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foreign [Music] [Applause] thank you welcome to True Crime garage wherever you are whatever you are doing thanks
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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
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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
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thanks for listening thanks for telling my friend [Music] why too Captain I'm glad that you made
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it because today we are drinking dimwit By The River City Brewing Company garage
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grade three and a half bottle caps out of five dimwit is a fantastic Whit beer brewed in Wichita and delivering
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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
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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
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a big we like your gym to Sarah in Stockton New Jersey and Captain everybody knows you don't mess with
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Texas and down there we got Adrian and Denton and we also have Catherine in Houston big shout out you mess with the
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bull you get the horn next up it shares to Veronica and Matt and Charleston South Carolina also it shares the Carrie
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listening and the farmlands in Ledger Montana and last but not least we have Brenda and Bloomington Illinois so
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thanks to everybody for your continued support to get involved go to True Crime garage.com check out our blog check out
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our store Page also True Crime garage Is Awesome on Instagram and untapped and if
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you're in or around Columbus Ohio this Thursday May 10th we're gonna be doing a live event through Columbus podcast
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festival for more information or tickets check out columbuspodcastfestival.com I will see
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you there Captain everybody gather round grab a chair grab some beers let's talk
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some true crime thank you foreign [Music] February 10th 1978 Friday evening in the Wichita
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Kansas city hall building the police chief made the following announcement the purpose of this news conference is
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to advise the public of an extremely serious matter involving a series of murders which occurred in our city
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as you know in January of 1974 four members of the Otoro family were murdered in March of 1977 Shirley vienne was
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killed and in December of 1977 Nancy Fox was also murdered earlier today k-a-k-e-tv immediately brought me a
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letter where the author took credit for the oturo The Fox and the VN murders in addition
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whoever wrote this letter has taken credit for a seventh victim we are in no doubt and are convinced
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that the person that killed the oturos Miss Fox and Miss vienne is the same person
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I want to restate there is no question in our minds that the person who wrote The Letter killed these people
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this person has consistently identified himself with the initials BTK and wishes
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to be known as the BTK Strangler because we are sure this man is responsible for
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seven murders we wish to enlist the assistance of each citizen of this community
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our police department has already begun special efforts which is as follows one additional uniformed officers are
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already on the street two a special detective task force involving the major case squad has been
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established three a special phone number for Citizens to call has been established this phone
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will be staffed 24 hours a day four we have solicited the assistance of the district attorney the sheriff and
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Professionals in the field of human behavior and would welcome the assistance from any person regardless of
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their expertise I know it is difficult to ask people to remain calm but we are asking exactly
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this when a person of this type is at large in our community it requires special
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precautions and special awareness by everyone when we left off last week we finished
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the week by announcing that the BTK killer had named himself had sent a letter to
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k-a-k-e-tv and immediately that letter was sent to the police department that same evening they held the press
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conference where we just discussed that announcement that they made now as you can imagine the police announcing to the
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public and to the local media that a predatory sexual killer is on the loose a wave of Widespread Panic shock and
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fear across the community the announcement quickly became national news with the public aware that BTK was
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hunting people in Wichita many rumors were swirling about who the killer was and how and why he chose certain victims
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one thing that was also mentioned during the Public Announcement was that the killer had cut the phone line to the
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houses before he entered the home to attack and kill the occupants this information inspired a safety
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precaution that became a ritualistic habit of nearly all the citizens of the greater Wichita Area especially
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something practiced by single women that lived alone because the phone line was cut people
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would upon arriving back at their homes they would run to the phone in the house
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and pick up the receiver and listen for a dial tone a lot of people would call their home from another location before
