Speaker 1: You're listening to Monster BTK, a production of iHeart Podcasts
Speaker 1: and Tenderfoot TV. Listener discretion is advised.
Speaker 2: One afternoon in two thousand and five, we noticed everything
Speaker 2: went very quiet at the police department. No one would
Speaker 2: return our calls, no one would even talk to us.
Speaker 2: And I remember talking to our police reporter and she said,
Speaker 2: something's up, and I thought exactly the same thing. And
Speaker 2: in a few minutes, we heard traffic in Park City
Speaker 2: that they had stopped a car in Park City, Kansas,
Speaker 2: and every detective from the Wichitaw Police Department was out there,
Speaker 2: so obviously we went out there and sure enough it
Speaker 2: was Dennis Raider AKABTK and that's when the story exploded
Speaker 2: in Wichita The networks flew their powerful anchors and reporters in.
Speaker 2: Everybody wanted to interview denistrator, including me, and it was
Speaker 2: kind of a free for all, and it was just crazy.
Speaker 2: And all of the stories that I liked to cover
Speaker 2: on wonderful people doing wonderful things, that was all put
Speaker 2: by the wayside, and now it was BTK all the time,
Speaker 2: every day as he's incarcerated in the Sedgwick County Detention Center.
Speaker 2: I like every other reporter wrote to him and said,
Speaker 2: I want to interview you.
Speaker 3: Please let me interview you.
Speaker 2: Well, we all wanted an interview, but that wasn't going
Speaker 2: to happen. But I did write to him and I
Speaker 2: gave him my phone number and I said, if you
Speaker 2: can call me, this is my home phone. Give me
Speaker 2: a call. Now he's incarcerated, he's not going to come
Speaker 2: after me. And one Saturday morning he called me and
Speaker 2: the operator said, no, I have a collect call from
Speaker 2: the Sedgwy County Detention Center.
Speaker 3: Will you accept the charges?
Speaker 2: And you go, wow, yes I will. And on the
Speaker 2: other end, he said.
Speaker 3: Larry, this is Dennis Rider. Okay, here we go.
Speaker 2: I had my phone already set up to be able
Speaker 2: to record audio, and the problem was the phone in
Speaker 2: the jail is terrible. You talk about bad audio, this
Speaker 2: was bad audio. Pops and buzzes and beeps, and I
Speaker 2: have no clue how many people were listening on it.
Speaker 2: I said, well, I appreciate you calling me. I have
Speaker 2: thirty years of questions and he said I have twenty minutes.
Speaker 3: I said, okay, So.
Speaker 2: I started asking him questions. And one of the questions
Speaker 2: that I asked him and I will never forget this.
Speaker 2: I said, how could you kill two children? And he said, oh, well,
Speaker 2: they were just collateral.
Speaker 3: Just collise. I will never forget that.
Speaker 2: And he spoke about it as you would speak to
Speaker 2: the baker as you pick up a dozen donuts at
Speaker 2: the bakery, without feeling, without excitement, that they were just collateral.
Speaker 2: And that I found that stunning. And then a few
Speaker 2: months later the trial began in the Central County District Court.
Speaker 2: Someone killed four members of a family.
Speaker 4: Had you vanished from her home suddenly last weekend? Her
Speaker 4: phone lines had been cut, her door left open.
Speaker 2: You see the victim playing there with plastic bags over
Speaker 2: their heads, strangled. You could tell there was a planned scenario.
Speaker 4: Well, police have said no more about the contents of
Speaker 4: the letter. It does contain some sort of threat and
Speaker 4: implies the killer may strike again.
Speaker 2: He's going to play with these victims to the point
Speaker 2: of death and then bring them back, and then brings
Speaker 2: them back to the point of death.
Speaker 5: From My Heart Podcasts and Tenderfoot TV. I'm Susan Peters
Speaker 5: and this is Monster BTK. On February twenty eight, two
Speaker 5: thousand and five, just three days after he was arrested,
Speaker 5: Dennis Rader was charged with ten counts of first degree murder.
Speaker 5: During his initial interrogation, Rader had revealed that he was
Speaker 5: responsible for two murders the police hadn't known he was
Speaker 5: connected to those of Marine Hedge and Dolores Davis. While
Speaker 5: awaiting trial, Raider was held in the Sedgwick County Detention Center. Meanwhile,
Speaker 5: prosecutors were starting to build their case. It was assigned
Speaker 5: to Nola Fulston, the Sedgwick County District Attorney, and working
Speaker 5: with her was Kevin O'Connor, who at the time was
Speaker 5: the deputy district attorney. Their first goal was to keep
Speaker 5: Raider in jail, so.
Speaker 6: There was a process in deciding how to charge it.
