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For decades, the identity of the BTK killer remained a mystery. Police knew that the serial killer murdered 10 people between 1974 and 1991 in Wichita, Kansas, and they knew that his name, “BTK”, stood for bind, torture, and kill; despite the mountain of evidence piled against him, authorities were unable to trace the culprit.
Then, in 2005, a floppy disk sent to the media was traced back to Dennis Rader, a father of two and a Boy Scout troop leader. He was also the Lutheran church president.
On August 18, 2005, Rader was sentenced to a minimum of 175 years without parole. Today, he remains at the El Dorado Correctional Facility in Prospect Township, Kansas, where his earliest possible release date is 2180. He is 74.
He Claims To Get Special Treatment in Prison
In February, Radar gave his first interview since his 2005 sentencing and said that he is “well taken care of” in prison, reports News Max.
In his correspondence with The Daily Mail, he wrote, “I believe I’m the facility ‘pet’… They take good care of me but sort of hide the world or keep me under close wrap, but I have all the segregation privileges.” He went on to describe his cell as having a “nice window and a full metal door with a porthole window.”
In 2017, the BTK killer had a cancer scare. He wrote the Wichita Eagle, “I had two relatives died of colon cancer and I was sure it had found me.” Doctors ended up clearing his health problems and found no cancer. Rader wrote, “Back to normal now,” but said he would be planning a “kick-the-bucket” scenario for himself.
The Wichita Eagle reports that Rader feared his estranged wife (who divorced him after his conviction) and his daughter wouldn’t claim his body when he passed. “The family knows I want to be cremated and where to scatter the ashes, assuming they claim my body… If not, the (prison) facility will have it done, and I think the ashes (will be) place in a ‘niche’ at Hutchinson, KS. Which will greatly disappoint my soul or ghost!”
Rader went on to state, “I did write Kerri (Rawson, his daughter) and ask her and the family if they would like my left-over art, poetry, papers, log books, journal, etc. I gave them a couple of months to decide. I thought perhaps Kerri might like to work with someone to ‘chap book’ or a bio on me.”
Earlier this year, Kerri released a book entitled “A Serial Killer’s Daughter” in which she discusses her childhood with Rader and “how her life crashed when her father was arrested for being the BTK serial killer.”
In the book, Rawson states that today, she suffers from anxiety, depression, and PTSD. In a video trailer, Kerri explains, “(It) took me a very long time to reconcile the man I knew and had grown up to love and grown up next to with the man I was hearing these horrible things about.”
Be sure to tune into tonight’s episode of ABC News’ 20/20 to learn more about Dennis Rader, the horrific nature of his crimes, and his family today.