Morbid - Episode 85: Dennis Rader "BTK" Part 1 So Much and Not Enough

Episode Date: August 9, 2019

Yes, this is a long episode but this loser has a lot of layers to peel back. In Part 1, we talk about Dennis Rader's childhood, his marriage and his first foray into the world of Bind, Torture, Kill. It's a bumpy and weird ride, guys. Dennis Rader is a strange and frustrating case.  ***There is description of two children who were murdered in this episode. We announce it and give ample time to skip if this is something you are not comfortable listening to!*** Thanks to our beautiful sponsor for this episode, Daily Harvest! Visit DaileyHarvest.com and enter code MORBID for $25 off your first box!  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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So the next time you have a home project, just Angie that and start getting the most out of your home. Download the free Angie mobile app today or visit Angie.com. That's ANGI.com. Hey Weirdos, I'm Elena. I'm Ash. And this is a morbid you've been waiting for. A lot of y'all have been asking for this, Marman! And you know what, it's time. Here we are, it's time. We've arrived at DENIS RATER, more man. And you know what? It's time. Here we are. It's time. We've arrived at Dennis Rader, BTK. I accidentally called him our guest earlier.

She did. She did. And I was like, guest on the podcast. And you were like, you mean the fucking subject? I was like, I was like, I was like, case. Yes. Because surprise, everybody. Dennis Rader's in the house.

No, he's not. He's not. Check your closet. He is not in the house. Intense boiler. He's currently. He's in the big house. He's in the House? No, he's not. He's not. Check your closet. He is not in the house. Intense boiler. He's currently in the big house. He's in the big house. Yeah, he's in the big house. So this is going to be at least a two-parter, most likely a three-parter. One, two, three. When we even like pushing him off for so long because there's many reasons. I have like very complicated thoughts about PTK number one Elena Hates hates hates Hates BTK with a fiery really do passion more fiery than her hair

And there's like reason one when I say I hate him and I'm gonna call him like a loser and like stupid throughout this whole thing Because he is okay all of those things But that doesn't mean that he is not wholly terrifying. Like, he's fucked up. He's a big conundrum of awfulness, but he's just so stupid and annoying that I hate him a lot. And he does really bad things as most of these guys do,

but he really does bad things. You're like, hammer some of the bad things. Yeah, he's just a bad guy. So, I know the overview of this case, but I don't know the gory details. A lot of people, I realized they know this case, they know who he is, where they don't know the details,

and we're like, I never really looked into him, which surprised me, but now I'm excited because now I can give you all the really gory details. I think I remember seeing him covered on forensic files or something. Oh, sure. He's one of those.

He's with the Ted Bundy's and the John Wayne Gases and the Jeffrey Domars. So we only have like two items to just quickly go over with you. The first one is really awesome. And we already announced it on our social media, but if you are just listening to the podcast, we want to let you know that we are officially doing our first live show.

We manifested it like close to a year ago, and here we are, and it is happening. We did, and it is going to be happening October 30th, Halloween Eve, which is almost the best night of the year, 2019. So only in a couple of months, guys. And it's going to be happening at AS220 in Providence, Rhode Island.

We are very excited about it. And tickets are on sale right now and the link is in our Instagram bio. So go there, click on the link, go buy tickets. The 20 bucks. The 20 bucks. The 20 bucks. I promise you, it's gonna be worth your while because we got some spooky, yucky awesomeness

that we're ready to just vomit upon you. It's gonna be amazing. And a lot of people are asking if they need to buy like special tickets for a meet and greet. Oh yeah. Guys, we're gonna hang out when we're done. Absolutely.

I'm just saying hi to every single one of you until everyone's gone. Exactly. Like I want to meet all of you. Like your $20 ticket will get you. We're going to come hang out. We're excited to meet all of you. Wait.

You don't have to buy a special ticket to do any kind of meeting or anything. We're just going to come hang out with you. So get ready because we're going to be all ready to chill to the extreme. And we want to say a big thank you to Liz Monez, the biggest thank you. Liz Monez, because Liz is the one who reached out, set this whole thing up for us. She's been a huge help. She's a comedian herself. So go check her out.

Liz Monez, because she's hilarious. I've already looked at some of her stuff. And we just love her because she's been a huge help with this whole thing. She really has. The tickets are on sale on Eventbrite and you can find the event that way, or you can click the link in our bio. But we'll be repeating this like, you know, in the next couple of weeks, just so everybody knows where to go. But go check those out. Yay. Woo! Anna, like less happy now. Guys, I wanted to thank you so much for all your messages.

