BTK Killer Horror: Cub Scouts Leader’s Vile Secret Exposed — 'It's Hard to Control Myself' (FPD CASE VAULT)
Convicted BTK killer Dennis Rader listens during a court proceeding
Dec. 27 2023, Published 4:02 p.m. ET
Dennis Rader was a devoted husband, doting father of two, Cub Scout leader and pillar of his church.
But behind this mask of normalcy raged a homicidal beast known as the BTK killer. The initials stood for Bind, Torture and Kill, signifying his sick murder method.
A newspaper with a headline referring to the BTK killings lays in the front yard of Dennis Rader's home in Park City, Kan. Tuesday, March 1, 2005.
Over the course of three decades, Rader, a code enforcement officer in the Wichita, Kan., suburb of Park City, brutally murdered 10 people in a twisted bid to fulfill his crazed sexual fantasies.
Wichita Police Det. Sam Houston shows a mask, which was used in one of the crimes, during Dennis L. Rader's sentencing hearing.
Rader's demented murder spree began on Jan. 15, 1974, when he strangled Joseph and Julie Otero and two of their children in their home.
Lawmen were stunned to find the butcher hiding in plain sight, living in a modest ranch-style home. The place was eventually torn down as the community tried to erase the memory of the monster in their midst.
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Rader maintained the facade of being a devoted family man and pillar of the community with his wife Paula
He struck again and again, admitting in a letter to the local newspaper: "It's hard to control myself."
But he was finally busted in 2004 after cops traced one of his messages to a church computer he'd used.
Now 78, Rader is serving 10 life sentences at the El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas.
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