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returning home to make sure that the phone would ring other precautions were taken by citizens
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as well this included the increased sales of peepholes deadbolts other additional door locks and of course guns
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and dogs were in high demand but a pattern that we would see time and time again after this communication BTK
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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
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1979. this is when Dennis Rader shattered the basement window of a 61 year old woman who lived alone now she
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lived just one mile from one of his previous victims Nancy Fox he climbed into the home and his victim
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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
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he decided to lay out some ropes and a broom handle then the woman returned to her house she had spent the night out
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with several friends the friends had drove her home she got out of the car and she approached the front door
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reaching into her purse she pulled out the keys to her house she turned and smiled and waved at her friends she
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looked down to make sure that she had the right key and then she heard her friend shout from the car Anna wait why
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don't you come over to our house for a cup of coffee Anna turned from the door put her keys
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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
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and waited for her to return eventually he ends up leaving the house when Anna did return home she found the broken
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window the ropes and the broom handle she picked up the phone to call the police and report a break-in but the
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phone line was dead and there was no dial tone right she ran to her neighbor's home and called the police
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from there when police arrived they had found that the phone line had been cut and they also discovered that some
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jewelry and several articles of clothing along with 35 dollars and cash were missing from the home
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initially this incident was not linked to BTK but that changed when on June 15th an envelope addressed with block
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letters arrived at Anna's home inside was an article of clothing and jewelry that had been stolen from Anna's
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home these items were accompanied by a letter and a drawing now the drawing was of a bound and nude woman the letter was
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a poem and it was titled oh Anna why didn't you appear and it read twas perfect plan of deviant pleasure so bold
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on that spring night my inner felling hot with Pro pension of new awakening season
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worn wet with Inner Fear and Rapture my pleasure of entanglement like new Vines at night oh Anna why didn't you appear
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drop of fear fresh spring rain rolled down from your nakedness to scent to lofty fever that burns Within
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in that small world of longing fear Rapture and Desperation the game we play fall on devil ears Fantasy Spring fourth
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mounts to storm Fury then winter clam at end oh ano why didn't you appear alone now in another time span I lay
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with sweet and raptured garments across most private thought bed of spring moist grass clean before
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the sun enslaved with control Warm Winds scenting the air sunlight Sparkle tears
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in eyes so deep and clear alone again I trod in past memory of mirrors and Ponder why for number eight was not oh
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Anna why didn't you appear two days later the newspapers are going to report that BTK Strangler tried to get his
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eighth victim but he failed when she didn't return home so the would-be victim was Anna Williams now she
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actually moved out of town shortly after the incident because even though the police didn't connect the break-in with
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the actions of BTK until the letter was received Anna's instincts told her that it was the serial killer and she feared
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that he would return to claim her at another time right and actually in fact when the letter was sent to her home she
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had already moved out by that time she had sent someone to collect the mail until the home could be sold or whatever
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they intended to do with it so the letter was actually received by somebody else but one thing that I think that
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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
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is that after so after the announcement of the BTK Strangler just like the Son of Sam who
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commit you know communicated with law enforcement and with the public and I also suspect this to be the case with
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the Zodiac as well though we may never know Dennis Rader became well he became like addicted to the news
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coverage about him and about the case right and he loved being the city's so-called Boogeyman let's say right or
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what everybody's fearing right right he right he loved the fear of the city's people uh he loved that he knew the
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answer to the biggest question around town who was BTK yeah or who was POS well and I tell you what though he he
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loved the secrets that he was keeping and I would suspect in well later we would we would learn that this
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was fact actually that he collected the newspaper articles about him and like we
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learned from Gary Ridgeway the Green River Killer we learned from his wife after he was finally caught that Gary
