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- [00:02]
Vanessa Richardson
Hi listeners, it's Vanessa. Are you the type to fall down an Internet rabbit hole and not come up for hours? You'll love Crimes of Reddit, a new Crime House original with Sabrina, Diana Roga and Alexis Linklater. Every week, one host brings real, true crime stories from Reddit while the other reacts completely blind. No prep, no spoilers. Then they swap. It's the feeling of sending your group chat a thread at 2am that starts with you have to see this. Except Sabrina and Alexis are in the chat with you. Follow Crimes of Reddit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or subscribe@c Crimesofreddit pod on YouTube. This is Crime House. He gave himself a name. BTK Bind, torture. Kill. For over 30 years, Dennis Raider lived among his neighbors, his congregation, his own family, and no one suspected a thing. The monster had a mask and it fit perfectly. But the darkness inside him started long before the first murder. Welcome to crime house 24 7. I'm Vanessa Richardson. Twice a day, every day, we bring you the best, most timely and gripping cases from across the entire Crime House network, all in one place right here. And every Monday is Killer of the Week, where we go inside the minds and motives of the world's most notorious murderers. Today we're opening the file on Dennis Rader, the BTK Killer. And this case is far from buried. Dennis Rader remains incarcerated at El Dorado Correctional Facility in Kansas, and in recent years, investigators have worked to connect him to additional unsolved murders beyond his 10 confirmed victims. Meaning the full scope of BTK's crimes may still not be known. This community exists because of listeners like you want even more. Join Crime House plus for every episode of Crime House 24.7ad free. Not only that, but you'll get complete access to an exclusive limited series every month and early ad Free access to all Crime House shows and bonus episodes go to crimehouseplus.com or on Apple Podcasts. Tap try free at the top of The Crime House 24. 7 page. Now Dr. Tristan Engels joins me to get inside the mind that made btk. So starting from the very beginning,
- [02:35]
Dr. Tristan Engels
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- [02:36]
Vanessa Richardson
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- [06:54]
Dr. Tristan Engels
This is a really significant moment in Dennis's development. So, for example, when a child is physically restrained and in pain, the nervous system goes into survival mode, like fight, flight, or freeze. But if that pain is immediately followed by comfort or relief like this, it can create a powerful emotional pairing. Through conditioning, the brain can learn to link distress with soothing fear, with safety, and pain with attention. Over time, those paired experiences can become unintentional associations where feelings of fear, of vulnerability, start to trigger a strange form of gratification or calm. Because this happened in the context of authority, with his mother restraining him and a doctor performing the procedure, it may also have taught him that power and suffering should coexist in intimate or trusted relationships. That kind of conditioning can, in certain cases, distort empathy, development and emotional regulation. So while these experiences alone don't cause violence or sadism, they can lay a framework where control, fear, and relief become psychologically linked. And this is especially true if comfort, relief, and nurturance were missing everywhere else in his life. When a child doesn't have consistent warmth or safety at home, they'll seek it in whatever form their brain can find, even if that means pairing it with distress. Now, in Dennis's case, that seems highly probable. Here, his parents had an authoritarian style of parenting, and that left little room for emotional connection or validation, often leaving him feeling criticized and ashamed. This just adds to that framework. Over time, he learned control and secrecy were the only ways to find comfort, even if it came through distorted or harmful means.
- [08:36]
Vanessa Richardson
For Dennis, those moments of agony seemed to plant the idea that pain, restraint, and release Were all connected, and he became fixated on it. Dennis started chasing that feeling during ordinary activities, like when he played the game Cowboys and indians with his brothers. The game usually ended with someone being tied to a tree, and Dennis quickly developed a huge thrill from this. When he was tying someone else or being tied, it started giving him feelings of sexual arousal. From there, Dennis burgeoning sexual desires Were amplified When he joined the boy scouts. There, he learned how to tie complex knots, which quickly led to a fascination with ropes and cords. From that point on, Dennis collected twine and even old cables, Anything he could experiment with. He often tied up his friends under the guise of a harmless game.
- [09:30]
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But.