Hi, this is Ash, because some people can't tell who's talking. I posted on the morbid Instagram that I decided to make my own Instagram account, my personal one, private. Unfortunately, I had a negative experience. Like a guy just kind of crossed the line, made me feel really uncomfortable and just it was like not cool. It was like a breach of privacy. Yeah. So I just feel like it's better that I keep my personal account as much as I love you guys

so much. I just want to interact with you on the morbid page instead. So I love you guys. So and thank you to everybody because literally 99.9999% of you are so respectful, so amazing, so awesome, never cross any kind of line of anything. No, I'm so like literally nine out of 10 people have never made me feel uncomfortable. It's this one jerk head that kind of ruined it for everybody. Yeah, he like really crossed the line, so it just kind of took it into like, all right, well, that was that. So don't need to deal with that anymore. But I don't want you guys to think that I'm like, well, now I don't want to talk to any of them. Well, no, because I love you all with my whole

black soul. Oh, yeah. And we're going to interact as much as we did before. I just wanted to make her personal page personal, which is smart. Yeah. So, um, yeah. So thanks to everybody who reached out and was like, I hope you're okay. I know. Thank you so much. Are beautiful. And we love you. Love our little morbid weirdo family. You guys are the best. You made us feel all snuggly and warm after that like creepy experience. So we really appreciate it.

Yeah, I really, really did. So I think we can just jump into the case this week. So because it's a long one. Buta-ka. Buta-ka. I want to shout out my main source for this because it's a long one, but I want to shout out my main source for this because it's a great source and it's been blowing my brain apart. So it is the book Confessions of a Serial Killer and it's by Catherine Ramzland.

And Catherine Ramzland, you would probably know who she is if you saw her and heard her. If you've watched any kind of crime, true crime, anything. Is she like the commentary? She's always one of those people. She's a professor of forensic psychology at the sales university. She's also a teacher's criminal justice.

She is on like, again, ton of those true crime TV shows. And she also assisted former FBI profiler, John Douglas, on his book, The Case is that haunt us. So she's a badass. And she's done about a zillion more things. So I'm actually thinking I'm going to just give you guys her background on our Instagram because she's just awesome. And this book is really crazy. This book in particular has a lot of BTK's actual like he him talking

because they exchanged a lot of letters and she wrote this book based on their letters and included tons of his actual first-hand accounts. So a lot of this stuff is going to be directly from Dennis Raider's mouth, which is fucking wild. So Dennis Lynn Raider. Lynn. Yeah. Lynn, you know, murdered 10 people in Wichita, Kansas between January 15th, 1974 and January 19th, 1991. Okay. So he's terrible. And we're're gonna start out with, so what I'm gonna do here is I'm gonna give you his, technically his first quote murder,

but actually murders. Okay, because it's his first foray into murdering, but he killed four people at once. Really started off with like a lot. He's really starting off with a bang. That's fucked up. So we're gonna go with like a, yeah. He's really starting off with a bang. That's fucked up. So we're gonna go through this first murder scenario and then we're gonna go back to his childhood

and talk about what, you know, start that there and as a head injury or whatever. Yeah, in part two, we'll start going into the rest of the murders. Okay, cool. So today we'll be, you know, background, all that good stuff, but we're gonna start with the actual murder.

So you know what we're working with here? I love that you were like telling me, well, the sinners, but, all that good stuff, but we're going to start with the actual murdered. So you know what we're working with here. I love that you were like telling listeners, but I was like, okay, cool. You're like, okay, for letting me know. I'm along. Even though we already pledged this. I'm like, all right. Yep. Sounds good.

I'm in. I'm strapped in. So Dennis Raider arrived at 803 North Edgemore Street in Wichita, Kansas at approximately 820 AM on January 15th, 1974. AM? Yes. He did this in the morning. That's like the, that's like my mid-morning. And he does a lot of this shit like broad daylight. Oh, that really fucks with my mind. And the reason I'm starting with this like, and then we're going backwards is because I just want you to get an idea of who this dude is.

Because since a lot of people said, I don't know a lot about him. I want you to know who he is right up the bat. Let's do it. So this was the home of the Otero family. He had watched this family for weeks. He had learned their routines and the layout of their home. And what had initially drawn him to this family was he saw Mrs. Otero, the mother. And he thought she was cute. He became infatuated with her. Oh, and he immediately

sent me to someone. Because BTK has this whole thing where he's like first, I troll, then I prowl, or I prowl, then I troll, then I stalk, then I plan, like he's just, he's a turd. Like, you're really important. He was, he was trolling. And that's when he saw her. And then he decided to stalk her. And then he decided to plan. That's his whole thing. Okay. Now back to the case. Yeah. So this was meant to be his first murder. And it would end up being four murders from one family. Okay. And at one time.

