.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Dennis Rader did not suffer from any mental disease or defect.
He was not the victim of any psychological, physical, or
sexual abuse. Rader murdered with premeditation and deliberation. He killed
methodically and systematically, uninhibited by any moral concerns or considerations.
Dennis Rader killed because he wanted to kill. The evil
(08:48):
depravity of his deeds are beyond human comprehension. The time
has come to hold Raider accountable, to punish him for
his atrocities. Rader deserves the harshest punishment allowed law.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Raider's first court appearance was March first, two thousand and five.
Just a few days after his arrest, Steve Osburne and
Sarah McKinnon were appointed as public defenders. They hired two
people from Cambridge for Insant Consultants to perform a psychological
assessment on Raider to determine his competency to stand trial.
(09:27):
Competency evaluations are not comprehensive mental health examinations. They focus
only on present mental ability to participate in the various
parts of the legal process. It was doctor Robert Mendoza
who performed the examination. Here's an excerpt from Confession of
a Serial Killer describing Mendoza's findings as read by a
(09:50):
voice actor.
Speaker 7 (09:52):
Mendoza noted that there was no history of mental illness
or drug abuse and no medical conditions. I'm in the
journals and drawings that Rader had made and the crime
scene photos. He also watched the videotape of Raider's police
interrogation and examined medical school and prison records. During the evaluation,
(10:14):
Raider was depressed, even tearful. His level of attention had declined,
he had lost weight, and he was anxious. He said
he had considered suffocating himself in his cell, but despite
his circumstances, he wanted to live.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
This report also identified narcissistic personality disorder and obsessive compulsive
personality disorder. Neither of these diagnoses rose to the level
of a major mental illness for Raider, and so they
did not affect his competency to stand trial, and thus
(10:52):
the prosecuting attorney sought to finalize a trial date. They
did not want Rader to get away with a plea deal.
Speaker 6 (11:00):
We wanted to have that hearing. A lot of people
criticize the district attorney, thinking that she was a media hound.
You know, she just wanted the media attention. I can
tell you and being in those meetings with her, that
the goal was to make all the information a public record.
As you all may know that police reports are not
public information, but things that are presented in open court are.
(11:25):
So the ideal was is we're going to put it
all out in open court, so any member of the public,
any journalist, would have access to that information and be
able to describe who Dennis Rader really was. Just an evil,
sadistic murderer, that's all he was.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
They got their wish. Raiders first public hearing was scheduled
for June twenty seventh, two thousand and five.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
From Kate News.
Speaker 8 (12:05):
This is a special report BTK Journey to.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Justice and Good Morning. Susan and Peters, along with Jeff Herndon,
welcome the live team coverage of the BTK case. Each
previous hearing built with mystery. This is no different. No
one really knows what is going to happen, except for
Dennis Raider himself. June twenty seventh, two thousand and five
(12:32):
was one of the wildest days of my life. I
led the coverage from the Cake studios that morning. As
my colleagues reported from outside the courthouse, the front steps
were flooded with national media cameras, tents, and microphones everywhere.
It was about eight thirty am when the families of
the victims started to appear.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
We have some live pictures now from the courthouse.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
These are family members at the courthouse, victims of family members.
It looks like Charles Bright is there. I see him.
The big question this morning was whether Dennis Rader would
change his plea. At a previous hearing, Raider refused to
speak at all or enter into any formal plea, so
(13:18):
by default, the judge entered him into a plea of
not guilty on his behalf. But things had changed since then,
and there were rumors that Raider planned to flip his plea.
Speaker 9 (13:31):
There's really been a last minute decision that's being made,
that they kept all their cards together, and they're going
to evaluate things as late as this morning and figure
out what's going to happen. And I also get the
feeling that Dennis Raider is very much in charge of
that final decision.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
I know for a fact that the families wanted Raider
to plead guilty. They wanted an end to this nightmare,
and a guilty plea would move things much faster than
a lengthy trial. Still, all of us were in suspense
as to what Raider's choice would eventually be. At about
(14:10):
eight forty am, the attorneys entered the courtroom. According to
many sources, raiders defense attorneys appeared nervous.
Speaker 10 (14:21):
These attorneys have been working with the Raider since the
very since the first appearance when they were assigned. There
have been some rumors that there is some discord amongst
them with or between them and Raider.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
Finally, after everyone else was settled, Dennis Raider entered the courtroom.
There's Dennis Raider walking into court.
Speaker 11 (14:44):
He does have a bulletproof vest on, it appears. Let's
listen into the proceedings.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Thank you, please be seated all right?
Speaker 12 (14:52):
At this time comes on before the court case captioned
of the State of Kansas Plaintiff versus Dennis L.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Raider, Defendive.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
After going through the standard introductory remarks, Judge Gregory Waller
asked Rader the question everyone was waiting for how would
he plead.
Speaker 13 (15:13):
Yarn At this time, mister Rader wave his right to
a jury trial and interplea of guilty to all ten counts.
Speaker 12 (15:19):
Sir, I have been advised as your desire to enter
a plea of guilty in this case.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Is that correct, yes, sir.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
At perhaps the last minute, Dennis Rader chose to plead
guilty to all ten counts of murder and thus avoid
a trial. Then Judge Waller prompted Rader to explain how
he murdered his victims. Surprisingly, Rader was more than happy
to oblige.
Speaker 13 (15:50):
On January fifteenth, nineteen seventy four, I'm maliciously, intentionally and
premeditation killed Joseph of Terrell.
Speaker 12 (15:57):
Had you planned this beforehand.
Speaker 13 (16:00):
To some degree?
Speaker 11 (16:00):
Yes?
Speaker 13 (16:01):
If forgot in the house that I lost control of it,
But it was, you know, back of my mind. I
had some ideas what I was.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Going to do.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
Raider spared none of the graphic details, shedding not an
ounce of remorse or betraying any emotion.
Speaker 13 (16:21):
I put a plastic bag over his head, and then
some cords and fighting it after that.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I did miss this Otero.
Speaker 13 (16:30):
I had never strangled anyone before, so I really don't
know how much pressure you had to put on a
person or how long it take.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
This went on for forty five minutes straight, Raider going
through each murder, not only admitting to them, but excitedly
explaining his every move. My colleague Glarry Hedeberg was stunned.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
The judge asked Dennis Rader to take him through all
the killings in the courtroom live on TV. That was
absolutely amazing. And here was Dennis Raider, and he was
like the ringmaster in the center ring, and the spotlight
was on him, and he was having the time of
(17:18):
his life recounting in detail how he killed ten people.
It was extraordinary, unbelievable, really, because he told it in
the same method that he had talked to me on
the phone, without feeling, without remorse, just very matter of fact. Well,
(17:41):
I tied her up this way, and then I strangled
her hair, thought about cutting her throat, and it's just
like somebody talking about picking up their laundry.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
Many of the family members present simply couldn't stand to
listen to this, including Steve Ralford, surviving son a Shirley Vyanne.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Guy that walked out. Everybody fucking followed me.
