this case, her driver s license. so police had naturally suspected btk. but there were differences, too, especially that the killer had never publicly boasted about it afterward, as was his pattern. now, all these years later, in addition to the copies of the photos and the driver s license, there was the envelope they came in. the return address said bill thomas killman, btk. and that s when we realized it may be the real deal. tell me about that moment. it was just total disbelief that he was still here. he agreed to give the police two days to nail it down, and then broke the story. the ghost was back. police could now say that more than 17 years earlier, vicki wegerle had, indeed, been btk s eighth known victim. so by resurfacing in 2004, and sending a letter with a photograph and driver s license of the victim, say, i m still here.
didn t have a clue how much force it took to end a life. so tried several times to strangle mrs. otero only to have her wake up again. during the woman s last, desperate struggle for consciousness, rader says she was fully aware he was snuffing out the lives of her husband, and two children. in what he says were her last words to him, mrs. otero s humanity shined against the killer s inhumanity. mrs. otero had woke up, and she actually said, have god god have mercy on your soul. that s what she said. and i put her down. permanently. this woman who probably knows now that she might be going to die, she is generous with you asking god to have mercy on your soul. mm-hmm, yeah. yeah.
once again, even with the learned psychologist there, he s playing a game. at the very least, says criminologist james fox, rader is being completely disingenuous. he says for the serial killer, the fear is all part of the twisted fun. part of the enjoyment that serial killers have is not just manipulating the victims, and tying them up, but manipulating a community, and tying them up in a grip of terror. what s now known is that rader hadn t taken a life since 1991. his explanation to the psychologist about why he stopped at ten victims is once again chillingly matter of fact. i aren t there more victims? why aren t there more? it seemed like as i got older, i started making well, physically, i just wasn t up to it. somebody would have to be an older person. i just wouldn t be able to fight physically.
not just signaling that he was still around, but far more ominously. sending what appeared to be proof of yet another murder, another young woman whose death had never been conclusively linked to btk. the innocuous-looking piece of mail landed on wichita eagle reporter s desk. copy of the letter. took the letter straight to the police department. did you read it? there s nothing to read. there are no words on it. i thought it was crime scene photographs that some crackpot had gotten ahold of them on the internet or something. the pictures appear to be pictures of a dead woman. her body had been posed several different ways. these were clearly not police photos. and there was something else, a photocopy of a driver s license. vicky wegerle s driver s license. and i immediately knew this probably came from vicky wegerle s killer. in september 1986, vicky wegerle, a young mother, was found tied up and strangled in her home. and a trophy had been taken, in
he speculates at one point that he was dropped on his head. yeah. that might have done something. everybody could believe that, too. it s someone else s fault. there are lots of kids that fall off tricycles and fall out of cribs and they bang their heads and they don t have factor x or go on killing sprees. it s a way to deflect blame. dennis rader is someone who is selfish, narcissistic, committed to his own pleasures. committed to fulfilling his sexual fantasies, no matter who he hurts in the process. in 1978, of course, nobody new what rader s excuses were. all they knew was that btk was out there, a seven-time murderer who was promising in his factor x manifesto that he was about to take another innocent life. the investigation went into high gear. unprecedented. and yet unsuccessful for many years. even though he was right under their noses.