The BTK Killer conformed to the classic serial killer profile, showing that any combination or social profiling will always yield an adaptation to the serial killer profile. The BTK killer was a man named Dennis Rader, outwardly a pillar of his community. But the mask of a law-abiding family man with children and ties to community leadership hid a deviant sadist whose lust for sexual release via strangulation and killing struck again and again. Childhood zoosadism and sexual handling of women’s underwear also flagged Rader as a serious deviant. But these signs were concealed.
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Between 1974 and 1991, residents of Wichita, Kansas kept one eye out at all times. The BTK killer fascinated the public after his arrest because his “subterranean” lusts were so skillfully hidden beneath the appearance of normality. On that basis anyone might be a serial killer, a concept that both threatens society and challenges it. Rader acknowledged after arrest and sentencing that the victims were an ends to a means, and that he did not expect victims’ families to forgive him. The BTK killer is the record holder for waste of human life for the most trite and misguided of purposes.
The BTK killer tortured his victims and created a universe of pain he controlled. But nothing could stop his cyclic sexual urges that required sadistic episodes of induced terror in others to furnish the BTK killer with sexual pleasure. The first murders, as many serial killers experience, were experiments based on projected fantasies. He grew more crafty over time, changing his method of targeting likely episodes, victims, and environments of his prey to maximize pleasure and enjoyment without risking exposure unduly.
That one man could hold Wichita, Kansas, in fear for over thirty years is a testimony to the law enforcement gaps and social complacency of American culture. Women of that era made a habit of checking their phone cords for a dial tone, since the first Otero murders were signaled by a clipped phone wire. The Otero murders were heinous because they involved a family, two young children, and and the mother and father killed in their own home. The young girl Josephine Otero had been repeatedly resuscitated after strangling threshold has been reached so the BTK killer could maximize his pleasure and maintain a high level of erotic thrill. The BTK killer selected victims for opportunity and convenience, acquiring a skill at concealing his identity and an expertise in isolating likely victims where the episodes of assault would not be discovered. BTK operated in a manner that concluded in a sexual episode that also happened to be a murder scene. A gratification event for Dennis Rader left a corpse or damaged human body at the very least.
The Otero three children that survived did so only because they were at school during the “project”. The childhood fantasies and high school dreams of sexual gratification became realities when BTK was an adult. Rader himself expressed surprise (after being incarcerated) that these early signs of deviancy were not caught or observed. Rader’s sentencing allocations are almost surreal in their brisk and matter-of-fact statements of killing, torturing and murdering innocent victims. Could Rader have benefited from counseling and other types of treatment? The world will never know. BTK used positions as a compliance officer and security guard employee as he patrolled streets and boulevards looking for potential “projects”.
His sizing up of a potential victim included their habits and likelihood to be alone and isolated. Masturbation and sexual release, interleaved with the binding torturing and killing of one or multiple victims was his modus operandi. The aftermath crime scenes of BTK sickened police officers and detectives for the manner of death they suggested. Victims were not sexually assaulted themselves, but this was threatened to gain control of the victims.
The BTK killer was enacting his fantasy, and attendant sexual release was the goal. But the heightening of the sexual experience came not from intercourse but from the repeated strangulation and “control” over the life or death of the victim.Thus, any person, old or young, man or woman could be the next victim. With practice Rader collected items in a bag he called a “hit kit” with the supplies he needed to subdue and torture his victims. Things like tape, cleaning supplies, rope, handcuffs, pantyhose, or anything the killer might need to bind and torture his victims was assembled there. Certain murders changed in their methodology slightly because BTK forgot to bring the right supplies. Men, women and children comprised the BTK killer’s victims. His long killing spree displays the strategy of serial killer intent on satisfying his need to kill with the social requirement of avoiding capture or arrest.
The BTK’s ability to remain at large benefited from rural law enforcement, disturbed crime scenes, and overall shock and what the murders suggested. Even hardened law enforcement types were appalled and sickened by the themes and evidence, crime scene photos and concepts of the case.
Unlike other serials killers like Ted Bundy or The I-5 killer, The BTK killer had a life to lose. His marriage, children and job were on the line with every kill. His need to keep that life intact competed with his need to slake his desires in a confined atmosphere of controlled killing. His program of binding, torturing, and killing competed with the need to maintain a status quo. Upon his arrest for the murders a judge granted his wife an immediate divorce. Dennis Rader’s childhood showed signs of the same isolation and zoosadism of other killers like the Son of Sam and Ed Gein.