- [09:30]
Vanessa Richardson
But in reality, Dennis was testing the limits of his sexual urges. And soon his fantasies shifted toward one of his neighbors, A girl about his age who lived nearby. By the time Dennis was 10, he started sneaking out of his house at night to spy on her through her bedroom window. Sometimes he would climb into his treehouse to do it. But when that view no longer satisfied him, Dennis saved up his allowance to buy a telescope. Soon, Dennis wasn't just watching his crush. He started peeping on other neighbors, too. Eventually, he took things a step further and removed a window screen from a nearby house Just to get a better look inside. But those late night peeping sessions didn't truly satisfy his curiosity. Although sneaking around was exciting, Dennis still had an insatiable desire to tie people up. By sixth grade, he began imagining himself in control of his teacher. And not just watching her, but also binding her. One day, Dennis went into the tree line near his house. He took some ropes with him and found a spot where he could see into his teacher's house. Dennis tied himself to a tree and pulled tight on the rope as he fantasized about doing the same thing to his teacher. Then something unexpected happened. Dennis ejaculated.
- [10:53]
Dr. Tristan Engels
So let's compare Dennis's behavior at this age to the average boy his age. Most 10 year old boys are curious and experimenting in ways that build social understanding and emotional reciprocity. They're learning rules about friendship, empathy and fairness. Their curiosity is typically directed outward Toward connecting with others and figuring out how relationships work. Denis's curiosity and contrast turned inward and secretive. He started testing his limits through play, which on the surface seemed like an outward connection. But it really wasn't. When you break it down. He was engaging in deception by misleading his peers into believing they were playing a harmless game. But in actuality, his real motive for this game was secret and hidden. That then progressed into private rituals that revolved around control and observation. Most children at this age do have a normal developmental cure. Curiosity surrounding privacy, nudity, and sexuality. But Dennis's behavior goes beyond normal curiosity and into voyeuristic territory. Clinically speaking, the onset of voyeuristic behavior is typically around 10 to 13 years old. But to develop the disorder itself, the behavior must be recurrent, compulsive, Cause distress or impairment, and involve non consenting individuals, which arguably, he is close to meeting that criteria already at such a young age. Given the lengths he's going to.
- [12:19]
Vanessa Richardson
How does this relate to Dennis early experiences with pain and relief stemming from those ear infections he had?
- [12:26]
Dr. Tristan Engels
Yeah, this is an extension of our previous discussion regarding conditioning. So each time Dennis experienced Sexual gratification Paired with pain or vulnerability, his brain was reinforcing the same powerful conditioning loop, which is classical conditioning combined with operant reinforcement. And here's how it works. The pain or fear creates a physiological arousal like increased heart rate, Muscle tension, or adrenaline. When that's immediately followed by sexual or emotional relief, like ejaculation, for example, the brain connects those sensations as pleasurable. That release floods the reward pathways with dopamine, Effectively rewarding the behavior and strengthening the association over time. Dennis's mind wasn't just tolerating pain or helplessness. It was seeking them because they became essential for the gratification part. The vulnerability or pain became the trigger, and then the release became the reward. So each repetition made the link stronger, More automatic, and harder to interrupt. So instead of unlearning those early associations of restraint and relief, this experience reinforced them. Every instance of sexual gratification Linked to fear, pain, or control Will ingrain the pattern more, Turning a learned response into a compulsive need.
- [13:45]
Vanessa Richardson
That moment was a turning point for Dennis. His private fantasies were no longer just daydreams, but he also learned something crucial. He had to make sure that no one ever knew how much pleasure he gained from these fantasies. Otherwise, people might avoid him altogether. And then he could never act on them. So Dennis kept it all a secret. However, he didn't realize that he was leaving evidence behind. One day, his mother noticed stains in his underwear. She recognized the stains right away and showed his father. William reprimanded Dennis and told him that good Christian boys didn't pleasure themselves. Dennis felt ashamed, but he still had no intention of stopping. Instead, he wanted to get revenge on his mother for causing him to feel this way again. So he started sneaking into Dorothea's room, Stealing her underwear and and pleasuring himself into them. Then he threw them away. So he wouldn't get caught. Between gaining a sense of control and working so hard to hide his secret, Denis unlocked a new level of arousal. He realized that hiding his urges and actions was part of the fun. It was the beginning of a pattern for him. Denis began compartmentalizing the two different sides to himself. Dutiful Christian and sexual deviant. And the more he nourished his deviant side, the more Dennis became drawn to violence as part of his arousal process. One day at his grandparents farm, where he and his brother spent a lot of time, Dennis watched as chickens were bound before their heads were chopped off. It was one of the first experiences that connected death to his sexual inclinations. Before long, Dennis started testing those feelings on stray cats that wandered onto the property. He'd catch them, tie them up, and hang them in the barn until they died.