Speaker 6: You charged the ten murders. I remember Judge Waller asking
Speaker 6: what kind of bond we wanted, and I think I
Speaker 6: said something to the effect of a I mean, Judge,
Speaker 6: I don't know ten kazillion million. I don't know if
Speaker 6: there is a number that you could ask for on bond.
Speaker 5: The next question was what sentence would the prosecutors seek.
Speaker 6: There was a lot of discussion at the time, a
Speaker 6: lot of thoughts about whether or not he should get
Speaker 6: the death penalty. Kansas didn't have a death penalty during
Speaker 6: the years that he was committing these crimes. Kansas has
Speaker 6: one now but didn't then, and so you had a
Speaker 6: lot of confusion about why the death penalty wasn't being sought.
Speaker 5: The death penalty had been banned in Kansas up until
Speaker 5: nineteen ninety four, when it was officially reinstated, but this
Speaker 5: was long after Raider's last murder, which took place in
Speaker 5: nineteen ninety one. Therefore, prosecutors had no choice but to
Speaker 5: instead seek life without parole.
Speaker 6: We couldn't seek the death penalty. It wasn't an available
Speaker 6: punishment at the time he was committing these murders. The
Speaker 6: sentence was life, but sentence in Kansas the life sentence
Speaker 6: meant fifteen years, So for each.
Speaker 5: Of Rader's ten murders, he would receive fifteen years in
Speaker 5: prison if found guilty.
Speaker 6: The last murder of Dolores Davis occurred in ninety one,
Speaker 6: where there was a hard forty is what it was called,
Speaker 6: and that would mean that you got a life sentence,
Speaker 6: but you couldn't be paroled until you serve forty years,
Speaker 6: and you had to have a sentencing hearing on that.
Speaker 5: Remember, Raider was fifty nine years old. So this hard
Speaker 5: forty rule effectively meant that if he was successfully convicted,
Speaker 5: Raider would spend the rest of his life in prison
Speaker 5: with no chance at parole. It seemed like Dennis Rader
Speaker 5: had his work cut out for him, but apparently he
Speaker 5: didn't want any part of it. He didn't find a
Speaker 5: lawyer or speak much at all after his initial interrogation,
Speaker 5: even though many attorneys had tried to represent him.
Speaker 6: I remember getting a call from the jail saying that
Speaker 6: a local attorney was trying to get access to Dennis Raider,
Speaker 6: and I remember running from my office over to the
Speaker 6: jail because that attorney wasn't entitled to have contact with him.
Speaker 6: He hadn't requested an attorney at that time, but the
Speaker 6: jail had let him have access, and after that he
Speaker 6: decided he didn't want to talk anymore.
Speaker 5: We don't know what happened that made Raider choose to
Speaker 5: stay quiet after that interaction, but he wouldn't talk again
Speaker 5: until months later. At one press conference, Nola Fulston and
Speaker 5: Kevin O'Connor were asked if there would be any talks
Speaker 5: of a plea deal with Raider.
Speaker 6: I mean, in my opinion, you can't ple negotiated a
Speaker 6: Dennis Raider BTK case.
Speaker 5: In the conclusion to the State's summary of the evidence,
Speaker 5: the destruct Attorney's Office echoed this sentiment.
Speaker 1: Dennis Rader did not suffer from any mental disease or defect.
Speaker 1: He was not the victim of any psychological, physical, or
Speaker 1: sexual abuse. Rader murdered with premeditation and deliberation. He killed
Speaker 1: methodically and systematically, uninhibited by any moral concerns or considerations.
Speaker 1: Dennis Rader killed because he wanted to kill. The evil
Speaker 1: depravity of his deeds are beyond human comprehension. The time
Speaker 1: has come to hold Raider accountable, to punish him for
Speaker 1: his atrocities. Rader deserves the harshest punishment allowed law.
Speaker 5: Raider's first court appearance was March first, two thousand and five.
Speaker 5: Just a few days after his arrest, Steve Osburne and
Speaker 5: Sarah McKinnon were appointed as public defenders. They hired two
Speaker 5: people from Cambridge for Insant Consultants to perform a psychological
Speaker 5: assessment on Raider to determine his competency to stand trial.
Speaker 5: Competency evaluations are not comprehensive mental health examinations. They focus
Speaker 5: only on present mental ability to participate in the various
Speaker 5: parts of the legal process. It was doctor Robert Mendoza
Speaker 5: who performed the examination. Here's an excerpt from Confession of
Speaker 5: a Serial Killer describing Mendoza's findings as read by a
Speaker 5: voice actor.