As the oldest of four sons, Dennis had no abuse and received no religious scolding from an overbearing mother, nor was emotionally taunted by a distant father. But the background he did have taught him how accepting people could be of behavioural aberration accompanied by an authority figure. Like many opportunistic killers, Rader lived his BTK persona within roles like security guard and patroller; he was able to combine cruising for victims and other purposes. Rader evinced no qualities of the serial killers noted elsewhere, for one very good reason. He kept these behaviors hidden and masked, his aberrations kept hidden under a complex set of accepted labels. Proud father, good husband, Boy Scout leader, church elder, community fence mender, all these disguised the opportunistic cruising and unexplained absences the BTK used to satisfy his needs.
Poems enhancing the grandeur of his exploits began to appear form the BTK killer. A phone call in his own voice announcing a homicide also showed boldness.
The BTK killer confided that he had wanted to divorce his wife to free up his time for “trolling” for victims. His fantasies could take shape and if possible he might isolate or stalk the victims until a killing episode came together. The cruising for victims and stalking particular “projects” have the BTK a sense of security to control the victim when the time came. The BTK killer evolved into a persona that notes delivered to police and authorities seeking attention for his “achievements”.
The BTK killer even termed his kills as intended victims as “projects” he could mull over and plan for. Dennis Rader had a past with national service and collected a lot of hardware yet did not distinguish himself in school or with other pursuits. Unlike the “Son of Sam” Rader needed no complex system of demonic threats to galvanize his killings. Fantasies from childhood and arousal thresholds triggered by spankings or wounded animals grew into deranged killing manias. The ability to blend in and become one of the group kept the BTK killer in a secure social network that helped him function longer than isolated social “islands” like the Son of Sam and Ed Gein. Even Ted Bundy augured for more publicity as an acknowledged serial killer, but then Bundy didn’t have as intact a real life as Dennis Rader did.
So completely did Rader fit the “bill” of social normality than when women complained about him they were rebuffed. The latent period between the 1960’s and the 1980’s defined an innocence in American social culture which did not allow women to as boldly assert boundaries or recognize predatory behavior with as much zeal as is common today. Where Ted Bundy was a showoff, Rader contained his ego. Where Gein almost flouted his eccentricity, Rader worked hard to project the image of a “square”. Without flamboyant visible tendencies to cement the suspicions of others, The BTK killer remained at large longer than most serial killers ever will.
Yet his mocking letter and taunting notes were his undoing. After “verifying” form police that a floppy disk could not be traced, Rader sent one anyway. His church information and name were in the file metadata, and police closed in.
Rader had sent numerous packages and letters to enhance the BTK legend, including crime scene bits and murder victim paraphernalia that only the murderer could have produced. On of these drop-offs included a Home Depot where a surveillance camera revealed a black jeep being driven away.
When the floppy disk data pinned down Rader’s identity, the black jeep in the driveway convinced police. Police then matched DNA from Rader’s daughter’s pap smear and acknowledged the near match to evidence from the crime scenes. The BTK killer killed people for the purpose of deriving sexual pleasure from the process of strangling them, from controlling the speed and manner in which they died or clung to life. Unlike many another serial killers, The BTK killer did not want to harm or kill the actual people involved for any reason. The incidence of his sexual desire in an aberrant mode simply could not be contained and the episodes unfolded as they happened. But the setup from the vantage point of a stalker improved BTK’s chances of success.
Despite more than one stalking charge BTK was not identified as the killer. The BTK killer operated within a framework of isolated opportunities to kill other people in a limited manner, yet the cold arm’s length perspective the BTK killer had for his victims did not invalidate the value of their lives. The marathon sentence duration the BTK received ensured no parole, but as Kansas didn’t reinstate the death penalty until 1994, the BTK did not meet his own most favored end, The BTK remains in prison in a special area, in solitary due to threatening attitudes and practices for his crimes form other inmates.
Allowed mail, TV and radio, the victims of the BTK killer cry that even this is too much luxury for the deviant serial killer. Considering that boredom made him kill in later years, the isolation and sole living habits of his incarceration may be the most abusive legal punishment his psyche could stand. Visit his Google+ page for more.
Another communication details how Rader developed violent sexual fantasies. Police caution that he could be lying in both communications. Those who study serial killers know they often fantasize about their crimes. Anything they write about the crimes could be concocted to feed their fantasies or bolster their egos.