At eight o'clock a.m. Yes, essentially. Yeah. So the father is Joseph O'Taro. He was 38 years old. The mother is Julio Taros. She was 33. They were both home this day.

Joseph was would normally be working, which through Dennis off. He thought Joseph was going to be out of the house. He probably would go to work. But he was home because he had hurt his ribs in a car accident recently. So he was home like mending his ribs. Two of their children, Joseph O'Tearro Jr., who was nine years old, and-huh. And Josephino Taro, who is 11 years old, was home at this time as well. Okay.

They have a couple of older kids, but they had already gone to school. These two kids were not off at school yet. Oh, God. So when Dennis arrived, he jumped the fence. I'm calling him Dennis because he loves being called BTK. So much that I'm calling Dennis. Oh, I'm gonna call Dennis.

Yeah. I'm not calling him BTK Yeah, you're stupid Because he's such a turd So Dennis jumped the fence in their backyard He immediately cut the phone wires with a knife and he was wearing his Air Force Parka because he was in the military Previously, and he thought it would give them a false sense of security seeing an Air Force Parka Right and he was planning to go in there, tell the family that he was an escaped criminal

and just needed money. And he figured that that's when he could get them all to chill, come, just be like, take money, take whatever you need, and then he would do his thing. Wow, that's even more fucked up. It really is. To like, just make them be like, okay, we're gonna be fine.

Oh cool, we're just gonna be raw lives. Like, and then kill them. So he said when he got in the backyard, he all of a sudden saw dog prints in the snow. And he said he hesitated because he had not planned for a dog. Right. So he said he actually almost backed out of the entire thing,

which gives my heart such, like I wanna throw up in this family. Yeah, that's awful. Because for a moment, he was thinking of backing out. And it's like, oh, I wish you'd just done that. I wish you'd done that. Exactly. But he went ahead anyways. In his words, quote, I had my chords with me, and some were already pre-naughted. I had a gun, a 22 LR woodsman auto target pistol. That means nothing to me.

Me either. But he had even gone to the library before this and he had got their telephone number and he had called the house several times before this because he wanted to hear the female pick up. Why? And then he would just tell them it was the wrong number because one, he was making sure that that female was

in the house and that he had the right thing and then two What we're gonna learn about Dennis is that he gets off on so many things like he just need it's like it's really easy to like so him hearing the female voice Pick up and knowing what he wanted to do to her like got him all excited gross Like everything gets this dude all like jiggly wiggly. Like he is real gross. Jiggly wiggly. He's real gross.

He's jello. He's flon. He is flon. He is flon. Fucking hate flon. So in his words again, quote, gun in hand, I went in. All except Mr. O'Terra were present. He came from the bedroom at the sound of his wife's voice. Mr. O'Terra thought it was a joke, put up by his brother-in-law.

He also noticed my Air Force Parker. I quickly grabbed him by the back collar. I showed him the gun and told him it was a 22LR with hollow points and a hair trigger. He knew it was no joke. To ease the tension, there was some friendly talk about the Air Force years, tech school, etc. What? Yeah. So he just like talks to the dude like, oh, let's talk about the Air Force for a second. Like gross. I'd be like, I don't really want to. I told them I needed money and food and was wanted by police. I was AWOL from the Air Force.

I located the car keys, the purse, and his wallet. They told me the car was empty on police. I was AWOL from the Air Force. I located the car keys, the purse, and his wallet. They told me the car was empty on gas. I guess they didn't have very much money. Mr. O'Terra said I could take the typewriter from the Southwest bedroom and hock it for gas money and just to leave them alone. Oh. Which is like, can you even fathom this scenario right now?

Like, 8.30 in the morning, and this dude just like barges in your house, there was no panic yet. After I got in the house, I lost control of it. I basically panicked. The dog was a real problem. So I asked Mr. O'Tare to get the dog out. It was a short hair dog that didn't like the cold.

So they first put him in a bedroom or basement, but it carried on. So I finally had to go outside. Which first of all, it's like, you shitbag. There's a short hair dog in here. It's in the middle of the winter. You know it's cold and you're like, get it outside. Well, he didn't like dogs. Like you're dick, right? No, he did like dogs. Oh, he did like dogs. He doesn't like cats as we will find out later. Oh, okay. I held on to Mr. O'Terro's collar and watched Mrs. O'Terra closely, threatening them all if they

didn't cooperate. Mr. O'Terra told the family to cubbycom and do, as I said. So poor Mr. O'Terra's just being like, guys, like calm down, just do what he says, everything's going to be fine. Almost poor guy. Yeah. Now, his whole thing, Dennis Raider, and I'll read a quote in a little while about it from him is he said the thing he loved to do was make people believe that they were out of harm's way, that he was not going to hurt them.