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seemed to be obsessive about not missing the evening or nighttime newscast this probably would have been the case with
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Raider as well right now regarding the newspaper articles and collecting them well we also know that BTK has a wife
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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
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unhealthy fascination with the case yeah and they're probably watching for two reasons one if they sent a letter what
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is the reaction and also just is there any updates from the police so they can monitor you know is law enforcement
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closer to catching me yeah yeah it's kind of double duty I guess right two birds yeah you get to monitor the
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investigation or what what the public can see of the investigation as well as see the reaction and and it's filling
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your ego at the same time yeah so scary while we while we were talking about his
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family um you know we talked about people checking the phone lines one thing that
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I found very interesting about this case was his wife Dennis Raider's wife was afraid of the BTK right um to the point
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she was one of the people that would check the phone line in her house and she was vocal to friends and family
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about being afraid of the BTK Strangler well and Dennis probably got off on that
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well he he may have but I know there was one time that he did not like it at all
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because remember last week we spoke about the phone call when Dennis Rader made that very short phone call
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announcing a homicide to the dispatcher and of course they show up to the address that he gives and sure enough
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there's a victim there well remember they played that on the newscast they played that as bad as that audio was
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they played that on the newscast hoping somebody would recognize the voice the strange thing here though is the two of
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them Mr and Mrs Raider were watching the news together that night and after they
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played it multiple times she looked over at him and almost kind of like jokingly
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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
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Dennis Raider okay and then you be his wife okay play they just played my voice go ahead that sounds like you
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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
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according to Dennis Rader he got he got very agitated and and pretty defensive when that had happened so I played it
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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
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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
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that they've been together for quite some time by this point she she never actually thought that her husband was
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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
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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
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comment on it would be that he was annoyed no he wasn't annoyed he was scared when she had said that to him
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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
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discussed or this communication I believe is proof of his addiction to his notoriety of his BTK Persona because
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when the cops in the local media failed to connect this break into BTK it's about 15 months later and he wants to
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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
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hunting people we've spoke quite a bit about Dennis Raider's personal life so he is this man living in Park City who
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had terrorized Wichita killing seven people announcing to the public his name and presence sending taunting letters
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and threatening everyone to kill more people but he's he's a guy living this quiet and pretty reserved life in Park
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City living in a a modest home with his wife son and daughter and working for the ADT company Rising through the ranks
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over the years yeah he is not killing during this time but he has trophies he has as trophies from his kills and
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unbeknownst to those close to him and to those living with him he is constantly fantasizing and reliving his sick
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murderous fantasies behind closed doors in his home Raider also did what he called
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self-bondage and he did this in wooded areas he did this at his home and he also did this
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this is uncomfortable it really this whole conversation is uncomfortable but he also did this in his parents basement
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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
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guess his parents um you know they they lived not terribly far from where he was
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living and they traveled a decent amount you know several times a year and I think he would go check on their house
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maybe collect the mail things like that right his parents basement was a place that was one of his favorite spots for
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what he called self-bondage and this is where he would take these long drawn-out
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sessions of of himself where he would be you know he would he would wear mask women's clothing uh he was hanging
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himself tying himself up using handcuffs on himself and he would also take pictures of himself when he was doing
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this self-bondage let's say hobby of his yeah and and I believe that um a fetish