BTK 'finds gratification writing about it and talking about it,' police Capt. Randy Landen said. 'So it's going to be presented (by him) in whatever light is most exciting to him.' Some things Rader claims happened at the Otero home can be verified using crime-scene photos and evidence. What can't be verified is the conversation BTK says took place with the Oteros.
Some of the supposed conversation sounds too articulate, too calm to Landen. The situation would have been chaotic. 17 sentencing is expected to focus on the pleasure he gained from others' suffering and the sexual fantasy he says motivated him. When he pleaded guilty to 10 killings in June, he told District Judge Greg Waller that bondage got him into trouble. 'How much is true will come out in sentencing,' Lt. Ken Landwehr, the BTK task force commander, said in an interview with The Eagle on Thursday.
A lawyer representing Rader, Deputy Public Defender Jama Mitchell, declined to comment Friday. The letter was found June 9, 2004, in a package taped to a stop sign at First and Kansas. It is a step-by-step, graphic description of how BTK killed Joseph and Julie Otero and their two youngest children, Josephine, and Joseph II, 9. Police released the letter and other documents July 8. Because copies were of poor quality and in reduced type, it took reporters days to transcribe them. Police had the same difficulty with their copies.
Here are some details of what the killer says happened at the Otero house on Jan. The Eagle is not publishing the most graphic details. In the letter, BTK said he crept up to the Oteros' detached garage in the cold, noticed a dog's paw prints and waited. He thought out his options.
In his own words — full of misspellings and typos — he wrote: 'Finally, about twenty minutes before nine the door unlock and the boy step outide.' He ordered Joseph II back inside and confronted the family with a knife and a.22-caliber handgun. He told the family — the children were preparing to leave for school — that it was a robbery. He told them not to be alarmed. Joseph II, who stayed by his parents, looked scared.
Josephine began to cry. Rattled by the family's barking dog, he threatened them, saying his gun was an automatic with hollow-point bullets. The father agreed to put the dog outside. The killer ordered the four into a bedroom and tied their hands behind their backs.
Someone screamed after Rader put plastic bags over the heads of Joseph and his son and pulled on cords or other bindings. Julie and Josephine pleaded, asking him to release the boy and his father.
'What are you doing?' Julie asked, as he slipped a rope around her neck. He strangled her slowly. He told Josephine her parents were sleeping, then put a binding around her neck.
She passed out. In the basement, he found a sewer pipe he thought was stout enough to support a body. He brought Josephine — apparently still alive — downstairs and removed most of her clothes.
'Please,' she said. 'Don't worry baby,' he said he told her.
'You be in heaven tonite with the rest.' He put a rope around her neck and hung her from the pipe. He masturbated.
Though he tried to leave no evidence, the DNA he left behind later helped seal the case against him. In another communication, received by police Oct. 22, BTK wrote a chronological account of his childhood and early adulthood. Landwehr told reporters at the July 8 briefing that some of the details were false. For example, Rader claimed to have used prostitutes but really didn't. Even if the communication isn't true, it gives investigators and others a look into the mind of a sexually motivated serial killer, said Robert Ressler, a Virginia-based former FBI profiler who has studied and written about a number of high-profile serial killers. In the purported autobiography, which BTK refers to as 'Chapter 2' and 'Dawn,' he describes how he developed violent sexual fantasies.
He wrote that as a boy he secretly looked at 'Girly Books' that exposed him to what he calls 'S/M & B/D,' apparent references to sado-masochism and bondage and domination. He said he went window-peeping at 18 and stole panties. He mentioned hanging a cat, then a dog. In his late teens, he wrote, he began to fantasize about women in bondage. He said he traveled in the military and became a marksman and learned survival and self-defense skills. Records show Rader entered the Air Force in June 1966.
He then was sent to Lackland Air Force Base in San Antonio; Sheppard Air Force Base, near Wichita Falls, Texas; Brookley Air Force Base, in Mobile, Ala.; and bases on Okinawa and outside Tokyo, Japan. He left active duty in August 1970.
He referred to fantasies, drawings, pictures. 'Always had to destroy them when I moved from base to base.
Would start over again when the feeling starting coming back.' In his communications to police last year, BTK included disturbing drawings of naked and bound women. Sometimes, he wrote about his past: 'I would break in and steal underclothes for my private collection.' After Rader's arrest, investigators removed dozens of items from his backyard shed, including pantyhose, underwear, ropes, cord and duct tape. In his early 30s, he claims, he tried bondage on prostitutes.
Some refused to see him again 'because I was too scary.' At age 32 to 34, 'I was getting the feeling again and it was bad this time.'
He talked about reading detective magazines and paperbacks. Then he listed several serial killers.
'They all got caught except the Ripper, could I become a Killer and not get caught?'
(Meredith/CNN) - Here's a select list of convicted American serial killers and notable open or unsolved cases. Serial murder is defined by the FBI as two or more killings separated by a span of time. A majority of serial killings are sexually motivated, according to the FBI. Serial murders are relatively rare. Fewer than one percent of homicides during a given year are committed by serial killers, David Berkowitz Nickname: Son of Sam Number of confirmed victims: 6 Years and location: 1970s, New York City Characteristics: Initially claimed a neighbor's dog was possessed by an ancient spirit that commanded him to shoot people. The dog owner's name was Sam.
Berkowitz later said the dog story was a hoax. Arrest, conviction and sentence: Arrested on August 10, 1977. Pleaded guilty to murdering six people and sentenced to 25-years-to-life for each murder. Currently incarcerated at the Shawangunk Correctional Facility in upstate New York. Ted Bundy Number of confirmed victims: Unknown, confessed to more than two dozen murders before he was executed but he may have been linked to additional slayings.
Years and locations: 1970s, multiple states including Washington, Utah, Colorado and Florida Characteristics: Preyed on young women and sometimes lured victims by pretending to be injured. Bundy had studied psychology in college, worked as a suicide hotline volunteer while at school and served at one point as assistant director of the Seattle Crime Prevention Advisory Commission. Arrest, conviction and sentence: Arrested for the final time on February 15, 1978. He had been previously arrested for murder in Colorado but escaped from custody, before being captured in Aspen a few days later. Months later, Bundy escaped again, prompting a nationwide manhunt.
While a fugitive in Florida, he killed two college students and a 12-year-old girl. Bundy was apprehended a third and final time in Pensacola in a stolen car.
He was convicted on three counts of murder and sentenced to death in the electric chair. Executed on January 24, 1989. Angelo Buono Jr.
And Kenneth Bianchi Nicknames: The Hillside Stranglers Number of confirmed victims: At least 9 Years and locations: 1970s, Los Angeles, Washington state Characteristics: Buono and Bianchi were cousins who posed as police officers to trap teenage girls and young women, some of whom worked as prostitutes. Bianchi claimed that he suffered from multiple personality disorder but later admitted that he faked the condition. Buono owned an auto upholstery shop and was not a suspect until Bianchi was caught, confessed and identified his cousin as his accomplice. Arrest, conviction and sentence: Bianchi was arrested on January 12, 1979; Buono was arrested on October 19, 1979. Bianchi was arrested in Bellingham, Washington, as a suspect in the murders of two college students at Western Washington University. He pleaded guilty to the slayings in Washington and confessed to five of the Los Angeles murders. He was sentenced to five life terms for murder and one additional life sentence for conspiracy.
Bianchi is incarcerated at the Washington State Penitentiary in Walla Walla. Buono was arrested at his home in Glendale, California, the same day Bianchi admitted he participated in five of the Hillside killings. Bianchi testified during Buono's trial.
Buono was convicted of nine murders and was sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. He died in prison in 2002. Juan Corona Number of confirmed victims: 25 Year and location: 1971, Yuba City, California Characteristics: A farm labor contractor, Corona was convicted in the stabbing deaths of 24 workers. His 25th victim was shot.
During a 2011 parole hearing, he confessed to killing the men. Corona, who was 77 and suffering from dementia at the time of the hearing, described his victims as alcoholics who had trespassed in the orchards. Arrest, conviction and sentence: Arrested on May 26, 1971. Corona was arrested after a neighbor reported suspicious activity in a peach orchard. Police found 25 bodies buried in shallow graves in orchards surrounding the Feather River and traced the bodies to Corona. Four victims were never identified.
After being convicted in 1973, Corona was sentenced to 25 life terms in prison but an appeal led to a new trial in 1982. Corona was again convicted at the second trial and sentenced to 25 concurrent terms of 25-years to life. He is currently incarcerated at California State Prison, Corcoran. Jeffrey Dahmer Number of confirmed victims: 16 (Dahmer confessed to 17 murders but prosecutors lacked evidence to convict him in the additional killing) Years and locations: 1970s-1990s, primarily in the Milwaukee area Characteristics: A former chocolate factory worker, Dahmer picked up young men at bus stations, bars, shopping centers and other locations. He got them to visit his apartment by offering them money to pose for photos or by promising them alcohol. He drugged them and strangled them. He ate parts of at least one of his victims and kept the remains of others in his apartment.