Speaker 8 (18:04):
I didn't want to hear what time to dad say?
Speaker 5 (18:08):
All the other victims families walked out with you, but
you were the first one to get up.
Speaker 8 (18:13):
Damn great, he said, can they do that? What the
fuck they want to do?
Speaker 5 (18:20):
Why didn't you want to stay in court?
Speaker 8 (18:22):
I'm here?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
What he fucking had to say?
Speaker 5 (18:25):
What did you want to do?
Speaker 8 (18:27):
It's not loud on here, not allowed home?
Speaker 5 (18:33):
So you you didn't want to give him the satisfaction
of Is that why you walked out and everyone else
walked out to do you think?
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Pretty much?
Speaker 5 (18:44):
What do you think he was doing that day?
Speaker 8 (18:47):
Shelf pity?
Speaker 5 (18:48):
I mean he went on and on about each murder.
Speaker 14 (18:51):
What do you what do you.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
Think he was doing that day?
Speaker 8 (18:55):
Well, I forget what you call it, but glory, find
money done, and not any fucking remorse.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
She had this for himself. I won't hear a shit. Oh,
I hear none of it.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
When Rader was done, Judge Waller formally declared the conviction.
Speaker 12 (19:20):
I will accept these pleas are guilty, and I judge
you Dennis L. Raider guilty of murder in the first
degree in count won a Class A felony.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
It was a moment of mixed emotions. On one hand,
it was a triumphant relief Dennis Rader had been found
guilty on all charges. On the other hand, it was
a moment of quiet sadness. The way Rader described his
murders in grave detail left everyone shaken. People shuffled out
(19:56):
of the courtroom silently. It was a bittersweet, even though
justice had prevailed. Following his guilty plea and verdict, Rader
was sent back to the Sedgua County Detention Center to
await his sentencing. The date of the sentencing hearing was
(20:16):
set for August eighteenth. Meanwhile, Larry Hadiberg was determined to
interview him again. You heard about his phone interview with
Rader at the top of the episode, But this time
Larry wanted to see him in person.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
And so I asked before he was sent to prison,
I said, I'd like to talk to you in person.
Is that possible? And I got permission to talk to
him in person. Didn't have much time, about fifteen minutes
with him, and I went up with one of the
other anchors from KTV. I was nervous about shaking his hand.
(21:00):
When you go up there and talk to him, you
have to do a prison handshake. He's on one side
of the plexiglass, I'm on the other. He puts his
hand up here like this. Then I put my hand
up here like this, and we basically that's a prison
hand shake. My son in law, guy who married my daughter,
is a federal agent here in Wichita, and I was
(21:21):
talking to him about this and I said, I don't
want to do it. I just simply don't want to
do it. And he looked at me and he said, well,
how bad do you want the information? If you don't
shake his hand, he's going to take that as an
insult and he's going to shut up and not say anything.
So I reluctantly did it, and I still regret it
(21:43):
to this day. But we had a conversation, you know,
and he told me he was looking forward to prison.
I said, why are you looking forward to prison? And
he said, I'm going to learn things. You know, how
to burn a building down, you know how to do this,
how to do how to commit a crime. He was
really looking forward to it. He was unbelievable in that
(22:06):
he had no soul. He just he didn't care about
other people, particularly women.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
My impression was that after the June twenty seventh theory,
Raider was feeling pretty good about himself. The way he
talked about his murders in such a detailed and nonchalant
manner tells me that he was ready to tell his
story on his terms. Here he was on national TV
with the world watching, and he got to read what
(22:35):
was essentially his manifesto out loud for everyone to hear.
His attitude leaving the courtroom that day appeared to be
one of success. But what Raider wasn't prepared for is
that he would soon get his due. At the August
eighteenth sentencing hearing, the family members of his victims would
(22:59):
finally get the chance to speak up and address Raider directly.
On August eighteenth, Raiders' sentencing hearing began, The family members
of the victims would each have a chance to speak,
(23:22):
but first investigators were given the floor to tell their
side of the story and present all the evidence they
had uncovered the police.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
They wanted everything my dad had done on record. They
wanted it in public record because most of the details
were not known at that point. Still, like all the
case materials, weapons, times, dates, a lot of that was
not public.
Speaker 5 (23:48):
This is Dennis Raider's daughter, Carrie Rawson.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
They wanted it all in the record, so they went
through all of that. They brought in like the knife,
he youths for Catherine, brought in all of this stuff
just to put it under the record. They brought in
the polaroids.
Speaker 5 (24:05):
If you remember, Denis Rator at some point took polaroid
pictures of himself where he would dress up in women's
clothing and reenact his murders. The police had confiscated all
of these when they searched the Raider household.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Now were they trying to humiliate my dad on the stand.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
My dad was not expecting that. He was pretty lividly pissed.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
How do you react?
Speaker 13 (24:33):
Just angry.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
You can see him trying to be under control in
the videos of him just trying to maintain composure of
these guys mocking him in court.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
But he's exposed.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Now, he's exposed and known for what he is.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
Carrie says that her father was visibly shaken by this
barrage of evidence from the prosecutors.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
He was not expecting that, and he's completely thrown and
you see him trying to maintain control, and he's trying
to hold those outer protective layers, and he's just sort
of disintegrating. Mike Us would be inside. You see his
voice change, he clicks his mouth like he's acting like
he's like bored. He's just trying to keep control, and
(25:18):
you can see it. He's almost tearing up. He's so upset,
he's almost tearing up. And then he's also like really mad.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
Of course, this was also the Raider family's first time
hearing about Dennis's evil deeds.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
My family did not know about the bondage. We didn't
know about my dad and the women's lingerie. We didn't
know my dad dressed up and victim's clothing and took
polaroids in his parents' basement. Basically, he was recreating Josephino
Tero's murderer. I didn't know any of that. So I'm
finding this out with the rest of the world, and
(25:54):
I was mad. I was mad at the police for
not trusting us enough to tell us, or for Paris.
I think they were trying to protect us, but obviously
now it's just all at once.
Speaker 5 (26:09):
Finally, the family members of the victims had a chance
to speak, and Dennis Rader had no choice but to listen.
Speaker 15 (26:19):
Now it was my turn. He has his spot life
for a long time. Now it's going to be my turn.
I was gonna call him everything that I could possibly
get away with, calling him on network GAV.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
This is Jeff Davis, son of Dolores Davis. He gave
one of the longest and most comprehensive victim impact statements.
Speaker 15 (26:43):
I did a pretty good job of it. I was
pretty creative the stuff that I came up with. And
I did it because I knew he was watching, and
every interview was focused directly at him. When I looked
at the person I was interviewing, I wasn't looking at him.
I was looking him. I wanted him to know that
it was my turn. And now it's even time, and
(27:07):
now I'm the one point in barged in your direction
and tell me how much do you like it? A
smart boy, and I knew getting under his skin, and
I love every minute of it.