- [15:41]
Dr. Tristan Engels
So we can already see a pattern establishing where Dennis needs to feel in control. When his mother confronted him, he felt humiliated or shame because she caught a secret act of his and he wanted to reclaim his power. This is important for the next discussion, which is that transition into killing animals. Now, an argument can be made that killing animals for food is practical and a normalized act done for survival, not cruelty. For most kids, that context helps them understand the difference between necessary harm and gratuitous harm. But for someone like Dennis, who already showed a fascination with control, restraint, and suffering, those experiences may have taken on a different emotional tone. Watching animals being killed might have desensitized him to pain and death because it taught him in that moment that life and death were things people would control or could control, which was what appealed to him most. That kind of exposure could easily feed into his already established internal conditioning. Power over something helpless equals relief, excitement, and gratification. So while most children would witness those moments with discomfort or some curiosity and recognize it was done for food and practicality and then move on. Dennis seemed to internalize them as part of his control schema, the same one that tied pain, vulnerability, and dominance to sexual relief.
- [17:00]
Vanessa Richardson
Is killing animals usually a rehearsal stage for future violence against people?
- [17:07]
Dr. Tristan Engels
Yes. So firstly, it can definitely be a warning sign, especially if the killing is for pleasure, power, or curiosity about suffering. And animal cruelty is a common behavioral marker among serial killers. This is well known and well established in the research. And in Dennis's case, it was part of his psychological rehearsal, and it was a form of escalation. The act of killing allowed him to explore domination and control in a concrete way. It gave him a few physical experience that mirrored his internal fantasies, which is absolute power and control over a living being. That experience again further reinforced the thrill and gratification he'd been seeking. Now, it's also important to note that not every child who kills or injures animals becomes violent later. Sometimes it's a sign of trauma or modeling, maybe even peer pressure. Or it's just simply the normalization of their environment. One does not is not a causal link to another. It is, though a behavioral marker commonly seen with serial killers.
- [18:07]
Vanessa Richardson
Soon, Dennis wasn't just harming animals. He discovered other things on his grandparents farm that caused him to find pleasure in the thought of killing people. When Dennis was 12 years old, he came across one of his grandmother's true crime magazines. Inside was a story about a man who strangled his girlfriend. Dennis couldn't get enough of the idea. Soon he was spending every bit of allowance he earned on detective magazines, flipping straight to any stories he could find about murdered girls. As Dennis's fascination with crime and death grew darker, his curiosity about exploring these impulses took a more dangerous turn. As he grew into his teens, he acted more and more on his sexual fantasies and began experimenting with self asphyxiation. When no one else was home or when people were sleeping, he would sneak down to the basement and choke himself with ropes until he climaxed. Eventually, Dennis was ready to stop acting alone and started pursuing girls his age. For the most part, he was well liked among his peers at school and church, so he had a pretty easy time flirting and talking to girls. In 1959, when Dennis was 14 years old, he began dating the daughter of his church pastor. Dennis fell hard for her. He called her his first love, but that didn't stop him from indigenous envisioning violent fantasies about her. If anything, Dennis's new relationship gave him more fodder. One day the pair was hanging out listening to the radio when they heard a breaking news alert about a quadruple murder that had occurred just a few hours from where they lived. It was the Clutter family killings, which later inspired Truman Capote's book In Cold Blood. The details were brutal. The family had been bound, gagged and murdered inside their own home. The story sent a chill through Dennis's girlfriend, but he was excited by it. When the broadcast ended, Dennis turned to look at her and imagined tying her up and murdering her, just like the Clutters. In that moment, Dennis decided he had to turn his fantasies into reality.
- [20:25]
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Vanessa Richardson
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- [21:36]
Dr. Tristan Engels
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- [21:47]
Vanessa Richardson
what Happened happened to the Mixtays.