And then he said, because then they will submit to you. And he said, and I loved the feeling of them not having any idea that this is all going to end. Right. Which is so fucked, which is what he's doing here I'm not gonna hurt you just give me money in this and everything's gonna be fine Now initially he bound them with a role of first aid tape that he brought with them But they all started saying that hurt in their hands were numb

So this bumbling idiot changed them all out to white clothes lot clothing line cord What and this and you'll like see this when we talk about in part two other murders that he does, he like weirdly takes into consideration people's comfort sometimes. That's weird. Which again, I feel like part of his whole thing of like making them feel like he gives a shit or has empathy or has some kind of weird human quality to him. It's like, it's so bizarre to me, because he makes people have this false sense of who he is. So once he did the white clothes, clothesline cord, because the tape was bothering them, they were still complaining,

and he was loosening and retightening their findings like over and over again. Like they're like, you're kind of bad at it. Like he was just being like a general dumbass. Like he was so bumbling. And I'm not saying this is funny in any way, because it is absolutely not. No matter what, I'm sure they did not find any of this in, you know, anything, but wholly terrifying. I'm just saying he's so bad at everything.

Right. Like he's just bad. Right. And. Like he says bad. Right. And it's like, and what are you doing? Dude, like he wasn't even doing this to prolong their terror. He was just stupid. Like, you know, just just bumbling. Like any sense. So I'm like, stop. And then he says, quote, this is, this is even weirder. He says, quote, I tried to make Mr. O'Taro as comfortable as I could. Apparently he had a cracked rib from a car accident. So I put a pillow down for his head

in a parka or a coat underneath him. But dude, like I just, like your ultimate endgame is to kill this whole family. Why are you making them comfortable in the process? But he's like, let me just make this guy comfortable because he is a crack-driven. Like, like, what? But I'm still gonna kill him later.

Exactly. That doesn't, I don't understand. He doesn't make any sense. And this is when he was like, well, I guess I'll just gag them all with socks and t-shirts and pillowcases. That's not comfortable. Yeah.

Now that I've made them all comfortable, let me just gag them all. First of all, before I go into this, quick little warning, this is pretty rough. There are kids involved just as a warning, guys. Yeah. But don't worry, it's all being told. So I'm going to, I'm telling you it in his,

in his own words. Right. So it's gonna be rough and pretty graphic. Quote, I think I wrapped the rope around Mr. O'Tearro's neck. I had never strangled before, didn't realize how long it took and the victim was fighting. Then I strangled Mrs. O'Tearro. Once she quit moving, I let pressure up. Next was Josephine.

She asked what's going on. I told her I had put her parents to sleep in your next. Jesus. I strangled her until she quit moving. By that time Joseph Jr. was up and crying. And Mr. O'Taro was waking up. I decided to use the plastic bags. I then proceeded to Joseph Jr. and placed a bag over his head. By then Mrs. O'Terro was awake. She realized the fatal threat to her and her family as Joseph struggled. She pleaded with me to stop. So quick little cut. This poor woman is watching her nine year olds be suffocated by a bag.

I just want to put that like that is making my heart literally leak out of my nose. Yeah. Uh, Mrs. O'Terra was getting hysterical and making a lot of noise. I about decided to leave. He almost again left. It those are the parts that just like, oh, it just like hurts because maybe he also could have got caught faster if he left. and at this point everyone's still a lot Right, he had only strangled everyone because he doesn't know how to do fucking anything

Right, so he had only strangled everybody into unconsciousness, right? That's what kills me about this. I about decided to leave but since I had already crossed the quote death path I strangled her with a clove hitch Before I applied pressure, she said, may God have mercy on your soul. I covered her face with a flower print pillowcase. I found a belt and applied to Mr. O'Terra's neck over the bag. He quit moving. Oh, Mr. O'Terra once he put the bag on his head while he was off trying to strangle everybody else. Mr. O'Taro was starting to bite through the bag when he woke up to try to get air out of there.

So now he's realized he said he realized that biting holes in the bags was going to be an issue. He had not accounted for this before. So he took a t-shirt and another bag. He picked up little Joseph Jr. He brought him to a bed and covered his head with the shirt and then the bag and then he tied it. He said he struggled, fell off the bed, and then stopped moving. Now, he did say that in many reports, and I have read this and heard this as well,

so hearing him dispute this is interesting. When they went to this crime scene, they found a chair sitting in the room where Joseph Jr. was strangled to death in. Yeah. And what they surmised from this was that he had sat in the chair and watched this kid strangle the death. Dennis claims that was not the case.