Speaker 16 (27:20):
For the last five three and twenty six days, I
have wondered what it would be like to confront the
walking cesspool that took my mother's precious life. Throughout that time,
I always envisioned this day as being one for avenging
the past. I could think of nothing but savoring the
bittersweet taste of revenge as justice is served upon this
social sewage here before us today. Now that has arised,
(27:42):
surprise arrived. Surprisingly, I realized that this day is not
just about avenging crafts past crimes. Sitting here before us
is a depraved predator, a rabbit animal that has murdered people,
poisoned countless lives, and terrorized this community for thirty years,
all the while relish every minute of it. As such,
(28:02):
there can be no justice harsh enough for revenge bitter
enough in this world, at least to cause the pain
and suffering which a social malignancy like this has coming.
Speaker 15 (28:13):
He wouldn't look at me. It was a four minute,
thirty stecond in tirade. He would not look at me
one time. He didn't have the guts to look at me.
Speaker 17 (28:25):
All I could think about was revenge, revenge, get my
hands on him.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
This is Charlie o'teroll, eldest brother of the surviving o'taro
family members. He says that this hearing was the first
time he heard certain details about the murder of his parents.
Speaker 17 (28:43):
I had no inside information or anything about how my
family had died.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
I didn't know any of that stuff that he said.
Speaker 17 (28:50):
When he said that my mom's last words and may
God forgive you, I knew that that's something my mom
would probably have said because that's how she was. And
it just broke my heart again, that feeling I had
on my chest being tore open in my heart, it
just came all came back to me. I knew that
if I acted up, then I would never get a
chance at him. So I had to maintain to wait
(29:14):
for my chance. That and the world's sitting there and
my brother and my sister, and once again the big
brother Manto thing comes in. I gotta be strong in
front of them.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
Then, like Jeff Charlie gave his own victim impact statement.
Speaker 17 (29:30):
That's what I had to be good for. I had
to get my impact statement, and I couldn't screw. I
wanted to make that statement. But I also planned, this
is gonna be my chance to get my hands on him,
so I was prepared to go all.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
The way with my revenge plans.
Speaker 17 (29:44):
What happened was we left for lunch break and I
had a couple of beers right away. I'm getting my
strength up, my courage up, and then I planned to
get my hands on him. And as we were walking
to the detector, I got stopped by my filmmaker. We
(30:05):
made a documentary and the filmmaker was there filming and
he said, Charlie, you have a phone call. It was
the mother of my son, who I had never seen before.
He was named Joseph, his same name as my brother
and my dad. It was Annette. Lynnette says, Charlie, there's
been an accident. Joe has been hit by a car.
He's and the phone went dead and I'm like, he's what,
(30:29):
He's what, He's dead, He's alive, He's okay.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
I called Lynette again.
Speaker 17 (30:34):
I call her back and she said, Charlie, Joseph's been
hit by a car.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
He's in a coma.
Speaker 17 (30:40):
And I'm like, what is it?
Speaker 3 (30:41):
An induced coma? Is it? They said, no, it's he's in.
Speaker 17 (30:45):
A coma and he's got brain injuries that he's got
shaken baby syndrome from being hit by the car. I
start thinking about this. I'm thinking, how can I ask
God to save my son?
Speaker 3 (30:58):
If I am going.
Speaker 17 (30:59):
To go do au dacardly deed, why would he save
my son? So it's hard to describe it. Put in
that instant, I got my religion back. I got my
faith back because all desire for that revenge went away instantly,
truly went away, and all I could think about was
(31:21):
saving my son. I said, God, save my son. I'll
give you my life, I'll do anything you want. You
can take me right now, just save my son. So
when we went back in there, the opportunity came. They
took him out one door, and the family's out another door,
and they screwed up, and there was nobody between me
(31:42):
and him.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
There might have been people next to him.
Speaker 17 (31:44):
And stuff, but he was I looked right at him,
with nobody between me and him, all desire that I
had to get my hands on him was gone because
I knew the prison would take care of it, because
that's what they did.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
To child molesterers and child killers and stuff. I walked
out the door.
Speaker 17 (32:01):
I went outside, and some people started sticking microphones in
my face, and somebody said, Charlie, you know the world's
praying for you, And I said, no, no, no, don't
pray for me. Pray for my son. He's been hit
by a car and he needs prayer right now. He's
in a coma and behold months later weeks. Weeks and
weeks later, he wakes up a newborn child. I believe
(32:23):
the Lord gave me.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Back my son.
Speaker 5 (32:28):
Steve Ralford was also given the chance to give a statement.
Speaker 8 (32:33):
And when I got up to speak, I stuck close
about powered every where everybody. I couldn't talk. I lost
seeming anger at that point. I'm bringing you fuck what
anybody talk. I knew what I thought, I knew, I
couldn't knew it.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Steve was simply too upset to say much of anything.
For him, the difficulty of that day was it's nearly
impossible to bear. But he wasn't alone. He was comforted
by the fact that others like Jeff Davis and Charlie
o'taro shared in his anger.
Speaker 15 (33:12):
My emotion was pure, unadulterated rage. Now as I knew
they would. They had six of the biggest sheriff's officers
I've ever seen.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
In my life.
Speaker 15 (33:24):
They had three on each side of him, shouldered and shoulder.
Because it wasn't just me who wanted him. Charlie o'tarroll
wanted him, Steve Ralphord wanted him. There was a bunch
of us that wanted peace to him, and we knew
we couldn't do it, obviously, but I know I was
still filled with rage that I was sitting there and
(33:46):
knew how when you stare at somebody just right, they
can feel you staring at him. He knew, he knew
that I was burning a hole in the back of
his head, that he.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Wasn't trying to look at me because you don't have
the gut.
Speaker 15 (34:02):
One of the stairs officers came over to me and
he told me, he said, you need to sit back
and relaxed, and he said, you look like you're getting
ready to jump over that rail and go after him.
He said, if the judge tosses you out of here,
you won't get back in. So I was physically almost
like I was raised the spring. I knew I couldn't
(34:24):
do it, but I was just that chanced that I
used to just grabbing on said the rails, and I
was probably white and knuckle by magine. So I had
to call myself down, stick back down before I got
myself in trouble.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
This shared hatred of Denis Rator had the effect of
bonding these men. That day, they sat together in unison
as they delivered their barbs to a cold faced denistrator.
He said nothing and never looked in the eyes, but
they knew that their words had cut him. After they
(35:06):
were finished, Raider was given thirty minutes to respond. Here
is an excerpt of what he said, as read by
a voice actor.
Speaker 11 (35:16):
The dark side was there, but now I think the
light is beginning to shine. And I appreciate the family
and friends and who I can be thankful for, and
I think that will keep me from finally going to
the dark side or hell. And finally, a final apologize
to the victims' families. There's no way that I can
(35:39):
ever repay you.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
Raider actually appeared to tear up during his final speech.
The victim's families were convinced that Raider's tears were for himself.
