Question

Welcome to Discussion 5.1! Dennis Rader was dubbed “BTK” for his method of murder: Bind, Torture, Kill. Rader was active from the 1970’s to the 1990’s. Throughout this time he wouldn’t often send letters to the police and news outlets detailing his crimes. After a ten year of hiatus of contact, he began sending information again….soon after he was apprehended. In our course, we see that law enforcement has a wealthy of means that they use in investigating crime. For the BTK murders, how was Rader ultimately caught? This week, we’ll look into the means of investigation and apprehension of serial killer. Address the following prompts: • What role did not technology play in finding Denis Rader? • In your opinion, was he trying to get caught? Why/Why not? • Independently research why serial killers often leave signatures and clues for law enforcement. Why might this occur? (https://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/shadow-boxing/201312/serial-killer-signatures) • Beyond the apparent atrocity of murder, what other damage do serial killers cause? For example, what social consequences occur for the community, their family, friends etc?

Answer 1

For three decades BTK created terror in Witicha. He gave a very tough challenge to the police. However, he send information regarding his murders to the press till police was able to narrow him until 2005. From 1974 to 2004, he took ten innocent lives. Ultimately he committed that mistake to send information through floppy disk that led to his arrest. His own lack of understanding about the technology and his signature boasting of killings led to his arrest, and then the samples taken from the crime scenes matched his DNA.

Radar had a big ego, this ego made boast about the killings, which he did by sending informations to the press, in his grammatically wrong language. He derived sadistic pleasure while taking lives, and he wanted to continue this way till his death, if he wouldn't have been caught by his own folly while boasting. To satisfy his ego he would take photos of the victims in various nude position and would masturbate on them. This is an evidence for the sick mind and brutality, which he considered as his accomplishment.

Killings or murders without apparent reasons and by unknown creates fear in the society. Also, it leaves a permanent deep wounds in the minds of the loved ones of the victims, that may change the life these individuals. It also impacts the lives of the family members of the perpetrators socially and psychologically. They have to live with the identity of being related to a heinous murderer, and also, with a guilt feeling being somehow accountable for the loss of lives of the innocent.