True Crimes: Nature or Nurture (Part-6): BTK (1/2)

What BTK says and what he does.

It was January 14, 1974, in Wichita, Kansas, United States. The weather was hot as per January standard, with the highest temperature being 38 degrees F and the lowest being 20 degrees F, with no snowfall. The Otero family never thought about what was going to befall them that day. In the afternoon, he entered the house. The bodies of the four family members were later discovered by the remaining three children in the house. He killed Joseph Otero (38 years old), his wife, Julie Otero (34), their son Joey Otero (9), and their daughter Josephine Otero (11). Josephine's body was discovered hanging in the basement with clothes partially removed from her body and semen on her leg. In his criminal career, which lasted decades with big intervals, he murdered a total of 10 people.

The police were under pressure after these murders, and they arrested three accused. After that, the killer wrote to the Wichita Eagle.

I write this letter to you for the sake of the taxpayer as well as your time. Those three dudes you have in custody are just talking to get publicity for the Otero murders. They know nothing at all. I did it by myself and no ones help. There has been no talk either. Lets put it straight . . .

After that he went on to describe every murder in detail. Like:

Josephine: Position: Hanging by the neck in the northwest part of the basement. Dryer or freezer north of her body. 

Bondage: Hand tie with blind cord. Feet and lower knees, upper knees and waist with clothes line cord. All one length. 

Garrote: Rough hemp rope 1/4 dia., noose with four or five turns. 

Clothes: Dark bra cut in the middle, sock.

Death: Strangulation once, hung. 

Comments: Most of her clothes at the bottom of the stairs, green pants, and panties. Her glasses in the southwest bedroom.

All victims had their hands tie behind their backs. Gags of pillow case material. Slip knotts on Joe and Joseph neck to hold leg down or was at one time. Purse contents south of the table. Spilled drink in that area also, kids making lunches. Door shade in red chair in the living room. Otero’s watch missing. I needed one so I took it. Runsgood. Themostat turn down. Car was dirty inside, out of gas. 

I’m sorry this happen to society. They are the ones who suffer the most. It hard to control myself. You probably call me “psychotic with sexual perversion hang-up” When this monster enter my brain I will never know. But, it here to stay. How does one cure himself? If you ask for help, that you have killed four people they will laugh or hit the panic button and call the cops. 

I can’t stop it so the monster goes on, and hurt me as well as society. Society can be thankful that there are ways for people like me to relieve myself at time by day dreams of some victims being torture and being mine. It a big compicated game my friend of the monster play putting victims number down, follow them, checking up on them, waiting in the dark, waiting, waiting . . . the pressure is great and sometimes some times he run the game to his liking. Maybe you can stop him. I can’t. He has aready chosen his next victim or victims. I don’t who they are yet. The next day after I read the paper, I will know, but it to late. Good luck hunting. YOURS, TRULY GUILTILY P.S. Since sex criminals do not change their M.O. or by nature cannot do so, I will not change mine. The code words for me will be . . . Bind them, toture them, kill them, B.T.K., you see he at it again. They will be on the next victim.

These are exact letters by Dennis Rader, aka BTK, and so they contain many misspellings and grammatical mistakes. I have taken these letters from John Douglas' book on BTK. With the help of these letters, we can enter his psyche and see for ourselves what was on his mind.

Todd Grande, in his book “The Psychology of Notorious Serial Killers,” writes about the Five Factor Model (FFM) personality of Radar. This model consists of five groupings of traits: openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, and neuroticism. The openness to experience and conscientiousness of Radar, writes Todd, are high. His extraversion was mid, and his agreeableness was somewhere mid to low. Radar’s neuroticism was low. We will discuss this later.

Rader, the oldest of four siblings, was born on March 9, 1945. His childhood was not that bad or extraordinary in any negative way. But there were some serious complexities in his childhood. His relationship with his mother was far from cordial. It is believed that he had serious resentment against his mother. He had a lack of supervision and guidance in his childhood.

As we have seen in his letter, he said that a monster entered his head, and it was hard for him to control himself after that. After his arrest, he also verified this demon-entering phenomenon in his head. Later, he was diagnosed with many personality disorders, about which we will talk in the next post.

But he was an ordinary man. Anyone who had seen him was surprised upon his arrest as a man who was responsible for the murderous rampage in Kansas. Even his own daughter was very surprised. She describes him as a good father and a good husband to her mother. Rader was married for 34 years. She wrote about her experience in her book, “A Serial Killer's Daughter: My Story of Faith, Love, and Overcoming.”.

There are three characteristics that violent offenders show in their childhood, i.e., bed wetting, causing fire, and animal cruelty. These three are called the "MacDonald triad." Rader tortured and killed many small animals in his childhood. In addition to this, he was a voyeuristic from childhood, sneaking on neighboring females and stealing their clothes, including undergarments.

Many serial killers reported having suffered a head injury in their childhood. Rader was one of them. He probably suffered a head injury when he was young. Head injury relates to biological factors that explain the commission of crime. There are several studies that show that traumatic brain injury (TBI) can be responsible for aggressive behavior, and such people are more likely to be involved in violent acts.

One question we ask in almost every blog is: Why does not everyone with these traits and qualities become a criminal and a murderer? My hypothesis on this is that everyone who has these types of upbringings and qualities is a potential murderer, but due to certain good happenings in their lives and the presence of social control mechanisms, they do not become criminals, and many times they outperform everyone to be a model citizen of society.

BTK is in jail right now. Why did he not get an electric chair? Does he deserve to live? In my next blog, I may discuss these things or maybe not. I am Not Sure.