Speaker 7: Mendoza noted that there was no history of mental illness
Speaker 7: or drug abuse and no medical conditions. I'm in the
Speaker 7: journals and drawings that Rader had made and the crime
Speaker 7: scene photos. He also watched the videotape of Raider's police
Speaker 7: interrogation and examined medical school and prison records. During the evaluation,
Speaker 7: Raider was depressed, even tearful. His level of attention had declined,
Speaker 7: he had lost weight, and he was anxious. He said
Speaker 7: he had considered suffocating himself in his cell, but despite
Speaker 7: his circumstances, he wanted to live.
Speaker 5: This report also identified narcissistic personality disorder and obsessive compulsive
Speaker 5: personality disorder. Neither of these diagnoses rose to the level
Speaker 5: of a major mental illness for Raider, and so they
Speaker 5: did not affect his competency to stand trial, and thus
Speaker 5: the prosecuting attorney sought to finalize a trial date. They
Speaker 5: did not want Rader to get away with a plea deal.
Speaker 6: We wanted to have that hearing. A lot of people
Speaker 6: criticize the district attorney, thinking that she was a media hound.
Speaker 6: You know, she just wanted the media attention. I can
Speaker 6: tell you and being in those meetings with her, that
Speaker 6: the goal was to make all the information a public record.
Speaker 6: As you all may know that police reports are not
Speaker 6: public information, but things that are presented in open court are.
Speaker 6: So the ideal was is we're going to put it
Speaker 6: all out in open court, so any member of the public,
Speaker 6: any journalist, would have access to that information and be
Speaker 6: able to describe who Dennis Rader really was. Just an evil,
Speaker 6: sadistic murderer, that's all he was.
Speaker 5: They got their wish. Raiders first public hearing was scheduled
Speaker 5: for June twenty seventh, two thousand and five.
Speaker 1: From Kate News.
Speaker 8: This is a special report BTK Journey to.
Speaker 5: Justice and Good Morning. Susan and Peters, along with Jeff Herndon,
Speaker 5: welcome the live team coverage of the BTK case. Each
Speaker 5: previous hearing built with mystery. This is no different. No
Speaker 5: one really knows what is going to happen, except for
Speaker 5: Dennis Raider himself. June twenty seventh, two thousand and five
Speaker 5: was one of the wildest days of my life. I
Speaker 5: led the coverage from the Cake studios that morning. As
Speaker 5: my colleagues reported from outside the courthouse, the front steps
Speaker 5: were flooded with national media cameras, tents, and microphones everywhere.
Speaker 5: It was about eight thirty am when the families of
Speaker 5: the victims started to appear.
Speaker 1: We have some live pictures now from the courthouse.
Speaker 5: These are family members at the courthouse, victims of family members.
Speaker 5: It looks like Charles Bright is there. I see him.
Speaker 5: The big question this morning was whether Dennis Rader would
Speaker 5: change his plea. At a previous hearing, Raider refused to
Speaker 5: speak at all or enter into any formal plea, so
Speaker 5: by default, the judge entered him into a plea of
Speaker 5: not guilty on his behalf. But things had changed since then,
Speaker 5: and there were rumors that Raider planned to flip his plea.
Speaker 9: There's really been a last minute decision that's being made,
Speaker 9: that they kept all their cards together, and they're going
Speaker 9: to evaluate things as late as this morning and figure
Speaker 9: out what's going to happen. And I also get the
Speaker 9: feeling that Dennis Raider is very much in charge of
Speaker 9: that final decision.
Speaker 5: I know for a fact that the families wanted Raider
Speaker 5: to plead guilty. They wanted an end to this nightmare,
Speaker 5: and a guilty plea would move things much faster than
Speaker 5: a lengthy trial. Still, all of us were in suspense
Speaker 5: as to what Raider's choice would eventually be. At about
Speaker 5: eight forty am, the attorneys entered the courtroom. According to
Speaker 5: many sources, raiders defense attorneys appeared nervous.
Speaker 10: These attorneys have been working with the Raider since the
Speaker 10: very since the first appearance when they were assigned. There
Speaker 10: have been some rumors that there is some discord amongst
Speaker 10: them with or between them and Raider.
Speaker 5: Finally, after everyone else was settled, Dennis Raider entered the courtroom.
Speaker 5: There's Dennis Raider walking into court.
Speaker 11: He does have a bulletproof vest on, it appears. Let's
Speaker 11: listen into the proceedings.
Speaker 3: Thank you, please be seated all right?
Speaker 12: At this time comes on before the court case captioned
Speaker 12: of the State of Kansas Plaintiff versus Dennis L.
Speaker 3: Raider, Defendive.
Speaker 5: After going through the standard introductory remarks, Judge Gregory Waller
Speaker 5: asked Rader the question everyone was waiting for how would
Speaker 5: he plead.
Speaker 13: Yarn At this time, mister Rader wave his right to
Speaker 13: a jury trial and interplea of guilty to all ten counts.
