BTK /// Part 3 /// 206 | Forensic Files

foreign [Music] [Applause] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
for listening I'm your host Nick and with me as always is a man that was not invited but he's certainly glad he made
it he is the captain I just assumed that invitation got lost in the mail it's good to be seen and it's good to see you
thanks for listening thanks for telling my friend [Music] why too Captain I'm glad that you made
it because today we are drinking dimwit By The River City Brewing Company garage
grade three and a half bottle caps out of five dimwit is a fantastic Whit beer brewed in Wichita and delivering
everything one would expect from a great Whit beer and dimwit is a fantastic co-host it's citrusy it's light and it's
warm and today's beer was brought to us by these witty guys and girls first up we have Ladonna up in Alberta Canada and
a big we like your gym to Sarah in Stockton New Jersey and Captain everybody knows you don't mess with
Texas and down there we got Adrian and Denton and we also have Catherine in Houston big shout out you mess with the
bull you get the horn next up it shares to Veronica and Matt and Charleston South Carolina also it shares the Carrie
listening and the farmlands in Ledger Montana and last but not least we have Brenda and Bloomington Illinois so
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you there Captain everybody gather round grab a chair grab some beers let's talk
some true crime thank you foreign [Music] February 10th 1978 Friday evening in the Wichita
Kansas city hall building the police chief made the following announcement the purpose of this news conference is
to advise the public of an extremely serious matter involving a series of murders which occurred in our city
as you know in January of 1974 four members of the Otoro family were murdered in March of 1977 Shirley vienne was
killed and in December of 1977 Nancy Fox was also murdered earlier today k-a-k-e-tv immediately brought me a
letter where the author took credit for the oturo The Fox and the VN murders in addition
whoever wrote this letter has taken credit for a seventh victim we are in no doubt and are convinced
that the person that killed the oturos Miss Fox and Miss vienne is the same person
I want to restate there is no question in our minds that the person who wrote The Letter killed these people
this person has consistently identified himself with the initials BTK and wishes
to be known as the BTK Strangler because we are sure this man is responsible for
seven murders we wish to enlist the assistance of each citizen of this community
our police department has already begun special efforts which is as follows one additional uniformed officers are
already on the street two a special detective task force involving the major case squad has been
established three a special phone number for Citizens to call has been established this phone
will be staffed 24 hours a day four we have solicited the assistance of the district attorney the sheriff and
Professionals in the field of human behavior and would welcome the assistance from any person regardless of
their expertise I know it is difficult to ask people to remain calm but we are asking exactly
this when a person of this type is at large in our community it requires special
precautions and special awareness by everyone when we left off last week we finished
the week by announcing that the BTK killer had named himself had sent a letter to
k-a-k-e-tv and immediately that letter was sent to the police department that same evening they held the press
conference where we just discussed that announcement that they made now as you can imagine the police announcing to the
public and to the local media that a predatory sexual killer is on the loose a wave of Widespread Panic shock and
fear across the community the announcement quickly became national news with the public aware that BTK was
hunting people in Wichita many rumors were swirling about who the killer was and how and why he chose certain victims
one thing that was also mentioned during the Public Announcement was that the killer had cut the phone line to the
houses before he entered the home to attack and kill the occupants this information inspired a safety
precaution that became a ritualistic habit of nearly all the citizens of the greater Wichita Area especially
something practiced by single women that lived alone because the phone line was cut people
would upon arriving back at their homes they would run to the phone in the house
and pick up the receiver and listen for a dial tone a lot of people would call their home from another location before
returning home to make sure that the phone would ring other precautions were taken by citizens
as well this included the increased sales of peepholes deadbolts other additional door locks and of course guns
and dogs were in high demand but a pattern that we would see time and time again after this communication BTK
went dark and it was 14 months later when we have another incident yeah this is going to be around 10 p.m on April 29
1979. this is when Dennis Rader shattered the basement window of a 61 year old woman who lived alone now she
lived just one mile from one of his previous victims Nancy Fox he climbed into the home and his victim
she was not home at this time he he would wait for her to return there was a guest bed down in the basement beside it
he decided to lay out some ropes and a broom handle then the woman returned to her house she had spent the night out
with several friends the friends had drove her home she got out of the car and she approached the front door
reaching into her purse she pulled out the keys to her house she turned and smiled and waved at her friends she
looked down to make sure that she had the right key and then she heard her friend shout from the car Anna wait why
don't you come over to our house for a cup of coffee Anna turned from the door put her keys
back in her purse and walked back to the car got in and they drove away inside the house BTK grew angry as he waited
and waited for her to return eventually he ends up leaving the house when Anna did return home she found the broken
window the ropes and the broom handle she picked up the phone to call the police and report a break-in but the
phone line was dead and there was no dial tone right she ran to her neighbor's home and called the police