He said, I would admit it if it was. He said, what had happened was he said, I think I used that chair to like subdue him for a second while I was doing something else. He said, I didn't sit in a chair and watch him do that. So what do you think? So good on you, Dennis. Yeah, like you still killed an entire fan. Exactly.

But you're not bad enough to like watch it. Honestly, I don't think he did sit and watch it happen because I think he was so fucking bumbling and crazy. Like he was crazy. He was unable to like, I don't think this was like he was taken moments to like, savor things. I think he didn't know what the fuck he was doing and was just, he was just like, winging it. Right.

As a side, he also said, quote, many people think I tortured the Eoteros and killed them in a sadistic way by reviving them. In which that's another thing I've read that he revived, he kept reviving them and then strangling them, reviving them and strangling them. But he says, but the multiple strangle marks were there because I hadn't learned how to strangle quickly. The bags helped to kill faster, but I had used the bags in self bondage and knew the helpless feeling of no air and no way to get the bag off. I had strangled cats but had never strangled

anyone before. So I really didn't know how much pressure you had to put on a person or how long it would take both their hands and their feet were tied up. So what he's saying is they saw these multiple marks. They saw that they had been revived and re-strangled and they were like holy shit. He was literally like torturing them for hours. Yeah. But what was happening again, the media made him out to be way more scary than what he actually is,

as a killer I mean. But in reality, he just didn't know what the fuck he was doing. So he was strangling them, they were going out, but then they were coming back multiple times. So he wasn't doing this, for some like master plan that he's this like, you know, mastermind of I'm going to make this big torture. He's like, without intent.

That's giving him way too much credit as a serial killer. It's like, he's just a fucking idiot and he doesn't know what he's doing. That's all that. And he admits it. He's like, that's, I'm an idiot. And I don't want to do it. He used to put bags over his own head. Oh, yeah, we'll get into that.

I don't. Don't you worry. I'm just like, this is Dennis. Wow. Dennis. So this is really rough. This next part. Awesome.

I want everyone to be aware of this. We are going to talk about another death of another child, Josephine, who is 11. It's really awful. And it involves him masturbating doing it. So I just want everyone to be aware of what's coming next. It was like a child person too. Kind of. I don't, he's, he doesn't make sounds. He doesn't make sense. Basically basically like I'm like I was saying before He strangled all of them and then they kept waking up and he just kept having to do it again because he sucks at everything So now everyone was gone except Josephine. He had killed everyone else So Josephine is the only one that's alive, but she's out cold. He had strangled her into unconsciousness

the only one that's alive, but she's out cold. He had strangled her into unconsciousness. He said, this is where his quote, dark sadistic self quote came out to play. Like you weren't already there. And I'm like, yo, you literally just suffocated a nine year old. Right. You came to play already. Like you, you're there. Yeah, you arrived. He's there. So I'm going to do this one in his words because I don't even know how to put this in other words. So quote, I wanted to hang her talking about Josephine. I had made a rope news prior, a rough hemp rope, and by chance had put four loops in the noose, which is really fucked. That is really fucked. With hanging in mind, I searched the house, found the basement sewer pipe, and attached

the hangman's rope to it. I then returned to her. She was awake, but lethargic. I picked her up and carried her to the basement rec room. She was not crying or protesting or fighting me. I removed her pants, pulled her panties down, either cut or tore her bra open, exposing her breasts, then pulled her knit shirt back down,

retied her ankles and knees, and attached the rope to her wrist. I asked her if her parents had a camera, as I wanted a picture of her bound. Two, oh my God, gross. She said no. So I moved her onto the floor below the hangman's news. I told her she would go to sleep and be in heaven with her folks and brother. What the fuck?

Her eyes showed shock. I applied the news and lifted her up and tightened the rope or tied it off. I was overwhelmed with excitement. I touched her and masturbated. The act of hanging alone is bad. And the media played this up big with her toes only a few inches off the floor. It just happened this way that she ended up like that. It wasn't planned to look that way. Ooh. Remember when we did palette cleansers? Yeah, we could use one right there. So yeah, so that's a terrible one.

How old was she? She was 11. These are the only children he killed these two. There are children involved in other murders, like children that were home when other ones happened. So it's not this won't be the end of that terrible stuff, but he doesn't kill another child after this, but those ones are really rough, especially Josephine. You don't say he then cleaned the home. He took a watch of Mr. O'Terra and a transistor radio radio, which he said he wore the watch for a while and then ended up throwing it in the lake somewhere. He drank water from a glass in their house

and then cleaned it, which is something he liked to do because he said he gave him like, oh, I could get in trouble for that. You know what I mean? Like it's his little secret like bullshit. Yeah, it's really just him being a stupid dumbass. He turned up the thermostat to fuck with the time of death because he read it in a book. Does that work? It's kind of, yeah. But like fuck him.