Speaker 12: Sir, I have been advised as your desire to enter
Speaker 12: a plea of guilty in this case.
Speaker 3: Is that correct, yes, sir.
Speaker 5: At perhaps the last minute, Dennis Rader chose to plead
Speaker 5: guilty to all ten counts of murder and thus avoid
Speaker 5: a trial. Then Judge Waller prompted Rader to explain how
Speaker 5: he murdered his victims. Surprisingly, Rader was more than happy
Speaker 5: to oblige.
Speaker 13: On January fifteenth, nineteen seventy four, I'm maliciously, intentionally and
Speaker 13: premeditation killed Joseph of Terrell.
Speaker 12: Had you planned this beforehand.
Speaker 13: To some degree?
Speaker 11: Yes?
Speaker 13: If forgot in the house that I lost control of it,
Speaker 13: But it was, you know, back of my mind. I
Speaker 13: had some ideas what I was.
Speaker 3: Going to do.
Speaker 5: Raider spared none of the graphic details, shedding not an
Speaker 5: ounce of remorse or betraying any emotion.
Speaker 13: I put a plastic bag over his head, and then
Speaker 13: some cords and fighting it after that.
Speaker 3: I did miss this Otero.
Speaker 13: I had never strangled anyone before, so I really don't
Speaker 13: know how much pressure you had to put on a
Speaker 13: person or how long it take.
Speaker 5: This went on for forty five minutes straight, Raider going
Speaker 5: through each murder, not only admitting to them, but excitedly
Speaker 5: explaining his every move. My colleague Glarry Hedeberg was stunned.
Speaker 2: The judge asked Dennis Rader to take him through all
Speaker 2: the killings in the courtroom live on TV. That was
Speaker 2: absolutely amazing. And here was Dennis Raider, and he was
Speaker 2: like the ringmaster in the center ring, and the spotlight
Speaker 2: was on him, and he was having the time of
Speaker 2: his life recounting in detail how he killed ten people.
Speaker 2: It was extraordinary, unbelievable, really, because he told it in
Speaker 2: the same method that he had talked to me on
Speaker 2: the phone, without feeling, without remorse, just very matter of fact. Well,
Speaker 2: I tied her up this way, and then I strangled
Speaker 2: her hair, thought about cutting her throat, and it's just
Speaker 2: like somebody talking about picking up their laundry.
Speaker 5: Many of the family members present simply couldn't stand to
Speaker 5: listen to this, including Steve Ralford, surviving son a Shirley Vyanne.
Speaker 3: Guy that walked out. Everybody fucking followed me.
Speaker 8: I didn't want to hear what time to dad say?
Speaker 5: All the other victims families walked out with you, but
Speaker 5: you were the first one to get up.
Speaker 8: Damn great, he said, can they do that? What the
Speaker 8: fuck they want to do?
Speaker 5: Why didn't you want to stay in court?
Speaker 8: I'm here?
Speaker 3: What he fucking had to say?
Speaker 5: What did you want to do?
Speaker 8: It's not loud on here, not allowed home?
Speaker 5: So you you didn't want to give him the satisfaction
Speaker 5: of Is that why you walked out and everyone else
Speaker 5: walked out to do you think?
Speaker 3: Pretty much?
Speaker 5: What do you think he was doing that day?
Speaker 8: Shelf pity?
Speaker 5: I mean he went on and on about each murder.
Speaker 14: What do you what do you.
Speaker 5: Think he was doing that day?
Speaker 8: Well, I forget what you call it, but glory, find
Speaker 8: money done, and not any fucking remorse.
Speaker 3: She had this for himself. I won't hear a shit. Oh,
Speaker 3: I hear none of it.
Speaker 5: When Rader was done, Judge Waller formally declared the conviction.
Speaker 12: I will accept these pleas are guilty, and I judge
Speaker 12: you Dennis L. Raider guilty of murder in the first
Speaker 12: degree in count won a Class A felony.
Speaker 5: It was a moment of mixed emotions. On one hand,
Speaker 5: it was a triumphant relief Dennis Rader had been found
Speaker 5: guilty on all charges. On the other hand, it was
Speaker 5: a moment of quiet sadness. The way Rader described his
Speaker 5: murders in grave detail left everyone shaken. People shuffled out
Speaker 5: of the courtroom silently. It was a bittersweet, even though
Speaker 5: justice had prevailed. Following his guilty plea and verdict, Rader
Speaker 5: was sent back to the Sedgua County Detention Center to
Speaker 5: await his sentencing. The date of the sentencing hearing was
Speaker 5: set for August eighteenth. Meanwhile, Larry Hadiberg was determined to
Speaker 5: interview him again. You heard about his phone interview with
Speaker 5: Rader at the top of the episode, But this time
Speaker 5: Larry wanted to see him in person.