from there when police arrived they had found that the phone line had been cut and they also discovered that some
jewelry and several articles of clothing along with 35 dollars and cash were missing from the home
initially this incident was not linked to BTK but that changed when on June 15th an envelope addressed with block
letters arrived at Anna's home inside was an article of clothing and jewelry that had been stolen from Anna's
home these items were accompanied by a letter and a drawing now the drawing was of a bound and nude woman the letter was
a poem and it was titled oh Anna why didn't you appear and it read twas perfect plan of deviant pleasure so bold
on that spring night my inner felling hot with Pro pension of new awakening season
worn wet with Inner Fear and Rapture my pleasure of entanglement like new Vines at night oh Anna why didn't you appear
drop of fear fresh spring rain rolled down from your nakedness to scent to lofty fever that burns Within
in that small world of longing fear Rapture and Desperation the game we play fall on devil ears Fantasy Spring fourth
mounts to storm Fury then winter clam at end oh ano why didn't you appear alone now in another time span I lay
with sweet and raptured garments across most private thought bed of spring moist grass clean before
the sun enslaved with control Warm Winds scenting the air sunlight Sparkle tears
in eyes so deep and clear alone again I trod in past memory of mirrors and Ponder why for number eight was not oh
Anna why didn't you appear two days later the newspapers are going to report that BTK Strangler tried to get his
eighth victim but he failed when she didn't return home so the would-be victim was Anna Williams now she
actually moved out of town shortly after the incident because even though the police didn't connect the break-in with
the actions of BTK until the letter was received Anna's instincts told her that it was the serial killer and she feared
that he would return to claim her at another time right and actually in fact when the letter was sent to her home she
had already moved out by that time she had sent someone to collect the mail until the home could be sold or whatever
they intended to do with it so the letter was actually received by somebody else but one thing that I think that
this shows here and I think there's there's a lot of evidence of this in the actions of the BTK Strangler here right
is that after so after the announcement of the BTK Strangler just like the Son of Sam who
commit you know communicated with law enforcement and with the public and I also suspect this to be the case with
the Zodiac as well though we may never know Dennis Rader became well he became like addicted to the news
coverage about him and about the case right and he loved being the city's so-called Boogeyman let's say right or
what everybody's fearing right right he right he loved the fear of the city's people uh he loved that he knew the
answer to the biggest question around town who was BTK yeah or who was POS well and I tell you what though he he
loved the secrets that he was keeping and I would suspect in well later we would we would learn that this
was fact actually that he collected the newspaper articles about him and like we
learned from Gary Ridgeway the Green River Killer we learned from his wife after he was finally caught that Gary
seemed to be obsessive about not missing the evening or nighttime newscast this probably would have been the case with
Raider as well right now regarding the newspaper articles and collecting them well we also know that BTK has a wife
and two kids so he would have to hide his collection he wouldn't want for his family or others to know that he had an
unhealthy fascination with the case yeah and they're probably watching for two reasons one if they sent a letter what
is the reaction and also just is there any updates from the police so they can monitor you know is law enforcement
closer to catching me yeah yeah it's kind of double duty I guess right two birds yeah you get to monitor the
investigation or what what the public can see of the investigation as well as see the reaction and and it's filling
your ego at the same time yeah so scary while we while we were talking about his
family um you know we talked about people checking the phone lines one thing that
I found very interesting about this case was his wife Dennis Raider's wife was afraid of the BTK right um to the point
she was one of the people that would check the phone line in her house and she was vocal to friends and family
about being afraid of the BTK Strangler well and Dennis probably got off on that
well he he may have but I know there was one time that he did not like it at all
because remember last week we spoke about the phone call when Dennis Rader made that very short phone call
announcing a homicide to the dispatcher and of course they show up to the address that he gives and sure enough
there's a victim there well remember they played that on the newscast they played that as bad as that audio was
they played that on the newscast hoping somebody would recognize the voice the strange thing here though is the two of
them Mr and Mrs Raider were watching the news together that night and after they
played it multiple times she looked over at him and almost kind of like jokingly
very casually says to him that sounds like you or BTK talks like you do and let's reenact that okay so I'll be
Dennis Raider okay and then you be his wife okay play they just played my voice go ahead that sounds like you
honey a lot of people sound like me couldn't be me yeah I think I I don't know what was actually said but uh
according to Dennis Rader he got he got very agitated and and pretty defensive when that had happened so I played it
completely wrong I I figured he'd just you know laugh it off oh yeah that sounds like me honey I'm the BTK I'm
gonna stab you uh the wife told Dennis that the the phone call sounded like him but but we also have to keep in mind
that they've been together for quite some time by this point she she never actually thought that her husband was
the killer right but so he pulled the old you know she's just trying to make a joke hey honey that kind of sounds like
you and he pulled old what the hell are you talking about I I don't know what went down he just said he his only
comment on it would be that he was annoyed no he wasn't annoyed he was scared when she had said that to him