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Dr. Tristan Engels
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Vanessa Richardson
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Vanessa Richardson
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Dr. Tristan Engels
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- [22:36]
Vanessa Richardson
in 1959, 14 year old Dennis Rader decided that in order to experience the highest level of sexual gratification he possibly could, he would have to bind, torture and kill another human being. However, Dennis knew that if he wanted to get away with it, he'd have to play his cards right. He was still a minor living at home. He didn't have the freedom or resources to act on his urges. So he decided to keep his head down and get through the rest of his teenage years without getting into trouble. That same year, Dennis enrolled at Wichita Heights High School. At some point, he and his girlfriend Broke up. Other than that, high school was pretty unremarkable for him. He earned average grades and didn't seem to get involved with many sports or clubs. Dennis main priority was to buy a car. That way, he could get around on his own. Soon he got a job at Leaker's family foods, A grocery store where his mother worked as a bookkeeper. For Dennis, the job came with search certain perks, like the steady stream of female customers he could watch and fantasize about. The more he did this, the more urge he felt to act on his fantasies. But since he couldn't do that yet, he found other ways to up the ante. And the excitement. Dennis began pleasuring himself in public. He found a secluded spot under a small bridge outside of town and would tell his family he was going to fishing there. In reality, Dennis was tying himself up beneath the bridge and masturbating as cars and people passed by overhead.
- [24:15]
Dr. Tristan Engels
These behaviors are actually consistent for Dennis. He chases experiences that give him a blend of risk, control, and fantasy. Being in public but hidden like that, created a psychological experience that mirrored his earliest conditioning, which was again, fear mixed with excitement and vulnerability mixed with power. It also blurred the boundaries between his its fantasies and reality. Each time he enacted part of his fantasy in real life, Even in a limited or symbolic way like this one, it became less imaginary and more integrated into his identity. So the thrill of secrecy, planning, and the self control required to conceal it, all of that fed the illusion that he could live inside his fantasy world undetected. This was really about gaining mastery over risk and exposure. And every time he got away with it, it reinforced that sense of control. It built his confidence, and more importantly, or more scary, I should say, his willingness to escalate.
- [25:16]
Vanessa Richardson
Does public but hidden behavior like this indicate that at some point, fantasy wouldn't be enough for him?
- [25:23]
Dr. Tristan Engels
Unfortunately, I think it's already a sign that the fantasy has stopped being satisfying already. This behavior in itself is an escalation because it involves more risk. People like Dennis build tolerance to fantasy. And just like with an addictive behavior, the brain starts to need more more stimulation to achieve the same emotional or physiological effect. Once a person starts bringing those imagined scenarios into the real world, Even in small, covert ways like this, it's usually only a matter of time before the fantasy turns into full action.
- [25:56]
Vanessa Richardson
Testing the waters of what he could get away with in public Was another step forward in Dennis's escalating, deviant behavior. At the same time, he was becoming better at keeping the two sides to himself separate. He even Had a name for this practice. He called it cubing. It was his way of describing how he could shift in and out of different sides to himself. He let people see only the side of the cube that he wanted them to. Whether that was dutiful son, diligent worker or whatever else he needed to be to convince people he was normal and non threatening.
- [26:29]
Dr. Tristan Engels
This is a pretty significant level of compartmentalizing.
- [26:32]
Vanessa Richardson
Definitely. And in the summer of 1963 when Dennis was 1818, he decided he wanted to try his hand at love again. By that point, he'd graduated from high school and saved up $800 to buy his first car. And with it came all the freedom he'd been waiting for. While his secret self bondage provided some satisfaction, Dennis had still never had sex with another person. And it was something he desperately wanted. He set his sights on a former classmate he had a crush on who'd always been nice to him. Dennis thought that meant she liked him back. So when he finally worked up the courage to ask her out at a party, he was stunned when she said no. The rejection wasn't just a disappointment. It threw Dennis into a tailspin. He left the party in a fury, got into his car and sped down the neighborhood roads reaching 100 miles an hour. And it seems some point he thought about intentionally crashing to end his own life. But as Dennis calmed down, he remembered something that had once made him feel better in the past. Revenge. By the time he pulled back into his parents driveway, Dennis had cooled off because he had an idea. He went inside and began cutting out photos of the girl who rejected him from old yearbooks. Then he pulled out some pulp crime and pornographic magazines and glued her face onto the pictures of women being bound and gagged. Dennis sat back to admire his work and felt a sense of control wash over him that became a part of Denis's pattern. When real life disappointed him, he would retreat even deeper into his own world. His tendency to retreat inward became more pronounced as the summer wore on. By the end of that summer, most of Dennis's friends were going off to college, but he stayed behind. He'd become so accustomed to hiding his true self from others that he was gaining less satisfaction from being around other people. Still, he wore a mask of normalcy and continued with his daily life. However, by the fall of 1965, 20 year old Dennis was ready for a change. Some of his friends convinced him to enroll at Kansas Wesleyan University, about an hour and a half north of which which meant moving out of his parents house. A part of him Wanted to have the normal college experience that everyone else was having. But he also knew that outside of his parents close watch, There would be more opportunities to unleash his dark side. Although he still wasn't ready to act on his most violent fantasies. Not yet, at least. Instead, once dennis went off to college, he began testing the waters on of what he could get away with. On a few occasions before hanging out with his friends, Dennis applied lipstick on himself. Then he told his friends he'd just been making out with a girl. It seems like people usually believed him. From there, things escalated quickly. Dennis began going out at night and breaking into houses Just to see if he could. He soon took it a step further and started pocketing small items, Such as underwear or trinkets, that were so negligible, no one would ever miss them. With each successful break in, Dennis experienced a greater rush than before.
