BTK Returns [7]

Summary

Detailed Summary of "Monster: BTK Returns [7]"

Introduction

In the seventh episode of the "Monster: BTK" series, produced by iHeartPodcasts and Tenderfoot TV, listeners are taken deeper into the chilling resurgence of Dennis Rader, the enigmatic serial killer known as BTK (Bind, Torture, Kill). Released on February 10, 2025, this episode meticulously chronicles BTK's return to communication, the ensuing media frenzy, the intricate police investigation, and the ultimate capture of Rader.

BTK's Resurgence and Communication

The episode opens with BTK re-emerging in March 2004 after a long hiatus since his last known act in 1991. BTK initiates his return by sending letters to local news outlets and police departments, reigniting fear in Wichita, Kansas.

• BTK’s Fieldogram Letter (June 13, 2004): BTK sends a detailed three-page letter, referred to as a "fieldogram," to a man walking to work. This correspondence marks BTK's first major communication in years.

  BTK [02:57]: "If a Person happens to be out on one of these cold mornings in a certain part of Wichita... It was a few days later that he stopped across the street and followed the family car to see where they went."

  The letter not only recounts the meticulous planning behind his first murder of the Otero family in 1974 but also includes graphic drawings, signaling his intent to continue his killing spree.

Media Involvement and Influence

BTK strategically chooses media outlets, particularly favoring CAKE News, to amplify his presence and manipulate public perception. His communication with the media creates a cat-and-mouse game, keeping both the community and law enforcement on edge.

• False Communication and Media Manipulation:

  BTK sends a second letter in July 2004, claiming responsibility for the death of Jake Allen, a 19-year-old found dead near Wellington, Kansas. This letter includes false implications, as it was later revealed that Jake Allen had committed suicide.

  BTK [11:52]: "Jakey had fantasies about sexual masturbation in unusual ways with bondage and homosexual thrills."

  This deception leads to increased tension between the media and the police, as reports about BTK's communications become more frequent and personal.

False Arrest and Community Impact

In December 2004, Wichita police mistakenly arrest Roger Valadez, a 64-year-old man who fits some of BTK's described characteristics. The arrest is based on Valadez living near railroad tracks and other circumstantial evidence.

• Roger Valadez’s Arrest:

  Kenny [21:54]: "The man they arrested was Roger Valadez. He was born in 1939, the year BTK had claimed was his birth year in the last letter."

  The erroneous arrest severely damages Valadez's reputation, leading to a lawsuit against the TV station for wrongful branding, which he wins for $1.1 million.

  Kenny's Father [23:33]: "My family name was besmirched and damaged by the media in a negative way."

Intensifying Investigation and BTK’s Final Capture

Despite the setback of the false arrest, the investigation remains vigorous. BTK continues to send communications, including a floppy disk in February 2005, which inadvertently leads to his downfall.

• BTK’s Floppy Disk Communication:

  BTK attempts to modernize his communication methods by sending a floppy disk, inadvertently embedding metadata that traces back to him.

  BTK [37:05]: "Can I communicate with a floppy and not be traced to a computer? Be honest."

  Police exploit this by placing a specific classified ad in the Wichita Eagle to prompt BTK to use the floppy disk, facilitating the extraction of metadata that identifies Dennis Rader as BTK.

• DNA Evidence and Arrest:

  Utilizing reverse DNA from a floppy disk and previous semen samples collected over the years, investigators match Rader's DNA to multiple crime scenes.

  Kenny [46:38]: "It told us that the semen... from the crime scenes... was from Dennis Rader."

  On February 25, 2005, armed with irrefutable DNA evidence, police execute a meticulously planned arrest of Dennis Rader in his Park City home.

  Kenny [47:17]: "Once they announced that, my phone started ringing... I shook for four days."

Aftermath and Reflection

The episode concludes with reflections on the media's role during the investigation and the psychological torment experienced by those involved in the hunt for BTK. The orchestrated media strategies and BTK's manipulative communications highlight the complexities of investigating a cunning serial killer.

Notable Quotes

• BTK on Planning Murders:

  BTK [02:57]: "It was a few days later that he stopped across the street and followed the family car to see where they went."

• Kenny’s Father on False Arrest:

  Kenny's Father [23:33]: "My family name was besmirched and damaged by the media in a negative way."

• Investigator on BTK’s Floppy Disk:

  Kenny [37:05]: "BTK was actually asking police if he could communicate with a floppy disk without being caught."

• BTK’s Realization of Police Trap:

  Kenny [47:22]: "At that moment, I'm starting to plan my revenge. Now that they got him, how am I going to get my hands on him?"

Conclusion

Episode seven of "Monster: BTK" provides an exhaustive and gripping account of Dennis Rader's return to his heinous activities, the ensuing chaos within the community and media, and the relentless pursuit that ultimately led to his capture. Through detailed narratives, expert interviews, and poignant quotes, the episode offers listeners a comprehensive understanding of one of America's most notorious serial killers.

Transcript

[Kyle Tequila]

My name is Kyle Tequila, host of the shocking new true crime podcast, Crook County.

[Kenny]

I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old.

[Nancy Grace]

People are dying. Is he doing this every night?

[Kyle Tequila]

Kenny was a Chicago firefighter who lived a secret double life as a mafia hitman.

[Kenny's Father]

I had a wife and I had two children.

[Witness]

Nobody knew anything.