that he was he was scared so now but I wanna I just point out here that this this letter this letter that we just
discussed or this communication I believe is proof of his addiction to his notoriety of his BTK Persona because
when the cops in the local media failed to connect this break into BTK it's about 15 months later and he wants to
let the public know that he is still around so you know be afraid because I'm still out here I haven't left I'm still
hunting people we've spoke quite a bit about Dennis Raider's personal life so he is this man living in Park City who
had terrorized Wichita killing seven people announcing to the public his name and presence sending taunting letters
and threatening everyone to kill more people but he's he's a guy living this quiet and pretty reserved life in Park
City living in a a modest home with his wife son and daughter and working for the ADT company Rising through the ranks
over the years yeah he is not killing during this time but he has trophies he has as trophies from his kills and
unbeknownst to those close to him and to those living with him he is constantly fantasizing and reliving his sick
murderous fantasies behind closed doors in his home Raider also did what he called
self-bondage and he did this in wooded areas he did this at his home and he also did this
this is uncomfortable it really this whole conversation is uncomfortable but he also did this in his parents basement
was like one of his favorite places to to go about this self-bondage thing that he liked to do and what he would do is I
guess his parents um you know they they lived not terribly far from where he was
living and they traveled a decent amount you know several times a year and I think he would go check on their house
maybe collect the mail things like that right his parents basement was a place that was one of his favorite spots for
what he called self-bondage and this is where he would take these long drawn-out
sessions of of himself where he would be you know he would he would wear mask women's clothing uh he was hanging
himself tying himself up using handcuffs on himself and he would also take pictures of himself when he was doing
this self-bondage let's say hobby of his yeah and and I believe that um a fetish
well yeah and and I don't know how many you can find online but there are some of these these pictures have gone uh
public uh of of his his crazy hobby but you know he's also doing normal things though at this time he's raising his
family being a husband he's he's listed as a and regarded as a hard worker at the ADT company he is involved in his
church uh by the early 80s Dennis's son Brian is in grade school and he joins the Cub Scouts now Raider was in the Cub
Scouts and boy scouts when he was a kid and teenagers so this is something that he he enjoyed himself but he also passed
it on to his son and Dennis was involved uh he was a volunteer there he helped out quite a
bit with the Boy Scouts and with his son's Cub Scouts and I have seen several websites that state that Dennis was a
very officially appointed Boy Scout leader I think this is just more folklore I think he just helped out
there but he was involved but for Dennis Rader uh for BTK the Boy Scouts would later become an important thing to his
crimes into his murders now we had recently mentioned pictures um you know taking the Polaroids of himself
one Theory early on in the BT case was that the killer was not only taking some trophies from the houses but he was
probably taking photos of the victims and of the crime scenes as well this is a very strong Theory and a smart one
with a lot of thought to back it up now remember he killed four members of the Otoro family and then many years later
in a communication to the police he recalls very specific details about each one of the victims and about what he did
using which items and specifics about the crime scene yeah to prove it was him right and there was FBI that stated you
know what either this guy's taking photographs of the crime and that's how he's able to give us such a great
detailed account of what had happened a few years later or he has a photographic
memory now the FBI didn't think think that photograph photographic memory was likely with this character now the early
80s in Wichita was there was the birth of something that would later be called the Ghostbuster Squad
by this time though there had not been a murder or communication from BTK in years now what was the Ghostbuster Squad
well this was comprised of eight officers and it was you had all kinds of different ranking officers in this
Ghostbuster Squad did they have a cool car uh I I don't think that they actually
had a vehicle at all I think these were these were men that spent a lot of time in closed door meetings trying to come
up with new Clues they were reviewing the old cases uh trying to find something within those Case Files that
might lead them to BTK and coming up with the strategy for tracking this guy down now some of these officers like I
said different ranking officers some of them would be experienced homicide detectives some that had originally
worked the oturo murders and the other two murder cases as well and then you have you have officers that were just
gone you know I believe one of them was even on like desk Duty because he was injured in the line of duty and couldn't
go out of the office but one officer that was involved in this a young officer named Ken landware he was a
police officer at the time and he he's somebody that we would see he's going to end up working this BT case for
like 20 years you know so he's one of the early guys in on this and one of the guys that worked this case and saw it
through to the end now the name the Ghostbuster Squad that was not an official name you know they weren't
called that by the police department it's really annoying when people don't use official names well I don't know
that they had a name they were probably just referred to as some type of task force would be my guess what it was kind
of a nickname that the department gave the task force because one day there was an officer talking to another officer
and said hey all those officers and detectives I see them in there every day working on something having meetings
what are they doing in there and the other officer said to the guy don't worry about that they're just Chasing
