Who is the BTK killer?

Denise Ono Cover producer • E-mail

For more than 30 years, he terrorized the Wichita, Kan., area, killing at least 10 people and taunting police and local media from 1974 until earlier this year. In June, Dennis Rader stood in court and confessed to being the BTK killer. On Wednesday, a Kansas judge began hearings to determine his sentence.

As Rader calmly described that day in June how he chose, tracked and killed his victims, many people were asking the same thing: How could this man be the cold-blooded murderer who had eluded police for so long?

Rader was married in 1971, three years before the first murders (His wife, Paula, was granted an emergency divorce in July). The killings and taunting letters to the police and media continued as his two children were born. He was president of his church and a leader in his son’s Cub Scout troop.

Before the murders of the Otero family in 1974, Rader spent four years in the Air Force and a brief stint at the Coleman Co. His first two adult victims also worked at Coleman. He held positions at a security services company, installing alarm systems during his tenure there from 1974 to 1988. From 1991 until he was taken into custody earlier this year, he worked as a compliance officer in his hometown of Park City, Kan.

Although some neighbors and acquaintances described him as rude and arrogant, Rader was able to keep his murderous side secret. No one said they suspected him of any criminal activity.

Serial killer personality
MSNBC analyst and former FBI profiler Clint Van Zandt describes Rader as, “someone who has no conscience, no guilt, someone who takes no responsibility for his actions.” These are the characteristics of antisocial personality disorder or the more severe psychopathic personality disorder.

According to J. Reid Meloy, a forensic psychologist who has written extensively on criminal behavior, antisocial personality disorder affects around 2 percent to 5 percent of the population. Only about 1 percent of the population can be described as having psychopathic personality disorder. “They tend to be very cruel and aggressive, detached, grandiose (they have a very high opinion of themselves), chronically manipulative and often have histories of criminal behavior,” Meloy said. Many are highly socialized and are able to keep their psychopathic personalities separate from their public daily lives, Meloy said. He added that they often try to get into positions of authority.

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