Speaker 2: And so I asked before he was sent to prison,
Speaker 2: I said, I'd like to talk to you in person.
Speaker 2: Is that possible? And I got permission to talk to
Speaker 2: him in person. Didn't have much time, about fifteen minutes
Speaker 2: with him, and I went up with one of the
Speaker 2: other anchors from KTV. I was nervous about shaking his hand.
Speaker 2: When you go up there and talk to him, you
Speaker 2: have to do a prison handshake. He's on one side
Speaker 2: of the plexiglass, I'm on the other. He puts his
Speaker 2: hand up here like this. Then I put my hand
Speaker 2: up here like this, and we basically that's a prison
Speaker 2: hand shake. My son in law, guy who married my daughter,
Speaker 2: is a federal agent here in Wichita, and I was
Speaker 2: talking to him about this and I said, I don't
Speaker 2: want to do it. I just simply don't want to
Speaker 2: do it. And he looked at me and he said, well,
Speaker 2: how bad do you want the information? If you don't
Speaker 2: shake his hand, he's going to take that as an
Speaker 2: insult and he's going to shut up and not say anything.
Speaker 2: So I reluctantly did it, and I still regret it
Speaker 2: to this day. But we had a conversation, you know,
Speaker 2: and he told me he was looking forward to prison.
Speaker 2: I said, why are you looking forward to prison? And
Speaker 2: he said, I'm going to learn things. You know, how
Speaker 2: to burn a building down, you know how to do this,
Speaker 2: how to do how to commit a crime. He was
Speaker 2: really looking forward to it. He was unbelievable in that
Speaker 2: he had no soul. He just he didn't care about
Speaker 2: other people, particularly women.
Speaker 5: My impression was that after the June twenty seventh theory,
Speaker 5: Raider was feeling pretty good about himself. The way he
Speaker 5: talked about his murders in such a detailed and nonchalant
Speaker 5: manner tells me that he was ready to tell his
Speaker 5: story on his terms. Here he was on national TV
Speaker 5: with the world watching, and he got to read what
Speaker 5: was essentially his manifesto out loud for everyone to hear.
Speaker 5: His attitude leaving the courtroom that day appeared to be
Speaker 5: one of success. But what Raider wasn't prepared for is
Speaker 5: that he would soon get his due. At the August
Speaker 5: eighteenth sentencing hearing, the family members of his victims would
Speaker 5: finally get the chance to speak up and address Raider directly.
Speaker 5: On August eighteenth, Raiders' sentencing hearing began, The family members
Speaker 5: of the victims would each have a chance to speak,
Speaker 5: but first investigators were given the floor to tell their
Speaker 5: side of the story and present all the evidence they
Speaker 5: had uncovered the police.
Speaker 4: They wanted everything my dad had done on record. They
Speaker 4: wanted it in public record because most of the details
Speaker 4: were not known at that point. Still, like all the
Speaker 4: case materials, weapons, times, dates, a lot of that was
Speaker 4: not public.
Speaker 5: This is Dennis Raider's daughter, Carrie Rawson.
Speaker 4: They wanted it all in the record, so they went
Speaker 4: through all of that. They brought in like the knife,
Speaker 4: he youths for Catherine, brought in all of this stuff
Speaker 4: just to put it under the record. They brought in
Speaker 4: the polaroids.
Speaker 5: If you remember, Denis Rator at some point took polaroid
Speaker 5: pictures of himself where he would dress up in women's
Speaker 5: clothing and reenact his murders. The police had confiscated all
Speaker 5: of these when they searched the Raider household.
Speaker 4: Now were they trying to humiliate my dad on the stand.
Speaker 2: I don't know.
Speaker 4: My dad was not expecting that. He was pretty lividly pissed.
Speaker 3: How do you react?
Speaker 13: Just angry.
Speaker 4: You can see him trying to be under control in
Speaker 4: the videos of him just trying to maintain composure of
Speaker 4: these guys mocking him in court.
Speaker 1: But he's exposed.
Speaker 4: Now, he's exposed and known for what he is.
Speaker 5: Carrie says that her father was visibly shaken by this
Speaker 5: barrage of evidence from the prosecutors.
Speaker 4: He was not expecting that, and he's completely thrown and
Speaker 4: you see him trying to maintain control, and he's trying
Speaker 4: to hold those outer protective layers, and he's just sort
Speaker 4: of disintegrating. Mike Us would be inside. You see his
Speaker 4: voice change, he clicks his mouth like he's acting like
Speaker 4: he's like bored. He's just trying to keep control, and
Speaker 4: you can see it. He's almost tearing up. He's so upset,
Speaker 4: he's almost tearing up. And then he's also like really mad.