Ghosts yeah and so that became the kind of nickname that they slapped on to this
task force [Music] thank you [Music] all right cheers mates and a big shout out to all the beautiful people that we
met at crime con this weekend Maureen Wallace hedge was 53 years old was a quiet Dependable second shift supervisor
at a medical center Coffee shop now she was originally from Arkansas but she had
moved to Kansas with her late husband she was widowed she was described as a kind petite well-dressed woman with a
Charming Southern Voice she was a devoted mother to her three daughters one son in a devoted she was devoted to
her grandchildren as well now she enjoyed playing bingo doing yard work and attending the Baptist Church she
lived on the same block as Dennis Rader actually she had lived there on the same
block as Dennis Rader for over 30 years at some point Dennis started to fantasize about Marine Hedges he got a
strong sexual charge thinking about what she would look like tied up gagged and with a rope tight around her neck now
this could be a big big problem for Dennis because factor x is telling him to kill her but killing a neighbor would
be extremely risky but once factor x focused in on a victim Dennis had to get to work trolling the subject checking up
on them as he would call it now during this process Dennis learned that the woman had worked at a coffee shop and he
would call this project cookie sometimes at night Dennis would take a bike ride and he would sneak around her home
watching her through the windows sometimes he would stare at her as she lie in bed at night with the light on
reading Dennis didn't care about the risk it the The Urge that he got to kill her was so
strong he was willing to take the risk he was going to create some kind of plan so that he could kill her but also give
himself an alibi as well okay so on the weekend of April 27 1985 Dennis Rader was attending a Boy Scout camp this is
just outside of Wichita he left the camp in the evening with the pretext of having a headache and needing to get to
town to buy something for his headache in his vehicle Dennis Raider had what he referred to as his hit kit this would be
his kit of prepared items he thought he needed or intended to use during the course of one of his murders you know we
saw this type of thing with Bundy you know that you keep this thing in your vehicle or you keep it close at hand and
you have these materials or items that you think you're going to need to use right but this time Captain he had
actually stored these items in a pre-selected bag he put them in a different bag this time he was using a
bowling bag so after he left the camp he parked his car by a bowling alley inside the city
and he bought himself a beer at the bowling alley he drank half the beer and deliberately spilled beer on his
clothing and on his hands so he would have smelled like he had been there all night drinking a lot
so he calls a cab and when the cab gets there he pretends to be drunk and he tells the driver that
he's far too drunk to drive home and he needed a ride but Dennis instructed the driver to take him to take him home but
he didn't give the driver an actual address he told the driver to take him to a park
in Park City so that he could walk it off before going home saying he wanted to get some fresh air was too drunk to
see his wife whatever right so this park it was near the backyard of hedge's property Raider shows up he makes the
walk to her property and he's actually just disappointed to see Maureen's car in the carport so he assumed when he saw
the vehicle that she was at home he didn't want her to be home when he arrived at the house
he cuts the phone line and he quietly pried open a rear door using a screwdriver and it turned out that that
no one was home to his surprise even though that car was there right nobody was in the house but soon A car pulled
up and Raider decided to hide in a bedroom closet now Marine hedge and a friend this was Gerald Porter entered
the home they stayed there talking for approximately two hours the whole time Dennis Rader is hiding in this closet
listening to the two of them talk waiting for the man to leave well Gerald left the house that night
around 1am now Raider waited until Marine went to bed and you know till he he thought that she had
fallen asleep at that time he crept out of the closet he turns on the the bathroom light
so he can see what he's he's doing and then he pounces on Marine who's still in the bed he manually is choking the this
woman now I I said she's a petite woman this woman weighed less than 100 pounds so Dennis Rader would seem like a giant
on top of her he ends up killing her when he's he's choking her he was really just trying to get control of her and
get control of the situation but but because he was so much larger than her his hands strong he ended up strangling
her to death now this this fantasy driven outing was far from over though there was other stuff that he wanted to
do looks like he's going to have to make up for it now that he accidentally killed
her too fast for his liking so he decided to rummage through the house looking for trophies that he could keep
and he decided to take her purse and everything in it he was going to do something he had not done before he was
going to remove the victim's body from the house and dump her somewhere else he didn't want this to look like a BTK
killing remember this is way too close to his home right so he dragged the body with the bedding to her car and put her
in the trunk of her own car then Dennis Rader drove directly to his church where okay so he was so trusted at his
church that he had keys to the building he could get into the building anytime he wanted to
so he dragged the body underneath something I mean let's be real he could get into it whether he had keys or not
yeah I guess that's true you know he could break into the place he dragged the body underneath some trees and he
entered the building um down and went down to the basement and then he taped black plastic over the
basement window so no one could see inside he'd actually stashed the plastic there a few days maybe a week before
knowing that this was his intention knowing that he was going to need it and then dragged the body down to the
basement and he photographed it in various poses when BTK is done living out these fantasies he's going to return
