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BTK /// Bind, Torture, Kill /// Part 3
00:53:13
BTK /// Bind, Torture, Kill /// Part 3 Released: 5-1-2018 Part 3 of 4 www.TrueCrimeGarage.com January 1974 - Wichita, Kansas - After years of fantasizing a killer emerges from the shadows and announces himself to the world. A dark haired man slipped into the home of the Otero's one morning as the children prepared for school. He murdered all four people inside the home. Later that same year he would attack and kill again before vanishing into hibernation. After many requests we have decided to take an in depth look into the dark, disturbing life and mind of Dennis Rader. Driven by what he called Factor X, Dennis was better known as the BTK. Beer of the Week - Demon Dweller by Green Man BreweryGarage Grade - 3 and 3 quarter bottle caps out of 5 Beer Fund: https://truecrimegarage.com/home
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- [00:40]
Nick
Welcome to True Crime Garage wherever you are, whatever you are doing. Thanks for listening. I'm your host, Nick and with me as always is a man that was not invited but he's certainly glad he made it. He is the Captain.
- [00:51]
The Captain
I just assumed the invitation got lost in the mail. It's good to be seen and it's good to see you. Thanks for listening. Thanks for telling my friend.
- [01:03]
Nick
Well, I too Captain. I'm glad that you made it because today we are drinking Dimwit by the river City Brewing Company garage. Grade 3 and a half bottle caps out of five. Dimwit is a fantastic wit beer brewed in Wichita and delivering everything one would expect from a great wit beer.
- [01:19]
The Captain
And Dimwit is a fantastic co host.
- [01:21]
Nick
It's citrusy, it's light and it's warm. And today's beer was brought to us by these witty guys and girls. First up we have ladonna up in Alberta, Canada and a big we like.
- [01:31]
The Captain
You Jib to Sarah and Stockton, New Jersey.
- [01:34]
Nick
And Captain, everybody knows you don't mess with Texas. And down there we got Adrian and Denton. And we also have Katherine in Houston. Big shout out.
- [01:42]
The Captain
You mess with the bull, you get the horn.
- [01:45]
Nick
Next up, a cheers to Veronica and Matt in Charleston, South Carolina. Also it's here's the Kerry listening in the farmlands in Ledger, Montana. And last but not least, we have Brenda and Bloomington Illin. So thanks to everybody for your continued support. To get involved, go to truecrimegarage.com check out our blog, check out our store page. Also True Crime Garage is awesome on Instagram and untapped.
- [02:10]
The Captain
And if you're in or around Columbus, Ohio this Thursday, May 10th, we're going to be doing a live event through Columbus Podcast Festival. For more information or tickets, check out Columbus podcast festival.com I will see you there Captain.
- [02:24]
Nick
Everybody gather round. Grab a chair, grab some beers. Let's talk some true. February 10, 1978 Friday evening in the Wichita Kansas City hall building the police chief made the following announcement. The purpose of this news conference is to advise the public of an extremely serious matter involving a series of murders which occurred in our city. As you know, In January of 1974 four members of the Oturo family were murdered. In March of 1977 Shirley Vien was killed. And in December of 1977 Nancy Fox was also murdered. Earlier today, K A K E T V immediately brought me a letter where the author took credit for the Oturo, the Fox and the VN murders. In addition, whoever wrote this letter has taken credit For a seventh victim. We are in no doubt and are convinced that the person that killed the Oturos, Ms. Fox and Ms. Vianne is the same person. I want to restate. There is no question in our minds that the person who wrote the letter killed these people. This person has consistently identified himself with the initials BTK and wishes to be known as the BTK Strangler. Because we are sure this man is responsible for seven murders, we wish to enlist the assistance of each citizen of this community. Our police department has already begun special efforts, which is as 1. Additional uniformed officers are already on the street. 2. A special detective task force involving the major case squad has been established. Three, A special phone number for citizens to call has been established. This phone will be staffed 24 hours a day. 4. We have solicited the assistance of the district attorney, the sheriff and professionals in the field of human behavior and would welcome the assistance from any person, regardless of their expertise. I know it is difficult to ask people to remain calm, but we are asking exactly this. When a person of this type is at large in our community, it requires special precautions and special awareness by everyone. When we left off last week, we finished the week by announcing that the BTK killer had named himself, had sent a letter to K A K E T V. And immediately that letter was sent to the police department. That same evening, they held the press conference where we just discussed that announcement that they made. Now, as you can imagine, the police announcing to the public and to the local media that a predatory sexual killer is on the loose Sent a wave of widespread panic, shock and fear across the community. The announcement quickly became national news. With the public aware that BTK was hunting people in Wichita, Many rumors were swirling about who the killer was and how and why he chose certain victims. One thing that was also mentioned during the public announcement was that the killer had cut the phone line to the houses before he entered the home to attack and kill the occupants. This information inspired a safety precaution that became a ritualistic habit of nearly all the citizens of the greater Wichita area, Especially something practiced by single women that lived alone. Because the phone line was cut, people would, upon arriving back at their homes, they would run to the phone in the house and pick up the receiver and listen for a dial tone. A lot of people would call their home from another location before returning home to make sure that the phone would ring. Other precautions were taken by citizens as well. This included the increased sales of peepholes, deadbolts, Other additional door locks, and of course, guns and dogs were in high demand, but a pattern that we would see time and time again. After this communication, BTK went dark and it was 14 months later when we have another incident.