Speaker 5: Of course, this was also the Raider family's first time
Speaker 5: hearing about Dennis's evil deeds.
Speaker 4: My family did not know about the bondage. We didn't
Speaker 4: know about my dad and the women's lingerie. We didn't
Speaker 4: know my dad dressed up and victim's clothing and took
Speaker 4: polaroids in his parents' basement. Basically, he was recreating Josephino
Speaker 4: Tero's murderer. I didn't know any of that. So I'm
Speaker 4: finding this out with the rest of the world, and
Speaker 4: I was mad. I was mad at the police for
Speaker 4: not trusting us enough to tell us, or for Paris.
Speaker 4: I think they were trying to protect us, but obviously
Speaker 4: now it's just all at once.
Speaker 5: Finally, the family members of the victims had a chance
Speaker 5: to speak, and Dennis Rader had no choice but to listen.
Speaker 15: Now it was my turn. He has his spot life
Speaker 15: for a long time. Now it's going to be my turn.
Speaker 15: I was gonna call him everything that I could possibly
Speaker 15: get away with, calling him on network GAV.
Speaker 5: This is Jeff Davis, son of Dolores Davis. He gave
Speaker 5: one of the longest and most comprehensive victim impact statements.
Speaker 15: I did a pretty good job of it. I was
Speaker 15: pretty creative the stuff that I came up with. And
Speaker 15: I did it because I knew he was watching, and
Speaker 15: every interview was focused directly at him. When I looked
Speaker 15: at the person I was interviewing, I wasn't looking at him.
Speaker 15: I was looking him. I wanted him to know that
Speaker 15: it was my turn. And now it's even time, and
Speaker 15: now I'm the one point in barged in your direction
Speaker 15: and tell me how much do you like it? A
Speaker 15: smart boy, and I knew getting under his skin, and
Speaker 15: I love every minute of it.
Speaker 16: For the last five three and twenty six days, I
Speaker 16: have wondered what it would be like to confront the
Speaker 16: walking cesspool that took my mother's precious life. Throughout that time,
Speaker 16: I always envisioned this day as being one for avenging
Speaker 16: the past. I could think of nothing but savoring the
Speaker 16: bittersweet taste of revenge as justice is served upon this
Speaker 16: social sewage here before us today. Now that has arised,
Speaker 16: surprise arrived. Surprisingly, I realized that this day is not
Speaker 16: just about avenging crafts past crimes. Sitting here before us
Speaker 16: is a depraved predator, a rabbit animal that has murdered people,
Speaker 16: poisoned countless lives, and terrorized this community for thirty years,
Speaker 16: all the while relish every minute of it. As such,
Speaker 16: there can be no justice harsh enough for revenge bitter
Speaker 16: enough in this world, at least to cause the pain
Speaker 16: and suffering which a social malignancy like this has coming.
Speaker 15: He wouldn't look at me. It was a four minute,
Speaker 15: thirty stecond in tirade. He would not look at me
Speaker 15: one time. He didn't have the guts to look at me.
Speaker 17: All I could think about was revenge, revenge, get my
Speaker 17: hands on him.
Speaker 5: This is Charlie o'teroll, eldest brother of the surviving o'taro
Speaker 5: family members. He says that this hearing was the first
Speaker 5: time he heard certain details about the murder of his parents.
Speaker 17: I had no inside information or anything about how my
Speaker 17: family had died.
Speaker 3: I didn't know any of that stuff that he said.
Speaker 17: When he said that my mom's last words and may
Speaker 17: God forgive you, I knew that that's something my mom
Speaker 17: would probably have said because that's how she was. And
Speaker 17: it just broke my heart again, that feeling I had
Speaker 17: on my chest being tore open in my heart, it
Speaker 17: just came all came back to me. I knew that
Speaker 17: if I acted up, then I would never get a
Speaker 17: chance at him. So I had to maintain to wait
Speaker 17: for my chance. That and the world's sitting there and
Speaker 17: my brother and my sister, and once again the big
Speaker 17: brother Manto thing comes in. I gotta be strong in
Speaker 17: front of them.
Speaker 5: Then, like Jeff Charlie gave his own victim impact statement.
Speaker 17: That's what I had to be good for. I had
Speaker 17: to get my impact statement, and I couldn't screw. I
Speaker 17: wanted to make that statement. But I also planned, this
Speaker 17: is gonna be my chance to get my hands on him,
Speaker 17: so I was prepared to go all.
Speaker 3: The way with my revenge plans.
Speaker 17: What happened was we left for lunch break and I
Speaker 17: had a couple of beers right away. I'm getting my
Speaker 17: strength up, my courage up, and then I planned to
Speaker 17: get my hands on him. And as we were walking
Speaker 17: to the detector, I got stopped by my filmmaker. We
Speaker 17: made a documentary and the filmmaker was there filming and
Speaker 17: he said, Charlie, you have a phone call. It was
Speaker 17: the mother of my son, who I had never seen before.