- [29:57]
Dr. Tristan Engels
And this is exactly what I meant When I said the fantasy stopped being satisfying, because now he has shifted into behavioral testing. These weren't just acts of curiosity or thrill seeking. They were trials of power and ways for him to continue to test boundaries. It's classic reinforcement of previous conditioning and a continuation of that feedback loop. Yet again, Every time he tested these boundaries, Every time he took a risk and got a thrill, and every time he succeeded, it validated his belief that he could operate undetected, that he could control both environments and outsmart everyone around him. That creates a need to continue with those behaviors and, over time, continue in escalation, because the risk is now intoxicating and the secrecy is a reward of its own. So every time he succeeds, he feels more mastery, and he wants to push his limits even further.
- [30:47]
Vanessa Richardson
What's the significance of those trophies that dennis was taking from each place that he was breaking into?
- [30:53]
Dr. Tristan Engels
So when we talk about trophies, we typically are referring to objects that memorialize a violent act or victim. And because these objects are being taken In a context that doesn't involve violence or direct victimization, I wouldn't consider them trophies in that sense. Instead, I would consider them part of a developing paraphilic pattern and more of a transitional object. They were physical reminders of his secret world and, once again, reinforce that growing sense of mastery that I mentioned. This kind of behavior often appears in people with fetishistic or voyeuristic tendencies, which he has certainly been demonstrating. And where an object becomes erotically or emotionally charged because of its connection to secrecy and transgression.
- [31:39]
Vanessa Richardson
Eventually, Dennis realized that when it came to college, he'd gotten what he came for. He wasn't chasing a diploma like his classmates. He wasn't even ready to chase actual girls yet. Instead, his time away helped him learn to get away with greater risks. By June of 1966, after just a year at Kansas Wesleyan, Dennis dropped out. However, he was too used to his freedom to return home just yet. At the time, the Vietnam war was still raging, and Dennis knew that he had to move quickly to avoid being drafted. Right after dropping out of school, he enlisted in the air force, which he figured would give him the best chance of a avoiding active combat. His plan worked, and after basic training, Dennis was stationed in Mobile, Alabama, where he worked on antenna installations. Once Dennis was settled into his new role, he started looking for ways to indulge his dark side. At the same time, his military training taught him how to exercise even more caution. Getting caught acting on deviant sexual impulses here would be even worse than before. So he began collecting BDSM magazines and finding places to hide them. Every time he was restationed, Dennis destroyed his magazine collection and started from scratch at his new location. He also maintained his private rituals of self bondage whenever he had the chance to be alone, and continued dabbling in wearing women's makeup. Then, about a year and a half into his service, Dennis was sent to Japan. He welcomed the change. Being overseas meant new opportunities he hadn't had before, including easier access to sex workers. At the time, 22 year old Dennis was still a virgin. So shortly after arriving, he wasted no time finding someone he could pay to give him that experience. But when it was over, Dennis was still unsatisfied. It wasn't at all as exciting as he'd always imagined.
- [33:44]
Dr. Tristan Engels
That's not really surprising to hear, because Dennis had spent years pairing sexual excitement with secrecy, and his fantasies were built on tension, fear and dominance, not intimacy or affection. So when he finally experienced consensual sex, it lacked the emotional elements that had become essential to his excitement to begin with. Physically, he could respond. He could become aroused. But psychologically, he couldn't experience the same level of intensity without those sadistic elements. His brain has been conditioned to a associate sexual gratification with power, risk and secrecy, not connection. So normal intimacy can never compete. Because the cues that drove his arousal weren't about closeness. They were about control.