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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
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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
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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
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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
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Scouts and boy scouts when he was a kid and teenagers so this is something that he he enjoyed himself but he also passed
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it on to his son and Dennis was involved uh he was a volunteer there he helped out quite a
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bit with the Boy Scouts and with his son's Cub Scouts and I have seen several websites that state that Dennis was a
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very officially appointed Boy Scout leader I think this is just more folklore I think he just helped out
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there but he was involved but for Dennis Rader uh for BTK the Boy Scouts would later become an important thing to his
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crimes into his murders now we had recently mentioned pictures um you know taking the Polaroids of himself
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one Theory early on in the BT case was that the killer was not only taking some trophies from the houses but he was
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probably taking photos of the victims and of the crime scenes as well this is a very strong Theory and a smart one
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with a lot of thought to back it up now remember he killed four members of the Otoro family and then many years later
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in a communication to the police he recalls very specific details about each one of the victims and about what he did
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using which items and specifics about the crime scene yeah to prove it was him right and there was FBI that stated you
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know what either this guy's taking photographs of the crime and that's how he's able to give us such a great
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detailed account of what had happened a few years later or he has a photographic
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memory now the FBI didn't think think that photograph photographic memory was likely with this character now the early
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80s in Wichita was there was the birth of something that would later be called the Ghostbuster Squad
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by this time though there had not been a murder or communication from BTK in years now what was the Ghostbuster Squad
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well this was comprised of eight officers and it was you had all kinds of different ranking officers in this
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Ghostbuster Squad did they have a cool car uh I I don't think that they actually
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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
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up with new Clues they were reviewing the old cases uh trying to find something within those Case Files that
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might lead them to BTK and coming up with the strategy for tracking this guy down now some of these officers like I
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said different ranking officers some of them would be experienced homicide detectives some that had originally
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worked the oturo murders and the other two murder cases as well and then you have you have officers that were just
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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
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go out of the office but one officer that was involved in this a young officer named Ken landware he was a
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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
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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
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through to the end now the name the Ghostbuster Squad that was not an official name you know they weren't
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called that by the police department it's really annoying when people don't use official names well I don't know
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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
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of a nickname that the department gave the task force because one day there was an officer talking to another officer
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and said hey all those officers and detectives I see them in there every day working on something having meetings
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what are they doing in there and the other officer said to the guy don't worry about that they're just Chasing
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Ghosts yeah and so that became the kind of nickname that they slapped on to this
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task force [Music] thank you [Music] all right cheers mates and a big shout out to all the beautiful people that we
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met at crime con this weekend Maureen Wallace hedge was 53 years old was a quiet Dependable second shift supervisor
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at a medical center Coffee shop now she was originally from Arkansas but she had
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moved to Kansas with her late husband she was widowed she was described as a kind petite well-dressed woman with a
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Charming Southern Voice she was a devoted mother to her three daughters one son in a devoted she was devoted to
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her grandchildren as well now she enjoyed playing bingo doing yard work and attending the Baptist Church she
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lived on the same block as Dennis Rader actually she had lived there on the same
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block as Dennis Rader for over 30 years at some point Dennis started to fantasize about Marine Hedges he got a
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strong sexual charge thinking about what she would look like tied up gagged and with a rope tight around her neck now
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this could be a big big problem for Dennis because factor x is telling him to kill her but killing a neighbor would