And he took the family car. He ended up... Stupid too. Well, he ended up parking it in the dillens, in a dillens lot and leaving it there. And then he realized, he ready, ready for Dennis to come back. Oh God. I know BTK just committed that, but you ready for Dennis. So then he realizes he was missing

the knife he brought with him. And he realized he left it there at the house at the house. So instead of walking back there, like trying to be like covert and shit because they're car back because remember it's broad-ass Daylight. Yeah, it's the morning mid afternoon at this point or something. He drove his own Chevy Impala back to the house in broad daylight and went looking for it around the house. Where did he park? Like are you just parked in their garage? It's pulled right into their driveway. It's like a neighborhood, dude. Yeah. He found the knife in the backyard. He had left it on the ground after cutting the phone wires.

Wow. Fucking dumb. Wow. Like, you haven't even, you don't even have a reason to be distracted yet. No. You haven't even, like, encountered a human yet. Like, you're just that stupid. Wow.

I mean, I'm glad that he's that stupid. Well, and speaking of a stupid, he is, let me just start this off because now we're gonna go back. We're gonna talk about his childhood so you can see what kind of as he dumb kid too. Pretty much, but I'm just gonna give you a couple of reasons that BTK is the biggest fucking loser to ever exist.

Give me up. Number one, and this is the, this is one that will shock you to your core just because of how stupid he is. Really? He made up his own nickname. No, wait, really? No one gave him that nickname.

He gave it to himself. And people were like, yeah, let's go with that. Yeah. So when he, so what happens is he takes a long hiatus from serial killing after his last murder. That is unheard of. He is a very unbelievably rare case. And he came back after all that time because he suddenly was like, I want attention because he's a little attention seeking bitch. And so he decided he started fucking with the police in the media. He was sending like, you know, random coded letters and he was leaving Barbie dolls bound to like serial boxes on the side of the road.

Like he started pulling all this shit trying to get everybody far too much time on your face. And literally it was just because he wanted everyone talking about it. And he was saying he was like ready to start again. So now poor Wichita, the Kansas is like, we're in the fog. Like this dude. Yeah, like people probably thought he was long gone.

Who knows? So when he reappeared at this time and started trying to get that attention again, he said, hey, it's me, BTK. Oh, you like that? It stands for bind them, torture them, kill them. And like, that's what I do. Wow. Like, he was literally like, hey, guys, so this is what I do.

It's my unique name. My name's BTK now. I'm a big scary guy. Like, my name is BTK. Call me that, please, please, please, please. And then it gets better because also, he wasn't even confident enough to just land on that name and be like, call me that bitches. He was then like, but if you don't like that name, here are some other options. No, I am not lying. And like choose your own adventure?

Literally. Do you wanna know the options that he came up with? Yes, I actually do. The BTK Strangler, which is stupid because it's like, bind torture kill Str which is stupid because it's like, bind torture kill Strangler. Like it's like redundant. It has an error of redundancy to it

that I just don't like. The Wichita Strangler, the poetic Strangler. No, no. BTK had a Tumblr, I bet. Oh, and you'll see why he wanted to be called the poetic Strangler in a little bit. The bondage strangler or the bondage psycho, which is so hilarious that I really wish they had landed on that one. Just so he went down in history as the fucking bondage psycho. Like I was really funny. The bondage psycho. The witchata hangman, which admittedly is kind of cool. I can like that one. Did he

only do he kind of get not really, but it doesn't work. But it that one's scary scary, but doesn't work. Yeah, doesn't apply. No, it doesn't really apply. The Wichita executioner. Stupid. Like, goodbye. And my personal favorite. No, no, no. Oh wait, no. The first before I'll end up my personal favorite. The next one was the Isfixiator, which is just hard to say. And like, that just like, no.

And that just sounds, I don't even, that sounds like a pest control thing. Yeah, that's, I don't even know. And then my personal favorite. Tell me, hit me with it. The Grot Phantom. Shit, no, no, no. That's quite possibly the stupidest sentence I've ever

typed in my life. The Phantom. The Grot Phantom. You are not a Phantom. I'm sorry. The Grot Phantom. I think I like the poetic. And they were like, we'll choose BTK.

I wish they had gone with poetic strength. Thank you. I think I like the poetic and they were like we'll choose BTK I wish they had gone with poetic strength and what's even better about this is not only Did he do that? But then he acted like the name was bestowed upon him. Why would he like he acted like he was like the night stocker or something like that They gave it to him like he was like crowned. the game. He literally told the Harold son, quote, I embraced it. I had a label on me. I was like the Green River Killer or son of Sam, but they didn't name themselves you moron. Like, no, it wasn't you dumb cockroach.