- [34:29]
Vanessa Richardson
Dennis was definitely left wanting more. So eventually, he found another sex worker who was willing to let Dennis bind her hands for a higher price, of course, which Dennis was was willing to pay. He liked the idea that she was struggling and he was the one in control. This time, he Found the experience much more gratifying. Dennis kept hiring the same woman, and the more he practiced binding her, the more confidence he gained. When his military contract ended after four years, Dennis felt ready to take his newfound confidence back home. He received an honorable discharge in August of 1970 and returned to Wichita, where he moved back in with his parents. However, he quickly put his fantasies on the back burner because he met a woman from church named Paula Dietz. Dennis and Paula hit it off instantly. For a while, it seemed like he actually enjoyed living a normal, healthy life. He fell back into his typical routine. Dennis returned to his job at the grocery store store and even enrolled at Butler County Community College to study electronics. Now that he was busy again, Dennis was too distracted to tend to his dark alter ego. With a packed schedule, he had no time for the fantasies that once consumed him. But then, In February of 1971, they all came rushing back. That winter, Paula broke her back in a car accident. Afterwards, she stayed with her parents, who gave her around the clock mock care, which meant her and Dennis's physical relationship stalled. To satisfy his desires, Dennis bought a new collection of pulp crime and BDSM magazines, Just like the ones that had kept him occupied during his early days in the air force. This time, though, it doesn't seem like Dennis pushed his behavior as far as he did before. Paula recovered. Within a few months and shortly after, the couple decided to get get married. Soon after, they moved into a house together in the Witchita suburb of Park City. But if Dennis was trying to suppress his urges, he quickly realized it was impossible. They were too strong. Whenever he went to campus to attend class, he couldn't help but watch the women there. And he couldn't silence the sinister thoughts he was having about them. At the same time time, Dennis was finally living a normal, stable and unsuspecting life. His military service, new marriage, and college studies were the perfect cover for his crimes. Something he'd been working toward for a long time. Between his innocent facade and his newfound confidence, Dennis was finally ready to act on his most depraved and and deadly fantasies.
- [37:24]
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- [38:18]
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- [38:57]
Vanessa Richardson
By 1971, 26 year old Dennis Rader had successfully built his image of a good, hard working guy. He was married to a woman named Paula Dietz who he'd met through church, and he was diligently working toward earning his associate's degree. Things got even better for him by early 1973 when he finally earned his degree. After that, Dennis left his job at the grocery store and began working at a company called Cessna Aircraft Plus. Now that Dennis wasn't in school, he and Paula became more active in their church as youth sponsors. On the outside, it seemed like Dennis was building the perfect wholesome life. Even though his fantasies burned in the back of his mind, he was too busy to put his plans into practice. But by the fall of that year, Dennis was suddenly lurched into a new reality. When he was laid off from his job, he suddenly had a lot of time on his hands. So while Paula was at work, he started prowling the city of Wichita for potential victims. He spied on women while he was in out running errands and even while taking walks through his own neighborhood. He didn't know when he would find his perfect target. But he wanted to be ready when he did. So Dennis assembled what he called a hit kit, which contained ropes, cords, Plastic bags, and a knife. He kept the kit in his car so that he'd have it with him, Ready to use no matter where he was. One day while he was out, Dennis finally spotted the person he wanted to become. His first ever murder. At first, he noticed a woman. Unbeknownst to Dennis, her name was Julie otero. But then Dennis noticed Julie's 11 year old daughter, Josephine. We don't know where Dennis first saw Julie and Josephine, but he followed them home and discovered they lived in a neighborhood just eight miles away from his house.
- [40:58]
Dr. Tristan Engels
House.
- [40:58]
Vanessa Richardson
He started stalking them regularly. This went on for weeks. Dennis learned that Julie had a husband, Joseph, plus four more children. Two teenage boys named Charlie and Daniel, One teenage girl named Carmen, and a nine year old boy named Joseph junior. Dennis often walked by their house and even waved hello when they were outside. Once he called their house house, and when someone picked up, he said he dialed the wrong number.
- [41:29]
Dr. Tristan Engels
This kind of behavior fits within the pattern of organized sadistic offenders. Individuals who derive pleasure not only from the violent act itself, but also from the psychological tension leading up to it. This is where the fantasy and planning stages come into play for Dennis. The longer he could stay close to his intended victim or victims without raising suspicion, the greater the anticipatory excitement. Sadistic offenders experience gratification through physical, psychological, or sexual domination. And in this case, at this moment, Dennis was deriving pleasure not only from their eventual fear, but from his own mastery of deception. Those interactions were, in essence, a form of psychological rehearsal. It's a way for him to test and perfect control Long before the crime was ever to be committed.
