Dennis Rader's killings occurred between 1974 and 1991, during which time he killed a total of 10 people (the first four of whom were killed in one night). Occasionally, he took breaks from killing. Some such periods were around the time that his children were born and he didn't have enough free time to stalk potential victims. During these periods, he would engage in auto-erotic behaviour to keep his urges satisfied. He enjoyed performing self-bondage, sometimes wearing a mask he used during some murders or even female underwear he had taken from his victims. Throughout his serial killing career, Rader sent several taunting letters to the police and media in which he graphically described his murders. The first, written in October 1974, was stashed inside an engineering book in the Wichita Public Library. In 1978, he sent another to Wichita-based TV station KAKE in which he also suggested a number of names for himself, such as "The Wichita Strangler", "The Wichita Hangman", "The Asphyxiater" and, the name the public came to know him by, "The BTK Killer", signifying his M.O.: "Bind, Torture, Kill". The next letters did not come until later. In 2004, the newspaper The Wichita Eagle received a letter from someone using the return address "Bill Thomas Killman".
Aired: Jan 7, 2022 On the surface Dennis Rader seemed like a "regular guy," but what lied beneat...