Like you did it. You gave yourself the nickname. Their names were like those people, the son of Sam, Green River Killer, they were dumb as fuck too. But the least their names were given to them by the media. His was like in job breaker, how that chick nicknamed herself Foxy. Yeah, that's like no one else gave her that nickname. She just called herself Foxy. Or it's like high school kids picking their own yearbook superlatives. Like of course they would pick like most hot person or like most likely to own their own island.

Right. This is the loser in school picking their own fucking superlatives. That's what it is. Wow, it really is. That's a very good. It really is. What would you have picked for your superlatives?

Oh, I don't even know. I'd pick most likely to succeed. Most likely to host a true grand podcast. That's far too obvious. And in reality, his superlative should have probably been most likely to jack off to pictures of himself bound in ropes and wear hang old ladies bras while lying in a hole in the ground.

He did that. Yup. He, he jacked off to himself. Yup. That's a whole different kind of level of fucked up. And don't you worry, we'll get into that way. So is he like a narcissist? Yup.

He's a huge narcissist. And he's just got a lot going on. There's a lot going on. There's a lot to unpack. His poor wife. Yeah. Poor Paula. I feel bad for Paula. Maybe Angel. And his daughter. And his daughter, Carrie, who just wrote a book. Angel. It's like, damn. All right. Tell me more. So the second reason that he's the biggest loser to ever exist, is he admired and tried to emulate other serial killers

like a star-struck little bitch. He lacks even one single creative cell in his entire body. He didn't come up with any of his own shit. It's just regurgitated aspects of other infamous killers and their crimes that we're gonna discuss throughout. But he was such a fraud. Like everything he did, he was like, well, to a bunty did this.

So I decided that I think I should do this. Like you're a fucking fraud. I did that. I did that a vision of like mean girls and she's like, you can't say with us. Yeah, you can. But like I picture like all the other serial

screaming that while setting next to like Ed Kemper and the green revocular inside of Sam and and and B2K walks up. And he said, can I see we can I see you? You can't find me. You can't find me. You can't find me.

You can't find me. You can't find me. You can't find me. You can't find me. You can't find me. You can't find me. You can't find me. You can't find me.

You can't find me. You can't find me. You can't find me. You can't find me. You can't find me. You can't find me. You can't find me. You can't find me. You can't find me. You. Wait, guys, I love you so much. Can somebody draw that for us? Oh my God.

I will award you with, oh my God. Yes. Unless love. I have a love and this love. Yeah, because that is I need to see that with my eyeballs. Like one of the things. So he loved a lot of murderous and we'll talk about many of the ones that he was really like inspired by. He really thought he was going to be like H.A. Chomes.

Like was he going to build a hotel? Well, instead of a murder castle, he was planning a murder barn. A murder barn. Are you kidding me? That is legitimately the off-brand version of a murder castle. Like it's the Mr. Pib of murder castles. It's the Hydrox of murder castles. I'm trying to come up with a joke and I've got nothing. He is the knockoff of like a murder barn. He was gonna have a murder and straight up red-ass murder

barn. That was his fantasy. I don't have anything. I'm standing like my job dropped. Yeah. I mean the murder. Yeah. That's my murder barn. Wow. And he used this is this is the next reason. He used terms like factor X and the black hat to describe his like gross ass dark side. He was like, whenever something would come out, he was like, that's factor X. Like factor, like that's factor X. Like fuck off, dude. What? Like what? Like what a fucking turd. I just can't with this dude.

I feel like he has like a really nerdy voice. Like he's so, he's such a loser. I just can't. Er, I can't. He also calls the orgasms that he would have when killing people. No, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, big time. Wow. Guys, do you see why I fucking hates spooky big time? So he said, I sparky big time. Yeah, like he was like, oops, that caused sparky big time. I want. And then there's I want to. There's also the fact that he has orgasms while killing people that also makes him a big. Yeah, that's really important. There's that. He also literally said, quote,

I was the world's worst speller yet I feel I'm fairly smart and certainly have good common sense and self control. You think you have self control. Like I'm sorry, sir, what? And common sense because it doesn't seem like you have like what and he genuinely believes I have good self-control you drove your own car back to a murder scene like you have nothing of the sort Mr Sparky big time mr. Dennis Lynn you do not have any of that you live in a fool's paradise There's also like I mentioned earlier, and we will get much more into later.

There's also the fact that he took pictures of himself dressed in bras and various neggles jays while bound or in other torturous and odd positions to jack off to later. That is just truly weird as fuck to me. There's that. I know there's a lot of weird things to get off to in the world, but yourself is, that's top of the list. Yeah, it really is.