- [07:29]
The Captain
Yeah, this is going to be around 10pm on April 29, 1979.
- [07:34]
Nick
This is when Dennis Raider shattered the basement window of a 61 year old woman who lived alone. Now, she lived just one mile from one of his previous victims, Nancy Fox. He climbed into the home and his victim, she was not home at this time. He would wait for her to return. There was a guest bed down in the basement. Beside it, he decided to lay out some ropes and a broom handle. Then the woman returned to her house. She had spent the night out with several friends. The friends had drove her home. She got out of the car and she approached the front door. Reaching into her purse, she pulled out the keys to her house. She turned and smiled and waved at her friends. She looked down to make sure that she had the right key. And then she heard her friends shout from the car, anna, wait. Why don't you come over to our house for a cup of coffee? Anna turned from the door, put her keys back in her purse and walked back to the car. Got in and they drove away. Inside the house, BTK grew angry as he waited and waited for her to return. Eventually, he ends up leaving the house. When Anna did return home, she found the broken window, the ropes and the broom handle. She picked up the phone to call the police and report a break in. But the phone line was dead and there was no dial tone.
- [08:56]
The Captain
Right.
- [08:57]
Nick
She ran to her neighbor's home and called the police from there. When police arrived, they had found that the phone line had been cut. And they also discovered that some jewelry and several articles of clothing along with $35 in cash were missing from the home. Initially, this incident was not linked to BTK. But that changed when on June 15, an envelope addressed with block letters arrived at Anna's home. Inside was an article of clothing and jewelry that had been stolen from Anna's home. These items were accompanied by a letter and a drawing. Now, the drawing was of a bound and nude woman. The letter was a poem and it was titled, oh, Anna, why didn't you appear? And it read, twas perfect plan of deviant pleasure so bold on that spring night, My inner felling hot with propension of new awakening season Worn wet with inner fear and rapture My pleasure of entanglement like new vines at night. O Anna, why didn't you appear? Drop of fear, fresh spring rain rolled down from your nakedness to scent to lofty fever that burns within. In that small world of longing, fear, rapture and desperation the game we play fall on devil ears fantasy spring forth mounts to storm fury Then winter clam at end. Oh Anna, why didn't you appear? Alone now in another time span I lay with sweet enraptured garments across most private thoughts Bed of spring moist grass clean before the sun Enslaved with control Warm winds scenting the air Sunlight sparkle Tears in eyes so deep and clear Alone again I trod in past memory of Mears and ponder why for number eight was not oh Anna, why didn't you appear?
- [10:56]
The Captain
Two days later, the newspapers are going to report that BTK strangler tried to get his eighth victim, but he failed when she didn't return home.
- [11:05]
Nick
So the would be victim was Anna Williams. Now she actually moved out of town shortly after the incident because even though the police didn't connect the break in with the actions of BTK until the letter was received, Anna's instincts told her that it was the serial killer and she feared that he would return to claim her at another time.
- [11:26]
The Captain
Right.
- [11:26]
Nick
And actually, in fact, when the letter was sent to her home, she had already moved out by that time. She had sent someone to collect the mail until the home could be sold or whatever they intended to do with it. So the letter was actually received by somebody else. But one thing that I think that this shows here, and I think there's, there's a lot of evidence of this in the actions of the BTK Strangler here.
- [11:50]
The Captain
Right.
- [11:51]
Nick
Is that after, so after the announcement of the BTK Strangler, just like the Son of Sam who commit, you know, communicated with law enforcement and, and with the public. And I also suspect this to be the case with the Zodiac as well. Though we may never know, Dennis Raider became, well, he became like addicted to the news coverage about him and about the case.
- [12:14]
The Captain
Right.
- [12:15]
Nick
And he loved being the city's so called boogeyman, let's say. Right.
- [12:20]
The Captain
Or what everybody's fearing.
- [12:21]
Nick
Right, right. He. Right. He loved the fear of the city's people. He loved that he knew the answer to the biggest question around town. Who, who was btk?
- [12:31]
The Captain
Yeah. Or who was pos.
- [12:32]
Nick
Well, and I tell you what though, he, he loved the secrets that he was keeping. And I would suspect and well, later we would, we would learn that this was fact, actually that he collected the newspaper articles about him. And like we learned from Gary Ridgeway, the Green River Killer, we learned from his wife after he was finally caught that Gary seemed to Be obsessive about not missing the evening or nighttime newscast. This probably would have been the case with Raider as well.
- [13:03]
The Captain
Right.
- [13:04]
Nick
Now, regarding the newspaper articles and collecting them. Well, we also know that BTK has a wife and two kids, so he would have to hide his collection. He wouldn't want for his family or others to know that he had an unhealthy fascination with the case. Yeah.