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be extremely risky but once factor x focused in on a victim Dennis had to get to work trolling the subject checking up
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on them as he would call it now during this process Dennis learned that the woman had worked at a coffee shop and he
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would call this project cookie sometimes at night Dennis would take a bike ride and he would sneak around her home
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watching her through the windows sometimes he would stare at her as she lie in bed at night with the light on
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reading Dennis didn't care about the risk it the The Urge that he got to kill her was so
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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
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himself an alibi as well okay so on the weekend of April 27 1985 Dennis Rader was attending a Boy Scout camp this is
00:26:00
just outside of Wichita he left the camp in the evening with the pretext of having a headache and needing to get to
00:26:07
town to buy something for his headache in his vehicle Dennis Raider had what he referred to as his hit kit this would be
00:26:16
his kit of prepared items he thought he needed or intended to use during the course of one of his murders you know we
00:26:23
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
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you have these materials or items that you think you're going to need to use right but this time Captain he had
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actually stored these items in a pre-selected bag he put them in a different bag this time he was using a
00:26:42
bowling bag so after he left the camp he parked his car by a bowling alley inside the city
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and he bought himself a beer at the bowling alley he drank half the beer and deliberately spilled beer on his
00:26:57
clothing and on his hands so he would have smelled like he had been there all night drinking a lot
00:27:04
so he calls a cab and when the cab gets there he pretends to be drunk and he tells the driver that
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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
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he didn't give the driver an actual address he told the driver to take him to a park
00:27:24
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
00:27:31
see his wife whatever right so this park it was near the backyard of hedge's property Raider shows up he makes the
00:27:40
walk to her property and he's actually just disappointed to see Maureen's car in the carport so he assumed when he saw
00:27:48
the vehicle that she was at home he didn't want her to be home when he arrived at the house
00:27:53
he cuts the phone line and he quietly pried open a rear door using a screwdriver and it turned out that that
00:28:02
no one was home to his surprise even though that car was there right nobody was in the house but soon A car pulled
00:28:09
up and Raider decided to hide in a bedroom closet now Marine hedge and a friend this was Gerald Porter entered
00:28:17
the home they stayed there talking for approximately two hours the whole time Dennis Rader is hiding in this closet
00:28:26
listening to the two of them talk waiting for the man to leave well Gerald left the house that night
00:28:33
around 1am now Raider waited until Marine went to bed and you know till he he thought that she had
00:28:42
fallen asleep at that time he crept out of the closet he turns on the the bathroom light
00:28:49
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
00:28:58
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
00:29:07
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
00:29:13
get control of the situation but but because he was so much larger than her his hands strong he ended up strangling
00:29:20
her to death now this this fantasy driven outing was far from over though there was other stuff that he wanted to
00:29:28
do looks like he's going to have to make up for it now that he accidentally killed
00:29:33
her too fast for his liking so he decided to rummage through the house looking for trophies that he could keep
00:29:40
and he decided to take her purse and everything in it he was going to do something he had not done before he was
00:29:48
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
00:29:56
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
00:30:06
in the trunk of her own car then Dennis Rader drove directly to his church where okay so he was so trusted at his
00:30:16
church that he had keys to the building he could get into the building anytime he wanted to
00:30:22
so he dragged the body underneath something I mean let's be real he could get into it whether he had keys or not
00:30:28
yeah I guess that's true you know he could break into the place he dragged the body underneath some trees and he
00:30:34
entered the building um down and went down to the basement and then he taped black plastic over the
00:30:41
basement window so no one could see inside he'd actually stashed the plastic there a few days maybe a week before
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knowing that this was his intention knowing that he was going to need it and then dragged the body down to the
00:30:54
basement and he photographed it in various poses when BTK is done living out these fantasies he's going to return
00:31:01
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
00:31:08
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
00:31:16
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
00:31:22
covers her with leaves and branches now he also left a knotted pair of pantyhose
00:31:28
near the body then Dennis Raider dropped her car off about six miles away at a shopping
00:31:35
Center parking lot he left the car there after wiping it down for fingerprints by
00:31:41
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
00:31:47
and then he drove and returned to the Scout camp that he had deserted earlier right then
00:31:54
he went into his tent and pretended like he had been in there sleeping all night long and he emerged a
00:32:00
short time later giving the impression that he had just woke up for the day he spent that morning scrambling eggs for
00:32:07
the scouts for whatever reason and I think it was because she had died so quickly so early
00:32:13
on in the attack he would later say that this kill that this was not a very satisfying kill for him next BTK and
00:32:21
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
00:32:31
she loved children and when she became pregnant with her child she began providing Child Care from her home Vicki
00:32:39
attended two churches she attended the Lutheran Church because it was her faith but she also attended the Methodist
00:32:46
Church because it was the neighborhood church she volunteered to watch children in the church nurseries now Raiders
00:32:54
started stalking her in 1986. he he would walk by her house and Vicky would be inside playing the piano many times
00:33:04
so he started calling Vicky project piano okay in preparation for this project Dennis made up a fake repairman