Jeff Davis and the other families had no desire to
listen to his self pity, so they decided once again
to walk out.
Speaker 15 (36:02):
And I was the instigator. I'm the one that is idea.
It was that when he's stood up to talk, I'm
the one that said, let's get out here, let's walk out.
And minute he got up before he could open his mouth,
about eight of us got up and just walked out
of the courtroom, and everybody said to look on his
(36:22):
face was priceless because he's like, wait, I haven't had
my stay yet, and you're leaving because I told all
those people I said he to stay. I want to
hear everything out of his nostril lie. So we just
got and walked out. It was great. It was the
destulity in the world.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Fulston had this to say
about Raider's words.
Speaker 14 (36:48):
It's pitiful for mister Rader to stand here, looking all
pale and pasty and say how sorry he is. Well,
that's usually the culmination of what happens when defendants go
to their last chance in order to convince a judge
you know, gosh, I'm really sorry. Well, what else do
you say after you kill ten people? He doesn't have
the ability to be arrogant.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
Today, after nearly three days of testimony, it was finally
time the judge called the court to order. He picked
up a piece of paper and slowly confidently, he read
out loud Denis Rader's sentenced to the courtroom and to
(37:27):
the world. Next time on Monster BTK.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
I wanted to help him, like I'm mad at you
when one second, I'm worried you're cold, and like I
love you, I still love you.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
We write some letters.
Speaker 14 (37:47):
He wanted me to solve some codes.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
The reason I stay kind of involved in it is
that we still do not know what caused BTK to
become a murderer.
Speaker 11 (38:00):
I really wanted to go sleep Ennis in person, to
see who he is.
Speaker 17 (38:05):
The intensity of the anguish and the grief is still there.
Speaker 18 (38:09):
Raider said, you know, I have a fantasy that I
wish I could have lived out. I've always wanted to
kidnap a female from a launder map.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Monster BTK is a production of Tenderfoot TV and iHeart Podcasts.
The show is written by Nomes Griffin, Trevor Young, and
Jesse Funk. Our host is Susan Peters. Executive producers on
Behalf of Tenderfoot TV include Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay,
alongside supervising producer Tracy Kaplan. Executive producers on behalf of
(38:53):
iHeart Podcasts include Matt Frederick and Trevor Young, alongside producers Nomes,
Griffin and Funk and supervising producer Rima Ilkali. Marketing support
by David Wasserman and Alison Wright. At iHeart Podcasts and
Caroline Rigemma at tenderfoot TV. Additional research by Claudia Dafrico,
(39:16):
original artwork by Kevin Mister Soul Harp, original music by
Makeup and Vanity Set. Special thanks to Orrin Rosenbaum and
the team at UTA and the Nord Group. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
(39:38):
Thanks for listening.
You're listening to Monster BTK, a production of iHeart Podcasts
and Tenderfoot TV. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2 (00:14):
One afternoon in two thousand and five, we noticed everything
went very quiet at the police department. No one would
return our calls, no one would even talk to us.
And I remember talking to our police reporter and she said,
something's up, and I thought exactly the same thing. And
(00:34):
in a few minutes, we heard traffic in Park City
that they had stopped a car in Park City, Kansas,
and every detective from the Wichitaw Police Department was out there,
so obviously we went out there and sure enough it
was Dennis Raider AKABTK and that's when the story exploded
(00:58):
in Wichita The networks flew their powerful anchors and reporters in.
Everybody wanted to interview denistrator, including me, and it was
kind of a free for all, and it was just crazy.
And all of the stories that I liked to cover
on wonderful people doing wonderful things, that was all put
(01:20):
by the wayside, and now it was BTK all the time,
every day as he's incarcerated in the Sedgwick County Detention Center.
I like every other reporter wrote to him and said,
I want to interview you.
Speaker 3 (01:36):
Please let me interview you.
Speaker 2 (01:39):
Well, we all wanted an interview, but that wasn't going
to happen. But I did write to him and I
gave him my phone number and I said, if you
can call me, this is my home phone. Give me
a call. Now he's incarcerated, he's not going to come
after me. And one Saturday morning he called me and
(02:00):
the operator said, no, I have a collect call from
the Sedgwy County Detention Center.
Speaker 3 (02:03):
Will you accept the charges?
Speaker 2 (02:05):
And you go, wow, yes I will. And on the
other end, he said.
Speaker 3 (02:11):
Larry, this is Dennis Rider. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 2 (02:16):
I had my phone already set up to be able
to record audio, and the problem was the phone in
the jail is terrible. You talk about bad audio, this
was bad audio. Pops and buzzes and beeps, and I
have no clue how many people were listening on it.
I said, well, I appreciate you calling me. I have
(02:39):
thirty years of questions and he said I have twenty minutes.
Speaker 3 (02:43):
I said, okay, So.
Speaker 2 (02:45):
I started asking him questions. And one of the questions
that I asked him and I will never forget this.
I said, how could you kill two children? And he said, oh, well,
they were just collateral.
Speaker 3 (02:59):
Just collise. I will never forget that.
Speaker 2 (03:04):
And he spoke about it as you would speak to
the baker as you pick up a dozen donuts at
the bakery, without feeling, without excitement, that they were just collateral.
And that I found that stunning. And then a few
months later the trial began in the Central County District Court.
(03:33):
Someone killed four members of a family.
Speaker 4 (03:36):
Had you vanished from her home suddenly last weekend? Her
phone lines had been cut, her door left open.
Speaker 2 (03:41):
You see the victim playing there with plastic bags over
their heads, strangled. You could tell there was a planned scenario.
Speaker 4 (03:49):
Well, police have said no more about the contents of
the letter. It does contain some sort of threat and
implies the killer may strike again.
Speaker 2 (03:57):
He's going to play with these victims to the point
of death and then bring them back, and then brings
them back to the point of death.
Speaker 5 (04:07):
From My Heart Podcasts and Tenderfoot TV. I'm Susan Peters
and this is Monster BTK. On February twenty eight, two
thousand and five, just three days after he was arrested,
(04:27):
Dennis Rader was charged with ten counts of first degree murder.
During his initial interrogation, Rader had revealed that he was
responsible for two murders the police hadn't known he was
connected to those of Marine Hedge and Dolores Davis. While
awaiting trial, Raider was held in the Sedgwick County Detention Center. Meanwhile,
(04:51):
prosecutors were starting to build their case. It was assigned
to Nola Fulston, the Sedgwick County District Attorney, and working
with her was Kevin O'Connor, who at the time was
the deputy district attorney. Their first goal was to keep
Raider in jail, so.
Speaker 6 (05:09):
There was a process in deciding how to charge it.
You charged the ten murders. I remember Judge Waller asking
what kind of bond we wanted, and I think I
said something to the effect of a I mean, Judge,
I don't know ten kazillion million. I don't know if
there is a number that you could ask for on bond.
Speaker 5 (05:29):
The next question was what sentence would the prosecutors seek.