- [42:18]
Vanessa Richardson
Do you think Dennis's job loss might have been the catalyst for him to hunt for his first victim?
- [42:24]
Dr. Tristan Engels
So here's the reality. His fantasies had been there all along. He'd been slowly escalating for years without intervention. It was only a matter of time before he reached this point. What likely pushed him over the edge Was a combination of stress and opportunity. His job gave him structure, identity, and control. All things that helped keep his compulsions contained to some degree. Losing that was destabilizing for someone like him. It stripped away the last bit of order in his life. And so his internal world Started to spill outward a bit. And suddenly he had time. He had no structure. He had a little emotional stabilization, but now he had opportunity. So, yes, in a sense, it played a role. But I think it would have gotten here either way.
- [43:11]
Vanessa Richardson
The more Dennis watched the Oteros, the more he learned about them. Over time, he pieced together the family's routines. Joseph and the three older children left the house at 8am on weekdays. To Dennis, that left the other members of the Julie, Josephine and Joseph Jr. Vulnerable. He quickly got to work planning his attack. He crudely named his scheme project Little Mex based on the fact that the Oteros were Hispanic and Josephine was his main target. All the while, Paula had no idea what her husband was up to. While Dennis holed himself up alone in the house, she likely thought he was hard at work filling out job applications. In reality, he was about to commit the unthinkable. On the morning of January 15, 1974, after Paulo went to work, Dennis drove to the Oteros neighborhood. He parked at a drugstore a few blocks away from their house. Then he grabbed his hit kit, which now included a gun, and walked the rest of the way. When Dennis arrived, he climbed the fence into the backyard and cut the phone line. As he did this, Dennis noticed something in the yard that he didn't expect. Fresh paw prints in the snow. Despite all of Dennis's stalking, he never realized the Oteros had a dog. Now he wondered what else he had missed. For a split second, Dennis thought about leaving. But before he could, the back door swung open. Nine year old Joseph Jr. Was letting the dog outside. Now they were standing face to face. That's when Dennis made a decision. He burst through the door with his gun drawn. Julie was standing right inside. She screamed and Joseph came running. Dennis was again surprised. He had no idea Joseph had been in a minor car accident and stayed home from work to recover.
- [45:14]
Dr. Tristan Engels
This is what happens to fantasy driven killers. In their fantasy, they imagine control. They play this out with predictability and precision and they overlook exceptions or possible risk. Dennis fantasies hadn't prepared him for resistance or real human reactions or unexpected events. When confronted with that, instead of retreating, he doubled down. Psychologically, this was about restoring control, no matter the consequences. So that split second of shock likely triggered both panic and excitement. Panic because his plan was unraveling, not because he was afraid. And excitement because the emotional intensity mirrored the tension his fantasies had always promised him. So in that instant, Dennis's fantasy met reality. And rather than backing away, he chose to force that reality to conform to his fantasy. So that decision, that desperate need to reclaim control, I think given it's his first murder, marks the chilling beginning of btk.
- [46:18]
Vanessa Richardson
At that point, Dennis realized how unprepared he actually was. But he'd come too far to give up now. So he thought fast. He grabbed Joseph by the shirt collar and launched into a made up story about what he was doing there. He claimed he was AWOL from the Air Force and was looking for food and money. It was his way of making his victims feel safe so that maybe they'd trust him and be less defensive. And it seemed to work. Dennis forced Julie, Joseph and Joseph Jr. Into the living room and bound their hands with duct tape. Then he found Josephine and did the same to her. It seems like they all truly believed he wasn't there to hurt them, because at one point, someone complained that the duct tape was cutting off their circulation. Likely as a way to keep up his act, Dennis redid the binds with cord cords instead. After that, his demeanor quickly changed. He gagged each person with pillowcases and socks, saving Josephine for last. But before he could do anything else, Julie and Joseph began to stir. Dennis suddenly realized that he didn't actually know how long it took to strangle someone to death. His only point of reference was his own self bondage games. Before they regained too much strength, Dennis placed plastic bags over Julie, Joseph and Joseph Jr. S heads to suffocate them and fastened them with cords until they were no longer breathing. All three members of the family were dead. Next, Dennis turned his attention back to Josephine. He grabbed her and carried her to the basement. There.