00:33:13
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
00:33:23
fashioned out of someone's Southwestern Bell business card that he had found he brought along with him a briefcase to
00:33:30
look you know official inside the briefcase was the BTK hit kit right he's always finding ways to disguise this hit
00:33:40
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
00:33:47
blocks away from her home and then he first went to Vicky's neighbor's house and he's dressed as this telephone
00:33:54
repairman he knocks on the door and then he goes through his Spiel with the elderly woman who answered the door you
00:34:01
know saying I need to check your phone we're checking phones in the neighborhood blah blah
00:34:05
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
00:34:12
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
00:34:19
knock on her door first he was determined to he was determined to attack and kill
00:34:26
somebody that day almost to the point that when the elderly woman had answered the door it crossed his mind maybe I
00:34:32
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
00:34:39
and somehow Dennis Rader managed to talk himself inside the home claiming that he
00:34:45
needed to check the phone line from inside once inside he he goes over and he kind of like fiddles with the phone
00:34:51
for a little bit he even brought with him some kind of fake testing Gadget that he threw in his briefcase
00:34:58
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
00:35:07
married so I wonder if the intent of let me get into the house under the the guise of checking this phone just to
00:35:15
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
00:35:22
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
00:35:30
battle she scratched him several times in the process Raider ended up winning the physical
00:35:37
fight though and he would secure her with ropes and then he proceeded to strangle her to death using pantyhose as
00:35:43
a legature he photographed the body in several poses and then he left in wagerley's vehicle yeah and during this
00:35:52
attack she is you know claiming that her husband's gonna come home too because she's trying to secure him off yeah she
00:35:58
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
00:36:06
husband Bill wagerly and did come home he did come home soon after the attack he came home so much soon after the
00:36:15
attack that he actually saw Vicki's car driving in the opposite direction from their home now when the car was kind of
00:36:23
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
00:36:29
probably going somewhere yeah well as the car got closer he couldn't identify the driver but he knew that it wasn't
00:36:36
Vicki and actually assumed that it was not his vehicle that he was seeing at that time when he gets home
00:36:44
something very strange had happened remember we talked about how much Vicki loved children and she even took care of
00:36:49
other people's kids but when he arrives home the home appears to be empty and his two-year-old son Brandon is just
00:36:57
sitting there in the living room unattended Big Bill walked the home and he couldn't find Vicky
00:37:04
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
00:37:11
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
00:37:18
son there this little two-year-old boy unattended in the home and furthermore where did she go right he's home for
00:37:25
about 45 minutes maybe an hour and he's kind of you know at first probably just walking around kind of nonchalant but as
00:37:35
the time goes on he's getting angrier and he's starting to look and look and look around this house eventually he
00:37:40
discovers her lifeless body was placed between the bed and the wall there's you know how sometimes people put their bed
00:37:48
near the wall and there's only a small space there her body was either pushed down in there or had fallen down in
00:37:54
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
00:38:01
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
00:38:07
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
00:38:13
paramedics arrive they are desperately trying to revive her keep in mind she would have only been dead if in fact she
00:38:20
was dead when BTK left the home for a short period of time but unfortunately it she was pronounced dead a short time
00:38:27
later before they could get to the hospital now BTK meanwhile had been driving around the city and he is
00:38:35
disposing of evidence as he's driving eventually he returned to the area near Vicki's house and he parked wegerly's
00:38:45
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
00:38:54
car that he had left nearby changing his clothes he escaped all detection for this crime
00:39:02
and was actually for the longest time never suspected of this murder at all you think somebody would uh reported his
00:39:10
car being you know suspicious car within within a few blocks of a crime taking place and
00:39:16
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
00:39:24
during the middle of the day in a neighborhood there's a good chance you know a lot of people off at work people
00:39:29
are less likely to see some things right this story right here you know all of these stories are
00:39:35
extremely tragic this one is a little has a little more added tragedy to it because
00:39:42
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
00:39:50
police and detectives thought for sure that the husband actually had killed his wife you know he's the one that finds
00:39:56
her dead they couldn't believe the sun was there right they could not believe that he was
00:40:03
home for 45 minutes to maybe an hour before discovering her body and so yeah that that sounds a little
00:40:10
fishy exactly so you can see you can see that side of the fence now on the other
00:40:15
side of the fence we have other detectives that had issue with this thought and and one reason was the knots
00:40:22
that were found at the scene some of them thought they resembled some knots that they had seen at BTK crime scenes
00:40:28
and now number two they thought that you know this this would take some time in their
00:40:34
investigation but once they found the vehicle and I know that it wasn't terribly far
00:40:39
from her home but but the problem they had with that was while logistically it was possible for this man to move her
00:40:48
vehicle a few blocks from the home and return nobody had seen him just like you said
00:40:53
about btk's suspicious car nobody saw that either I guess but the thought was they thought somebody would have seen
00:40:59
him walking back to his home they couldn't find anybody that had said that and then three and this is probably the
00:41:06
most important was the little boy like you said their son is still at home well when police talked to the little boy
00:41:13
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
00:41:22
well the the only thing that he was able to tell the investigators was was a single sentence that was man hurt Mommy
00:41:30
man hurt mommy well a lot of the detectives found it strange that the boy would say man hurt mommy they if if he
00:41:38
had seen his father killed his mother yeah he would say daddy or whatever he called him now January 31st 1987.