Speaker 6 (05:35):
There was a lot of discussion at the time, a
lot of thoughts about whether or not he should get
the death penalty. Kansas didn't have a death penalty during
the years that he was committing these crimes. Kansas has
one now but didn't then, and so you had a
lot of confusion about why the death penalty wasn't being sought.
Speaker 5 (05:55):
The death penalty had been banned in Kansas up until
nineteen ninety four, when it was officially reinstated, but this
was long after Raider's last murder, which took place in
nineteen ninety one. Therefore, prosecutors had no choice but to
instead seek life without parole.
Speaker 6 (06:17):
We couldn't seek the death penalty. It wasn't an available
punishment at the time he was committing these murders. The
sentence was life, but sentence in Kansas the life sentence
meant fifteen years, So for each.
Speaker 5 (06:31):
Of Rader's ten murders, he would receive fifteen years in
prison if found guilty.
Speaker 6 (06:38):
The last murder of Dolores Davis occurred in ninety one,
where there was a hard forty is what it was called,
and that would mean that you got a life sentence,
but you couldn't be paroled until you serve forty years,
and you had to have a sentencing hearing on that.
Speaker 5 (06:56):
Remember, Raider was fifty nine years old. So this hard
forty rule effectively meant that if he was successfully convicted,
Raider would spend the rest of his life in prison
with no chance at parole. It seemed like Dennis Rader
had his work cut out for him, but apparently he
(07:17):
didn't want any part of it. He didn't find a
lawyer or speak much at all after his initial interrogation,
even though many attorneys had tried to represent him.
Speaker 6 (07:29):
I remember getting a call from the jail saying that
a local attorney was trying to get access to Dennis Raider,
and I remember running from my office over to the
jail because that attorney wasn't entitled to have contact with him.
He hadn't requested an attorney at that time, but the
jail had let him have access, and after that he
(07:51):
decided he didn't want to talk anymore.
Speaker 5 (07:53):
We don't know what happened that made Raider choose to
stay quiet after that interaction, but he wouldn't talk again
until months later. At one press conference, Nola Fulston and
Kevin O'Connor were asked if there would be any talks
of a plea deal with Raider.
Speaker 6 (08:12):
I mean, in my opinion, you can't ple negotiated a
Dennis Raider BTK case.
Speaker 5 (08:18):
In the conclusion to the State's summary of the evidence,
the destruct Attorney's Office echoed this sentiment.
Speaker 1 (08:26):
Dennis Rader did not suffer from any mental disease or defect.
He was not the victim of any psychological, physical, or
sexual abuse. Rader murdered with premeditation and deliberation. He killed
methodically and systematically, uninhibited by any moral concerns or considerations.
Dennis Rader killed because he wanted to kill. The evil
(08:48):
depravity of his deeds are beyond human comprehension. The time
has come to hold Raider accountable, to punish him for
his atrocities. Rader deserves the harshest punishment allowed law.
Speaker 5 (09:03):
Raider's first court appearance was March first, two thousand and five.
Just a few days after his arrest, Steve Osburne and
Sarah McKinnon were appointed as public defenders. They hired two
people from Cambridge for Insant Consultants to perform a psychological
assessment on Raider to determine his competency to stand trial.
(09:27):
Competency evaluations are not comprehensive mental health examinations. They focus
only on present mental ability to participate in the various
parts of the legal process. It was doctor Robert Mendoza
who performed the examination. Here's an excerpt from Confession of
a Serial Killer describing Mendoza's findings as read by a
(09:50):
voice actor.
Speaker 7 (09:52):
Mendoza noted that there was no history of mental illness
or drug abuse and no medical conditions. I'm in the
journals and drawings that Rader had made and the crime
scene photos. He also watched the videotape of Raider's police
interrogation and examined medical school and prison records. During the evaluation,
(10:14):
Raider was depressed, even tearful. His level of attention had declined,
he had lost weight, and he was anxious. He said
he had considered suffocating himself in his cell, but despite
his circumstances, he wanted to live.
Speaker 5 (10:32):
This report also identified narcissistic personality disorder and obsessive compulsive
personality disorder. Neither of these diagnoses rose to the level
of a major mental illness for Raider, and so they
did not affect his competency to stand trial, and thus
(10:52):
the prosecuting attorney sought to finalize a trial date. They
did not want Rader to get away with a plea deal.
Speaker 6 (11:00):
We wanted to have that hearing. A lot of people
criticize the district attorney, thinking that she was a media hound.
You know, she just wanted the media attention. I can
tell you and being in those meetings with her, that
the goal was to make all the information a public record.
As you all may know that police reports are not
public information, but things that are presented in open court are.
(11:25):
So the ideal was is we're going to put it
all out in open court, so any member of the public,
any journalist, would have access to that information and be
able to describe who Dennis Rader really was. Just an evil,
sadistic murderer, that's all he was.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
They got their wish. Raiders first public hearing was scheduled
for June twenty seventh, two thousand and five.
Speaker 1 (12:04):
From Kate News.
Speaker 8 (12:05):
This is a special report BTK Journey to.
Speaker 5 (12:09):
Justice and Good Morning. Susan and Peters, along with Jeff Herndon,
welcome the live team coverage of the BTK case. Each
previous hearing built with mystery. This is no different. No
one really knows what is going to happen, except for
Dennis Raider himself. June twenty seventh, two thousand and five
(12:32):
was one of the wildest days of my life. I
led the coverage from the Cake studios that morning. As
my colleagues reported from outside the courthouse, the front steps
were flooded with national media cameras, tents, and microphones everywhere.
It was about eight thirty am when the families of
the victims started to appear.
Speaker 1 (12:55):
We have some live pictures now from the courthouse.
Speaker 5 (12:58):
These are family members at the courthouse, victims of family members.
It looks like Charles Bright is there. I see him.
The big question this morning was whether Dennis Rader would
change his plea. At a previous hearing, Raider refused to
speak at all or enter into any formal plea, so
(13:18):
by default, the judge entered him into a plea of
not guilty on his behalf. But things had changed since then,
and there were rumors that Raider planned to flip his plea.
Speaker 9 (13:31):
There's really been a last minute decision that's being made,
that they kept all their cards together, and they're going
to evaluate things as late as this morning and figure
out what's going to happen. And I also get the
feeling that Dennis Raider is very much in charge of
that final decision.
Speaker 5 (13:47):
I know for a fact that the families wanted Raider
to plead guilty. They wanted an end to this nightmare,
and a guilty plea would move things much faster than
a lengthy trial. Still, all of us were in suspense
as to what Raider's choice would eventually be. At about
(14:10):
eight forty am, the attorneys entered the courtroom. According to
many sources, raiders defense attorneys appeared nervous.
Speaker 10 (14:21):
These attorneys have been working with the Raider since the
very since the first appearance when they were assigned. There
have been some rumors that there is some discord amongst
them with or between them and Raider.
Speaker 5 (14:35):
Finally, after everyone else was settled, Dennis Raider entered the courtroom.
There's Dennis Raider walking into court.