[Kevin O'Connor]

He was a fricking crazy man.

[Kyle Tequila]

He was my father. And I had no idea about any of this. Until now. Crook county is available now. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your pod.

[Maria Tremarke]

Welcome to the Criminalia podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.

[Maria Tremarke]

Each season we explore a new theme. From poisoners to art thieves, we uncover.

[Holly Fry]

The secrets of history's most interesting figures, from legal injustices to body snatching.

[Maria Tremarke]

And tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story.

[Holly Fry]

Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Kenny]

It was big news.

[Holly Fry]

I mean, white girl gets murdered, found in a cemetery.

[Witness]

Big, big news.

[Nancy Grace]

A long investigation stalls until someone changes their story.

[Witness]

I, like, saw a whole thing that happened.

[Nancy Grace]

An arrest, trial and conviction soon follow.

[Holly Fry]

He did not kill her.

[Nancy Grace]

There's no way is the real killer rightly behind bars or still walking free. Did you kill her? Listen to the real Killer, Season 3 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Kenny]

Need the latest crime news fast. Whether it's the latest developments in a high profile case or urgent alerts about missing persons, Crime Alert Hourly Update delivers the news you need to know as it happens.

[Nancy Grace]

I'm Nancy Grace, and with our team of investigative reporters and experts, we bring you the top crime headlines you need to know every hour on the hour.

[Kenny]

Listen to Crime Alert, hourly Update on.

[Holly Fry]

The iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Witness]

You're listening to Monster BTK, a production of iHeart podcasts and Tenderfoot TV. Listener discretion is adv.

[Kenny]

On June 13, 2004, a man was walking to work in a secluded part of Wichita. As he reached the intersection of first and Kansas, he noticed something odd. A plastic bag taped to the back of a stop sign. He opened it and found a letter inside with a label that read BTK Fieldogram. It was a three page story written by BTK in the third person. Here is what it said.

[BTK]

If a Person happens to be out on one of these cold mornings in a certain part of Witchita, that is the northeast part. On a particular morning in January, he might have noticed a man park his car in a store parking lot, pause briefly, then walk across the street and disappear among the houses and commercial buildings. If they had followed him, they would have noticed his head bent low to the ground and wearing a heavy parka. If they would have looked closer, they would notice his eyes dart back and forth across the street, checking the house windows and door. As he nears a house on the corner, he quickly glanced around and jumped the wooded fence surrounding the house. He knew the family left the house at approximately 8:45 and they would walk out to the car and leave for school. And in approximately seven minutes the lady Judy would return home. He had earlier in the week seen them leave for school. One day he thought to himself, say this may be it. A perfect setup. A house on the corner, a garage set off from the house, a fenced yard, a large space from the nearby neighbor's house, especially the back door. It was a few days later that he stopped across the street and followed the family car to see where they went. That morning she took the kids to school each and returned. A perfect setup. It was close to his fantasy of a victim all to himself. A person he could tie up, torture and maybe kill.

[Kenny's Father]

Someone killed four members of a family.

[Witness]

Hedge vanished from her home suddenly last weekend. Her phone lines had been cut, her door left open.

[Kenny's Father]

You see the victims laying there with.

[Kevin O'Connor]

Plastic bags over their heads, strangled.

[Kenny's Father]

You could tell it was a planned scenario.

[Witness]

While police have said no more about the contents of the letter, it does contain some sort threat and implies the killer may strike again.

[Kenny's Father]

He's going to play with these victims. He'd get them to the point of.

[Kenny]

Death and then bring him back and.

[Kenny's Father]

Then brings him back to the point of Death.

[Kenny]

From iHeart Podcasts and Tenderfoot TV, I'm Susan Peters and this is Monster BTK. It was June of 2004 and BTK was back. Starting in March of that year, BTK had begun to send letters to news outlets and police with taunting and threatening messages. At K TV, this was massive. By far the biggest story since BTK's first murders in the 1970s. And good evening, we have exclusive details. A new communication that could be from the serial killer BTK. On June 13, Wichita police recovered the letter which you heard about at the top of the episode. It was discovered by a man who was walking to work taped to the back of a stop sign. It was BTK's third correspondence since his return and his longest letter to date. Previous letters had been short, vague packages sent to local news outlets, but this was different. It was a lengthy and detailed recounting of his first murder, the 1974 killing of the Otero family. He gave a detailed firsthand account of the event from 30 years earlier.

[BTK]

About 20 minutes before 9, the door unlocked and the boy stepped outside. In just a flash, he ordered him back inside, confronting the family armed with a pistol and knife. He told them that this was a stick up and not to be alarmed.

[Kenny]

This letter was handed over to Wichita PD Police Detective Kenny Landwehr quickly noticed that the letter was actually a photocopy, most likely of a journal entry about the murder written by BTK right after the killing in 1974.

[BTK]

The family was preparing to leave. The kids were packing their lunches and they had together their coats by the table. The mother, Judy, asked what was going on and said they had no money or anything of value. The boy was by his folks side looking scared and the girl Josephine was beginning to cry. All of them gathered in the hallway. He told them their orders. He was wanted and needed the car, money and food. Joe noticed his gun hand shake and told the family to settle down and all would be okay.

[Kenny]

The letter also included a graphic hand drawing titled the Sexual Thrill is my Bill. It depicted a naked and tied up woman hanging by the neck from a rope. Why this letter? Why recount the Otero story once again? And why did he leave it in a remote location? Raider would answer some of these questions years later in the book Confession of a Serial Killer.