Speaker 17: He was named Joseph, his same name as my brother
Speaker 17: and my dad. It was Annette. Lynnette says, Charlie, there's
Speaker 17: been an accident. Joe has been hit by a car.
Speaker 17: He's and the phone went dead and I'm like, he's what,
Speaker 17: He's what, He's dead, He's alive, He's okay.
Speaker 3: I called Lynette again.
Speaker 17: I call her back and she said, Charlie, Joseph's been
Speaker 17: hit by a car.
Speaker 3: He's in a coma.
Speaker 17: And I'm like, what is it?
Speaker 3: An induced coma? Is it? They said, no, it's he's in.
Speaker 17: A coma and he's got brain injuries that he's got
Speaker 17: shaken baby syndrome from being hit by the car. I
Speaker 17: start thinking about this. I'm thinking, how can I ask
Speaker 17: God to save my son?
Speaker 3: If I am going.
Speaker 17: To go do au dacardly deed, why would he save
Speaker 17: my son? So it's hard to describe it. Put in
Speaker 17: that instant, I got my religion back. I got my
Speaker 17: faith back because all desire for that revenge went away instantly,
Speaker 17: truly went away, and all I could think about was
Speaker 17: saving my son. I said, God, save my son. I'll
Speaker 17: give you my life, I'll do anything you want. You
Speaker 17: can take me right now, just save my son. So
Speaker 17: when we went back in there, the opportunity came. They
Speaker 17: took him out one door, and the family's out another door,
Speaker 17: and they screwed up, and there was nobody between me
Speaker 17: and him.
Speaker 3: There might have been people next to him.
Speaker 17: And stuff, but he was I looked right at him,
Speaker 17: with nobody between me and him, all desire that I
Speaker 17: had to get my hands on him was gone because
Speaker 17: I knew the prison would take care of it, because
Speaker 17: that's what they did.
Speaker 3: To child molesterers and child killers and stuff. I walked
Speaker 3: out the door.
Speaker 17: I went outside, and some people started sticking microphones in
Speaker 17: my face, and somebody said, Charlie, you know the world's
Speaker 17: praying for you, And I said, no, no, no, don't
Speaker 17: pray for me. Pray for my son. He's been hit
Speaker 17: by a car and he needs prayer right now. He's
Speaker 17: in a coma and behold months later weeks. Weeks and
Speaker 17: weeks later, he wakes up a newborn child. I believe
Speaker 17: the Lord gave me.
Speaker 3: Back my son.
Speaker 5: Steve Ralford was also given the chance to give a statement.
Speaker 8: And when I got up to speak, I stuck close
Speaker 8: about powered every where everybody. I couldn't talk. I lost
Speaker 8: seeming anger at that point. I'm bringing you fuck what
Speaker 8: anybody talk. I knew what I thought, I knew, I
Speaker 8: couldn't knew it.
Speaker 5: Steve was simply too upset to say much of anything.
Speaker 5: For him, the difficulty of that day was it's nearly
Speaker 5: impossible to bear. But he wasn't alone. He was comforted
Speaker 5: by the fact that others like Jeff Davis and Charlie
Speaker 5: o'taro shared in his anger.
Speaker 15: My emotion was pure, unadulterated rage. Now as I knew
Speaker 15: they would. They had six of the biggest sheriff's officers
Speaker 15: I've ever seen.
Speaker 3: In my life.
Speaker 15: They had three on each side of him, shouldered and shoulder.
Speaker 15: Because it wasn't just me who wanted him. Charlie o'tarroll
Speaker 15: wanted him, Steve Ralphord wanted him. There was a bunch
Speaker 15: of us that wanted peace to him, and we knew
Speaker 15: we couldn't do it, obviously, but I know I was
Speaker 15: still filled with rage that I was sitting there and
Speaker 15: knew how when you stare at somebody just right, they
Speaker 15: can feel you staring at him. He knew, he knew
Speaker 15: that I was burning a hole in the back of
Speaker 15: his head, that he.
Speaker 3: Wasn't trying to look at me because you don't have
Speaker 3: the gut.
Speaker 15: One of the stairs officers came over to me and
Speaker 15: he told me, he said, you need to sit back
Speaker 15: and relaxed, and he said, you look like you're getting
Speaker 15: ready to jump over that rail and go after him.
Speaker 15: He said, if the judge tosses you out of here,
Speaker 15: you won't get back in. So I was physically almost
Speaker 15: like I was raised the spring. I knew I couldn't
Speaker 15: do it, but I was just that chanced that I
Speaker 15: used to just grabbing on said the rails, and I
Speaker 15: was probably white and knuckle by magine. So I had
Speaker 15: to call myself down, stick back down before I got
Speaker 15: myself in trouble.