his victim to her trunk and he's gone then take off yeah he's going to be looking for a place to ditch this body
so he's looking for a dumping ground and he finds a place that he likes this is in a ditch along a dirt road several
miles outside of Park City when he gets there he takes her out of the trunk he places her on the ground and then he
covers her with leaves and branches now he also left a knotted pair of pantyhose
near the body then Dennis Raider dropped her car off about six miles away at a shopping
Center parking lot he left the car there after wiping it down for fingerprints by
now it was getting it was almost light out by this time Raider had made his way back to where he had left his vehicle
and then he drove and returned to the Scout camp that he had deserted earlier right then
he went into his tent and pretended like he had been in there sleeping all night long and he emerged a
short time later giving the impression that he had just woke up for the day he spent that morning scrambling eggs for
the scouts for whatever reason and I think it was because she had died so quickly so early
on in the attack he would later say that this kill that this was not a very satisfying kill for him next BTK and
factor x are going to focus in on Vicky wegely Vicki is a 28 year old wife and mother she was a calm quiet kind person
she loved children and when she became pregnant with her child she began providing Child Care from her home Vicki
attended two churches she attended the Lutheran Church because it was her faith but she also attended the Methodist
Church because it was the neighborhood church she volunteered to watch children in the church nurseries now Raiders
started stalking her in 1986. he he would walk by her house and Vicky would be inside playing the piano many times
so he started calling Vicky project piano okay in preparation for this project Dennis made up a fake repairman
hard hat he had glued a Southwestern Bell logo onto the hard hat on his shirt he placed a fake name tag that he had
fashioned out of someone's Southwestern Bell business card that he had found he brought along with him a briefcase to
look you know official inside the briefcase was the BTK hit kit right he's always finding ways to disguise this hit
kit that he's going to bring along with him on September 16th this is sometime after 10 a.m he parked his car a few
blocks away from her home and then he first went to Vicky's neighbor's house and he's dressed as this telephone
repairman he knocks on the door and then he goes through his Spiel with the elderly woman who answered the door you
know saying I need to check your phone we're checking phones in the neighborhood blah blah
you know this was kind of a smart move on his part and he said that the reason why he knocked on the neighbor's door
first was if Vicky happened to be looking out the window he didn't want to just walk from far away and she see him
knock on her door first he was determined to he was determined to attack and kill
somebody that day almost to the point that when the elderly woman had answered the door it crossed his mind maybe I
just attack her instead of going next door after he talks to the neighbor lady he's gonna end up at Vicki's front door
and somehow Dennis Rader managed to talk himself inside the home claiming that he
needed to check the phone line from inside once inside he he goes over and he kind of like fiddles with the phone
for a little bit he even brought with him some kind of fake testing Gadget that he threw in his briefcase
and then he turns on her and he informs her that he is going to need to tie her up I wonder if he you know she was
married so I wonder if the intent of let me get into the house under the the guise of checking this phone just to
make sure that she's alone being there for enough time to make sure she's alone right I imagine using a gun he forced
her into a bedroom and then he attempted to tie her up but she she fought him pretty bad and uh she gave a fierce
battle she scratched him several times in the process Raider ended up winning the physical
fight though and he would secure her with ropes and then he proceeded to strangle her to death using pantyhose as
a legature he photographed the body in several poses and then he left in wagerley's vehicle yeah and during this
attack she is you know claiming that her husband's gonna come home too because she's trying to secure him off yeah she
wants to scare BTK out of the house but the weird thing is and I don't know if this was routine or not Captain but her
husband Bill wagerly and did come home he did come home soon after the attack he came home so much soon after the
attack that he actually saw Vicki's car driving in the opposite direction from their home now when the car was kind of
far away he thought that it was Vicky you know he spots the vehicle he's like oh there's there's our car she's
probably going somewhere yeah well as the car got closer he couldn't identify the driver but he knew that it wasn't
Vicki and actually assumed that it was not his vehicle that he was seeing at that time when he gets home
something very strange had happened remember we talked about how much Vicki loved children and she even took care of
other people's kids but when he arrives home the home appears to be empty and his two-year-old son Brandon is just
sitting there in the living room unattended Big Bill walked the home and he couldn't find Vicky
well he's there for quite some time I think he even like made his lunch you know he'd returned home for lunch that
day and he comes home and he starts to prepare his lunch he's getting angry at his wife because why in the hell is his
son there this little two-year-old boy unattended in the home and furthermore where did she go right he's home for
about 45 minutes maybe an hour and he's kind of you know at first probably just walking around kind of nonchalant but as
the time goes on he's getting angrier and he's starting to look and look and look around this house eventually he
discovers her lifeless body was placed between the bed and the wall there's you know how sometimes people put their bed
near the wall and there's only a small space there her body was either pushed down in there or had fallen down in
there and he hadn't he didn't see her so he calls the police and he tells them what had happened he calls and he says
you know I I'm pretty sure my wife is dead I came home and my two-year-old son is by himself well he's also going to