[Witness]

I left the package at first in Kansas. This symbolic meaning was important to me. We live in a symbolic world. I didn't pick the spot just because it was handy.

[BTK]

There was a purpose.

[Witness]

The stop sign was stop and look people of Kansas. The pole was the mail symbol. I picked the number 3 type date, attached the package on June 12th. The package was wrapped in plastic and duct tape, a symbol of bondage and staple items in a BTK hit kit. By posting it here, I figured an amateur would handle it before the police. That would destroy key evidence.

[Kenny]

As we mentioned at the beginning of the episode, BTK labeled the letter as a fieldgram. Rader would later explain what this meant.

[Witness]

The BTK fieldogram is like a telegram. It's short, has important news coding from Morse code in the cat and mouse game. I envision the chapter of the first BTK hit. Chapter one being the Oteros.

[Kenny]

So this was chapter one of the BTK autobiography that he had promised in a previous letter. If you remember from the last episode. One of BTK's earlier packages included an outline for a 13 chapter book about his deeds. Raider intended to share each chapter of his story one at a time. And this was just the beginning. Raider wanted to keep the momentum going and so the pace of his letter started to pick up. The next one came only a month later. This time it was found somewhere that no one expected to find it.

[Witness]

This is the strongest warning yet police have issued for Wichitans to watch out and take extra precautions after a letter was found at the Wichita Public Library early Saturday morning.

[Kenny]

This new package was discovered by a Wichita library employee on the morning of July 17, 2004.

[Witness]

Speculation immediately went to BTK and another possible communication from the serial killer. Police now confirming they are treating the letter as such while they wait for the FBI to confirm whether the letter letter is in fact from BTK at.

[Kenny]

Cake we didn't know the contents of this letter. Police had confiscated it before any journalists had a chance to see it. But investigators had it and they were shocked by what it said. In it, BTK claimed responsibility for a new victim. This letter was titled Jakey and this time BTK says he met and killed a 19 year old named Jake Allen. Just a few weeks earlier, a Jake Allen had been found dead near Wellington, Kansas just outside of Wichita. But police hadn't determined the cause of death just yet. And then this new letter arrives where BTK writes I had to stop work.

[BTK]

On chapter two of the BTK story due to the death of Jake Allen. I was so excited about this incident that I had to tell the story.

[Kenny]

BTK goes on to say that he supposedly corresponded with Jake over email. According to the letter, the two men talked about explicit sexual desires.

[BTK]

Jakey had fantasies about sexual masturbation in unusual ways with bondage and homosexual thrills.

[Kenny]

The letter implies that at some point BTK convinced Jake to meet him in person and that BTK then murdered him. Also included in this library package were photos of a hooded figure in bondage and a crude drawing of a bound up male. The BTK task force looked into the supposed connection to Jake Allen, but they found no evidence that BTK was actually involved and in fact, it was eventually determined that Jake Allen had actually committed suicide. So what was this all about? Just a prank. Raider would later admit that he was just toying with police. Here's what he said years later recounting the library package.

[Witness]

I posted the Jakey letter under the COVID story Of Aaron's. On a Saturday morning, I handled the Jakey package with gloves. I saw the article about him in the Wichita Eagle. I meant no disrespect to his family. I only used him as a symbol to stir the pot. I used some male slick ads to draw off. With this letter, I let the police know that I was older, but perhaps smarter with age, even if they didn't know my age. At the age of 59, I was pretty old for a serial killer to.

[BTK]

Be on the prowl.

[Kenny]

Raider was pretty happy with himself. He thought he had thrown the police for a loop. At the very least, he made them suspect that he was still dangerous, that he might be able to kill again all these years later. And in fact, Raider was considering it. Throughout 2004 while sending these letters, he was still prowling, planning to kill again. And he had his eyes on a new target, which he discovered while working his job with Wichita Animal Control. It was his first real project in 15 years.

[Witness]

My first attempt was October 22, 2004. As I drove back and forth to the Wichita Animal Shelter on North Hillside. I watched the address along hydraulic. The houses were set back a little. The house had a female, a high school girl and a male at one time. But he disappeared or left as the days passed. I would write in a logbook the dates and times of her routines. She had a perfect pattern. She was a brunette, a bit heavy, medium height, in her 30s or 40s. She worked at a machine shop on the corner of Hillside and 37th, just north of the shelter. So easy for me to stalk.

[Kenny]

We don't know her real name, but Raider called her Project Boardwater. After enough stalking, he finally picked a day in the fall of 2004 and.

[Witness]

Made his move on Friday, October 22nd. I packed up my hit kit, bike and gear I was going to use on her at the house.

[BTK]

So I was ready.

[Witness]

I drove by the house all pent up. I saw a crew working at the curb near her house. The unknown.

[BTK]

Always an unknown.

[Witness]

Too many people around. I waited. The time ran out. I was disappointed. I wasn't going to do the hit, but. But I thought I would try again in the spring when I had an excuse for fishing.

[Kenny]

It was a failed attempt. He got spooked by the number of people surrounding her house, Most of them apparently construction workers. But Raider wasn't done that day. He decided to do something else instead. Before going home on October 22, he made a detour. He stopped off at the omnicenter in Wichita. A UPS worker comes and goes with.

[Nancy Grace]

Nothing to say, not willing to talk about his colleague, who's believed to have.

[Kenny]

Found a suspicious package in this Dropbox on Friday, October 22nd.

[Nancy Grace]

And this FedEx worker says the employee who usually runs by here asked to.

[Kenny]

Be taken off this stop because of what happened Friday night. This email is all police would release concerning the package. It says.

[Nancy Grace]

Recently the Wichita Police Department obtained contained.

[Kenny]

Another letter that could be connected to the BTK investigation. It comes on October 22, the 30th.

[Nancy Grace]

Anniversary of his first communication with police.

[Kenny]

Concerning his string of killings. It was a big day for btk. This new letter included information about his background and upbringing. This was chapter two, titled Dawn. It included his supposed birth year and told stories from his childhood. He admitted to being a peeping Tom and even gave away that he had been in the Air Force. This very likely gave Raider a confidence boost his story was getting out there. But this new information also emboldened the police. They started looking for men matching his age and history. And very soon they found someone.

[Kevin O'Connor]

It takes one guy out there to say, who's that?

[Kenny]

Kyle who thinks he can just get.

[BTK]

On a microphone on a podcast and start publicizing this.

[Kyle Tequila]

From iHeart podcasts and Tenderfoot TV comes a new true crime podcast, Crook County.

[Kenny]

I got recruited into the mob when.

[Kevin O'Connor]

I was 17 years old.

[Kyle Tequila]

Meet Kenny, an enforcer for the legendary Chicago outfit.

[Witness]

And that was my mission, to snuff.

[Kenny]

The life out of this guy.

[Kyle Tequila]

He lived a secret double life as a firefighter paramedic for the Chicago Fire Department.

[Kenny's Father]

I had a wife and I had two children.

[Witness]

Nobody knew anything.

[Nancy Grace]

People are dying. Is he doing this every night?

[Kyle Tequila]

Torn between two worlds.

[Kenny]

I'm covering up murders that these cops are doing.

[Kevin O'Connor]

He was a freaking crazy man.

[Nancy Grace]

We don't know who he, he is really.

[Kyle Tequila]

He is. My father and I had no idea about any of this until now. Welcome to Crook County. Series premiere February 11th. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Holly Fry]

If you're fascinated by the darker sides of humanity, join us every week on our podcast Serial Killers, where we go deep into notorious true crime cases. With significant research and careful analysis, we examine the psyche of a killer, their motives and targets, and law enforcement's pursuit to stop their spree. Follow serial killers wherever you get your podcasts and get new episodes every Monday.

[Witness]

It was big news.

[Kenny]

I mean, white girl gets murdered, found in a cemetery.

[Witness]

Big, big news.

[Nancy Grace]

When a young woman is murdered, a desperate search for answers takes investigators to some unexpected places. He believed it could be part of a satanic cult.

[Kevin O'Connor]

I think there were many individuals present.

[Kenny]

I don't know who pulled the trigger.

[Nancy Grace]

A long investigation stalls until someone changes their story.

[Witness]

I like saw whole thing that happened.

[Nancy Grace]

An arrest, trial and conviction soon follow.

[Kenny]

You just saw his body just kind of collapsing.

[Nancy Grace]

Two decades later, a new team of lawyers says their client is innocent.

[Kevin O'Connor]

He did not kill her.

[Nancy Grace]

There's no way is the real killer rightly behind bars or still walking free. Are you capable of murder?

[Kenny]

I definitely am not.

[Nancy Grace]

Did you kill kill her? Listen to the real Killer Season 3 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Maria Tremarke]

Welcome to the Criminalia podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.

[Maria Tremarke]

Each season we explore a new theme. Everything from poisoners and pirates to art thieves and snake oil products and those who made and sold them.

[Holly Fry]

We uncover the stories and secrets of some of history's most compelling criminal figures, including a man who built a submarine as a getaway vehicle. Yep, that's a fact.

[Maria Tremarke]

We also look at what kinds of societal forces were at play at the time of the crime, from legal injustices to the ethics of body snatching, to see what, if anything, might look different through today's perspective.

[Holly Fry]

And be sure to tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in custom made cocktails and mocktails inspired by the stories. There's one for every story we tell.

[Maria Tremarke]

Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Kenny]

On December 1, 2004, investigators honed in on a promising BTK suspect. All day police staked out the house where the suspect lived. Then at around 7.30pm they raided the house gun strong.

[Kenny's Father]

I had thought what I heard were knocks on the door, like hard knocks. And I wasn't feeling well that day. I had already turned in for the night and the next thing I knew there were people in my house. Several plainclothes policemen in some uniform. There were at least 5.9millimeters pointing at me.

[Kenny]

The man they arrested was 64 year old Roger Valadez. He was born in 1939, the year BTK had claimed was his birth year in the last letter. And he lived near railroad tracks, something BTK had also alluded to in the letter. I remember this night well. My news director and I had to spend the night in the newsroom just in case an announcement was made so cake could be the first to announce BTK's arrest, they arrested Valadez on some small charges, misdemeanors like trespassing or housing code violations. Police made a mess of his house and interrogated him for the next 24 hours.

[Kenny's Father]

They broke the storm door open and they broke the wooden entry door to gain entry into my house. And there they were. They told me that I had to give them DNA. They held me down and they. They swabbed my cheek. They took it forcibly.

[Kenny]

After the DNA swab, they waited for the results, but a few days later, KSN TV announced that BTK had been caught and that his name was Roger Valadez. They had jumped the gun because soon the DNA results did come back. Roger was innocent and cleared of suspicion. But the damage on Roger's life was already done. He was supposedly branded a killer by some people in the community and struggled to regain his trust with locals. He later sued the TV station for $1.1 million and won.

[Kenny's Father]

My name was. And my family name was besmirched and damaged by the media in a negative way. I want this to come out and be known that there was a travesty of justice here.

[Kenny]

This false alarm was only a temporary distraction because a few weeks later, BTK would remind everyone that he was still out there. Here's former Wichita Deputy District Attorney Kevin O'Connor.

[Kevin O'Connor]

Dennis Raider called the Kwik Trip. Told a kid that was working there that there was a package in a park, gave directions to it, but he gave the wrong directions and the police couldn't find it. There was a gentleman that was walking through the park about a week or so later that saw a package, picked it up, took it home.

[Kenny]

This discovery took place on December 13, 2004, in Murdoch Park Park.

[Kevin O'Connor]

He lived with his mother. They opened it up, and it was a doll purported to be Nancy Fox. And a description of the Nancy Fox murder.

[BTK]

I spotted Nancy one day while cruising the area. Found out her name by checking her mailbox and tracked her to work up close. I visited the store where she worked, asking for some jewelry.

[Kevin O'Connor]

And they did what all good citizens would do in a situation like this. They called Cake tv. And I'm being sarcastic because they didn't call the police like they probably should have. But they called Cake tv and Cake TV reporter went out there. Jeanine Keisling, who's a friend of mine. Jeanine was the reporter on the street.

[Witness]

Police have not confirmed this latest package was from the killer. But also inside was a note with what previous investigators say appears to be BTK's. Signature. We've been asked not to show that.

[Kevin O'Connor]

What ended up happening is that they wanted to film police opening up the things and the police of course were not going to let them do it. I think that created some animosity.

[Kenny]

I can remember about this time. Tensions were rising between us and the newsroom and the police. All of us wanted to catch btk, but there were some disagreements about what to make public and what to withhold. That would become an issue once more when BTK sent a slew of new letters to us at ktv.

[Kenny's Father]

It appears BTK is communicating again. KTV receiving another mysterious message today.

[Witness]

This one contains both a message to King Tank and police. I'm Janine Keesling. I'll have the exclusive details coming up in a live report.

[Kenny]

The first of these was a letter received on January 25, 2005.

[BTK]

It said date week of January 17, 2005 where between 69th Street north and 77th Street north on Seneca Street Contents Post Toasty's Box, PJ Little Mix and Doll Haunt of KS Acronym List and.

[Kenny]

Jewelry this time the Cake News Director sent reporters to the site to gather the package, which was in fact a Post Toasty cereal box. It contained a list of his favorite acronyms including DBS for Death by Strangulation and DTPG for Death to Pretty Girl. It also contained a naked Barbie doll with a noose around its neck. Police thought PJ Little Mex might be referring to the murder of 12 year old Josephine Otero along with the other three members of her family who were killed in 1974. The CAKE team brought the package back to the station and the news director wanted to use it as a bargaining chip with the police.

[Kevin O'Connor]

And the police weren't having that and it created some difficulties and I even had to get on the phone and talk to K TV saying this is a homicide investigation and we were going to get that information one way or the other.

[Kenny]

Even KTV anchor Larry Hatteberg thought it was a bad idea to keep the new package hostage.

[Kenny's Father]

We had one instance in which a news director started to withhold one of the postcards and try to trade it for an interview with the police chief. I was standing there when he said that I had encouraged him not to do that at any time. The police got very mad and he came within 10 seconds of being arrested and hauled down to the jail.

[Kenny]

The situation did create some sourness, so.

[Kevin O'Connor]

What Cake ended up doing is sending a film crew out to where the cereal box was. That created some hard feelings because they drove into a potential crime scene.

[Kenny's Father]

They ran over some tracks in the gravel road with their car. That's a big no, no. And it was because the two were a little bit inexperienced, Police department not happy about that and certainly let us.

[Kevin O'Connor]

Know that was a difficult time. But I also tried to take into account the pressure that the media had, too, the need to be the first reporting. So it was understood. But it did create an animosity that hadn't been there before. Because I think if you go through this case, you see the media doing their best they can to help as much as they can and still be responsible journalists.

[Kenny]

My opinion on the matter is it was a very tricky time for all the media in Wichita. I agree with Larry. As a longtime news anchor, it was a very tough balancing act. This, on one hand, was the biggest story any of us would ever cover in our career. While we felt the drive to do it better than our competitors, we were also aware that at this point we were literally partnering with the police department to try and catch a killer. After this event, we all collectively decided to cut the infighting. We all had a more important job to do, and we didn't want BTK to win. The next time a BTK letter came through, we were all on the same page. And that next letter only came about a week later.

[Kenny's Father]

Today's message is eerily similar to a postcard Cake received last week. Cake Jeanine Keesling is live outside the Cake studios in northwest Wichita. Jeanine.

[Witness]

Well, Larry, for the second time in just more than a week, another possible communication from BTK arrives here at our studios, the communications are getting more frequent and a lot more personal. Wichita police have asked us not to reveal certain information contained in the communications sent to Cake News. Investigators are concerned it could could hamper the BTK investigation. To date, we have honored all of their requests.

[Kenny]

This letter, though, contained a troubling message from btk.

[BTK]

Thanks to the news team for their efforts. Sorry about Susan and Jeff's colds.

[Kenny]

As we told you about in episode one, CAKE was BTK's favorite news station. And this letter revealed that he knew about our cold colds, which my co anchor Jeff and I had briefly mentioned on the air just a few days prior. It was a chilling realization that BTK was watching us. From that day forward, I had to be hypervigilant, never leaving the station at night alone or engaging with any strangers who approached me. Unfortunately, that letter didn't provide any new leads for the police. However, the earlier letter that revealed the location of the Toasties box Had one more curious message to follow up on.

[BTK]

It said, let me know somehow if you or Wichita PD received this. Also let me know if you or PD received number 7 at Home Depot drop site 0108 05. Thanks.

[Kevin O'Connor]

It takes one guy out there to say, who's that?

[Kenny]

Kyle, who thinks he can just get on a microphone on a podcast and start publicizing this.

[Kyle Tequila]

From iHeart podcasts and Tenderfoot TV comes a new true crime podcast, Crook County.

[Kenny]

I got recruited into the mob when I was 17 years old.

[Kyle Tequila]

Meet Kenny, an enforcer for the legendary Chicago outfit.

[Kevin O'Connor]

And that was my mission, to snuff.

[Kenny]

The life out of this guy.

[Kyle Tequila]

He lived a secret double life as a firefighter paramedic for the Chicago Fire Department.

[Kenny's Father]

I had a wife and I had two children.

[Witness]

Nobody knew anything.

[Nancy Grace]

People are dying. Is he doing this every night?

[Kyle Tequila]

Torn between two worlds.

[Kenny]

I'm covering up murders that these cops are doing.

[BTK]

He.

[Kevin O'Connor]

He was a freaking crazy man.

[Nancy Grace]

We don't know who he is, really.

[Kyle Tequila]

He is. My father and I had no idea about any of this until now. Welcome to Crook County. Series premiere February 11th. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Holly Fry]

If you're fascinated by the darker sides of humanity, join us every week on our podcast, Serial Killers, where we go deep into notorious true crime cases. With significant research and careful analysis, we examine the psyche of a killer, their motives and targets, and law enforcement's pursuit to stop their spree. Follow Serial killers wherever you get your podcasts and get new episodes every Monday.

[Witness]

It was big news.

[Kenny]

I mean, white girl gets murdered, found in a cemetery.

[Witness]

Big, big news.

[Nancy Grace]

When a young woman is murdered, a desperate search for answers takes investigators to some unexpected places. He believed it could be part of a satanic cult.

[Kenny]

I think there were many individuals present. I don't know who pulled the trigger along.

[Nancy Grace]

Investigation stalls until someone changes their story.

[Witness]

I like saw whole thing that happened.

[Nancy Grace]

An arrest, trial and conviction soon follow.

[Kenny]

He just saw his body just kind of collapsing.

[Nancy Grace]

Two decades later, a new team of lawyers says their client is innocent.

[Holly Fry]

He did not kill her.

[Nancy Grace]

There's no way is the real killer rightly behind bars or still walking free. Are you capable of murder?

[Kenny]

I definitely am not.

[Nancy Grace]

Did you kill her? Listen to the real Killer, Season 3 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Maria Tremarke]

Welcome to the Criminalia podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.

[Maria Tremarke]

Each season we explore a new theme, everything from poisoners and pirates to art thieves and snake oil products and those who made and sold.

[Holly Fry]

We uncover the stories and secrets of some of history's most compelling criminal figures, including a man who built a submarine as a getaway vehicle. Yep, that's a fact.

[Maria Tremarke]

We also look at what kinds of societal forces were at play at the time of the crime, from legal injustices to the ethics of body snatching, to see what, if anything, might look different through today's perspective.

[Holly Fry]

And be sure to tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in custom made cocktails and mocktails inspired by the stories. There's one for every story we tell.

[Maria Tremarke]

Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Kenny]

After seeing the reference to Home Depot In BTK's previous letter, police combed every Home Depot in the area. They posted notes in the employee break rooms asking if anyone knew anything about a strange package. Finally, one employee responded. He said that some weeks earlier in January, he noticed an odd cereal box sitting in the bed of his pickup truck.

[Kevin O'Connor]

Didn't think anything of it. I don't know what rock the person was living under, but didn't really think anything of it and threw it away.

[Kenny]

This is Kevin O'Connor again.

[Kevin O'Connor]

Well, it turns out that his roommate had not put the trash down, so they actually did recover it. Home Depot was extremely cooperative and had very good cameras. We were able to see a car pull up next to this employee's car. One of the detectives, Detective Ralph, who knows a lot about cars, immediately identified it as a black Jeep Cherokee. One of my duties then was to track down and go through or try to get a list of all the black Jeep Cherokees in Wichita, Kansas. And there's a lot of them.

[Kenny]

The letter in this Home Depot cereal box also had an interesting question written on it.

[BTK]

Can I communicate with a floppy and not be traced to a computer? Be honest.

[Kenny]

BTK was actually asking police if he could communicate with a floppy disk without being caught. So far, he had been communicating solely with paper. Maybe he thought it was too risky and that floppy disks would be safer.