Speaker 5: This shared hatred of Denis Rator had the effect of
Speaker 5: bonding these men. That day, they sat together in unison
Speaker 5: as they delivered their barbs to a cold faced denistrator.
Speaker 5: He said nothing and never looked in the eyes, but
Speaker 5: they knew that their words had cut him. After they
Speaker 5: were finished, Raider was given thirty minutes to respond. Here
Speaker 5: is an excerpt of what he said, as read by
Speaker 5: a voice actor.
Speaker 11: The dark side was there, but now I think the
Speaker 11: light is beginning to shine. And I appreciate the family
Speaker 11: and friends and who I can be thankful for, and
Speaker 11: I think that will keep me from finally going to
Speaker 11: the dark side or hell. And finally, a final apologize
Speaker 11: to the victims' families. There's no way that I can
Speaker 11: ever repay you.
Speaker 5: Raider actually appeared to tear up during his final speech.
Speaker 5: The victim's families were convinced that Raider's tears were for himself.
Speaker 5: Jeff Davis and the other families had no desire to
Speaker 5: listen to his self pity, so they decided once again
Speaker 5: to walk out.
Speaker 15: And I was the instigator. I'm the one that is idea.
Speaker 15: It was that when he's stood up to talk, I'm
Speaker 15: the one that said, let's get out here, let's walk out.
Speaker 15: And minute he got up before he could open his mouth,
Speaker 15: about eight of us got up and just walked out
Speaker 15: of the courtroom, and everybody said to look on his
Speaker 15: face was priceless because he's like, wait, I haven't had
Speaker 15: my stay yet, and you're leaving because I told all
Speaker 15: those people I said he to stay. I want to
Speaker 15: hear everything out of his nostril lie. So we just
Speaker 15: got and walked out. It was great. It was the
Speaker 15: destulity in the world.
Speaker 5: Sedgwick County District Attorney Nola Fulston had this to say
Speaker 5: about Raider's words.
Speaker 14: It's pitiful for mister Rader to stand here, looking all
Speaker 14: pale and pasty and say how sorry he is. Well,
Speaker 14: that's usually the culmination of what happens when defendants go
Speaker 14: to their last chance in order to convince a judge
Speaker 14: you know, gosh, I'm really sorry. Well, what else do
Speaker 14: you say after you kill ten people? He doesn't have
Speaker 14: the ability to be arrogant.
Speaker 5: Today, after nearly three days of testimony, it was finally
Speaker 5: time the judge called the court to order. He picked
Speaker 5: up a piece of paper and slowly confidently, he read
Speaker 5: out loud Denis Rader's sentenced to the courtroom and to
Speaker 5: the world. Next time on Monster BTK.
Speaker 4: I wanted to help him, like I'm mad at you
Speaker 4: when one second, I'm worried you're cold, and like I
Speaker 4: love you, I still love you.
Speaker 2: We write some letters.
Speaker 14: He wanted me to solve some codes.
Speaker 2: The reason I stay kind of involved in it is
Speaker 2: that we still do not know what caused BTK to
Speaker 2: become a murderer.
Speaker 11: I really wanted to go sleep Ennis in person, to
Speaker 11: see who he is.
Speaker 17: The intensity of the anguish and the grief is still there.
Speaker 18: Raider said, you know, I have a fantasy that I
Speaker 18: wish I could have lived out. I've always wanted to
Speaker 18: kidnap a female from a launder map.
Speaker 1: Monster BTK is a production of Tenderfoot TV and iHeart Podcasts.
Speaker 1: The show is written by Nomes Griffin, Trevor Young, and
Speaker 1: Jesse Funk. Our host is Susan Peters. Executive producers on
Speaker 1: Behalf of Tenderfoot TV include Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay,
Speaker 1: alongside supervising producer Tracy Kaplan. Executive producers on behalf of
Speaker 1: iHeart Podcasts include Matt Frederick and Trevor Young, alongside producers Nomes,
Speaker 1: Griffin and Funk and supervising producer Rima Ilkali. Marketing support
Speaker 1: by David Wasserman and Alison Wright. At iHeart Podcasts and
Speaker 1: Caroline Rigemma at tenderfoot TV. Additional research by Claudia Dafrico,
Speaker 1: original artwork by Kevin Mister Soul Harp, original music by
Speaker 1: Makeup and Vanity Set. Special thanks to Orrin Rosenbaum and
Speaker 1: the team at UTA and the Nord Group. For more
Speaker 1: podcasts from iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV, visit the iHeartRadio app,
Speaker 1: Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening.