Dennis Rader: The BTK Killer

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[Perzyn]

I think mythologising the serial killer as an evil genius is less scary than admitting that even a somewhat dim individual can get away with it for decades. Evil geniuses are rare, dim witted psychos are dime a dozen.

[danielhaigler]

I was born and raised in Wichita Kansas. BTK took his last victim from my neighborhood. It was so strange at the time since I was only six, but I remember how the attitude visible changed. It wasn't neighbors suspecting neighbors, it was neighbors watching each others houses, keeping an eye on local kids essentially just protecting everyone. It's odd to me now that it is history now.

[Irondrone]

"I'm a brilliant serial killer! No one understands my genius!"

"Hey police, if I send you a floppy disk, you can't trace it, right?"

Absolute madlad.

[caldw]

Hearing about Kevin fighting the attacker, being shot in the face, continueing to fight with the guy and try to wrestle his gun from him, get shot in the face AGAIN and managing to still escape is really incredible. The whole ordeal is no doubt pretty traumatising for him and I can't imagine how he must feel knowing he fought like hell and got away when others were not as fortunate. I hope he at least found comfort in the fact his escape helped to catch the guy who did all this.

[danielchapman]

Did you know that his legal team ended up with PTSD. It turns out hanging out with psychopaths can cause harm for normal peoples. Listening to somebody who appears normal casually talking about killing and torturing can fuck with your head.

[erniemiller]

My now ex-wife once told me that even though this guy was arrested, that she thought I was the real BTK killer. He only evidence was that I moved from the midwest (over 300 miles away from Kansas) in 1992...a year after his 1991 victim.

Ironically, two years later, she attacked me while I was sleeping. It was brought on by her own psychosis.

[evancrosby]

His entire in court confession is available on YouTube now. I would highly recommend it to anyone. It runs about an hour, and the audio has a lot of interference at times. But it's crazy to see him confess to his crimes with all of the emotion of someone reading a grocery list.

[ryanc]

The best description I've ever heard about how memory is inherently unreliable is as such:
Each time you remember something, you're not actually remembering the initial event but rather the last time you remembered that memory. And with each recollection your brain makes small edits to the memory, trimming what it sees as unnecessary detail and emphasizing or even embellishing that which it sees as important. And so, like a game of telephone you play as a kid, which each reliving of the memory the actual "truth" of the situation gets more and more distorted, potentially even to the point where it's an entirely different memory from anyone else that was at the same event. I also feel like I heard this description on this show at some point, I feel like recently, but it really stuck with me

[binabella]

To add on to Simon's tangent, the difference between a kink and torturing animals is that animals can't consent.

[PlayOnWords]

A few things to add -
I live in Wichita, KS and we all remember when this guy was finally arrested.
Definitely not a bright man and it’s unfortunate that he was able to hide in plain sight for several years.

The surviving family member of the Otero family, Charlie Otero, travels around doing speaking engagements. He also has been on documentaries talking about what happened to his family.
We see him out and about occasionally.

I’m also a Wichita Indian, our tribal reservation is located in Anadarko, OK.
You got some of it correct but I think instead of the state of Arkansas, you’re thinking of the Arkansas River that runs through Kansas and Arkansas City (Ark City) which is in Kansas.
They found items and evidence that our tribe also had inhabited Ark City as well as Wichita and mostly around the river.
Great episode!

[benaantje]

Dude, I would love a episode about Unabomber. I think he would be perfect for the casual criminalist.

[zarasbazaar]

Kathryn and Kevin Bright, the way they fought for their lives. Such courage. Absolute legends.

I remember reading an article about serial killers that said that, in general, they're not smarter than average. It's just that they spend all their time thinking about killing. If they shop for a vehicle, they think about what kind of vehicle would facilitate a murder. If they look for a job, they think about how they could use their job to get victims, etc. They seem like super predators because they spend so much of their waking time thinking about being predators.

[richardgibbs]

Simon is like that friend who knows quite a bit of useless information, but he's HILARIOUS!
Nice Bro.

[embyrr]

Simon, my grandma worked in a county jail and there was a homeless man who would commit some petty crime every fall so he could spend the winter in jail. For some people, three hots and a cot is better than the life they live outside.

[eggselent]

Great video as always. I have some suggestions for you for other videos:

-Werner Ferrari: Switzerlands most feared Serial Killer
-Nils Högl: German nurse who murdered a lot of people
-Norbert Pöhlke: The hammermurder
-Marc Dutroux: Belgiums most famous serial killer
-Garry Ridgeway: The green river killer
-And maybe an Episode on the LISK

[mollywantshugs]

I imagine the mythologizing of serial killers is also in part because thinking that the killer is exceptional is a less frightening explanation than the police being incompetent and/or indifferent.

[mariapdr]

I think the reason that serial killers get away with so many murders before getting caught, even when they’re stupid, is because most go after strangers with no connection to them so trying to find a suspect in cases like that is super hard as opposed to most murders which are committed by people known to the victim.

[momomasters]

This madman blew up my hometown for a long time. All us babysitters were scared silly. Really dig the spin you put on your storytelling. Outstanding.

[vrichies]

The word you were looking for was escalation when it is negative progression, particularly with serial killers. Still at the beginning so you may have remembered later.

[WarchiefPeebs]

Kinda wish you would have included the time his wife read something about him in the paper, looked over and said: "this guy mispells that word like you do".