00:41:47
Upon returning home to Wichita Kansas after visiting family for a few days Mary fager was understandably shocked to
00:41:55
discover her husband Melvin dead on the floor this is directly in front of the door to their home her husband had been
00:42:04
shot twice in the back now their two daughters this is Sherry she's nine years old and Kelly who's 16 years old
00:42:10
they were found in the basement they had been left in a covered hot tub with the
00:42:15
hot with the water running I think it was at like 90 degrees in this hot tub Sherry had been bound with electrical
00:42:22
tape and placed in the water after having been strangled Kelly had been drowned now there were no
00:42:29
signs of forced entry to the home implying that maybe the killer was known to the family or at least good enough to
00:42:36
talk his way or their way into the house the husband and father like I said was found by the front door still wearing
00:42:44
his coat so there was one police theory about this crime is that the man may have been shot upon entering into the
00:42:53
home that he had un you know unknowingly returned home during some portion of a crime being committed and startled the
00:43:01
killer or Killers one big clue in this case was the family car was missing now along with a local handyman
00:43:10
um there was a guy by the name of William Butterworth who had been employed by the family for some work
00:43:16
around the house I like their syrup it was initially feared by the investigators that Butterworth was
00:43:22
either another victim or he had you know possibly been taken by force or that perhaps he was party to
00:43:31
whatever had happened in the house now his own van was found several days later this was just blocks away from the
00:43:40
house a search of the van came up empty they found no evidence in this van whatsoever
00:43:47
on January 3rd 1988 so almost a year later Butterworth is arrested in Florida he had called his wife and a family
00:43:56
member reported this to the police and in fact he was still on the phone when he was arrested they had been looking
00:44:04
for this guy ever since this murder went down they find him in Florida because he
00:44:08
decides to call his wife now when he's arrested the car keys the keys to the fager family vehicle
00:44:16
they were found in his pocket and the stolen car was found nearby he was unarmed and he did not resist
00:44:26
when he was arrested now while being questioned by the police he told the officers that he had entered the home
00:44:34
discovered the body of Melvin that's the father heard some noises in the house got scared and ran away
00:44:41
he had no obvious reason to flee to Florida the police couldn't figure out look if you're not guilty why did you
00:44:48
flee the area he didn't have a police record he was not a match for the there was semen
00:44:56
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
00:45:04
inside the home he was described as a guy who would always go out of his way to do a favor
00:45:10
for someone nice guy he had three children a three-year-old a six-month-old six-month-old twins I'm
00:45:16
sorry and he had been having some Financial issues at the time just weeks before these murders under questioning
00:45:25
you know he's questioned multiple times Captain he did not change his story his story did not change he stuck to it he
00:45:32
said that he entered the house saw the body heard something ran away he also said that that being terrified
00:45:39
in this situation he thought he was going to die yeah and being terrified in this situation he
00:45:46
didn't recall what he was doing or his whereabouts for several days after that went down he said when he came to
00:45:54
he it was like four or five days later and he was in Florida and he was afraid to return right
00:46:00
so Butterworth's defense attorney he's going to be he's going to be charged with this however his defense attorney
00:46:07
has him undergo 20 hypnosis sessions over the course of four months they're trying to get a full story or to see if
00:46:16
possibly he's lying right under hypnosis Butterworth gave a similar but much more
00:46:22
detailed story of what had happened that day he said that he had been building the
00:46:27
family a sun room which was true he took a break for lunch when he returned he said that Kelly this is the oldest
00:46:35
daughter and someone that he assumed was possibly her boyfriend were in the hot tub
00:46:42
he he did not see um anyone in the sun room but he said that he heard movement or saw some type
00:46:52
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
00:46:59
assumes that he saw the oldest daughter with probably her boyfriend maybe he felt awkward walking in on this
00:47:07
situation decides to leave happens so during this time he goes out and he goes shopping because he's just trying to