[BTK]

The letter continued under miscellaneous section 494. Rex, it will be okay. Run it for a few days in case I'm out of town. I will try a floppy for a test run sometime in the near future, February or March.

[Kenny]

Let me translate. BTK was instructing police to post an ad in the miscellaneous section of the newspaper. If the ad had the message, rex, it will be okay. That would signal BTK that police had agreed to communicate via floppy disk. Of course, investigators jumped at the opportunity. On January 28, police ran a classified ad in the Wichita Eagle. It used that phrase so BTK would know it was for him, and it asked him to contact the police at a specific PO Box address. Rader thought he had them in his trap. Little did he know he was about to fall into theirs. In the book Confession of a Serial Killer, author Katherine Ramsland describes Raider's mindset. At this point, Raider trusted the the.

[Holly Fry]

Police to tell him the truth. He had already questioned an officer, Randy Stone, about the security of email and learned that it can be traced. He thought that floppies were another matter, however.

[Kenny]

And on February 16, police got their biggest break when Raider sent his final correspondence in the form of a floppy disk. It also came with postcards with instructions on how to keep communicating. But this time, police wouldn't need them.

[Kevin O'Connor]

This still gives me goosebumps because I was in the room. Along with the rest of the task force and police Officer Stone puts the disc into the computer. He goes into the computer language. It's just gibberish. I can't understand it. And embedded in there, as you go through the lines of the meaningless symbols and letters, you see Dennis. And then a few lines later, you see Christ Lutheran Church and then Park City Library.

[Kenny]

Buried in the disk, which had only one file in it, titled this is a test, was metadata. Now, for anyone who doesn't know, metadata is like an invisible record of who accesses the data on the disk and when. And unbeknownst to Raider, he had left his digital tracks on the floppy disk.

[Kevin O'Connor]

Somebody got on Google and just googled Christ Lutheran Church. And up there in the corner, I can still see it to this day, is a picture of the president of the church, which is Dennis Rader. Right away, Kenny Lanwe sent out a couple of detectives. I think it was Detective Ralph and Detective Schneider, Clint Schneider. And they drove out to an address on Independent street in Park City where Raider lived. And sure enough, there was a black Cherokee in the driveway that belonged to his son Ralph. And Schneider wanted to make an arrest right then and there. I remember listening to the phone call that Ralph and Schneider had with Lanwehr. I was standing right there, and they called and said, there's a black Cherokee in the driveway. And I'll never forget how close cool Kenny Landwehr was. He said, okay, come on back. And they weren't very happy about it. There were a lot of words that you can't say on tv. Again, I think it goes to Kenny, how prepared he was for the situation. He wanted to make it a better case. At that time, there was a concern if that they went up and contacted Raider, it would spook him and he would get rid of evidence. So we went about preparing and stalking him, Learning about Dennis Raider.

[Kenny]

You can understand why Kenny Landwehr wanted to wait. Without rock solid evidence, Raider might walk free. So they turned to DNA. If you remember, they had preserved samples of BTK semen from the crime scenes all those years ago, and they had been testing it against people all across Witchita. Oddly enough, my co anchor, Larry Hatberg, was among those swabbed for DNA.

[Kenny's Father]

I had two detectives who I knew show up at the TV station and say, larry, we need to take your DNA. Said, okay, why do you need my DNA? And they said, because we're getting tips to the BTK tip line. That since you know so much about btk, maybe you are btk. And I said, well, I can assure you I'm not. And they said, we're pretty sure you're not. And what this is is just an elimination process. Now, in the interest of full disclosure, as you know, the Wichita Police department has swabbed over 4,000 men to eliminate them as BTK suspects. Well, in the past 48 hours, I too have been swabbed. I now join the list of many journalists, police officials, and businessmen who have consented to the swab. But I will tell you, it gives you a very odd feeling. I'd been at the scenes. I fit the age profile. Then I talk about it on tv. So people say, well, he must be btk. I was not.

[Kenny]

But police weren't concerned about Larry or anyone else's DNA anymore. They only wanted the DNA of Dennis Rader. If they could match him to the DNA from BTK semen, it was checkmate. And they came up with a scheme involving Raider's daughter, Carrie Rawson.

[Kevin O'Connor]

He had a daughter that had gone to school at Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas. With her age and being in school, the investigator said she would have had a pap smear while in college. And although there was some thought of like a TV show where we're going to go and maybe get a cup of coffee that he's drinking or wait until he spits on the sidewalk, which is a very CSI TV show kind of stuff where you may or may not get DNA, what we figured is we could do reverse DNA. We realized the significance of that decision, that we would be going into somebody's medical history. And I can tell you that there was a lot of respect paid to the fact that we're getting somebody's medical history unknowingly. And so what we ended up doing, rather than issuing a subpoena, is we prepared something akin to a search warrant and brought the judge waller with a affidavit as to why we were seeking it.

[Kenny]

As Kevin says, Carrie had no idea what was going on or that police had been accessing her medical files and using her DNA to get to her father. They got a subpoena, and they got a warrant without my knowledge. And they went to k state, Dug through all my health records, and found out I had had pap smears, like in 2000 or 2001.

[Witness]

And there was a slide.

[Kenny]

And they take that to the kbi lab in Topeka, and some technician is able to extract that old DNA mine, Pretty brilliant, from the slide. It would take some time to get the results back. So in the meantime, police followed Raider, memorized his routines, and learned everything about him.