Arrest, conviction and sentence: Arrested on July 22, 1991. Dahmer was apprehended after one of his captives escaped and went to the police, still wearing handcuffs Dahmer shackled to one of his wrists.
Charged with 15 counts of murder, he pleaded guilty but insane. A Milwaukee jury ruled against Dahmer's insanity claim, and he was sentenced to 15 life terms in February 1992. Dahmer pleaded guilty to a 16th murder in Ohio and was sentenced to an additional life term in May 1992. He was beaten to death in prison in 1994.
Lonnie David Franklin Jr. Nickname: The Grim Sleeper Number of confirmed victims: 10 Years and location: 1980s-2000s, Los Angeles Characteristics: Franklin targeted prostitutes and female drug addicts. Franklin was called the Grim Sleeper because he was believed to have stopped killing for more than a decade before he began a second murder spree during the 2000s. Franklin, a married father of two, is a former city sanitation worker and garage attendant. Arrest, conviction and sentence: Arrested on July 7, 2010. Undercover Los Angeles police officers obtained a sample of Franklin's DNA from a leftover pizza slice and matched it to the killer's DNA. He was convicted of slaying 10 people and was sentenced to death in 2016. He is currently incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison.
John Wayne Gacy Number of confirmed victims: 33 Years and locations: 1970s, Chicago area Characteristics: A construction company owner who moonlighted as a children's party clown, Gacy abducted young men and boys or lured them to his home. He was twice married and divorced with two children. Arrest, conviction and sentence: Arrested on December 21, 1978. Police investigating the disappearance of a teenage boy discovered the remains of victims in a crawlspace under Gacy's house. He was sentenced to death by lethal injection on 33 counts of murder.
Executed on May 10, 1994. Randy Steven Kraft Number of confirmed victims: Convicted of 16 murders in Orange County, California but linked to at least 29 additional slayings nationwide, according to prosecutors.
Detectives found a notebook in Kraft's briefcase that contained a list with more than 60 entries. Prosecutors said the journal chronicled Kraft's killings. Defense attorneys argued the diary included ambiguous entries like 'New Year's Eve,' referencing events unrelated to murder. Years and locations: 1970s-1980s, California, Oregon, Michigan Characteristics: Kraft, a computer consultant, picked up young hitchhikers on the interstate. He targeted men with military backgrounds. Arrest, conviction and sentence: Arrested on May 14, 1983.
Kraft was pulled over by California Highway Patrol for weaving, and officers found a dead body in the front passenger seat. He was convicted on 16 murder counts and sentenced to death. He is incarcerated awaiting execution at San Quentin State Prison. Dennis Rader Nickname: The BTK Killer Number of confirmed victims: At least 10 Years and location: Kansas, 1970s-1990s Characteristics: A churchgoer, Cub Scout leader and married father of two, Rader worked at the home security company, ADT, and he later became a code compliance supervisor in suburban Park City, Kansas. Two of his earliest victims were women who worked at an office with him.
He also murdered one of his a co-worker's husband and two children. In a letter found folded into a book at the public library that was found months after the first killings, Rader described one of the crime scenes and suggested that he should be called 'BTK,' short for 'bind, torture, kill.' He continued mailing cryptic letters to the media and the police prior to his arrest. Arrest, conviction and sentence: Arrested on February 25, 2005. Rader was caught after he sent a floppy disk to a TV station in response to reports speculating that BTK was dead or in jail because it had been more than a decade since his last victim was found.
Police traced the disk to a computer at Rader's church and found that his DNA matched the killer's. Rader pleaded guilty to 10 murders and was sentenced to 10 consecutive life terms. He is currently incarcerated at the El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas. Richard Ramirez Nickname: The Night Stalker Number of confirmed victims: Convicted of 13 murders but linked to one additional slaying via DNA. Years and location: 1980s, California Characteristics: A drifter with an interest in Satanism, Ramirez typically broke into homes through unlocked windows and doors late at night, shooting any men he encountered while looking for women to attack.