tell him that he thinks he's all well now he thinks he saw his vehicle driving away from the house yeah and when the
paramedics arrive they are desperately trying to revive her keep in mind she would have only been dead if in fact she
was dead when BTK left the home for a short period of time but unfortunately it she was pronounced dead a short time
later before they could get to the hospital now BTK meanwhile had been driving around the city and he is
disposing of evidence as he's driving eventually he returned to the area near Vicki's house and he parked wegerly's
car just a couple blocks from their home in fact he exited the vehicle in the area on foot and he returned to his own
car that he had left nearby changing his clothes he escaped all detection for this crime
and was actually for the longest time never suspected of this murder at all you think somebody would uh reported his
car being you know suspicious car within within a few blocks of a crime taking place and
nobody knows whose car that is correct yes and it but one thing that might help him with this is that this is an attack
during the middle of the day in a neighborhood there's a good chance you know a lot of people off at work people
are less likely to see some things right this story right here you know all of these stories are
extremely tragic this one is a little has a little more added tragedy to it because
not only is a young mother killed here and a young wife killed here but this is a real tough one because a lot of the
police and detectives thought for sure that the husband actually had killed his wife you know he's the one that finds
her dead they couldn't believe the sun was there right they could not believe that he was
home for 45 minutes to maybe an hour before discovering her body and so yeah that that sounds a little
fishy exactly so you can see you can see that side of the fence now on the other
side of the fence we have other detectives that had issue with this thought and and one reason was the knots
that were found at the scene some of them thought they resembled some knots that they had seen at BTK crime scenes
and now number two they thought that you know this this would take some time in their
investigation but once they found the vehicle and I know that it wasn't terribly far
from her home but but the problem they had with that was while logistically it was possible for this man to move her
vehicle a few blocks from the home and return nobody had seen him just like you said
about btk's suspicious car nobody saw that either I guess but the thought was they thought somebody would have seen
him walking back to his home they couldn't find anybody that had said that and then three and this is probably the
most important was the little boy like you said their son is still at home well when police talked to the little boy
mind you he's only two so he's limited on Words and stuff like that yeah but the nightmares that kid is gonna have
well the the only thing that he was able to tell the investigators was was a single sentence that was man hurt Mommy
man hurt mommy well a lot of the detectives found it strange that the boy would say man hurt mommy they if if he
had seen his father killed his mother yeah he would say daddy or whatever he called him now January 31st 1987.
Upon returning home to Wichita Kansas after visiting family for a few days Mary fager was understandably shocked to
discover her husband Melvin dead on the floor this is directly in front of the door to their home her husband had been
shot twice in the back now their two daughters this is Sherry she's nine years old and Kelly who's 16 years old
they were found in the basement they had been left in a covered hot tub with the
hot with the water running I think it was at like 90 degrees in this hot tub Sherry had been bound with electrical
tape and placed in the water after having been strangled Kelly had been drowned now there were no
signs of forced entry to the home implying that maybe the killer was known to the family or at least good enough to
talk his way or their way into the house the husband and father like I said was found by the front door still wearing
his coat so there was one police theory about this crime is that the man may have been shot upon entering into the
home that he had un you know unknowingly returned home during some portion of a crime being committed and startled the
killer or Killers one big clue in this case was the family car was missing now along with a local handyman
um there was a guy by the name of William Butterworth who had been employed by the family for some work
around the house I like their syrup it was initially feared by the investigators that Butterworth was
either another victim or he had you know possibly been taken by force or that perhaps he was party to
whatever had happened in the house now his own van was found several days later this was just blocks away from the
house a search of the van came up empty they found no evidence in this van whatsoever
on January 3rd 1988 so almost a year later Butterworth is arrested in Florida he had called his wife and a family
member reported this to the police and in fact he was still on the phone when he was arrested they had been looking
for this guy ever since this murder went down they find him in Florida because he
decides to call his wife now when he's arrested the car keys the keys to the fager family vehicle
they were found in his pocket and the stolen car was found nearby he was unarmed and he did not resist
when he was arrested now while being questioned by the police he told the officers that he had entered the home
discovered the body of Melvin that's the father heard some noises in the house got scared and ran away
he had no obvious reason to flee to Florida the police couldn't figure out look if you're not guilty why did you
flee the area he didn't have a police record he was not a match for the there was semen
found in the hot tub he was not a match for that cement he was also not a match for strange fingerprints that were found
inside the home he was described as a guy who would always go out of his way to do a favor
for someone nice guy he had three children a three-year-old a six-month-old six-month-old twins I'm
sorry and he had been having some Financial issues at the time just weeks before these murders under questioning