00:47:13
kill some time while he's out he bumps into a retired police captain this is William dots now later William dots
00:47:21
would verify having seen and spoke with Butterworth that day at that approximate
00:47:27
time dots went on to say that Butterworth did not seem to be shaken or to be nervous
00:47:33
or acting strange when he met with him that day then Butterworth returned to the house at approximately 4 30. at this
00:47:42
time he said that the lights were off he entered the solarium and he found Sherry
00:47:48
face down in the hot tub then he saw Melvin dead in the hallway he heard a noise and he realized that the murderer
00:47:56
was still in the house so frightened he bolted now for some reason captain and I apologize because I
00:48:04
do not know why but apparently this man in the confusion ended up with the wrong
00:48:09
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
00:48:16
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
00:48:23
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
00:48:30
car yeah but can you imagine you have a psycho killer that you believe is still in the house you're running for your
00:48:36
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
00:48:43
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
00:48:49
that point right now remember he says that he kind of he's uncertain of his whereabouts or what he was doing for
00:48:56
approximately the next four days he says when he came to cool the next thing he remembers he's in Florida that he he
00:49:03
magically wakes up in Florida once he comes to he said that he felt shame and cowardice for running he was also afraid
00:49:12
that he would be picked out to be the suspect or to have murdered these people and that made him
00:49:18
not want to return and that's why he waited so long before he contacted anybody after he had already been out he
00:49:26
was charged with these three murders but it was on June 7th well that's because his story never changed what we've
00:49:33
learned from shows like cereal is if you change your story over and over that they normally put you on the
00:49:40
prosecutor's team yeah and that's a good way to get your conviction overturned years later or possibly at least on June
00:49:48
7th 1988 Butterworth was acquitted of all of the charges now most people to this day believe that this is not an
00:49:57
open case they they don't believe that the you know that the they believe that the police have closed this case because
00:50:06
the police firmly believe in the Public's eye that Butterworth was the killer of these three individuals
00:50:13
but then you have to wonder we have this guy BTK who's active at the time killing
00:50:19
people inside their homes and we have two female victims there and remember Dennis Rader was not opposed to
00:50:26
attacking and killing children and what we do know is this captain on January in
00:50:32
January of 1988 Dennis Rader sent a letter to the mother who had discovered the bodies of her husband and children
00:50:40
and this letter simply said I did not kill your family but I admire the work so an interesting still unsolved to this
00:50:50
very day triple homicide so maybe maybe Butterworth did it maybe Butterworth has
00:50:55
a partner you know maybe that would explain some of it because some of the evidence doesn't match up with him 100
00:51:00
percent right or maybe BTK did it but isn't claiming responsibility for it for some reason then you have the other
00:51:08
possibility which is the Killer is an unknown suspect at the time that this letter was sent
00:51:15
from Dennis Raider to Mary fager it was actually believed to be a hoax simply someone pretending to be the BTK but
00:51:24
after his arrest it was confirmed that the letter was in fact from Dennis Rader because like most of his Communications
00:51:32
Raider would make a photocopy of his letters and to further elude detection Dennis
00:51:39
Rader would mail the photocopy not the original to either the police or to the media right after his arrest police
00:51:48
found the original amongst Raiders BTK memorabilia right but I'm just going to assume that BTK didn't do this because
00:51:57
one he wanted credit for these crimes and he wanted to be in the spotlight and he he wanted people talking about him
00:52:04
that he wanted people fearing him you know so he wrote a letter so he could get into the spotlight but he also said
00:52:11
hey I admire your work but I didn't do this and I think you're exactly right I think
00:52:16
him sending that letter is simply just a reminder to the general public I'm still
00:52:21
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
00:52:29
[Music] thanks for listening and stick around for the finale of BTK tomorrow until
00:52:42
then be good be kind and don't litter thank you [Music] [Applause] [Music]