His victims ranged in age from 9 to 83. Arrest, conviction and sentence: Arrested on August 31, 1985. Ramirez was captured and held by a mob of citizens in Los Angeles before police intervened and arrested him. He was sentenced to death on 13 counts of murder and was later linked via DNA to a killing in San Francisco. He died of complications from cancer while awaiting execution at San Quentin State Prison in 2013. Gary Leon Ridgway Nickname: The Green River Killer Number of confirmed victims: At least 49 Years and location: 1980s-1990s, Washington state Characteristics: Ridgway targeted young women who were runaways or prostitutes and left some of the bodies in or near the Green River, a waterway in the Seattle area. He was a thrice married truck painter who had a son with one of his wives.
Ridgway was questioned by police in 1983, soon after the killings began, and detectives obtained a search warrant in 1987. At the time, no evidence was recovered linking him to the murders, and he had passed a polygraph test early in the investigation. Arrest, conviction and sentence: Arrested on November 30, 2001. Advances in DNA testing technology led to the arrest, as law enforcement re-tested evidence that had been collected years before. They found a match and he was taken into custody. He confessed, pleading guilty to 48 killings. In 2011, he was charged with a 49th slaying. Ridgway is serving a life sentence at the Washington State Penitentiary. Joel Rifkin Number of confirmed victims: Convicted of nine murders but confessed to 17 killings Years and location: 1990s, New York Characteristics: An unemployed landscaper who lived with his mother on Long Island, Rifkin would drive to New York City and pick up prostitutes.
He strangled his victims and took personal belongings from the women. These items were found in his bedroom, where police also discovered a book about the Green River Killer. His mother claimed that she did not go into her son's bedroom and was unaware of the killings. Arrest, conviction and sentence: Arrested on June 28, 1993. Rifkin was pulled over for driving without a license plate, and police found a dead woman in the back of his truck. While in custody, he confessed to killing 17 women.
During multiple trials, Rifkin's attorneys argued that he suffered from mental illness, but he was convicted on nine charges of murder and was sentenced to more than 200 years in prison. Currently incarcerated at the Clinton Correctional Facility in New York. Anthony Sowell Number of confirmed victims: 11 Years and location: 2000s, Ohio Characteristics: A convicted sex offender, Sowell preyed on women struggling with drug abuse and homelessness. He would invite victims to his house and offer them beer. He told police that he became enraged with the women because they reminded him of an ex-girlfriend who abandoned him after he helped her kick drugs.
The victims were strangled and buried on his property. Arrest, conviction and sentence: Arrested on October 31, 2009. Police issued a warrant for Sowell's arrest after a woman told them that he had hit her and sexually assaulted her. Officers found two bodies in the house and discovered more remains in the backyard. After a 25-day trial, Sowell was convicted of 11 murders and sentenced to death by lethal injection. He is incarcerated at the Chillicothe Correctional Institution in Ohio awaiting execution.
Chester Dewayne Turner Number of confirmed victims: At least 14, including a pregnant woman Years and location: 1980s-1990s, Los Angeles Characteristics: A father of four whose jobs included delivering pizza, Turner targeted female drug users in South Los Angeles. Arrest, conviction and sentence: Turner was charged with murder in 2004 while incarcerated for rape. Detectives had discovered that his DNA matched a sample from a crime scene and ultimately forensics connected him to 10 killings. During the investigation, police discovered that they had wrongfully convicted an intellectually disabled janitor named David Allen Jones, who served nine years in prison for three of Turner's slayings before he was released in 2004. Turner was convicted of 10 murders in 2007 and sentenced to death. In 2014, he was convicted of four additional murders and again sentenced to death. He is incarcerated at San Quentin State Prison awaiting execution.
Aileen Wuornos Number of confirmed victims: 6 (was linked to at least one other death but the body was never recovered) Years and location: Florida, 1989-1990 Characteristics: Wuornos had a long history of robbery, prostitution and drug abuse before she began killing men she met along Interstate 75 in Florida. She claimed that over the years, she had been repeatedly beaten and raped by the men who paid her for sex. Her first victim, Richard Mallory was a convicted sex offender. Arrest, conviction and sentence: Arrested on January 9, 1991. Wuornos was arrested after her lover, Tyria Moore, told police about the murders and agreed to cooperate.
Moore was not charged with any offenses. Wuornos later gave investigators a statement admitting to the murders but she said she killed in self-defense.
During her trial for the murder of Richard Mallory, three psychologists testified for the defense that Wournos suffered from borderline personality disorder, impairing her ability to conform her conduct to the requirements of the law. After about 90 minutes of deliberations, the jury returned a guilty verdict. At her sentencing hearing, Wuornos claimed that police coerced her into confessing. The judge sentenced her to death.
She pleaded no contest to the other five slayings. She was executed on October 9, 2002 after voluntarily ending her appeals, saying that she would kill again if released. Robert Lee Yates Number of confirmed victims: At least 15 Years and location: 1970s-1990s, Washington state Characteristics: A married father of five who flew helicopters in the Army and the National Guard, Yates predominantly preyed on prostitutes.
One of the victims was buried in Yates' yard. Arrest, conviction and sentence: Arrested on April 18, 2000. Yates was arrested after police matched fibers found on the body of a dead prostitute to Yates' car, which also had blood on the seatbelt and seat. DNA testing and other evidence linked Yates to at least 12 murders.
He later pleaded guilty to 13 killings in exchange for a life sentence (408 years) in lieu of the death penalty. In 2002, he was convicted of two additional murders in a different county and sentenced to death. Yates' attorneys have repeatedly appealed the ruling but he remains on death row awaiting execution at the Washington State Penitentiary. Open or Unsolved Cases: The Atlanta Child Murders Number of victims: 29 Years and location: 1979-1981, Georgia Characteristics: Over the course of 22 months, 29 African-American children and teens were murdered in the Atlanta area. The FBI worked with local authorities to investigate the killings, which detectives believed were linked. Investigation: In 1981, the Reagan administration allocated more than $2 million in federal funds to help police track leads and provide funding for youth programs to keep kids safe after school.
On June 21, 1981, a man named Wayne Williams was arrested and charged with the murders of two young men whose bodies were found in the Chattahoochee River. Although prosecutors said the two murders were connected to the child killings, Williams was never charged with the other crimes. He was convicted on two counts of murder and sentenced to two consecutive life terms in prison.
He has maintained his innocence. In 2005, the DeKalb CountyPolice reopened their investigation into five of the killings. Boston Strangler Number of victims: At least 11 Years and location: 1962-1964, Massachusetts Characteristics: During the late spring and summer of 1962, six women between the ages of 55 and 85 were found dead in Boston and its suburbs. After a few months of quiet, younger victims began turning up.
Mary Sullivan, 19, was the final victim, murdered in January of 1964. Albert DeSalvo, an inmate at a psychiatric hospital, confessed in 1965 that he was the Boston Strangler. Investigation: Although DeSalvo claimed that he killed the women, police lacked physical evidence tying him to the murder scenes. He was instead tried for a series of robberies and sexual assaults.
Serial Killers Crime Scene Photographs
DeSalvo was convicted on all counts and sentenced to life behind bars in 1967. Six years later, he was stabbed to death in prison. In 2013, investigators found DNA connecting DeSalvo to Sullivan's murder. The DNA at the crime scene matched DNA collected from DeSalvo's exhumed corpse. Investigators tried to locate DNA from the other murders but have not yet been able to find additional biological evidence. The Golden State Killer Number of confirmed victims: At least 12 Years and location: 1970s-1980s, California Characteristics: The killer's first known homicides were the murders of two people in Rancho Cordova who may have witnessed him or her breaking into a home. After the Rancho Cordova slayings, the killer started a second series of murders in the Santa Barbara area, more than 300 miles south of Sacramento. Investigators at the time didn't see a connection between the attacks in Santa Barbara and Sacramento. Decades after the killings, true crime author Michelle McNamara drew attention to the case with blog posts and a book, 'I'll Be Gone in the Dark,' published two years after her sudden death in 2016.
Investigation: A suspect named Joseph James DeAngelo was arrested on April 24, 2018. Detectives used a public genealogy website to narrow down their list of suspects and then collected DNA samples from DeAngelo's trash and the door handle of his car. Hours after they confirmed two DNA matches, DeAngelo was arrested. He did not enter a plea during an initial court appearance. The Zodiac Killer Number of victims: At least 5 Years and location: 1960s, California Characteristics: During a string of seemingly random killings, phone calls and letters were received by police and newspapers from a person claiming to be the murderer. The letters were laden with mysterious symbols and references to astrology. Zodiac claimed that he or she killed as many as 37 people. After the last known murder in 1969, Zodiac mailed a piece of the victim's shirt, along with a letter to the San Francisco Chronicle. Investigation: In 2002, a San Francisco homicide detective said more than 2,500 people had been considered suspects in the case. In 2018, police sent two of Zodiac's letters to a lab, hoping to find DNA on the stamps or the envelope flaps.