you know he's questioned multiple times Captain he did not change his story his story did not change he stuck to it he
said that he entered the house saw the body heard something ran away he also said that that being terrified
in this situation he thought he was going to die yeah and being terrified in this situation he
didn't recall what he was doing or his whereabouts for several days after that went down he said when he came to
he it was like four or five days later and he was in Florida and he was afraid to return right
so Butterworth's defense attorney he's going to be he's going to be charged with this however his defense attorney
has him undergo 20 hypnosis sessions over the course of four months they're trying to get a full story or to see if
possibly he's lying right under hypnosis Butterworth gave a similar but much more
detailed story of what had happened that day he said that he had been building the
family a sun room which was true he took a break for lunch when he returned he said that Kelly this is the oldest
daughter and someone that he assumed was possibly her boyfriend were in the hot tub
he he did not see um anyone in the sun room but he said that he heard movement or saw some type
of movement so he decided that he was going to leave the home and he would come back later you know keep in mind he
assumes that he saw the oldest daughter with probably her boyfriend maybe he felt awkward walking in on this
situation decides to leave happens so during this time he goes out and he goes shopping because he's just trying to
kill some time while he's out he bumps into a retired police captain this is William dots now later William dots
would verify having seen and spoke with Butterworth that day at that approximate
time dots went on to say that Butterworth did not seem to be shaken or to be nervous
or acting strange when he met with him that day then Butterworth returned to the house at approximately 4 30. at this
time he said that the lights were off he entered the solarium and he found Sherry
face down in the hot tub then he saw Melvin dead in the hallway he heard a noise and he realized that the murderer
was still in the house so frightened he bolted now for some reason captain and I apologize because I
do not know why but apparently this man in the confusion ended up with the wrong
set of keys somehow I'm not sure how this happened but when he was trying to get the heck out of there right he had
accidentally tried to use Fager's keys to start his van when he realized that he had the wrong set of keys he was in
he was afraid he didn't want to enter the home again he grabbed his stuff out of his van and then took off in Fager's
car yeah but can you imagine you have a psycho killer that you believe is still in the house you're running for your
life and then you get into a vehicle you go to start it and you have the wrong damn keys and you have a victim's set of
keys in your hand and you're going to end up taking their vehicle because you don't want to go back into the house at
that point right now remember he says that he kind of he's uncertain of his whereabouts or what he was doing for
approximately the next four days he says when he came to cool the next thing he remembers he's in Florida that he he
magically wakes up in Florida once he comes to he said that he felt shame and cowardice for running he was also afraid
that he would be picked out to be the suspect or to have murdered these people and that made him
not want to return and that's why he waited so long before he contacted anybody after he had already been out he
was charged with these three murders but it was on June 7th well that's because his story never changed what we've
learned from shows like cereal is if you change your story over and over that they normally put you on the
prosecutor's team yeah and that's a good way to get your conviction overturned years later or possibly at least on June
7th 1988 Butterworth was acquitted of all of the charges now most people to this day believe that this is not an
open case they they don't believe that the you know that the they believe that the police have closed this case because
the police firmly believe in the Public's eye that Butterworth was the killer of these three individuals
but then you have to wonder we have this guy BTK who's active at the time killing
people inside their homes and we have two female victims there and remember Dennis Rader was not opposed to
attacking and killing children and what we do know is this captain on January in
January of 1988 Dennis Rader sent a letter to the mother who had discovered the bodies of her husband and children
and this letter simply said I did not kill your family but I admire the work so an interesting still unsolved to this
very day triple homicide so maybe maybe Butterworth did it maybe Butterworth has
a partner you know maybe that would explain some of it because some of the evidence doesn't match up with him 100
percent right or maybe BTK did it but isn't claiming responsibility for it for some reason then you have the other
possibility which is the Killer is an unknown suspect at the time that this letter was sent
from Dennis Raider to Mary fager it was actually believed to be a hoax simply someone pretending to be the BTK but
after his arrest it was confirmed that the letter was in fact from Dennis Rader because like most of his Communications
Raider would make a photocopy of his letters and to further elude detection Dennis
Rader would mail the photocopy not the original to either the police or to the media right after his arrest police
found the original amongst Raiders BTK memorabilia right but I'm just going to assume that BTK didn't do this because
one he wanted credit for these crimes and he wanted to be in the spotlight and he he wanted people talking about him
that he wanted people fearing him you know so he wrote a letter so he could get into the spotlight but he also said
hey I admire your work but I didn't do this and I think you're exactly right I think
him sending that letter is simply just a reminder to the general public I'm still
out there now there's another crazy person out there too right I'm still out here and I'm watching and I'm waiting
[Music] thanks for listening and stick around for the finale of BTK tomorrow until
then be good be kind and don't litter thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music]