- [48:00]
Dr. Tristan Engels
There.
- [48:00]
Vanessa Richardson
He removed her clothes before hanging her. As she died, he practiced self gratification. Afterward, Dennis went back up to the kitchen and poured himself a glass of water. Then he wiped the glass clean and put it back in the cabinet. Next, he found the thermostat and turned up the heat. He'd once read in one of his crime magazines that this would obscure the time of death. With renewed confidence in his plan, Dennis then stole a few trophies, including a transistor radio and Joseph's watch, before hopping into the Otero's car and driving a few blocks to a thrift store parking lot. However, when he got there, he realized things hadn't gone according to plan after all because he couldn't find the knife he'd used to cut the telephone line. Panicked, Dennis ditched the car and hurried back to his own, which was parked nearby. He sped back to the Otero's house and went into the backyard, where he found his knife. He then grabbed it and fled without anyone seeing him. When Dennis returned home, he was overcome with relief and then pride. Paula wasn't home from work yet, so he pulled out an old journal and wrote about everything he'd just done. Finally, he scribbled some pictures of the crime scene that he left behind.
- [49:25]
Dr. Tristan Engels
Journaling and sketching the crime, I think served a few purposes. Firstly, it was a form of cognitive reinforcement. Documenting what he did Put him fully in control of it. And at the core, that was about ownership. And writing it in his words Means he can change the narrative. And the story can be refined. Without the risks or the mistakes that he made. And that serves a narcissistic function. Because he's essentially archiving his own legacy on his terms. With a perverse sense of self importance. And lastly, they allow him to sustain the fantasy Long after the crime. They function as tangible and controlled reminders of the crime. In addition to the trophies he also
- [50:04]
Vanessa Richardson
took, Remember, the collages of the girl who rejected him. And then the magazines he was obsessed with? Does journaling like this Kind of relate back to those things?
- [50:14]
Dr. Tristan Engels
That's a really sharp observation, actually. Dennis had long been obsessed with crime magazines, if you recall. Like, he'd. He'd spend his entire allowance on them. So it's highly probable that his journaling and sketches. Were functioning as his own personalized crime magazine. Only now, he didn't need external sources to fuel his fantasies. He didn't have to go buy crime magazines anymore. Because he could create the crime magazine himself with his own content. The collages that he made earlier in life Operated in the same way. They were about control through reconstruction. When he felt powerless, like when he made that collage after being rejected, he rewrote the story In a way that gave him dominance. After the Otero murders, He likely felt a similar sense of powerlessness. Because of the mistakes he made and the panic he experienced. So turning back to journaling and sketching. Allowed him to reclaim control through the same strategy that always worked for him, which is, again, reconstructing the scene to fit how he wanted to memorialize it.
- [51:15]
Vanessa Richardson
When Dennis was done journaling, he stashed the notebook away so Paula wouldn't find it. Finally, he placed the trophies he stole. In secret hiding spots around his house. That he referred to as hidey holes. Later, when paula finally returned home that evening, Dennis acted completely normal. He snapped right back into the role of loving husband. His wife had no idea what he had just done. Or what he was planning to do. Again, Dennis raider had just committed One of the most gruesome murders Wichita had ever seen. And his string of depraved crimes had only just begun. At the same time, Dennis didn't realize he'd already begun, leaving behind a trail of evidence, and it was only a matter of time before he walked into a trap of his own making. Thanks for listening to this episode of Crime House 24. 7. Be sure to check out our second episode on Dennis Raider the BTK Killer Dropping later today and to enhance your listening experience, join Crime House plus and get every episode of Crime House 24.7 completely ad free, along with early ad free access to all Crime House shows plus monthly bonus episodes. To join, go to crimehouseplus.com or if you listen on Apple Podcasts, tap try free at the top of the crime house 24. Seven page.
- [52:55]
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- [53:53]
Vanessa Richardson
Hi listeners, it's Vanessa. Are you the type to fall down an Internet rabbit hole and not come up for hours? You'll love Crimes of Reddit, a new Crime House original with Sabrina, Diana Roga and Alexis Linkletter. Every week, one host brings real, true crime stories from Reddit while the other reacts completely blind. No prep, no spoilers. Then they swab. It's the feeling of sending your group chat a thread at 2am that starts with you have to see this. Except Sabrina and Alexis are in the chat with you. Follow Crimes of Reddit on Apple Podcasts and Spotify, or subscribe@c Crimesofreddit pod on YouTube.