Speaker 11 (14:44):
He does have a bulletproof vest on, it appears. Let's
listen into the proceedings.
Speaker 3 (14:49):
Thank you, please be seated all right?
Speaker 12 (14:52):
At this time comes on before the court case captioned
of the State of Kansas Plaintiff versus Dennis L.
Speaker 3 (14:58):
Raider, Defendive.
Speaker 5 (15:01):
After going through the standard introductory remarks, Judge Gregory Waller
asked Rader the question everyone was waiting for how would
he plead.
Speaker 13 (15:13):
Yarn At this time, mister Rader wave his right to
a jury trial and interplea of guilty to all ten counts.
Speaker 12 (15:19):
Sir, I have been advised as your desire to enter
a plea of guilty in this case.
Speaker 3 (15:25):
Is that correct, yes, sir.
Speaker 5 (15:27):
At perhaps the last minute, Dennis Rader chose to plead
guilty to all ten counts of murder and thus avoid
a trial. Then Judge Waller prompted Rader to explain how
he murdered his victims. Surprisingly, Rader was more than happy
to oblige.
Speaker 13 (15:50):
On January fifteenth, nineteen seventy four, I'm maliciously, intentionally and
premeditation killed Joseph of Terrell.
Speaker 12 (15:57):
Had you planned this beforehand.
Speaker 13 (16:00):
To some degree?
Speaker 11 (16:00):
Yes?
Speaker 13 (16:01):
If forgot in the house that I lost control of it,
But it was, you know, back of my mind. I
had some ideas what I was.
Speaker 3 (16:08):
Going to do.
Speaker 5 (16:10):
Raider spared none of the graphic details, shedding not an
ounce of remorse or betraying any emotion.
Speaker 13 (16:21):
I put a plastic bag over his head, and then
some cords and fighting it after that.
Speaker 3 (16:27):
I did miss this Otero.
Speaker 13 (16:30):
I had never strangled anyone before, so I really don't
know how much pressure you had to put on a
person or how long it take.
Speaker 5 (16:37):
This went on for forty five minutes straight, Raider going
through each murder, not only admitting to them, but excitedly
explaining his every move. My colleague Glarry Hedeberg was stunned.
Speaker 2 (16:57):
The judge asked Dennis Rader to take him through all
the killings in the courtroom live on TV. That was
absolutely amazing. And here was Dennis Raider, and he was
like the ringmaster in the center ring, and the spotlight
was on him, and he was having the time of
(17:18):
his life recounting in detail how he killed ten people.
It was extraordinary, unbelievable, really, because he told it in
the same method that he had talked to me on
the phone, without feeling, without remorse, just very matter of fact. Well,
(17:41):
I tied her up this way, and then I strangled
her hair, thought about cutting her throat, and it's just
like somebody talking about picking up their laundry.
Speaker 5 (17:50):
Many of the family members present simply couldn't stand to
listen to this, including Steve Ralford, surviving son a Shirley Vyanne.
Speaker 3 (18:01):
Guy that walked out. Everybody fucking followed me.
Speaker 8 (18:04):
I didn't want to hear what time to dad say?
Speaker 5 (18:08):
All the other victims families walked out with you, but
you were the first one to get up.
Speaker 8 (18:13):
Damn great, he said, can they do that? What the
fuck they want to do?
Speaker 5 (18:20):
Why didn't you want to stay in court?
Speaker 8 (18:22):
I'm here?
Speaker 3 (18:23):
What he fucking had to say?
Speaker 5 (18:25):
What did you want to do?
Speaker 8 (18:27):
It's not loud on here, not allowed home?
Speaker 5 (18:33):
So you you didn't want to give him the satisfaction
of Is that why you walked out and everyone else
walked out to do you think?
Speaker 3 (18:43):
Pretty much?
Speaker 5 (18:44):
What do you think he was doing that day?
Speaker 8 (18:47):
Shelf pity?
Speaker 5 (18:48):
I mean he went on and on about each murder.
Speaker 14 (18:51):
What do you what do you.
Speaker 5 (18:52):
Think he was doing that day?
Speaker 8 (18:55):
Well, I forget what you call it, but glory, find
money done, and not any fucking remorse.
Speaker 3 (19:04):
She had this for himself. I won't hear a shit. Oh,
I hear none of it.
Speaker 5 (19:13):
When Rader was done, Judge Waller formally declared the conviction.
Speaker 12 (19:20):
I will accept these pleas are guilty, and I judge
you Dennis L. Raider guilty of murder in the first
degree in count won a Class A felony.
Speaker 5 (19:31):
It was a moment of mixed emotions. On one hand,
it was a triumphant relief Dennis Rader had been found
guilty on all charges. On the other hand, it was
a moment of quiet sadness. The way Rader described his
murders in grave detail left everyone shaken. People shuffled out
(19:56):
of the courtroom silently. It was a bittersweet, even though
justice had prevailed. Following his guilty plea and verdict, Rader
was sent back to the Sedgua County Detention Center to
await his sentencing. The date of the sentencing hearing was
(20:16):
set for August eighteenth. Meanwhile, Larry Hadiberg was determined to
interview him again. You heard about his phone interview with
Rader at the top of the episode, But this time
Larry wanted to see him in person.
Speaker 2 (20:33):
And so I asked before he was sent to prison,
I said, I'd like to talk to you in person.
Is that possible? And I got permission to talk to
him in person. Didn't have much time, about fifteen minutes
with him, and I went up with one of the
other anchors from KTV. I was nervous about shaking his hand.
(21:00):
When you go up there and talk to him, you
have to do a prison handshake. He's on one side
of the plexiglass, I'm on the other. He puts his
hand up here like this. Then I put my hand
up here like this, and we basically that's a prison
hand shake. My son in law, guy who married my daughter,
is a federal agent here in Wichita, and I was
(21:21):
talking to him about this and I said, I don't
want to do it. I just simply don't want to
do it. And he looked at me and he said, well,
how bad do you want the information? If you don't
shake his hand, he's going to take that as an
insult and he's going to shut up and not say anything.
So I reluctantly did it, and I still regret it
(21:43):
to this day. But we had a conversation, you know,
and he told me he was looking forward to prison.
I said, why are you looking forward to prison? And
he said, I'm going to learn things. You know, how
to burn a building down, you know how to do this,
how to do how to commit a crime. He was
really looking forward to it. He was unbelievable in that
(22:06):
he had no soul. He just he didn't care about
other people, particularly women.
Speaker 5 (22:13):
My impression was that after the June twenty seventh theory,
Raider was feeling pretty good about himself. The way he
talked about his murders in such a detailed and nonchalant
manner tells me that he was ready to tell his
story on his terms. Here he was on national TV
with the world watching, and he got to read what
(22:35):
was essentially his manifesto out loud for everyone to hear.
His attitude leaving the courtroom that day appeared to be
one of success. But what Raider wasn't prepared for is
that he would soon get his due. At the August
eighteenth sentencing hearing, the family members of his victims would
(22:59):
finally get the chance to speak up and address Raider directly.