And then the last thing that I think makes him like the biggest loser to ever exist on Planet Earth is that he wrote this poem when he broke into a woman's house once. Out the house. No, he did it later because she wasn't there. He like sat around and waited for and she never showed up so he just left.

That's terrifying. And he decided to write a poem about it later. Read it to me. Do you want to hear that poem? Oh, I do. More than anything. It's called, Oh, Anna. Why didn't you appear? Shut the fuck up. Yeah, he's like, he's just jumping right in. That's not a lie. He's just letting you know exactly what this is about. Just Oh, Anna, why didn't you appear?

It was the perfect plan of deviant pleasure. So bold on that spring night. My inner feeling hot with prevention of the new awakening season. Warm, wet with inner fear and rapture, my pleasure of entanglement, like new vines at night. Oh Anna, why didn't you appear? Oh, Anna, why didn't you appear? Drop of fear, fresh spring rain would roll down from your nakedness to scent to lofty fever that burns within. I don't understand. In that small world of longing, fear, rapture, and desperation,

the game we play fall on devil ears. Fantasy Spring 4th mounts to storm, fury. Oh, Anna, why didn't you appear? Alone now in another time span, I lay with sweet and rapture garments across most private thought. Bed of spring moist grass, clean before the sun, enslaved with control, enslaved with control, warmed winds, sent the air, sunlight, sparkle tears, and 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? I was a poetry slam if I've ever been to one which I haven't.

I don't have a lot to say about that. I feel like I was just in a creative writing class and the professor, and the professor read that to me and that's like the reason I dropped out of college. It's just he's so excruciatingly pathetic. That like he's, you know, that friend who reads a book about some a name subject and immediately is an expert. Yeah, stop fucking inserting their stupid know-it-all regurgitation from one book or like people that travel abroad and they're like, well in Spain. Exactly. And they do it like every day. They're like, oh my god, it's 11, 17.

Exactly. In American time, but not elsewhere. Exactly. That's how beat like when Dennis describes a scene, he will reference something from another serial killer, like they're all bros. He's literally like, oh yeah, so I did it this way, like Bundy did, like I've ever heard of him.

Like Ted Bunny. He said like my bro. No, but like he says shit like that. Like we said earlier, you would not be allowed at their lunch table. And their lunch table is already the loser fucking table at lunch. So what the fuck does that make you Dennis? It's like in the and mean girls when Damien puts the pastrami on his face.

Yeah. And it's like, except that's way cooler than a bunch of serial killers. Yeah. So I think we should now talk about Dennis. Lin Raiders upbringing because what the fuck happened? I'm going to have to do a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a little bit of a 45 in the small, Southeast Kansas town of Columbus. Okay. He was a shy kid for most of his life, and he said he really didn't come out of his shell

until he was like 20 years old. Okay. His mom, Dorothea May Cook, creator was 20 years old when she had him. What's that called? Yeah, when she had pregnant. When she got pregnant with Dennis. By his own words, she was attractive.

She was a high school cheerleader and major ret, but she was also very skilled in math and bookkeeping. Something Dennis says he thinks he got from her later in life because he liked to fuck with numbers himself and was really good at math. He claims he loves his mother, but was like kind of whatever about weird about their relationship.

He goes back and forth, go be like, yeah, like I loved my mom, but like she could be a shithead sometimes. Like it's very weird. But like everybody's mom could be a shit sometimes. And he said she liked the same things that he did, like scary books and movies and they would like share these things together. And but and she was very shy like him, but he also said that their relationship was kind of strained, which we'll get into. He also kind of attributes his bondage fantasy to her in a way that we

will cover in a bit too. I don't want to cover that. Yeah. His dad, William Elvin Raider, was 23 years old. He was a marine and Dennis thinks he got a lot of his organizational preparatory and like mechanical skills from him. Okay. His dad was outgoing and social. His dad and his mom met as high school sweethearts. They married in 1943 when Dorothea was still a senior. Hey, prime members, you can listen to morbid early and ad free on Amazon Music. Download the Amazon Music app today, or you can listen ad-free with Wondery Plus and Apple podcasts. Before you go, tell us about yourself by completing a short survey at Wondery.com slash survey.

Hi, I'm Lindsay Graham, the host of Wondery's podcast American scandal. We bring to life some of the biggest controversies in US history, presidential lies, environmental disasters, corporate fraud. In our newest series, we look at the Kids for Cash Scandal, a story about corruption inside America's system of juvenile justice. In Northeastern Pennsylvania, residents had begun noticing an alarming trend. Children were being sent away to jail in high numbers and often for committing only minor offenses.

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