[Kevin O'Connor]

During that week. We found out where he worked, which was with park city. He was an animal control officer with an office right next to the police department, like, on the other side of the wall, and went about looking at how he did things. So we knew that raider would leave the office before lunch. He would travel to his home in park city, not far away. And so the plans were made. Search warrants were drawn in advance. We did search warrants for his home, his parents home, the park city library. I remember being part listening and watching how they talked about who would be on the arrest team, how the arrest would go down, what they would do with him when he was arrested. I mean, they even have it down to who was going to put the cuffs on him, who was going to walk them back to the car that Kenny landwehr was going to be in. It was a fascinating night to be a part of. I remember asking if I could go, and they reminded me I was not a police officer, that they liked me a lot, But I'm not a cop. I even offered to go in the trunk. I had to just listen to it from the command center there at the epic center that had been set up. But the walls around the conference room were all about Dennis raider and learning his history and, for the lack of a better phrase, stalking him for about a week.

[Kenny]

Finally, on February 25, 2005, after days of waiting and decades of police work, Investigators got what they were looking for. The DNA results came back.

[Kevin O'Connor]

It told us that the semen that was from the feet of Josie Otero. The stain that was left in the bathrobe that was at Nancy Fox's head, and the fingernail from Vicki Wagerly. All those three DNA samples, by using reverse DNA, told us that whoever left those samples was the father of Carrie Raider, which meant Dennis Raider. And then that was the time to make an arrest.

[Kenny]

Next time on Monster btk.

[Kevin O'Connor]

On that day, I remember it was radio silence when the chief came out.

[BTK]

And said, we've caught btk. Denial was the first reaction.

[Kenny]

Once they announced that, my phone started ringing and literally, literally, it didn't quit ringing. All day long, I've gone into physical shock. I shook for four days.

[Witness]

I'm spinning, literally about to pass out.

[Kenny]

And I make it over to my couch right then.

[Kevin O'Connor]

At that moment, I'm starting to plan my revenge. Now that they got him, how am.

[Kenny]

I going to get my hands on him?

[Nancy Grace]

Once he realized there was no getting.

[Kenny]

Out of the of this, he then.

[Nancy Grace]

Admitted to all the murders and said.

[Kenny]

Well, since you know about Seven, I'll tell you about some others.

[Witness]

Monster BTK is a production of Tenderfoot TV and iHeart podcasts. The show is written by Gnomes Griffin, Trevor Young and Jesse Funk. Our host is Susan Peters. Executive producers on behalf of Tenderfoot TV include Donald Albright and Payne Lindsay, alongside supervising producer Tracy Kaplan. Executive producers on behalf of iHeart podcasts include Matt Frederick and Trevor Young, alongside producers Gnomes Griffin and Jesse Funk and supervising producer Rima Ilkayali. Marketing support by David Wasserman and Alison Wright at iHeart Podcasts and Caroline Orajema at Tenderfoot TV. Additional research by Claudia Dafrico. Original artwork by Kevin Mr. Soul Harp. Original music by Makeup and Vanity set. Special thanks to Oren Rosenbaum and the team at UTA and the Nord Group. For more podcasts from iHeartRadio and Tenderfoot TV, visit the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Thanks for listening.

[Kyle Tequila]

My name is Kyle Tequila, host of the shocking new true crime podcast Crook County.

[Kenny]

I got recruited into the mob when.

[Kevin O'Connor]

I was 17 years old.

[Nancy Grace]

People are dying. Is he doing this every night?

[Kyle Tequila]

Kenny was a Chicago firefighter who lived a secret double life. And as a mafia hitman, I had.

[Kenny's Father]

A wife and I had two children.

[Witness]

Nobody knew anything.

[Kevin O'Connor]

He was a fricking crazy man.

[Kyle Tequila]

He was my father and I had no idea about any of this until now. Crook county is available now. Listen for free on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Maria Tremarke]

Welcome to the Criminalia Podcast. I'm Maria Tremarke.

[Holly Fry]

And I'm Holly Fry. Together we invite you into the dark and winding corridors of historical true crime.

[Maria Tremarke]

Each season we explore a new theme. From poisoners to art thieves, we uncover.

[Holly Fry]

The secrets of history's most interesting figures, from legal injustices to body snatching.

[Maria Tremarke]

And tune in at the end of each episode as we indulge in cocktails and mocktails inspired by each story.

[Holly Fry]

Listen to criminalia on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Kenny]

It was big news.

[Holly Fry]

I mean, white girl gets murdered, found in a cemetery.

[Witness]

Big, big news.

[Nancy Grace]

A long investigation st until someone changes their story.

[Witness]

I like saw one thing that happened.

[Nancy Grace]

An arrest, trial and conviction soon follow.

[Kevin O'Connor]

He did not kill her.

[Nancy Grace]

There's no way is the Real Killer rightly behind bars or still walking free. Did you kill her? Listen to the real Killer Season 3 on the iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcasts.

[Kenny]

Need the latest crime news fast. Whether it's the latest developments in a high profile case or early urgent alerts about missing persons, Crime Alert Hourly Update delivers the news you need to know as it happens.

[Nancy Grace]

I'm Nancy Grace and with our team of investigative reporters and experts, we bring you the top crime headlines you need to know every hour on the hour.

[Kenny]

Listen to Crime Alert Hourly Update on.

[Holly Fry]

The iHeartRadio app, Apple Podcasts or wherever you get your podcast.