On August eighteenth, Raiders' sentencing hearing began, The family members
of the victims would each have a chance to speak,
(23:22):
but first investigators were given the floor to tell their
side of the story and present all the evidence they
had uncovered the police.
Speaker 4 (23:33):
They wanted everything my dad had done on record. They
wanted it in public record because most of the details
were not known at that point. Still, like all the
case materials, weapons, times, dates, a lot of that was
not public.
Speaker 5 (23:48):
This is Dennis Raider's daughter, Carrie Rawson.
Speaker 4 (23:52):
They wanted it all in the record, so they went
through all of that. They brought in like the knife,
he youths for Catherine, brought in all of this stuff
just to put it under the record. They brought in
the polaroids.
Speaker 5 (24:05):
If you remember, Denis Rator at some point took polaroid
pictures of himself where he would dress up in women's
clothing and reenact his murders. The police had confiscated all
of these when they searched the Raider household.
Speaker 4 (24:24):
Now were they trying to humiliate my dad on the stand.
Speaker 2 (24:26):
I don't know.
Speaker 4 (24:27):
My dad was not expecting that. He was pretty lividly pissed.
Speaker 3 (24:32):
How do you react?
Speaker 13 (24:33):
Just angry.
Speaker 4 (24:34):
You can see him trying to be under control in
the videos of him just trying to maintain composure of
these guys mocking him in court.
Speaker 1 (24:44):
But he's exposed.
Speaker 4 (24:45):
Now, he's exposed and known for what he is.
Speaker 5 (24:49):
Carrie says that her father was visibly shaken by this
barrage of evidence from the prosecutors.
Speaker 4 (24:57):
He was not expecting that, and he's completely thrown and
you see him trying to maintain control, and he's trying
to hold those outer protective layers, and he's just sort
of disintegrating. Mike Us would be inside. You see his
voice change, he clicks his mouth like he's acting like
he's like bored. He's just trying to keep control, and
(25:18):
you can see it. He's almost tearing up. He's so upset,
he's almost tearing up. And then he's also like really mad.
Speaker 5 (25:25):
Of course, this was also the Raider family's first time
hearing about Dennis's evil deeds.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
My family did not know about the bondage. We didn't
know about my dad and the women's lingerie. We didn't
know my dad dressed up and victim's clothing and took
polaroids in his parents' basement. Basically, he was recreating Josephino
Tero's murderer. I didn't know any of that. So I'm
finding this out with the rest of the world, and
(25:54):
I was mad. I was mad at the police for
not trusting us enough to tell us, or for Paris.
I think they were trying to protect us, but obviously
now it's just all at once.
Speaker 5 (26:09):
Finally, the family members of the victims had a chance
to speak, and Dennis Rader had no choice but to listen.
Speaker 15 (26:19):
Now it was my turn. He has his spot life
for a long time. Now it's going to be my turn.
I was gonna call him everything that I could possibly
get away with, calling him on network GAV.
Speaker 5 (26:32):
This is Jeff Davis, son of Dolores Davis. He gave
one of the longest and most comprehensive victim impact statements.
Speaker 15 (26:43):
I did a pretty good job of it. I was
pretty creative the stuff that I came up with. And
I did it because I knew he was watching, and
every interview was focused directly at him. When I looked
at the person I was interviewing, I wasn't looking at him.
I was looking him. I wanted him to know that
it was my turn. And now it's even time, and
(27:07):
now I'm the one point in barged in your direction
and tell me how much do you like it? A
smart boy, and I knew getting under his skin, and
I love every minute of it.
Speaker 16 (27:20):
For the last five three and twenty six days, I
have wondered what it would be like to confront the
walking cesspool that took my mother's precious life. Throughout that time,
I always envisioned this day as being one for avenging
the past. I could think of nothing but savoring the
bittersweet taste of revenge as justice is served upon this
social sewage here before us today. Now that has arised,
(27:42):
surprise arrived. Surprisingly, I realized that this day is not
just about avenging crafts past crimes. Sitting here before us
is a depraved predator, a rabbit animal that has murdered people,
poisoned countless lives, and terrorized this community for thirty years,
all the while relish every minute of it. As such,
(28:02):
there can be no justice harsh enough for revenge bitter
enough in this world, at least to cause the pain
and suffering which a social malignancy like this has coming.
Speaker 15 (28:13):
He wouldn't look at me. It was a four minute,
thirty stecond in tirade. He would not look at me
one time. He didn't have the guts to look at me.
Speaker 17 (28:25):
All I could think about was revenge, revenge, get my
hands on him.
Speaker 5 (28:29):
This is Charlie o'teroll, eldest brother of the surviving o'taro
family members. He says that this hearing was the first
time he heard certain details about the murder of his parents.
Speaker 17 (28:43):
I had no inside information or anything about how my
family had died.
Speaker 3 (28:47):
I didn't know any of that stuff that he said.
Speaker 17 (28:50):
When he said that my mom's last words and may
God forgive you, I knew that that's something my mom
would probably have said because that's how she was. And
it just broke my heart again, that feeling I had
on my chest being tore open in my heart, it
just came all came back to me. I knew that
if I acted up, then I would never get a
chance at him. So I had to maintain to wait
(29:14):
for my chance. That and the world's sitting there and
my brother and my sister, and once again the big
brother Manto thing comes in. I gotta be strong in
front of them.
Speaker 5 (29:24):
Then, like Jeff Charlie gave his own victim impact statement.
Speaker 17 (29:30):
That's what I had to be good for. I had
to get my impact statement, and I couldn't screw. I
wanted to make that statement. But I also planned, this
is gonna be my chance to get my hands on him,
so I was prepared to go all.
Speaker 3 (29:41):
The way with my revenge plans.
Speaker 17 (29:44):
What happened was we left for lunch break and I
had a couple of beers right away. I'm getting my
strength up, my courage up, and then I planned to
get my hands on him. And as we were walking
to the detector, I got stopped by my filmmaker. We
(30:05):
made a documentary and the filmmaker was there filming and
he said, Charlie, you have a phone call. It was
the mother of my son, who I had never seen before.
He was named Joseph, his same name as my brother
and my dad. It was Annette. Lynnette says, Charlie, there's
been an accident. Joe has been hit by a car.
He's and the phone went dead and I'm like, he's what,
(30:29):
He's what, He's dead, He's alive, He's okay.
Speaker 3 (30:33):
I called Lynette again.
Speaker 17 (30:34):
I call her back and she said, Charlie, Joseph's been
hit by a car.
Speaker 3 (30:38):
He's in a coma.
Speaker 17 (30:40):
And I'm like, what is it?
Speaker 3 (30:41):
An induced coma? Is it? They said, no, it's he's in.
Speaker 17 (30:45):
A coma and he's got brain injuries that he's got
shaken baby syndrome from being hit by the car. I
start thinking about this. I'm thinking, how can I ask
God to save my son?