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Ever since I was young, I have a had a fascination with serial killers and their histories. When they strike close to home, it can be a pretty scary thing.
Infamous Serial Killers Crime Scene Photos
I dealt with the fear of being a victim of a serial killer while I lived in Georgia as a youngster. From the summer of 1979 to 1981, over 27 young black males were killed in the Atlanta area. What I learned from this case is that these kinds of killers do not look like monsters, but actually look like everyday Joes. Case in point – Dennis Radar, aka B.T.K., who from 1974 to 1991 killed 10 people in the Wichita, Kansas area. He held jobs for the city, like supervisor of the Compliance Department at Park City.
In the past, I watched documentaries about his crimes and his victims. It was not until last night that I had actually looked at photos of the actual horrific killings! When I look at the pictures below, I feel like I’m looking at the work of a truly evil subhuman, who has no conscience or love for humanity!
This FUCKED!!! Dennis Radar self portrait. Taken in his parents basement while wearing victims’ Dennis Rader aka B.T.K Crime Scene Photos: The Otero Family Crime Scene Photos Dennis Radar Self Portrait.
►SUBSCRIBE NOW: 1. Harvey Glatman Harvey Glatman was an American serial killer. He exhibited his antisocial behavior and sadomasochistic sexual tendencies from an early age. Media quickly nicknamed him “The Lonely Hearts Killer.
Glatman started when he moved to Los Angeles, where he posed as a professional photographer to lure girls into his hotel room with the promise of work. He tied them up, photographed them, eventually killed and dumped their bodies in the desert. Victims: Judy Ann Dull, Shirley Ann Bridgeford 2. Robert Ben Rhoades This picture was taken by serial killer Robert Ben Rhoades. 14-year-old Regina Kay Walters was one of the numerous women held in an 18-wheeler equipped with a torture chamber in the back. The photo was taken in an abandoned Illinois barn, where Rhoades killed Walters, after cutting off her hair and making her wear a black dress and heels. Regina Kay Walters, victim of Robert Ben Rhoades 3.
Serial Killers Victims Photos
Robert Andrew Berdella Jerry Howell, Bob Berdella’s victim Robert Andrew Berdella was an American serial killer from Kansas City, Missouri. He raped, tortured and killed at least six men.
Berdella was conscious of his homosexuality, in 1984 he started dating Jerry Howell, a good-looking 19-year-old male prostitute. On July 5th, 1984, Berdella invited Howell to his house, where he drugged him with sedatives for animals and immobilized by binding him to a bed. In the following hours he repeatedly rapes his victim, writes carefully about the process into his diary and takes several pictures to relive his fantasy later.
This was the beginning of torture and murder spree. Robert Sheldon, victim of Robert A. Berdella Next year, 18-year-old Robert Sheldon, who was a friend of Berdella’s, came to stay with him for a few days and found himself drugged and held captive in the basement just like Howell before him.
He was killed after 3 days of torture by suffocation. Todd Stoops, victim of Robert A.
Berdella 21-year-old Todd Stoops was kidnaped because Berdella felt sexually frustrated at him. The torture he endured prior to his death included electric shocks via a spatula placed across the eyelid in an unsuccessful attempt to blind him. Stoops died in a combination of blood loss and infection.
Chris Bryson, Last victim of Robert A. Berdella In March 1988, 2 years after killing Todd Stoops, Berdella abducted his last victim, a prostitute named Chris Bryson.
He put him in his basement like the others had been before him. While Berdella was at work, Bryson managed to break free and ran to a neighbor’s house, wearing nothing but a dog collar around his neck. His horrific dungeon was exposed along with the polaroids and remains of his victims. Rodney Alcala The homicide detectives found hundreds of photographs of unidentified women in a storage locker belonging to Rodney Alcala - a convicted rapist and serial killer. The man could be behind as many as 130 murders.
Because only a handful of womrn identified themselves as having posed for the pictures, it’s highly likely that some of the photographed were murdered. Serial Killer Rodney Alcala's Stash of Photos: Don't forget to click LIKE, SUBSCRIBE and COMMENT Below! ►Donate My Channel With PAYPAL: Contact ► [email protected] ▼Follow Me On▼ Facebook ► Instagram ► Twitter ► Youtube ► Google+ ► Pinterest ► BuzzFeed ► Music Title: 'Unseen Horrors' Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Track Direct URL: Music Title: 'Come Play with Me' Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0 Track Direct URL.