it was the tangible reminder that there was a killer out there and that at some level the police thought he might be coming to see me. just what was it that drove dennis rader to bind, torture and kill so many innocent people? factor x is probably in his jailhouse interview, rader blamed his murder spree on that mysterious force he has always claimed was way beyond his control, factor x. something that i used it, i actually think of maybe possessed with demons, i was dropped on my head when i was a kid. talked to some theological christian people and some of the people are really strong. they actually think, well, there s demons within you, and got into you. that s the only thing i can figure out. i haven t, you know something drove me to do this. normal people don t do it. you can t stop it? i can t stop it. it s just it controls me.
normal appearing life, and what people don t know about them is the darker side, the hidden side. so you can be someone who binds, tortures and kills one minute and has a seemingly normal life the next? absolutely. we ve seen it time and time again. john wayne gacy of chicago, who murdered 33 young men, appeared normal enough. he was once named jc s man of the year. ted bundy, considered charming, was a law student who socialized in political circles until he was caught. he killed at least 33 women in five different states. on the other hand, new york s david berkowitz, a/k/a son of sam, who shot six, was loner. and so, too, was jeffrey dahmer of milwaukee who dissected dead animals as a child, then later murdered and dismembered 17 young men and boys. but why would anyone ever suspect a man like dennis rader?
and told them i was coming for some food, i was wanted in california, i needed some food and water and some money and transportation. that was my ruse to kind of calm them down. he kind of laughed a little bit. is this a joke? who sent you? my brother-in-law? rader says the family bought his lie about being on the run from the law and not wanting to hurt them. and so at gunpoint, they acquiesced to his tying up all four of them, mother and father, and younger son and daughter, without a struggle. they were cooperating with me 100%. that probably was their demise. if they struggled, it probably would have been a different story. they felt fairly comfortable that is what i was going to do. as rader tells the story, like he does so often, he paints his own conduct in the best possible light. he says he took pains to make his victims feel even more comfortable by actually loosening some of the binds around their hands and feet.
you as btk, and we do have a serial killer here. so the police chief and news director ron loewen appeared on tv that february 1978, side by side. btk claims to have strangled a total of seven women. it was loewen himself who broke the story of btk to the community. during that news cast, loewen, who never talked publicly about these events before discussing them with us, became, in effect, live bait. the police said, based on the talk with the behavioral people, this is a cry for help. this guy has more that he wants to say. we suggest that you do the story so that it has someone that he might choose to communicate with again. how did you feel about offering yourself up as someone who would be willing to communicate with this deranged
these officers that were interviewing him were hand picked. they had studied him. they knew the characteristics. they were playing to his ego, to his strength. they were bringing him up, making him think that, hey, we re buddy buddies. then just as quickly, they shut him down. the interview ended. the attention stopped, and the officers went home. it was only then rader tells the psychologist that the reality of his past and the impact on his future finally started to sink in. was there any way of getting out of this? you know, is there any possible way? i thought, no. there isn t any way. they ve just got too much on me. most of my thoughts went back to my family, how were they taking it? the thing is just, you know, you re caught, incarcerated, and all of those things that you enjoyed, they re gone. you know, you just you know, you have to be in a position to realize it. i don t think normal people outside the world can visualize that.