Speaker 3 (30:58):
If I am going.
Speaker 17 (30:59):
To go do au dacardly deed, why would he save
my son? So it's hard to describe it. Put in
that instant, I got my religion back. I got my
faith back because all desire for that revenge went away instantly,
truly went away, and all I could think about was
(31:21):
saving my son. I said, God, save my son. I'll
give you my life, I'll do anything you want. You
can take me right now, just save my son. So
when we went back in there, the opportunity came. They
took him out one door, and the family's out another door,
and they screwed up, and there was nobody between me
(31:42):
and him.
Speaker 3 (31:42):
There might have been people next to him.
Speaker 17 (31:44):
And stuff, but he was I looked right at him,
with nobody between me and him, all desire that I
had to get my hands on him was gone because
I knew the prison would take care of it, because
that's what they did.
Speaker 3 (31:56):
To child molesterers and child killers and stuff. I walked
out the door.
Speaker 17 (32:01):
I went outside, and some people started sticking microphones in
my face, and somebody said, Charlie, you know the world's
praying for you, And I said, no, no, no, don't
pray for me. Pray for my son. He's been hit
by a car and he needs prayer right now. He's
in a coma and behold months later weeks. Weeks and
weeks later, he wakes up a newborn child. I believe
(32:23):
the Lord gave me.
Speaker 3 (32:24):
Back my son.
Speaker 5 (32:28):
Steve Ralford was also given the chance to give a statement.
Speaker 8 (32:33):
And when I got up to speak, I stuck close
about powered every where everybody. I couldn't talk. I lost
seeming anger at that point. I'm bringing you fuck what
anybody talk. I knew what I thought, I knew, I
couldn't knew it.
Speaker 5 (32:53):
Steve was simply too upset to say much of anything.
For him, the difficulty of that day was it's nearly
impossible to bear. But he wasn't alone. He was comforted
by the fact that others like Jeff Davis and Charlie
o'taro shared in his anger.
Speaker 15 (33:12):
My emotion was pure, unadulterated rage. Now as I knew
they would. They had six of the biggest sheriff's officers
I've ever seen.
Speaker 3 (33:22):
In my life.
Speaker 15 (33:24):
They had three on each side of him, shouldered and shoulder.
Because it wasn't just me who wanted him. Charlie o'tarroll
wanted him, Steve Ralphord wanted him. There was a bunch
of us that wanted peace to him, and we knew
we couldn't do it, obviously, but I know I was
still filled with rage that I was sitting there and
(33:46):
knew how when you stare at somebody just right, they
can feel you staring at him. He knew, he knew
that I was burning a hole in the back of
his head, that he.
Speaker 3 (33:59):
Wasn't trying to look at me because you don't have
the gut.
Speaker 15 (34:02):
One of the stairs officers came over to me and
he told me, he said, you need to sit back
and relaxed, and he said, you look like you're getting
ready to jump over that rail and go after him.
He said, if the judge tosses you out of here,
you won't get back in. So I was physically almost
like I was raised the spring. I knew I couldn't
(34:24):
do it, but I was just that chanced that I
used to just grabbing on said the rails, and I
was probably white and knuckle by magine. So I had
to call myself down, stick back down before I got
myself in trouble.
Speaker 5 (34:42):
This shared hatred of Denis Rator had the effect of
bonding these men. That day, they sat together in unison
as they delivered their barbs to a cold faced denistrator.
He said nothing and never looked in the eyes, but
they knew that their words had cut him. After they
(35:06):
were finished, Raider was given thirty minutes to respond. Here
is an excerpt of what he said, as read by
a voice actor.
Speaker 11 (35:16):
The dark side was there, but now I think the
light is beginning to shine. And I appreciate the family
and friends and who I can be thankful for, and
I think that will keep me from finally going to
the dark side or hell. And finally, a final apologize
to the victims' families. There's no way that I can
(35:39):
ever repay you.
Speaker 5 (35:42):
Raider actually appeared to tear up during his final speech.
The victim's families were convinced that Raider's tears were for himself.
Jeff Davis and the other families had no desire to
listen to his self pity, so they decided once again
to walk out.
Speaker 15 (36:02):
And I was the instigator. I'm the one that is idea.
It was that when he's stood up to talk, I'm
the one that said, let's get out here, let's walk out.
And minute he got up before he could open his mouth,
about eight of us got up and just walked out
of the courtroom, and everybody said to look on his
(36:22):
face was priceless because he's like, wait, I haven't had
my stay yet, and you're leaving because I told all
those people I said he to stay. I want to
hear everything out of his nostril lie. So we just
got and walked out. It was great. It was the
destulity in the world.
Speaker 5 (36:42):
Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Fulston had this to say
about Raider's words.
Speaker 14 (36:48):
It's pitiful for mister Rader to stand here, looking all
pale and pasty and say how sorry he is. Well,
that's usually the culmination of what happens when defendants go
to their last chance in order to convince a judge
you know, gosh, I'm really sorry. Well, what else do
you say after you kill ten people? He doesn't have
the ability to be arrogant.
Speaker 5 (37:07):
Today, after nearly three days of testimony, it was finally
time the judge called the court to order. He picked
up a piece of paper and slowly confidently, he read
out loud Denis Rader's sentenced to the courtroom and to
(37:27):
the world. Next time on Monster BTK.
Speaker 4 (37:38):
I wanted to help him, like I'm mad at you
when one second, I'm worried you're cold, and like I
love you, I still love you.
Speaker 2 (37:45):
We write some letters.
Speaker 14 (37:47):
He wanted me to solve some codes.
Speaker 2 (37:51):
The reason I stay kind of involved in it is
that we still do not know what caused BTK to
become a murderer.
Speaker 11 (38:00):
I really wanted to go sleep Ennis in person, to
see who he is.
Speaker 17 (38:05):
The intensity of the anguish and the grief is still there.
Speaker 18 (38:09):
Raider said, you know, I have a fantasy that I
wish I could have lived out. I've always wanted to
kidnap a female from a launder map.
Speaker 1 (38:28):
Monster BTK is a production of Tenderfoot TV and iHeart Podcasts.
The show is written by Nomes Griffin, Trevor Young, and
Jesse Funk. Our host is Susan Peters. Executive producers on
Behalf of Tenderfoot TV include Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay,
alongside supervising producer Tracy Kaplan. Executive producers on behalf of
(38:53):
iHeart Podcasts include Matt Frederick and Trevor Young, alongside producers Nomes,
Griffin and Funk and supervising producer Rima Ilkali. Marketing support
by David Wasserman and Alison Wright. At iHeart Podcasts and
Caroline Rigemma at tenderfoot TV. Additional research by Claudia Dafrico,
(39:16):
original artwork by Kevin Mister Soul Harp, original music by
Makeup and Vanity Set. Special thanks to Orrin Rosenbaum and
the team at UTA and the Nord Group. For more
podcasts from iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
(39:38):
Thanks for listening.
Host
Susan Peters
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