BTK /// Part 3 /// 206

Part 3 of 4

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January 1974 - Wichita, Kansas - After years of fantasizing a killer emerges from the shadows and announces himself to the world. A dark haired man slipped into the home of the Otero's one morning as the children prepared for school. He murdered all four people inside the home. Later that same year he would attack and kill again before vanishing into hibernation. After many requests we have decided to take an in depth look into the dark, disturbing life and mind of Dennis Rader. Driven by what he called Factor X, Dennis was better known as the BTK.

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Brief Summary

The episode details BTK killer Dennis Rader's methods, communications, and interactions with victims in Wichita, Kansas.

Key points

The BTK Strangler Announcement. A police chief reveals the existence of a serial killer in Wichita, raising public fear.
Anna Williams' Close Call. Anna Williams narrowly escapes becoming the BTK's next victim, leading to a chilling letter.
The Ghostbuster Squad. A special task force is formed to track down the elusive BTK killer after years of silence.
The Chasing Ghosts Task Force. The nickname given to the task force by officers, highlighting the mysterious nature of their work.
Maureen Hedge's Tragic Fate. Dennis Rader's obsession leads to the tragic murder of Maureen Hedge, a devoted mother.
Vicki Wegerly's Last Moments. Vicki's struggle against Rader showcases her bravery before her tragic end.

Episode highlights

Episode quotes

I want to restate there is no question in our minds.

Police certainty about the BTK killer's identity.

4:04WatchNov 26, 2022

Tension

75/ 100High tension

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