- [13:22]
The Captain
They're probably watching for two reasons. One, if they sent a letter, what is the reaction? And also just. Is there any updates from the police so they can monitor? You know, is law enforcement closer to catching me?
- [13:35]
Nick
Yeah. Yeah. It's kind of double duty, I guess, Right? Two birds.
- [13:38]
The Captain
Yeah.
- [13:38]
Nick
You get to monitor the investigation or what. What the public can see of the investigation as well as see the reaction. And. And it's filling your ego at the same time.
- [13:49]
The Captain
Yeah.
- [13:49]
Nick
So scary. While we. While we were talking about his family, you know, we talked about people checking the phone lines. One thing that I found very interesting about this case was his wife, Dennis Raider's wife, was afraid of the BTK to the point she was one of the people that would check the phone line in her house, and she was vocal to friends and family about being afraid of the BTK strangler.
- [14:16]
The Captain
Oh, and Dennis probably got off on that.
- [14:19]
Nick
Well, he. He may have. But I know there was one time that he did not like it at all. Because remember last week, we spoke about the phone call when Dennis Raider made that very short phone call announcing a homicide to the dispatcher. And of course, they show up to the address that he gives, and sure enough, there's a victim there. Well, remember, they played that on the newscast. They played that. As bad as that audio was, they played that on the newscast, hoping somebody would recognize the voice. The strange thing here, though, is the Two of them, Mr. And Mrs. Raider, were watching the news together that night, and after they played it multiple times, she looked over at him and almost kind of, like, jokingly, very casually, says to him, that sounds like you. Or BTK talks like you do.
- [15:09]
The Captain
And let's reenact that.
- [15:11]
Nick
Okay.
- [15:12]
The Captain
So I'll be Dennis Raider. Okay. And then you be his wife. Okay. Play. They just played my voice. Go ahead.
- [15:22]
Nick
That sounds like you.
- [15:28]
The Captain
A lot of people sound like me. Couldn't be me.
- [15:32]
Nick
Yeah. I think. I don't know what was actually said, but according to Dennis Raider, he got. He got very agitated and pretty defensive when that had happened.
- [15:43]
The Captain
Oh. So I played it completely wrong. I. I figured he would just, you know, laugh it off. Oh, yeah, that sounds like me, honey, I'm the btk. I'm gonna stab you.
- [15:52]
Nick
The wife told Dennis that the, the phone call sounded like him. But. But we also have to keep in mind that they've been together for quite some time by this point. She. She never actually thought that her husband was, was the killer.
- [16:04]
The Captain
Right, but. So he pulled the old, you know, she's just trying to make a joke. Hey, honey, that kind of sounds like you. And he pulled the old. What the hell are you talking about?
- [16:13]
Nick
I don't know what went down. He just said he. His only comment on it would be.
- [16:18]
The Captain
That he was annoyed.
- [16:20]
Nick
No, he wasn't annoyed. He was scared. When she said that to him, that he was. He was scared. So now, but I want to. I just point out here that this, this letter, this letter that we just discussed or this communication, I believe is proof of his addiction to his notoriety of his BTK Persona. Because when the cops in the local media failed to connect this break into BTK, it's about 15 months later and he wants to let the public know that he is still around. So, you know, be afraid because I'm still out here. I haven't left. I'm still hunting people. We've spoke quite a bit about Dennis Raider's personal life. So he is this man living in Park City who had terrorized Wichita, killing seven people, announcing to the public his name and presence, sending taunting letters and threatening everyone to kill more people. But he's. He's a guy living this quiet and pretty reserved life in Park City, living in a. A modest home with his wife, son and daughter and working for the ADT company, rising through the ranks over the years. Yeah, he is not killing during this time, but he has trophies. He has trophies from his kills. And unbeknownst to those close to him and to those living with him, he is constantly fantasizing and reliving his sick, murderous fantasies behind closed doors in his home. Raider also did what he called self bondage. And he did this in wooded areas. He did this at his home. And he also did this. This is uncomfortable. Really, this whole conversation is uncomfortable. But he also did this in his parents basement was like one of his favorite places to. To go about this self bondage thing that he liked to do. And what he would do is I guess his parents, you know, they. They lived not terribly far from where he was living and they traveled a decent amount, you know, several times a year. And I think he would go check on their house, maybe collect the mail, things like that.
- [18:21]
The Captain
Right.
- [18:21]
Nick
His parents Basement was a place that was one of his favorite spots for what he called self bondage. And this is where he would take these long drawn out sessions of, of himself where he would be, you know, he would, he would wear mask, women's clothing, he was hanging himself, tying himself up, using handcuffs on himself. And he would also take pictures of himself when he was doing this self bondage, let's say, hobby of his.
- [18:53]
The Captain
Yeah.
- [18:53]
Nick
And, and I believe that a fetish. Well, yeah, and, and I don't know how many you can find online, but there are some of these, these pictures have gone public of his, his crazy hobby. But you know, he's also doing normal things though at this time. He's raising his family, being a husband. He's, he's listed as a. Regarded as a hard worker at the ADT company. He is involved in his church. By the early 80s, Dennis's son Brian is in grade school and he joins the Cub Scouts. Now Raider was in the Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts when he was a kid and teenager. So this is something that he, he enjoyed himself, but he also passed it on to his son. And Dennis was involved, he was a volunteer there. He helped out quite a bit with the Boy Scouts and with his son's Cub Scouts. And I have seen several websites that state that Dennis was a very officially appointed Boy Scout leader. I think this is just more folklore. I think he just helped out there, but he was involved. But for Dennis Raider, for btk, the Boy Scouts would later become an important thing to his crimes into his murders. Now we had recently mentioned pictures, you know, taking the Polaroids of himself. One theory early on in the BT case was that the killer was not only taking some trophies from the houses, but he was probably taking photos of the victims and of the crime scenes as well. This is a very strong theory and a smart one with a lot of thought to back it up. Now remember he killed four members of the Otoro family and, and then many years later, in a communication to the police, he recalls very specific details about each one of the victims and about what he did using which items and specifics about the crime scene.
- [20:50]
The Captain
Yeah. To prove it was him.
- [20:52]
Nick
Right. And there was FBI that stated, you know what, either this guy's taking photographs of the crime and that's how he's able to give us such a great detailed account of what had happened a few years later, or he has a photographic memory. Now the FBI didn't think that photograph, photographic memory was likely with this character. Now the early 80s in Wichita was there was the birth of something that would later be called the Ghostbusters Squad. By this time though, there had not been a murder or communication from BTK and years. Now, what was the Ghostbusters Squad? Well, this was comprised of eight officers and it was, you had all kinds of different ranking officers in this Ghostbusters Squad.
- [21:39]
The Captain
Did they have a cool car?
- [21:41]
Nick
I, I don't think that they actually had a vehicle at all. I think these were, these were men that spent a lot of time in closed door meetings trying to come up with new clues. They were reviewing the old cases, trying to find something within those case files that might lead them to BTK and coming up with a strategy for tracking this guy down. Now some of these officers, like I said, different ranking officers, some of them would be experienced homicide detectives, some that had originally worked the Oturo murders and the other two murder cases as well. And then you have, you have officers that were just gone. You know, I believe one of them was even on like desk duty because he was injured in the line of duty and couldn't go out of the office. But one officer that was involved in this, a young officer named Ken Landwehr, he was a police officer at the time and he, he's somebody that we would see. He's going to end up working this BT case for like 20 years, you know. So he's one of the early guys in on this and one of the guys that worked this case and saw it through to the end. Now the name, the Ghostbuster Squad, that was not an official name. You know, they weren't called that by the police department.
- [22:58]
The Captain
It's really annoying when people don't use official names.
- [23:01]
Nick
Well, I don't know that they had a name. They were probably just referred to as some type of task force would be my guess what. It was kind of a nickname that the department gave the task force because one day there was an officer talking to another officer and said, hey, all those officers and detectives, I see them in there every day working on something, having meetings. What are they doing in there? And the other officer said to the guy, don't worry about that, they're just chasing ghost.
- [23:29]
The Captain
Yeah.
- [23:30]
Nick
And so that became the kind of nickname that they slapped onto this task force. Foreign.
- [23:47]
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- [25:17]
The Captain
All right, cheers mates and a big shout out to all the beautiful people that we met at Crimecon this weekend.
- [25:23]
Nick
Marine Wallace Hedge was 53 years old, was a quiet, dependable second shift supervisor at a medical center coffee shop. Now, she was originally from Arkansas, but she had moved to Kansas with her late husband. She was widowed. She was described as a kind, petite, well dressed woman with a charming southern voice. She was a devoted mother to her three daughters, one son and a devoted she was devoted to her grandchildren as well. Now she enjoyed playing bingo, doing yard work and attending the Baptist church. She lived on the same block as Dennis Raider. Actually, she had lived there on the same block as Dennis raider for over 30 years. At some point, Dennis started to fantasize about Maureen Hedges. He got a strong sexual charge thinking about what she would look like tied up, gagged and with a rope tight around her neck. Now this could be a big, big problem for Dennis because Factor X is telling him to kill her. But killing a neighbor would be extremely risky. But once Factor X focused in on a victim, Dennis had to get to work trolling the subject, checking up on them, as he would call it. Now during this process, Dennis learned that the woman had worked at a coffee shop and he would call this project Cookie. Sometimes at night, Dennis would take a bike ride and he would sneak around her home watching her through the windows. Sometimes he would stare at her as she lie in bed at night with the light on, reading. Dennis didn't care about the risk. The the urge that he got to kill her was so strong he was willing to take the risk. He was going to create some kind of plan so that he could kill her. But Also give himself an alibi as well. Okay, so on the weekend of April 27, 1985, Dennis Raider was attending a boy Scout camp. This is just outside of Wichita. He left the camp in the evening with the pretext of having a headache and needing to get to town to buy something for his headache. In his vehicle, Dennis Raider had what he referred to as his hit kit. This would be his kit of prepared items he thought he needed or intended to use during the course of one of his murders. You know, we saw this type of thing with Bundy. You know, that you keep this thing in your vehicle or you keep it close at hand and you have these materials or items that you think you're going to need to use.
- [27:58]
The Captain
Right.
- [27:58]
Nick
But this time, captain, he had actually stored these items in a pre selected bag. He put them in a different bag. This time, he was using a bowling bag. So after he left the camp, he parked his car by a bowling alley inside the city, and he bought himself a beer at the bowling alley. He drank half the beer and deliberately spilled beer on his clothing and on his hands so he would have smelled like he had been there all night, drinking a lot. So he calls a cab, and when the cab gets there, he pretends to be drunk. And he tells the driver that he's far too drunk to drive home. And he needed a ride. But Dennis instructed the driver to take him, to take him home. But he didn't give the driver an actual address. He told the driver to take him to a park in Park City so that he could walk it off before going home, saying he wanted to get some fresh air, was too drunk to see his wife, whatever, right? So this park, it was near the backyard of Hedge's property. Raider shows up, he makes the walk to her property, and he's actually just disappointed to see Marine's car in the carport. So he assumed when he saw the vehicle that she was at home, he didn't want her to be home. When he arrived at the house, he cuts the phone line and he quietly pried open a rear door using a screwdriver. And it turned out that. That no one was home. To his surprise, even though that car was there. Right, Nobody was in the house. But soon a car pulled up, and Raider decided to hide in a bedroom closet. Now, Maureen Hedge and a friend, this was Gerald Porter, entered the home. They stayed there talking for approximately two hours. The whole time, Dennis Raider is hiding in this closet, listening to the two of them talk, waiting for the man to leave. Well, Gerald left the house that night around 1am Now, Raider waited until Maureen went to bed and you know, till, till he, he thought that she had fallen asleep. At that time, he crept out of the closet. He turns on the, the bathroom light so he can see what is he's doing. And then he pounces on Marine who's still in the bed. He manually is choking the, this woman. Now I, I said she's a petite woman. This woman weighed less than £100. So Dennis Raider would seem like a giant on top of her. He ends up killing her when he's, he's choking her. He was really just trying to get control of her and get control of the situation. But because he was so much larger than her, his hands strong, he ended up strangling her to death. Now this, this fantasy driven outing was far from over though. There was other stuff that he wanted to do. Looks like he's going to have to make up for it now that he accidentally killed her too fast for his liking. So he decided to rummage through the house looking for trophies that he could keep. And he decided to take her purse and everything in it. He was going to do something he had not done before. He was going to remove the victim's body from the house and dump her somewhere else. He didn't want this to look like a BTK killing. Remember, this is way too close to his home.
- [31:24]
The Captain
Right.
- [31:25]
Nick
So he dragged the body with the bedding to her car and put her in the trunk of her own car. Then Dennis Raider drove directly to his church where. Okay, so he was so trusted at his church that he had keys to the building. He could get into the building anytime he wanted to. So he dragged the body underneath some church.
- [31:49]
The Captain
Well, I mean, let's be real. He could get into it whether he had keys or not.
- [31:53]
Nick
Yeah, I guess that's true. You know, he could break into the place. He dragged the body underneath some trees and he entered the building down and went down to the basement. And then he taped black plastic over the basement window so no one could see inside. He'd actually stashed the plastic there a few days, maybe a week before, knowing that this was his intention, knowing that he was going to need it, and then dragged the body down to the basement and he photographed it in various poses.
- [32:22]
The Captain
When BTK is done living out these fantasies, he's going to return his victim to her trunk and he's going to then take off.
- [32:28]
Nick
Yeah, he's going to be looking for a place to ditch this body. So he's looking for a Dumping ground. And he finds a place that he likes. This is in a ditch along a dirt road several miles outside of Park City. When he gets there, he takes her out of the trunk, he places her on the ground, and then he covers her with leaves and branches. Now, he also left a knotted pair of pantyhose near the body. Then Dennis Raider dropped her car off about six miles away at a shopping center parking lot. He left the car there after wiping it down for fingerprints. By now it was getting. It was almost light out. By this time, Raider had made his way back to where he had left his vehicle. And then he drove and returned to the scout camp that he had deserted earlier. Right then he went into his tent and pretended like he had been in there sleeping all night long. And he emerged a short time later giving the impression that he had just woke up for the day. He spent that morning scrambling eggs for the scouts for whatever reason. And I think it was because she had died so quickly so early on in the attack. He would later say that this kill, that this was not a very satisfying kill for him.
- [33:44]
The Captain
Next BTK and Factor X are going to focus in on Vicki wegerly.
- [33:49]
Nick
Vicki's a 28 year old wife and mother. She was calm, quiet, kind person. She loved children. And when she became pregnant with her child, she began providing child care from her home. Vicki attended two churches. She attended the Lutheran church because it was her faith, but she also attended the Methodist church because it was the neighborhood church. She volunteered to watch children in the church nurseries. Now, Raider started stalking her. In 1986, he, he would walk by her house and Vicki would be inside playing the piano many times. So he started calling Vicki, project piano.
- [34:32]
The Captain
Okay.
- [34:33]
Nick
In preparation for this project, Dennis made up a fake repairman hard hat. He had glued a Southwestern bell logo onto the hard hat on his shirt. He placed a fake name tag that he had fashioned out of someone's Southwestern Bell business card that he had found. He brought along with him a briefcase to look, you know, official. Inside the briefcase was the BTK hit kit.
- [35:00]
The Captain
Right.
- [35:00]
Nick
He's always finding ways to disguise this hit kit that he's going to bring along with him. On September 16, this is sometime after 10am he parked his car a few blocks away from her home. And then he first went to Vicki's neighbor's house, and he's dressed as this telephone repair man. He knocks on the door and then he goes through his spiel with the elderly woman who answered the door, you know, saying, I need to check your phone. We're checking phones in the neighborhood, blah, blah, blah. You know, this was kind of a smart move on his part. And. And he said that the reason why he knocked on the neighbor's door first was if Vicki happened to be looking out the window, he didn't want to just walk from far away and she see him knock on her door first. He was determined to. He was determined to attack and kill somebody that day. Almost to the point that when the elderly woman had answered the door, it crossed his mind, maybe I just attack her. Instead of going next door after he.
- [36:00]
The Captain
Talks to the neighbor lady, he's going to end up at Vicki's front door.
- [36:03]
Nick
And somehow Dennis Raider managed to talk himself inside the home, claiming that he needed to check the phone line from inside. Once inside, he. He goes over and he kind of, like, fiddles with the phone for a little bit. He even brought with him some kind of fake testing gadget that he threw in his briefcase. And then he turns on her, and he informs her that he is going to need to tie her up. I wonder if he, you know, she was married, so I wonder if the intent of. Let me get into the house under the. The guise of checking this phone just to make sure that she's alone, Being there for enough time to make sure she's alone.
- [36:43]
The Captain
Right.
- [36:44]
Nick
I imagine using a gun, he forced her into a bedroom, and then he attempted to tie her up, but she. She fought him pretty bad, and she gave a fierce battle. She scratched him several times in the process. Raider ended up winning the physical fight, though, and he would secure her with ropes, and then he proceeded to strangle her to death using pantyhose as a legature. He photographed the body in several poses, and then he left in Wagerly's vehicle.
- [37:16]
The Captain
Yeah. And during this attack, she is, you know, claiming that her husband's going to come home, too, because she's trying to scare him off.
- [37:22]
Nick
Yeah, she wants to scare btk out of the house. But the weird thing is, and I don't know if this was routine or not, Captain, but her husband, Bill Wagerly, and did come home. He did come home soon after the attack. He came home so much soon after the attack that he actually saw Vicky's car driving in the opposite direction from their home. Now, when the car was kind of far away, he thought that it was Vicki. You know, he spots the vehicle. He's like, oh, there's. There's our car. She's probably going somewhere.
- [37:55]
The Captain
Yeah.
- [37:55]
Nick
Well, as the car got closer, he couldn't identify the driver, but he knew that it wasn't Vicki and actually assumed that it was not his vehicle that he was seeing at that time. When he gets home, something very strange had happened. Remember we talked about how much Vicki loved children and she even took care of other people's kids. But when he arrives home, the home appears to be empty and his two year old son Brandon is just sitting there in the living room unattended. Bill walked the home and he couldn't find Vicky. Well, he's there for quite some time. I think he even like made his lunch. You know, he had returned home for lunch that day and he comes home and he starts to prepare his lunch. He's getting angry at his wife because why in the hell is his son there, this little two year old boy, unattended in the home. And, and furthermore, where does she go? Right, he's home for about 45 minutes, maybe an hour and he's kind of, you know, at first probably just walking around kind of nonchalant, but as the time goes on he's getting angrier and he's starting to look and look and look around this house. Eventually he discovers her lifeless body was placed between the bed and the wall. There's, you know how sometimes people put their bed near the wall and there's only a small space there. Her body was either pushed down in there or had fallen down in there and he hadn't, he didn't see her. So he calls the police and he tells them what had happened. He calls and he says, you know, I, I'm pretty sure my wife is dead. I came home and my 2 year old son is by himself.
- [39:30]
The Captain
Well, he's also going to tell him that he thinks he saw. Well now he thinks he saw his vehicle driving away from the house.
- [39:36]
Nick
Yeah, and when the paramedics arrive, they are desperately trying to revive her. Keep in mind she would have only been dead if in fact she was dead when BTK left the home for a short period of time. But unfortunately she was pronounced dead a short time later before they could get to the hospital. Now BTK meanwhile, had been driving around the city and he is disposing of evidence as he's driving. Eventually he returned to the area near Vicki's house and he parked Wegerly's car just a couple blocks from their home. In fact, he exited the vehicle in the area on foot and he returned to his own car that he had left nearby changing his clothes. He escaped all detection for this crime and was actually for the longest time never suspected of this murder at all.
- [40:32]
The Captain
You think somebody would have reported his car being, you know, a suspicious car within. Within a few blocks of a crime taking place, and nobody knows whose car that is, correct?
- [40:43]
Nick
Yes. And. But one thing that might help him with this is that this is an attack during the middle of the day in a neighborhood. There's a good chance, you know, a lot of people off at work, people are less likely to see some things.
- [40:55]
The Captain
Right.
- [40:56]
Nick
This story right here. You know, all of these stories are extremely tragic. This one is a little. Has a little more added tragedy to it because not only is a young mother killed here and a young wife killed here, but this is a real tough one because a lot of the police and detectives thought for sure that the husband actually had killed his wife. You know, he's the one that finds her dead. They couldn't believe the son was there. Right. They could not believe that he was home for 45 minutes to maybe an hour before discovering her body. And so.
- [41:33]
The Captain
Yeah, that. That sounds a little fishy.
- [41:35]
Nick
Exactly. So you can see. You can see that side of the fence. Now, on the other side of the fence, we have other detectives that had issue with this thought. And. And one reason was the knots that were found at the scene. Some of them thought they resembled some knots that they had seen at BTK crime scenes. And now, number two, they thought that, you know, this. This would take some time in their investigation. But once they found the vehicle, and I know that it wasn't terribly far from her home, but. But the. The problem they had with that was, while logistically it was possible for this man to move her vehicle a few blocks from the home and return, nobody had seen him. Just like you said about BTK's suspicious car, nobody saw that either, I guess. But the thought was they thought somebody would have seen him walking back to his home. They couldn't find anybody that had said that. And then three, and this is probably the most important was the little boy. Like you said, their son is still at home. Well, when police talk to the little boy, mind you, he's only two, so he's limited on words and stuff like that.
- [42:41]
The Captain
Yeah. But. But the nightmares that kid is gonna have.
- [42:46]
Nick
Well, the. The only thing that he was able to tell the investigators was, was a single sentence that. That was, man hurt mommy. Man hurt mommy. Well, a lot of the detectives found it strange that the boy would say, man hurt mommy, that if. If. If he had seen his father kill his mother. Yeah. He would say daddy or whatever he called him. Now, January 31, 1987, upon returning home to Witchita, Kansas, after visiting family for a few days, Mary Fager was understandably shocked to discover her husband Melvin, dead on the floor. This is directly in front of the door to their home. Her husband had been shot twice in the back. Now, their two daughters. This is Sherry, she's nine years old, and Kelly, who's 16 years old. They were found in the basement. They had been left in a covered hot tub with the hot. With the water running. I think it was at like 90 degrees in this hot tub. Sherry had been bound with electrical tape and placed in the water after having been strangled. Kelly had been drowned. Now, there were no signs of forced entry to the home, implying that maybe the killer was known to the family or at least good enough to talk his way or their way into the house. The husband and father, like I said, was found by the front door still wearing his coat. So there was one police theory about this crime is that the man may have been shot upon entering into the home, that he had un, you know, unknowingly returned home during some portion of a crime being committed and startled the killer or killers. One big clue in this case was the family car was missing. Now, along with a local handyman, there was a guy by the name of William Butterworth who had been employed by the family for some work around the house.
- [44:42]
The Captain
I like their syrup.
- [44:43]
Nick
It was initially feared by the investigators that Butterworth was either another victim or he had, you know, possibly been taken by force or that perhaps he was party to whatever had happened in the house. Now, his own van was found several days later. This was just blocks away from the house. A search of the van came up empty. They found no evidence in this van whatsoever on January 3, 1988. So almost a year later, Butterworth is arrested in Florida. He had called his wife and a family member reported this to the police. And in fact, he was still on the phone when he was arrested. They had been looking for this guy ever since this murder went down. They find him in Florida because he decides to call his wife. Now, when he's arrested, the car keys, the keys to the Fager family vehicle, they were found in his pocket, and the stolen car was found nearby. He was unarmed, and he did not resist when he was arrested. Now, while being questioned by the police, he told the officers that he had entered the home, discovered the body of Melvin, that's the father, heard some noises in the house, got scared and ran away. He had no obvious reason to flee to Florida. The police couldn't figure out, look, if you're not guilty. Why did you flee the area? He didn't have a police record. He was not a match for the. There was semen found in the hot tub. He was not a match for the. That semen. He was also not a match for strange fingerprints that were found inside the home. He was described as a guy who would always go out of his way to do a favor for someone. Nice guy. He had three children. A three year old, a six month old, six month old, twins. I'm sorry. And he had been having some financial issues at the time. Just weeks before these murders, under questioning, you know, he's questioned multiple times, Captain. He did not change his story. His story did not change. He stuck to it. He said that he entered the house, saw the body, heard something, ran away. He also said that, that being terrified in this situation, he thought he was going to die.
- [47:07]
The Captain
Yeah.
- [47:07]
Nick
And being terrified in this situation, he didn't recall what he was doing or his whereabouts for several days after that went down. He said when he came to he, it was like four or five days later and he was in Florida and he was afraid to return.
- [47:23]
The Captain
Right.
- [47:25]
Nick
So Butterworth's defense attorney, he's going to be, he's going to be charged with this. However, his defense attorney has him undergo 20 hypnosis sessions over the course of four months. They're trying to get a full story or to see if possibly he's lying.
- [47:42]
The Captain
Right.
- [47:42]
Nick
Under hypnosis, Butterworth gave a similar but much more detailed story of what had happened that day. He said that he had been building the family a sun room, which was true. He took a break for lunch. When he returned, he said that Kelly, this is the oldest daughter and someone that he assumed was possibly her boyfriend were in the hot tub. He, he did not see anyone in the sun room, but he said that he heard movement or saw some type of movement. So he decided that he was going to leave the home and he would come back later. You know, keep in mind, he assumes that he saw the oldest daughter with probably her boyfriend. Maybe he felt awkward walking in on this situation, decides to leave, happens. So during this time he goes out and he goes shopping because he's just trying to kill some time. While he's out, he bumps into a retired police captain. This is William Dots. Now later, William Dots would verify having seen and spoke with Butterworth that day at that approximate time. Dots went on to say that Butterworth did not seem to be shaken or to be nervous or acting strange when he met with him that day. Then Butterworth returned to the house and at approximately 4:30 at this time, he said that the lights were off. He entered the solarium and he found Sherry face down in the hot tub. Then he saw Melvin dead in the hallway. He heard a noise and he realized that the murderer was still in the house. So frightened, he bolted. Now, for some reason, Captain, and I apologize because I do not know why, but apparently this man in the confusion ended up with the wrong set of keys somehow. I'm not sure how this happened, but when he was trying to get the heck out of there, right. He had accidentally tried to use Fager's keys to start his van. When he realized that he had the wrong set of keys, he was afraid. He didn't want to enter the home again. He grabbed his stuff out of his van and then took off in Fager's car.
- [49:55]
The Captain
Yeah, but can you imagine? You have a psycho killer that you believe is still in the house, you're running for your life, and then you get into a vehicle, you go to start it, and you have the wrong.
- [50:05]
Nick
Damn keys, and you have a victim's set of keys in your hand and you're going to end up taking their vehicle because you don't want to go back into the house at that point.
- [50:14]
The Captain
Right?
- [50:14]
Nick
Now remember, he says that he kind of. He's uncertain of his whereabouts or what he was doing for approximately the next four days. He says when he came to, the next thing he remembers, he's in Florida. That he, he magically wakes up in Florida. Once he comes to, he said that he felt shame and cowardice for running. He was also afraid that he would be picked out to be the suspect or to have murdered these people. And that made him not want to return. And that's why he waited so long before he contacted anybody after he had already been out. He was charged with these three murders. But it was on June 7th.
- [50:54]
The Captain
Well, that's because his story never changed. What we've learned from shows like Serial is if you change your story over and over, that they normally put you on the prosecutor's team.
- [51:05]
Nick
Yeah. And that's a good way to get your conviction overturned years later or possibly, at least on June 7, 1988, Butterworth was acquitted of all of the charges. Now, most people to this day believe that this is not an open case. They, they don't believe that. The, you know, that the, they believe that the police have closed this case because the police firmly believe in the public side that Butterworth was the killer of these three individuals. But then you have to wonder we have this guy, btk, who's active at the time killing people inside their homes. And we have two female victims there. And remember, Dennis Raider was not opposed to attacking and killing children. And what we do know is this, Captain. On January. In January of 1988, Dennis Raider sent a letter to the mother who had discovered the bodies of her husband and children. And this letter simply said, I did not kill your family, but I admire the work. So an interesting, still unsolved to this very day, triple homicide. So maybe, maybe Butterworth did it. Maybe Butterworth has a partner. You know, maybe that would explain some of it, because some of the evidence doesn't match up with him 100%.
- [52:25]
The Captain
Right?
- [52:26]
Nick
Or maybe BTK did it but isn't claiming responsibility for it for some reason. Then you have the other possibility, which is the killer is an unknown suspect. At the time that this letter was sent from Dennis Raider to Mary Fager, it was actually believed to be a hoax, simply someone pretending to be the btk. But after his arrest, it was confirmed that the letter was in fact from Dennis Raider. Because like most of his communications, Raider would make a photocopy of his letters. And to further elude detection, Dennis Raider would mail the photocopy, not the original, to either the police or to the media. Right after his arrest, police found the original amongst Raiders BTK memorabilia.
- [53:18]
The Captain
Right, but I'm just going to assume that BTK didn't do this because, one, he wanted credit for these crimes and he wanted to be in the spotlight. And he. He wanted people talking about him that he wanted people fearing him, you know, so he wrote a letter so he could get into the spotlight. But he also said, hey, I admire your work, but I didn't do this.
- [53:38]
Nick
And I think you're exactly right. I think him sending that letter is simply just a reminder to the general public. I'm still out there.
- [53:46]
The Captain
Now there's another crazy person out there too, right?
- [53:49]
Nick
I'm still out here and I'm watching and I'm waiting.
- [54:02]
The Captain
Thanks for listening and stick around for the finale of BTK tomorrow.
- [54:06]
Nick
Until then, be good, be kind, and don't litter.